Freelance

Over the years, I’ve taken on a number of freelance projects that have been published in outlets such as The New York Times, NBC News, The New York Daily News, The Forward, Tablet, Haaretz, The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post, Guilt and Pleasure, Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Magazine and The Seventh Eye. Since leaving AP in October 2020, I’ve also started writing analysis and commentary columns for various publications.

July 13, 2026

Excerpt — Zaidy’s Band: The Untold Sto­ries of a Jew­ish Band of Broth­ers in World War II

Published in The Jewish Book Council. When peo­ple think about the Jew­ish expe­ri­ence in World War II, there’s only one thing that imme­di­ate­ly comes to mind: the Holocaust. But there is anoth­er side to the sto­ry, that of the 1.5…

May 12, 2026

‘Too Israel-focused, too Jewy’: How publishing closes its doors to Jewish writers

How politics, fear, and quiet boycotts are narrowing the space for Israel-related voices in the literary world. Published in The Jerusalem Report. In the decade I spent pitching my debut book proposal to prospective agents and publishers, I faced repeated…

April 20, 2026

This Memorial Day, let’s remember Israel’s 1948 foreign volunteers

We must remember not only the recently fallen, but also on whose shoulders they stand. Op-ed published in The Times of Israel. Unlike Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is focused squarely on our painful past, the country’s annual Memorial Day…

April 14, 2026

Letter from Israel at wartime: This Holocaust Day, let’s remember the Jewish World War II veterans

Published in The Canadian Jewish News. The official name of Israel’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day is Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day. It’s a nod toward not only the victims of the genocide but also the resistance fighters who valiantly fought…

March 27, 2026

Letter from Israel at wartime: Life between sirens

Published in The Canadian Jewish News Nearly a month into the war with Iran, it’s safe to say that much of what we have been experiencing in Israel has been unprecedented. It’s the first fully joint American Israeli military operation….

January 27, 2026

The Holocaust wasn’t the only Jewish World War II experience

For the 1.5 million Jewish soldiers who fought in World War II victimhood was not the only story. Op-ed published in The Times of Israel As the world commemorates the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on Tuesday on…

December 01, 2025

Zaidy’s Band book excerpt: Alfred Brenner, the Man in the Flying Suitcase

Published in The Hamilton Jewish News. It was a routine Associated Press reporting assignment. I was dispatched to a security conference in May 2015 to listen to panels of experts discussing Israel’s looming security threats. It was only when I…

November 11, 2025

From Mem­o­ry to Man­u­script: The Sto­ry Behind ​“Zaidy’s Band”

Published in The Jewish Book Council My grand­fa­ther, Mick­ey Heller, served four years in the Roy­al Cana­di­an Air Force, includ­ing two years in Europe as a nav­i­ga­tor in Bomber Com­mand. But that’s all I, or any­one else in my fam­i­ly,…

June 26, 2025

Canadian dispatches from Israel at wartime: Like father, like daughter

Published in The Canadian Jewish News. One of the defining memories of my youth is the 1990 Gulf War, and the subsequent Iraqi missile attacks against Israel early the next year. I was 14, and I distinctly remember the drama…

June 16, 2025

Canadian dispatches from Israel at wartime: Was I made for these times?

Published in The Canadian Jewish News. The start of the inevitable Iranian retaliation to Israel’s stunning series of airstrikes caught me in the shower Friday night. Upon hearing the familiar sound of wailing air raid sirens outside, I quickly grabbed…

November 22, 2024

Letter from Israel at wartime: A year of living under missile threat

Published in The Canadian Jewish News. With all the trauma and turmoil that has engulfed this country after more than a year of war, it seems almost trivial to describe the plight of daily life in central Israel under the…

April 17, 2024

Letter from Israel at wartime: Seeking escapism amid an Iranian attack

Published in The Canadian Jewish News. One would think that news of an impending, widescale attack from your nuclear threshold, sworn enemy nation would set off a panic. But that’s not what happened when I heard that Iran had finally…

January 08, 2024

For Israel’s African Refugees, October 7 Brings Fresh Trauma

Sudanese asylum seekers experience a double dose of trauma from Hamas attack on Israel. Feature published in HIAS. TEL AVIV — The Hamas attack on Israel last October 7 was so unprecedented, brutal, and barbaric that most people in the…

November 10, 2023

Canadian dispatches from Israel at wartime: We will never be the same after Oct. 7

Published in The Canadian Jewish News. When the wailing air-raid sirens woke me in the early morning hours of Oct. 7 and sent me stumbling to the safe room of our apartment in central Israel, my initial instinct was rather…

November 02, 2023

The road ahead for Israel after Oct. 7

How we respond as a nation to this unprecedented calamity may well dictate what kind of country remains – or if one remains at all. Op-ed published in The Times of Israel One way or another, the Oct. 7, 2023,…

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