26th August, 2022 Shabbat Shalom! Did you miss me? I felt really guilty about not writing last week, I think the first time in many, many years, but soon got over it! Instead of writing I spent Friday morning with my children and grandchildren walking through the English countryside picking blackberries which I turned into…

12th August 2022 Shabbat Shalom everyone! How are you today? Did you know that yesterday was Tu b’Av, the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Av and a day of love. Very different to the highly commercial Valentine’s Day, not only because in fact St Valentine wasn’t a very nice man, it is a…

5th August 2022 Shabbat Shalom everyone. I hope and pray that all our friends in California and Europe where brush and forest fires abound are safe and sound. Thoughts for the day as we near Tisha b’Av. Tisha b’Av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, the day on which we mourn the…

29th July 2022 Shabbat Shalom! I hope this missive finds you well. Chodesh Tov, happy new month. Today is the first day of the Hebrew month of Av and we are in the middle of the three weeks of mourning for the destruction of the Holy Temple thousands of years ago. The final day of…

22nd July 2022 Shabbat Shalom everyone, especially all the participants of the 22nd Maccabiah! Last week I promised you the video of the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah, always spectacular and particularly so this year. Since I don’t expect you to sit through the hour and a half of the original ceremony here is a…

15th July 2022 16th Tammuz 5782 Shabbat Shalom world! A truly incredible week which began with the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, continued with the visit of President Biden, the arrival of friends from all over the world for the Maccabiah Games and finally showing Tel Aviv and the sea to our dear…

The 8th of July 2022 Shabbat Shalom. Today is one of the three most important days of my life. It happened exactly 50 years ago, at a few minutes past midnight, in the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, Berkshire (pronounced redding barkshir) when the most beautiful baby boy ever was born. A baby boy who laughed…

1st of July 2022 2nd of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, 5782 Shabbat Shalom! What a week! Well actually, although Zvi and I had a busy week I was referring to Israel’s political week and what I believe to be the outcome. The decision was taken to end the current Knesset session, a hard decision…

24th June, 2022 25th Sivan 5782 Shabbat Shalom, I hope you are well and the new Covid variant hasn’t got you! I’m fascinated by the way that the Covid virus, itself a variant of the SARS virus, is constantly morphing into new forms, challenging our scientists and even our politicians, almost certainly never to be…

16th June 2022 Shabbat Shalom! I’m ignoring the politics and diplomacies of this world, not because it doesn’t influence our every day life, or the price of fuel which has affected everything else, but because Zvi and I are off to Pathos, in Cyprus, tomorrow morning. I should tell you that the last time Zvi…