A Motherless Mother’s Day
I was 20 years old when I experienced my first Mother’s Day without my Mom, eight months after her death. She had lived 10 years fighting Breast Cancer and eventually, […]
May 12, 2023
May 2, 2023
Amid Soot & Smoke Damage, There’s Hope
Last week on Sunday evening, a fire was set at the Masjid Omar Islamic Center. Then the next day, Mercy Islamic Center was similarly set ablaze, miraculously no one was […]
April 26, 2023
Reflections From a Balcony in Tel Aviv
TEL AVIV – I’m sitting on the balcony of my hotel room in Tel Aviv, early morning traffic and a soft Mediterranean breeze providing background music. A few surfers have […]
April 19, 2023
Meaningful Interactions Everywhere, Even The Edge Of A Crater
MITZPEH RAMON, Israel – I went rappelling once in my life before Wednesday morning. Check that. I attempted to go rappelling once in my life before Wednesday morning. Long story […]
April 18, 2023
Remembering Lova & Bronia – Shahar Cohen’s Family Story
Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. To honor this day, I would like to share a family story. This is a love story during World War II between my great-grandmother: Bronia, […]
April 18, 2023
A Personal Yom HaShoah
Last night we began the observance of Yom Hashoah v’Hag’vurah (the Jewish National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust and the Heroism) at the Monument to the Martyrs of Zagłębie, just […]
April 18, 2023
Flowers at Auschwitz
The Creeping Thistle is no flower. Although it’s reddish-light purple, globe like ball of fluff makes you think otherwise, the aggressive weed is illegal in different parts of the United […]
April 16, 2023
Saturday Night’s Alright (For Protesting)
JERUSALEM – The weekly Saturday protests have been a fixture of Israeli life for months in response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the country’s judicial system. And […]
April 14, 2023
Travel Anxiety and a First-Timers Visit To Israel
The trip anxiety started a week ago. It always starts a week before traveling. Sleeping poorly because I’m worrying about packing too much. Or too little. Did I bring the […]
April 6, 2023
Imagining My Ancestors’ Passover Helps Me To Prepare For My Own
Two years ago on erev Passover, my mother’s first cousin emailed us an amazing surprise: he’d received an audio recording of an extended family seder from the late 1950s from […]