The breadth and width of bloggers at 60bloggers is impressive anywhere in the blogosphere —here is a quick peek of some of the recent posts. Go ahead, take a peek.
What I Was Taught about Israel, by Lee Meyerhoff Hendler, a writer, speaker and philanthropist.
Sometime near the turn of the 20th century I almost became a sabra. My great grandfather, Oscar Meyerhoff, traveled with three male relatives to what was then Palestine from his tiny village near Kiev. He hoped to become a settler, then send for the rest of the family….
Los Angeles and Israel: A Story of Friendship and Common Dreams by the Honorable, Antonio Villaraigosa is Mayor of Los Angeles.
Los Angeles, where I was born and raised, has a special relationship with the State of Israel. Despite the thousands of miles between us, we share so much – connections of culture and commerce, and ties of blood and family.
Choosing Hope by Rabbi Menachem Creditor, the spiritual leader of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA.
We choose our destinies. Exilic wandering, for the modern Jew, is a choice. As Reb Chaim of Volozhin teaches in his magisterial Nefesh HaChayiim (1824), “And this is the Torah of being a person…One should never say in their heart, God forbid, ‘For what am I and what is my power to enact anything through my insignificant and and deeds? Understand, know, and set in your heart that every detail of every deed, word, and thought is not lost. Every one of them ascends to its own Source to cause an effect in the highest Heavens. (NH 1:4)†No act is neutral, and we can have a cosmic impact by simply thinking differently.
Eating My Way Through Israel by Leah Koenig, Editor of The Jew & The Carrot: Hazon’s blog on Jews, food, and sustainability. She’s also a freelance writer and a serious foodie.
I’ve only ever been to Israel once and that was last year at the age of 25. I’m not exactly sure what took me so long, though it was probably some combination of not being particularly involved in mainstream Jewish activities as a teenager, my parents’ fear of the “situation†in the Middle East, and my own complicated emotions around and relationship to he holy land.
My relationship with Israel by John Leonard author of Nun Bet.
My relationship with Israel began in a wooden church pew in a small North Carolina town. As a boy growing up in a conservative Baptist family, I was at church at least three times a week: twice Sunday and once on Wednesday night. My black, faux leather-bound, zip-up childhood Bible had pictures and maps of the Holy Land. Bored in the church services, I would flip through these images and imagine what that foreign land must be like. Little did I know that about twenty years later I would be able to see these place in person.
Post Cards to Israel by Leah Jones, a writer, ROI’nik, former stand-up comic, and occasional talker based in Chicago where she pens the blog Accidentally Jewish.
March 11, 2004: I’m working in London where I manage an international student residence. We have 24 hour security and the guys who work nights and weekends are all Israeli. The weekend after the bombings in Madrid, I walk with my Spanish students through the streets of London to the consulate. There we light candles, leave notes and walk back with the Spanish flag between. “Todos somos Madrilenos.â€
One of my Israeli guys says to me, “Leah, if we stopped working every time a bomb went off in Israel, we wouldn’t get things done. This is life.â€