Only in Israel

Tsav Rishon

April 4, 2008

Our 16-year-old year old son Amir received his Tsav Rishon last week. That’s the letter the Israeli army sends out with the date a young man or woman must appear at the army’s induction center for physical and mental testing. This visceral coming of age notice reminded me of the tenuousness of our existence here, […]

Read the full article →

Waterless

March 28, 2008

Last week, we ran out of hot water. Well, we didn’t actually run out. But through a convergence of bad luck, all our hot water heating devices broke down simultaneously, leaving us hot waterless with Shabbat coming and five Blums needing to take their pre-sundown showers. Now, I’m sure a “real” Israeli family would just […]

Read the full article →

Restaurant Review: Tamago Sushi

March 21, 2008

Several years ago in this column I bemoaned the paucity of sushi bars in holy city. In 10 Reasons I Still Love Jerusalem, I wrote that the only thing lacking in Israel’s capital was good sushi. No more. Jerusalem has been overrun by sushi establishments in recent months. And unlike Tel Aviv (and the rest […]

Read the full article →

Transportation Planner Provides Peek into Jerusalem Transit Changes

March 7, 2008

Motorists in Jerusalem have for several months now been stuck in severe traffic jams while traveling near or through the city center. That’s unfortunate, though not entirely unintentional, explains Marc Render, partner and co-founder of AmAv, a transportation planning consultancy that has been actively involved in designing traffic pattern changes in the Jerusalem area. The […]

Read the full article →

Snow Patrol

January 28, 2008

When I woke up on the second morning of the biggest snowstorm Jerusalem’s seen for 20 years this week, nine-year-old Aviv was sitting on the couch in his pajamas watching cartoons on the TV. Outside in the courtyard of our apartment complex I could hear the happy squeals of children throwing snowballs, building snowmen and […]

Read the full article →

The Perfect Chair

January 18, 2008

When is a chair not just a chair? When it becomes a metaphor for a personal obsession with seeking perfection. It started innocently enough. I bought an expensive new office chair to soothe my aching back. I sit in front of my computer up to 10 hours a day so I figured I’d be well […]

Read the full article →

Cheerleaders for Aliyah

January 4, 2008

Last Thursday, my wife Jody and I roused ourselves out of bed at the ungodly hour of 4:50 AM in order to arrive at Ben Gurion Airport, not for a trip to some exotic destination, but in time to greet an El Al flight of 191 new immigrants making aliyah to Israel. The process was […]

Read the full article →

Good Cop Bad Cop

December 14, 2007

We were driving home from a trip to attend a game of the new Israel Baseball League at Kibbutz Gezer near Ramle when we saw the flashing lights on the side of the highway. A policewoman was waving a lit flashlight/wand beckoning us to pull over. I knew it was just a spot check; from […]

Read the full article →

Bodhichitta and Boogie

December 6, 2007

My wife Jody and I have been getting into meditation lately. Both of us had tried it in the past and dropped it. Now we’re back on the path. We’ve even taken to reading some literature on meditation before bed which relates to Buddhist subjects such as tonglen practice and boddhichitta – most commonly translated […]

Read the full article →

Thanksgiving in Israel

November 22, 2007

(This week’s post is a reprint from last year answering the perennial question of “what do you do in Israel on Thanskgiving?” Enjoy!) Every year, just about this time of the month, I get a flurry of emails from friends and colleagues all with pretty much the same message. It goes something like this: “Happy […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →