“So they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden…’” Ezekiel 36:35 It was just a 25-minute drive from Jerusalem, but I felt like I had entered another world. A small group of friends had embarked on a day trip to the biblical heartland of Judea. When we arrived
Continue Reading »Since the early 19th century, summer camp has been a part of life for virtually every Jewish child worldwide. It began as an effort to provide a place for children living in poverty to spend some restful time enjoying the great outdoors, away from crowded apartments and teeming, sweltering cities. Today, summer camp has become
Continue Reading »Riots in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority (PA) capital, just north of Jerusalem. Palestinians are throwing rocks and explosives. A 21-year-old Israeli captain and his soldiers must calm the violence. The situation could turn deadly in an instant. Someone hands a Molotov cocktail to a six-year-old boy. Despite warnings shouted in Arabic, the boy inches toward
Continue Reading »A 2017 report from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) revealed that nearly one in three of the 2.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip lives below the poverty level, and 33.7% of the population lives in a level of deep poverty, which the PCBS defines as being unable to meet “the minimum required
Continue Reading »Jewish people often jest that the “why” and “what” of all their festivals can be summarized in three pithy sentences: “They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat.” The tongue-in-cheek statement holds more than a kernel of truth. Nearly every Jewish feast either tells the tale of miraculous salvation from a seemingly insurmountable foe
Continue Reading »“That is where the tribes go up—the tribes of the LORD—to praise the name of the LORD according to the statute given to Israel.” (Psalm 122:4 NIV) It was described as the beating heart of Jerusalem—a place of bustling commerce, braying donkeys, chattering children playing hide-and-seek among the robe-clad legs of pilgrims; a politician bellowing
Continue Reading »Historian Paul Johnson has said, “What strikes the historian surveying anti-Semitism worldwide over more than two millennia is its fundamental irrationality. It seems to make no sense, any more than malaria or meningitis make sense.” It goes by many names: bigotry, discrimination, prejudice, intolerance. Most often, it falls in that broad category of “racism,” which
Continue Reading »In August 2012 the United Nations (UN) published a report painting a picture of the dismal future awaiting the people of Gaza. Come 2020, the document said, the coastal enclave would be unlivable. In the seven years since the UN tabled its report, the situation deteriorated almost beyond predictions. Some 2.1 million people live in
Continue Reading »The two-state solution sounds final—the long-sought answer to the Middle East’s most intractable riddle. But what if it’s not the only “solution” to the problem? What if it’s not even a plausible one? What alternative can there be to the “solution”? There is another possibility, hovering as both a promise and a threat: the one-state
Continue Reading »The siren sounds. You have 15 seconds to reach the bomb shelter. How fast can you run? One, two, three…Were you eating dinner with your family? Driving home from work? In the shower? Perhaps you were asleep? Four, five, six…Run! Run to the nearest bomb shelter. Do you know where it is? Of course you
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