Israel at 60

July 14, 2008

VIDEO: Ben Gurion proclaims the State of Israel and then says a ‘shechecheyanu’

I have never seen this before. Sound footage of Ben Gurion proclaiming the State of Israel on May 14, 1948 -- and everyone says a "shecheyanu!"

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Flag-waving celebrants at London's Salute to Israel fill Trafalgar Square on June 29, 2008 in an unprecedented display of support for the Jewish state. Adrian Korsner Photography, Sound ImagesMonday, June 30, 2008

No stiff upper lip as U.K. Jews celebrate Israel @ 60

The unprecedented show of pride and self-confidence by British Jews in the nation's first-ever Salute to Israel parades may be a sign of the transformation of a community long considered timid and low key.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Israel @ 60: Confronting denial

Each year, in preparation for Israel's birthday, newspaper editors feel an uncontrolled urge, a divine calling in fact, to invite Arab writers to tell us why Israel should not exist.

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(From left) Haniyyah Muhammad, Tamica Washington Miller, Micah Moch and  Adama Ideozu perform in "Return." Photo by Rose EichenbaumThursday, May 29, 2008

Tale of the ‘Stranger’ leaps from book to musical

It was 1985, and many of the Ethiopian Jews who'd been airlifted from Sudan were being housed in a hotel in Netanya, Israel. When writer Sonia Levitin entered the temporary nursery, she was particularly struck by all the babies and toddlers who'd been born since their families had arrived.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The transformation of Israeli food—from falafel to fennel

The 60th anniversary of the State of Israel is a good time to reflect on how this young country has progressed during its mere six decades of existence. Its economic growth, its leading role in technological advances and its presence in world affairs are all impressive, but most notable to me is the transformation of Israeli food from mundane and unknown to cutting edge and creative. Modern-day Israeli cuisine reflects ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Israel and I: The first 60 years

By ship and plane, I've traveled to Israel 15 times over the last 60 years and, looking back, my relationship to the Jewish state has a certain Zelig-like quality.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

New generation has a new take on Israel

Earlier this spring, David Weiner, a 32-year-old social studies curriculum publisher from Los Angeles, went on an unlikely pairing of back-to-back missions to Israel.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

For Israeli ex-pats, the homeland is calling

Merav and Roy Lobel are going back to Israel. Since the birth of their baby boy, now eight months old, they have longed to be with their families. Each time they've hung up the phone after a call to Israel, they've felt as if part of their heart was still there.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

What Israel means to me

Tovah Feldshuh


"I love, admire, and will eternally raise money for Israel because I am well aware that she takes bullets for me. She is my life insurance."



Judd Hirsch


"It's not easy to understand how a nation can reclaim itself after 5,000 years of banishment, occupation, and inhumane treatment by so many peoples of the world...

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Festival-goers this year can party under the moonlight




For Yoram Gutman, the Israel Independence Day Festival is a yearlong effort.


Thursday, May 15, 2008

Hollywood-Israel link flourishing

A group of hotshot Hollywood television executives sit around a table sipping Evian water, working their cellphones and bemoaning the lack of fresh ideas for a series to pull their network out of the cellar.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

A birthday gift

Here we are, Jews in every corner of the world, awash in a frenzy of celebrations for Israel -- all because of a birthday. And not just any birthday, mind you, but one that ends in a zero.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Nation might not be safest but it’s the most interesting

Not too far from my home there's a street named for the German poet Heinrich Heine, a baptized Jew and metaphorical Marrano. Sometimes on Shabbat afternoons, I take a long Jerusalem walk with my son, soon to be a soldier, and Lizzie, our German shepherd, a breed of dog that in my wildest Diaspora dreams I could never imagine owning.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Israel faces challenges on three fronts

Israel at 60 faces three major challenges: identity, technology and politics. The future Israel will have to strive and struggle to maintain a credible role as the cultural and spiritual center of Jewish peoplehood. Demography will continue to play a fundamental role here, but the main challenge will be whether Israel can strengthen internal and transnational Jewish cultural bonds to preserve some consensus among the Jewish people.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

18 essential Hebrew words and phrases

In honor of Israel's 60th Birthday, we thought you should learn a few key words and phrases in Hebrew that will bring you closer to Israel's people and culture. This vocabulary will be useful on your next trip to Israel-- or on your next trip to Ventura Boulevard. Delight your Israeli friends, teach your kids or impress a date. What better way to mark this milestone in Jewish history than to do a very Jewish thing: learn!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

How to answer the most common anti-Israel charges

Some charges criticizing Israel are distortions and slanted, based on faulty information and half-truths, animus, and even classic anti-Semitism.
However, the situation and history are complex, and unfortunately, Israel is not perfect.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Post-Zionism in a diaspora world

What does it mean to be a Jew in a Post-Zionist world?

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Israel: A work in progress

From the birth of the Zionist movement more than a century ago through its 60 years as a Jewish state, Israel has come of age amid a vastly changing world: two world wars, the technological revolution and economic globalization with all its attendant challenges.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Through the looking glass with Friends of Sabeel

Covering a meeting of Friends of Sabeel is a strange experience. "Strange" as in walking through the looking glass and encountering a reverse universe on the other side.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

History disproves myth that founding Zionists were naive

We are often told, mostly by anti-Israel propagandists, that the early Zionists' attitude toward the indigenous Arab population in Palestine was laden with ignorance, naivete, denial, contempt, abuse and outright oppression. Afif Safieh, the PLO representative to the United States, tells audiences on campus after campus: "[Palestinians] have suffered three successive denials -- a denial of their mere physical existence, a denial of their national rights and, the most morally disturbing, a denied recognition of their pain and suffering."

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Paradoxes characterize life in Israel

To be an Israeli at the time of the state's 60th anniversary means to be resigned to living with insoluble emotional and political paradoxes. It means living with a growing fear of mortality, even as we celebrate our ability to outlive every threat. We are almost certainly the only nation that marks its Independence Day with an annual poll that invariably includes the question: "Do you believe the country will still exist 50 years from now?"

Thursday, May 15, 2008

A 15-year plan for Israel

At its 60th anniversary, Israel needs a new vision that not only will guide its priorities and inform its actions, but also will be relevant to the lives of all Israelis.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Rabbis work to build ties of U.S. Jews to Israel

Twelve years ago, newly arrived at the Reconstructionist Malibu Jewish Center, Rabbi Judith Halevy gave a sermon about her long-term commitment to Israel, about how much she cares about the Jewish state.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Roots, reality and Israel’s 60th

It is a proud and glorious week as Israel, her 7.2 million citizens and millions of friends around the world celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel's birth as a modern, democratic nation.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Turning 60 with Israel—just Fed-Ex those Dead Sea anti-aging creams

Israel, girlfriend, what is your problem? Why all this hoopla and hype? Does the whole world have to know that you and I -- hey, break out the Botox -- are turning 60?

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Israeli rapper Subliminal has built a music empire

The first song Ya'akov Shimoni ever wrote was called, "Genesis." The lyrics -- in English, Hebrew and French -- were about pollution, global warming, Mother Earth and the destruction of Israel's natural resources. It was 1997 -- long before "An Inconvenient Truth" became a blockbuster and the green movement reached an unprecedented level of hipness.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

The country’s most formidable challenge? Welding its dual identities

will never forget my first day in Israel when a group of teenagers pointed at my tallit and laughed. It was the summer of 1970, and, at age 15, I had realized my dream of volunteering on a kibbutz. Raised in an American home in which Conservative Judaism melded effortlessly with moderate Zionism, I never suspected that some Israelis would see contradictions between the two, or that I might someday be forced to choose between them.

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