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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November 29, 2024 Heroic tales from Oct. 7: United Hatzalah on the ‘road of death’ – opinion By Barbara Sofer Where were you and what did you do? Which dates in your life history can you remember? I can picture the Connecticut music room, exactly where I was sitting, the ominous crackle of the PA
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