Ellen Roteman, at The Blogs

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Aug 13, 2014, 6:27 PM

From the Diaspora, with Love: “No Good Deed…”

I'm not a fan of movies that give up their ending before the lights go down in the theater. Rave reviews and countless pop culture references couldn't lure me to the theater to see "Titanic." Beautiful love story? Feh!...

Aug 4, 2014, 3:39 PM

From the Diaspora, with Love: Have Faith, my Friend

My friend sent me an email asking how I was holding up. My son made aliyah a couple months ago. He sits in ulpan, with rockets flying over Israel, sirens sounding and people making mad dashes for bomb shelters...

Jul 31, 2014, 6:46 PM

From the Diaspora with Love… Photo Ops?

Twenty-five-hundred people. Newborns to nonagenarians. Blacks and whites, Christians and Jews. All bound by a deep love for Israel. Twenty-five rag-tag activists waving Palestinian flags and scrawled signs. Mostly college students. All white. Including one who looking remarkably like a...

Apr 23, 2014, 9:37 PM

From the Diaspora – with Love: My Gift to You

Dear Israel: Today I send you a gift. Today I send you my son. If anyone had ever told me I'd one day be sending my baby (my 28-year-old baby) to Israel, I'd have called the person delusional. After all,...

Oct 4, 2013, 9:23 PM

From the Diaspora – with Love: The Power of Israel

My father loves Israel, but I don’t know why. Whenever terrorism has occurred in Israel – from the onslaught of rockets to a bombing aboard an Egged bus – my father has sat glued to the TV watching the news. To see his expression,...

Jul 8, 2013, 11:50 PM

From the Diaspora – with Love: I Admit it… I was Wrong

God bless people like David Dabscheck. People who keep on keepin' on… in the face of blatantly biased reporting in the media, the tirades of anti-Israel activists, and accusations leveled against Israel that are so absurd they would almost...

May 13, 2013, 4:11 PM

From the Diaspora – with Love: Courting New Friends

Yoahy Ezrony goes high in the air and pulls down the rebound. He whips a pass out to Lior Levinger, who dribbles across the time line, then finds Gal Bar in the corner. Bar drives toward the hoop but...

Apr 25, 2013, 6:30 PM

From the Diaspora – with Love: Revisiting 1605

I started my morning as I often do, sipping my coffee and visiting some of the usual websites. Clicked around the local newspaper site. Clicked around a couple Israel news sites. Made my way to a Jewish site I...

Apr 18, 2013, 8:01 PM

From the Diaspora – with Love: Ups, Downs, All Arounds

The arts and crafts table was overflowing with markers, sparkles and lots of glue. The cookie-decorating table was well stocked with sprinkles and colored icing (its texture a little too suggestive of the glue, in my opinion). The bounce-house...

Dec 3, 2012, 7:29 PM

The Jewish heart’s invisible path

Israeli poet David Shimoni said, "From each Jewish heart an invisible path leads to the Land of Israel." Directly following the military confrontation between Israel and Gaza, I stood in a room where some 600 hearts, or more, were being...

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About Me

Ellen Roteman is Director of Marketing Communications for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh