After the Headlines Fade
It is always exciting to unroll blueprints for new home construction, to contemplate the future decorated interior. A far more complicated set of emotions are involved when it is a reconstruction,...
View ArticleMy Heart Is Broken
In this season of the “Three Weeks*” it is particularly painful to repeatedly suffer murder and aggression that is being twisted to making Israel and the Israeli people the culprits. עיני, עיני ירדה...
View ArticleI Just Don’t Get It!
It is always interesting to read anthropological articles because they hold a mirror up to our eyes in evaluating our own cultural norms. Recently, the New York Times had an article on the Afghani...
View ArticleGardens Here and There
Say “garden” and a mental image bursting with flowers appears. But outdoor space that provides visual interest can be far more varied. Sculpture gardens, though set in sweeping lawns, are primarily...
View ArticleFinding ancient trees, and stories, in Israel
It all started with a swing through the book section of the gift shop at the New York Botanical Garden. I have always considered browsing through bookstores to be a special treat, and have been known...
View ArticleExploring the Herbariun at Hebrew University-Givat Ram Campus in Jerusalem
Having written two articles about the herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden, I began to wonder about herbaria in Israel. With Google as my guide, I found two Israeli herbaria — one at Hebrew...
View ArticleThanksgiving Shabbos
It is now over a week since Thanksgiving but we are still celebrating. Although we all try to be equitable about sharing the holiday, most of us are lucky to have assorted parents and other relatives...
View ArticleExploring the Herbariun at Hebrew University-Givat Ram Campus in Jerusalem
Having written two articles about the herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden, I began to wonder about herbaria in Israel. With Google as my guide, I found two Israeli herbaria — one at Hebrew...
View ArticleThanksgiving Shabbos
It is now over a week since Thanksgiving but we are still celebrating. Although we all try to be equitable about sharing the holiday, most of us are lucky to have assorted parents and other relatives...
View ArticleEnough is enough!
It is now 2½ years since Riverdale convulsed with the exposure of Jonathan Rosenblatt’s unacceptable behavior with teenagers and young men by the New York Times on 5/29/15. Anyone not familiar with...
View ArticleEnough is Enough-Part II
Yeshiva University has been an important institution within the framework of the educational network of the Modern Orthodox Jewish community. We have always expected the highest moral stance from such...
View ArticleEnough is Enough — Part III
Since I had no luck persuading the old administration at Yeshiva University to take down Rosenblatt’s shiurim on YUTorah.org, I decided to approach the new president, Rabbi Ari Berman, who was starting...
View ArticleEnough is Enough — Part IV
So what has Rosenblatt been doing with his time since he parted from the Riverdale Jewish Center? All materials below come from publicly available sources. The first public airing concerning...
View ArticleIsraelites in Egypt – An Historical Review
Anyone who has been to a Seder or grown up on Bible stories has formed some mental image of ancient Egypt. As a teenager, I had the great fortune to run across the book Mara, Daughter of the Nile by...
View ArticleShiva — A Celebration of a Meaningful Life
The last day of Pesach 2018, I left the synagogue during the Yizkor memorial prayer in keeping with the custom (minhag) of not being present during your parents’ lifetime. That Thursday, I was...
View ArticleDeafness Outside the Deaf Community
When your friends start hitting their sixties, you suddenly notice that they are asking you to repeat yourself more often. Just as so many other bodily functions change with time, so too hearing...
View ArticleMeaningful Yom Kippur in Washington Heights
Last Tuesday night I caught a glimpse of a moment a hundred years ago. My husband, Aryeh, is of Yekkish (German-Jewish) descent and I am not. Despite a certain acknowledgment of Hungarian origins, I...
View ArticleAgricultural Innovations of Gush Katif
Sometimes, what you expect is not what you get! Visiting Israel several weeks ago, I had made arrangements to see how the residents of Netzer Hazani, a reconstituted community that had been expelled...
View ArticleWhy facts don’t matter anymore
“The downside of higher education is that it gives you the confidence to maintain baseless fantasies in defiance of common sense.” Derek Bickerton, Author of Bastard Tongues: A Trail-Blazing Linguist...
View ArticleEcoFlora Can Save Us All
We Need Something Interesting To Do This Winter Having given much thought to the problem of how to deal with wintertime isolation, I have arrived at one particular solution that, I believe, can make...
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