180219 9th February 2018 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. I hope you are well and my family in North America and the UK are not too cold. Just to make everyone jealous, the weather here has been glorious. Yesterday was 25C and just glorious. The balmy spring weather has persuaded the Shkediot (almond blossom), nuriot (rununculus), the…

180202 2nd February 2018 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. I hope this missive finds you well. With devastating irony, less than one week after the whole world supposedly remembers those who died in the Holocaust, the Polish Parliament passed a law that made it illegal to use the terms “Polish Death Camps” or “Polish Concentration Camps”.  They…

28th January 2018 It was the best of times it was the worst of times, so said Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities. It is a time of huge achievement and a time of unutterable misanthropy, so said Sheila Raviv in Jerusalem. It is with enormous pride that I begin with the great achievement…

180119 19th January 2018 Shabbat Shalom everyone! Gosh three whole weeks since I last wrote and so much has passed!! To start with, the world is a year older, I am a year older and Zvi and I went on a cruise!! The best part of the cruise was being with old friends and meeting new…

171229 29th December 2017 Shabbat Shalom everyone – especially if you live in Guatemala!! I hope your Christmas and Boxing Day celebrations went well and that your prayers for 2018 will come true. Guatemala, Central America, about 16.5 million citizens and courage above anybody in Europe! Actually courage above any other country you wish to choose!!Garcia…

171222 22nd December, 2017 Shabbat Shalom and  Blessed Yuletide greetings The United Nations, after many years of proving its bias and uselessness, has put the final nail in the coffin of its relevance. I will not write at length about their decision, or of an American President that was willing to go out on a limb…

171215 15th of December 2017 Shabbat Shalom! Chag Sameach…… In Israel we tend to say “Festival of Lights” rather than just Happy Chanuka because our story represents the shining of light upon us all as well as the miracle of the 8 days of oil and the first time Jews decided to truly defend themselves. Jerusalem…

170812 8th December 2017 Shabbat Shalom everyone! After three days of rain and one clear statement by an American President Jerusalem is looking beautiful. If one truly analyses President Trumps statement/declaration nothing has changed except the paradigm. From the vote in Washington in 1995 the question of Jerusalem has been carefully put on a back burner,…

171201 The first of December 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. I have to start with the ridiculous storm in a teacup after Israeli MinisterTsippi Hotovely said that American parents cannot understand what it means to have a child in the IDF. She’s right!!! I have two step-sons, Zvi’s boys, who served in the IDF in dangerous…

171123 23rd November 2017 Shabbat Shalom! How are you? I hope you are well and not too depressed by the crazy world we live in and the medias obsession with our leaders. Surprisingly this hasn’t been a busy week. It makes a pleasant change and gave me time to cook and contemplate – my freezer was…