Just For Fun

Train Construction Ahead

November 8, 2011

When our kids were young, we had a videotape they used to love called “Road Construction Ahead” which was all about, well, road construction. It featured hard hats, tractors and lots of concrete. The truth is, I loved it too – I’m a nut when it comes to anything in the stages of being built [...]

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Celebrity at the Wedding

October 5, 2011

The young man in the light purple shirt and the small knitted kippa looked awfully familiar. He was sitting in the row in front of us at the chuppa of the daughter of close friends. My wife Jody went up to him. “I recognize you, but I can’t place from where,” she said. He held [...]

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White Night Shines in Tel Aviv

July 5, 2011

On Thursday last week, Tel Aviv celebrated its 9th annual “White Night,” a city-wide party to mark the UNESCO declaration of Tel Aviv as “the White City,” in honor of its many (white) Bauhaus-era buildings. My wife Jody and I had never been to White Night (“Layla Levan” in Hebrew) – the throngs of revelers [...]

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A Celebrity at the School Play

June 22, 2011

It’s been a good week for comedy in Israel. First, the twice-a-year Comedy for Koby show has been traveling around the country to great acclaim – I blogged about it earlier this week on Israelity. And yesterday afternoon, raunchy (and embarrassingly funny) U.S. comedian Sarah Silverman improbably appeared on a panel at Shimon Peres’ “Israeli [...]

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We’re Number One…in Facebook Use, That is

June 14, 2011

I’ve always suspected it. My kids seem to be permanently attached to Facebook and other social media services. Now, new research proves I’m right. And it’s not just my family – it’s the whole country. According to a just released poll by the well regarded market intelligence firm Comscore, during April the average Israeli spent [...]

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At My Most Zionist

May 11, 2011

In our daughter’s 12th grade class on Monday, on the cusp between Memorial and Independence Days, her teacher asked something along the lines of “what was the most Zionist, nationalist moment, for you personally.” Merav was unsure how to answer. Many of her friends referred to their families’ aliyah. “But I was just a baby then,” [...]

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Old City Treasure Hunt

March 30, 2011

Dr. Clue is the world’s leading team-building company specializing in treasure hunt activities. Dr. Clue is also my brother, Dave. He was just here in Israel for our youngest son Aviv’s bar mitzvah and, as his gift, he planned a special treasure hunt in the Old City of Jerusalem. Dave normally organizes hunts for companies [...]

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The Pause that Refreshes?

March 23, 2011

Purim in Jerusalem…and all the restaurants are booked solid. That didn’t stop our party of 11 from joining the merrymaking mosaic of Israeli society out to celebrate the defeat of the evil Haman some 2,000 years ago. My wife Jody had the foresight to reserve a table at the uber-popular Caffit café far in advance. [...]

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Religious Mustard and Other Hebrew Acronyms

January 26, 2011

In the U.S. and most western countries, Jews tend to identify their religious affiliation through one of the major Jewish movements, be it Conservative, Reform, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Jewish Renewal, and even Secular Humanistic Judaism. Not so in Israel, where one’s religious standing is far more nuanced. In a country that loves army-influenced acronyms, a whole [...]

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A Walk on the Wild Side

December 22, 2010

It has been years since I’ve been to downtown Jerusalem at night, but it’s the “in” spot for the teenagers in our house. After our sushi dinner last week, my wife and I decided to take a walk around. Frankly, we were blown away. I expected to find a run-down city center, its main artery [...]

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