Reviews

Isaac Asimov’s Jewish/Israeli Predictions…for 2014

January 6, 2014

Every New Year’s, I like to roll out some predictions of what I think might happen in the 12 months to come. For 2014, though, I want to take a look back, at a set of predictions made on the occasion of the 1964 New York World’s Fair, by the science fiction master Isaac Asimov. […]

Read the full article →

Top zingers from this year’s Comedy for Koby

December 13, 2013

Comedy for Koby rolled into Jerusalem this week and my wife and I were there, along with our three kids, who we treated to their first live comedy show as a Hanukah gift. (Think of it as guffaws instead of gelt.) After what I’d done last year, though, I wasn’t sure if the comedians would be […]

Read the full article →

Musical “Ah Jerusalem” Debuts at the Tower of David Museum

October 21, 2013

It sounds like the set up to an only-in-Jerusalem joke: What do you get if you put a love-struck King Solomon, an evil Crusader with a heart of gold, and a chain smoking Golda Meir all in the same room? If you add in a few catchy song and dance numbers and a heaping dose […]

Read the full article →

Religious Rock and Rap from the “Other” Botzer

October 14, 2013

For over 30 years, the name “Botzer” has been synonymous with the founder of the Livnot U’Lehibanot (“To Build and be Built”) work-study program that began in the Old City of Safed. So it was a bit perplexing when posters began appearing around Jerusalem advertising the performance of “Botzer” at the Yellow Submarine music club. Was the ever-energetic […]

Read the full article →

No pretensions: Israeli indie folk darling Maya Isacowitz returns for series of sold out shows in Israel

September 30, 2013

Maya Isacowitz came roaring back into town, putting on a sold-out show last week at Jerusalem’s Yellow Submarine club that lived up to the expectations many had for the pint-sized redhead Israeli indie/folk singer-songwriter, who last performed in the capital nearly a year ago. Isacowitz’s absence was not due to any falling out with the […]

Read the full article →

Watching The Clock at the Wine Festival

August 7, 2013

One of the highlights of the local summer scene, the Israel Wine Festival, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. My wife and I – along with many thousands of visitors from around the country – anxiously watch the clock waiting for the week when we can descend upon the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to sample some of Israel’s best […]

Read the full article →

Dan Ariely and the Black Market

June 23, 2013

The most thrilling session at the Israeli Presidential Conference last week was not the panel on “Should We Wait It Out: Israel and a Changing Middle East” which featured three U.S. and Israeli ambassadors and a former head of the Mossad. It was not Yair Lapid’s speech on how integration of the haredim will produce an economic […]

Read the full article →

Jerusalem’s Old-New Train Station in the Movies

May 21, 2013

In 1984 I worked on an educational film produced by the Gesher Foundation. Titled “The Journey,” it told the story of a 13-year-old boy during World War II Russia who was being sent off by his aunt to stay safe with distant family. It was also his bar mitzvah, but the boy knew nothing about Jewish coming […]

Read the full article →

Alt and Indie Discoveries at Jacob’s Ladder

May 6, 2013

Jacob’s Ladder is having a musical identity crisis. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Now in its 37th year, Jacob’s Ladder is best known as Israel’s preeminent folk, country, bluegrass and Irish music festival. Held twice a year at Kibbutz Ginosar north ofTiberius, the spring version just concluded this past weekend. And while there was ample evidence of […]

Read the full article →

Musty Smell, Fine Food

April 14, 2013

I’m not sure if the oddly wafting odor of mold, or was that mildew, emanating from the walls of Racha, a funky restaurant in the center of Jerusalem specializing in Georgian food (the country, not the U.S. state), was intended to be part of the experience. Perhaps the smell was meant to evoke memories of […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →