By Dyonna Ginsburg
People take many things into account when choosing a place to eat. They consider a restaurant’s ambiance, the quality of food served and the amount of money entrées cost. But some people in Israel now consider more than just aesthetics when choosing a place to eat, and a new social seal of approval – the Tav Chevrati, a mark of socially just kashrut – helps them to do so.

Those who look for the Tav think about waitresses and busboys in Israel, who barely eke out a living despite working full days.

By Susan Bodnar
The New York City temperature dipped to 10 degrees. My son, daughter and I bundled out the door for the walk to school.
“You’re a fanatic,” a neighbor admonished.

By Simon Feil
“Jewish Farmer” might sound like the beginning of a joke, but what we forget is that ancient Israel was, by most accounts, a largely agrarian society. Biblical Judaism revolved around agriculture and the seasons, and most ancient Jews – our ancestors – were Jewish farmers.

What we also don’t realize is that Jewish farming is back and in a big way.

By Leah Koenig

By Natasha Rosenstock

"The desert provides us with the best opportunity to begin again. This is a vital element of our renaissance in Israel. For it is in mastering nature that man learns to control himself. It is in this sense, more practical than mystic, that I define our Redemption on this land. Israel must continue to cultivate its nationality and to represent the Jewish people without renouncing its glorious past. It must earn this–which is no small task– a right that can only be acquired in the desert."- Excerpt, Memoirs of David Ben-Gurion

Politicians have been trying to foster peace in the Middle East since the founding of the State of Israel, but last year’s violent Israel-Hizbollah conflict and the environmental toll it exacted on the region should urge world leaders to step up those efforts. Fighting during the hot summer of 2006 left a horrific scar on the land and sea. The harm after only two months of confrontation is a call to consider whether images of dead sea turtles, oil-coated beaches, or bare, parched land that once rooted a forest (now burnt down to stumps) serve as a warning against inciting another war.

If you ask Israelis what they see as the number one existential threat to the state, their response will increasingly be a nuclear Iran. On the heals of the recent UN Security Council sanctions against Iran, it seems the international community has come to agree with Israel’s assessment regarding the real dangers posed by Iranian nuclear weapons.