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Alexandra Vardi

Hozrim Betvuna founder Naor Narkis, right, speaks with a passerby in the largely ultra-Orthodox central Israeli city of Bnei Brak, May 2025. (Alexandra Vardi)
May 24, 2025, 8:02 am
Venturing into Haredi enclaves, an Israeli atheist tries a new form of Jewish outreach
Naor Narkis has launched a movement to help members of the insular ultra-Orthodox community explore other options – an initiative, he says, that aims to thwart a demographic crisis
By Alexandra Vardi
A picture taken on April 13, 2023, shows an employee of the agronomy tech company AgroScout flying a drone in the northern Israeli kibbutz of Yiron. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)
June 11, 2023, 11:45 am
‘The first startups’: Kibbutzim repurposed through embrace of new industries
Communities founded as models of socialist society have since largely shed collectivist past, with residents touting their ‘innovative approach’ to contemporary challenges
By Alexandra Vardi
Pravin Kukadia, director of Eminent Gems Ltd., shows diamonds to AFP during an interview at his office in the Israel World Diamond Center, in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan, May 16, 2022. (Jack Guez/AFP)
June 3, 2022, 8:25 am
Diamonds forge cornerstone of ties between Israel, India
Precious stones account for half of all trade between the countries, with Indian traders in Ramat Gan enjoying a special visa status
By Alexandra Vardi
Bees populate new high-tech beehives, part of the Beehome project, in Israel's Kibbutz Beit Haemek in the northern Galilee, on May 14, 2022. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)
May 18, 2022, 8:06 pm
Kibbutz employs new smart hive tech to keep its bees buzzing
Israeli startup builds hives featuring AI that monitors bees’ needs and responds to problems in real-time
By Alexandra Vardi
A woman works in a lab at a high-tech cannabis products start-up at a technological incubator center in the town of Yeruham in the southern Negev desert on February 1, 2022. (MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)
February 6, 2022, 9:05 am
Desert town Yeruham aims for employment high as Israel’s ‘medical cannabis capital’
Town in southern Negev hopes to capitalize on its economic priority zone status by drawing startups in developing field of non-recreational pot
By Alexandra Vardi
A hotline responder works at the Tahel, Crisis Center for Religious Women and Children, in Jerusalem on January 5, 2022. - "Lo Tishtok" - Hebrew for "You shall not be silent" - is a phrase gaining momentum among ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredim, who are being forced to reckon with claims of serious crimes, including sexual abuse of children, against several of their cultural icons. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
January 13, 2022, 5:45 am
As sexual abuse cases hit ultra-Orthodox community, some vow to be silent no longer
Insular community struggling to deal with several high profile cases of prominent people being accused of abuse, with counselors seeing a rise in the number willing to speak out
By Alexandra Vardi and Michael Blum
Elishya Ben Meir, an 18-year-old Israeli, safely disposes of abandoned waste after registering it on the 'Clean Coin' mobile application as she walks her dog in the town of Kiryat Tiv'on near Israel's northern city of Haifa on October 20, 2021 (JACK GUEZ / AFP)
November 10, 2021, 8:58 am
Trash into treasure: Israeli start-up gives virtual coins for picking up garbage
Clean Coin app deposits credit for people who collect litter, which can then be exchanged for goods, activities and vacations
By Alexandra Vardi
A couple of astronauts from a team from Europe and Israel walk in spacesuits during a training mission for planet Mars at a site that simulates an off-site station at the Ramon Crater in Mitzpe Ramon in Israel's southern Negev desert on October 10, 2021. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
October 12, 2021, 1:48 am
Six ‘astronauts’ on month-long mission in Israeli desert to prepare for Mars
Participants from Austria, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain simulating life on the Red Planet to perfect the survival skills needed for eventual voyage
By Alexandra Vardi
Hundreds of people demonstrate during a swearing-in ceremony of the new Knesset in Jerusalem on April 6, 2021, against a group of newly elected lawmakers who oppose gay rights (Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)
April 6, 2021, 10:09 pm
As anti-gay MKs sworn in, activists fear ‘step backwards’ on LGBT rights
Calling for ‘a normal people in our land,’ Religious Zionism’s Noam faction opposes recognition of gay and lesbian couples with children as families
By Nir Kafri and Alexandra Vardi
Bar Pinto (R) and Gilad Levi, two red-bearded 29-year-olds and founders of 'Beard for All' ('Ptor Zakan' in Hebrew), a campaign challenging Israeli military rules compelling all male troops to be cleanshaven, in Tel Aviv on February 7, 2021 (Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)
March 3, 2021, 11:52 am
IDF faces battle over bearded soldiers who choose not to shave
Two campaigners have taken up the cause on behalf of thousands of secular servicemen who want the same rights to facial hair granted to religious troops
By Alexandra Vardi
A young couple share a picnic in front of a view of the Tel Aviv skyline, in the Israeli coastal city, on February 15, 2021 (Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)
February 18, 2021, 9:07 am
A decade after social protests, affordable housing remains a dream for many
Prices have continued to rise since the summer of 2011, which saw dozens join tent encampments across Israel to protest the high cost of living
By Alexandra Vardi
Holocaust survivor Motti Liber, 88, receives care from a volunteer on the premises of the Yad Ezer L'Haver foundation, which supports survivors of the Holocaust by providing them food as well as medical and psychological assistance, in Haifa on January 24, 2021. (Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)
January 27, 2021, 8:38 am
Foundation boosts its aid to isolated Holocaust survivors in shadow of pandemic
Haifa-based Yad Ezer L’Haver has been providing food and assistance to survivors for 20 years, is now operating a call center that connects with 3,500 people every day
By Alexandra Vardi
A mountain gazelle is pictured on a hill next to a forest in a suburb of Jerusalem on January 7, 2021. (MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)
January 15, 2021, 2:37 pm
Israel studies new forest home for endangered mountain gazelle
Wildlife experts hope population numbers can recover in woodlands like the Forest of the Martyrs west of Jerusalem
By Alexandra Vardi
Israeli Naama Goldman-Shwartz, 45, walks with a guest at Juha's Guesthouse in the northern coastal village of Jisr az-Zarqa on September 30, 2020 (Jack Guez/AFP)
October 4, 2020, 5:31 pm
Israelis seek to save embattled Jewish-Arab hostel amid pandemic
Celebrities, anonymous donors raise funds for Juha’s Guesthouse in Jisr az-Zarqa, hailed as a model of coexistence, as travel ban keeps tourists away
By Alexandra Vardi
Harel Barak (R) and his husband Yakir Kanneli (L) pose for a picture with an empty stroller at a park in Tel Aviv, on August 14, 2020. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
August 19, 2020, 3:47 pm
Israeli same-sex couples seek end to surrogacy discrimination
Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn says government intends to pass a surrogacy bill by the end of the year in order to comply with recent Supreme Court ruling
By Alexandra Vardi
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