[Melissa Weiss — 0:00]

Life is hard here and it’s not for everybody.I was so worried, because I'd never spent any sort of meaningful time inIsrael. There was a siren, an azaka, and we ended up going into thebasement of a Thai massage parlor, and there was a hit like two blocks from us.We are at this really crazy moment in time in Jewish history, in world history,where this exists. She said that she woke up every single day feeling like shehad purpose. Dating Israelis is difficult. And sometimes, I’ll let my Israeligirlfriends look at my app messages. And they are astounded by the things thatmen will say, that they would never say to an Israeli woman.

[Erica Marom]

Like what? Like what? Tell us.

[Erica Marom — 0:34]

When you're 80 years old and you're lookingback at your life, what's one thing that you think will have been true becauseyou made aliyah [immigration to Israel] that wouldn't have been true otherwise?

[Melissa Weiss — 0:42]

Oh, God, that is such a good question.

[Abbey Onn — 0:45]

Said the journalist.

[Erica Marom — 0:57]

Welcome back to another episode of Yalla,Let's Go! — the podcast that Abbey and I started to remind ourselves why wemade aliyah. We're talking to people from all walks of life. We've got chefs,athletes, VCs, people who work in high tech, journalists — anyone that you canimagine — and asking them the questions you really want to know about what it'sreally like to make a life in Israel. So let's get started. Abbey, pulse check.Tell me about life in Israel right now.

[Abbey Onn — 1:24]

Okay, so I'm going to go with one of the moreannoying moments that happened in Israel — and happened to me a couple times inthe last week. So I have a great thing happening at work, and it's a bit of anexpansion of the organization that I run. But in order to do it, I had to go tothe bank. So for those of you that don't live here, the bank has very weirdhours. This is not to do with that, but it is one of the things you have tolearn — they, like, take a nap in the middle of the day and close from 2 to 4.This moment, I went into the bank. They sent me an email. They told me who hadto be there, what documentation I needed to bring, what I needed to do. We gotthere — I drove into Tel Aviv from outside of Tel Aviv with the accountant, whoalso doesn't live here — and they're like, "Where's your stamp?" AndI was like, "Where's my what?" I was like, "Here is the emailthat said Abbey, and this person, and this paperwork, and this ID — and wheredoes it say stamp?" And they're like, "Zeh yadua [it's known]."

[Erica Marom — 0:00]

Why didn't you bring your stamp?

[Abbey Onn — 0:00]

It's known that you need to bring your stamp.It's not known, because if it was known, I would have brought my stamp. Andthis notion that is so often said here — it's known, it's just a known thing.And it's not known, dude. Write it in your email. Use your words. Tell me — Ididn't grow up here. I didn't. So I had to go back this morning, and I broughtmy stamp, and now, success. But, like...

[Erica Marom — 0:00]

Bureaucracy.

[Abbey Onn — 0:00]

It's not known.

[Erica Marom — 2:39]

So we're here today with Melissa Weiss. Thankyou so much for joining us. Melissa is the executive editor of Jewish Insiderand an olah [female immigrant to Israel] from the United States.

[Melissa Weiss — 2:49]

I am those things.

[Erica Marom — 2:50]

Thank you so much for coming today.

[Melissa Weiss — 2:52]

Thank you for having me. This is so exciting.I started listening to the podcast, and I think it's great. And we do need thisat this moment — a reminder of why we're here, in really tough times.

[Erica Marom — 3:02]

Yeah. So tell us — we want to hear about you.Tell us your life story in under a minute.

[Melissa Weiss — 3:05]

Okay. I was born and raised in upstate NewYork, in the Catskill Mountains. I grew up in a very small town, very secular —an even smaller Jewish community. And so my world was very small. My Jewishworld was even smaller. And it wasn't until I started doing youth group stuffin high school, and then I went to a university that had a huge Jewishpopulation — and that was my first time really seeing a Jewish world beyond,like, my synagogue. And from there, I went on Birthright. And then I went onevery winter break trip to Israel. And that was where my claws kind of gothooked in, onto this idea that this would be a place that eventually I wouldend up. And it took a while, right? That was more than 20 years ago. But Ilived a lot of places. I moved to South Korea after college. Then I moved toWashington, to New York, to Mexico City. And then finally, four years ago, Imade aliyah.

