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[theisraelijoy]

About The Israeli Joy

Hadar was born in Israel to a traditional non-religious Jewish-Yemenite family who taught her about Zionism, her Jewish identity, and the value of equality and love for all humans, traveling the world, and exploring different cultures.

Growing up in Israel was a wonderful and challenging experience - living by the beach, traveling around the country, and making lifelong friends. In contrast, the challenges of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict throughout the years gave Hadar a chance to share her personal story with others.

Since a young age, Hadar has loved traveling, and currently, she has traveled to 16 different countries in her 31 years and 16 states around the United States in the past six years. She was exploring other points of view of people worldwide and learning different languages. Even though She fell in love with the world, Hadar was always confident of her devotion to her homeland - The land of Israel and knew she would want to focus on educating others about Judaism and Israel.

After getting her Bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science in Israel in 2016, Hadar decided to travel again, and this time she decided to go to the United States. While exploring the American culture, Hadar had a fantastic opportunity to get involved in education. While teaching Hebrew and Judaic Studies full time, she graduated in 2021 with a Master's in Second Language Education from Middlebury College, VT.

Her nickname, 'The Israeli Joy,' was created in January of 2022 after noticing she wished to change the social media world where many people are engaging to find information. Her strong belief in teaching others with a positive attitude and a smile, even in difficult times, has helped her navigate through challenging conversations and educate her followers about her deep love for Israel and her Jewish identity.

Hadar received much positive feedback both in person and on her social media - many mentioned how much they have learned about Israeli and Jewish cultures and the importance of standing up for the Jewish community.

Hadar currently continues to dedicate her time to education and living on the East Coast in the United States, has a loving circle of friends, and continues exploring the world of Judaism and Zionism.

[theisraelijoy]

The Art of protecting yourself

One of the most challenging parts of being an activist or anyone who is basically speaking up for themselves is the sense of security.

When we talk about security, we don’t really always talk about security in a sense of physical protection per-say, but also protecting our mind, emotions and taking time to watch over our own mental health.

I can only speak for myself for the most part, so I will start with this:

Being an activist is a full-time work, not just in a sense of hours of editing and creating posts (even though this is true), it’s also the mental and emotional investment in your set of believes with the fact you know this is a long-life journey with some intense learning curves. Growing up into this beautiful idea called Zionism, being part of the Jewish people and the Jews on Yemen in particular gave me this sense of understanding who I am and who I will always be regardless of where I go.

Moving to the Diaspora and taking the job of being a representative of my community has been a beautiful road so far but yet to be easy, and probably will never be. I realize I have to make sure I take care of myself, continue this hard work and learn to not let the haters the power of weakening me or my people.

What can you do to protect yourself from Antisemitism? 1. Be aware - be aware who is someone who is judging you, who question the way you feel about it and who around you have a very little knowledge on you but with a lot of opinions about how you should take actions. all of these can be a sign of unhealthy communications and you should have conversations with these people. With that being said, it doesn’t mean that you have to cut people out of you lives because they don’t know (a lot of them would want to know!!) and definitely don’t be afraid. 2. Take care of your mental health - I posted advises of how to take care of your mental health on my Instagram (@theisraelijoy) but let me mention them here as well: take a break from social media and disconnect from this overwhelming information; Write down what do you love/proud of for being Jewish; learn something new about your Judaism so you can share it, maybe even a fun fact. 3. Life-Long Journey - embrace the fact that this is a life-long journey not just for you but for many jews out there. You can reach out to other communities and individuals and don’t let go, teach the next generation what matters and how we can grow as people. There are things you will not be able to change, and this is okay, focus on what you can! All the love, Hadar

[theisraelijoy]

The Art of Getting Offended

When we were little, we were told many times to connect to our feelings in a way that makes us feel meaningful and connected to the world. Sometimes it would be going to school and get the highest score in the SATs, nurturing a pet or give back to the nature, get a high paid job or take care of the next generation, or perhaps just be there for the ones who needs us. Sometimes at just any moment and on our expense.

No one told us that the real treasure in life, is to find just the right balance between getting hurt for things that are just not worth it to fight for justice. When is it the right time to say “Your words actually matter” to “I don’t really care for what you say”?

The answer is simple - the results. Long term or short.

Please do not get me wrong, and hopefully the fact that English is my second language will not cause any miscommunication:

When you repeat a narrative or a stereotype for that matter, even when it seem some minor or simple, flattering maybe, you can start causing a chain.

I will take the most recent example from the Jewish world:

Kanye, Aka “Ye”. Many people sent me messages asking “why what he said was so wrong?”. So without going to the details (I have them on my Instagram page on a video @TheIsraeliJoy) I will give you scenario:

A young kid somewhere in the world who feels so inspired by Ye, will hear is words and if there’s nothing wrong with the kiddo, he is most likely to subconsciously have an idea in his mind about Jewish people, probably without even meeting one.

This is where you probably ask yourself “so what Hadar, he can’t do anything!”. Well the answer is simple - how can you be so sure? The strongest leaders of the western world used to be children who were influenced by some source.

Let’s say, this kid didn’t. He moved on with his life and actually maybe married a Jewish significant other. Ye has over 18 million followers on Instagram alone, there are 15 million jews around the world. Can you see what I mean now?

Another person told me “you always get offended, reminds me of a culture”, obviously referring to my Judaism which I find it interesting since that the same person never had much interaction with me other than keep telling me antisemitic jokes whenever I ran into him at the gym. More interesting that him just like Kanye, never grew up in what we call ‘white Privilege’. So how come a person who generationally knew what pain, suffering and discrimination would want to continue doing this?

Remember, we’re not out there at the playground and that person just told you they don’t like what you’re wearing. They are telling you I don’t like what you’re being born to.

It’s been rough ride for generations, all we need to have is a bit of compassion and a lot of trust that we will teach each other about what we are.

Act with Love,

Hadar