Barbara Sofer

2 months ago | jpost.com | Barbara Sofer

Ahead of Israel's Independence Day, Barbara Sofer presents her annual list of things she loves about the Jewish state. 1. The Ayalon Mall shut down to allow the five returned hostage young women to shop in privacy. 2.

2 months ago | jpost.com | Barbara Sofer

In the days leading up to Passover, I find myself thinking of a message I heard within the words of a young Druze soldier. Shuki lives in a mountaintop home in the village of Beit Jann, overlooking the Upper Galilee. I first met Shuki and his family in November 2023. He’d suffered a serious head wound and was hospitalized in intensive care at Hadassah-University Medical Center, in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem. His IDF unit had discovered another tunnel in the sands of Gaza.

2 months ago | jpost.com | Barbara Sofer

Given the current situation, I find it remarkable that in 2025, thousands of Jewish teens are devoting so much time, energy, and talent to singing Jewish songs, says the writer. I give in to an impulse to fly to the United States.

Mar 23, 2025 | jpost.com | Barbara Sofer

A warm feeling of recognition, admiration, and relief comes over me as I enter Israel’s third-largest city. Storms will thunder and roar greatly, but the anemones will always bloom. We’re meeting the jeep operators in Kiryat Shmona.

Mar 9, 2025 | jpost.com | Barbara Sofer

You won’t find a jazzy, up-to-the-minute hotel here. The decorative style is retro, and the wooden furniture could use a touch-up, but what’s missing in sleek design is compensated for in space. You might think you are in a kibbutz in the Galilee when you wake up in the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel.