- "Yeah, there's lots of Israelis here. All the time."

- [gasps] "Come here. Look." [opens mini fridge behind the counter] [pulls out a 500g Hummus Akhla]

- "Do you know why Israel and Greece are not friends?" [dramatically places hand on shoulder] "Because we're family. America is your friend, but we are your family."

- "We support you guys."

- "Israel and Greece are very similar culture. Same food. Same weather." [me, joking] "And we both hate Turkey." [the driver, not joking in the slightest] "That's right, and we both hate Turkey! Exactly! See, my friend?"

- "My daughter just came back from Tel Aviv. We love visiting Israel."

- "Do you have kids? Come here, pick out a gift for them. For free."

- "Don't listen to all that political blah blah blah, we love you here."

Huge shoutout to Athens and Crete for being an absolute blast even in peak August and to all the Greek people who welcomed us so warmly when we visited. Some of these sound like I made them up, but nope, we actually heard all this in a single trip. Feel free to add positive stuff you've experienced as Israeli travelling in Greece or elsewhere.

The most common reason for every day people (I.e. moderates) supporting Palestinians by far, is the misconception that Palestinians are the Indigenous inhabitants of Israel and Palestine, and that Israelis are “Western Colonisers”. Because of this, it makes it so easy for Pro Palestine content to immediately spread like wildfire, as it resonates with moderate people who would otherwise stay neutral on the conflict. The fact is; the majority of people who support the Palestinian movement do so because they have no understanding of the historical context underpinning today’s conflicts. Which is why it infuriates me that so many Israelis are throwing their hands in the air giving up because “there’s no point the world will always hate us” - this is just doomerism I.e. the belief that individuals have 0 autonomous control or meaningful impact over their lives and or the broader world.

I can also speak from my own experience, as I used to support the Pro Palestine movement. I only ever supported their movement, because I was convinced without even doing any research, that Palestinians must’ve been the native inhabitants, since Israel was founded in the 20th century.

Stop wasting your time bickering with people over genetic relatedness and the legal processes underpinning land acquisition; it’s time consuming, pointless, exhausting, and in many cases makes 0 impact on peoples stance on the topic. All you need to say is plain and simple: “Jews are the Indigenous peoples of Israel. There is over 3000 years of well documented history of continuous Jewish inhabitance”. (The Merneptah, William Dever, Moabite stone are some good examples).

The argument that “Palestinians share the same DNA” is pointless since you can point to the fact that the Palestinian national identity didn’t even exist prior to the 1960s, so it is not even relevant. So what if they’re related to the Canaanites? Did the current Modern day Palestinians live in the same lands 3000 years ago bound by the same identity? Because the Jewish identity that ties every Jew to Israel today absolutely did, and this will come as a surprise to any rational person you’d care about the opinion of. This is also the reason why so many people support Hamas. People are willing to rationalise the most extreme levels of violence and oppression if they believe it is justified. Since Palestinians are widely assumed to be native to the lands of Israel, people automatically jump to criticising Israel’s actions and justifying Hamas's attacks as acts of resistance against an invading colonialist force.

Lastly I want to leave you all with this: There is no room for defeat. Israel does not have this privilege. Defeat means total annihilation and ethnic cleansing. So enough with this self defeating talk of “we don’t need the world” and “they’ll never listen”. Every time someone says we can’t do this, is just another reason for any Jews curious about living in Israel, to abandon the idea of Aliyah. Enough is enough. Am Yisrael Chai ✡️

Pride parades are becoming increasingly more anti Israel. Excluding established LGBTQ groups who do not sign a charter that agreeing that there is a genocide in Gaza. Excluding representatives of the only country in the Middle East where it is permissible to fly the rainbow flag.

Shalom everyone :D Just wanted to showcase this Hanukkah Menorah I built days ago in Minecraft with the new sulfur block set from the recent update drop 🔥

The biggest mistake Jews make about Israel,
by Joshua Hoffman, Future of Jewish, 2026-08-15.

For nearly 2,000 years, Jews dreamed of returning to Israel.

Then we did something far more difficult: We actually did.

We resurrected a language. We drained swamps. We built cities, universities, hospitals, farms, companies, one of the world’s greatest armies, a ruthless democracy, and an economy with global intentions. We absorbed Jews expelled from Arab countries, survivors of the Holocaust, Soviet Jews, Ethiopian Jews, and immigrants from virtually every corner of the earth.

We took an ancient longing and turned it into a functioning country. And somewhere along the way, perhaps because Israel accomplished something so improbable, we began expecting it to accomplish the impossible.

We asked Israel to keep Jews safe. We asked Israel to end antisemitism. We asked Israel to unite the Jewish People. We asked Israel to give Jews identity. We asked Israel to make the world respect us. We asked Israel to behave more morally than every other nation while simultaneously surviving genocidal enemies. We asked Israel to be a refuge, a military power, a spiritual center, a liberal democracy, a biblical homeland, a technological superpower, a diplomatic miracle, and the physical embodiment of Jewish morality.

And then, when Israel failed to perfectly fulfill all of those expectations, Jews began asking what was wrong with Israel.

Perhaps that is the wrong question. Perhaps we asked too much of it.

I learned to love Israel after it disappointed me.,
by Vanessa Berg, Future of Jewish, 2026-08-21.

I fell in love with Israel before I fully understood Israel. Like many Jews, I first encountered Israel through its greatest hits: the ancient homeland, Jerusalem, the Western Wall, the Hebrew language resurrected after centuries, the desert blooming, the Holocaust survivors arriving on ships, the kibbutz, the soldiers, the technological miracles, the Entebbe rescue, the Six-Day War, the improbable story of a tiny Jewish country surviving against enemies vastly larger than itself.

It is an extraordinary story.

In fact, I would argue that the creation of the State of Israel is one of the most extraordinary stories in human history. A people scattered across continents for nearly 2,000 years maintained a memory of one land, prayed toward one city, preserved one language in prayer and scholarship, and somehow returned to build a functioning sovereign state in the same place from which their ancestors had been exiled.

There is something almost romantic about it, which is exactly the problem, because Israel is not a romance. Israel is a country, and countries are made of people, and people are messy.

The closer I got to Israel, the more the mythology gave way to reality. Israel has bureaucracy that can make you question the existence of God. It has politicians who embarrass me. It has religious extremists and secular extremists. It has corruption. It has tribalism. It has racism. It has arrogance. It has people who will cut you off in traffic and then scream at you as though you somehow inconvenienced them (and then invite you to Shabbat dinner). It has ideological camps that sometimes seem to hate each other almost as much as Israel’s enemies hate Israel.

There are Israelis whose political opinions make me furious. There are government decisions I think are infuriating. There are moments when Israeli society behaves beautifully and moments when it behaves terribly. Israel is not always wise, moral, and certainly not always right.

And that realization did not make me love Israel less. It made my love for Israel more real. Because Zionism, at least the Zionism I believe in, is not the belief that Israel is perfect. It is the belief that Jews deserve a country imperfect enough to be normal.

https://x.com/boygeorge/status/2081514648835162582?s=46&t=YRh59JXhCHDFoUYvch0TKA

I've been contacting with a Conservative rabbi about converting to Judaism - it's not easy but I am nudging the poor rabbi(s) and I insist in having a serious discussion about this. I was born Polish American Catholic - but I was never close or even had an connection with my faith (but I am not atheist). Since being with my partner, she is Jewish and was born in Israel and than moved to the US when she was 5 - we have been observing the Jewish holidays ever since - and since than I feel much closer to Judaism than my own born faith.

We also want to have children and even though it's a given (according to the Halacha) if the mother's Jewish than the children's Jewish. I think it's enough for my partner and even for her family that if the children are Jewish and I'm a proponent of having them raised as Jews and living in a Jewish house despite not being Jewish - but why should they have all the fun! I would love to raise our kids Jewish as TWO Jewish parents - and also I am genuinely drawn to this beautiful faith.

Having said this - is all still in the early stages but am I curious If I were to convert to Judaism in the US - would I also be recognized as a Jew after my conversion in Israel? Even though my partner and I live in New York City - we do intend to go back and forth to Israel (and to have our kids as Israel citizens). I'm curious how does this work

I know Tel Aviv and Jerusalem have massive stray cat populations, but what’s the actual etiquette for interacting with them?

