“When I gave Many my phone number I didn’t think something will come out of it. I thought we can be friends but not in a romantic way. He called and texted me for almost two months trying to convince me to go out with him. he is very persuasive”. what kind of reactions did you get from your family? They were a little bit disapproving. My family is slightly religious (Masoretim) so the issue wasn’t the color but rather the fact Many is not Jewish.” How did you manage to gain their approval? Many:” Love can triumph everything. If it’s so important for her family I don’t mind being converted to Judaism. I’m following my heart. if that means being Jewish – I don’t mind”

“The entire population of Israel is living with post-traumatic stress disorder because the entire Jewish history is soaked with the blood of Jews who were persecuted because of their religion. Just take the last century: a holocaust that caused more than a third of the Jewish people to vanish, seven wars in which thousands of Israelis died on the battlefield to defend the Jewish state, endless terrorist attacks in which thousands of Israelis perished, and the knowledge that the next war is just over the horizon. It’s like the whole country needs to go to a shrink in order to fix their existential anxiety. You feel like you’re on the Titanic and that you have limited time before you hit the iceberg, so you have to make the best of it while you can. This is the reason why Tel Avivians party so hard and why we live in a ...

“I left ‘Mea Shearim’ (an Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem) six years ago and never looked back. I left that world because I felt there is a huge gap between what the Bible says and the way people interpret it. Instead of Love, I saw hate, discrimination, and violence, all in the name of God. I left my tribe behind, but I realized that in the real world, you have different tribes as well: Secular, Vegan, Gay, etc…, and you will never be an individual if you keep dancing to the rhythm of the Tribal drum. In the Ultra-Orthodox world, you need to have the correct Shtreimel, the right wig, and study at the right Yeshiva, while in the secular world, you need to have the newest iPhone, the coolest brands, and the nicest car. In both worlds, everything is about worshipping something; the difference is only in what you worship. I ...

“I’m two weeks in Israel and I’m already enrolled in Ulpan. The most difficult thing in learning Hebrew is the ability to pronounce words correctly. I feel like a camel, as everything with a ח (Chet) makes you want to spit. The ability to speak in Hebrew stretches your vocal chords in a way that I never thought was possible. There’s a full range of different ways to pronounce Chet. Sometimes you can’t really tell the difference between a Chet and a Hey (ה), but other times the chet sound sort of hits you and you think, “Shit, how did they do that?” Studying Hebrew in the Ulpan is a very emotional experience. Even though the Ulpan is only 3 and a quarter hours a day, you experience an emotional rollercoaster the whole time. You come into class, and you understand what the teacher says, and you start to think ...

“During an important business trip to New York in 1998, my computer crashed and I found myself without a presentation and with 200 people staring at me. I promised myself that was the last time such a thing happens to me, and how great it would have been if I could take the presentation in my pocket. Many people said the idea of a Disk-on-Key wouldn’t work and thought I’m daydreaming, but I believed in it. A lot of people don’t follow their dreams and ideas because the surroundings discourage them. remember, that without persistence and a huge amount of resilience, your ideas will stay on the drawing board.”

Israel’s drip irrigation pioneer “The best thing ever that happened to the State of Israel is the fact that we didn’t have anything in abundance–water or petrol. We had to use the ‘Jewish brain’, thinking outside the box to find a solution for our survival. That’s the D.N.A of our #startupnation. When I started working with Netafim, it was me and three other employees; today the company has over 4,000 employees in 150 countries around the world. I’m proud to say that Israeli innovation is helping to feed nearly a billion people per year.” If you will look back in history you will see that wars broke out over resources such as land and water. I’m happy to say that my Inventions are saving Human lives around the world as we speak. My inventions save the world tens of billions of gallons of water a year (cutting down on water ...

