Lizrael Update: babbling about the expat life since 2004
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From Drags to Bitches: The implications of mainstreamed drag culture on women
In December 2018, I watched an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, a decades-old reality show featuring a competition for drag queens. The episode was a doozy to start with, because the week’s challenge was to not dress up in glamour but dress down – as nude women. This set me off on what became an…
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Hammock for one.
It gets harder every year. Yom HaShoah. Yom HaZicaron. Every year the ticking accelerates. Every year I realize all over again how important it is to not take any of it for granted. Every hug, every cuddle. Every whispered secret. Every question. Every silent moment, holding hands. Feeling up-down-up-down of a tiny chest against my…
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I’m up here. (The value of eye contact)
Yesterday two men from a neighbouring town and vastly different demographic approached me to ask for directions in my town. One did not look me in the eye as he spoke to me, but looked at the ground, eyes nearly closed. I know why. I felt lower than low. Human contact is core to our…
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Koala update: Ten years
Ten things I love about you this year: 1. You read like I do. Viciously, hungrily. 2. While you’ve always had your own sense of style, it’s starting to become sharper. And you care. 3. The girls in your class respect you. Because you respect them. 4. You still find it hard to control your…
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Zooey update: Three years
Three is crossing the sometimes thin line between ‘noket’ and kid… There are things about you that go beyond age.
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Kids, failure is just another item on a Startup Nation checklist
“This is an important night for the State of Israel, its citizens and young people. We see what we can do when we want and try. We are full of admiration for the wonderful people who got a spacecraft to the moon. True, not as we hoped, but we will get there, in the end.”…
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5 ways to combat the blues… and white and too many letters.
Deep down, didn’t we all know the outcome? Why is anyone surprised that on a country-wide level, the collective of citizens of the modern state of Israel are becoming more torn apart, more magnetized by extremes, more confused, more upset? Why should it be any different than what so many other countries are going through?…
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Bebe update: Eight years
Eight years ago, the universe gave me a gift. It’s not just that I had my second baby, or my first daughter, or a calm birth. Somehow I had been a partner in creating and developing and now maintaining an actual Angel. I think whatever angels are supposed to mean for different people, a common…
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Nettles update: five years
To the Nettles who’s been asking me for 8 months when she’ll be ‘this many’… Your love of fun is infectious, easily spreadable like your daily Vegemite… Your curiosity makes me want to learn the world all over again from your point of view… Your jokes are somehow hilarious every time… Your eyes could sway…
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The Harry Potter themed 9 3/4 birthday
I threw my son a Harry Potter themed birthday party for his 9 3/4 birthday. Yes, that’s actually 3 months before his real birthday. And I did it because I am a genius and have unlocked Parenting Level: 347, the one where you had all four of your kids in the same 4.5 week span…
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It’s too sad.
It’s been unexpectedly bizarre dealing with my feelings about the horrific slaughter of 11 worshipping Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue this past Shabbat. So many aspects to this are too soul crushing – …it was a brit mila ceremony… …it was a house of worship… …it was way closer to home… …it was…
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A synagogue into a slaughterhouse makes us wonder: what the hell happened to us?
11 Jewish congregants were slaughtered by an anti-Semite with an assault rifle. It’s a timeless tale. A baby was being accepted into the covenant. A timeless tale. The blood of the akaida, delivered by an enemy, the Angel of Hatred, of Spite, of Terror, of Death. And yet… “They should have been armed.” “Around the…
Questions? Comments? Advice?