Born in Ukraine, Anna Zharova moved to Israel 22 years ago. Like many new immigrants, she focused on learning Hebrew, making new friends and integrating into Israeli society — and naturally lost interest in what was happening in her country of birth.

That all changed eight years ago when Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula, sparking the most serious East-West crisis since the Cold War.

"When that happened, I said: I can no longer stand on the side," recounts the 41-year-old, "and I have remained active ever since."

Read more @Haaretz.com

As the daughter of Soviet Jewish immigrants, I used to call myself ‘Russian’—but a trip to Kyiv offered me a new perspective, and a new language

It was our last day in Kyiv. Soon I would return to the life I had always known in New York before moving to Ukraine three months prior — but on that day, rather than seek respite from the smoldering heat, my partner and I were in the Jewish section of the city's municipal cemetery, navigating a small jungle of poison ivy in a last-ditch effort to find my great-grandparents' graves.

Read more