“Houses from Within” Returns to Jerusalem With More Trains

October 30, 2012

The annual “Houses from Within” weekend is one of my favorite Jerusalem adventures. The event opens tens of normally private homes and institutions to the public. Dwellings owned by artists like successful sculptor Giora Segal, who renovated a small house in Motza (not technically in Jerusalem) built on top of a Second Temple period cave, […]

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Maya Isacowitz is NOT boring

October 22, 2012

Last week, I wrote a blog post on Israelity with the headline “Aviv Geffen is Boring” to describe Israel’s bad boy of rock gone Muzak. That was anything but the case for another concert I attended a few days later. Maya Isacowitz is on the opposite side of the career spectrum from Geffen – just getting started and so […]

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Electric Range Anxiety and Big Brother

October 17, 2012

We picked up our brand new 100% electric car from Better Place on Sunday. Being an early adopter has its perks – when we walked into Better Place’s showroom, the entire staff stood up and applauded. There was a big screen reading “Mazel Tov Brian and Jody Blum.” We were given our own special license […]

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Getting a Charge in Jerusalem

October 12, 2012

I knew as soon as I’d read Saul Singer’s best selling book “Startup Nation” that I wanted one: a 100% electric car from the Israeli “startup” Better Place. Well, not exactly a startup. With an investment of over $750 million to date, Better Place is one of the highest-flying potential game changers to come out of Silicon Wadi. […]

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Stepping Out on the New Jerusalem Bike Trail

October 5, 2012

I’ve never been a cyclist, but after seeing some of the incredible bike trail ringing Jerusalem, I think I’m might just have to take up the sport. Every year, during the intermediary days of the Sukkot holiday, the city sponsors the Tzada’at Yerushalayim – translated as roughly “Jerusalem Steps”(or perhaps better “Jerusalem March”  – a series […]

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Insourcing Judaism

September 25, 2012

It is Friday afternoon and the Tel Aviv Port is hopping. The lounge chairs at the beach-front restaurants and pubs are packed as patrons fill up on seafood and down decadently prepared cocktails and imported beer. Joggers, roller-bladers and cycling enthusiasts whip around the curved wooden plaza, fashioned after the waves of the water below, […]

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Fuze Tea Blitzes Israel

September 19, 2012

You would have to have been living in a cave, under a rock or in general paying no attention whatsoever to TV, radio, the Internet or billboards all over Israel during the past few weeks to have missed the hottest new beverage to hit supermarket shelves. Or more to the point, the hottest old beverage. Fuze Tea […]

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Ten Years of This Normal Life

September 11, 2012

The original logo for This Normal Life It was ten years ago that I started writing This Normal Life, my personal blog. And for ten years, I have posted a minimum of one essay per week. Actually, in the first year, I published more like 2-3 a week, but as the blog became more established […]

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Escape from Novogrodek

September 7, 2012

Jack Kagan has one of the most breathtaking – and little known – stories of heroism and escape during the Holocaust. Kagan was one of 250 Jews forced into a “work camp” near Novogrodek, Belasrus. I say “work” camp because it was clear that their fate would ultimately be the same as the 15,000 Jews […]

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The Personal Beach Concierge

August 29, 2012

I have a love-hate relationship with the beach. Speaking with friends, I know I’m not the only one. But I may have a solution…and a potential moneymaker to boot. The love part: dipping in the warm Mediterranean waters of August (after the jellyfish of July have jumped ship); feeling the sand between my toes; chilling […]

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