A couple of weeks ago, I chronicled my first day of Ulpan. It’s been three weeks now, 3-4 days each week, and it's going great. I truly felt my Hebrew getting significantly better after only a week and a half of learning new words. One...
Welcome to my new and improved blog. Well, new address and host, anyway. I decided a couple of months ago that my Mac-ish blog wasn't the best long-term so I should move it at some point (plus, it seemed to load slowly for...
Hey, did you happen to know that I’m a sports fan? No, really! Thank G-d for the internet; I don’t know how I survived for 9 months here after high school without sports. Oh yeah, my mom mailed me the sports page so I could...
Having picked up and moved to a new state three times (Georgia, New York, and the State of Israel), I am often described by my father as a risk-taker. However, no one should confuse me with Evil Knievel or any other daredevils. I got scared...
A few weeks ago, my friend Rani invited me out for coffee to meet his neighbor. Apparently, he discovered that a non-Jewish journalist named Kathrin from Germany is living next door to him while on assignment. “She has a blog...
Well, my loyal readers, I’m back, spending my Shabbat catching up. Quick: what are the official languages of Israel? Give up? Hebrew and Arabic. So what does it really mean to be an official language? Not that I can speak from experience (as I’ve never been an...
Here is a list of just a few of the benefits provided to me by the Misrad Klitah, Ministry of Absorption, as an oleh chadash (new immigrant): Free health insurance for 5 months Free Ulpan (Hebrew class) within my 18 months Free falafel for my first 40 years While...
You want a record that will never be broken? I JUST WATCHED ANOTHER SEASON OF “24” IN 36 HOURS. Some people are put on this earth for a reason. Theodore Herzl? To found modern political Zionism. MLK? To lead the American civil rights movement. Me? To...
That’s the stereotype of the stereotype that the world has of Israel. I don’t know if that’s really what people think but those in the world of Jewish education always stress the need to show American Jewish teens that there’s more than just camels....
At the current point of Jewish history, people talk about the Jewish world being elliptical with two foci, or main points, Israel and America. Israel too has two geographical foci which arguably hold greater significance than others, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Most American...