Watch Out

Shimmy Blum

The cloud of fear that engulfed the US after 9/11 doesn’t have to be America’s long-term reality. But following the Boston Marathon bombing, security officials say citizens should ramp up their vigilance.

Bordering on War

Aharon Granevich-Granot, Panmunjom, North-South Korean border

On this strip of border, the soldiers of South Korean officer Per Byong Chol watch the North Korean military men in their viewfinder, while the bellicose threats of aggression by North Korea and the intelligence reports from the South have tensed up an already-volatile piece of land — officially a demilitarized zone, yet the most heavily armed strip in the world. Chol, who accompanied the Mishpacha team to this crossing, was blunt: “We’re here to prevent them from setting the whole region aflame.”

Pulling the Strings

Eliyahu Ackerman

If your cembalo has begun to squeak, or your sitar no longer sounds like it should, you can bring them to Reb Uri Gvili’s workshop in old Yaffo. As the soundman for many of the country’s most popular religious events and a craftsman with the rare skill of repairing antique instruments, Gvili shares the story of his journey back to the ancient strings — and the ancient melodies of the soul he was separated from for so long.

It’s in the Genes

Aharon Granevich-Granot

Could a breakthrough in RNA research and new discoveries about epigenetics herald a cure for some cancers that until now have defeated the medical establishment? Sixty years after the discover of DNA in April 1953, Professor Gidi Rechavi hopes his newest clinical trial will shed even more light on the mysteries of tumor biology