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May 7, 2021 How my shingles reminded me every day counts By Barbara Sofer I figure it’s just a bug bite. Israeli springtime with its glorious weather and burst of flowers is accompanied by thirsty insects waking up from winter slumber. Somehow, I’ve been stung in the narrow strip between my casquette cap and my […]

April 23, 2021 Independence Day: Forks, flypasts and the joy of being Israeli By Barbara Sofer The smooth sand warms my bare soles on the long expanse of Ashdod’s Eleventh Neighborhood Beach. No sign of the recent tar pollution. Israel’s southern beaches were less badly hit than the northern, but not a tar clump remains,

April 9, 2021 73+1 reasons why I love Israel – Opinion By Barbara Sofer Yes, there are imitations, but here is the original Jerusalem Post 17th straight year of new “Reasons I love Israel,” even though 2020 was a year of challenges. Rappelling, spelunking and droning: Archaeologists rappelled into Dead Sea caves and recently found

March 26, 2021 Passover preserves the memory of Jewish people’s past voyages By Barbara Sofer There comes that moment of frustration when preparing for Passover that I need to sit down with my copy of Bread and Fire. Obviously, no bread recipes here. Bread and Fire is a collection of Jewish women’s writings edited by writer Rivkah

March 12, 2021 The Human Spirit: Yusef revisited By Barbara Sofer Welcome. Marhaba. I’m at a birthday party for 11-year-old Yusef Jadata. He lives in what Wikipedia calls “the northernmost neighborhood of Jerusalem.” Although I’m a longtime Jerusalemite I have no idea that part of my city isn’t directly accessible through Israeli roads. Neither does

February 25, 2021 Israel: We must not teach history, but instill memory By Barbara Sofer Jewish educators, most notably our contemporary Jerusalemite master teacher Avraham Infeld, insist that it’s not history we need to teach the next generation, but memory that we must instill. Says Infeld: It’s not what happened in the past that matters

February 24, 2021 How I fell in love with Purim in Israel By Barbara Sofer Seder night has always been a seminal event for me, as it is with most Jews. Over the decades of living in Jerusalem, Israeli melodies have been grafted onto the songs I inherited from my grandparents who brought them from

February 12, 2021 Considering conversion: From Texas church songs to Israel hassidic tunes By Barbara Sofer  She used to be the minister of song in a Texas megachurch, but now she’s an aficionado of hassidic melodies in Israel. I’m thinking of this remarkable story as the women of the Chabad movement mark the 33rd anniversary of the

January 15, 2021 By 2065, Israel will be most crowded nation on earth – good news By Barbara Sofer I’m one of those optimists who see our national birthrate as an expression of positive values, willingness to take on responsibility and confidence. I sit down to read the recent Gregorian New Year’s supplement of the

December 31, 2020 Thankful for getting the coronavirus vaccine – opinion By Barbara Sofer Dear Bill, I have been enjoying late-night Zoom participation on the University of Pennsylvania committee to prepare for our reunion. Because I live outside of the United States, the 50th reunion is a golden opportunity to connect. I attended my high school 50th