22nd of March 2024 12th Adar II 5784 167th of October Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Shabbat Shalom, Purim Sameach, Ramadan Kareem and a blessed Holy Week beginning with Palm Sunday Do you remember the old story about the teacher who sees two children fighting in the playground, one of whom is beating the living daylights…

15th March 2024 161st day of October Scarred and Scared Shabbat Shalom dear friends. For a change I want to begin with a letter from a friend. It fascinated me and helped me understand many aspects of what it means to be both here in Israel and in the country of one’s residence, the USA,…

8th March 2024 153rd of October Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Shabbat Shalom today, International Women’s Day. I thought that the slogan “Me Too except for Jew” was exaggerated, but as time went on and not one women’s organisation condemned the vile attacks of Hamas, the demonic instances of necrophilia, sadism, paedophilia, genital mutilation of women…

1st March, 2024 October 144th Shabbat Shalom, I wish you a peaceful weekend I want you to imagine a beautiful sunny day, driving down road 232, the verges covered in fabulous carpet of wild red anemones, so famous in the south of Israel. We had driven down this road many times in the past to…

23rd February 2024 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. A peaceful, kind weekend to one and all irrespective of how you pray, to whom you pray and in which direction. I wish you well. Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of the Moslem faith. It is celebrated on the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and…

15th February, 2024 October the 132nd Shabbat Shalom! This week was Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten period. My childhood memories of Shrove Tuesday was of ladies dressed in frilly aprons racing each other down the streets of the city while tossing pancakes! Not thick fluffy pancakes but something more reminiscent…

9th of February, 2024 October 126th Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Did you know that ”email message” in Yiddish is Der Blitsbriv? It’s amazing how Yiddish, an old European Jewish language, is still morphing, changing with the times. Most of the Jews of Eastern Europe communicated with each other in Yiddish, yet that language did not…

The 2nd of the 2nd 2024 Shvat 23rd 5784 October the 118th Shabbat Shalom dear friends, Shabbat Shalom from a very wet, windy and rainy Jerusalem. Shabbat Shalom from a very busy week in Israel’s life. As usual I will try to give you a balanced look at our lives, what it means to be…

26th January, 2024 Shabbat Shalom dear friends Perhaps Charles Dickens was a prophet when he wrote “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the…

23rd January 2024 Midweek update Israel is in mourning today after losing 24 soldiers yesterday. 3 officers were lost in fighting and 21 soldiers in a horrific incident while clearing a safe zone on the Gaza side of the border just 600 metres from Kibbutz Kissufim. They were so close to home, flattening buildings which…