RUTHFULLY YOURS

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Israel is always in the news. Hardly a day goes by without shrieking headlines about protests, counter protests and terror. That is striking considering that in 2023 the population is 9,174, 520 people with a global ranking of 98. Per capita there is not a single country with such dazzling research and development of medicine, technology, economy, agriculture, and social institutions which enhance the life and prospects of billions of citizens throughout the globe. Furthermore, Israel’s unique cuisine and its beautiful beaches, arts, music and theater enchant tourists from all over the world including formerly hostile Arab/Moslem nations.

Fortunately, all the foregoing is catalogued by Michael Ordman almost every week. rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Whole genome cancer detection. It wasn’t long ago since the genome was fully decoded. Now, Israel’s C2i Genomics (see here previously) has teamed up with Tel Aviv’s Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center take blood test data and perform whole genome minimal residual disease (MRD) testing to detect recurring cancer early.

https://www.israel21c.org/ai-cancer-startup-collaborates-with-top-israeli-hospital/  https://c2i-genomics.com/

Biopsy the cells. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s MetaSight Diagnostics is developing fast, low-cost mass spectrometry to perform vast amounts of serum biopsies of the metabolome (molecules in a cell). These can detect cancer, liver disease, cardiovascular and neurological diseases etc. MetaSight is working with KSM (Maccabi’s R&D).

https://metasightdx.com/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wsHb4l7HXc

Light-activated cancer treatment gets US support. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s ImPact Biotech has received Orphan treatment designation from the US FDA for its Padeliporfin VTP in Pancreatic Cancer. ImPact stands for IMmune Photo Activated Cancer Treatment and VTP is Vascular Targeted Photodynamic therapy.

https://impactbiotech.com/impact-biotech-receives-fda-orphan-drug-designation-for-padeliporfin-vtp-in-pancreatic-cancer/   https://impactbiotech.com/

US NIH funds Israeli radiation therapy. The U.S. National Institutes of Health has granted Israel’s Pluri (previously Pluristem) $4.2 million to develop its PLX-R18 (see here) as a treatment for Hematopoietic Acute Radiation Syndrome – a deadly disease that can result from nuclear disasters and radiation exposure.

https://pluri-biotech.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/1689056470_PLUR_NIAID_ARS_PR_FINAL-2.pdf

https://pluri-biotech.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Pluri_PR_re_BMT_Article_FINAL_accessible.pdf

Transforming clinical best practices. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s Quai.MD is developing an AI- platform that improves hospital patient care, reduces costs and saves doctors’ time. The process is tailored to the patient and hospital. Partners include Mayo Clinic & MUSC. Initial focus is the diagnosis of patients with chest pain.

https://nocamels.com/2023/08/ai-platform-helps-diagnose-chest-pain-swiftly-and-accurately/  https://quai.md/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiv_hbQY8Is

11,000 focused ultrasound procedures. (TY OurCrowd) A 5-year study of patients has proved the success of the focused ultrasound treatment from Israel’s Insightec (see here previously). It improved quality of life with no progressive or delayed complications. Insightec’s technology has been used 11,000+ times globally.

https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/focused-ultrasound-treatment-is-proven-an-effective-treatment-to-curb-tremor-for-at-least-five-years-898536012.html

Brain stimulation eases ADHD symptoms. In a small clinical study, Israeli and UK researchers found non-invasive brain stimulation improved the condition of 55% of unmedicated ADHD children aged 6-12. Only 17% of the placebo control group improved. 64% of the treated children retained the improvement weeks later.

https://en.huji.ac.il/news/hope-children-adhd-new-study-finds-non-invasive-brain-stimulation-treatment-can

Next gen blood test device gets US approval. (TY OurCrowd) The US FDA has approved the upgraded 15-minute bacteria vs virus diagnostic blood test device from Israel’s MeMed (see here previously). The new MeMed BV is now suitable for urgent care centers, as it avoids the clotting and spinning process of the original.

https://www.me-med.com/press_release/fda-clears-memed-bv-direct-from-whole-blood/

Approval for smart colonoscopy device. (TY Atid-EDI) MAGENTIQ-COLO from Israel’s MAGENTIQ-EYE (see here previously) has been cleared by the US FDA and Israel’s AMAR, and received Europe’s CE Mark. The AI-assisted device is significantly more efficient in detecting adenomas (pre-cancerous polyps).

