Recently in Press Category

Dear Friends,

I am happy to inform you all that I currently have 10 photographs
published on Haaretz's front page! If you go to www.haaretz.com,
scroll down just a little, and look on your right. Click on:IN
PICTURES: 'Jesus' comes to Tel Aviv, Druze culinary delights
or in the future you can find it at:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1136626.html


Here are links to previous photos that I have had published in the
last couple of months:
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1125594.html  (all 10 pictures are mine)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1120488.html  (Pictures 5 and 10 are mine)
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1123700.html (Pictures 6-9 are mine)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118943.html (Pictures 9 and 10 are mine)

If you click on each picture manually, you will find a brief description.

Enjoy!!

Elliot Antman       Stacey Maltin                 Josh Lichtenstein                      Adam Abrams

There are currently four interns on the WUJS Tel-Aviv program who have recenly been published on Haaretz.com and Ynet respectively.

Elliot Antman from Florida and Adam Abrams from California are both working at Haaretz.  Their articles can be seen by clicking on the links below.

Elliot Antman

Memorial Day / Reflections of an American Jew in Israel

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1081765.html

Adam Abrams

Are the People who 'Really Run the World' Meeting this Weekend?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1085589.html

Will U.S. Financial Woes Lead to New World Order?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074110.html

 

Stacey Maltin from New York and Josh Lichtenstein from Maryland are both working at Ynet.  Their articles can be seen by clicking on the links below.

Stacey Maltin

Redeeming Kasztner

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3715335,00.html

A Visit to Sderot

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3709973,00.html

Raising Awareness to Celiac Awareness in Israel

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3709720,00.html

Taking a Swing at Coexistence

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3706101,00.html

An American Gingit Takes on Tel-Aviv

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3704733,00.html

Helping New Olim Get Started

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3705756,00.html

Get Up and Do Something

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3704720,00.html

Whoever is Hungry, Let Him Come and Eat

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3697523,00.html

Soldiers Speak Out Against Immorality Allegations

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3696566,00.html

 

Josh Lichtenstein

Following Memorial Day in Israel the following article by Elliot Antman on the WUJS Intern-Tel-Aviv program was published on Haaretz.com at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1081765.html

 

Being in Israel as it commemorates Memorial Day is something I would recommend for any one of my fellow Diaspora Jews.

One needs no more than to walk down the streets of Tel Aviv or pick up the local newspaper to understand the somber feeling that fills this tiny country on the Mediterranean.

There is no loud music to be heard, no picnics at the beach, and no Memorial Day sales at the mall. In talking with Israelis, there is a profound sense of introspection and hopefulness for what the future will bring.

 

It is difficult to find anyone in Israel who has not been affected by the death of a loved one or friend in the years-old Arab-Israeli conflict. This contributes to the disconnect between Diaspora Jews and those living in Israel. As an American Jew, I am grateful to experience this holiday from the Israeli perspective.

A Jew living in Israel has a much different concept of sacrifice than a Jew living in the United States.

For the last two generations, Americans have not fought a war in which the threat of losing their country was imminent.

Since my parents' generation faced war, the sacrifice of American soldiers has been shrouded in controversy over whether or not soldiers died while truly defending our freedoms.

From Korea in the 1950's to the current war in Iraq, nation-wide support of the mission has been hard to come by.

This frame of reference is entirely alien to Israel.

Had Israel truly lost any war since 1948, there would be no Israel to speak of right now. The responsive nature of most of its military campaigns leads to broad support by the Israeli populace. Contributing to this support is the threat of the alternative, which all too often means bloodshed on Israeli soil.

With the exception of 9/11 and the attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans have not had to deal with the damaging emotional trauma that war on the home front brings to its citizens. Unfortunately, this reality continues on a daily basis in Israel.

It saddens me to know that so many of my Jewish friends in the States fail to recognize the sacrifices that continue to be made on our behalf.

We might have a peripheral appreciation for the sacrifices previous generations made in leaving their home countries for a better life, however, we forget that our fellow Jews in Israel continue to fight for us in a country where we will never be second-class citizens.

