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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 mood in the capital is subdued, as people absorb the shock of Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault. But Israelis are starting to manifest the values of mutual responsibility and caring that have stood out in every crisis the country has ever experienced.
The majority of Israel’s significant cultural sites are lesser known, fascinating spots that, like Beit Yellin, fill in the gaps of our understanding of what it took to establish a thriving Jewish state.
“Their musical journey serves as an inspiration to us all,” says JNF-USA’s Disabilities Task Force chair.
A Jerusalem exhibit sees the state’s first 12 heads of government through the prism of pointillism.
Margalit Startup City Galil in Kiryat Shmona hosts women researchers, scientists, artists, educators, business development leaders, social entrepreneurs and startup heads.
Israel’s Sheba Medical Center helps a woman become the first in the world to deliver four children following ovarian tissue cryopreservation.
Emigration and Islamism are the main concerns of a population in demographic decline.
The Negev is not only blooming, but incubating some of Israel’s most cutting-edge social, educational and technical developments.
“Arteology: The Power of the Ancients in Contemporary Form” is on display in an underground cistern next to the 2,000-year-old foundation stones of the Western Wall.
The clang of metal poles and the sounds of hammering are everywhere as Jerusalem’s apartment dwellers hurry to build their sukkot and squeeze them into small spaces.
In the days leading up to the Day of Atonement, there’s a certain tension in the air.
Nightly “selichot” tours are already taking place in Jerusalem’s Old City, Bukharan Quarter and Nachlat Shiva and Nachlaot neighborhoods.