Jewish Holidays and Culture

Shiva Limbo

April 6, 2009

The most disconcerting thing about my trip to the U.S. for my father’s funeral was the “pre-shiva” period (known in Hebrew as aninut). Shiva is the seven days stipulated by Jewish tradition for mourning following burial. My father died on a Sunday. But the funeral didn’t take place until Wednesday. The official reason was that […]

Read the full article →

Marathon Man

March 30, 2009

I had planned on running in the Jerusalem Half Marathon last week. Instead, I found myself running half way around the world in a frantic attempt to kiss my father one last time before he died. The sprint from the diagnosis of cancer to his final days went alarmingly fast – less than three weeks […]

Read the full article →

Doughnut Quiche

December 26, 2008

(Today’s post is a holiday-inspired TNL Classic first published in 2002.) I know they’re bad for me. But I can’t resist. I’m talking about doughnuts, of course. Whatever shape, size or variety, I go do-m’shuga-nut over them. And at this time of year, in the midst of Hanukkah, Israel is overflowing with that uniquely Jewish […]

Read the full article →

Sigd: the Next Generation

December 5, 2008

50 days after Yom Kippur, on the 29th day of the Hebrew month of Heshvan, thousands of Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia converge on our southern Jerusalem neighborhood. This year, my wife Jody and I joined them. The gathering is for the Sigd festival, a holiday that symbolizes the acceptance of the Torah at Mount Sinai. […]

Read the full article →

Voices of the Levites

November 21, 2008

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 […]

Read the full article →

Art Show at the Museum of the Underground Prisoners

October 24, 2008

Just when you think you’ve seen all that Jerusalem has to offer, along comes a surprise in the most unusual of spaces. For weeks, the Jerusalem municipality has been running full-page ads promoting Art Jerusalem 08, an exhibition with hundreds of mostly new and unknown artists. The setting was the Underground Prisoner’s Museum just off […]

Read the full article →

Love, Politics and Controversy as Srugim Airs its Last Episode Tonight

October 6, 2008

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 […]

Read the full article →

Militant Vegetarian

September 19, 2008

When I was growing up in San Francisco Bay Area, there was nothing more politically correct than being a vegetarian. Meat was murder, and all good wannabe hippies (like me) would necessarily consider the eating of meat to be an unforgivable sin. While I never adopted vegetarianism myself – I admit to my own human […]

Read the full article →

New TV Show Attempts to Bridge the Religious Secular Divide

July 31, 2008

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 […]

Read the full article →

Fighting the Establishment

June 12, 2008

Fight the establishment. That was the implicit message my wife Jody and I gleaned this Shavuot from our attendance at a fiery lecture and our participation in a controversial minyan. First the lecture. Shavuot is the holiday that commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. The emphasis on the […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →