More
EN
Newsletter
More
Newsletter
EN
Support JNS
Judy Lash Balint

Judy Lash Balint

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.

(From left): Dr. Edy Cohen, Levana Zamir, Edwin Shuker and moderator Tamar Morad discuss Jewish refugees from Arab countries at the National Library of Israel, Nov. 30, 2025. Credit: NLI.
Features
Jewish refugees from Arab lands and Iran tell their stories
On “Yom Haplitim,” the National Library of Israel hosted an event titled, “Sephardi Voices: The Other Refugees.”
Dec. 1, 2025
Judy Lash Balint
The entrance to the Returning Hostages Unit at Beilinson Hospital, Oct. 2025. Photo by Judy Lash Balint.
Features
Two years on: Beilinson’s Returning Hostages Unit stands ready
Oct. 5, 2025
Judy Lash Balint
US Ambassador Mike Huckabee greets Jewish National Fund-USA Israel Director Tali Tzour Avner at the 9/11 memorial ceremony in Jerusalem, September 11, 2025. Photo by Judy Lash Balint.
Features
In Jerusalem, 9/11 ceremony highlights shared grief and resilience
Sep. 12, 2025
Judy Lash Balint
A panorama of Jerusalem. Credit: JekLi/Shutterstock.
News
Who has a strategic vision for Jerusalem? It’s not who you think
With data indicating that the Arab population in Jerusalem is growing faster than the Jewish population, Keep Jerusalem’s Chaim Silberstein believes that Israeli leaders’ lack of awareness about the demographic picture presents a danger to the city’s future.
Mar. 1, 2022
Judy Lash Balint
Second-grade students at the Nofei HaSela school on the first day back at school after the summer holidays in Ma'ale Adumim, Sept. 1, 2017. Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash90.
Jewish Life
New survey reveals Israel’s Mizrachim Jewish majority overlooked by school textbooks
Iraqi-British Jewish businessman David A. Dangoor said Israel would benefit from incorporating the Eastern viewpoint in cultural and political spheres: “Israel is in a wonderful position of having two cultures. It’s not just a matter of rights and fairness; it’s a matter of richness and fertility of ideas.”
Jan. 28, 2022
Judy Lash Balint
In a new temporary exhibit, “Coffee: East and West,” the Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem pulls all those strands together to tell a compelling story of economic, social, religious and cultural significance, July 2021. Photo by Judy Lash Balint.
Features
East meets West: Jerusalem exhibit displays coffee culture through the ages
The Museum for Islamic Art features ornately decorated cups without handles used for Turkish coffee on display next to larger china cups used by the French elite. One features a mustache-shaped bar in the cup opening designed to protect the facial hair of the drinker.
Jul. 23, 2021
Judy Lash Balint
Women gather in Jerusalem under the auspices of an all-volunteer organization called Imahot L’Maan Imahot (“Mothers Supporting Mothers”), June 9, 2021. Credit: Courtesy
Jewish Life
‘Day of Unity’ offers comfort, outreach for women who lost relatives on Lag B’Omer
Organized under the auspices of a volunteer organization called “Imahot L’Maan Imahot” (“Mothers Supporting Mothers”), the gathering took place at the Dan Family Aish World Center near the Western Wall in the Old City, almost exactly one month after the tragedy at Mount Meron.
Jun. 15, 2021
Judy Lash Balint
Yossi Klein Halevi
Features
50th anniversary of Leningrad trial sparks memories, educational initiatives
The foiled takeover of a plane in the USSR prompted worldwide involvement in the Soviet Jewry movement, even though those in “Operation Wedding” paid a price for their actions.
Dec. 15, 2020
Judy Lash Balint
Dean Bye, head of Return Ministries, which runs the Aliyah Return Center operating at JAFI’s Bikat Kinarot educational complex in the Jordan Valley. Source: YouTube.
Culture and Society
Jewish Agency partnership with Canadian evangelical group prompts furor over missionary activity
“Whether these volunteers are missionizing to olim or just doing the gardening, we should not be partnering with Messianics,” said Shannon Nuszen, founder and director of Beyneynu.
Dec. 9, 2020
Judy Lash Balint
A view of the Galilee Medical Center located in Nahariya, Israel. Credit: Galilee Medical Center.
Features
French ‘olim’ help fill needed health-care gaps in northern Israel
Thirteen families with at least one health-care professional each arrived under the auspices of a new partnership between Keren Kayemeth L’Yisrael (KKL) and the independent nonprofit Klitat Kehillat Yisrael organization, known in French as Alyah de Groupe, or “Group Aliyah.”
Nov. 6, 2020
Judy Lash Balint
Design for the Babyn Yar Memorial Center. Credit: BYHMC/Querkraft.
Features
Babi Yar at 79 … and its future
Since the establishment of independent Ukraine, Jews have been acknowledged; however, attempts to create an official memorial that honors all victims and provides a framework to impart the message of the Holocaust—of “Never Again”—have repeatedly stalled.
Sep. 29, 2020
Judy Lash Balint
Load More