A Shocking Test of Nerves

January 5, 2012

NCV shock therapy I’m not sure what was worse – the over-sized needles stuck into my leg or the electric shocks. Some background: about six months ago, I developed pain and numbness in my right leg. At first I tried to ignore it, imagining it just some strange runner’s pain, but when it didn’t go […]

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Hanukah, Extremism and Light

December 27, 2011

Maccabee t-shirt on sale from Australian website Hanukah is probably the most confounding holiday on the Jewish calendar. If we move beyond the toys and the gelt of 20th century Christmas catch-up, the story itself has been interpreted in so many ways that it’s difficult to get a lock on the pshat (the simplest understanding). […]

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Radio Free Nachlaot Celebrates its Second Birthday

December 21, 2011

Steve and Lorelai of Radio Free Nachlaot Jerusalem’s Radio Free Nachlaot turned two this month. The Internet-only radio station, whose slogan is that it broadcasts from “an undisclosed location somewhere deep in the heart of Nachlaot” plays a mix of Grateful Dead (and Dead-inspired) music, mixed with Shlomo Carlebach and Torah talks “24/6” (the station […]

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Introducing iAccomplish – My First iPhone and iPad App. It Will Help You Feel Better!

December 15, 2011

I am very excited to share with you my first iPhone and iPad app. It’s called iAccomplish and it addresses that sense you can get at the end of the day when you’ve been working so hard but you feel like you’ve accomplished nothing. iAccomplish lets you write down everything you do during the day, […]

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Emigrating Israelis – Point/Counterpoint

December 8, 2011

The discussion of Israelis overseas was a topic that just wouldn’t go away this past week. First I wrote on the Israelity blog about the video campaign “guilting” expats to come home. Then, as my colleague David Brinn added, the videos were pulled by none other than the prime minister himself. Now there is a […]

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An Encounter in Beit Jalla

November 30, 2011

Outgoing Encounter Director Ilana Sumka The last time I even thought about Beit Jalla, it was when rockets were being fired from that Palestinian village towards the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. Israeli helicopter gunships would regularly fly over our home on their way to fire at terrorist targets. I would wake up at night […]

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FOMO at the Dead Sea

November 22, 2011

FOMO or not, the kids had a great time at the Dead Sea When I was ten, my parents planned a trip for the family to Disneyland. But a few days before we were set to leave, my father got sick – it was a cold or a flu, nothing serious, but still, the trip […]

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The Medical System is Broken After All

November 14, 2011

I have often bragged about how great the medical system here is in Israel. There’s no problem with people not being able to get insurance and care is on a very high level. For regular doctor visits, I’ve never had to wait more than a day or two for an appointment, and there are drop […]

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Train Construction Ahead

November 8, 2011

Posing in Tunnel 3A When our kids were young, we had a videotape they used to love called “Road Construction Ahead” which was all about, well, road construction. It featured hard hats, tractors and lots of concrete. The truth is, I loved it too – I’m a nut when it comes to anything in the […]

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Sunk Costs on the Road to Tel Aviv

November 3, 2011

Traffic along the Ayalon Highway The evening was intended to be a gala celebration of the partnership between Tel Aviv and Los Angeles. 400 Angelenos, in Israel on a Federation mission, along with another several hundred local Anglos of Angeleno-descent, filled the Smolarz Hall on the Tel Aviv University campus. There was a program planned […]

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