Allison Kaplan Sommer is a journalist at Haaretz, host of Haaretz Weekend podcast and co-host of The Promised Podcast.
Allison Kaplan Sommer
By Allison Kaplan Sommer
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Life A ‘Rosa Parksenstein’ Moment for New Israeli
Rachel Levin Weinstein, a social worker who made aliyah to Israel from Chicago just two months ago, has faced her share of challenges recently, as does every new immigrant – everything from learning how to pay her bills in a new language, to getting her four kids settled in school, to figuring out how to…
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Life Celebrating a Birthday in the Shadow of 9/11
I was busy blowing up balloons, hanging streamers and assembling goody bags when I heard about the September 11 attacks. September 11, 2001 was my son Eitan’s fifth birthday. Just a few weeks earlier, I had returned to my home in Israel from a year-long sabbatical in Connecticut, and, with the house full of unpacked…
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Life Are Women Being Left Behind in Israel Protests?
At the start of the summer, Israel’s social protest movement looked like it would represent a real turning point for women in the public sphere. The face of the movement was indisputably female. The story began when a young filmmaker, 25-year-old Daphne Leef, pitched a tent in downtown Tel Aviv to protest the lack of…
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Life Tense Return to School for Beit Shemesh Girls
Parents across Israel collectively breathed a huge sigh of relief today as their children packed up their books and headed off to the first day of school. But a group of residents in the city of Beit Shemesh were especially relieved. Over the past few days, it looked as if their daughters’ school, Orot Banot,…
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Life Lack of Passion Killed Israel’s Civil Marriage Bill
Israeli Jews whose choice of partner or form of ceremony doesn’t meet traditional Jewish legal requirements will have to continue to book a flight to Cyprus or Vegas to make their marriage legally valid in their own country, since marriage and divorce are going to remain in the hands of Israel’s Orthodox rabbinate for the…
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Life Amy Winehouse Brought Out The Jewish Mother In Us All
Amy Winehouse embodied every Jewish mother’s greatest fear. We Jewish parents are, after all, obsessed with our children living up to their potential. We accept our offspring’s God-given limitations. But when there is a child with seemingly limitless possibilities for creativity and success, as Winehouse’s tremendous musical talent offered her, it is particularly achingly painful…
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Food Israel’s Burger Battle
When McDonald’s first came to Israel in 1993, they encountered a native population relatively unfamiliar with the ways of the hamburger. Israelis were grateful that after years of cooperating with the Arab boycott, the multinational giant finally reached the Holy Land, and made them feel like part of the international community. They accepted the flat…
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Life Would a Government Ministry Help Israeli Women Get Ahead?
The proposal sounds pretty good on the surface – a Ministry of Women’s Affairs in the Israeli government, dedicated solely to promoting the issues, concerns, and interests of Israeli women and improving their status in society. Likud MK Gila Gamliel, who recently unveiled the proposal for creating such a ministry, is convinced that it can…
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