171117 17th November 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Why is it that as soon as I get used to writing 2017 it is almost 2018??? The most important news for Israel this week barely made the headlines, certainly not around the world! The Knesset and Congresshave made a joint declaration urging the US Administration to demand that…

171110 10th November, 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. What a strange world we live in! I never thought, not in a million years, that good could come out of the revelations of Harvey Weinstein’s diabolical predilections but it opened the floodgates for women who feared the publicity of admitting they had been raped. As children…

171102 2nd November 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. An eventful week indeed. A man who was given safe haven by the United States of America after suffering oppression in his home country of Uzbekistan, an undoubtedly cruel dictatorship and finds work, as an Uber driver, and a new life. This is surely a story with a…

171027 27th October 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Gosh, 3 weeks have passed since my last letter. I have reasons not excuses but I hope you understand anyway! The first week was still Succot (Tabernacles) for you, even though it wasn’t in Israel I have a policy never to offend anyone religiously (or otherwise I hope!);…

171004 4th October 2017 Chag Sameach, Moadim le Simcha. Today I wanted to make you laugh, to tell you about the tap tap tap tap tap of frantic succah building, long into the night after Yom Kippur; I wanted to describe the beautiful decorations made by our grandchildren, in Israel, Britain and New York; I really…

170929 29th September, 2017 Shabbat Shalom, Shana Tova and Gmar Hatima Tova. Tonight we have a chance to change, a chance to improve ourselves and to atone for the things we did or said. Forgiveness is not automatic, we must pledge to do better and most importantly of all, we must apologise in person to those…

170920 20th September 2017 Rosh Hashana 2017, in the Jewish year of 5778 Thank you one and all for listening to my musings and emotions, my thoughts and deliberations. I appreciate you all, each and every one of you and wish you שנה טובה ומתוקה I wish you a year in which the voice of moderation…

 170915 15th September 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. I hope you had a good week and are feeling well. I remember how we used to snigger at our elders when they wished each other a year of good health, but in truth it is our number one priority. We can overcome almost anything if we feel…

170908 8th September 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. What a week of worry! Hurricanes and monsoons, Texas, the Caribbean Islands, Florida, India, Nepal, Pakistan; the horror of natural disasters reminds us that we humans are powerless against the enormity of nature. The devastation left in the path of hurricane Irma is unprecedented in its scope. Unlike…

170901 September the first, 2017 Shabbat Shalom everyone! Since today is the first day of the school year here in Israel I decided this would be a letter about Israel – we find it too easy to forget the wonderful country that gave us all a sense of pride that thousands of year of abasement…