Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Eleven beauty queens at the Dead Sea, part of a Faces of Israel tour of the land (photo credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90)
Eleven American beauty queens toured Israel last week under the auspices of the Faces of Israel, a private organization that partners with Israel’s Foreign Ministry to combat BDS, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement against Israel.
The group, which included recent and past winners of the Miss America pageant, Miss USA pageant and the Miss Teen USA pageant, visited the usual array of sites, from the Old City of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea to Yad Vashem, Christian sites in Nazareth and the Galilee, and, given the recent events of the summer, Sderot and Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.
They also met with IDF soldiers, members of Knesset, start-up executives and female leaders.
“Of all of the travels I have been lucky enough to enjoy, I know this will be the most life-changing. I am so grateful to be here,” said Mallory Hagan, Miss America 2013.
The beauty queens, from all over the US, traveled Israel north to south (photo credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90)
The delegation also consisted of Susie Castillo (Miss USA 2003), Bianca Vierra (Miss California Teen USA 2014), Candace Smith (Miss Ohio USA 2003), Kristen Dalton (Miss USA 2009), Michelle La France (Miss Connecticut USA 2003), Jenna Edwards (Miss Florida USA 2007), Alicia Blanco (Miss Arizona USA 2009), Cassidy Wolf (Miss Teen USA 2013), Cassandra Kunze (Miss California USA 2014) and Carrie Mantha (Miss Florida USA 2003).
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
