NEW YORK, NY – The Branch, Hadassah’s newly-launched podcast, hosted by veteran journalist Dina Kraft, shines a light on stories of people living, learning, working and connecting in a shared society.  The Branch is available at hadassah.org/thebranch or on iTunes and all other popular podcast platforms.

According to Ellen Hershkin, national president of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. (HWZOA), “The Branch offers a glimpse into the everyday lives of Jews and Arabs in Israel and how they come together in surprising and heartwarming ways, even though it’s complicated. … We wanted to tell the stories of unity, friendship and trust inside our hospitals and around the country.”

Kraft is a journalist, editor and educator.  Currently based in Tel Aviv, she is a correspondent for both Haaretz andThe Christian Science Monitor where she reports on Israeli and Palestinian politics, culture and society, and has been a regular contributor to The New York Times and JTA.

Formerly based in Jerusalem and Johannesburg for The Associated Press, Kraft has reported from throughout Africa, as well as Pakistan, Jordan, Tunisia, Russia and Ukraine. Until 2017, she directed the Media Innovation Program, a graduate program in digital journalism, at Northeastern University in Boston.  She was a 2012 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and a 2015 Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.

The Branch is produced by Josh Kross, one of the producers of Unorthodox, the most popular Jewish podcast in the U.S.

An example of The Branch is an episode entitled “Harmony Onstage and Off,” a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Jaffa Theatre, meeting Jewish and Arab actors and musicians from different backgrounds brought together by the power of musician Farid Al-Atrash.