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 […]
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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
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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
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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
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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
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February 21, 2025 Staying resilient: Not letting the enemy enjoy our suffering – opinion By Barbara Sofer My personal Tu Bishvat – the New Year of Trees – resolution this year is to stop being mopey. When asked how I am, I’m no longer answering with a qualification: “Fine, considering the situation.” Answering “Okay” is good enough.
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February 7, 2025 Are American Jewish doctors being targeted by post-Oct. 7 antisemitism? – opinion By Barbara Sofer At a recent midwinter conference of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America in West Palm Beach, Florida, I had an opportunity to update American audiences on current events in Israel. I also was able to hear
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January 24, 2025 Behind the textiles at Hadassah’s Chagall-adorned synagogue – opinion By Barbara Sofer Imagine trying to create a work of art that complements Marc Chagall’s stained-glass windows. I frequently visit Chagall’s glorious 12 windows – one for each of the sons of Jacob – in the synagogue at Hadassah-University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein
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December 30, 2024 Stumbling stones: Part three of the saga Adler family By Barbara Sofer A surprise email: “In a few hours I will board an El Al flight to Germany, a trip that should last no more than two days. Why am I telling you about this? Because you are part of this story.”
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December 20, 2024 A rose or a comet? Remembering Sgt. Rose Lubin – opinion By Barbara Sofer Growing up in America, “cousin” was a specific term. We spoke of relatives as first cousins, second cousins, third cousins. From Rabbi Berel Wein’s history cassettes, I learned that in Europe the Yiddish word “kuzyene” wasn’t specific. Family
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