HEBRON, Israel — While many Israelis fly off to various points around the globe for Passover, those of us who stay home and are fortunate enough to have some time off during the week-long holiday use the time to explore and get to know the country better. One group that’s helping make that happen [...]
By Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM–Surprised? Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reveals in their latest data that 88 percent of Israelis will take part in a Seder and 47 percent eat only kosher for Passover items during the holiday. Meantime, as Pesach approaches, latest figures from the National Insurance Institute’s 2011 poverty report indicate there are [...]
By Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM – The funerals in Jerusalem on Wednesday for the four latest Jewish victims of Muslim terror were heart-wrenching. The unbridled pain of Miriam Monsonego’s brother; the wailing of the friends and relatives and the sobbing eulogy of Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar were hard to take, but tragically, not a [...]
By Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM–As the center of the Jewish religious world, you would think that Jerusalem would have hosted a kosher wine festival before–but no, the first Jerusalem Kosher Wine Exhibit took place just this week at the Binyanei HaUma convention center. With a steep entry price of 70NIS per person (my press card [...]
By Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM–Very distressing to see the singing and dancing going on at the Shalit tent outside Netanyahu’s office a few blocks away from here as the announcement that Israel had agreed to release more than a thousand terrorists, including hundreds who were serving life sentences for terror attacks such as the Sbarro [...]
By Judy Lash Balint By Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM — Seventeen ways you know Sukkot is coming to Jerusalem. 1. The tourists have landed! Overwhelmingly religious, English and French speaking, they jam the city’s take-out places and restaurants. The well-dressed visitors may be seen in packs wandering up and down Emek Refaim Street and through [...]
By Judy Lash Balint Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM — Ben Gurion Airport closed at 1 p.m today and won’t reopen until three hours after the end of Yom Kippur tomorrow night. Public transportation all over Israel grinds to a halt by 2:30 p.m. In the streets later in the day, men hurry along with towels [...]
By Judy Lash Balint Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM –The brit milah of Yishai and Malkah Fleisher’s second child, Eliezer Menachem, took place Sunday night in their apartment in Maale HaZeitim, overlooking the Temple Mount. The brief ceremony that initiated the baby into the covenant of Abraham closed circles for several of the people who crammed into [...]
By Judy Lash Balint Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM – The latest Nefesh B’Nefesh charter flight bringing 360 new immigrants from North America last week included some Southern California olim who landed in thethick of the worst terror attacks in recent years. MarvinCouture, 65, and Tom Dimercurio, 58, making aliya to Beersheba, stood out among the scores [...]
By Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM — The amplified wail of the muezzin from the Al Aksa mosque on the Temple Mount couldn’t drown out the celebrations that rang out over Jerusalem Wednesday night. From every corner of the Old City, youthful voices joined in singing all the classic Six-Day War songs as the city celebrated the [...]
