Ilene Prusher is a journalist, author and lecturer. For nearly 20 years, she was foreign correspondent based in Jerusalem, Istanbul, Tokyo and Kabul. She joined the multimedia journalism faculty of Florida Atlantic University in 2015. Her most recent work has appeared in the Forward, TIME, FiveThirtyEight and the New York Times Book Review.
Ilene Prusher
By Ilene Prusher
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News Will Rosh Hashanah 5781 come with a paywall?
The High Holidays are designated for spiritual stock-taking, but this year synagogues are wrestling with a decidedly non-spiritual issue: money. The Days of Awe also happen to be the season in which many synagogues garner enough income — in the form of ticket sales, membership renewals and Yom Kippur appeals — to sustain themselves for…
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News This is what democracy looks like
When 17 students and teachers were gunned down in a school in Parkland, Fla., two years ago, it felt as if it had happened in our backyard. Our kids were only 6 and 7 at the time, but we quickly gave up on hiding what had happened: Parkland is like Greater Boca; there were kids…
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News The pandemic is forcing synagogues to reinvent themselves
The Forward is taking an ongoing look at the future of synagogues in America in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have information or insights, please contact [email protected] The start of May means different things to different people, but for most synagogues, it means it’s time to start planning for the high holidays. And…
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Life Thinking about food insecurity in a time of everything insecurity
My husband was itching to have an outing. He suggested a nearby farm that offers pick-your-own. After a knee-jerk no, we found three ways to justify it to ourselves (and anyone who might ask). One, get the kids out of the house, into nature, and away from their screens. Two, help our local farmers by…
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News Israeli EMS leader intubated in Miami hospital with coronavirus: health minister sidelined us
Eli Beer had been traveling around the globe trying to raise money to help Israeli patients who fall gravely ill with coronavirus. Then he became one of them. Beer, 46, is the founder and president of United Hatzalah, a non-profit, volunteer Emergency Medical Service organization. A week ago, he was hospitalized in Miami with what…
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News In Jewish Florida, the healthy and the young make it to polls on primary day
It’s primary day in Florida — a day that’s normally full of energy given the Sunshine State’s plum position as one of the most delegate-rich in the union. Instead, the coronavirus was like a mushroom cloud hanging over polling stations, leading many voters and some poll workers to stay home. At my own polling station,…
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News Popular Florida shul at center of coronavirus outbreak
Bal Harbour, Fla. is famous for its warmth and beauty — gorgeous beaches, posh shops and high-end hotels. Among Jews, it’s also known as the home of a big, thriving and internationally beloved synagogue that meshes perfectly with its surroundings, called simply “The Shul.” The Shul is architecturally grand, its gleaming white facade lined with…
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News Bloomberg’s Florida campaign has a secret weapon – New York transplants
For nearly 50 years of her life, Shelley Herman lived in Manhattan – most recently the East Village – and when New Yorkers felt flattened by the terror of 9/11, it was Mike Bloomberg, in her opinion, who truly got the city back on its feet again. “He did so many things to bring normal…
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Opinion I’m a UCLA professor. Why didn’t the administration stop last night’s egregious violence?
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Fast Forward Marjorie Taylor Greene says she opposed antisemitism bill because it rejects ‘Gospel’ that ‘the Jews’ handed Jesus to executioners
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Opinion I teach Israel studies at NYU. We are importing the worst of Israel and Palestine to our campuses
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Fast Forward Why top Democrats oppose bipartisan bill targeting antisemitism in universities
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Fast Forward More than 25% of arrested Columbia protesters were not connected to the university, police say
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Fast Forward Pro-Israel protesters reportedly followed, attacked UCLA student reporters leaving encampment melee
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Film & TV In ‘Unfrosted,’ Jerry Seinfeld plays with his food
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Opinion Student activists aren’t antisemites; they’re partners in a dance of death