Stephanie Z. Bonder, at The Blogs

Nov 15, 2023, 8:54 PM

Being There – Americans March for Israel

Yesterday, November 14, 2023, I spent the day with an estimated 300,000 Jews and allies in Washington, DC, in support of Israel and against antisemitism. It was a seminal moment in Jewish history. It was stated to be the...

Oct 30, 2023, 6:33 PM

How do we teach our children?

I am struggling. Israel is on my mind day and night, every day and every night. I can’t sleep. I’m worried about the future and I’m worried about our next generation. As a teacher in our Greater Metrowest community...

Oct 23, 2023, 9:15 PM

Unimaginable and Incomprehensible

As I sit with my phone in hand scrolling through the news, I am in disbelief. How could this happen? Yet, in reality, how could it not? Hamas has never hidden their agenda. They are a terrorist organization intent...

Oct 12, 2023, 12:52 AM

Sinat Hinam on Kol Nidre

Tribe Tel Aviv prayer before the protesters arrived. Shanna Fuld (far left) Rabbi Jonathan Feldman (middle)

Sinat Chinam – Baseless Hatred on Yom Kippur (This post was written before the war started. More to come on that.) Now that we are concluding the Tishrei Holidays, I have a great deal to digest. As a Jewish educator and...

Mar 27, 2023, 8:14 AM

It’s time to listen

This weekend my family had a double simcha. It was one of my nephew’s bar mitzvah on Shabbat and another nephew’s engagement party on Sunday. I should still be floating on the joy, yet I am feeling so terribly...

Jan 16, 2023, 5:51 AM

Confessions of an Olah’s Eema

So my daughter comes home from a work trip to Israel and says, “Mom, I’m going to do it. I’m making Aliyah!” I look at her and say, “Mazel Tov! I’m so proud of you!” I give her a...

Mar 21, 2022, 11:49 PM

Hadassah Helping Ukraine and The World

When Henrietta Szold, founded Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. in 1912 as a women’s Zionist organization to improve the health and welfare of the people of pre-state Israel, she probably could not imagine that the Hadassah of...

Feb 26, 2022, 8:22 AM

Ukraine and Jewish Peoplehood

Jews never feel as much of a “people” as when we are faced with a crisis. For weeks before the Russian invasion, Jewish organizations around the globe were mobilizing to support the Jewish community in Ukraine. These days we...

Feb 2, 2022, 3:13 PM

Henrietta Szold and Yom HaMishpacha

Henrietta Szold, front center, with children from a Youth Aliyah village. (Courtesy of Hadassah, via The Times of Israel)

When I started writing about Henrietta Szold, I planned to include all her amazing achievements in life. I was going to start by sharing her establishment of the first night school for Russian Jewish immigrants in Baltimore in 1890....

Jan 27, 2022, 9:38 PM

Personally, remembering the Holocaust

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s a day that should be recognized and memorialized. In 2022 America, it’s the day after a school district in Tennessee banned the Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel, Maus, by Art Spiegelman due...

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 is currently pursuing her masters in Jewish Education at the Hebrew University Melton School of Education. In her volunteer hours, she is a National Board member of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America where she currently serves on the Antisemitism and Zionist Education Teams. Stephanie teaches teens and adults on Jewish Peoplehood, Zionism and current events in Israel through her involvement with the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest and her synagogue, Congregation Agudath 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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