[Abbey Onn — 4:03]

Wow.

[Erica Marom — 4:04]

Wow. So tell us why, after all of thosetravels and growing up in the US, you decided that this is the place you wantedto make your home.

[Melissa Weiss — 4:11]

So this was always something I thought I woulddo, but I don't have family here. I didn't have anything that was reallydrawing me or going to root me. And there was so much else I wanted to do andsee and explore. And so anytime I had an opportunity to either come here for aprogram, or to live here, or whatever it was, I always chose something else.Yeah — I wasn't ready. And it's funny, because now if I go back and I look atmy journals from college, I see in there, I say, like, "Israel is it forme. I'm going to do this. It's only a matter of time." And it was only amatter of time — it just, that time was like 20 years. But I think all of thosethings, I think I needed to have all of those different experiences in all ofthose places, personally and professionally, before I was ready to do this. Andthen since I've come here, I joke that my life here is kind of like SlumdogMillionaire, where all of the pieces just kind of like, all of the things he'sdone over the course of his life have fallen into place for him to have donethe things he's done and to answer the questions on the show. I feel like whenI came here, all of the different pieces of my life and all of the differentexperiences that I've had had kind of led me to a life here that I was very,very happy with.

[Abbey Onn — 5:31]

I love that. I really identify with, like, thesmaller Jewish community and then figuring out this kind of Israel moment. Youand I share a background with the Israel on Campus Coalition, so I would lovefor you to talk a little bit about what drove you from advocacy into journalism— how you made that shift.

[Melissa Weiss — 5:48]

So I had wanted to be a journalist since I wasin college. I studied journalism at the University of Maryland. All of myinternships through college were Baltimore Sun, USA Today. I thought I wasgoing to be a journalist. And then I graduated in 2008, which was therecession, and there were no journalism jobs. There were no jobs, period. Butthere were definitely no journalism jobs. And so it was a thing I was justmaybe not going to get to do. And so when I eventually moved to Washington, Igot a job at the Israel Project — which doesn't exist anymore, but when it did,it worked with journalists. And my thought was, if I can't be a journalist, Ican work with them. I know how they think. I know what they want. I know whatthey need for their stories. Like, maybe this is for me. And it was. And so Idid — you know, I worked in communications there, and it was a great fiveyears. And then I wanted something different. I wanted a new challenge. And soI ended up at the Israel on Campus Coalition, running their communications. Andwhen I say it's like the Slumdog Millionaire stuff — now I look at the thingsthat we're covering at Jewish Insider, and there's so much happening on collegecampuses, and I feel like, wow. No one has sat through more BDS hearings than —you know, no journalist, I should say, has sat through more BDS hearings than Ihave. I have been on the ground at all of these campuses. I've seen thesethings play out in real time. I get this stuff, and I have the historicalknowledge now, so that when things happen on these different campuses, or thereare these larger trends, I can say, "Oh, well, think about what washappening five years ago, 10 years ago." I've got the knowledge for that.

[Abbey Onn — 7:23]

So talk to me a little bit about — you movedhere four years ago, which means you've been building Jewish Insider from here.Talk to me about how you've been doing that. You've kind of taken it from astaff of five to something much larger.

[Melissa Weiss — 7:33]

Yeah, we're huge now. By comparison — therewere just a few of us when I started. We've always had a presence in Israel;usually it's been one person, maybe two people. But as we grew, and as thingswere developing here, there's more of a need, right? It's great to have morepeople on the ground covering the things that people care about. So when Ipitched this, it wasn't a, "Well, let's think about it. I don't know, areyou sure about this?" It was great. It's great to have more people in futuretime zones thinking ahead, so that we can be doing things while our US team isasleep — and vice versa. And this way, there's always people online, there'salways people working. News is always happening. News doesn't stop because youtake a nap or go to sleep. And so having more people in more time zones hasalways been something that's been really good for us.