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K223473  https://www.magentiq.com/

https://vimeo.com/540882393   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4HtDuXWAqo

Re-educate your muscles. Israel’s Neuro Trigger is developing a powered muscle stimulator to repeatedly contract muscles to increase their range of motion and prevent retardation. Neuro trigger has received a BIRD grant (see below) to develop an eyelid pacemaker that restores blinking to those with facial paralysis.

https://www.nt-med.com/

Remote health care for Madrid region. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Essence SmartCare (see here previously) has won a contract from the Community of Madrid governmental region. Essence will use its digital AI systems to replace outdated analog remote care services for 100,000 senior citizens and disabled individuals.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-community-of-madrid-selects-essence-smartcare-to-provide-advanced-remote-care-technologies-for-senior-and-disabled-citizens-301873901.html

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/376446

Despite offers of statehood ever since the Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995, amplified by then-PMs Ehud Barak and, even more by Ehud Olmert, Palestinian Arab leaders have consistently refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist. The question is, why? They insist that all of what was “Palestine” belongs to them, and that Israel must be destroyed; it’s explicit in the PLO Covenant and the Hamas Charter. Still, logically they could take whatever Israel offered, and do whatever they wanted later.

The answer is provided by Henry Kissinger’s perspective of the war in Vietnam.

“The North Vietnamese and Vietcong, fighting in their own country, needed merely to keep in being forces sufficiently strong to dominate the population after the United States tired of the war. We fought a military war; our opponents fought a political one. We sought physical attrition, our opponents aimed for our psychological exhaustion. In the process we lost sight of one of the cardinal maxims of guerrilla war: the guerrilla wins if he does not lose. The conventional army loses if it does not win. ”

That is the strategy of the PLO, Hamas, and Jihadists. As they see it, they are in a war of attrition which requires constant terrorism and no compromises.As long as Israel does not destroy them — and instead negotiates with them — they see this as winning. And, they continue to receive support.

Israeli Arab political parties, despite their alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood, decided to become members of the Knesset not only for financial rewards, but to support Israeli concessions in the Oslo Accords, and legitimizing the arch terrorist, Yasser Arafat. Although criticized by Hamas, the PLO argued that they should take advantage of every opportunity to consolidate power as a tactical move, while continuing to support terrorism and promote anti-Semitism as a strategy.

https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/dems-favor-palestinians-over-israelis-for-first-time-poll-shows/

Democrats are for the first time more likely to favor the Palestinians over Israelis in the Middle East conflict, according to a new Gallup poll, reflecting the party leadership’s growing opposition to the Jewish state.

Forty-nine percent of Democrats now say they sympathize more with Palestinians, compared to 38 percent who side with Israelis—a staggering 11-point swing since just last year.

The poll comes as far-left, anti-Israel lawmakers have worked to shift the Democratic Party’s support away from Israel over the past several years.

High-profile “Squad” members, including Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) have accused Israel of “apartheid” and called for cutting off military support to the Jewish state.

Omar’s claim that U.S. politicians only back Israel because of donations—”It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” she wrote on Twitter in 2019—was widely denounced as anti-Semitic and led to Republicans removing her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this year. In 2021, House Democrats voted to block funding to Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system under pressure from far-left lawmakers.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19938/human-rights-watch-israel

[T]he report fails to mention that during this period Israel has faced a massive wave of terrorism sponsored and funded by the Iranian regime and its Palestinian terror proxies, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

One of the cases “investigated” by HRW is that of Mahmoud al-Sadi, 17, reportedly killed by Israeli security forces as he walked to school near the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on November 21, 2022. Notably, the HRW report does not mention why Israeli troops had entered the refugee camp.

