VIVA PRESS

Police tape at the playground. Slides, swings, seesaw, monkey bars. All cordoned off. You know the situation is serious when local playgrounds are vacant and look like crime scenes. And especially in Israel. One of the most child-friendly societies. This is the country teeming with family-oriented activities at every turn. The outdoor play areas here are amazingly fun. The tempting playgrounds supply adrenaline. Even during rocket attacks and wars, families bring their kids f

My kids are certain that I'm going to take them to the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest finals. They're also certain that Tel Aviv will host the event. Of course, as of today, a final decision on the host city and venue has yet to be decided. In fact, European broadcasters are in Israel today, scoping out Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Eilat as possible host cities. Eurovision has always been a bit of an enigma for me... growing up in Canada, it wasn't a big deal at all. But over th

On a recent visit to Rawabi, the first planned city built for and by Palestinians in the West Bank, developer and Palestinian businessman Bashar Masri spoke to a group of American visitors about working with Israel's famous tech community to help move forward the Palestinian people. Upon returning to Tel Aviv, I happened upon numerous news tidbits -- and side statements -- that, together, seemed to show how Israeli-Palestinian collaboration in the high-tech field is growing.

“There’s a war,” my son’s teacher says, pointing to the sky as we hear Israel Air Force jets overhead. We’re meeting outside in the shade, at a picnic table in the school’s courtyard for our parent-teacher interview. It becomes a weird scenario as we are here to talk about my second-grader’s progress but we both know that while we’re safe and able to sit outside at a Tel Aviv school, elsewhere in Israel not all is quiet. A barrage of mortar shells hit Israel’s southern commun

Today is International Hummus Day! To celebrate, you’re meant to eat hummus for breakfast, lunch or dinner – or, all three. In Israel, most people won’t even know that their trip today to the local hummisya (hummus joint) is anything out of the ordinary. After all, Israelis love this smooth and creamy spread and eat it all the time. Israelis fork over at least $210 million on hummus every year. A new report on the local chickpea spread sector only calculated hummus dollars ac

Tel Aviv is home to the most advanced indoor cycling arena in the Middle East. The world governing body for sports cycling, Union Cycliste International, officially homologated the still-under-construction bicycle track on May 1, 2018. At first, I was rather annoyed when construction began on the velodrome, located in the Hadar Yosef neighborhood of the city – and directly in front of my living room window. However, after a visit inside today (sneak preview for journalists)..