[Abbey Onn — 8:24]

You know, Jewish Insider is, like, veryplugged into the DC politics scene, right? So how do you stay connected to thatfrom here?

[Melissa Weiss — 8:31]

So, I mean, I was a DC creature before I wasjust about anything else, right? I lived there for seven years. In college, Iinterned on Capitol Hill. I just — I mean, I read a lot. If you work injournalism, you're by definition a news junkie. And so I'm always readingthings. Once I send out our daily newsletter, the Daily Kickoff, I read, like,10 different newsletters that are based out of the States that are almost allpolitical, because I just want to know what's going on. I'll listen to thepolitical podcasts. And, you know, I think it's important. I think asjournalists who are English-speaking, who live here, we have a really uniqueability to explain what's happening here to a US audience, but also take what'shappening in the US and explain it to Israelis. Because — I don't know if youboth feel this way — but there really is, to me, this disconnect. People arejust talking at each other, and no one is hearing each other, and no one isunderstanding each other. And I think that's only gotten worse and worse andworse as the years have gone on and as social media has become what it is. Andso to the extent that we, as Jewish Insider, and I, as Melissa, can serve askind of a bridge to explain these different places and people to each other — Ithink that's doing some bit of good in the world. I hope it is.

[Erica Marom — 9:49]

Yeah, I'm sure it is. Yeah. So let's talkabout being a journalist in Israel for a minute.

[Melissa Weiss — 9:54]

Oh, boy.

[Erica Marom — 9:55]

A background that you and I both share. Youwere here after October 7th, and for the past two and a half years ofon-and-off war — with Iran, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and, you know, Yemen, whoelse? Can you talk a little bit about what that's like — to be a reporter in aplace where you've actually made your life, where you live, when there'srockets falling in your neighborhood in Tel Aviv, but you have to be thatoutsider journalist? Because, I remember, it's really not an easy role to takeon.

[Melissa Weiss — 10:25]

It's not. And, you know, it was a lot harder,I think, in the months after October 7th. Because just because I'd only beenhere for a year and a half doesn't mean that October 7th didn't impact me insome way. I knew people who were killed in Nova [the Nova music festival]. Ihad friends whose relatives, whose best friends, were taken hostage. It wasalso very personal for me. And so it's hard to separate yourself. But I thinkas journalists, we have to do that with any situation. Journalists who were inNew York after 9/11, anyone who goes through these traumatic experiences — youkind of have to put it aside and just do the work. And it's hard, and it'schallenging, but I think that's one of the things we know when we sign up forthis kind of thing. But I mean, listen, when there are missiles that are beingfired at Tel Aviv, I will turn on my camera and I will say, "This iswhat's going on, you can hear the sirens." Or — a few weeks ago, I was inthe shuk [open-air market], I was getting my hair cut, and there was a siren,an azaka [air-raid alert]. And we ended up going into the basement of a Thaimassage parlor, which is apparently where everyone in the shuk goes. And therewas a hit, like, two blocks from us. And so as soon as we were out, I wentstraight there and I just started recording. And I think not enough people aredoing that — showing what is actually happening on the ground. What you see onsocial media, what you see online, that's one segment of it. But when you'regetting it straight from the people who are on the ground, who are experiencingit, it's a lot different.

[Erica Marom — 12:05]

What happened to your haircut?

[Melissa Weiss — 12:08]

It was good. We were in the very final stagesof it.

[Erica Marom — 12:12]

That could sound like a disaster.

[Melissa Weiss — 0:00]

No, no, no — so she clipped it up, and we wentright back to it. And she blew it dry.

[Abbey Onn — 12:17]

Which is amazing, right? You're, like, in themiddle of something. You stop it, you go, you come right back, and you justpick up.