The Jenin Battalion terrorists, who are heavily armed, are mostly affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an extremist Islamist organization responsible for countless terrorist attacks that have killed and injured hundreds of Israelis in the past few decades. There is no mention of this militia or its activities in the HRW report. Evidently, HRW does not want to the facts to spoil its effort to slander Israelis by depicting them as child-killers.

While HRW presents al-Sadi as an unarmed teenage boy, Palestinians posted a photo of him carrying a M-16 rifle. Apparently, for HRW such photos, where Palestinian teenagers are featured brandishing weapons and dressed in military outfits, are irrelevant because they do not serve its anti-Israeli propaganda.

Bizarrely, HRW does admit that the remaining three “children” allegedly killed by Israel were involved in terrorist attacks. Yet, as far as HRW is concerned, Israeli soldiers or police have no right to defend themselves when they are attacked with stones, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks. Why? According to the logic of HRW, the perpetrators are “only” teenagers.

Does HRW really expect Israeli soldiers and policemen to ask someone who shoots or throws a Molotov cocktail at them how old they are before firing back to defend themselves?

Instead of denouncing the Palestinians for using children as combatants, HRW is condemning Israel for defending itself against terrorism.

“Israel, with a population of 7.4 million, is home to at least 80 human rights organizations, a vibrant free press, a democratically elected government, a judiciary that frequently rules against the government, a politically active academia, multiple political parties and, judging by the amount of news coverage, probably more journalists per capita than any other country in the world — many of whom are there expressly to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” — The late Robert L. Bernstein, founder and longtime chairman of Human Rights Watch, New York Times, October 19, 2009.

“Meanwhile, the Arab and Iranian regimes rule over some 350 million people, and most remain brutal, closed and autocratic, permitting little or no internal dissent. The plight of their citizens who would most benefit from the kind of attention a large and well-financed international human rights organization can provide is being ignored as Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division prepares report after report on Israel.” — Robert L. Bernstein, New York Times, October 19, 2009.

“Human Rights Watch has lost critical perspective on a conflict in which Israel has been repeatedly attacked by Hamas and Hezbollah, organizations that go after Israeli citizens and use their own people as human shields. These groups are supported by the government of Iran, which has openly declared its intention not just to destroy Israel but to murder Jews everywhere. This incitement to genocide is a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” — Robert L. Bernstein, New York Times, October 19, 2009.

“Leaders of Human Rights Watch know that Hamas and Hezbollah chose to wage war from densely populated areas, deliberately transforming neighborhoods into battlefields. They know that more and better arms are flowing into both Gaza and Lebanon and are poised to strike again. And they know that this militancy continues to deprive Palestinians of any chance for the peaceful and productive life they deserve. Yet Israel, the repeated victim of aggression, faces the brunt of Human Rights Watch’s criticism.” — Robert L. Bernstein, New York Times, October 19, 2009.

HRW’s ongoing obsession with Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, serves as a reminder that the organization is on the side of the terrorists who appear as committed to killing Americans and other Westerners, as to destroying Israel and killing Jews

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19924/us-politicians-empower-jihadists

When people such as Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for the Republican Party nomination in the 2024 US presidential election, call for decreasing aid to Israel, they are actually sending a message of support to the mullahs in Tehran and their proxies, Hamas and PIJ, as well as the Iran-funded Hezbollah terrorist militia in Lebanon and to nations that would like to see Israel and America “out of the way.”

For Israel’s enemies, statements such as “cutting aid” are a sign that America is about to throw Israel under the bus, paving the way for them to proceed with their plan to destroy Israel.

