Rona Kobell (right), during her time as a student at Hebrew University, is shown with a co-counselor while leading a tour of American teenagers through Israel in 1992. (Courtesy of Rona Kobell)
A few years ago, I hitched a ride to a Washington, D.C., journalism conference with a writer then living in Baltimore and his wife. We exchanged small talk about our families and hometowns, and I mentioned I had two siblings in Philadelphia and one in Israel. At this news, his wife’s face turned sour. “What is your sister doing there?”
