ToI’s weekly deep dive: ToI’s Best of 2022 * Whirling with dervishes in Turkey * No nudes allowed in Jerusalem gallery * Portal into pre-war Rhodes *Archaeologists’ creed

[Times of Israel]( [Weekly Deep Dive]( Sunday, January 1, 2023 2022 in review [From political realignment at home to war abroad: ToI writers share stories of 2022]( By TOI staff Reporters recall their most memorable articles from a year shaped by the war in Ukraine and the Netanyahu-led religious right’s replacement of the short-lived ‘change government’ Op-ed David Horovitz [Hanukkah 2022, when Netanyahu began turning out the lights on Israeli democracy]( Abusing its power, as Menachem Begin once warned against, the new coalition is planning for racist MKs, legalized discrimination, annexation without Palestinian rights, and a toothless top court [Full text / Judicial reform, boosting Jewish identity: The new coalition’s policy guidelines]( By Carrie Keller-Lynn and Michael Bachner Diaspora [Did US Jews wake up on the wrong side of ‘woke’ progressive politics?]( By Luke Tress Profile [Amichai Chikli, son of a Conservative rabbi, named Diaspora affairs minister]( By Judah Ari Gross Though the Likud lawmaker doesn’t identify with the progressive denomination, he has deep ties to it; as founder of a pre-army program, he’s connected to a variety of Jewish groups [New religious services minister delays kashrut reform as coalition looks to nix it]( By Judah Ari Gross Reporter's notebook [In Turkey, Islamic mystic Rumi’s whirling connects even Iranians and Israeli Jews]( By Tobias Siegal During a 10-day annual commemoration ceremony known as the Şeb-i Arus or ‘the night of the union,’ Konya is Turkey’s most buzzing pilgrimage center. This year, ToI was there, too Ukraine [Hanukkah brings light to darkened Kharkiv amid winter at war]( By Lazar Berman Rabbi Moshe and Miriam Moskowitz take festivities underground and into military hospitals, where they find a wounded Israeli and city residents looking for a reason to smile [Jewish groups shore up Ukrainian communities for an uncertain, freezing winter]( By Judah Ari Gross Top Ops Naomi Chazan [Noam’s witch-hunting blacklists: frightening, pathetic, distracting]( Toxic lists like these are not new, but their publication is a reminder of the misogynous and homophobic currents sweeping the new government into power Tom Sawicki [‘March 1968’ is a Polish movie. It’s also my story.]( When it became impossible to keep living there, my family left. The one parting gift from Poland was making us give up our citizenship Obituary Judah Ari Gross [Rabbi Chaim Druckman, spiritual leader of political religious Zionism, dies at 90]( A founder of the settler movement, who coined the term Gush Emunim, Druckman influenced country’s top leaders as an educator and major political power in Israeli society [Rabbi Druckman lauded and mourned by politicians as friend and counsel]( By Ash Obel [‘One of the great rabbis of Israel’: Religious Zionist Rabbi Chaim Druckman mourned]( By Judah Ari Gross [CRM]( Interview [New doc chronicles adventures of towering US-Jewish writer-editor duo of 50 years]( By Jacqueline Cutler In ‘Turn Every Page,’ out Dec. 30, Lizzie Gottlieb captures the often tense relationship between her father, editing great Robert Gottlieb, and lauded political author Robert Caro Culture [Jerusalem exhibit shuttered by city due to nude imagery, reopens in Museum on Seam]( By Jessica Steinberg City-run Beita gallery ordered to close down new exhibit, prompting move to private space, but mayor’s office says he didn’t know about it [There is a season / Octogenarian choreographer Rina Schenfeld dances like a child with 2 new pieces]( By Jessica Steinberg Author interview [99-year-old Holocaust survivor is a final portal into vibrant life of prewar Rhodes]( By Renee Ghert-Zand Tech Israel [Israeli pens plan for belt of solar panels on moon to power oxygen production]( By Sue Surkes With NASA mulling nuclear reactor to generate energy, Ben Gurion University expert says his idea would produce same amount of power with six times less mass [Israeli private satellite with state-of-the-art camera launched into orbit]( By Michael Horovitz [Israel ranked 4th-best-performing economy among OECD countries in 2022]( By Sharon Wrobel [Bank of Israel gives green light to Palo Alto’s Nir Zuk for new digital bank]( By Sharon Wrobel Archaeology [Bible scholar’s sensational Hezekiah inscription claims prompt researchers’ outcry]( By Amanda Borschel-Dan Academics publish open letter calling for scientific treatment of ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ claims after new round of unsupported popular press headlines regarding Jerusalem ‘discovery’ [Israel, right-wing group to fully excavate biblical Siloam Pool in East Jerusalem]( By Ash Obel Environment [Hebrew Academy picks ‘sinkhole’ as its word of 2022]( By Amy Spiro Selected by online voters, word narrowly beats out ‘governance’ and ‘hallucination’ to take the top spot [Pioneering plan inaugurated to top up Sea of Galilee with desalinated water]( By TOI staff and Sue Surkes [Avoiding meltdown: Highway planners prepare for hotter Israel by 2100, with 4°C rise]( By Sue Surkes [Clean slate: Jerusalem’s ‘home therapist’ tidies rooms into a well-ordered life]( By Danielle Nagler From the blogs [Voices of 2022: A dozen posts that moved and shook us]( By Miriam Herschlag Just in case you missed them: superb offerings from The Times of Israel blogs that touched hearts, stirred souls and nourished minds [Unsubscribe from this List]( Email not displaying correctly? 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