Harriet Gimpel, at The Blogs

Apr 19, 2025, 4:53 PM

Museum Collections – for War, and for Hope

View of Tel Aviv from the grounds of the Museum of the Land of Israel, Ramat Aviv 4-25

Celebrating, citing holidays, during painful times, for me, involves repeating annual traditions and commandments. On the first evening of Passover, we read the Haggadah at the seder. As with many traditional texts, adaptations evolve, some personal to families. An...

Apr 13, 2025, 10:22 PM

Holiday Greetings, Cleaning Seasons, and 3 Questions

This year, Eid el-Fitr was less than two weeks before Passover. I was remiss in posting holiday greetings to those who celebrate. Using AI, I prompted the design of a greeting card, and sent it to some colleagues, friends,...

Apr 5, 2025, 3:23 PM

Sensitivities Preclude Conversations in the Kitchenette and Sedated Institutions

In the office kitchenette, a colleague spoke about her high school aged son. When others left the room, I recalled her other son in the army and asked about him. "He's in a tank, in Gaza, since yesterday." I...

Mar 29, 2025, 9:54 PM

Loaded with Meanings

Israeli, American, about my age. I identified closely with Keith during his 484 days in Hamas captivity from October 7. Time management and schedules on Thursday before the Habima Square demonstration for democracy led us to Keith Siegel's pop-up...

Mar 21, 2025, 7:12 PM

Evil Prevails, Until Democracy Transcends… and Then

Hamas proved how little it cares about Gaza and the Gazans, how much evil they could invoke upon Israelis. They say Hamas knew circumstances were ripe. Protests signaled deep dissension in Israeli society from January 2o23 until October 7....

Mar 15, 2025, 12:05 PM

Embarrassed, Yet Proud to be Jewish

Friday was Purim, reading the Book of Esther, children in costumes, parties and public celebrations. No comment on my personal thoughts about the holiday. Last year, in comparison to previous years, the absence of costume sales at streetside booths,...

Mar 8, 2025, 9:50 AM

Two Graves, Two Workshops, One Movie

The public space often confiscates private space in Israel. Since October 7, the distinction between them is negligible. Yet, every individual has a private space for negotiating the distinction, to protect one's emotional wellbeing for personal joy and for...

Mar 1, 2025, 10:35 PM

This Long Day of 512

Throughout this long day of 512 days to date since October 7, when friends have celebrations and birthdays, I congratulate them with a traditional "mazal tov," and struggle deciding for whom, when, and why it is appropriate to say...

Feb 21, 2025, 6:36 PM

Untitled

Untitled – it's sort of like saying "speechless." Superlatives are superfluous and synonyms synergetic, when one reality show supersedes another. Superlatives relinquish their meaning to sensations that preclude adjectives – and synonyms for those sensations generate alternative words to...

Feb 15, 2025, 10:43 PM

Polar, Parallel, Converging

Immediately following October 7, 2023, the shock coupled with depression and nuances of emotions emerging from those circumstances for each individual took their toll on me too. Sometimes an emotional roller coaster with the highs simply showing you how...

About Me

Born and raised in Philadelphia, earned a B.A. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University in 1980, followed by an M.A. in Political Science from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Harriet has worked in the non-profit world throughout her career. She is a freelance translator and editor, writes poetry in Hebrew and essays in English, and continues to work for NGOs committed to human rights and democracy.

Contact Me