My Facebook feed is full of Ori’s photo. She looks different in the different images but in each, her radiant smile is the same. Ori, “my light” in Hebrew, was obviously a fitting name for this sunny girl. The more we hear about Ori from friends, family and the people …

“But why does he have to make provocations with these declarations of his?!” I was shocked to hear this sentence come out of the mouths of my Jewish American relatives. Yes, they were referring to Trump (who they hate) and to the Jerusalem Declaration. I love my relatives but they …

Shira and Amichai Ish-ran are a beautiful young couple.  Twenty-one years old, they got married this year. Looking at them, most people would see radiant youth, loving eyes and warm smiles. How many would realize that these are people made from steel? On the last day of Chanukah, Amichai and …

There seems to be a lot of confusion about Chanukah – to the point where it appears to be deliberate. Let’s begin with what it’s not about. 1. It’s not a Jewish Christmas In many circles, Chanukah seems to have become an imitation Christmas – a holiday of food, lights, …

Ryan Ashley is like a long cold drink on a hot summer day.  Cool, confident and extraordinarily talented, she made history as the first woman to win Ink Master after eight seasons of the tattooing reality TV show competition.  That led to her participation in the spin-off show Ink Master: Angels …

There are some people who don’t hear when others speak the word, “impossible.”  Instead, they hear, “it’s possible” or “I am possible.”  Their minds begin to race in search for solutions and when there is no logical reason to succeed, faith moves them forward. Who could look at the barren …

The saying goes: “The dead tell no tales” but that’s not exactly true. The dead speak to us from beyond the grave but they do so in silent symbols that we, those who are full of life and sometimes full of arrogance, can choose to ignore. Haifa’s cemetery is full. …

In Israel, one can move between worlds. It is a bizarre and enlightening experience. This New Year I moved between two different worlds, neither of them my “real life.” The first is the online world of Facebook, Twitter, emails, and WhatsApp.  As a writer and Content and Marketing Specialist I …

At the Munich Olympics of 1972, less than three decades after the Holocaust, Jews were murdered on German soil – because they were Jews.  Because they were Israelis. The Olympics has historically been a place of peace where even warring nations could come together and compete in the sports arena, …

After a night of missiles on the south of Israel (last Wednesday), I got up to a new day, full of missiles. My nerves were frazzled.  But why?  Nothing happened to me.  At night I had reset the RED ALERT app so that it wouldn’t alert me of all the …

“The arson terror kites and balloons come in the afternoon and the evening, sometimes in the middle of the night.” That’s when the winds pick up, blowing from the sea, inland, carrying Hamas’s flying firebombs to the people of Israel. Israeli firefighter Tal Goldstein stood in the sweltering heat, telling …

I am sick and tired. More than anything, I am mad. I am sick and tired of seeing cute stories of Israeli kids having kite and balloon festivals sending messages of peace and candy for Gazans. On one hand, I love my people for their strength of spirit and eternal …

There was an old man who used to sweep the area next to the Kotel, the Western Wall .  When asked why he, such an old man, was working, doing menial labor he explained that in Auschwitz a Nazi pointed to the smoke billowing up from the crematorium and told …

Receiving the Torah is one of the most important things that happened in the history of the world, not just for the Nation of Israel but for all Nations who accepted the 10 Commandments as the definitive guideline for a moral and decent society – and a stark contrast to …

 Don’t. Just don’t. Sometimes kindly meant words are the worst. On May 8th Trump pulled out of the disastrous Iran Deal. Almost immediately afterward Israeli citizens were warned that there would likely be an attack from Iranians based in Syria and communities in the Golan were instructed to make sure …

As the US embassy is being opened in Jerusalem, Hamas is inciting riots on the Gaza border, using women and children as human shields, calling for martyrs to come die and even promising payment. Their disregard for the lives of their own people is evil. They threatened to storm the …

My, how the world has changed. I woke up and looked at the news. It’s an Israeli thing, especially because of nights like last night. Amazing things can happen in the night. This was the headline: https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5256257,00.html TWENTY rockets were fired at Israel. Big ones that go far and cause …

I did not watch “Seven Days in Entebbe” and I don’t intend to. When the trailer came out my first reaction was excitement.  This story is one of the best, breathtaking, exciting, moving, against-all-odds, adventure stories I have ever heard and, best of all – it’s real.  And it’s OURS. …

The Ballad for the Medic is one of the most powerful songs about the IDF. On Yom Hazikaron, IDF Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, the radio is full of songs that have to do with the army, bereavement, and memory. Many of these songs are very …

It was Saturday morning.  I woke up to the sound of the Red Alert siren app ringing, announcing in-coming missiles somewhere in Israel. Where?  I knew it wasn’t in Haifa (yet) because the municipal siren wasn’t screaming outside but elsewhere in Israel, people were running to their bomb shelters. In …