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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 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.