The Young Arab Sex Workers Making a Living in Israel
Testimonies from the intersection of sex, race, money and war.
NYC ORIGINALS
New York's Unsung Heroes
Hi, I’m Orli: a narrative journalist and content manager with a decade of experience as a staff writer and Israeli- American correspondent. My features have been published in prominent outlets such as Vice News, The Daily Beast, The Times of Israel, JTA, 972Magazine, BroadwayStars, and numerous smaller blogs. I write about diverse topics, but have a particular affinity for marginalized and fringe communities. Being a multinational immigrant, I know both the struggle and the potential inherent in the “outsider” label. I seek to explore it, translating our complex realities into a simple and compelling narrative, so we may experience each other’s truths.
Selected Clips
A cross-section of the work.
A New Stage For Erotic Theatre
An evolving class of cross-genre events blends art with subversive encounters.
Death Defying Tags
The Rise Of Rappelling Graffiti
A Three-Body Problem: The day the *will of an AI became a matter of national security
*”Will” isn’t the right term for whatever AI has in place of volition. But the fact that no such term exists has become its own problem.
How Freedom of Speech Was Crushed During Protective Edge
A running tally of the 2014 Gaza war's quieter casualty: dissent. Beatings, firings, and legislation aimed at silencing Israelis who dared to object.
Narcissistic Abuse and the Power of Film
This summer, two films about narcissistic abuse reach general audiences: I Love You My Narcissist, Ali Schmahl’s psychological drama streaming on AlefCine Stream, and The Narcissist’s Playbook, a documentary from Mark Vicente, the director of HBO’s The Vow. Millions of people, from general audiences to survivors, are about to immerse themselves in the topic. Whether that helps them or harms them is a matter of choices the productions make.
Dr. Jamie Huysman, LCSW, spent twenty years as the cl...
Dr. Jamie Huysman, LCSW, spent twenty years as the cl...
The Tide Comes In: Colorado's Coercive Control Law Takes Effect
On August 12, Colorado House Bill 26-1309 — “Abuse in Cases of Separation” — takes effect. When we wrote about it in July, it was a law on paper. Now it is a law in the courtroom, and the courtroom it changes most is the one survivors fear most: family court.
Sponsored by Representatives Meg Froelich and Tammy Story and Senator Katie Wallace, and signed by Governor Jared Polis on May 27, the bill did two things. The first was expanding Colorado’s definition of domestic violence to include coe...
Sponsored by Representatives Meg Froelich and Tammy Story and Senator Katie Wallace, and signed by Governor Jared Polis on May 27, the bill did two things. The first was expanding Colorado’s definition of domestic violence to include coe...
Human Interest
Long-form, NYC-based.
Death Defying Tags
The Rise Of Rappelling Graffiti
Breaking Even, and Staying Positive
In a neighborhood systemically overrun by drug treatment facilities and homeless shelters, Ginjan Café endures.
A New Stage For Erotic Theatre
An evolving class of cross-genre events blends art with subversive encounters.
Meet The Kinksters
Exploring Folsom Street East, the Northeast’s largest
BDSM and Leather street fair
BDSM and Leather street fair
Mental Health
Features about CPTSD, recovery and the mental health industry for starnetwork.org
The Federal Medicaid 80-Hour Work Requirement: What Survivors on Medicaid Need to Know Now
On July 31, a new federal Medicaid rule became final. Starting in 2027 — and already, in a few states — most adults who get health coverage through Medicaid expansion will need to show they work, study, or volunteer about 80 hours a month to keep it.
The rule was written about a group the law calls able-bodied adults. It does not mention abuse anywhere. It reaches survivors anyway, and more directly than almost anyone else.
The requirement applies to adults ages 19 to 64 who have Medicaid throug...
The rule was written about a group the law calls able-bodied adults. It does not mention abuse anywhere. It reaches survivors anyway, and more directly than almost anyone else.
The requirement applies to adults ages 19 to 64 who have Medicaid throug...
Coast to Coast: Canada Just Made Coercive Control a Federal Crime
On June 18, Canada’s Parliament passed Bill C-16, the Protecting Victims Act. On July 18 most of it became enforceable law. This act made femicide — when a woman is killed in circumstances involving coercive control, hate, sexual violence, or exploitation — into a first-degree murder charge. It created a new criminal offence for a pattern of coercive or controlling conduct toward an intimate partner; made threatening to share intimate images, including sexual deepfakes, punishable by up to ten y...
Narcissistic Abuse and the Power of Film
This summer, two films about narcissistic abuse reach general audiences: I Love You My Narcissist, Ali Schmahl’s psychological drama streaming on AlefCine Stream, and The Narcissist’s Playbook, a documentary from Mark Vicente, the director of HBO’s The Vow. Millions of people, from general audiences to survivors, are about to immerse themselves in the topic. Whether that helps them or harms them is a matter of choices the productions make.
Dr. Jamie Huysman, LCSW, spent twenty years as the cl...
Dr. Jamie Huysman, LCSW, spent twenty years as the cl...
The Tides Are Changing: Two More States Write Coercive Control Into Law
For decades, survivors were told it wasn’t abuse unless it left a mark. This summer, two more states said otherwise.
There is a sentence almost every STAR has heard, in one form or another: “But he never hit you.” It might have come from a relative who couldn’t understand why you left, or from a police officer standing in your kitchen, or from the judge reviewing your petition. The sentence lands like a verdict, because for most of legal history, it was one. If the harm didn’t leave a visible...
There is a sentence almost every STAR has heard, in one form or another: “But he never hit you.” It might have come from a relative who couldn’t understand why you left, or from a police officer standing in your kitchen, or from the judge reviewing your petition. The sentence lands like a verdict, because for most of legal history, it was one. If the harm didn’t leave a visible...
Mica's Law and the Stalled Fight to Criminalize Coercive Control
Between 2022 and 2024, Mica Miller called the police on her husband seven times. Each time, her sister would later tell South Carolina lawmakers, the officers left without acting. “There was nothing for them to do,” Abigail Francis testified, “since there were no laws to guide them against coercive control.”
Mica Miller died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a North Carolina state park on April 27, 2024, two days after serving her husband with divorce papers. She had married John-Paul “JP”...
Mica Miller died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a North Carolina state park on April 27, 2024, two days after serving her husband with divorce papers. She had married John-Paul “JP”...
June 27 is PTSD Awareness Day – STAR Network
The politics of medicine: PTSD is a clinically recognized condition, while Complex PTSD isn't. Here's why.
"You Should Have Known Better" – STAR Network
Systemic betrayal: what the Epstein files teach us about reporting abuse
The Double Exile: Why Leaving an Abuser May Be Harder for LGBTQ+ Survivors – STAR Network
When an abuser is woven into someone’s LGBTQ+ world, leaving them can cost that person both their community and their queer identity. Why mainstream DV resources fail queer survivors — and what might actually work.
From Scars to STARs – STAR Network
The 2026 Scars to STARs Summit shifted the conversation from what we know about childhood adversity to what we can do about it.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month – STAR Network
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s marked with a green ribbon -- a symbol with a dark origin story.
What Your ACE Score Won’t Tell You – STAR Network
The ACE quiz measures childhood trauma exposure — but not access to repair. Learn what your score means, what it misses, and where to find peer support.
What TAR Anon Is — and What It Isn't – STAR Network
A Guide for the Person Who Just Googled “Am I in a Toxic Relationship?”
Jewish Press
Local Israeli-American and Jewish news
Negotiating A Rosh HaShanah Dinner Coalition - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Assembling a holiday table across political fault lines, where passing the brisket takes the diplomacy of a ceasefire negotiator.
How Freedom of Speech Was Crushed During Protective Edge
A running tally of the 2014 Gaza war's quieter casualty: dissent. Beatings, firings, and legislation aimed at silencing Israelis who dared to object.
Brooklyn Parenting
Local reporting, listicles and roundups for brooklynbridgeparents.com
Back to School 101 for Brooklyn families 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Back-to-school season is almost here, and we have rounded up everything Brooklyn families need to start the year off right: the 2026–27 school calendar, immunization deadlines, after-school guides, our annual Back to School events, and the school news worth knowing before day one.
The first day of school for all 3K–12 New York City public school students is Thursday, September 10, 2026 — a late start, since Labor Day lands late this year. The last day is Monday, June 28, 2027. The full calendar...
The first day of school for all 3K–12 New York City public school students is Thursday, September 10, 2026 — a late start, since Labor Day lands late this year. The last day is Monday, June 28, 2027. The full calendar...
The Week in Brooklyn: August 3–9, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: the city closed nearly every beach to swimming; Pete Davidson turned up for dinner in Brooklyn; the first free 2-K offers went out; state test scores for public schools landed with a warning attached; Brooklyn had its quietest month on record for homicides; the MTA promised open-stroller space on every city bus; MUJI signed a lease at the Alloy Block; and a Crown Heights block was crowned the greenest in the borough. Read on for the latest!
Swimming was...
Swimming was...
New York State test results 2026 for public schools released | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
New York City Public Schools released citywide results for this year’s state tests on Friday, August 7. Across grades 3 to 8, reading proficiency fell 6 percentage points to 50.3%, while math held steady at 57%. Individual student results are being released to families on Monday.
