Memories
Things I wrote through 2025 about Israel, Jewish history, and building a life here. They first appeared as posts that scrolled past and were gone. Gathered here instead, so we don't forget.
101 memories
December 2025
A Blunt Case For Making Aliyah
A blunt appeal from a Tel Aviv cafe urging diaspora Jews to use Israel's volunteer networks and tax waiver.
Trump To Receive The Israel Prize
Notes that Trump will be the first non-Israeli awarded the Israel Prize for contributions to the Jewish people.
Israel Waives Income Tax For New Olim
A direct appeal to diaspora Jews to make aliyah while Israel waives income tax for new immigrants.
Jews Without A Political Home In America
Argues American Jews lack space to contribute politically, facing Christian nationalism on the right and tokenization on the left.
Israel Now Has The Third-Strongest Economy
Notes a magazine's reversal, conceding that the country it called isolated now holds the world's third-strongest economy.
Israel Blames Canberra For Bondi Attack
Israel's Diaspora Affairs Ministry holds the Australian government responsible for the terrorist attack on Hanukkah candle lighting at Bondi Beach.
Campus Hostility Is Driving New Aliyah
Cites figures showing rising North American student aliyah, IDF enlistment, and Israel program registrations since October 7.
November 2025
Mamdani, Antisemitism, And The Case For Aliyah
Responds to New York's political climate by describing Jewish life, schooling, and tax exemptions awaiting new olim in Israel.
Why Diaspora Jews Should Consider Israel
Makes the case for aliyah using tech salaries, venture capital, free healthcare, Jewish public schools, and rising Western hostility.
Israel's New Zero Tax Aliyah Incentive
Explains Israel's plan to exempt new olim from income tax for two years, alongside existing aliyah benefits.
My Safta, Aleppo, And The Codex
A memory of a Syrian-born grandmother in Tel Aviv, Aleppo's ancient Jewish community, and the Aleppo Codex.
October 2025
The Shaliach Who Carried Jerusalem's Letters
A portrait of the wandering emissary who carried letters between Jerusalem and distant Jewish communities, keeping one people whole.
The Quiet War Over Saying Israel
Describes the social chill around discussing Israel in Washington rooms, introducing a longer essay in Times of Israel.
Theodor Herzl On Antagonism And Effort
A quotation from Theodor Herzl, visionary of the Jewish state, on antagonism as the engine of human effort.
Announcing Claw And Talon
Announces a venture firm investing in technology that strengthens the US-Israel alliance, launched as the hostages returned home.
Israel, The Country That Must Not Be Named
Argues that the US national security bureaucracy systematically avoids mentioning Israel, forfeiting collaboration and innovation.
The Voldemort Syndrome In National Security
Names the reluctance of America's national security world to say the word Israel, and promises a fix.
In Memory Of My Father Daniel Ben-Joseph
A yahrtzeit tribute to the author's father, an IDF veteran born in Jerusalem to a family exiled from Aleppo.
The Israeli Art Of Building Sukkahs
A reflection on Israel's DIY sukkah season and a calculator translating halachic dimensions into meters and feet.
September 2025
A Family Morning at Tel Megiddo
Walking Armageddon's twenty layers of ruins with his children, the author reflects on renewal amid Israel's everyday ancient landscape.
Israel Strikes Hamas Leadership in Qatar
A rundown of the senior Hamas political bureau figures reportedly present at the site of Israel's strike in Qatar.
Inside the Ofek-19 Reconnaissance Mission
Israel's Defense Ministry released launch footage of Ofek-19, a satellite expected to reduce reliance on allied foreign intelligence.
Israel Launches the Ofek-19 Satellite
Israel launched the Ofek-19 satellite westward from Palmachim, a rare and technically demanding independent space capability.
August 2025
Israel Strikes the Houthi Leadership
Israel eliminated nearly the entire Houthi leadership in Yemen, a country where it had almost no intelligence presence two years earlier.
Why Israel's Unpopularity Is Not the Issue
Answering the objection that global criticism of Israel makes this the wrong moment for a joint security technology fund.
From Battlefield Challenge to Global Technology
Israeli startups convert battlefield problems into dominant drone and cyber technologies in months, an engine a joint fund could harness.
Israel's Startup Ecosystem Is a Global Anomaly
With fewer than ten million people, Israel ranks second only to America in venture-backed unicorns relevant to defense and intelligence.
Israel Leads the World in Cybersecurity Startups
Israel produces more cybersecurity startups annually than any nation, built from mission-critical defense and intelligence problems.
A Vision for an Israel-US Security Fund
Drawing on a career spanning venture capital and national security, the author shares his case for a dedicated Israel-US fund.
Confronting the Israeli Intelligence Objection
Addressing head-on the espionage suspicion raised whenever a US-Israel national security technology fund is proposed.
A New Focus on the US-Israel Fund
The author announces a shift toward writing about a US-Israel national security venture fund, pausing his Israeli history posts.
