The celebrations began two days ago with a field trip. As the Little One’s birthday falls on Shavuot this year (which begins today), we opted for an alternative sort of birthday party, taking his entire pre-school to the Old Courtyard at Kibbutz Ein Shemer. The kids harvested wheat, made flour (a very practical skill, no doubt), went for a tractor ride to the fields, and...
Eshchar Hochman, a 36 year-old father of two little boys, was diagnosed with brain cancer two years ago. During an operation to remove the tumor, Eshchar had a partial hemorrhage that rendered him paralyzed on his entire left side. Doctors said that Eshchar wouldn’t be able to walk again, but using astonishing strength, he can now walk using of cane. Unfortunately, the...
Is it just me, or does this week’s Durban II conference in Geneva remind you of Tom Lehrer‘s “National Brotherhood Week” as well? [youtube=] Tweet
While I don’t generally do the fundraising or promotion thing in this space, sometimes, something comes up that seems worthy of a mention. One of the best local English (and Dutch) language bloggers in Israel, Bert (Yonathan) of Dutchblog Israel, is raising funds for what he says is an ambitious project, which should result in an “extremely interesting, and...
The world has truly become a theater of the absurd when Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad is considered a welcome guest at the UN-sponsored conference on racism that opens today in Geneva. Of course, the conference itself promises to make a mockery of the very concepts of the ideals that it purports to be combating, given that in all likelihood, it will once again turn into...
A childhood friend passed away earlier this week following a courageous, five-year battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, otherwise known as ALS or Lou Gehrig‘s Disease, after the American baseball player who died from the disease in 1941. I hadn’t seen her since high school, and even in school we didn’t really run in the same circles. We did, however...
Several years ago, a good friend of mine found herself walking the streets of London during the early morning hours, trying to convince a Palestinian she’d met that his understanding of Zionist ideology was based on a definition that she, as someone living in Israel, simply could not share, that his views were based on what she considered to be a distortion of Zionism...
“There were a couple of Kadima activists here earlier, but it rained, so they left…” The best election day comment so far, said by a Green Movement-Meimad activist at my polling station this morning. There were no other party activists anywhere in the vicinity. Hardy bunch, those Kadima folks, aren’t they? Tweet
I was asked to share my thoughts on today’s Israeli elections. You can see who I voted for by scrolling down to the “Cool Stuff” section in the right-hand column of the blog and clicking the Hebrew-language banner (there’s only one), which takes you to the party’s English-language website. ******** This Tuesday, we’ll be holding elections...
Mommy: Little One, look at the television. Do you see that man? This is a very important moment that we’re watching. We’re watching history being made. Barack Obama is the first black president of the United States. Little One: Mommy, do you know what a Mercedes is? I do… Sigh… Tweet