[Melissa Weiss — 12:18]

It's just what you do. And I think that's whatpeople don't really understand. We will have these very disruptive 15 minutes —you just have to go back to whatever you were doing. I can't tell you thenumber of times, over the course of the last two months, that I have sent outthe newsletter from my bomb shelter, literally with sirens going overhead. Idon't think people realize, when they open their email in their inbox — oh,this was sent while someone was listening to cluster bombs exploding around her.

[Abbey Onn — 12:49]

It's a weird upside to resilience.

[Melissa Weiss — 12:51]

Yeah, it's crazy, but it's something thatisn't supposed to be normal, that we treat as normal. And I don't think thatmost of the people who watch this from afar understand what that means.

[Abbey Onn — 13:05]

I think your job allows you to plug intoIsrael in this really specific way, and I think maybe gives you more ins thanthe regular immigrants. How are you building life here personally? How are youmaking friends, building community?

[Melissa Weiss — 13:17]

So Israel was always the place where — waybefore I made aliyah — if I stepped back and said, "Where do I have themost friends who are like me — my age, single, professional, all of thesethings?" the answer was always Israel, and specifically Tel Aviv. Youknow, going back to, like, my late 20s, this was always the place where peoplewere. So when I moved here, I had, like, a group of friends already. And I hadfriends — they weren't consolidated, they were from every part of my life. Butthe thing is, when you move here, everyone you know in your whole life wholives here just reaches out. So old colleagues, college classmates, people Iknew in Washington, people I hadn't spoken to in, like, 15 years would reachout and say, "Let's get a drink, let's get coffee." And so now someof the people that I'm friends with are people that I knew 10, 15 years ago,and we were always acquaintances — but now we're both doing this crazy thing,building a life in this country. And it's a real bonding experience.

[Erica Marom — 14:19]

It's very bonding.

[Erica Marom — 14:20]

Yeah, very bonding.

[Abbey Onn — 14:22]

Don't recommend it, yet very bonding.

[Melissa Weiss — 0:00]

You know — I don't have family here, like Isaid, but these people are really, they are my family. They're the people Ispend every Shabbat [the Jewish Sabbath] with. They are — when I needsomething, or when something goes wrong, they are the people that I call. Whenmy family comes to visit, they meet my other family.

[Melissa Weiss — 14:40]

Yeah. Are most of your friends Israeli, or arethey other olim [immigrants to Israel]?

[Melissa Weiss — 14:43]

So it's a mix. Obviously, like, Anglos tend tocongregate. But I have friends who are Israeli — old colleagues, people whomaybe were born here, were here for the first years of their life, and thenmoved abroad and then have come back. It's a real mix. But I would say that amajority are probably olim. But I think that also is just what happens when youmove to a country when you're in your mid-30s. You know, it's hard anywhere, Ithink, to make friends — but especially in a society like Israel that is verymuch family-oriented. People have their people, people have their army people.These relationships are very hard to break into. And I think that also extendsto dating, obviously. All of that is very hard.

[Erica Marom — 15:35]

So let's talk a little bit about that. Tell usabout what it's like to date in Tel Aviv. Like, are you using apps? Are youmeeting people on the beach? Where is the scene? Tell us about it.

[Melissa Weiss — 15:45]

So I was sitting on the beach the other day,and there was a girl sitting next to me — she was drinking mate, so I was like,okay, she's Argentinian. And this guy — I just see it happen. He was sittingnext to her for like 10 minutes, and gets up to throw something out. When hecomes back, he sits right next to her and starts asking her about the mate. AndI'm like, I'm seeing it in the wild.

[Abbey Onn — 16:06]

That's very old school, by the way.

[Melissa Weiss — 16:08]

So old school. Truthfully, dating the last twoand a half years has been difficult, just because no one's in the mindset forit. But also, dating Israelis is difficult because, again, it's afamily-oriented society, and Israeli men are looking for women who have astrong family unit here. It's difficult. So when they see someone who'sAmerican, or British, or Australian, whatever it is, they're less serious tous. And sometimes I'll let my Israeli girlfriends look at my app messages, andthey are astounded by the things that men will say that they would never say toan Israeli woman.

