Living in Israel during coronavirus makes me love this country more than ever

By Akiva Gersh 

Thoughts as we enter our second Shabbat in quarantine:

I moved to Israel in 2004, and since then, there have been events and moments that have reaffirmed the reasons I did.

One of those moments is right now. Now, during these challenging and confusing and unsettling days when the world is being held captive by the coronavirus pandemic.

Like so many others around the world, we in Israel are confined to our homes, but the few moments a day I do manage to get out remind me of why I love Israel so much.

It's the calm I see on people's faces as I push my shopping cart through the supermarket. It's their ability to still smile and even laugh with one another as they stand in line waiting for their turn to pay for the items they want to bring back to their families in quarantine. And it's their ability to still believe that "y'hiyeh b’seder," or "it’ll be OK."

Waze, Wix, Outbrain, Trax: Cuz about Israeli innovation, we're rappin' facts

By Max Marine

After growing up in Philadelphia in a conservative Jewish community, 10 years ago (at age 20), I flew to Israel for the first time on Birthright. My uncle handed me a book before I flew: "Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle." As I traveled over the Atlantic reading, I was blown away by all the innovation such a small country had produced with so few resources.

American eats meet Israel as L.A. transplant brings food trucks to Golan

Shimon Shain, holding one of the food items from his food truck, Shimmy's.

By Alan Rosenbaum

"We’ve basically made a mini-restaurant on wheels," said Shimon Shain. "Even the health inspector was impressed with the design of the food truck." Be it sushi, tuna melts, a classic falafel sandwich, fish and chips, fries, waffles, hearty pancakes, a refreshing ice coffee, or just plain toast, Shain and his small fleet of food trucks around Israel's Golan Heights serve anything and everything to tourists, workers, and students. But don’t expect the menus to stay the same for long; they vary as clients' demands change.

Brooklyn-born and raised, Shimon, 34, and his wife, Sara, moved from the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles in July 2016 to the calm and tranquility of Hispin, a scenic town of 1,400 residents in the heart of the Golan Heights. "We like the cattle and the agriculture. We preferred to live in the north or the south -- in a quiet area," Shain said.

The Shains felt like there was still something missing from the Golan scene. Shain, who studied at the Jerusalem School of Culinary Arts, used his expertise in gastronomic studies and his extensive experience in the food industry to establish Shimmy’s, a mobile food service -- known as the beloved food truck in the U.S. -- that prepares and sells food throughout the Golan region.

Brewer from Kansas crafts creative beers in the heart of Tel Aviv

Jason Barnett, an oleh from Shawnee, Kansas, took his beer brewing hobby and, with assistance from Jewish National Fund partner Nefesh B'Nefesh, started a successful craft beer brewery, Opus Brewing, in the heart of Tel Aviv. Here's his story.

What made you decide to make aliyah? 
I studied abroad in Israel my freshman year, just as the second Lebanon War broke out. The experience reminded me that the world can be a dangerous place for the Jewish people. I made aliyah in August 2010 and that October I entered the IDF's 101st Airborne Brigade.

How did you get started in the beer brewing business?
I loved sitting with friends at bars but didn't love needing to pay for the simple privilege of enjoying a beer with friends. I decided to make my own beer and began whipping up my first batch of amber ale. Truth -- it was terrible. After four years of amateur brewing, I got a job working as a brewer's apprentice at the Dancing Camel in Tel Aviv and began teaching brewing workshops. Nefesh B’Nefesh invited me to conduct my first workshop at their Tel Aviv Hub, and in January 2018, Opus Brewing was born.

Paul and Nina Freedman, aliyah pioneers and Israel ambassadors

Paul and Nina Freedman, greeting one of many Nefesh B'Nefesh aliyah flights. 

It's hard to imagine a time before Nefesh B'Nefesh -- before chartered, celebratory flights brought scores of olim from around the world to live and work in Israel. But Paul Freedman made aliyah in the ‘90s, and remembers it well. Paul, who was the International Director of USY, met his wife Nina, a lifetime Bnei Akiva member, in 1957 in Israel. The pair married in England, and finally returned to Israel on July 4, 1991, this time for good.