Israel

Culture Clash at Cinema City

September 16, 2010

Image from The Jerusalem Post version of this article I am not particularly fond of going out to the movies here. The audience jabbers away incessantly, cellphones never cease to ring and the infamous movie theater hafsaka breaks the film into two parts, often cutting for intermission while the main character is delivering a critical […]

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Why I’m No Longer Buying Croutons

August 26, 2010

One of my favorite condiments for Friday night chicken soup is croutons. So it is with a heavy heart that I’ve had to ban my beloved fried, garlic-infused mini-bread squares from my culinary repertoire. The reason: I don’t agree with the ideological goals of the organization that grants them their kosher certification. My problems with […]

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A Subversive Marriage Proposal

August 10, 2010

Rabbi Haviva Ner-David Rabbi Haviva Ner-David has a subversive proposal for young couples in Israel: don’t get married. At all. And with the recent directives to rabbis at the local marriage registrars that I wrote about previously, her approach is more timely than ever. Ner-David, one of the first (and only) women to receive Orthodox […]

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Patriotic Pride

August 4, 2010

The Jerusalem Pride Parade, 2010 Some 3,000 people marched from Jerusalem’s Independence Park to the Knesset in last week’s annual Gay Pride parade. My daughter Merav and I were there to support the community. It’s been a long time since I was at a gay parade – I used to regularly join the massive San […]

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Tisha B’av with Helicopters

July 20, 2010

The book of Eicha is traditionally read on Tisha B’av Every year on Tisha B’av, there are pundits who write in the local newspapers that we should stop fasting and start celebrating. Tisha B’av – the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av (which always falls somewhere in super-heated July or August) – commemorates […]

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Gaza: a Rock and Roll Response

July 14, 2010

With another ship of questionable humanitarian aid and activists on its way to Gaza this week, I thought I’d take a look back at what my wife Jody and I did during the original “Free Gaza flotilla” and near lynching of Israeli troops six weeks ago: we went to a concert. Not just any concert, […]

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Will my Children Be Jewish?

June 29, 2010

MK David Rotem New regulations from the Chief Rabbinate have non-Orthodox Israelis in a tizzy. According to the rules, anyone can have their Jewishness called into question at any time. But legislators in the Knesset aren’t taken the changes lying down with MK David Rotem vowing to fight. The new rules appear to be part […]

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Anglo Community in Jerusalem Struck by Tragedy

June 11, 2010

Lee Vatkin, z’l The text message came in early Tuesday morning: “There are no words to express our thoughts and feelings at this time. Our darling daughter Lee Gabriella’s funeral will be at 11:15 PM tonight.” By this time, of course, we already knew – half of Anglo Jerusalem did, whether by email, phone calls, […]

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The Business of Jacob’s Ladder

May 13, 2010

The Lawn Stage at Jacob’s Ladder When Yehudit Vinegrad took the stage at the close of the Spring 2009 Jacob’s Ladder folk festival and announced that she was stepping down and would, after 33 years, no longer produce the show, a palpable shock and shudder rippled through the crowd. But then Vinegrad added, with a […]

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Can a Hookworm Make You Healthy?

April 22, 2010

Can a hookworm make you healthy? Jasper Lawrence seems to think so. And now his special therapeutic worm treatment is available for shipment to Israel. I first heard about Lawrence and his worms when they were featured on an episode of WNYC’s Radio Lab (which was rebroadcast last week on This American Life – one […]

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