Once upon a time in the winter of this year, I looked at everything my husband and I were dealing with -- work, family tensions, and stress from living in one of the craziest cities in the world -- and said, "We need to get away."

As it happened,...

One of the advantages of living in Israel is that we're located near many of the places we've always wanted to see. So two weeks ago my husband and I zipped over to Greece for a weekend in Thessaloniki.

The...

The exotic scents of Marrakesh market, myth-worn standing stones in Ireland, a Sicilian puppet theater and a caravanserai on the Silk Road are just some of the places you'll visit through the music of internationally acclaimed songstress Loreena McKennitt....

An American friend emailed me to ask "What's Israel's/your take on Obama's remarks in Cairo?"

I had to smile, because if there is one thing that has held true throughout my years in Israel, it is that there are as many opinions here as there are people. I...

Tonight marks the beginning of Lag B'Omer, a popular Jewish holiday with roots in mysticism and Kabbalah that most people don't understand. What they do understand is the tradition of bonfires on the eve of the holiday, a yearly ritual that has boys of all ages collecting scrap wood nearly...

It's day 6 and my body hates me.

There are people who claim they eat more healthfully on Passover because you're pretty much forced to cook instead of eating processed foods. But I don't know what those people are cooking -- my favorite cooked meals are off-limits.

To me, Passover...

When I made the decision to live in New York after spending much of my life in Israel, there was an accompanying emotion that most people didn't know about, and even fewer would have sympathized with. This emotion is best described as a voice that would enter my head every...

"Rain, rain, go away," is a familiar refrain of my childhood, evoking images of brand-new rubber boots and a pale purple umbrella with ruffled trim. Or of sitting curled by the window in our living room in Queens, watching as a downpour attacked the world.

So perhaps it's not surprising...

So this Tuesday my husband and I will get up at 6:30 (early for us) and walk through the empty streets of downtown Jerusalem to a school that will be hosting the polls for national elections. This is our way of avoiding the lines that are certain to coagulate the...

Like so many people around the world, I watched President Obama's inauguration live on CNN from my apartment in Jerusalem. I didn't want to miss out on one of the most historic moments in my lifetime -- or at least, a historic moment that was positive instead of horrible, like...

There's one thing you quickly learn upon arriving in Israel: Everyone has an opinion. Whether it's the elderly cheese vendor at the Mahane Yehuda souk urging you to hurry up and get married or the Arab hardware store owner urging you to hurry up and have babies, everyone has their...

Cameras, television and the internet: All of these have changed the way war is waged. These technologies are indirectly responsible for civilian loss of life in Gaza, as Hamas drags mothers with babies to rocket launching sites. They know that photos of the inevitable carnage will appear on the international...

Hanukkah is one of my favorite holidays, and I was looking forward to it this year. I was even looking forward to Christmas Eve, and the chance to observe how it is celebrated in the Holy City, something I avoided when I was a more pious Jewish girl.

But so...

In the past week, my husband and I unexpectedly encountered a national obsession. We were in our favorite bar in downtown Jerusalem, which is also just several steps down from our apartment complex. A dinner at this Scottish pub (kosher haggis, anyone?) was meant to lift our gloom after seeing...

"It's only exhausting if you let it in," said a friend of mine the other day. She was responding to my comment that I often find it exhausting to live in Jerusalem. It's probably because of a trait that I inherited from my Jewish mother and grandmother: I worry. Except...