Ilana Fodiman-Silverman, at The Blogs

Apr 18, 2024, 11:55 AM

Rockets’ red glare, bombs bursting in air: Passover 2024

As we approach the seder, the night of many questions, I am struck by the one question that has haunted the last six months. It has choked us for air, narrowed the passage of the esophagus, magnified the racing...

Mar 20, 2024, 6:13 PM

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Purim’s other half begins today

The Fast of Esther adds introspection and mindfulness in the range of emotion of the holiday, as we face the nation’s profound needs

Dec 8, 2023, 12:10 AM

If those Hanukkah lights could speak

After walking up the stairs and into Orit’s home, I sat down beside one of the most patient, sensitive and wise women I know as she shuddered with fear. Her 25-year-old son Roi, a major in the IDF, stationed...

Sep 29, 2023, 11:49 AM

Be the wheel: The capacity to grow, after Yom Kippur 2023

Be the wheel. Zichron Yaakov's Moed community holiday food packaging, September 28, 2023. (courtesy)

"A little learning makes the whole world kin." -- Proverbs 32:7 In thinking about an elusive sense of kinship in Israel just about now, I was reminded of this Mark Twain quote. Bible scholars or anyone with a phone app...

Sep 11, 2023, 11:43 PM

Rosh Hashana, a triggering day

Of the 63 tractates of Talmud, one is bestowed the illustrious title "Rosh Hashana." The eager student to crack open the text and reveal the essence of the day will undoubtedly feel quickly deflated and confused by the opening lines...

May 25, 2023, 11:42 AM

Vitriolic WhatsApps and the messages they contain

I’ve been living in Israel for coming on 17 years and each year I continue to learn. Learn how to conjugate words, what words are female or male, that nearly everything has an abbreviated acronym and that it is...

Feb 1, 2023, 9:18 PM

Tu BiShvat’s visual recalibration

A huge tree punctuated the backyard of my grandparents’ home in Kew Gardens, New York. Its height matched that of their house. My grandmother strung a clothesline from its sturdy branches to the red bricks outside of her second-story...

Jan 19, 2023, 5:22 PM

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What the thieves left behind

Torah scroll as found in the ransacked synagogue in Zichron Yaakov this week

The holy Torah scrolls lay strewn around the room. Their silver ornaments were gone, their coverings torn. But the community got busy, and I knew we would endure

Dec 8, 2022, 6:36 PM

The time has come to praise Dina and acknowledge her pain

The horror endures. We are modern and wise and yet, rape and sexual abuse continues in our midst. There are basic assertions that still bear repeating: • Sexual abuse of a minor is not subject to consent. • Rape is not determined...

About Me

Ilana Fodiman-Silverman is Director of Moed, a community organization in Zichron Yaakov, Israel that brings together secular and religious Israelis in Torah study and innovative social action programing to create vibrant and compelling Jewish lives together.