Moira Dror, left, is being squeezed by the government, the Palestinians and her own conscience “Do I look like I need therapy?” Moira Dror snaps in an Israeli-Scottish accent when I ask the psychologist sitting next to her if she would mind showing us how she would help Dror deal with her stress. In an… More ▸
Estee Nemeth is embarrassed by her government over the way it has treated the city in which she lives. We met with dozens of residents of Sderot in our two days in their town and the story of this embattled town started to emerge through their frustrations. The 25-year-old, who grew up in Canarsie, New… More ▸
The Fundermentalist has heard that reports of Natalie Portman visiting Rwanda to check out a philanthropy role with the JDC might have been exaggerated. At the same time, however, he has also heard that she may have been in Israel recently to check out Jewish Agency programs, as well as JDC programs. Neither the spokesman… More ▸
The UJC has apparently been largely rebuffed in its efforts to raise another $13.6 million from local Jewish federations in North America for helping Sderot, Ashkelon and the surrounding cities. The organization had already allocated more than $21 million for programming in the region from its Israel Emergency Campaign, started in the aftermath of Israel’s… More ▸
It’s 1 a.m. A rocket landing in the distance sounds like a bowling ball dropping on thick spongy carpet a floor away from you. It feels about the same under your feet. More later after I get some sleep. More ▸
Forget for the moment the threat of Kassam rockets and .122 mm mortar shells that constantly hangs in the Sderot air, we on the UJC media trip are getting bombarded with site visits to see program after program paid for in part by the UJC and implemented by JDC and JAFI. There is no way… More ▸
Much of the safety of Sderot depends on a bunch of teenage girls who sit around all day watching television. The Nachal Oz Army base, just 700 meters from the border of Gaza, is home to a surveillance station that oversees 40 square kilometers of the Gaza Strip. While the base deploys male soldiers to… More ▸
As I mentioned earlier, I am currently on assignment in Israel, checking out how the UJC, the JDC and JAFI are spending money to help the citizens of Sderot, who have been under Hamas rocket fire for almost eight years now. I’m with a mission that includes a half dozen or so editors of Jewish… More ▸
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‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ invades the streets of Tel Aviv