Watching Battlestar Galactica from the Middle East – Part II

November 2, 2006

New Season Evokes Holocaust, Iraq as Allegory Shifts to Occupation Theme A few weeks ago I published an article reviewing the hit Sci Fi Channel series Battlestar Galactica. In it, I compared the theme of nuclear jihad in the fictional program with the realpolitick of contemporary fundamentalism vs. the West. My review covered the series […]

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Top Tech Tools for Bridging the Geography Gap

October 20, 2006

When I visited Israel for the first time in 1984, making a long distance phone call was not for the weak of spirit. With no direct lines out of Israel overseas (at least not for those of us living in private apartments; maybe offices had them but I was just a poor student back in […]

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“Go Back to Brooklyn”

October 13, 2006

I’m still not sure how the fight broke out. Eight-year-old Aviv and I were out in the courtyard in front of our apartment on Shabbat afternoon, throwing a ball around, when this man who I don’t know started yelling at our neighbor Yossi, something about an altercation between their kids. Yossi tried to calm his […]

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Watching Battlestar Galactica from the Middle East

October 5, 2006

I have long been a big fan of science fiction literature. My favorite first authors were Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Ira Levin, and Isaac Asimov, and despite the fact my reading routine has expanded somewhat in the intervening years, my interest in alien societies and their interaction with human beings has not waned. On TV […]

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When Words Fail

September 29, 2006

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are the highlights in a year of Jewish holidays. The importance ascribed to what are known as “the High Holydays” is second to none on the Jewish calendar. When it comes to liturgy, though, they are also among the toughest days of the year. The prayer service, you see, is […]

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Curse of the 42-Inch Plasma

September 22, 2006

There’s an old saying “the only thing that separates men from boys is the size of their toys.” When my wife Jody and I were first planning out our recently-completed home renovation, trying to decide about such critical issues as whether to redo one bathroom or three, the one thing I held out for was […]

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Peekaboo, Peekabar

September 15, 2006

The area around the old train station in Jerusalem has been bustling with activity in the last year or so. New restaurants, bars and clubs have all sprung up, sharing the space that once was the end of the line for the Tel-Aviv Jerusalem train built over 100 years ago by the Turks and finished […]

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The Cat Lady

September 7, 2006

I had just started my morning run on what was shaping up to be a scorcher of a summer day when I spied Ora, the Cat Lady, hobbling with a cane towards our apartment building. I hadn’t seen Ora in ages, so I decided to slow down and stop for a chat. I pulled my […]

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Charting a New Course

August 31, 2006

Did you ever hear any of the following in your house? “It’s not my job, it’s his.” “I cleaned the table last night.” “I don’t have time to make my bed. I have to study for a test.” Well, we certainly have, too many times, and after fourteen years of parenting it was getting a […]

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Something Worth Rallying About

August 24, 2006

“Have you signed yet?” a breathless passerby demanded as my wife and I were taking a quiet stroll on Emek Refaim Street, the main drag of Jerusalem’s tony Germany Colony neighborhood, one evening last week. “Signed what?” I asked, feeling perplexed by all the sudden urgency. “The petition,” she replied. “Against construction in the neighborhood. […]

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