The patient hiker

November 30, 2025

What do the Trump plan for Gaza, hiking Nahal Katlav in the Jerusalem Hills and getting CAR-T treatment for cancer have in common?

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Is Israeli emigration harming medical services?

November 16, 2025

I was at the hospital, prepared to be called into surgery for a procedure. I wasn’t taken for 7 hours. Is emigration harming Israel’s medical system?

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Miracle in the medicine cabinet

November 9, 2025

People relate in very different ways to their medicine cabinets. Some folks will toss out anything they’re no longer using. Others hold onto every med indefinitely, even when the expiration dates have passed. I fall into the second category. And on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah a few weeks ago, that tendency may have […]

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Jacob’s Ladder returns with rocking, upscale show

October 19, 2025

Was this the last Jacob’s Ladder ever? Festival founders Yehudit and Menachem Vinegrad are staying mum. It really depends on whether they broke even on the weekend held this year between Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Being a chutzpadik Israeli, I asked Menachem and Yehudit point-blank. “We’re British!” Menachem protested. “We don’t talk about such things!” […]

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Fine dining with the Houthis

October 5, 2025

My birthday and my daughter, Merav’s birthday are only a week apart. So, this year, we decided to celebrate together by taking the whole family out to dinner at Janjaria, the over-the-top chef restaurant in the boutique Ramban Hotel in central Jerusalem. Janjaria is operated by the Mahaneyuda Group which has expanded in recent years […]

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What a way to end it all

September 28, 2025

What would I do if the CAR-T didn’t work or didn’t give me the long remission I’m so hoping for? Or a secondary cancer? Would I choose more treatment?

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Actually, I did die

September 7, 2025

A few columns back, I wrote about how I almost died while waiting to start the CAR-T cancer treatment that ultimately saved my life. But actually, I did die.

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How much should you push yourself?

August 24, 2025

My brother and I have the opposite problem: While I’m in a race to gain back some of the weight cancer stole from me, he is looking for ways to lose a few pounds. His latest idea: cut out all carbs and sugar. That means no bread, no sandwiches, no pizza or garlic Indian naan; […]

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It takes a village

August 10, 2025

When I contracted my second urinary tract infection in a month (infections are probably the most common side effect of the CAR-T treatment for blood cancers that I received and have been writing about over the past several months), I needed some antibiotics in a hurry. The simple act of peeing had become torturously painful […]

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My coma of denial

July 27, 2025

Everyone else saw it. My wife, Jody, saw it. My kids all saw it. The few friends who were able to visit me in the hospital saw it. Even my doctors saw it. Everyone but me could see that I was dying. “I don’t think he’s going to make it long enough to start the […]

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