47

October 19, 2007

I recently turned 47 and I’m feeling old. When I was growing up, 47 would have already been “middle aged.” I’m not sure that’s still the case but just the same things have been changing for me and my body. First off there’s my gut. It’s not huge, but it’s definitely growing. I’m eating and […]

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eTested – Restaurant Reviews

October 12, 2007

I’ve recently started writing restaurant reviews for the Global Traveler website’s “eTested” column. Here are two of my more recent posts: eTested – Joy Restaurant, Jerusalem Every city has its trendy neighborhood, and with 42 restaurants lined up in the space of just a few short blocks, Jerusalem’s Emek Refaim Street in the modern southern […]

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New Girls Religious Schools To Shake Up Jerusalem Educational Landscape

October 3, 2007

Options for modern religious education for girls in Jerusalem just got a whole lot more interesting with the recent openings of two new schools this fall, both backed by immigrants from North America. The modern Orthodox Shalom Hartman Institute, which trains rabbis, teachers and scholars from Israel and the Diaspora in a pluralistic environment and […]

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New Minyan in Jerusalem Brings Jews, Christians and Muslims Together

September 26, 2007

A rabbi, a monk, and a Sufi walk into a minyan. It sounds like the set up to a bad Internet joke circulating by email. But it’s a reality every month at Nava Tehilla, Jerusalem’s first – and only – “multi-faith” Jewish renewal gathering. Started a year and a half ago in the living room […]

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Court Awards $12.9 Million to Marla’s Family

September 20, 2007

How much is a human life worth? According to a Washington D.C. federal judge, $12.9 million. That’s the amount that Judge Royce Lamberth awarded to the parents of our cousin Marla Bennett who was killed in the July 31, 2002 bombing attack on the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria at Hebrew University. Lamberth found that Hamas, which […]

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Rosh Hashana Food Fight

September 7, 2007

Hosting a dinner party is an art. It takes careful planning and balancing. You’ve got to have the right number of men vs. women, singles vs. families, little kids, big kids, shy adults, dominant Type A’s and not too many teenagers obsessed with Battlestar Galactica. Now, try hosting a dinner party every single week. Well, […]

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Day Away 2: From Pre-State to Post-Modernism in Tel Aviv

August 31, 2007

After a successful day trip to Rehovot last week, we thought we’d try to recreate some of the family magic one more time. School starts next week and family days will soon be replaced by parent-teacher meetings. Our destination this week: Tel Aviv where we found another three gems somewhat off the beaten track but […]

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The Charms of Rehovot

August 24, 2007

  Downtown Rehovot For parents, the long days of summer become particularly arduous in August when all the day and overnight camps let out and kids (particularly the littler ones) find themselves with too many hours of free time spent in front of the television or computer screen. We’ve strived in the past to solve […]

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Fooya Focaccia

August 17, 2007

This column is a kvetch. A rant against bad service that turned a fondly anticipated evening into one of stress and disappointment. Fifteen-year-old Amir had just come back from camp and we promised to take the family out to dinner so we could hear about some of his adventures at the Kayitz b’Kibbutz program at […]

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The Wine Festival

August 9, 2007

A year ago my wife Jody and I attended a wine festival at the Israel Museum. It was the same night as katyusha rockets started to rain down on Haifa as the Second Lebanon War kicked into high gear. The experience was surreal – here we were hopping from winery to winery, sniffing and sipping […]

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