Gershom Gorenberg Once, on our way between Bombay and Chaing Rai in the Golden Triangle, Myra and I spent Yom Kippur with the friendly Jews of Bangkok. Most of them had their roots in Iran or in points further east, from Herat through Samarkand. There was also at least one family from Beirut and Aleppo. [...]

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Gershom Gorenberg My new article about the superb new Israeli film Ajami (and the silliness of the protests against the Toronto Film Festival) is up at the American Prospect: The advance publicity accurately predicted that this week’s U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian summit would fall short of great historical drama. Despite Barack Obama’s efforts, his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu [...]

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This is a guest post for Rosh Hashana, which came to me as an email from a good friend. Reprinted with his permission, and with several references to his wife Ruthie. And, oh yes, with his explanation of the headline on the post: “So what did you expect from a disciple of the Kotzker Rebbe, [...]

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Haim Watzman The dust rose so high to the sky that heaven and earth seemed to have reverted to a dull yellow primordial chaos. The engines of dirt-caked, drab army transports rumbled, the horns of master sergeants’ white vans honked. I stood, trying to be seen and heard, at the Fatma Gate in Metula, seeking [...]

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Haim Watzman Last week I gave a sneak preview of my new “Necessary Stories” show and my hard work is paying off—the audience laughed and pondered and enjoyed. I’ll be polishing it up over the next couple months and then it will be ready to go on tour. I’ll be in the U.S. in late [...]

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Gershom Gorenberg My new article for the American Prospect, on the historical background to George Mitchell’s talks with Bibi Netanyahu, is now up: In the summer of 1974, the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv received a cable from the State Department. The main office was concerned about press reports that Israel intended to expand settlements [...]

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Gershom Gorenberg The United States has opposed Israeli settlements in the occupied territories since 1967. But the paper trail shows that the objections were often low-key. In Washington, more attention was paid to diplomatic statements than to the “creation of facts” through settlement. The current administration is seeking to change that pattern. To provide some [...]

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Haim Watzman Baka’s a wonderful neighborhood. I’ve lived here for nearly 25 years, so it feels very much like home. That means that, as happens in homes, I tend to overlook some of its ugliness. A physically ugly blight on the neighborhood is the huge dumpsters, overflowing with garbage, that stand on or by the [...]

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Gershom Gorenberg So Aunt Yardena from Rehovot skypes her nephew Jason in Boston. “Jason,” she says, “why don’t you come visit? We’d all love to see you. The last time you came was before three years.” “Three years ago,” he corrects her. “I wish I could. Get in some wind-surfing, see the whole family. But [...]

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Haim Watzman I proudly present an animated short by my daughter, Mizmor, now entering her third year in the animation program at Sapir College.

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