Israel Archives – Kveller

Israeli elections are coming up in April, and, if you haven't heard yet, it's been something of a wild ride. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (a.k.a. "Bibi") is seeking his fifth term — his fourth… in a row. (He was Prime Minister from 1996 to 1999, and has currently been in the role since 2009.) The campaign has become extremely heated, especially with Bibi's decision to partner with the right-wing extremist party, Jewish Power, which is deeply anti-Arab and the ideological descendant of the racist American Rabbi Meir Kahane. (You… >> Read More

Israel

Ikea in Israel Erased Women from Its Catalog, and Now They’re Being Sued

Lior Zaltzman

Well, it seems like Ikea, my favorite place to test my marriage, is getting sued for gender discrimination. Why? Because they removed images of women from their Israeli catalog. Basically, in… 2017, the Swedish home goods juggernaut printed a special catalog featuring only images of (religious) men and boys. (That's right — zero women or girls were pictured.) Ikea has since apologized for the incident. According to our sister site, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the company claimed that was produced by its Israel branch without being approved by… >> Read More

Special Needs

For My Amputee Son, This Sport Paved the Way to Inclusion

Zimra Vigoda

“I don’t know,” said the woman on the other side of the phone, on the other side of the world. “Wheelchair basketball sounds like a nice project but right now, our foundation is looking more… into ‘inclusion-based’ programs.” Instantly, I had a flashback to darker days. My son Amit, now 16, was born with a severe orthopedic impairment. He spent the first 10 years of his life limping after his peers, trying in vain to catch up to them as they ran faster and faster — on the playground, at… >> Read More

Israel

My Kid’s Jewish School Is Acting Like the Kosher Police

Leora Leeder

Recently, Facebook encouraged all its members to participate in a "10-year challenge," in which just about everyone in your feed posted side-by-side photos of themselves now and 10 years ago, to show… how much they had changed. Most everyone eagerly showed off how they had not aged at all in the last 10 years (whatever!) and posted their photos with glee. Meanwhile, a viable conspiracy theory was making the rounds, stating that this “game” was actually an initiative by the government to register as many people as… >> Read More

Television

The Israeli Show on Netflix Everyone Should Be Binging

Lior Zaltzman

I was surprised at how enthralled I am with Shtisel, the Israeli series that hit Netflix in 2019 but is hardly new (the first season aired in Israel in 2013). The show explores the lives of the… ultra-Orthodox Shtisel family, who live in the Geula neighborhood in Jerusalem — generally, a place where I, as a secular Israeli human, would not really want to hang out. So why does the kugel, the watery soup, and the other Ashkenazi fare often eaten in the show suddenly look so mouthwateringly delicious? Why do the… >> Read More

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