Fighting the Establishment

June 12, 2008

Fight the establishment. That was the implicit message my wife Jody and I gleaned this Shavuot from our attendance at a fiery lecture and our participation in a controversial minyan. First the lecture. Shavuot is the holiday that commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. The emphasis on the […]

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Capturing the High Ground

June 8, 2008

We were walking home from a friend’s house after lunch on Shavuot a couple of years back. It had been a blazingly hot day, a real Jerusalem sharav, but at one point we were sure we felt a slight drizzle. As we entered the courtyard to our apartment complex, we felt it again. Then we […]

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Grooving at the Sea of Galilee

May 30, 2008

From its humble beginnings 32 years ago as a modest folk music festival geared primarily to the English speaking community in Israel, Jacob’s Ladder has evolved into a 3 day bluegrass, country, blues and world music extravaganza that appeals to thousands of both Anglos and Israelis, from teenagers to 60+ old timers. The latest edition […]

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The Curse of Bob

May 15, 2008

Ever since I started going out for my falafel with my friend Bob, there’s been one unspoken rule: neither of us will patronize Falafel Oved without the other. It’s OK to go to another falafel stand, just not the one where we have our weekly date. That hasn’t been hard to follow. In general, I’m […]

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What Would Be The Worst Thing?

May 8, 2008

The one drawback to traveling in Israel during hol ha moed – the intermediary days of the Pesach holiday that ended two weeks ago – is the traffic. Everyone is on the roads and you have to anticipate long delays. Trying to figure out the fastest, least congested route is a national sport in which […]

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3 Days in the Upper Galilee and Golan Heights

May 2, 2008

During the recent hol ha moed post-Pesach vacation period, we had the opportunity to join our friends Debbie and Eliot for five days in the upper Galilee and Golan Heights. 8 families stayed at a field school just outside Kibbutz Snir, a 10-minute drive from Kyriat Shemona on Highway 99.  The nights were cool, perfect […]

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A Tale of Two Raviolis

April 23, 2008

I’ve been eating out a lot lately. For some reason, I wound up ordering ravioli at both restaurants I visited recently. Here, then, are two reviews of landmark Jerusalem restaurants which include elegant pasta on their menus. Caffit Jerusalem’s Caffit is the quintessential Israeli café. The oldest establishment on Jerusalem’s trendy Emek Refaim Street – […]

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Reinventing Date Night

April 17, 2008

My wife Jody and I try to go out for a date night once a week. Sometimes we slip to once every two or three weeks. So when we do get out, we want to make sure it’s good. Regular readers will know we’re big fans of sushi. So when we heard that our favorite […]

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Tsav Rishon

April 4, 2008

Our 16-year-old year old son Amir received his Tsav Rishon last week. That’s the letter the Israeli army sends out with the date a young man or woman must appear at the army’s induction center for physical and mental testing. This visceral coming of age notice reminded me of the tenuousness of our existence here, […]

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Waterless

March 28, 2008

Last week, we ran out of hot water. Well, we didn’t actually run out. But through a convergence of bad luck, all our hot water heating devices broke down simultaneously, leaving us hot waterless with Shabbat coming and five Blums needing to take their pre-sundown showers. Now, I’m sure a “real” Israeli family would just […]

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