Love and Internet, all the time
The idiom refers to the quiet before the storm, but nobody ever mentions the quiet that follows it. Hebrew music lovers of a certain age might remember an old Haim Hefer song, performed by Lior Yaini,...
View ArticleMinyan in the master bedroom
It all started with my dear friend Jules. Motzei-Hurricane-Sandy (that’s the night following Hurricane Sandy, for any non-Jewish readers out there), I got a message from his wife, Sue. In the aftermath...
View ArticleThe Death of Arrogance
It is hard to believe that it has been an entire week since the whole world turned upside down and inside out for all of us in New York and New Jersey. Yet, it is hard to believe that it is just a week...
View ArticleA No Man’s Land of the Heart
It is terribly hard to be away from Israel in these days of war. I feel like I am in a no-man’s land of the heart. My heart and my head are 100% there. The proverb holds that “the trouble of many is...
View ArticleIf I abandon my post on Facebook, will Israel still win the war?
Yesterday I wrote, in self-deprecating jest, “if I briefly abandon my post on Facebook, will Israel still win the war?” For I, like so many others who cherish Israel, have spent the past week as a...
View ArticleLanguage, labels and the Arab-Israeli conflict
I’m a translator and an interpreter. I love nothing more than words and labels. I adore the neatness and order of grammar and syntax, the richness and nuance of vocabulary and the easy fit of...
View ArticleTerror and fear, American-style
My friends and neighbors in the United States are constantly asking me whether it is not dangerous in Israel and whether I’m not afraid to travel there, as I do so frequently. In the wake of Friday’s...
View ArticleHome, identity and connection
Being in Israel always causes me to ponder my identity and my sense of home. I used to believe that when you belong to two places, you can’t be a true part of either of them. Or maybe you are a part...
View ArticleThis time – we all vote?
There is a great public service announcement making the rounds in the days before the upcoming national elections. The essence of the message is This Time – We All Vote. It is terrific – comic,...
View ArticleStanding with Israel, the kid everybody loves to hate
‘Rina Ne’eman, what do you think of this?” A friend, well-known for his love of all things provocative, posted, yet again, an article highly critical of Israel on his Facebook wall, tagging me so as to...
View ArticleThe other delegitimization
Back in the day, when I was a student at Hebrew University, I had the privilege of studying and working with a greatly beloved professor by the name of Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov. Tragically, he recently...
View ArticleSo far away: digital flags and deliberations
These days, the week and a half in spring that encompass Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) in commemoration of our fallen soldiers and victims of heinous acts of...
View ArticleWomen and the Wall: Let’s talk about unity
Like many Israelis and Jews all over the world, I woke up on Friday agape and aghast at the images of what took place that morning at the Western Wall. Jews hurling chairs and garbage at other Jews,...
View ArticleTranslating Tehran: Israel’s Rita
Rita, Israel’s preeminent female vocalist, is an Iranian-born Israeli. With Iran at the top of the international news cycle in the wake of the elections, and immediately prior to her appearance at the...
View ArticleOn language, laffa and coexistence
The taxi driver swung his head back so sharply that the cab careened and almost rammed into the car in front of us. He was absolutely astounded to hear near-perfect and properly accented Palestinian...
View ArticleGuns R Us
Last night, a black-clad, helmeted gunman made his way into the Garden State Mall, shooting randomly. Still a favorite of mine, it is the mall that was the site of countless shopping trips in my...
View ArticleNuclear negotiations for dummies
As a translator, I always found it interesting how the well-known American “For Dummies” series of books so deftly avoided that concept of cluelessness in the Hebrew versions. In Hebrew, the books were...
View ArticleA letter to my Facebook friends – and yours
I wonder whether my Facebook Friends around the world have perceived me over the past six weeks or so as a person obsessed. It is hard to believe that just six weeks ago, a journalist friend called me...
View ArticleGrant me the serenity – and an off switch
True confession – while I like to think that I take good care of myself, a more honest assessment of my lifestyle would reveal that I have a multitude of bad habits that clearly fall into the category...
View Article
