Stephanie Z. Bonder, at The Blogs

Apr 28, 2025, 11:18 PM

Yom HaAtzmaut 2025 – Pride, Reflection and Urgency

Every year, Yom HaAtzmaut is important and impactful. Or at least it should be. This year, I’m finding Yom HaAtzmaut to be extremely emotional. Everyday, Jew-haters around the world are calling for the extermination of the only Jewish state...

Mar 29, 2025, 12:02 AM

Every Morning I Wake Up and Pray For the Hostages

Every morning when I wake up, I see their faces. I think about the hell they are experiencing, and I worry about their survival. I don’t know any of these people personally. They are people who were stolen from...

Mar 25, 2025, 3:06 AM

The Hypocrisy of the United Nations

As a child, I learned that the United Nations (UN) was created to promote peace on earth, protect the innocent and prevent atrocities. The United Nations existed to shield the vulnerable from harm, stand against evil, and ensure justice...

Feb 18, 2025, 3:43 AM

500 Days

Five hundred days. Five hundred days since October 7, 2023. Five hundred days of innocent men, women, and children held captive in the suffocating tunnels of Gaza, tortured, starved, brutalized beyond imagination. Five hundred days of families waking up every morning...

Jan 20, 2025, 1:21 AM

When We Bring Them Home

As I write this, the first group of hostages has returned home after 471 days in captivity. Emily, Doron, and Romi are in Israel and with their families. They are not whole, but they are back. The Israeli public...

Jan 10, 2025, 12:26 AM

Hadassah: A Crucial Light in a Dark World

As we leave behind our celebration of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, and enter 2025, I am feeling that we are in a world that is upside down. We are living in a time where people believe that black...

Oct 7, 2024, 7:39 AM

One Year Later

On October 6, 2023, I was having a fabulous day. My husband and I were taking a weekend away at the end of Sukkot. We flew down to Florida, on a plane filled with other Jews ending Sukkot. We...

Sep 1, 2024, 4:34 PM

Dear Hersh, I’m sorry

Dear Hersh, I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry we could not save you. I’m so sorry that we couldn’t bring you home. I’m so sorry that our modern state of Israel, our Jewish homeland failed you. I’m sorry that your country of birth, America,...

Aug 27, 2024, 7:03 PM

The same but different

This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to come back to Israel. I’ll admit, I was a little nervous. I have a tendency to be around the corner from dangerous, life-threatening situations, but I was committed to going. I...

Jun 11, 2024, 7:36 AM

An Open Letter to University Professors

Dear University Professors at Columbia, Penn, NYU, Harvard, etc., I’m asking you to do some homework now that the semester is over. As an educator myself, I always strive to learn something independently when the school year has ended. This...

About Me

Stephanie Z. Bonder is a proud Jew and lifelong Zionist. Stephanie studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for her junior year abroad and has recently completed her masters in Jewish Education at the Hebrew University Melton School of Education. In her volunteer hours, she is on the National Board of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America where she currently serves as Chair of the Speakers Bureau and as a member of the UN team in the Education and Advocacy division. Stephanie teaches teens and adults on Jewish Peoplehood, Zionism and current events in Israel. All of her blogs are her own personal opinions and do not represent the organizations with which she is affiliated.

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