To Dream the Impossible Dream
I am not a politician, nor a political analyst, nor in any formal sense a journalist covering a story. I am simply a person who has lived in Jerusalem for over twenty-five years, experiencing the Yom Kippur war […]
Category Archives: Israel
Hidden Saints
When people buttonhole me in the street, write me letters and e-mail asking me to “write something nice” about the ultra-Orthodox world, I usually tell them that I find it curious they aren’t instead banging down my door […]
A New Year’s Prayer
The start of a New Year. The house sparkles. The smell of freshly-baked challah and sweet kugels waft through the kitchen. The shelves hold honey, the fruit bowls scarlet pomegranates and yellow-green star fruits. All my family is […]
The Method
I was watching the news the other day, and saw the Knesset committee debating when the Electric Company can best move its turbine. One of the ultra-Orthodox M.K’s was holding forth passionately about how much cheaper it would […]
Close Encounter
The other day, instead of reaching for my contact lens conditioning solution, I reached for my contact lens cleaning solution, thereby giving my eye a walloping dose of akyl ether sulfate. My next stop after the emergency room […]
Little Lost Girl
I received a phone call a few weeks ago from a woman in the haredi world who is constantly involved in acts of kindness and charity, and thus constantly in hot water. This time, she had taken in […]
Kindred Spirits
Imagine, if you will, the loneliness of spending most of your life believing that your needs, your feelings, and your ideas are invalidated by those powers you most respect and feel most obligated to obey. Imagine too, hiding, […]
The Last Jews of Ethiopia
I’ve always had a special love for my brothers and sisters from Ethiopia. I suppose it began the day I saw a woman who had given birth en route get off the plane during Operation Solomon. This brought […]
Beautiful Native Flower
The tragedy of street violence among Israeli teenagers claimed two innocent lives last week. As I listened to the usual “blah blah” of talking heads discussing how to deal with this urgent social problem, it occurred to me […]