“Did you ever hear about The Lost Tribes of Israel? Well, you’re looking at one of its descendants. I was born in Manipur (a state in northeastern India), and my family made Aliyah (immigration of Jews from the diaspora to the Land of Israel) when I was a year old. We’re the lost descendants of the Tribe of Manasseh, who were exiled during the Babylonian captivity. We were “discovered” by Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, who recognized our Jewish heritage, which includes: Brit milah (male circumcision), religious Holidays that are similar to those of Judaism, and similar religious practices. I feel Jewish and I do feel part of this place, but sometimes you get the feeling that you need to prove your Judaism. Israel can be very “in your face,” where total strangers will ask you direct, personal questions. I have been asked many times if I’m a foreign worker and what ...

“I was born in Romania to a Jewish mother and an Armenian father, so I was bound to learn multiple languages. The forbidden language in our society was Turkish, because of the Armenian Holocaust that was perpetuated by Turkey, but I was always curious to learn it. If someone would have spoken Turkish, they would put hot pepper in his mouth, so he would think again before he spoke it. When I lived in a monastery in Jerusalem, I had a Turkish neighbor that didn’t speak any other language, and we were like black cats to one another. She didn’t know any other language, so we couldn’t communicate, and on top of that, I am Armenian; for her, this was like a red flag. I decided that it was in our best interest for me to learn Turkish; after six months, we spoke like we were on the Straits of ...

“יש לי לב אֶחד שנשבּר 3 פְּעמים בהודעות שבר נוראיות, נפילת בני אוריאל בַּקרב בִּלְבנון, פטירת אליעזר אישי מִשבְרון לב וּנְפילת בני השני אלירז בקרב בעזה. עם הלב הזה יצאתי אל עמי, וּבְמילים פשוטות, בִּשְפת הלב השבור דיברתי על הארץ וּמורשתה, על הבחירה בטוב, על השמחה, על הדבקות בחיים על אחריות וּמְעורבות חברתית. מתוך הלב הזה, שֶפּועמת בו אמונה בָּארץ הזאת וּבָעם הזה. מתוך תהומות הכאב נבעו מעיָינות של אהבה, וּכְשהלב מלא אמונה, הוא יכול לעמוד בְּאתגרים קשים, יכול ליצור יצירות גדולות. זוֹ יצירתי היא נטועה בַּלֶבבות. הפכתי את יגוני לְניגון חדש. זכיתי להיפגש עם החברה הישראלית על גווניה השונים, מפגשים של פנים אל פנים, מפגשים מרחיבי לב שאפשרו לי כניסתם של מחשבות והבנות חדשות. הייתי שמחה אם נצא כולנו לפגוש את הגיוון, את “האחרים”, נכיר, נרגיש, נִראֶה את העיניים הכואבות והשְמחות, נשמע את הקולות והצלילים השונים, וגם אם יש בינינו תהומות – נוכל לבנות מֵעליהן גשרים. אם רק נכיר ...

“השעה היתה 2 לפנות בוקר ובמהלך סיור שגרתי על גדר המערכת ברצועת עזה זיהנו בתוך הערפל מטען חשוד. כמפקד הכוח התקרבתי לגדר על מנת לבחון את המטען החשוד ואז נשמע פיצוץ. אני עדיין זוכר את העשן ואת הצעקות מכל עבר. המטען החשוד התגלה כמטען חבלה שקטע את ידי השמאלית במקום וריסק את ידי הימנית. כשהתעשתתי הבנתי שאני קרוב מאוד לגדר מה שהציב אותי בסכנה חמורה להיחטף לרצועת עזה. לא יודע איך עשיתי את זה אבל הצלחתי להרים את עצמי מהקרקע, מדמם, ללא יד ולרוץ לעבר הג’יפ שלי. צעקתי לעבר החובש הפלוגתי: “שים עלי חוסם עורקים ותעיף אותי לטיפול אחרת אני אמות.” אני זוכר שפינו אותי למנחת המסוקים ומשם לבית החולים במצב אנוש שם עברתי ניתוח ארוך, שהציל את חיי. הרופאים הצליחו לחבר לי את יד ימין מחדש אבל שהתעוררתי מהניתוח התעוררתי למציאות חדשה ולא מוכרת – מתפקיד מ”פ קרבי המפקד על 135 חיילים עברתי למיטה שבה שכבתי כשלושה וחצי חודשים ...