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

“I’ve never been with a bald man before”

December 13, 2024

As I started chemotherapy, I was prepared for my hair to fall out. Just not the way it began. My hair loss started more with a whisper than a bang.

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How to preserve a legacy after death

December 2, 2024

A trifecta of physical and emotional stress washed over me, leaving me despondent over politics, war and a sudden change in my health. My cancer had come back.

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Hotel Montefiore: Enjoying Tel Aviv under the threat of war

November 26, 2024

The first thing Adam, the assistant manager, did upon our arrival at the Hotel Montefiore in Tel Aviv, was point out where the bomb shelters were

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Will AI put me out of a job?

November 16, 2024

I started using artificial intelligence by accident. I needed a transcription from Arabic to English. And then I plunged down the AI rabbit hole.

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Is Jewish universalism the source of antisemitism?

November 2, 2024

Sometimes an idea can upend decades of thinking. That’s what Dara Horn’s recent essay in The Atlantic on universalism vs. particularism did for me.

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30 years of aliyah

October 20, 2024

Last week, our family marked our thirty-year “aliyaversary,” since we moved to Israel in 1994. Here are 30 reasons to live in Israel.

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The black swans of Rosh Hashana

October 6, 2024

The term “black swan effect” refers to the kinds of big phenomena one never thought would happen and that have a potentially catastrophic outcome. How does that relate to Rosh Hashana?

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