Alan Abrams

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Oct 6, 2024, 11:54 AM

A Magna-Tile bomb shelter — war through a child’s eyes

“Are they green?” I didn’t really understand what my four and a half year old was asking me, but I knew it was about the people who had fired missiles at us, sending us down into our basement bomb shelter...

Aug 9, 2024, 3:26 PM

Glad — and sad — that my kids are overseas

The last couple of days before their flight to America this week were excruciating. Even if I’m not too scared for myself of another Iranian attack, I desperately wanted my kids — age 8 and four-and-a-half — to be...

Jul 31, 2024, 11:41 AM

Dialysis amid the rockets (a new approach to kidney failure)

When I heard the siren, one of many on that horrible first day of the war, I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed the IV pole I was hooked up to and rolled it toward the stairwell, lifted it and went...

Jan 8, 2024, 6:08 PM

I’ve stopped wishing people happy birthday

I’m not going back In the early days after the disaster of October 7, it just seemed perverse to wish somebody happiness, especially a Jew. We were in mourning. It was a time to cry. So I started wishing people, something...

Jan 8, 2023, 10:48 PM

I was Dr Mahajana’s patient. He, we all, deserve better.

Israel HaYom is not my favorite news source, but I was so glad as Dr. Ahmed Mahajana's former patient to see in this report today that the doctor appears to have been cleared of the noxious charges that were...

Dec 4, 2022, 2:05 PM

What’s really so dangerous about Ben-Gvir

By all reports, Yuri Volkov was a good man. The 52-year old hospital worker and his wife were just trying to cross the street last month when they were cut off by a motorcyclist ignoring a red light. Yuri’s...

Nov 6, 2022, 6:59 PM

Has it taken Ben-Gvir to defeat me?

Early in my time living in Israel, I had a young Ulpan tutor who was always on me about my kippah. “How can you wear that?” this young woman from a left-leaning kibbutz demanded. “Don’t you know what that...

Apr 24, 2022, 3:54 PM

Two sides to Ramadan when you’re living on the edge of the world

Sometimes you want to teach things to your kids and sometimes you desperately want to hide things from them. This time I was so excited by what I had noticed that I immediately wanted to show it to my 6-year...

Dec 3, 2021, 12:13 PM

How Israel’s new president (almost) ruined my Hanukah

Hanukah really is special here in Israel. I love how much my young kids are into it and come home from a day at Gan singing the Hanukah songs they learned there. And I love how even potentially depressing...

Nov 25, 2021, 5:26 PM

When your kid’s school teaches ‘wrong’ things—a Hanukah, Thanksgiving question

I normally think of Hanukah as a fairly minor, but completely harmless holiday. A good opportunity to bring family together. Fun for the kids. Lighting candles is nice. (And, of course, Hanukkah is a good distraction from all the...

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About Me

Alan Abrams is a spiritual care educator who made Aliyah in 2014. He and his wife live in Jerusalem with their two "sabra" children. Alan is the founder of HavLi and the HaKen Institute, spiritual care education and research centers based in Jerusalem. A rabbi, Alan received a PhD in May 2019 from NYU for his dissertation on the theology of pastoral care. He was a business journalist in his first career.