If it weren’t enough that my Mom visited me for the first time in Israel, she was also here when Gilad Shalit came back to Israel! Her insights as an outsider were very interesting. Read my new Jpost post to see the full story!
Gilad Shalit on the phone with his mother just after being released; Courtesy of Israel Defense Forces
I know it’s been a while since I posted. Oops. It’s holiday season in Israel and I’ve been trying to interact with people in person rather than online. Good for me, bad for writing.
Anyways, here is the second part, titled “My Israeli Love Story: Part II – At The Airport,” in what will be a series of blog entries about Uri and I on my Jpost blog. This weekend was our one year anniversary, and it was amazing for me to reflect about the whole thing. A year and a half ago, when I was doing stand up comedy about my horrific dating life, I would have thought you were crazy to tell me that I’d be writing about a budding romance in the paper. Life is nice and surprising sometimes, :).
Hope everyone’s doing well!
Photo by Hoyasmeg on Creative Commons
I took a reprieve from doing the next chapter of My Israeli Love Story to focus on current events. I promise that, “My Israeli Love Story Part 2,” will be written in the near future, :).
However, this week’s post is quite different in style. It is one of my braver, not-so-neat-and-tidy posts. It’s called, “Why Keeping it Real about Israel is Hard,” and is on my Jpost blog.
The post begins with this sentence: “My friend asked if Jon Stewart had done anything on the Daily Show about the Israeli embassy attack in Cairo?” Read on to read intriguing conversations about Egypt, Israel, and the peace process!
Photo by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Creative Commons
For some time I’ve wanted to write a post describing how I originally met my boyfriend, which inspired my decision to move to Israel. This week, for whatever reason, felt like the right time. I finally had enough perspective and felt comfortable enough in our relationship to do so.
It’s titled, “My Israeli Love Story,” and is on my Jpost blog. This is the first in a series of personal posts. Stay tuned!
Random funny camel photo by Noah Veltman (noahveltman.com)
New post on Jpost about how an episode of How I Met Your Mother made me reflect on the tent protests and the recent terror attacks facing the country.
New blog post about my Dad’s visit to Israel and fears about September on Jpost!
Photo taken by Thomas Rosbrow, my father.
New post on The Internal Conflict and my Jpost blog about the tent protests!
As some of you may know, I started writing a personal column for the Jerusalem Post Lite in June on a trial basis. Well, it received such strong feedback that they decided to make it a permanent blog on Jpost’s website!
My first post is actually today’s top featured blog!
The blog is titled, “A new take on native,” and is a way for me to share my perspective on Israel as a new immigrant. Specifically, I described fresh observations that might be new or insightful to Israelis. It will be in their “aliyah” section, which refers to blogs from new immigrants.
Before sharing my first post widely, I realized there were a few cultural things I needed to explain to audiences outside of Israel.
1) I use the term, “making aliyah.” This term refers to the process in which Jews outside of Israel can become citizens of the State of Israel based on Israel’s Law of Return. Some consider the Law of Return controversial in comparison to the Palestinian right of return. To be fair, I use the same source to explain both sides: Wikipedia (on an unrelated note, I am writing about Wikipedia soon because I went to their annual conference in Haifa and got to interview Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia’s founder!).
At this point, I am considered a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. On a personal level, I made aliyah mostly for practical reasons: I liked living in Israel and knew that I wanted to live here for a long time. Given the option, I preferred becoming a citizen to remaining on a work visa status because it made my life easier financially as well as legally.
2) Part of becoming an Israeli citizen can mean a mandatory military service. All Israeli women under the age of 22 and men under the age of 26 are obligated to serve in the Israel Defense Force unless they go to a Yeshiva, are married, have children, have a suitable medical reason or are Arab-Israeli. Because I became a dual citizen at the age of 26, I was not obligated to do this.
3) “Sabra” is a reference to native Israelis.
Hope you enjoy this humorous first piece, “My boss punched me. With love.“
Laura Rosbrow-Telem 