Uniformed children streamed out of the school building, the older girls wearing the thick, long sleeved, polo shirts favored by the administration because, unlike the boys’ button-down shirts, they can’t be opened to reveal a hint of breast. Adam...
I’m trying to keep my kids safe. But in Palestinian areas there are no shelters, and my adolescent daughter refuses to hide in the closet. As is true for many Israeli parents, my main challenge since the start of...
The Israeli army closed the city of Jericho on one of the busiest tourist days of the year. We spent hours waiting outside the checkpoint. “Do you go to the demonstrations?” a friend asked me, referring to the weekly...
When my daughter said that I speak Hebrew, a girl in summer camp pantomimed firing a gun and asked, “Is your mother one of them?” “Ima! There are kids up there, and they’re speaking Arabic!” After a year and...
I enjoyed cultivating the Tooth Fairy as a heroine. Forat deals with so many grown-up issues – I wanted her to retain some childhood magic. The truth about the Tooth Fairy Forat, aged seven, was reading a book. After...
The Israeli Minister of Culture gave me a Hebrew literature prize. I’m grateful. And trying to reclaim Hebrew from those who use it to oppress. Hebrew is not the private domain of the Israeli military or state A week...
Children are aware of stratification by gender and ethnicity. They notice who works in preschools, who their parents’ bosses are, and who cleans public toilets. Rereading a book from my childhood Forat lay on her bed and lifted her...
In the four decades that passed between my U.S. grade school education and that of my daughter, Columbus Day lessons have changed, but not enough. A capital city that’s also a nature reserve I entered the apartment and took...
Forat asked to watch a movie about a couple arrested for violating a ban on interracial marriage. I wondered what she understood about our family. Falafel in the South “Hada humus!” Adam insisted. “That’s humus!” I was surprised...
When my daughter asked why I was putting a shirt over my swimsuit, I told her the truth: "Because men like to control women's bodies." The summer, rife with lockdowns, drew to a close, and as September began,...