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Deborah Fineblum

Deborah Fineblum is a longtime JNS writer and book author who currently lives in Israel.

Cooper Union in the East Village in Manhattan. Credit: DW labs Incorporated/Shutterstock.

Parents urge universities to do more to protect their children on campus

A New York psychologist who works with young people told JNS she is hearing of students going to Hillel and Chabad for the first time, to study there instead of at the library.

Deborah Fineblum

November 16, 2023

Israelis protest outside Camp Dotan (Camp 80) in Pardes Hanna-Karkur against the order given to female soldiers in the military camp not to sing on kitchen duty, Aug. 27, 2023. Photo by Anat Hermony/Flash90.

An island of unity before the storm

It’s been a year of polarization, even here in idyllic Pardes Hanna.

Deborah Fineblum

October 20, 2023

Cheesecake. Credit: Pixabay.

From Mount Sinai to dairy delights: Test your Shavuot IQ

Long before Shavuot became a celebration of receiving the Torah, it was known as the Feast of Weeks and designated a harvest holiday.

Deborah Fineblum

June 3, 2022

Israeli soldiers tour the new “Before My Very Eyes” exhibition at the Ariel Sharon Israel Defense Forces training campus in the Negev Desert. Credit: Yad Vashem.

Standing on the shoulders of survivors: New Holocaust center on IDF base designed to inspire

Timed to coincide with Yom Hashoah—the day all of Israel stops to remember the Holocaust—“Before My Very Eyes,” the Yad Vashem Educational Center for Holocaust Remembrance, is opening at the Ariel Sharon Israel Defense Forces’ training campus in the Negev Desert.

Deborah Fineblum

April 27, 2022

Rabbi Berman teaching at Abu Simbel. Photo by Sandor Joffe.

Journeying back to where it all started: Revisiting the Egyptian Exodus

“The Torah takes the rhetorical thunder of our oppressors and throws it back in their faces to tell God’s own truth,” says Rabbi Dr. Joshua Berman.

Deborah Fineblum

April 11, 2022

The play, in theaters around Israel, is based on Mandell’s book of the same name reflecting on the aftermath of the day when the bodies of her 13-year-old son Koby and his 14-year-old friend Yosef Ishran were found beaten and battered in a cave near their homes in the Gush Etzion community of Tekoa. Photo by Karen Feldman.

‘The Blessing of a Broken Heart’ comes home: Sherri Mandell’s 2003 classic is brought to the Israeli stage

What makes the play work is that the story is “both highly personal and universal—one family’s loss and the trauma of terror, a story that’s heart-wrenching and inspiring at the same time,” says Yael Valier, creative director of Theater and Theology.

Deborah Fineblum

March 30, 2022

Kids dressed up in costumes arrive at their school ahead of the Jewish holiday of Purim in Sderot, southern Israel on Feb. 24, 2021. Photo by Flash90.

The secret life of Purim costumes

“You want to be Cinderella going to the ball or King Ahasuerus? I tell my employees. ‘Remember that no matter who’s standing in front of you, she is now Cinderella, and you need to treat her like Cinderella,’ ” says Tel Aviv costume-store owner Rami Patimer.

Deborah Fineblum

March 14, 2022

Holocaust survivor George Brent is pictured in a scene from "Don't Forget Me" which takes viewers on a journey back to Auschwitz, Mauthausen, and Ebensee concentration camps, revealing Brent’s will to survive in the face of Nazi tyranny. Credit: Courtesy.

New virtual-reality Holocaust experience keeps survivors ‘alive,’ builds empathy

Organizers at the Illinois Holocaust Museum chose International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27 for the official rollout of their new cutting-edge virtual-reality Holocaust experience, titled “The Journey Back.”

Deborah Fineblum

January 24, 2022

A stock photo of young adults. Credit: Wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock.

The power of purpose: Hadassah works to empower a new generation of women

“Young Jews don’t need safe space; they need brave space—an understanding of what it means to engage with Israel. But we can’t ask them to be advocates until they know something,” said Rachel Fish, founder of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.

Deborah Fineblum

January 14, 2022