tel aviv

In a series of photographs currently being exhibited at the Milton J. Weill Art Gallery at the 92nd Street Y, Yael Ben-Zion, a New York-based photographer evokes life in modern-day Israel. Born in Minneapolis and raised in Arad in southern Israel, Ben-Zion moved to the States to pursue advanced law studies at Yale only to pick up a camera and fall in love with photography while working on her law degree.

Ron Huldai was born to a dirt-poor family in Kibbutz Hulda, a very small farmer's community. "The only thing we were rich with was culture," he says.

His father, born in Lodz, filled the living room with reproductions of paintings by Van Gogh, Modigliani and Miro. He didn't have enough money to buy picture frames so he made them himself.

(JTA) -- Israeli officials expect Hezbollah to fire about 500 missiles a day at Israel, including 100 that will reach Tel Aviv, in the next war.

A batch of U.S. diplomatic leaks shared with Israeli newspapers through WikiLeaks were published Friday. Summaries of conversations in 2009 between U.S. officials and Israeli intelligence officials show that Israel expects the next war with Hezbollah to last two months.

‘See that guy over there?” my friend asked, nodding towards the table behind us. “I think he’s famous.”

I turned to have myself a look, which wasn’t difficult considering the Jerusalem café we were packed into was about the size of the skirts sashaying around a Silvio Berlusconi party.

And lo and behold, the guy with the slightly Russell Crowe-esque face, deep in conversation with a table full of rough-and-tumble Israeli men, all of them smoking, did look familiar to me.

TEL AVIV (JTA) -- Soon after Leora’s second child was born and she and her husband began looking for a larger home, Israel's new real estate reality smacked them in the face.

Though the couple had bought a two-bedroom apartment in Tel Aviv six years earlier that had appreciated to $650,000, more than triple what they paid, they still found themselves priced out of the local market. One apartment in a basement underneath a parking lot was listed at $468,000.

To read the Israeli papers is to see a steady stream of stories bemoaning the country's public education system, especially those citing Israeli students' low test scores in science and math.

But American filmmakers Kirk Simon and Karen Goodman found a unique south Tel Aviv school that is doing all the right things with a dizzyingly diverse student body. Their documentary about the Bialik-Rogozin school, "Strangers No More," was just nominated for an Oscar in the documentary short category.

‘I’ll have a beer,” I told the young man behind the bar of the sweet little pub hidden like a jewel between a spice vendor and a Judaica stall in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehudah shuk (open air market).

Dropping my overflowing bags, I hunkered down at the bar and ordered whatever beer was on tap from one of the micro-breweries cropping up across the country.

Turning to the gentleman next to me, I warned him not to crush my tomatoes.

He responded by offering me a cigarette.

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- French singer Vanessa Paradis cancelled a performance in Tel Aviv.

According to Paradis' management, she has to be in the United States on the day of the Feb. 10 show at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center for what the Jerusalem Post described as a "an important event regarding her film career." The cancellation was announced first in the French media.

Since the artist has been under heavy pressure from pro-Palestinian groups to cancel her appearance in Israel, some speculate that she may have cancelled the appearance for political reasons.

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel's first real winter storm caused major damage throughout the country, especially to the Tel Aviv beachfront and an ancient pier in Caesaria.

The storm which began Sunday and continued on Monday, included heavy rains and damaging winds of up to 75 miles per hour, which caused huge waves to wash up on Tel Aviv beaches, breaking restaurant windows, throwing café furniture, and scattering a thick layer of sand along the Promenade in Tel Aviv.