Last week, Cleveland Jewish News Columnist Marcy Oster wrote eloquently about the natural springs in her area of the West Bank and about the terrorist attack at a spring elsewhere in the West Bank in late August that killed a 17-year-old Israeli girl, Rina Shnerb. Oster concluded with the ho…

An event at a large municipal park in the northern Israeli town of Afula this month could provide the grist for debate for years over the clash between freedom from gender discrimination, freedom of religion and what it means to be a Jewish state.

One of the surprising things about the Israeli education system is the prevalence of second-chance tests, for students who either failed the first time around or who simply want to improve their grade averages. On Sept. 17, Israel is headed for a second-chance test – the second election this…

July 30 marks 20 years since my wife, two daughters and I moved to Israel from Cleveland. The children were 5 and 6 years old at the time. Now they are in their 20s. I’ve never regretted the move.

What attracted me in part to moving to Israel as a secular Jew was the secular Jewish aspect of the country’s character. Zionism in many respects was a secular response to the religious idea that the Jewish people would be redeemed from persecution when the Messiah comes. Zionism as a moveme…

A headline this month in The Jerusalem Post caught my eye. It said 25% of American Jews polled in an American Jewish Committee survey said a thriving Israel was not vital to the long-term future of the Jewish people. The suggestion that one in four Jews in the United States doesn’t think wha…

During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, a major low point was the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s in which a plan was hatched to secretly sell arms to Iran with the proceeds going to a rebel group in Nicaragua. The operation was run by Col. Oliver North out of the basement of the White House.

I don’t particularly enjoy shopping and when I travel to Europe, which is really at our doorstep since we moved to Israel, shopping is not my passion, but I do love shopping for food. When it comes to food shopping, there is nothing to top a department store in Berlin, Kaufhaus des Westens. 

It was a dramatic situation when Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired nearly 700 rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israeli communities in the south of Israel, killing four Israelis in a two-day eruption of violence earlier this month.

My family moved to Israel nearly 20 years ago from Cleveland because we believed we could lead a meaningful life as citizens of a Jewish country that was still taking shape. The inspiration hasn’t worn off, but t when I go about my daily life, I sometimes lose sight of the wonder of it all.

Last week’s Israeli election was a disappointment for me and many other Israelis who were hoping that Benny Gantz, a former army chief of staff who heads the new Blue and White Party, would unseat Benjamin Netanyahu, after 10 consecutive years in office. Gantz failed to become prime minister…