In Brooklyn, 53.4% of students met or exceeded the standards in English Language Arts, down from 60% last year. Math edged up to 61.8% from 61.4%. Brooklyn remains above the citywide average in both subjects.
Below is o...
In Brooklyn, 53.4% of students met or exceeded the standards in English Language Arts, down from 60% last year. Math edged up to 61.8% from 61.4%. Brooklyn remains above the citywide average in both subjects.
Below is o...
New restaurants, bars, bakeries, cafes and supermarkets that opened & closed in our neighborhoods in July ’26 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
July was a full month at the table: Red Hook Focacceria started baking long-fermented focaccia on Van Brunt Street, Badshah Social brought chef-driven Indian street food to Park Slope, Yuan Is Here made its Brooklyn debut with Taiwanese night-market cooking in Downtown Brooklyn, and Greenpoint got lobster rolls and Vietnamese-Japanese pizza in the same few weeks. Still to come: sourdough bagels from Caputo Bagels in Park Slope in September, Chad Robertson’s Altbau bakery in Williamsburg, and Lid...
The Week in Brooklyn: July 27 – August 2, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: Spike Lee and BAM announced a new Brooklyn festival for November; the Nets and Liberty’s owners announced their divorce; two giant bears took up permanent residence on the Gowanus Canal; rip currents and bacteria advisories complicated a hot weekend at the beach; City Hall put a 30% discount on the city’s future grocery stores; the city loosened its preschool curriculum mandate; Lidl set a date in Williamsburg; and a 1,500-home complex with a new public sc...
Free Outdoor Concerts and Dance Parties in Brooklyn this summer 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s 2026 summer scene is packed with free outdoor concerts and community dance parties. Major highlights include Prospect Park’s BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! festival and the throwback Freedom Party in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Williamsburg’s Domino Square offers bi-weekly “Salsa by the Water” with beginner lessons, while Dumbo brings bluegrass to the Archway for the Brooklyn Americana Music Festival. For neighborhood block parties, locals can hit the legendary Soul Summit festival in Fort Greene...
The Week in Brooklyn: July 20–26, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: Brooklyn places 23 neighborhoods in the city’s top 50: Shakira turned Barclays Center into a two-night World Cup victory lap; Olivia Rodrigo’s new romance came with a Clinton Hill backstory; storm runoff put the city’s beaches under a no-swim advisory; Borough Hall’s subway station went step-free after two years; New York Magazine put day-care giant Bright Horizons under a harsh light; an 18-year-old was shot resisting a robbery on a Crown Heights platform...
The Week in Brooklyn: July 13–19, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: Ariana Grande made Barclays history; World Cup Final watch parties popped up across Brooklyn; Red Hook Pool finally reopened; heat wave, Canadian wildfires and thunderstorms challenged outdoor summer fun; a teenager was injured in a Bed-Stuy shooting; police made an arrest in the moped chain-snatching spree; a Brooklyn Heights townhouse set the year’s price record; Riverside tenants demanded repairs; Sichuan dim sum favorite Breeze signed on at The Ashland...
Affordable housing lotteries in Downtown Brooklyn, Gowanus, Red Hook & beyond | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Housing lotteries are now open for new developments in Downtown Brooklyn, Gowanus, Red Hook and Crown Heights, with one-bedrooms and two- and three-bedroom apartments available for eligible families. See all open housing lotteries across the five boroughs here!
Apartments: 5 one-bedroom apartments & 10 two-bedroom apartments
Amenities: Swimming pool, spa, gym, children’s playroom, dog park, coworking space, rooftop terrace, washers and dryers in-unit, and more
Monthly rent: $2,199 – $2,616
Elig...
Apartments: 5 one-bedroom apartments & 10 two-bedroom apartments
Amenities: Swimming pool, spa, gym, children’s playroom, dog park, coworking space, rooftop terrace, washers and dryers in-unit, and more
Monthly rent: $2,199 – $2,616
Elig...
Free outdoor movies in Brooklyn this summer 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Outdoor movies are back in Brooklyn this summer at parks, plazas, and public spaces across the borough. This year’s most family-friendly outdoor movie screenings feature a variety of animated favorites, including Fantastic Mr. Fox, How to Train Your Dragon, Despicable Me 4, The Lego Movie, Zootopia, and multiple SpongeBob films. For a night out with older kids, mark your calendars for the action-packed thriller Die Hard, the sports comedy Bend It Like Beckham, Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee – a...
The Week in Brooklyn: June 1–7, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: parents fight pay-to-play playgrounds; Court Street redesign hits Carroll Gardens; Whole Foods coming to Cobble Hill and Bushwick; parks vs. parking, round two; Mamdani launches free 2-K; Greek Festival packs Schermerhorn Street; Knicks Finals watch parties mapped and will Spike Lee throw a championship party in Brooklyn?; men in manholes baffle Brooklyn; NYPD hunts B62 bus suspect; Bar Susanne, Socceria, and Grimm Tavern arrive; Brooklyn Heights’ last Wal...
