141114 14th November 2014 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Moshe Dayan once said “If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.” That is the reason that the Israeli Prime Minister met with Mahmoud Abbas and then with  King Abdullah in Amman under the watchful eye of John Kerry.…

141106 6th November 2014 Shabbat Shalom dear friend. As I was writing this letter yesterday my daughter Rachel called me to turn on the TV news “Mum there has been a pigu’a” another terrorist attack on the Light Rail line”. Yet again an Arab used his  vehicle as a weapon racing down the light rail…

141030 30th October 2014 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. I hope you are not all shaking in your shoes from the spiders, cobwebs, bats and witches that decorate so many homes in time for All Hallows Eve. Believe you me, we have enough scary things happening in the world without ghosts and ghouls and things that…

141023 23rd October 2014 Shabbat Shalom dear Friends. Shabbat Shalom. Chaya Zisel Braun, American and Israeli citizen, 3 months old, was murdered by a Hamas terrorist yesterday in Jerusalem. Our hearts go out to the Braun family as the entire nation of Israel mourns with you.  Her father, an American-Israeli from Los Angeles, CA, is…

141015 15th October 2014 I don’t quite know which Chag to bless and what is happening when and how!!! I could just say Chag Sameach and cover the lot but then tradition tells us to say Moadim le Simcha – Happy News (or something close) and in Israel we celebrate just about all of the…

141010 10th October 2014 Shabbat Shalom and Chag Succot Sameach I was going to write all about Succot but decided it was pointless when it has already been written beautifully by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen. http://jeremyrosen.blogspot.co.il/ Another person who says things much better than I with perhaps a lot more courage and zeal is the feisty Pat Condell who hits…

141003 3rd October, 2014 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Shabbat Shalom and “tsom kal”. Tsom Kal  is an expression which means easy fast. This evening Jews all over the world will eat a special meal before entering the fast of Yom Kippur. The purpose is not to starve oneself as some kind of punishment for a year of sins – the purpose of the…

Shana Tova -שנה טובה – Happy New Year – מזל ניו יאר – Feliz Año Nuevo – Bonne année – سنة جديدة سعيدة -С Новым годом – 新年好 – Glückliches neues Jahr – Buon anno – Godt Nytår -Gelukkig Nieuwjaar – Bonan Novjaron – Onnellista uutta vuotta – გილოცავთ ახალ წელს – Ευτυχισμένο το Νέο…

140919 19th September 2014 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. I hope you are well. Many Jews fled Europe 70 years ago and chose the place farthest from the xenophobia which wiped out their families. They chose Australia which provided a haven of peace from the horrors they left behind. In the new world order even Australia is…

140912 12th September 2014 Shabbat Shalom dear friends I find it hard to absorb the fact that 13 years have passed since that diabolical moment when the world stood still in disbelief as one then two aeroplanes ploughed into the symbols of democracy, the Twin Towers in Manhattan then the Pentagon and more. I couldn’t…