Shiva Limbo

April 6, 2009

The most disconcerting thing about my trip to the U.S. for my father’s funeral was the “pre-shiva” period (known in Hebrew as aninut). Shiva is the seven days stipulated by Jewish tradition for mourning following burial. My father died on a Sunday. But the funeral didn’t take place until Wednesday. The official reason was that […]

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Marathon Man

March 30, 2009

I had planned on running in the Jerusalem Half Marathon last week. Instead, I found myself running half way around the world in a frantic attempt to kiss my father one last time before he died. The sprint from the diagnosis of cancer to his final days went alarmingly fast – less than three weeks […]

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Drive-in

March 20, 2009

My son is now a driver. Those six words are probably as significant, if not more – at least to him – than becoming a bar mitzvah. When you’re 13, you get counted in a minyan but other than that it’s just another day in 7th grade. But 17…that’s the year you transcend being a […]

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Getting Through the Night

March 13, 2009

It was Purim evening and Jody and I went dancing. It was an exhilarating night out as thousands of revelers, young and old, from around the country, came to shake and bounce and twirl to free form world music until the wee hours of the night at the post-Megillah Boogie Jerusalem annual extravaganza. We stayed […]

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Using Social Media When the News is Bad

March 6, 2009

When my brother called at 7:30 AM, I knew something was wrong. We had already made a plan to speak at 8:00 PM that night to discuss some work we are doing together. What could be so urgent about revising a project plan? Dad had been diagnosed with lymphoma that morning, my brother said. It […]

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When it Comes to QA, Trust the Crowd

February 27, 2009

As head of a technology startup a few years ago, one of the most important components of our software development was quality assurance – the process of looking for bugs and reporting them to the programmers to fix. Like most startups, we were on a pretty tight budget. Hiring a team of two to three […]

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“Getting Back in Touch” via Facebook – Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants

February 19, 2009

Lately, my wife Jody and I have spent a lot of time getting in touch with old friends via Facebook. It started when I received a friend request from Larry. Larry and I were best buddies growing up. But after I moved away, we fell out of touch. I’ve looked for him from time to […]

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The Case of the Purloined Ice Cream

February 13, 2009

My wife Jody has been in the States for the last two weeks to celebrate her father’s 70th birthday, leaving me a “single parent” back in Israel. I’m pretty good at handling the day-to-day activities at home, taking care of the kids, keeping the house running. Except in one area. The kitchen. Frankly, I’m a […]

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Why I’m Voting Green This Year

February 6, 2009

You would think that after voting for a Barkat and a Barack respectively in the local Jerusalem and U.S. elections, the logical next choice would be to support a Barak (Ehud that is) in the upcoming Israeli national elections. Would that it were that easy. The major parties fielded for the 2009 elections have got […]

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Unfriended on Facebook

January 30, 2009

I’ve been “unfriended” by my 15-year-old daughter. No, I don’t mean she’s stopped talking to me. But Merav and I are no longer friends on Facebook. The ostensible reason? We grounded her. She accepted her punishment but, in retribution, she blocked me access to her profile. That means no more status updates, no photo albums […]

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