Harriet Gimpel, at The Blogs

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Oct 11, 2024, 5:34 PM

Toilet trainee and 2 school girls in a shelter

A toilet trainee and two schoolgirls in a shelter just past 5:30 PM on October 7, 2024 – commemorating October 7, 2023. Haim's daughter had a doctor's appointment. I took her three daughters to after-school activities at the country...

Oct 7, 2024, 6:11 AM

A Memorial Tradition or Memorial Inspiration

It is 365 days of October 7. Tomorrow is October 7, 2024. October 7 will be October 7, 2023, forever. It has been 365 days of remembering. Days of fear, days of routine work, shopping, family dinners, protests, demonstrations,...

Oct 6, 2024, 12:58 AM

Two to Tango – Every Day or Two

#BringThemHomeNow, Rosh Hashana at the beach, Herzliya
Photo credit: Harriet Gimpel

This past Tuesday, we had an Israeli-Palestinian Zoom team meeting at 11:00. Unexpectedly, the Tel Avivians excused themselves: sirens. Sirens in my city seconds later. It's been months, so it's jolting. As if the second and third and fourth...

Sep 29, 2024, 6:48 AM

Hubris takes sides

Everybody is looking at the big picture. There's a small picture too. We prepared our Friday family night dinner and put it in the car yesterday evening. By the time we got to Raanana – a 12-minute drive –...

Sep 22, 2024, 1:01 AM

A Jewish wedding, Just a part of the ceremony

A barcode at the car cemetery.

Beep, beeper – no comment. Just pondering ingenuity, technology, 15 years of planning, timing. No tears shed over loss of terrorists. No joy over lives lost. As it is written in Proverbs 24: 17, we should not rejoice in...

Sep 14, 2024, 10:27 PM

Underground parking lots and soiled snow

Fleeting sensations, categorized between intolerable and distasteful, include soiled snow on a sunny, winter day, or suffocatingly rancid underground parking lots on a warm and humid summer day. When we parked one day this week on minus 4, walking...

Sep 8, 2024, 10:02 AM

Win-Win, Lose-Lose – End the War

Sunday, September 1, 2024, protesting in Tel Aviv, calling to #BringThemHomeNow. (courtesy)

Climbing the rungs from the depths of the deep, black hole, where my mind and soul spent the past week, I climbed and lost my grip and descended and ascended. My body escaped to join protests at the nearby...

Aug 31, 2024, 10:12 PM

An overdue visit – overdue solutions

As planned, I made a long overdue visit to Rahat this past week, to meet with a dear friend. His youngest pre-teen son was a little concerned by my American identity. Does that make me part of the entity...

Aug 24, 2024, 11:35 PM

A selection of events and a minority opinion

Time passes, news reports remind us we are moving from 10 months to 11 months since October 7. For families of hostages who might still return home alive, the angst can only be greater and more frightening. Increasingly disappointing...

Aug 18, 2024, 8:48 AM

Identifying with what is OURS

I have friends and family who understand and identify with my feelings and opinions on the state of affairs in Israel and on this war, and those who don't. Sometimes, you share your thoughts with those in that gray...

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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.