In the News

Matisyahu: No Chasid Where There’s No Chesed

April 26, 2007

Nothing upsets me quite as much as when someone deliberately goes out of their way to harm one of my friends. That’s apparently what happened with Hasidic reggae superstar Matisyahu who I wrote about previously in this blog. I recently had a chance to catch up with pal Aaron Bisman, Matisyahu’s longtime manager and the […]

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Son of a Beatle

April 12, 2007

I never got a chance to see the Beatles perform live. I was only five when the Fab Four first hit America where I grew up and my parents had raised me on a strict diet of classical music. I didn’t even get my first transistor radio until 1970, by which time the Beatles had […]

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Brian on The Joey Reynolds Show

February 22, 2007

This week, I appeared on The Joey Reynolds Show, a talk program that airs on WOR 710 in New York as well as 100 AM radio stations across the U.S. from midnight to 5:00 in the morning. Joey was broadcasting from Israel for the week and invited me to be a guest in the studio. […]

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Branding Israel

January 26, 2007

During the 2003 run up to the war in Iraq, France found itself bitterly opposed to U.S. plans, earning it derision from conservatives who went so far as to insist that U.S. government cafeterias rename certain “French” foods as freedom fries and freedom toast. But at no time did France lose its image of also […]

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Iran as Psychotherapy

January 4, 2007

I was interviewed this week by Michele Chabin, a reporter from the New York Jewish Week, and asked to give an “average Israeli’s” opinion on the threat from Iran. How did it make us feel? Were we afraid? Did we have thoughts of leaving? Was the world community’s response comforting or confounding? The interview came […]

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The Paradox of Choice: Consumer Lessons for the Holiday Season

December 22, 2006

In his fascinating and compelling book “The Paradox of Choice,” Barry Schwartz describes the process of buying a pair of jeans. At his local Gap, he tells a saleswoman that his size is 32 waist, 28 length. “Do you want them slim fit, easy fit, relaxed fit, baggy or extra baggy,” the saleswoman replies, then […]

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A Fallible Nation

November 16, 2006

Nicholas Goldberg, editor of the Los Angeles Times’ op-ed section, published an article in that paper portraying Israel as a nation exhausted and suffering from a deep malaise. The summer’s failed war in Lebanon, the inability of the Israel Defense Forces to stop the Kassam barrage coming from the Gaza Strip, and ongoing corruption and […]

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A Cloud over Jerusalem

November 14, 2006

Their economy is better and terrorism has decreased, but Israelis are losing their characteristic ‘stoic optimism.’ By Nicholas GoldbergLos Angeles Times November 12, 2006 See original article here In the 1990s, when I lived in Jerusalem, Israelis were famous for a sort of stoic optimism in the face of trouble. Hamas suicide bombers would sneak […]

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Something Worth Rallying About

August 24, 2006

“Have you signed yet?” a breathless passerby demanded as my wife and I were taking a quiet stroll on Emek Refaim Street, the main drag of Jerusalem’s tony Germany Colony neighborhood, one evening last week. “Signed what?” I asked, feeling perplexed by all the sudden urgency. “The petition,” she replied. “Against construction in the neighborhood. […]

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Blogging the War: The “Next” War

August 18, 2006

This article was posted on Jewish.com on Thursday, August 17, 2006. The link is here.Ceasefire brings temporary calm as Israel, U.S. prepare for next conflict.     With a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah still holding, however tentatively, and Israelis returning to their homes in the north, the politicians and historians are already hard at […]

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