The timing of Ramaswamy’s call for cutting US aid to Israel could not have been worse. It came at a time when Jews are being murdered by Palestinians on an almost weekly basis. The terrorists are waging their campaign of murder because they want to drive all Jews out of Israel. The terrorists are undoubtedly happy to hear a Republican candidate talk about decreasing aid to Israel. They are hoping Israel will be made weaker. With less US backing, it will be easier to destroy.

The terrorists and others have, even more, long been seeking to end US “hegemony” in the Middle East. They consider the US an enemy of Arabs and Muslims and dictators everyplace. Ending US aid to Israel would not just be the first step toward undermining Israel, it would also be the first step to ending US influence in the Middle East — the way then US President Barack Obama’s abandoned Syria — the best gift the US could ever give to Iran, Russia, China, Turkey, Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Algeria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia and on and on.

The terrorists who want to destroy Israel also want to destroy the United States — for supporting exactly those freedoms both countries embrace, and which their detractors falsify as “biased.”

“Instead of prioritizing social programs and economic development, the PA rewards and encourages this violence, spending more than $300 million a year incentivizing murder. This “pay to slay” policy, funded by the UN, EU, and many governments, rewards those who commit violence (including children) with cash payments. The greater the crime and the more victims injured or killed, the more money received. This campaign targeting children begins from birth and continues throughout childhood and the teenage years. It takes place through state media, schools (including those run by UNRWA), youth groups and centers, and sporting and cultural events in both the West Bank and Gaza.” — NGO Monitor, March 1, 2023.

The goal of the Jihad is not just to murder Jews, but to drive them out of their only homeland, Israel. Muslims, by contrast, enjoy more than 20 countries that are officially Islamic, as well as 57 members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

As the Kuwaiti-Palestinian academic Sami Al-Arian openly stated on Al Jazeera on July 30: “[T]he Palestinian cause is not about creating a [Palestinian] state… [our] greatest strategic goal is to dismantle the State of Israel… ”

Al-Shanteer’s family does not live in a refugee camp or an impoverished neighborhood, but in a modern building constructed from reinforced concrete clad in Jerusalem stone, consisting of at least five apartments.

Al-Shanteer is not poor or uneducated. In fact, he is an interior designer and civil engineer. He did not set out to murder Jews because he was destitute or needed a job. He admits that he decided to murder Jews in the hope of expelling them from their homeland. For this, his father believes that all fathers should be envious of him because his son murdered a Jewish woman.

The video of the father boasting of the murder of the Jewish woman has been largely ignored by mainstream media in the West. Apparently Western journalists do not want to show that many Palestinians are proud of murdering Jews.

Many journalists prefer to maintain the Palestinian fantasy image of peaceful and non-violent people engaged in a so-called popular resistance against Israel. Western journalists who choose to ignore his remarks are hiding the truth from their readers about Palestinian support for, and endorsement of, terrorism.

Similarly, US politicians who ignore the threats facing Israel are empowering the jihadists, their masters in Iran, and dictators worldwide whose nightmare is America.

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/when-equality-becomes-a-killer?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

For years, the doctrine of “equality” has been synonymous with conscience and morality in the west. Anyone who dissents from this dogma is tarred and feathered as a knuckle-dragging troglodyte. In fact, this interpretation of “equality” dissolves morality as surely as acid dissolves limestone. This “equality” creates injustice and leads to bullying and intimidation. 

Worse still, it enables terrorism and mass murder. Worse again, this is being actively promoted by western politicians and “liberals”. Thus it dominates and poisons public discourse.

Israel’s controversial National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, provoked yet another tsunami of condemnation when, discussing on TV whether more stringent measures were needed to  curb the current surge of Palestinian Arab terrorism against Israelis, he declared: 

My right, the right of my wife and my children to move around Judea and Samaria is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs. The right to life comes before freedom of movement.

