Talya Herring

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Jan 16, 2018, 7:20 PM

My apology to the Jews of Europe

Dear Jews of Europe, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the unspoken distance. I'm sorry for the guilt and ego intertwined in aliyah. I'm sorry for being so ignorant about what you experience. I'm even sorry for this apology... and my...

Nov 10, 2017, 7:00 AM

Eyes on the names

Walking the streets of Germany at night (Courtesy, Talya Herring)

Hitler lost the war, but I feel like my people are extinct

Oct 19, 2017, 7:17 AM

The song of an alien

Sitting in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and listening -- scratch that -- feeling the dynamics of the pianist playing Bach’s Art of the Fugue, waves of emotion wash through me. The wooden walls bubble out a rhythm that bend...

Dec 4, 2015, 10:09 AM

The tension of terrorism

The modern age has enhanced another dichotomy between living your life and living in the world. I can’t be totally aware of the news and be totally mindful of my surroundings. I can choose to be informed or I...

Oct 16, 2015, 3:13 PM

Huts can be durable

It's confusing to love something dangerous. It's overwhelming to be so certain that as a Jew, Israel is my home and yet so pained by the wars that arrive to my doorstep every season. The hostilities between neighboring nations...

Aug 16, 2015, 10:47 PM

It was just a blink

My 93-year-old neighbor kisses me on the cheek and blesses me to take care of myself. His faded blue eyes lock into mine. His voice softened by surviving the Holocaust, sweating in the factories, establishing a family and handing...

Jul 31, 2015, 10:36 AM

There needs to be more color

I'm in Liberty Park, Jerusalem. I'm feeling embarrassed to be a religious Jew. It's an uneasy feeling to exist in the most spiritual city in the world, the most Jewish place in the world, and feel so pained, so...

Jul 7, 2015, 5:56 PM

Tents are mounted

I can complain a lot about Israeli teens. Annoying. Self centered. Materialistic. Obnoxious. They thread a yarn of frustrating moments and exhaustion into every hike, forcing my voice to rise above my cheerful volume. They pull the yarn tighter,...

Jun 2, 2015, 9:58 PM

It’s a diverse family

"Yallah, help each other out!" My shouts to the 9th graders as we descend into the current get lost over their high-pitched screams. Here in the Lower Galil, we leave our tents in the morning to stop by the...

Apr 22, 2015, 1:33 PM

The sirens of memory

I am sitting next to my roommate in the Holocaust Research Institute in Haifa. It's just a 10 minute walk away from my apartment; but in this library, in this underground cave of history, in this computer and book-lined...

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About Me

Talya Herring, originally from California, made Aliyah to a Moshav in the Negev for a year of her National Service at Aleh Negev, a rehabilitative village for people with severe disabilities and then worked as a tour guide for her second year of National Service. Now as a law student, she writes her blog to connect her evolving thoughts with friends and family, inspire ideas of self-achievement, and celebrate pride in values.