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June 22, 2025 An existential war: Operation Rising Lion and memories of the Gulf War – comment By Barbara Sofer Thursday, June 12, 2025, was a big night in the Jerusalem Pais Arena. Our city’s beloved Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem basketball team faced arch-rivals Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv at home. Some 11,000 keyed-up fans arrived […]

June 21, 2025 Chalkida: The little Greek town that could – save its Jews By Barbara Sofer Lily Costi knows for sure that her family goes back at least five generations in Chalkida, Greece. “You can see their graves in the Jewish cemetery. Before that, I can’t be certain,” she said.  In Chalkida, the Jewish cemetery

June 6, 2025 Lost and found: Tefillin return after two years – opinion By Barbara Sofer Our grandson Naveh lost his tefillin two years ago. They were a prized possession, ordered from a scribe whom he had met early in his bar mitzvah preparation process and had given them to Naveh with a blessing before

May 23, 2025 Period between Passover, Shavuot a time of education and contemplation – opinion By Barbara Sofer In his new book, Judaism: A Love Story, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin quotes the speaker at his elementary school graduation, who in turn quoted the famous parable of the great Chofetz Chaim, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan.  “Life is like

May 9, 2025 Israel’s ‘Ten Days of Deliverance’ were more difficult this year – opinion By Barbara Sofer On Tuesday afternoon, an organization called Yad L’Banim held its annual ceremony in Jerusalem to begin Remembrance Day. Yad L’Banim is an organization of bereaved Israeli parents. I am privileged to be invited to this most emotional of ceremonies

April 25, 2025 Independence Day 2025: 77+1 reasons I love Israel – opinion By Barbara Sofer 78 reasons I love Israel The Ayalon Mall shut down to allow the five returned hostage young women to shop in privacy. When the lifeguard at Gordon Beach in Tel Aviv heard that four hostages were rescued in Gaza, he

April 18, 2025 Shuki’s message: A Druze soldier’s story and a Passover journey – opinion By Barbara Sofer In the days leading up to Passover, I find myself thinking of a message I heard within the words of a young Druze soldier. Shuki lives in a mountaintop home in the village of Beit Jann, overlooking

April 4, 2025 The sounds of young Zionism: Listening to the International Jewish Teen Choir – opinion By Barbara Sofer I give in to an impulse to fly to the United States. My granddaughter Shani, 14, is singing in HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir, at Carnegie Hall in New York City. She’s not a soloist. There

March 21, 2025 Revisiting Israel’s North for the first time since war began – opinion By Barbara Sofer We’re meeting the jeep operators in Kiryat Shmona. I’ve joined a Hadassah Medical Center solidarity mission of women and men from the United States, and today I feel like a tourist myself in my own country.  I

March 10, 2025 Kfar Maccabiah Hotel: A look at the ‘ultimate Zionist hotel’ – review By Barbara Sofer You might think you are in a kibbutz in the Galilee when you wake up in the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel. Step onto your wrap-around hotel room balcony, and the quiet is only interrupted by the plethora of birds