Governance for a US-Israel Venture Fund
Why an In-Q-Tel-style fund for Israeli innovation needs a genuinely bilateral governance structure rather than a Washington branch office.
Israel's Outsized Impact by Population
A brief note on how striking Israel's achievements are given a population roughly one-seventh of the United Kingdom's.
Golda Meir: The Iron Lady of Zion
From Kyiv and Milwaukee to Israel's premiership, Golda Meir's life of sacrifice, resolve, and accountability after the Yom Kippur War.
Degania: The First Kibbutz
The founding of Degania in 1910 and how the kibbutz ideal of shared purpose prefigured Israel's startup culture.
July 2025
Mainstream Patriotism in Israeli Culture
Israeli patriotic music is everyday mainstream culture, reflecting a national unity that underpins the country's remarkable operations.
Aliyah Bet: Smuggling Hope to Freedom
The clandestine postwar ships that carried Holocaust survivors past British blockades toward the shores of the Land of Israel.
Rabbi Nachman and the Narrow Bridge
The life and teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, whose parables urged Jews to cross life's narrow bridge without fear.
The Valley of Tears
How outnumbered Israeli tank crews held the Golan Heights against a massive Syrian assault in the Yom Kippur War.
Natan Sharansky: Unbreakable Spirit of Freedom
The refusenik who survived nine years in Soviet labor camps and walked to freedom in a defiant zigzag.
Joseph Trumpeldor: The Lion of Tel Hai
The one-armed Russian war hero turned Zionist pioneer who died defending a small Galilee outpost.
Beneath the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station
A satirical horror tale about the labyrinthine lower floors of Tel Aviv's notorious central bus station.
They Sang Hatikvah on the Gallows
Four young underground fighters sang the anthem of hope as the British executed them in Acre prison.
King David: Shepherd, Warrior, Poet, King
From the hills of Bethlehem to Jerusalem's throne, the flawed king whose Psalms still comfort millions.
Idan Raichel: Israel's Voice of Unity
The musician who opened his studio to immigrant voices and turned Israel's diversity into a global sound.
A US-Israel Center for AI and Quantum
A proposed two hundred million dollar joint research hub in Tel Aviv and Arlington to counter China.
Henrietta Szold: Mother of Israel's Children
The founder of Hadassah built Israel's healthcare system and rescued thirty thousand Jewish children through Youth Aliyah.
Theodor Herzl and the Birth of Zionism
The Dreyfus trial shattered Herzl's faith in assimilation and set him on the path to a Jewish state.
Becoming an Israeli Air Force Pilot
The grueling Gibush trials and flight academy that produce one of the world's most respected air forces.
The Capture of Mordechai Vanunu
A wry retelling of how Mossad lured Israel's most wanted whistleblower from London to Rome and brought him home.
Winston Churchill, the Zionist Lion
Churchill defended Jewish dignity and Zionism when antisemitism was fashionable, calling it one of the world's greatest causes.
Orde Wingate: The Friend of the Jews
The British Christian officer who secretly trained Jewish fighters and shaped the doctrine of the future IDF.
Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Jewish Self-Defense
The Odessa-born Zionist who organized self-defense units, founded Betar, and warned Europe's Jews before the catastrophe.
Israel Cannot Fall Behind on AI
Israel's national AI strategy stalled after October 7, a serious problem for a country that leads in technology.
Why Washington Should Invest in Israeli Startups
Billions in aid but no equity: the case for a US-affiliated venture fund backing Israeli innovation.
The Cherbourg Project: Israel's Midnight Escape
Israeli sailors slipped five embargoed missile boats out of a French harbor and sailed them home to Haifa.
Moshe Dayan: The One-Eyed Warrior
From kibbutz boy to Six-Day War architect and the diplomat who helped secure peace with Egypt.
A US Venture Fund for Israeli Innovation
A call for an IQT-style US government fund investing in Israeli startups for strategic and financial advantage.
Operation Wooden Leg: Israel's Strike on Tunis
Israeli F-15s flew two thousand kilometers in radio silence to destroy the PLO headquarters in Tunisia.
Operation Wrath of God
After the Munich massacre, Golda Meir sent Mossad teams across Europe to hunt the Black September terrorists.
Menachem Begin: From Rebel to Nobel
The Irgun commander who spent decades in opposition, made peace with Egypt, and never bent on Jewish dignity.
Ilan Ramon: Israel's First Astronaut
From bombing Iraq's reactor in Operation Opera to carrying a Holocaust Torah scroll aboard Space Shuttle Columbia.
June 2025
Eli Cohen: Israel's Spy in Damascus
The Mossad agent who infiltrated Syria's elite, shaped the Six-Day War, and was executed in Damascus.
Yoni Netanyahu and the Entebbe Raid
The Sayeret Matkal commander who led the rescue of hostages in Uganda and fell in its final moments.
