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Judy Lash Balint is a Jerusalem-based freelance writer and author of Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times and Jerusalem Diaries: What’s Really Happening in Israel. She has reported from Jerusalem since making aliyah in 1998, with her work appearing in publications worldwide. She is currently a staff member at a leading Jerusalem think tank. A long time advocate for Soviet Jewry, she founded Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry in 1974 and served as Vice President of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (1980–1989). She is a recipient of the 2023 and 2024 Simon Rockower Awards from the American Jewish Press Association.

The coastal site has undergone a massive preservation and restoration project in an effort to boost the number of tourists to rival the millions who visit Jerusalem every year.
Once the mine-clearing is completed, the Israel Defense Forces will hand over control of the site to the Civil Administration and the Israel National Parks Authority; millions of tourists per year are expected to visit, with expanded tourist facilities in the works.
If you’ve never heard an Arab calling out “alter zachen” (“old things”) in Yiddish, then you’ve never experienced pre-Passover preparations in Jerusalem. It’s part of the clean-up mania that grips the city in the run-up to the holiday.
Titled “The Mount: A Photographic Journey to Temple Mount,” the exhibit incorporates images from the beginning of photography in 1836 all the way through to the virtual reality, or VR, of today.
While the Jerusalem run has its professional side and attracts many elite runners (Ronald Kimeli Kurgat, 33, from Kenya tore through the course to take first place at the finish line in 02:18:47), the event is also a community carnival, promoting the holy city as a place open to all.