The Week in Brooklyn: May 25–31, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: the Park Slope Food Co-op votes two-to-one to boycott Israeli products, ending a debate that began in 2009; the DOE confirms a fresh wave of 3K seats at PS 110 and Kuei Luck Early Childhood Center in Greenpoint, with more on the way in Boerum Hill; Mayor Mamdani unveils a $22 billion “Block by Block” housing plan in Gowanus; the City Council Land Use Committee takes up the 1,150-unit Monitor Point project on the Greenpoint waterfront; the ninth annual DUMB...
The Week in Brooklyn: May 18–24, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: the long-vacant Pre-K and 3-K center at Columbia and Van Brunt finally gets a September open date after years of community pushback; Mamdani picks south of Prospect Park for his first Brooklyn rezoning; judges’ parking holds up a $21M Columbus Park redesign at Borough Hall and more
The Week in Brooklyn: May 11–17, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: Mayor Mamdani brings World Cup energy to NYC schoolyards with Soccer Streets; the Macy’s 4th of July fireworks return to the Brooklyn Bridge, Council Member Restler pushes for mitigation on Boerum Hill jail construction; Pre-K offers land while BoCoCa families come up short and more
Best family-friendly bagel places in Brooklyn | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Bagels are a Brooklyn breakfast institution. A poppy seed in the park, an everything sandwich after the school drop-off, a sesame stacked with cream cheese so generous it falls out the sides — this borough takes its bagels personally.
Prospect’s New Downtown Brooklyn High School Opens This Fall | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Prospect High School — a tuition-free public charter open to families across District 13 and the borough — moves into its new Downtown Brooklyn campus at 181 Livingston Street (the Wheeler Building) this fall.
The Week in Brooklyn: May 4–10, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: a new Bergen Street bike boulevard rises; last call for free city-worker child care; Dinosaur Bar-B-Que serves its final brisket on Union Street after 15 years; Show Brooklyn Some Love Fest’s Mother’s Day Flower Bar and Moms Who Move Bklyn celebrating Brooklyn’s moms; BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn’s full 2026 lineup and Bay Ridge’s front-row seat to Sail4th 250; Casa Tua’s Cucina food hall heading to One Hanson Place, new Williamsburg permits, and a record-setti...
Outdoor Festivals and Street Fairs in Brooklyn in 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Spring marks the return of Brooklyn’s outdoor festival season — and 2026 is shaping up to be a big one.
Free outdoor workouts in Brooklyn in 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s free outdoor fitness season is back, with morning yoga, sunset stretching, weekday bootcamps, and Saturday dance cardio spread across the borough’s waterfront parks and green spaces.
The Week in Brooklyn: April 27 – May 3, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: G train shutdowns set to hit 40% of 2026 weekends; weekend events from Long Play, Greek Festival, Riverkeeper Sweep, and the 5 Boro Bike Tour; closings at Caputo’s, Julien Boulangerie, and Mayfield and more
The Week in Brooklyn: April 20–26, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: a Brooklyn council member thrown to the ground by NYPD at a Bed-Stuy eviction protest, the NYPD disbanding an entire narcotics unit after last week’s viral Cobble Hill beating video, the Brooklyn Half Marathon returning Sunday, and more.
Open Streets in our neighborhoods in 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
With spring in full swing, Open Streets programs across our neighborhoods are back in action, offering free, family-friendly fun on car-free streets.
The Week in Brooklyn: April 12–19, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories this week: Reynoso’s State of the Borough address, sensory rooms coming to every District 75 elementary school, a transformational redesign for Grand Army Plaza, 36 alleged gang members indicted in Brownsville, a viral NYPD arrest video in Boerum Hill, and more.
The Week in Brooklyn: April 5 -12, 2026 | Brooklyn Bridge Parents - News, Events and Family Services
Brooklyn’s biggest stories this week: Hollywood comes to Brooklyn Heights; both suspects are indicted in the killing of 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore; a deadly Easter Sunday shooting in Cypress Hills; Mamdani marks his first 100 days with potholes, prisons and a “mom-and-pop czar”; Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz sell their Cobble Hill townhouse for $11.8 million.
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Minds And Machines
Features about AI's defining questions
A Three-Body Problem: The day the *will of an AI became a matter of national security
*”Will” isn’t the right term for whatever AI has in place of volition. But the fact that no such term exists has become its own problem.
What Would Claude Do?
Mimicking a chatbot to feel closer to humans
Strange Bedfellows
The side effects of treating a tool as potentially conscious