There are many ways to experience Israel. Some people encounter it through politics. Others through religion, conflict, family history, or ideology. My connection to Israel has always passed through people.

In 2024, I participated in a volunteer program in the city of Lod through Taglit and Yahel. Before arriving, I already carried with me years of social activism in Brazil, especially around questions of diversity, education, identity, and social inequality. But Lod challenged me — and moved me — in ways I did not fully expect.

Lod is not the Israel of postcards. It is not the simplified version of Israel that often appears in political debates abroad. It is a mixed city, deeply complex, marked by tensions, contradictions, coexistence, inequality, and also by human encounters that are impossible to understand through headlines alone. And maybe that is exactly why I became so........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)