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October 13, 2023 Letter from Jerusalem – opinion By Barbara Sofer I look back at the articles I wrote during the Yom Kippur War and am glad I have them. The details, the feelings, what I did when. Write down your feelings, where you are every day and what is happening to you and your loved ones, […]

September 22, 2023 Mourning the loss of a murdered lone soldier – opinion By Barbara Sofer A thousand Israelis stand silent at the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in north Tel Aviv. The only sound is the synchronized marching of black boots on the cemetery turf. A column of soldiers in green uniforms and turquoise berets lifts

September 8, 2023 Donating money and elevating the soul of a lost loved one – opinion By Barbara Sofer Jerusalem morning. Late summer. 4 a.m. Old Katamon neighborhood. The cool light wind of Jerusalem summer. Silence. Not even a crier announcing penitent prayers or the high-pitched demand of a newborn coming from an open window. My husband

August 25, 2023 Ostia: Home to one of the greatest centers of post-Temple Jewry – opinion By Barbara Sofer A quiz from a recent edition of the Lubavitch movement’s premier publication Lubavitch International: After the destruction of the Second Temple, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai famously established the new Jewish center in the Yeshiva (Academy) of Yavne. At

August 11, 2023 ‘Oppenheimer’: How Jewish refugees beat the Nazis to the atomic bomb – opinion By Barbara Sofer Many Jewish scientists who fled Nazi Germany would work on the Manhattan Project. They knew how important it was to beat Hitler to getting nuclear bombs first. An intelligent and sensitive friend asked me recently if

July 28, 2023 Do more people love Israel than we think? – opinion By Barbara Sofer My Uber driver has arrived minutes after I put in the order. She rushes out of the van to help me with my suitcase. “I was already on my way home for the day,” she says. “I live by

July 14, 2023 Leo Frank and ‘Parade’: When theater and reality overlap – opinion By Barbara Sofer I was in Manhattan as New York celebrated the Fourth of July with fireworks over the East River, together with tens of thousands of New Yorkers and tourists, representing the plethora of ethnicities and languages in New York.

June 29, 2023 Survivors of terror attacks reunite – opinion By Barbara Sofer Sarri Singer had never been in Israel on the anniversary of “The Day.” Still, a 20-year anniversary cannot be ignored. So Singer is in Jerusalem with her mom Judie Bloom Singer to mark the day she came so close to death. June

June 16, 2023 Sherrill Kaye leads other immigrant women for Israel’s Sea to Sea hike – opinion By Barbara Sofer On the fourth day, the guide offered the hikers a shortcut. They could skip the steep, rocky descent to the Amud stream marked “for experienced hikers.” That would, however, mean they would miss out on

June 2, 2023 Sagui Gavri: The heart healer from Kibbutz Nir Am – opinion By Barbara Sofer I ask him to write this story himself, but he waves it away. He’s busy treating children, doing research and writing medical papers. But after the ceasefire of our most recent confrontation with Gaza, the one called Shield