[Erica Marom — 16:45]

Like what? Like what? Tell us.

[Melissa Weiss — 16:47]

Okay, great. So last week—

[Melissa Weiss — 16:50]

We need to know what's happening.

[Erica Marom — 16:51]

Let us live vicariously through you.

[Melissa Weiss — 16:52]

So last week I got a nice message from a guy,and he said he would have picked me up in the miklat [communcal bomb shelter].Or — he asked if I'd met anyone nice in the miklat. And I was like, "Well,I have a mamad, so I'm picking up my two cats." And he was like,"Well, if I saw you, I would have dropped a line." I was like,"Okay — what would you have said?" And, whatever, he dropped a line,and I was like, "Oh, that was good. It would have worked." And then hewas like, "Let's get out the blow-up air mattress." And I was like,"What?" Immediately! So I showed that to an Israeli friend, and shewas so taken aback. And I let her send a response — I was like, "How wouldyou try to, like, salvage this?" And so she responded, and was like,"Slow down, tiger." And he never responded.

[Erica Marom — 17:39]

Wow.

[Melissa Weiss — 17:40]

Yeah. So, I mean, it's that, instead of—

[Abbey Onn — 17:42]

I understand what you're saying now. But —less serious.

[Melissa Weiss — 0:00]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Erica Marom — 17:44]

You know, you've been here for quite a fewyears now. Life here can be very rewarding. It can also be really rough. Hasthere ever been a moment when you were, like, considering, "Maybe I shouldgo back"?

[Melissa Weiss — 17:57]

No.

[Erica Marom — 17:58]

Why?

[Abbey Onn — 17:58]

She just said to us that she was getting herhair cut, and there was a hit two blocks away — and then just said no.

[Erica Marom — 18:03]

Okay. But you know what? Everyone has thosemoments — like, in the middle of the night, when it's 3am and you're running toyour mamad [safe room], you're exhausted. Was there ever a moment?

[Melissa Weiss — 18:10]

Not a single moment. I've never had a moment.Because — you know, I've lived most of my life in the States. I came here on atrip, like, eight years ago, and I remember going out to dinner with a friendof mine, and we walked home after. And she had been in Israel probably for,like, seven, eight years at that point. And I don't even know how we weretalking about, like, living here, it being hard, all of these things. And shesaid that every single day, she woke up feeling like she had purpose. And whenshe said that, then I didn't — I didn't even know what that meant. Like, whatdoes it mean to live with purpose, and to feel like you were doing somethingmeaningful every single day? And I'll tell you, for the last almost four years,I wake up every day feeling like I have purpose. Feeling like I am buildingsomething — personally, my own life, but I'm also part of building somethingbigger. We are at this really crazy moment in time in Jewish history, in worldhistory, where this exists. It would be insane not to at least try to be a partof it. But I wasn't here on October 7th. It was chag [holiday]. I was inAmsterdam for the weekend. And my family wanted me to come back to the States —not a chance. I was trying to get back sooner. My flight was on, like, October9th, and I was like, "Can I get back on the 8th? Can I get backsooner?" And same thing with the first Iran war — I got stranded in Paris,and the whole time I was trying to figure out, "How can I get back here assoon as possible?"

[Abbey Onn — 19:55]

We should worry when she leaves, by the way.

[Erica Marom — 19:57]

Yeah. That's when we know that there's aproblem.

[Melissa Weiss — 20:01]

It's a running joke with my friends that youcan't leave — because when you leave is when wars happen. But I think the lastsix weeks have kind of put that to bed...

[Erica Marom — 20:10]

Is there anything here that, like, grates onyour nerves about life in Israel?

