This Normal Life — All about "normal" life in Israel

New Year’s predictions from the past

September 25, 2022

When I was a teenager, every New Year’s Day, my family would gather together to make predictions about what the coming year might bring.

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The bully in my brain

September 12, 2022

Bullies love to tell lies But the worst ones are the bullying voices in our brains. Can we stop them?

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Embracing the empty nest

August 27, 2022

On the day we took our son, Aviv, to Ben-Gurion Airport to begin his new life as a music student in New York, we couldn’t stop crying.

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50 shades of chutzpah

August 18, 2022

When our hotel canceled us at the last minute, I demanded an upgrade. Was that Israeli chutzpah or just being assertive. (It worked.)

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The legacy of Marla’s babies

July 31, 2022

Twenty years ago, our cousin Marla was killed in a suicide bombing at Hebrew University. Since then, more than 25 babies have been named after her.

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Focusing on the core vs. the edge

July 17, 2022

As I lay on the operating room table, I began to shake uncontrollably. I was about to undergo eye surgery. What could possibly go wrong?

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Can the Talmud save us from structural stupidity?

July 3, 2022

American social psychologist and professor of ethical leadership at New York University Jonathan Haidt published an alarming article in the Atlantic magazine earlier this year that has since gone viral. In the piece, Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid, he asked provocatively: Is social media compatible with democracy? His somber conclusion: […]

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