Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel » Laura Ben-David

When sleazy almost met lazy

Laura Ben-David — Sun, 05 May 2013 08:57:51 +0000

Social media junkie though I am, my Instagram account is relatively small with only 124 followers. I throw in the typical tossed salad of hashtags to try and get my pictures noticed by people because lord knows, after all the cropping and filter work that goes into each shot, I want a respectable number of [...]

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A break with tradition

Laura Ben-David — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 06:46:57 +0000

While I’m not much of a rule-follower, I’m a big believer in tradition. As long as no one is making me keep the tradition of course… As far back as I can remember, Pesach traditions for my homogeneously Ashkenazi family consisted of eating lots of yummy homemade foods that included ‘gebrokts’ recipes (using matza products that are allowed [...]

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What’s your snow personality?

Laura Ben-David — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:43:23 +0000

With the impending “fiercest (snow) storm in 20 years” about to hit the mountainous regions all over Israel, people can’t help but react. Studies have shown that someone’s personality can be determined by how they react to predictions of snow in Israel. It is called the snow personality. Here are a few: The nay-sayers (“You [...]

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The social (media) revolution

Laura Ben-David — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:04:09 +0000

They say social networking is destroying our social lives. They say social media is an addictive force that pushes our virtual friend counts to new heights while in reality we are becoming more isolated. They say that social media is ruining our social skills… I say, what the hell do THEY know? While I can’t [...]

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Social media – a history lesson

Laura Ben-David — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:36:39 +0000

Sorry, I didn’t share the news that I recently moved. In fact, I didn’t tell anyone. It was so sudden and so fast. We’re not just talking about moving from one street to another, or to a different neighborhood. Not even to another city or region. We’re talking about moving out of the country; out of Israel. [...]

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An extra siren

Laura Ben-David — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 00:08:19 +0000

Sirens ring in the start of Shabbat in Israel– every week in fact. Living in Israel, you find Judaism and Jewish heritage infused into daily life here. Whether it’s the way approaching Jewish holidays find their way onto everything from food packaging to billboards; or how everyone who greets you on a Friday will say [...]

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It takes a village…

Laura Ben-David — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 20:34:42 +0000

I live in a town where the grocer remembers what kind of sugar I prefer and knows my account number by heart. I live in a town where people on one block share a lawnmower because it would never occur to us that we shouldn’t share. I live in a town where the demand to [...]

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Lone soldiers — anything but alone

Laura Ben-David — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:51:19 +0000

Arya, a lone soldier in the IDF, grew up knowing that “Israel was a special and important place.” Even as a young teen, Arya knew that just knowing about Israel wasn’t enough. The 26-year-old native of Encino, California, grew up in a family with deeply Zionistic roots, which imbued him with strong feelings for Israel [...]

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Israeli state of mind

Laura Ben-David — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 13:59:11 +0000

First, a disclaimer of sorts. I work at Nefesh B’Nefesh. I made Aliyah with Nefesh B’Nefesh. Sometimes my life and my work overlap. Alright, more than sometimes. I often hold back writing blog posts that relate to NBN, thinking people would assume I have ulterior motives. Even if I don’t, the added bonus is naturally [...]

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How to be a social media guru

Laura Ben-David — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:21:42 +0000

What, you think it’s presumptuous of me to offer this sage advice? Think again; I’ve offered no such thing. A social media ‘guru’ – one who is an ultimate, all-knowing master — is more fantasy than anything else. Anyway, it’s a far-off destination, and I’ve invited you along for the journey. Even if we never [...]

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A healthy dose of comic relief

Laura Ben-David — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:12:59 +0000

Anyone who knows me knows that I love life and love to laugh. It’s a gift I like to give to myself every day; kind of like free vitamins. Heck, laughing has got to do at least as much good for the body as popping some questionable pill. It’s also often all the exercise I’ll [...]

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Of sirens and patchwork quilts

Laura Ben-David — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:40:18 +0000

The Yom Hazikaron siren sounds, and, like the seams of a patchwork quilt that have suddenly come together, a people stands united, heads bowed, remembering. We remember the sons and daughters who lost their lives so that we could live. The brothers and sisters who gave up their futures to secure our future in our [...]

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Go bananas for your seder

Laura Ben-David — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:28:45 +0000

It seems that each year the time passing between Purim and Passover gets a little shorter. And I don’t mean the hour lost in the jump to Daylight Savings Time. Yet, somehow, interspersed between the cleaning, organizing, shopping and cooking, I try to find the time to plan entertainment for the seder to get the [...]

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Winter wonderland

Laura Ben-David — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 09:54:12 +0000

It may have been two weeks late, but we got our snow, and how! While the kvetchers were still kvetching – it wasn’t enough snow, why would they cancel school when “there’s just ¾ of a centimeter of snow?” – the weathermen weren’t stupid, and neither were the Gush Etzion school board administrators. At 7 [...]

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Let it snow…

Laura Ben-David — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:28:37 +0000

When we made aliyah ten years ago, we carefully considered a number of important factors in choosing a community. After much research, we ultimately chose the Gush Etzion town of Neve Daniel because it satisfied our most important concerns: Excellent education Proximity to Jerusalem (i.e. potential employment) Available housing Stunning views [...]

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