[Melissa Weiss — 20:16]

I mean, you know, there are indignities indaily life. There are the frustrations, like you had at the bank — all of theselittle tiny things. But you just kind of have to shrug it off, because, yeah,life is harder here. But life is really, really easy in the States, where wecame from. Like, it's so easy. It's too easy. And when it's too easy, youforget what is worthwhile, and why this is all worthwhile. And so I think youhave to have the struggles here, because I think they make you really appreciateeverything else you have. Like, there's nothing that I love more than sittingon my mirpeset [balcony] on a Friday afternoon and just, like, smelling — thesmells of people cooking Shabbat dinner are everywhere. Like, I'm sittingoutside and I smell it. Wow.

[Melissa Weiss — 21:10]

I would never get that in the States. Never.It's an amazing thing, just to see people getting to live their Judaism in avery normal way — in a way that just integrates into their life, instead of itbeing this thing that separates them from everyone around them. It's an amazingthing to see, and it's an amazing thing to be a part of.

[Abbey Onn — 21:38]

So in addition to all the amazing stuff you'vedone at work, you've also created a reputation for yourself as, like, a go-togirl in your community for advice — for, like, plumbers, electricians... Ishould have called you before I went to the bank. How did you build thisreputation, and how do you know so much?

[Melissa Weiss — 21:59]

A little bit of trial and error, but honestly,a lot of it is the people who came before me. There's been so many times whenI've needed something, or I've wondered how to do something, and someone hasalready gone through that struggle, that challenge, whatever it is — there's ananswer, and you just kind of work your way through it. You know, if I screw up— and I screw up plenty — those are lessons learned. I struggled to find a goodpet sitter, and then once I found one, she's the one I send to everyone. Andthere are bad ones, and I'll warn people against the bad ones too. But I thinkthat because so many people were resources to me when I moved here, I want toput that back out in the universe, and don't keep it to yourself. Plus, theFacebook group Bell Aviv.

[Melissa Weiss — 22:52]

Wow. Wow.

[Melissa Weiss — 22:54]

Everything — all of my, you know, where I getmy nails done, where I get my hair done, all of these things. Belle Aviv.

[Abbey Onn — 23:00]

If you could take all of that and roll it intoone big piece of advice that you would give to someone who's thinking aboutmaking aliyah, or just showed up — what would you say?

[Melissa Weiss — 23:08]

If it's what your heart wants, then you'regoing to do it. Life is hard here, and it's not for everybody. I didn't evenknow if it was for me when I did this. I was so worried — because I'd neverspent any sort of meaningful time in Israel before I made aliyah — that I wasgoing to get here and I was going to hate it. And then I was going to have to,one, find a new country to live in, maybe find a new job, find a new careerpath. I was so worried that everything I had built my whole life toward was goingto fall apart when I got here, and I'd realize that maybe this wasn't for me.But I got here, and that didn't happen. And it was for me. And so — I didn't goin with any expectations. You know, I think you can't here, because this placeis so crazy and nonsensical most of the time. And if you can roll with thepunches — you know, I'm a very relaxed, chill person by nature — and I think ifyou can kind of infuse that into your life, and into dealing with insane thingslike the bank, and the post office, which you didn't talk about, but the postoffice—

[Abbey Onn — 24:14]

You now need to reserve online before you go.I don't understand it. I don't understand that you can't just show up and,like, do something. You have to make an appointment online.

[Melissa Weiss — 24:22]

All of these things are crazy. Like, when Ipicked up my passport — my government-issued Israeli passport — I had to go to,like, the Israeli version of a bodega to go get it. That's crazy. My passport!

[Abbey Onn — 0:00]

It's insane.

[Melissa Weiss — 0:00]

It's insane. So if you can roll with thosepunches, and just —

[Abbey Onn — 24:41]

If you can laugh at them...Yeah, exactly.

[Melissa Weiss — 24:42]

It's the only way you'll get through it.

[Erica Marom — 24:44]

So when you're 80 years old and you're lookingback at your life, what's one thing that you think will have been true becauseyou made aliyah that wouldn't have been true otherwise?

[Melissa Weiss — 24:53]

Oh, God, that is such a good question.

[Abbey Onn — 24:55]

Said the journalist.

