December 17, 2021 Farewell, faraway friend By Barbara Sofer This week I learned that a faraway friend Martha died in California. Losing a dear friend is always sorrowful, but the forced distancing during the pandemic exacerbates the pain and helplessness. With the barriers to travel, flying to the US hasn’t felt like an option for […]
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December 3, 2021 The legacy of Holland’s Jewish cantorial music By Barbara Sofer Among the public gatherings in Holland regretfully canceled this week because of coronavirus is a Hanukkah concert. It was to have been performed in the storied Main Hall of the Royal Concertgebouw, one of the world’s most glorious emporiums of music. The
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November 19, 2021 The Jewish bookshelf of Tiferet Binyamin By Barbara Sofer It started with a bookshelf.Usually when we use the term “Jewish bookshelf,” we mean the compendium of basic texts – Torah, Talmud and Commentaries plus more contemporary books of Jewish thought and philosophy. A typical sentence might be: “We want to introduce newcomers
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November 5, 2021 Experiencing an African safari in Israel By Barbara Sofer She wanted a safari. I recommended the zoo. My friend Susie Handelman told me she was thinking of celebrating both a significant birthday and her recent retirement from an illustrious academic and literary career by joining an African safari. I could hear her
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October 22, 2021 21 years after ‘dying,’ Shimon Ohana celebrates son’s bar mitzvah – opinion By Barbara Sofer I might have forgotten the upcoming anniversary if I hadn’t run into Avi Rivkind in the Zoti Coffee Shop in the Hadassah Ein Kerem mall, where medical staff recharge their caffeine. Twenty-one years this week. The Second Intifada.
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October 8, 2021 Can love (of Israel) conquer all? By Barbara Sofer For decades, I have taken on the jolly job of buying the candy bags for the children who stand under the tallit and say the Torah blessings on Simhat Torah. The palpable and somewhat puzzling excitement of the children, most of whom hail from
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September 24, 2021 Sukkah reading: Focusing on guests you’d invite this Sukkot – opinion By Barbara Sofer This isn’t a book review column. Nonetheless, at this time of our lives when staycations are more convenient than vacations because of the pandemic and the increase of traffic, reading in the sukkah is a simple pleasure. If “summer reading”
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September 10, 2021 Kids say the darndest and sweetest things about Israel By Barbara Sofer As the longtime annual chronicler of “Things I Love About Israel” each Independence Day, I was intrigued to receive a folder of white-lined paper from Rivka Gross, an English teacher in the Branco Weiss High School in Beit Shemesh. My
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August 27, 2021 Meet the Israeli Olympic star you may have missed By Barbara Sofer You might have missed him – the tall, handsome young man carrying the flag in the opening ceremony of the Olympics, even though his was the second flag in the parade with 17 million viewers. The second flag, right after
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August 13, 2021 What does that torn page of a siddur mean? By Barbara Sofer The plain brown envelope is in our Jerusalem mailbox. Inside, protected by a black paper folder, is a torn page from a siddur, a Jewish prayer book. I’m keeping it on my desk, turning it over, thinking about what it
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