To be Israeli is To have your 17-year-old ask you if he can please miss school today To attend the funeral of a 20-year-old soldier he’s never met. To be Israeli is To think that’s perfectly normal and to tell him that he absolutely can Take your car to drive to the national military cemetery… Read More To Be Israeli Is
I’ve vacillated between needing to pay homage to the stories of survivors, the murdered and the kidnapped, and needing to preserve my own sanity and my own soul. There is so much to worry about and so much angst to be had in our little country that it’s literally hard to breath sometimes. Well, more… Read More The Grief of a People
The country has been covering itself in Israeli flags since the horrific events of October 7. Our youth in our community have made it their personal duty to place flags anywhere and everywhere, offering the community a feeling of unity and of strength. I decided to document some of these flags and the process of… Read More Covered in Flags
Another guest post from Josh Sussman: Checking back in with another update from a week of war; granted this week was not quite as dramatic as last week, but the sense is that this is the (relative) calm before the storm. Last Shabbat was calm and quiet. We reverted back to our small Corona minyan… Read More Simchat Torah War – Two Weeks In
Our days are completely and totally unpredictable at the moment. Other than the fact that we are both trying to work, and trying to remember to eat once in awhile, there is no other consistency. Each day brings new challenges, new ways to try to help others, new tears and much more. We are all… Read More Kugels, Trampolines, Tears & Weddings
This is a guest post from my husband, Josh Sussman. We have been blown away by people from all over the world reaching out to us over the last 6 days. Your thoughts, prayers and support are felt and are incredibly important. With two boys in active combat duty, we also share with them (when… Read More Simchat Torah War – 6 Days In
The last time I saw him was at Har Herzl. We were there, at the military cemetery in Jerusalem, to pay our final respects to a member of an elite fighting unit who had fallen the day before. Shilo was there to pay his respects as well. It was July 2023, and we ran into… Read More Extinguished Light
I think it’s impossible for anyone who doesn’t live in Israel to understand what our days look like right now. And today has been a particularly schizophrenic one. The streets are completely empty – completely. At least in our area, the regional council doesn’t want people out. So we are all working from home and… Read More A Slice of Life Today
Recently, my dad asked me if I could pull up all of our first day of school pictures through the years. We actually have them framed together in the house, but I haven’t presented them all in one place like this before. So here you are, dad. The days really are long when you have… Read More The End of an Era
August can be a really hard month as a parent in Israel. The country loves its children. And the country has a very high percentage of families who rely on two incomes. And yet, for some reason that I have yet to understand after 19 years, there are very few camp choices for kids in… Read More The Sussmans Take August
