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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. A longtime 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 National Library of Israel now houses the late U.K. chief rabbi’s personal archives.
With the help of collaborating organizations and the Israel Innovation Authority, the Margalit Startup City Galil of Kiryat Shmona spawned the hub to spur development.
“The facility was designed to strike a delicate balance between conservation and accessibility, between past and future,” explains Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan.
Priceless artifacts had been languishing in boxes in the basement of the old library building for decades.
Entrepreneurs from the north and south forge ties to stay afloat.
Between March 10 and April 29, the Jerusalem Spring Biennale is showcasing more than 30 art installations in some of the most interesting venues around the capital.
“It’s so hard to be back in the United States and reading the craziness there and in the rest of the world and not being able to do anything about it. Here I can come and do something concrete, so my mental health is so much better,”
“We’re coming back strong and proud, with our heads held high. We’re looking to the future,” says Shlomit resident Ariel Avchayon, who along with 82 other families was evacuated from the community on Oct. 8.
David Bedein, director of the Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research, told JNS that his warnings have fallen on deaf ears.
The deprival of family continuity that has impacted generations of survivors and their families is perhaps one of the most enduring crimes of the Nazis.
“When you bring joy back into people’s lives, they can recover better,” says Comedy for Koby publicist of the Koby Mandell Foundation’s plan to stage the act throughout Israel.