Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel » Marni Mandell

My first vote

Marni Mandell — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 06:16:23 +0000

Today I got choked up as I walked towards the school classroom to vote. And, while I can’t exactly understand why – perhaps it was the last vestige of Zionism left in me – I couldn’t help but reflect on the enormity of what I was doing. I was a Jew, voting in a Jewish democracy, for [...]

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The Siren Heard…But Not Believed

Marni Mandell — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:33:36 +0000

A little over an hour ago, I got off the phone with my father after saying: “Yes, things in Israel in the South are not just heating up…they are HOT. But, here in Tel Aviv it feels like we’re living in another country.” Famous last words, said with a hubris that makes me turn red [...]

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Am I More Israeli Now?

Marni Mandell — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:24:19 +0000

In the steaming heat, I walked outside of a semi-abandoned recreation center in North Tel Aviv carrying a gas mask box that, quite frankly, I could turn into a cutting-edge retro-looking new totebag…and this is what I thought… Am I more Israeli now? Last week I received an email from my father imploring me to [...]

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Tel-O-No-Fun

Marni Mandell — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:36:14 +0000

I’d like to call myself an environmentalist, but let’s get real. I’m an environmentalist when it’s easy, or at least relatively easy, to help save the environment by small actions every day. Case in point, I learned to ride a bike when I was 27 years old. Yes, a bit late. Some might even say [...]

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Yesterday

Marni Mandell — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:08:27 +0000

Yesterday was an important day. It was so important that I couldn’t write about it yesterday, or the day before yesterday. It was a day I used to believe wouldn’t come. It was a day I could never have imagined would come. Yesterday, plus ten years ago, was a day many of us, in fact [...]

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Today our kids came home

Marni Mandell — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 05:48:42 +0000

Today our kids came home. Some in boxes, others on stretchers, and still others walked off the plane. But the scars in their heads will last a lifetime. All for the simple fact of having an Israeli identity. As a nation we have already begun the mourning process. You can hear it in the outrage, [...]

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Questions and Answers

Marni Mandell — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 11:08:12 +0000

I get asked one of two questions on almost a daily basis: 1. Are you here to stay? 2. What is it about Israel? Let me say that no two questions confound me as much as these. Perhaps because I have no definitive answer to either. In the case of the first, I get asked [...]

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A Woman’s Question

Marni Mandell — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 13:16:50 +0000

My heart was pounding, I was jotting notes furiously on my iPhone, and finally the moment had come – I raised my hand to ask for the mic – and that was BEFORE I ever asked the following question – first to Yossi Vardi and then again to President Peres: “Currently 15% of the population [...]

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Not In My Backyard

Marni Mandell — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 16:16:56 +0000

Do you have a child? I don’t, yet, but here is what I imagine that having a child must be like when you’re watching them taking a step towards the dark side. Doing something that should be so out of character for them (as an extension of being YOUR child with YOUR values and shared [...]

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Pride in Tel Aviv

Marni Mandell — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 03:52:00 +0000

It is Monday night, and I am sitting across from Kikar Rabin looking at the gigantic sign they’ve put up for Gay Pride week in the square. For a while it seems like there isn’t much to say about it. All of us who live in Tel Aviv are fully aware that this is a [...]

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P-Day

Marni Mandell — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 05:46:19 +0000

The Facebook post that started it all. “2.5 years later and I finally own the one document that will allow me to fulfill my Aliyah dream – signing up for the hand scanner entry for immigration at Ben Gurion Airport!” 77 likes and counting – more than possibly the last 6 months of “likes” combined. [...]

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