Bambi Sheleg
Bambi Sheleg ( במבי שלג) is an Israeli journalist and founding editor of the magazine Eretz Acheret[1]
Biography
Bambi Sheleg was born in Chile. She immigrated to Israel with her family at the age of 12. Sheleg earned a BA in Jewish history and English literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and studied Jewish philosophy at the Shalom Hartman Institute. She is married to Yair Sheleg, a journalist with the Israeli daily, Ha'aretz, and a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and three children.[2]
Journalism career
Sheleg began her career as a reporter and associate editor for Nekuda, a journal of the settlers of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. She then edited a children’s magazine called Otiot (1987–1997). Bambi moved to the Israeli daily Maariv in 1996, where she continues to write a regular column. She frequently appears as a guest commentator on television and radio talk shows, and lectures and participates in panel discussions throughout Israel. She is widely respected as a voice dedicated to promoting Israeli and Jewish discourse that places emphasis on issues of society and identity.[3]
In September 2000, Sheleg founded Eretz Acheret (“A Different Israel”), a decision that was catalyzed by the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. She decided that Israel needed a platform that would cut through ideological currents, in which an open ideological and ethical conversation would heal the rupture in society, and help the public to get a more precise picture of the challenges it faces. that publishes a magazine and website of the same name, which analyze and critique social, cultural and spiritual developments in Israel and among the Jewish people.[4]
Jewish outreach
She is an active member of the Bavli-Yerushalmi project, a Jerusalem-based study group for observant and non-observant Jews, which has a counterpart group in New York. The participants have been meeting for four-hour sessions every two weeks since 1997, for joint study of Jewish texts. Once a year, they get together with the New York group for a joint week-long seminar.
Awards
In recognition of her efforts to build bridges between different communities in Israel, Bambi received the Liebhaber Prize for the Promotion of Religious Pluralism and Tolerance in Israel, awarded by the Masorti Movement of Israel in 1998.
References
External links
- Eretz Acheret Official Site
- Elana Maryles Sztokman,A Different Kind of Israeli Magazine, Bambi Sheleg’s Eretz Acheret Is Making Waves, Forward,
August 18, 2010