Cue instant meltdown — and instant distortion and defamation. Most media sources quoted the first sentence but not the last. They thus decontextualised what Ben-Gvir had said, falsely and maliciously misrepresenting his observation as the quintessence of racism by placing Israeli interests above Palestinian Arab interests. 

 www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

Two simple words define Israel’s non stop scientific, technical, medical and social institutions. They are “L’Chaim- To Life.” From Azerbaijan to Zambia the lives and hopes of billions are enhanced by Israel’s dazzling contributions to every aspect of beneficial human endeavor. rsk

As evidence read Michael Ordman’s catalogue. Here are a few highlights:

Medical history made by Israeli spinal surgeons and heart valve implants.

Israeli aid organization is bringing relief to survivors of Maui wildfires.

Two Israeli renewable energy companies are powering ahead.

An Israeli jetpack lets you swim like a dolphin.

Positive economic news for Israeli unemployment, energy, and tourism.

Amazon announces major Israeli investment.

Israeli women win gold medals in judoka and windsurfing.

An Israeli Arab, a Druze and a Jew give inspiring messages.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
First AR spinal surgery. Dr Cezar J. Mizrahi of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center has performed the world’s first Augmented Reality-assisted robotic spinal surgery on a patient with an unstable spine fracture. Dr Mizrahi previously (see here) performed the world’s first robot-assisted lumbar spine fusion.
https://www.jns.org/jns/topic/23/8/21/312010/   https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-755470
 
First US heart patients to receive “forgotten” valves. (TY TPS) Israel’s Trisol Medical (see here previously) has successfully implanted its new Transcatheter Tricuspid Valves in two US patients. The valve is called “forgotten” as the aortic and mitral valves get most medical attention. 10 Israelis have already had the implants.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/major-milestone-as-israeli-heart-valve-implanted-in-first-us-patients
https://trisol-medical.com/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cv9aHAjbnU
 
007 – license to kill cancer cells. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s Edity Therapeutics reprograms immune cells to recognize tumors that hide from the body’s regular immune system. Edity’s ED 007 cell therapy inflames these tumors, triggering the body’s own immune system to kill the cancer without risk of side effects or rejection.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/meet-007-the-cell-with-a-license-to-kill-cancer-created-by-an-israeli-startup/   https://edity-tx.com/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBEl1TwExmo
 
Chicken corneas fight cancer. Israeli biotech ExoProTher is developing an anti-cancer therapy using protein generated from the p53 gene in the corneas of chickens. The foreign protein binds to cancerous human p53 protein, destroying tumors without side effects. The cornea is highly cancer resistant and full of p53 protein.
https://nocamels.com/2023/08/new-protein-based-cancer-drug-does-not-affect-healthy-cells/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhR6-W6CM0E   https://www.exoprother.com/
 
Blood test and therapy diagnosis for bipolar disorder. Researchers at Haifa University have identified a blood test to diagnose patients who suffer from bipolar disorder. The test also can predict if the patient will respond to the most common treatment – Lithium carbonate. It can save misdiagnosis and wrong medication.
https://nocamels.com/2023/08/researchers-develop-blood-test-to-diagnose-bipolar-disorder/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-023-02183-z
 
AI video analysis to determine Crohn’s therapy. Researchers at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center and Intel have achieved 81% accuracy in predicting if biologic therapy would relieve a patient with Crohn’s Disease. They used machine-learning to analyze videos of complete capsule endoscopies (CE) of the small intestine.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-750247
 
Skin care for cancer patients. EGFR inhibitors are common treatments for cancer but cause severe skin problems that cannot be fully alleviated. Israel’s EMRIS is developing a topical solution to block EGFRi monoclonal antibodies and allow the patient to continue treatment without the debilitating side effects.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/r1iz3yhj2
 
Preventing PE. Pulmonary Embolism (PE) is the third leading cause of cardiovascular-related death and the number one cause of preventable hospital death. Israel’s Althea Medical is developing an over-the-wire medical device that physicians can use to remove blood clots quickly and safely from arteries in the lung.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/bjacbkk2h
https://www.peregrinevc.com/portfolio/althea-medical/
 
