Jewish Holidays and Culture

I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that in the ancient Jewish Temple, the Levites used to play music on Shabbat and holidays. What did it sound like? What instruments were used? How is it that the tradition of music on the holy days became lost and later even prohibited? Ilan Green had a similar […]

The show may be ending but the fun has just begun. Srugim, the popular television series about young Israeli singles living in Jerusalem’s Katamon neighborhood, airs its last episode on Israeli TV tonight. But don’t fret: the show, which was previously only available on the YES satellite network, is coming to Israel’s Channel 2. That […]

A new TV show that debuted earlier this month on the Israeli satellite company YES is the talk of the town across certain sectors of southern Jerusalem. “Srugim” (in English: “knitted kippas”) is an extraordinarily accurate depiction of the religious singles scene in Jerusalem. Set in our own neighborhood (Katamon and the German Colony in […]

We were walking home from a friend’s house after lunch on Shavuot a couple of years back. It had been a blazingly hot day, a real Jerusalem sharav, but at one point we were sure we felt a slight drizzle. As we entered the courtyard to our apartment complex, we felt it again. Then we […]