Month: November 2007

  • On museums and Annapolis – shmalapolis.

    Jerusalem is once again hosting חמשושלים, that period when museums go late Thursday nights and restaurants discount themselves for the weekend.We chose to visit the Menachem Begin Heritage Center. I never felt any specific or strong feelings towards Menachem Begin – the sixth prime minister of Israel and former Beitar movement head and Irgun strategizer.…

  • Brothers, sons, teachers, students.

    Not quite street art, but temporarily tonight Keren HaYessod street was painted with the anger and frustration of local teachers: The sign reads: “Brother, brother! Your son is my student!” Sometimes, this country seems like one big block party where literally everyone is separated by a few degrees. In this case, the holders of the…

  • Playing the PeaceMaker… from your desktop.

    Not sure I’ve ever mentioned this ‘out loud’ here before, but I maintain a second blog called Better Than Misery which covers my journey as a mediation student. The latest post I wrote is actually relevant both here and there, so I thought I’d bring some attention to it here: Yesterday, Haaretz newspaper did a…

  • A bus driver's advice: Sleep.

    In the two and a half years I have ridden the 400 bus to Bar Ilan, I have never fallen asleep and missed my stop – until today. What am I, six-years-old? As I walked up to the driver to confirm and to get the best route backwards, I knew the conversation could go two…

  • An Israeli workday.

    This hasn’t happened in a while, but today was a high terror alert in Jerusalem so the police were everywhere. Here’s what I watched from my office window after police discovered a suspicious package near the Malha mall:  The bomb squad guy getting the act together with (Israeli) man’s best friend.   Traffic backed up…

  • What kind of doctor *are* you?

    Why is it that whenever I go to my doctor for an issue, I always end up with a referral to get a blood test? Is that universal to Israeli kupot doctors? Seriously, watch this: “Doc, I think I injured my knee.” “We should get your blood count.” “Doc, I’ve been getting weird headaches lately.”…

  • Serious message from the streets of Jerusalem…

    A serious message from the streets of Jerusalem: The Hebrew alphabet is written out with every third letter underlined and the message below is “One out of three women are raped…” Eerie in any language.

  • Today's word: celeb/סלב

    So the Globes article I was interviewed for came out today: My first Israeli 15 minutes of fame… You might call me a סלב (pronounced ‘celeb’). Can you guess what it means? Creative, I know. UPDATE: Here’s the section of the article where I yap about Facebook. It’s the best I could do, they don’t…

  • Israeli turkeyliciousness.

    Happy Thanksgiving 2007. As I’ve done for my last two Israeli Thanksgivings, I went to work today and am planning a big Thanksgiving Friday night Shabbat dinner of juicy Americanness. It wasn’t until I had eaten my first slice that I realized the humor in me choosing Mama Oaf turkey slices for lunch today… Actually,…

  • All aboard: Morning minyan on Israel Railways.

    New from Israel Railways: Pray for the train to be on time… Late for work or school because of long Morning Prayer? Do you get stuck in traffic because you were held up at shul? Israel Railways presents ‘Synagogue Coach’. Project’s initiators at Union of Synagogues wait for green-light from transportation minister, generous donor to…

  • What earthquake?

    Apparently everyone around me felt the earthquake that hit here in Jerusalem a few minutes ago. It’s probably just the tippy-end of a bigger one somewhere else, but I didn’t feel it either way. When I was 8 I slept through a California earthquake… so… yeah. UPDATE: Here are the details from Ynet – Earthquake…

  • Now they're taking *our* semester breaks?

    A little ironic after my last post, but: Universities set to cancel vacations to make up strike time There are so many three, four and six-letter words running through my head right now (bilingually), I can’t really write anything else. University officials say that students will probably have to give up their semester break, and…