Kevin Medansky

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May 28, 2015, 6:25 PM

Fostering a Community of Innovation

Introduction The most powerful, influential and lasting global changes have often resulted from the proliferation of new technology. I mean not to acclaim innovation as stemming from novel ideas per se, as all new ideas, from the discovery of fire...

May 28, 2015, 12:56 AM

Stoning Adulterers, Messing with Money, and Lying (Out of Panic): My “Truly Biblical” Experience

My sophomore year in high school, one man unintentionally altered my perception of life. While I attended school in casual secular clothing, this student teacher chose to wear the same black suede kippah everyday. Although we managed to familiarize ourselves,...

Aug 9, 2014, 8:05 PM

Misconceptions, Disenfranchisement and a Hope for New Generations

On my final morning in a host-home in a moshav near Kiryat Gat, my host-father asked me in his best English, “Did you play pool?” I was stunned. Throughout the entire weekend, I’d become accustomed to his English sentences halfway...

Jul 26, 2014, 3:43 PM

Kids, Water and War

Yesterday, I went on a hike in the north. On my walk through rocks and water covering my knees, I passed a family of two parents, one newborn and two kids (c. 3-6 years old). In an attempt to...

Jul 20, 2014, 12:28 AM

Why Tears May Cause Peace… Or, at Least Delay the Pain

Electricity, Filtered water, Air conditioning, Freshly prepared food: The benefits of living in a Jerusalem hostel. For those without the amenities I am lucky enough to experience, from the those living without electricity in parts of Gaza, to the parents who must attempt to explain...

Jul 19, 2014, 12:52 AM

Well, For You: Half-Post

A teenage girl rummages through a jewelry store on Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem's largest tourist marketplace. She grabs a necklace and asks the man hovering behind her, the shopkeeper, in basic, American-influenced Hebrew, "How much does it cost?" He responds: "Eh, 120 shekel....

Jul 15, 2014, 11:42 PM

Groups and Pronouns (a.k.a. Speak for Yourself)

אנחנו כאן, הם שם. We are here; they are there. Too often is the Israeli-Palestinian crisis simplified into an issue of a two-party conflict, simply due to language usage. For example, "Israel doesn't want to hurt innocent civilians, while Hamas tells...

Jul 12, 2014, 12:44 AM

Awareness and Fulfillment: Finding the Balance

Air raid sirens in Haifa. Bomb threats for Ben Gurion Airport. Potential ground troops in Gaza. No more peace treaties. As I lie in bed at a Kibbutz in the northern part of Israel, I inform my roommates of the crisis at hand, reading...

Jul 1, 2014, 1:33 AM

Confessions of an Overwhelmed Advocate

I met an Israeli teenager for the third consecutive day who explained to me that she didn't care for politics. Naturally, as a student self-labeled by the title of his organization, Write On for Israel, as a pun-loving world...

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About Me

A current student at Haverford College, a liberal arts college just northwest of Philadelphia, and a graduate with honors of Glenbrook North High School of the northern suburbs of Chicago, Kevin Medansky has travelled to and lived in Israel, graduated as a Write On for Israel fellow, and published a dissertation detailing the many ingredients of an innovative society, using Israel as a case study.