[Melissa Weiss — 24:56]

Seriously — that I did the one thing that Ihad always wanted to do. And I think I kind of forgot that this was somethingthat I had always wanted to do. And then when I found my old journal, I wasjust reading through these entries that I made when I was 18 years old, 19years old, and I was like, "Wow, this really — this has been the onething."

[Abbey Onn — 25:23]

It's gorgeous.

[Erica Marom — 25:23]

You followed your dreams.

[Melissa Weiss — 25:25]

I followed my dreams.

[Abbey Onn — 25:26]

Okay, we're gonna do some rapid fire. Youready? We're looking for one word.

[Melissa Weiss — 25:31]

Okay.

[Abbey Onn — 25:31]

Favorite Israeli fruit or snack?

[Melissa Weiss — 25:33]

Pomelo.

[Abbey Onn — 0:00]

Agree.

[Melissa Weiss — 0:00]

But specifically not the full ones that growon the trees — they have to be the ones where...

[Abbey Onn — 0:00]

Somebody already did the work for you.

[Melissa Weiss — 0:00]

Yes, absolutely — they're packaged up. Youjust take it home, unwrap them, and go.

[Erica Marom — 25:46]

Favorite Israeli slang?

[Melissa Weiss — 25:48]

Mamash [really / totally].

[Abbey Onn — 25:49]

Favorite place in Israel.

[Melissa Weiss — 25:51]

The Mount of Beatitudes. You're not going toget anyone else who says that

[Abbey Onn — 25:52]

Or who can spell it.

[Melissa Weiss — 25:56]

No, it's just — it's the most... Sorry, I knowit's one word, but no one's going to say it, so I should get to promote it. Ithink I've never felt more at peace anywhere in the world than I have when I'vebeen at the Mount of Beatitudes. There's just something that... wow.

[Erica Marom — 26:13]

What's your best source for Israeli news?

[Melissa Weiss — 26:16]

Ooh. So I'm actually a big proponent ofjournalists — not necessarily news outlets. Though, you know, I think Times ofIsrael is great. Journalists that I follow: Manny Fabian, Lazar Berman,Suleiman Maswadeh, all of my colleagues here. Obviously. I think you have tofocus on the ones who do the best kind of journalism — the stuff where they'renot always relying on anonymous sources and sketchy sourcing in general. Peoplewho have a track record for being correct, and not biased. I think that's thekind of stuff you have to seek out, and it's hard to find sometimes here.

[Abbey Onn — 26:56]

Okay. Thing that you miss most from the US?

[Melissa Weiss — 27:00]

Snow.

[Abbey Onn — 27:01]

Fair — upstate New York.

[Melissa Weiss — 27:02]

Yeah.

[Erica Marom — 27:02]

What's your "only in Israel" moment,in one sentence?

[Melissa Weiss — 27:07]

I mean — the number of times that I have had aShabbat dinner just go totally awry because of an impending Iranian ballisticmissile attack. Which is a sentence I didn't think I'd ever say. That kind ofthing. Especially because a lot of my friends are journalists — when thosethings happen, all of a sudden people have to do live shots, people have togo...

[Abbey Onn — 27:34]

Not the way that I was thinking it was goingawry. Got it.

[Melissa Weiss — 27:37]

Right.

[Melissa Weiss — 27:38]

It's a little bit different. But, you know,it's what happens here. It's what happens here, right now.

[Abbey Onn — 27:43]

What does Shabbat or Saturday look like foryou?

[Melissa Weiss — 27:46]

Oh, my gosh. Well, every Shabbat since thebeginning of the war, I've had this kind of core group of friends — I mean,we've spent just about every Shabbat together. It's my saving grace.Absolutely. So Friday nights are always with them. And then Saturdays, you know— brunch, beach, just relaxing. Really kind of taking in Shabbat in the HolyLand.

[Erica Marom — 28:16]

Thank you so much for joining us.

[Melissa Weiss — 28:18]

Thanks for having me.

[Erica Marom — 28:20]

Thank you to all of our team, and thank you.If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with all of your friends. And,yalla, let's go!

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