Avital Norman Nathman
By Avital Norman Nathman
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Culture The Story My Bubbe Told Us
I can’t remember the exact moment when I realized there was a lot more to my Bubbe’s story than a grandmother who baked amazing chocolate chip cookies and spent her winters in Florida. Her past wasn’t really discussed openly, and it wasn’t until after my bat mitzvah that I started to really understand what she…
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Life How Parenting Came to Be a Group Effort in Israel
The author (left) and her son in the Dead Sea, Israel. / Copyright Avital Norman Nathman There’s a certain sense of overwhelming fatigue that comes from spending hours traipsing along the streets of Tel Aviv under the hot summer sun. Even my mother, who accompanied my almost 8-year-old son and me on this outing and…
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News The Land of Milk, Honey and Marlboro Reds
I smoked my first cigarette in Israel, the land of milk, honey and Marlboro Reds. I was 10 years old and stretching my almost-tween freedom. There was something so effortlessly cool about it all, the way people smoked on the beach in between dips into the crystal-clear, blue water. Or how soldiers at the bus…
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Life How Facebook ‘Like’ Came Between Dad and Me
Avital Norman Nathman and her son on a recent trip to Israel I am my father’s daughter. That means I am incredibly passionate, equally stubborn and some might even say hot-headed. You can just imagine how my teen years went as I came into my own — lots of slammed doors, shouted ultimatums, and threats…
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Life The Illusion of Choice in Israel
A banner of the Israeli pro-life group Efrat in 2012. The text reads: “Eventually, birth will determine our existence as a Jewish state.” / Wikimedia Commons The United States seems to be in a constant battle over reproductive health rights — take this week’s Hobby Lobby ruling — particularly in regards to abortion. Both federal…
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