Uncategorized

How should Israel feel about the 2022 Qatar World Cup? – opinion

December 30, 2022 How should Israel feel about the 2022 Qatar World Cup? – opinion By Barbara Sofer Among the creative advertisements – our version of Super Bowl commercials – that supported the World Cup broadcasting on Israel TV was one of an Israeli couple settling in front of the TV to cheer the home […]

How should Israel feel about the 2022 Qatar World Cup? – opinion Read More »

Kaunas, Lithuania: Culture celebration confronts Holocaust memory – opinion

December 16, 2022 Kaunas, Lithuania: Culture celebration confronts Holocaust memory – opinion By Barbara Sofer I’m in Kaunas, a pretty city of 300,000 residents in south central Lithuania. I’ve come for the closing events of Kaunas 2022, a year-long program facilitated when Kaunas was designated a European Capital of Culture. This city is better known

Kaunas, Lithuania: Culture celebration confronts Holocaust memory – opinion Read More »

Memoirs: Sometimes it’s important to look back and not just forward

November 20, 2022 Memoirs: Sometimes it’s important to look back and not just forward By Barbara Sofer I have two new books on my desk, both by Jerusalem women. They were given to me by their authors because they have a connection to Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. Both were completed during the

Memoirs: Sometimes it’s important to look back and not just forward Read More »

Hakhel: Jews, assemble! The once every seven years ceremony – opinion

October 21, 2022 Hakhel: Jews, assemble! The once every seven years ceremony – opinion By Barbara Sofer In modern Israel, the ancient Hakhel ceremony is reenacted in Jerusalem every seven years on the second intermediate day of the Sukkot holiday. I wanted to go. I consider myself a youthful septuagenarian but can’t count on being

Hakhel: Jews, assemble! The once every seven years ceremony – opinion Read More »

Yom Kippur: Remember the debt Israel owes to its soldiers – opinion

October 7, 2022 Yom Kippur: Remember the debt Israel owes to its soldiers – opinion By Barbara Sofer Moshe Levy. The name is so common, you might think it’s John Doe or Everyman Israeli. Even a pseudonym. The man on stage is indeed Moshe Levy. I’m in the trendy Tel Aviv nightclub and music venue

Yom Kippur: Remember the debt Israel owes to its soldiers – opinion Read More »

Rosh Hashanah: Having a Happy Jewish New Year in Israel – opinion

September 23, 2022 Rosh Hashanah: Having a Happy Jewish New Year in Israel – opinion By Barbara Sofer This is the season in which every conversation ends with a blessing to our counterparts for a “good New Year.” As we begin 5783, let’s take a moment to examine what that means. “Good” means excellent health,

Rosh Hashanah: Having a Happy Jewish New Year in Israel – opinion Read More »

Reviewing the past Jewish year on shuffle as Elul ends – opinion

September 16, 2022 Reviewing the past Jewish year on shuffle as Elul ends – opinion By Barbara Sofer Shuffle play. That’s the mode I’m using on my waterproof headphones, swimming the length of the shore on the Adriatic coast in Italy, from the first lido to the last. An hour swim. With shuffle play you

Reviewing the past Jewish year on shuffle as Elul ends – opinion Read More »

Watching ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ in Hebrew in Tel Aviv – opinion

August 27, 2022 Watching ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ in Hebrew in Tel Aviv – opinion By Barbara Sofer “Summertime, and the living is easy,” says the song. Not always so easy. The media feature massifs of missing luggage with reports of prices of hotels and flights rising together with global temperatures. Photos of melting glaciers.

Watching ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ in Hebrew in Tel Aviv – opinion Read More »