Hannah Szenes: Blessed Is the Match
The poet and paratrooper who jumped into Nazi-occupied Europe to rescue Jews and died refusing to betray them.
Meir Har-Zion, Israel's Biblical Warrior
The legendary Unit 101 commando who avenged his sister's murder and whom Ben-Gurion called a man of ancient times.
A Country That Keeps Rising
Israel's visible growth contrasted with American decline, and how little Americans understand about their closest strategic partner.
Check Point and the Birth of the Firewall
Three young Israelis in a Haifa apartment invented the firewall and launched Israel's rise as a cybersecurity capital.
Making Water Flow to the Negev Desert
Israel's National Water Carrier pumped water uphill to the desert and seeded a global water technology industry.
Al Schwimmer: Smuggling Warplanes to Israel
The American engineer who defied neutrality laws to arm Israel's air force and later founded Israel Aerospace Industries.
Predatory Sparrow Strikes Iran's Banks
The Israeli-linked hacker group disrupted Iran's banking network and reportedly seized ninety million dollars from a crypto exchange.
The Ayalon Institute's Secret Bullet Factory
A hidden underground factory beneath a kibbutz laundry produced two million bullets for the coming War of Independence.
Israel's Declaration of Independence, 1948
Ben-Gurion declares Israeli statehood in Tel Aviv hours before invasion, realizing a two-thousand-year-old dream against impossible odds.
The Jews Who Built Their Own Port
After the 1936 Jaffa port strike, Tel Aviv's Jewish community built its own harbor within months.
How Israel Won the Vaccine Race
Digitized health records and military-grade logistics let Israel vaccinate far faster than any other country during COVID.
Making the Desert Bloom
Simcha Blass's drip irrigation became Netafim, and Israeli agritech now helps feed over 110 countries.
Helplessness in a Time of War
An American in Israel reflects on watching others fight while packing care packages and posting in Israel's defense.
Israel's Strike on Iran
A brief remark that no nation has ever struck another as swiftly and effectively as Israel struck Iran.
Tel Aviv, the Cyberpunk Beach Town
The name Tel Aviv joins an ancient mound with spring, fitting a city both very old and relentlessly new.
United Hatzalah and the Ambucycle
An Israeli volunteer network reaches emergencies in under three minutes using app-dispatched motorcycles and thousands of trained responders.
The Israeli Invention of the Flash Drive
Dov Moran and M-Systems replaced the floppy disk with the DiskOnKey, the first USB flash drive.
Israel's Quiet Neurotech Pioneers
Long before Neuralink, Israeli firms like ElMindA and BrainsWay pioneered brain network analysis and deep magnetic stimulation.
How Israel Solved Its Water Scarcity
Israel recycles over ninety percent of its wastewater and leads the world in low-cost desalination and water technology.
From Auschwitz to the Galilee
Holocaust survivors arrived with nothing and built kibbutzim, draining swamps and planting fields in a land that had grown nothing.
Israel's Bet on Quantum Sensors
Israeli labs and defense spinouts build quantum sensors for GPS-free navigation, tunnel detection, and brain imaging.
Arrow and the First Interception in Space
Israel's Arrow system was the first ever to intercept a ballistic missile in outer space under real combat conditions.
Mobileye Started the Autonomous Vehicle Race
Founded in Jerusalem in 1999, Mobileye put cameras in cars and now powers over 125 million vehicles.
Israel's Cybersecurity Dominance
Unit 8200 alumni built Check Point, NSO Group, and Wiz, giving Israel world-leading cybersecurity funding and acquisitions.
The Country That Launched Backwards
Israel launched satellites westward against Earth's rotation to avoid hostile neighbors, driving miniature satellite innovation.
How Israel Helped Build Singapore's Army
In 1965 Israeli advisors posing as Mexicans helped newly independent Singapore build its armed forces on the IDF model.
May 2025
The Country That Shall Not Be Named
Noting that national security professionals stayed silent about Israel in their feeds even after October 7.
Remembering Sarah Milgrim
A reflection on shared AJC ACCESS ties, the murder of Sarah Milgrim, and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
How Israel Detects Missile Launches Early
The Home Front Command app warns of distant Houthi launches thanks to Israel's real-time access to US SBIRS satellites.
April 2025
March 2025
February 2025
Ben-Gurion, the Kibbutznik Who Built Israel
A visit to Ben-Gurion's grave at Sde Boker prompts reflection on his boldness, simplicity, and faith in the Negev.
Ilan Ramon and the Ramon Crater
A visit to Israel's Grand Canyon leads into the story of Ilan Ramon, the country's first astronaut.
The Rav-Kav and Israel's Fare Cap
Israel's unified Rav-Kav transit card and monthly fare cap let riders travel the entire country for about seventy dollars.
Universal Healthcare and the Maccabi Card
An American oleh describes Israel's universal health insurance, app-based appointments, and a seven-dollar emergency dental visit.