Rachel M. Roth, at The Blogs

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Nov 15, 2023, 10:48 AM

How Israel feels now

"Good neighbors even in hard times" street sign in Kiryat Tivon. Photo by author.

As if it required an equal, opposite reaction, Hamas's evil unleashed a fierce love - the open, visible, proactive goodness that is deep in all of us

Oct 22, 2023, 2:53 PM

Goodbye, Friend. A personal tribute to Sam Woll

Sam Woll had purple eyes and wild black curls. She was very beautiful. She was the very definition of life. If you met her once, you remember. Her laugh was a bit too loud always, and she wore her heart on...

Oct 18, 2023, 10:28 AM

Women who wage peace. I learned about this remarkable grassroots organization of Israeli women from diverse backgrounds (Jewish, Arab, Druze and Bedouin for example), through my cousin who is now a hostage of Hamas. In fact, many of the...

Oct 16, 2023, 11:41 AM

Facing our generational trauma

Our family, under attack, wonders how bad will it get? Should we leave our home? Our country? Should we separate from our children? Send them away somewhere safer? This was the deliberation of our family in Germany, 1939. They...

Oct 11, 2023, 12:04 PM

Being the light in this dark moment

“If everything around seems dark, look again, maybe you are the light,” -- Rumi We are experiencing an outpouring of love from the world. And it helps. It really helps. Not only because it helps alleviate the loneliness of grief,...

Feb 14, 2021, 9:35 AM

Facing another school reopening

Israeli elementary school students wearing protective face masks at school in Tel Aviv. (Chen Leopold/Flash 90)

Requiring (and enforcing!) masks and distancing would protect our children in school, so why are we either sending them back unprotected or keeping them home day after day?

Dec 8, 2020, 1:02 PM

Corona Vaccine Straight-talk

Are you going to get the vaccine when it is available? I know there are people firmly in both camps (“No way, I don’t vaccinate” and “I’ll be the first one in line”), but most of us are in...

Oct 13, 2020, 12:58 PM

The Safety of School Reopening

We are facing school opening again. It is time to re-examine the impact of school closure on the coronavirus pandemic. Have we learned anything from last time? Do we know anything new about the coronavirus which changes what we...

Oct 11, 2020, 12:15 AM

How to Make the Haredim Listen

Sorry, the title is to catch your attention. If this is the way you think about solving a public health issue in a hard-to-reach community, you have already lost the battle. Approaching any community that is not your own...

Sep 15, 2020, 11:37 PM

Why We Are Frustrated

We are frustrated because we have been here before. Lockdowns are mentally, physically, and financially taxing, but we did it with strength and goodwill the first time because we understood that the moment called for unity. We stood on...

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About Me

Dr Roth is a US-trained family physician with specialties in mental and global health. She made aliyah ten years ago, and lives in the north with her husband and four young children. Dr Roth currently practices in mental health both in Israel and to the US via telemedicine.