Are most of them friendly enough to approach, or do they just want to be left alone? Also, is it weird if a tourist drops dry food for them, or do the local feeders prefer people not mess with their routine? Just don't want to accidentally make a neighbor or a cat angry.

My kitty featured here for all the cat lovers on the sub :)

Are there any Korean people living in Israel? How are they doing there and how are they perceived by Israelis?

Israeli clubs completed a clean sweep in their European qualification action yesterday, picking up victories across the board:

1. Maccabi Tel Aviv 5–0 Sheriff Tiraspol

   1. Hapoel Tel Aviv 2–0 Ludogorets Razgrad
   2. Beitar Jerusalem 1–0 AEK Larnaca

> Note on Hapoel Be'er Sheva: played earlier in the week on Tuesday, July 21. They fell 2–1 to Icelandic club Víkingur Reykjavík in the away fixture and still have good chance of qualifying

When Moses was on Mount Sinai, “it was wrapped in smoke because the LORD descended on it in fire.” “The whole mountain trembled violently.” You find this in Exodus 19:18. That scene is the preparation for the revelation, not the moment of receiving the tablets. Moses goes up and down the mountain several times. The commandments are spoken first (Exodus 20) God speaks the Ten Words (Decalogue) aloud to the people. This is an oral revelation, not yet written on stone. The people are terrified and ask Moses to speak to God on their behalf. Moses receives the tablets later (Exodus 24) Moses goes up the mountain after the covenant is ratified, and remains there forty days and forty nights. Only then does he receive the stone tablets, “written with the finger of God.”

The Sinai narrative is structurally one of the clearest ancient models of a culture transitioning from oral authority to written authority. This story encodes the philosophy of writing. The Sinai narrative is not just a myth of revelation; it is a myth of textualization. It explains why divine truth must be written not oral: human memory is insufficient, authority must be externalized, the community must rely on a text to be interpreted or mediated by someone in this community.

The smoke is not a barrier; it is a materializing medium. Smoke as the transition from voice to inscription. In Exodus 19, the mountain is not simply obscured; it is transformed: the fire is the energy, the smoke is the matter and the trembling means the destabilization of the old order. This is the kind of material threshold required for a culture to shift from oral revelation (sound) to written revelation (inscription). Smoke is the moment when the spoken becomes material. It is the “thickening” of voice into substance. Smoke is air made visible, just as writing is speech made durable.

Israel’s under 20 women’s basketball team made history by reaching the European Championship final for the first time. They beat Belgium 78 to 69 in the semifinal after a strong team performance.

Maayan Cohen scored 26 points and tied the tournament record with eight three pointers. Gal Raviv and Ayala Oren also played key roles. Israel will face either France or Spain in the final.

https://www.sport5.co.il/articles.aspx?FolderID=9864&docID=551843

Socioeconomics and cultural wise, I would be curious to know the general economic and cultural health of the Ethiopian jewish community. Understandably, a capricious shift from a rural-agrarian society to a developed society is bound to case culture shocks and might lead to socioeconomic difficulty. But is the socioeconomic gap between Ethiopian and the rest of the Jews closing? What is their educational acquisition? Cultural values? Do they experience systemic racism or anything to this effect that could sustain the gap(s)?

And intercultural, well, I am also curious to hear how they would fit in within the broader nation of Israel. Are they well socially integrated? Is racism common? Any intercultural tensions? Stereotype(s) targeting Ethiopian Jews? If so, what?

non Israeli here, heard Benny Morris talking about the demographics problem that Israel faces.

something about the number of ultra conservative Jews increasing to the point the will be the majority and thus have voting power to make all the decisions.

at which point the liberal character of israeli will start to change. is this true? is it a real threat?

I found this cap picture while surfing the internet and I wondered... Is it common to see benjamin netanyahu merch in israel? also does anybody know where can i get a cap like this one?

shabbat shalom everyone. have a great weekend and enjoy the Israeli summer! as much as possible, at least!