Art in Umm el-Fahem

October 26, 2011

Ammar Younis has an exhibit at the Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery We visited one of Israel’s most unusual museums last week. The Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery, in the Israeli Arab town of the same name, is a small gem, way off the usual museum track, and absolutely worth the visit if you’re traveling between Tel […]

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Time Running Out for “The Clock”

October 19, 2011

“The Clock” at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem closes this weekend It’s hard to know exactly how to describe “The Clock,” Christian Marclay’s award winning art installation, which is currently on display, if that’s even the right word, at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Tour de Force? Spellbinding? Unbelievable? They all come to mind. The […]

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Yes, That Bacon is Kosher

October 12, 2011

Don’t worry…it’s 100% kosher (picture from Zac Johnson who makes and sells kosher bacon. http://www.jewishbacon.wordpress.com) Growing up, I didn’t have a very strong Jewish background. I never had a bar mitzvah, Yom Kippur was just another school day and Shavuot, well, what’s that? But Shabbat, now that was special – that was the day we […]

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Celebrity at the Wedding

October 5, 2011

Ori Lachmi from the Israeli TV hit “Srugim” The young man in the light purple shirt and the small knitted kippa looked awfully familiar. He was sitting in the row in front of us at the chuppa of the daughter of close friends. My wife Jody went up to him. “I recognize you, but I […]

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A Personal Validation of Zionism

September 28, 2011

In front of the Western Wall When I backpacking around Europe and Asia, some 25 years ago, I felt a mix of disdain and sadness for the many tourists I’d encounter ensconced in their oversized, air conditioned tour buses, being ferried around from site to site, taking in the highlights through tinted windows which they’d […]

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From Rothschild Boulevard to a Jerusalem Living Room

September 22, 2011

We first met Niv Kaikov a few months back at Tel Aviv’s White Night celebration. We were strolling on Rothschild Boulevard – yes the same one that’s been filled with tents all summer – which, during White Night, is instead filled with musicians. Every block, sometimes even every half a block, there is another band […]

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The “Mechinistim”

September 13, 2011

All packed up for mechina School officially started a week ago, and along with it the beginning of the “mechina” year. As our daughter is one of the new mechinistim, I thought this might be a good time to talk about what is a mechina, in large part also because our friends and family overseas […]

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Darkness at the Edge of Town

September 7, 2011

As the darkness settled over us, I felt an unanticipated sense of panic. I had been expecting to be unsettled, startled, certainly disoriented; I didn’t realize it would bring up so many deep and hidden emotions. To set the stage: my wife Jody and I were dining in the Black Out Restaurant at the Nalaga’at […]

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Announcing a House Concert with Niv Kaikov

September 1, 2011

Niv Kaikov For those of you living in Israel, we are very excited to invite you to an intimate house concert with Niv Kaikov, a dynamic young Israeli musician, on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011, at 8:00 PM. Jody and I met Niv while he was playing outside on Rothschild Boulevard (yes, the same street at the […]

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Sweating the Small Stuff Too

August 23, 2011

Hutzot HaYotzer arts and crafts festival last year While it’s the big news that gets all the headlines, sometimes it’s the small stuff that’s the hardest to sweat. Last week, terrorists attacked along the Israel-Egypt border just north of Eilat. The ensuing days have been filled with IDF strikes and Gazan counterattacks. More people have […]

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