Kerry Bar-Cohn is the only female chiropractor in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Her business, like the town in central Israel popular with Orthodox American ex-pats like herself, is expanding thanks to a large local client base—and her new reach beyond Israel.

Bar-Cohn’s followers today could live almost anywhere. A fitness enthusiast with a background in stage performance, she graduated from New York City’s High School of Performing Arts and has starred in all-women stage productions in Israel. Now, she has combined her talents to create Walking Israel, a virtual exercise program geared toward Jewish women, that launched in January and is available on YouTube.

Bar-Cohn is part coach, part cheerleader for her subscribers, who live in Israel, the United States, Australia and elsewhere.

“There are a lot of people everywhere who experience an overall general ickiness and, oftentimes, some level of pain because they don’t move enough,” said the mother of four boys. “That’s why I tell all my patients, ‘Do not even think about going to bed until you’ve moved your body for at least 15 minutes a day.’ ”

For $50 a month, subscribers receive three weekly workout videos plus a check-in with Bar-Cohn. Each video features a split screen, with half the screen featuring Bar-Cohn demonstrating an exercise routine and the other half showing a walking tour through Israeli neighborhoods and sights, such as a Tel Aviv graffiti and public art crawl or a visit to the Kfar Hess Parrot Farm.

In her videos, Bar-Cohn occasionally traverses more somber sights, including a tour of the Car Wall, a memorial consisting of a pile of burnt vehicles removed from areas devastated by the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, especially the Nova music festival.

“It’s been hard and stressful to be so far away for almost two years,” said client Shoshana Kesner, who made aliyah years ago but returned to the United States and now lives in Los Angeles. “But this program keeps me connected and allows me to feel like I’m back living in Israel.”

“Before the war, I made goofy dance videos on social media for fun,” Bar-Cohn said about her virtual alter ego, Rebbetzin Tap, who appears in those dance videos online. “When that no longer felt appropriate, I wanted to find another creative outlet to express joy about Israel.

“Walking Israel is really my sweet spot,” she continued, “because it allows me to combine my love for fitness and Israel.”

Jenny Powers