110624 24th June 2011 Gosh, what a week. I am late with the letter and cutting it too close to the line before we leave to go to a Kabbalat Shabbat and dinner with the World Zionist Organisation which follows the Presidents Conference on a better tomorrow but precedes the Keren Hayesod meetings and then…

110615 15th June 2011 This is an early Shabbat Shalom, but for good reason! Sunday evening we drove down toward the Dead Sea on the Jerusalem -Jericho road, the one that Nomi Shemer wrote about in the last verse of “Yerushalyim shel Zahav” – the road to the Dead Sea via Jericho. It never fails…

110610 10TH June 2011 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. I hope this letter finds you well. The Shabbat dinner party I described last week went off like a dream. The conversation was delightful as were the guests and it felt somehow right to introduce our new friends to old friends and mix the past with the…

110603 3rd June 2011 Dear lovely people, today I not only nearly missed the Shabbat boat – cooking too much as usual – but I was trying to get my brain around the number of things I want to tell you without boring you to death!!! This week Israel celebrated Jerusalem Day with wonderful parades,…

110527 27th May 2011 Shabbat shalom dear friends How are you? I hope you are well and looking forward to fine weather, sunshine and kinder times. Rarely have I heard a more varied set of opinions than those concerning President Obama’s speech prior to Prime Minster Netanyahu’s arrival at the White House! He certainly dropped…

110524 24th may 2011 Benjamin Netanyahu’s Speech before Congress may 24th 2011 received 50 rounds of applause and 30 standing ovations – yes I counted every one!!!! As you know I have not always been a fan of our current Prime Minister while never doubting his ability to speak brilliantly but today he said what…

20th may 2011 Shabbat Shalom dear Friends. I decided, taking into consideration the current situation in the Middle East and the abominable misreading of the cultural, political, strategic and logical map by our world leaders, to see if you are more knowledgeable than they are and if you are, to understand why you aren’t doing…

110513 Friday 13th May, 2011 Shabbat Shalom dear friends, I hope this missive finds you well. Isn’t it strange how quickly one falls back into the swing of life? Zvi gets up at 05:30 each morning to go to morning prayers and will continue to do so for the next 11 months. He prays 3…

110509 Mon, 9 May 2011 5th of Iyyar, 5771 – Yom HaZikaron – Israel at 63 – 20th day of the Omer The only sound one could sense over the mournful wailing of the siren was the fluttering of the flag high on its flagpole on our veranda with the view over Jerusalem. Standing to…

MY MOTHER-IN-LAW, ALLA RAVIV, WOMAN OF WORTH Born on September,18th, 1913, in Lodz, Poland, Leah Hendler did not realise what a fascinating life lay in front of her. Her travels began when she was only five months old. Her family, father Meir, mother Golda and big brother, four year old Shmuel, fearing the already extreme…