Air transportation for cancer patients. United Hatzalah, Lahak Aviation and Sheba Medical Center together have launched a pilot service to bring cancer patients from remote parts of Israel to hospital for treatment. Previous dangerous and stressful 3–4-hour journeys are reduced to a safe, comfortable 40-minutes.
https://israelrescue.org/blog/caring-for-israels-periphery-one-cancer-patient-at-a-time/
 
Mental health therapy in the Gaza envelope. (TY Mara) Local mental health therapists at the Jewish National Fund-USA’s Eshkol Resilience Center in Sderot provide support for residents of the Gaza Envelope region.  They help their community cope with difficult times in one of the fastest-growing regions in Israel.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-747637
 

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/376071

The protest movement in Israel has succeeded in mobilizing many thousands of people against the current government. It claims to be “protecting democracy” by trying to stop judicial reforms. Its agenda, however, includes a wide range of issues and seeks to implement “liberal and Progressive” policies that are often in conflict with traditional Jewish values and Zionism. The struggle, therefore, is not only about judicial reforms, but Israel’s identity as a Jewish state.

The word “Jewish” appears many times in Israel’s Declaration of Independence; “democracy,” however, doesn’t appear once. The reason is that the drafters – while respecting democratic norms and values – wanted to protect Israel’s uniqueness as the “homeland of the Jewish people,” and Zionism. This priority has been questioned in the past by Israeli leftists, and has now become the raison d’etre of the current protest movement.

What has emerged as a protest movement against the government and judicial reforms is the extent to which the Labor Party and its affiliates control social and economic institutions. The Histadrut, for example, which controls nearly all labor organizations in Israel, wields enormous power and influence. Support for the protest movement by former and current military leaders who identified with the Left has created havoc in the IDF. The entire judicial system has been compromised. Most Israeli colleges and universities are complicit. The media is leading the bandwagon of disinformation.

The crisis in Israeli society was examined by Rabbi Prof Eliezer Berkovits in two important essays he wrote nearly 50 years ago: “On Jewish Sovereignty” (1975) and “The Spiritual Crisis in Israel” (1979) which are included in his “Essential Essays on Judaism” (2002) edited by David Hazony.

In the first, he wrote about the Covenant which links the Jewish people with God, and with Eretz Yisrael as the place where their destiny would be realized. “Those Jews who separate Judaism from Zion, Tora from the land of Israel, gives up both Tora and the land … They have surrendered, as a matter of principle, Judaism’s raison d’etre, which is fulfillment in history.”

https://www.jns.org/column/israel/23/8/23/312985/?_se=cm9sYW5kLm0uaG9ybkB0LW9ubGluZS5kZQ%3D%3D&utm_campaign=Evening+Syndicate+Wednesday+8232023&utm_medium=email&utm_source=brevo

Siblings Alma Hernandez and Daniel Hernandez Jr. are current and former Democratic members of the Arizona House of Representatives.

One of the privileges of serving in elected office is the opportunity to stand up for what we most passionately believe in. We are the youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona House of Representatives and co-founder of the first LGBTQ caucus in the Arizona legislature, respectively.

Long before we began our service in the Arizona House, we were shaped by our heritage as Jewish- and Mexican-Americans. We are proudly progressive and proudly pro-Israel, and we are thrilled to have had a chance to share that message with 400 student leaders at the Israel on Campus Coalition National Leadership Summit earlier this month. The young people we met there deeply inspired us. We saw a new generation of diverse pro-Israel leaders rising to meet the demands of our times, answering the same call we heard at their age.

We grew up in a vibrant Latino family in Tucson, Arizona just 60 miles from the southern border. Our mother was born in Nogales, Mexico, giving us deep roots in the immigrant experience. Our identity is layered, as our maternal grandfather was Jewish. Alma converted in 2015 and celebrated her adult bat mitzvah two years later. Daniel has not taken that step but has been active in Jewish community life, attending synagogue on the High Holidays and preparing family meals for Passover and Hanukkah.