151023 23rd October 2015 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. I hope you are well and that life is treating you kindly. What a week of violence. Thousands killed in Syria; hundreds in Nigeria; shootings in American schools; Mexican drug rings; Venezuela, is Venezuela; and in South Africa an armed gang raped woman in front of boyfriend and forced her…

151014 14th October 2015 I hate writing Mid-Week updates but you deserve to know what is really going on. Quite rightly little appeared in the media because, frankly, there are a hundred places in the world that are in infinitely worse situations. You, and I, want to know because we love this country and know that all…

151009 9th October 2015 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Shabbat Shalom, Salaam, Paz, Pax, Peace, Pais……. I am happy to use any word, especially that magic word Peace. The Chagim are over, and I still haven’t worked out what day of the week it is, except for the aroma of Shabbat preparations rising from the apartments beneath us.…

150210 2nd October 2015 Shabbat Shalom everyone! Sorry this is so late but I was deep in my Shabbat preparations and only just sat down to write. I was also a little intimidated by the news since I last put fingers to keyboard – one can no longer say pen to paper after all. I will…

150925 25th September 2015 Shabbat Shalom, Gmar Hatima Tova and finally –  almost Chag Succot Sameach,  a Blessed Tabernacles and a peaceful Eid-Ul-Adha, the Day of Arafat and Hajj. Actually, looking at what I just wrote above, hopefully using the traditional blessings for the Jewish and Christian festivals, Succot is happy, Tabernacles blessed and Ei-Ul-Adha I chose to use…

150922 22nd September 2015 Erev Yom haKippurim – Eve of the Day of Atonement Dear Friends, Did you know that Yom Kippur has nothing to do with food? I know that the Jewish world is obsessed with fasting, “Well over the fast” “Easy fast”, the morning television programmes are full of dieticians telling us how to eat leading…

150911 11th September 2015 14 years. Incredibly 14 years have passed since we all thought that we were watching a movie reconstruction, a disaster movie. 14 years since the worst 8 hours of my life, then the best moment of my life when Kim discovered that both Rachel and Daniel were OK 14 years since…

150904 4th September 2015 Shabbat Shalom dear friends and a special one to Zachary David, my grandson, Chelsea fan and gorgeous boy, who was 7 years old yesterday! Happy birthday darling boy. Incredibly my wonderful, wise eldest son Daniel celebrates his 46th birthday this week too.  How did that happen????? My favourite story of the…

150821 21st August, 2015 Shabbat Shalom from Tel Aviv! Yes here we are in Jerusalem’s smaller neighbour, enjoying meeting with friends and seeing how the other half lives! The Israeli media is no better than your media for taking things out of proportion. For instance, Tel Aviv has a number of bridges, fairly short but…

150814 14th August 2015 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Today may be a short letter because last night three of our Israeli grandchildren came for a sleepover and I am somewhat tired but I can’t promise!! They were amazing, I loved every second, played a funnnnnny game with them where we each had to mimic someone…