Israeli poet Vaan Nguyen "one of the most interesting young poets in Israel”

Roy Arad, one of the editors of Mayaan describes Vaan Nguyen  as "one of the most interesting young poets in Israel”

From an article by Dana Kessler in  Tablet Magazine:

Vaan Nguyen is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees who were among the so-called Boat People who fled Vietnam by sea in the late 1970s. After failing to find refuge in the Philippines, the family was given asylum in Israel by then Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Born in Israel in 1982, Nguyen grew up in Jaffa. Today she is an up-and-coming Israeli poet, championed by some of the country’s leading critics. 

 Her debut collection, The Truffle Eye, first saw the light of day six years ago, as a stand-alone pamphlet handed out with an issue of the literary journal Maayan. The journal is now publishing the collection—together with a handful of few new poems—as a proper book.

Nguyen was familiar to Israeli audiences before her collection was published. Her story—or at least the part of it that is connected to her past, her family, and her roots—served as the basis for director Duki Dror’s 2005 documentary, The Journey of Vaan Nguyen, in which Vaan joins her father on a journey back to Vietnam in an attempt to reclaim the family’s confiscated land.

Faces of Israel. Diversity. Democracy. Innovation

Druze historian and poet Dr. Reda Mansour appointed Israel's new Ambassador to Brazil

Israel loves and respects her poets as much as her warriors.

Druze historian and poet Dr. Reda Mansour has been appointed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman as Israel's next ambassador to Brazil. He will enter his new position in the summer.

Mansour was born in 1965 in the Druze village of Isfiya in northern Israel. He has a Ph.D from the University of Haifa's Middle East History Department and is a graduate of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Ambassador Mansour has received the Haáretz Annual Short Story Award, as well as the Haifa University Miller Award. He has published three books of Hebrew poetry and speaks 5 languages.

Mansour has been ambassador to Ecuador, deputy ambassador to Portugal and served as consul-general to the South-Eastern United States.

In an article originally  appearing in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on February 5th, 200, Dr. Mansour wrote:

My grandfather, who lived to be more than 100 years old, used to say, “I’ve seen them all and there are none like the Jews.”

Our small Druze town had remained virtually the same for hundreds of years under Ottoman and later British rule. When Israel was established in 1948, rapid development ensued, and for the first time, our homes had electricity and running water and every child received a quality, free education. 

Even among all that modernity and relative luxury, my grandfather’s greatest praise for Israel came as a result of how the young state treated its less fortunate citizens. For the first time in his life, my grandfather, a retired factory worker, received a pension and had access to quality health care. He said that a society could be judged by the way it treats the elderly, sick and unemployed and that Israel had proved itself both strong and compassionate. Certainly, he would say, such a nation would prevail.

Dr. Mansour joins two other Druze diplomats: Naim Aryadi, Israel's ambassador to Norway, and Baheej Mansour, Israel's ambassador to the Dominican Republic.

Faces of Israel: Diversity. Democracy. Innovation.

First Sgt. Monaliza Abdo, Arab-Israeli Combat Soldier

From the IDF Blog:

First Sgt. Monaliza Abdo is an Arab-Israeli woman who proudly served her country as a combat soldier. She wasn’t required to enlist, but her determination to protect Israel motivated her to volunteer. As a fighter on Israel’s southern border, she rose through the ranks to become a commander, teaching soldiers how to combat terrorism and other threats. Just a few weeks ago, she honorably completed three years of service – one more than the required number for Israeli women.