Exploring Israel's unique position at the crossroads of history, religion, people and culture
Due to a series of blessed, quite extraordinary circumstances, I started to collaborate with the Israel Antiquities Authority in creating content for their English language Facebook page. Here is the first piece I created for them from the fabulous excavations at ancient Usha. The village of Usha was made famous as the first layover in …
In case you don’t know, the Jewish people divide the Torah (Pentateuch, first 5 books of the Hebrew Bible) into chapters and these are read in order, aloud, usually at the synagogue, every week of the year, especially on Shabbat (the Sabbath). We’ve actually being doing that for about 2,500 years, ever since we returned …
My good friend Wilma visited me in Israel recently and one of the first questions she asked as we emailed back and forth as she was preparing for the journey was “What do I pack?” I told her not to worry and to wait until a week or so before the trip to see what …
Boy, do I love it when seemingly unrelated events come together and fit into the puzzle that is my life. And, when they do, it gives me goosebumps and I re-think my stance on a Higher Power. For those who do not know of my previous life in California, I lived in Salinas for eight …
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My mother died two weeks ago. August 12th. In California. Just like that. In her sleep. Shock for all of us. And although she moved away almost 50 years ago, she had a deep love of Israel and wanted to be buried here. So my Dad, my brother and sister and I immediately went into …
There is a new craze in Israel these days. The Eurovision Song Contest, which Israel has won three times already, (the latest being last year with Neta Barzilai’s amazing rendition of ‘Toy”) is coming to Israel this May! Yes, and Israelis are beside themselves with excitement. It will be held in Tel Aviv and its …
I’ve been on the verge of tears all day. They flowed this morning, a bit more a few hours later. Now again at dinner with my husband. There’s a lump in my throat, just won’t go away. Its hard to swallow. I have to put thoughts to paper, so here goes: He was stabbed yesterday, a …
I am fascinated with prehistoric archaeology and the Leopard Temple in the Uvda Valley, about an hour’s drive from Eilat, is one of my favorite sites. When I stand at this place, used by ancient peoples for 4,000 years (let me spell that out, four thousand years!) as a cultic sanctuary, from the Neolithic Age, …
In addition to guiding tours around Israel, in the past two years I supplemented my income by creating and customizing itineraries for clients of Touring Israel, a luxury private touring company I highly recommend. As I spoke to clients on the phone, custom building their Israel trip itineraries, I would sometimes get the request, “We want …
It was 50 years ago today in 1967, and we were living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Now, I don’t know if what I am about to tell you is exactly the way it happened, or if it is the mish-mash of stories I heard and photos and family films I have seen, or if it is my …