One of the main reasons behind the establishment of Israel is the idea that the Jew will never be fully accepted into the fabric of another country.

Despite the success that many Jews have experienced in the last century, let us not forget that only a couple generations ago Jews across the United States were changing their names in order to avoid filling the Jewish quotas in higher education and other forms of anti-Semitism.

Let us not forget that today, across the continent of Europe, observant Jews must worship in synagogues fortified with high walls and barbed wire.

And let us be aware that observant Jews in the U.K. are all too often being forced to walk to shul under the close guard of the local police.

What the people of Israel continue to fight and die for is a country that offers safe haven to Jews across the world so that if, and when, the disdain for the Jew becomes too intolerable in foreign lands, our people will have a home that welcomes us with open arms.

This year, I hope my fellow Jews across the globe recognize the sacrifices the people of Israel have made on our behalf and offer a quiet moment of reflection.

 

Up five flights of stairs, at the top of an old building in Tel Aviv, Diana Brody makes her home and artistic studio. On almost every wall hangs a piece of her artwork that combines paper and oil paint on canvas to create a rich, textured image. In a new series of eight large paintings called "Lovers," a male and a female are depicted in a variety of different positions wearing nothing but red underwear.

To read the rest of the article:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331157562&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

(originally printed in Ha'aretz Newspaper here)

After 40 years of operation, the World Union of Jewish Students Institute in Arad will be closed and its activity transferred from the small Negev town to the country's center, said a spokeswoman for Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, which operates WUJS.

"When we learned the Jewish Agency was closing the building which houses the Arad institution, we concentrated our efforts on finding another venue," said Barbara Sofer, Hadassah's Israel Director of Public Relations.

The Jewish Agency owns the building in Arad, while Hadassah took over the Arad institution from the Jewish Agency in 2006.

The Institute, which was established in 1968, offered Ulpan (intensive Hebrew) programs and courses about Israel and Jewish learning. It also held weekly tours and social activities. According to Sofer, the WUJS institute in Arad had taught thousands of students, with 25 percent staying on in Israel as new immigrants.

"Although the facility in Arad has been closed down, the Arad program has in fact been expanded," Sofer said. "The Arad center ran four programs for young adults, which included activities in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Each program was five months long. Starting September 1, those programs will be run from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and they will go on for six months and will include additional activities."

Hadassah National President Nancy Falchuk decided on the move last week, according to Sofer.

"We had 50 young adults who were supposed to attend at Arad," Sofer said. "We contacted them to let them know we couldn't have the program there. None of them canceled."

A spokesman for the Jewish Agency, Michael Jankelowitz, told Haaretz that the Arad building used to be an absorption center, but its function was changed last year because of lack of demand on the part of new immigrants.

"The WUJS institute profited from the boarding house services at the absorption center," Jankelowitz said. "They moved after they learned those services would no longer be available." 

The WUJS Arad program will not shut down, but merely relocate from the southern desert town to the Central region, Hadassah spokeswoman Barbara Sofer said on Tuesday.

Sofer was responding to a Jerusalem Post report on Monday that the Arad program was ending operations because the Jewish Agency was going to close the town's immigrant absorption center that had provided housing for WUJS program participants.

According to Sofer, the program will move to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on September 1 for the fall session, which is expected to draw 50 participants from overseas. The five-month program will be extended by a month for that term.

All applicants agreed to participate in the relocated program when informed of the change last Tuesday, Sofer said.

When she learned she would not be going to Arad only last week, fall semester participant, Aliyah Schneider, thought the change could be "beneficial," a feeling she said was shared by other participants with whom she had spoken.

"The housing situation will be a better picture of life in Israel - living in a big-city apartment instead of an absorption center," Schneider said. "It's a shame we won't be in Arad, because there is something to be said for the desert life, but it's also an amazing opportunity to get plugged in [to Jerusalem]. And we're still going to hike the desert and study the desert subcultures."