A Muslim, Ethiopian, Christian, and Haredi Meet For Coffee — No, there is no punchline, as the Facebook post noted. I ran across it as I scrolled through my feed during a meeting (admit it, you do the very same thing), and I immediately recognized two of my recently profiled “heroes” sitting with a friend, Nir Cohen. If everyone in…

Can you long for a place you’ve never been? Can you long for people you don’t even know? From her birthplace 100 kilometers away, Baqa al-Gharbiya, Haneen yearned for Jerusalem, a place she’d barely seen and filled with complexitities she barely understood. Jerusalem, she says, winked at her from afar…

Back in June, we raised a glass and said our goodbyes to a Jerusalem powerhouse, a young woman with an infectious laugh and a penchant for motorcycles. She spent three years as the Director of Jnext Hi-Tech & Entrepreneurship Program, overseeing the emerging tech ecosystem and helping Jerusalem start-ups connect…

Suffice it to say that I didn’t expect to learn anything new about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs from Srulik Kushmerski. This Jerusalem born, ultra-Orthodox father of six, with a long black coat, a beard and “payot” (side-curls) is far from what you would expect. A high-school educator himself, Srulik latched…

I am not sure that Efraim Levy and Tamer Said would have met without the moon. It’s the moon that sets Jewish and Muslim calendars and it is the coincidence of Muslim and Jewish holidays that brought them together. This weekend, Muslims celebrate the holiday of Eid Al Adha, the…

Meet Khalaf Salaymeh born and raised in east #Jerusalem. He loves an ancient and simple game, with red and black pieces, a board and dice, a game with archeological evidence that it existed in Iran 5000 years ago. Khalaf has been hooked on backgammon since he was a little boy…

Normally, I would post this on Friday, giving myself a week to decide on this week’s #MyJLMHeroes. It frames my week, forces me to actively look for the positive all week long. But I couldn’t wait. I had to post this today of all days. I promised myself that this…

See that picture above? Looks pretty standard but it is special. That is more than 50 venture capitalists who made the “trek” from Tel Aviv to meet with Jerusalem start ups. It might not sound like a big deal when the distance is only 66 kilometers. But it is. …

Serious Girl Power — I wish I was one of those brilliant people with an idea that could change the world. I’m not. Not even close. But there are some amazing women and girls out there who believe in the power of “Be.”