Head Against The Wall

Lynn Schusterman tells all

2009-08-25T19:33:00.002+03:00

Her heart's in Jerusalem
By RUTH EGLASH
August 25, 2009 The Jerusalem Post
It's clear almost immediately when one meets American-born Jewish billionaire Lynn Schusterman that she has two great passions in life: The first is her ability to change the way young Jewish people from around the world view Israel and their own Jewish identities; the second is Jerusalem.

"It's the spiritual capital of the world," exclaims the 70-year-old Tulsa, Oklahoma-based philanthropist, the proud owner of one of the Israeli capital's most luxurious residences with spectacular views stretching from the heart of Jerusalem all they way to the mountains of Jordan. "Jerusalem has huge potential and I want to encourage more young people - Israelis and others - to come and visit."

"Last spring I visited SCAN [Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia]. The college has renovated old buildings all over the downtown area, a move which has brought some 6,000 young people into the city, with more than a fourth planning to stay in Savannah after college," says Schusterman, seeming to veer from the topic of Israel and its capital completely, but then almost immediately returning to her true love: "This is something that I would like to see happen in Jerusalem as well. We have to start reviving arts and culture, encourage young people to come and visit here."

Of course her goals do not end with trips for young people; rather her vision expands to include the length and breadth of Israel, which she believes is the only way for the entire world to really grasp the issues here and, perhaps, one day find a solution.

"People outside do not understand the complexities here and the [international] media does not convey it properly," Schusterman observes. "I remember bringing five US senators and six congressmen to Israel and only once they were here could they really understand what is going on in reality.

"However, some of the worst offenders [of ignorance] are from within our own community - university professors or certain rabbis - and one of my goals is to get more young Jewish people involved in Israel advocacy. I want to see more and more young people coming here on birthright and going back to get involved in their communities."

AS ONE of the key sponsors of birthright, an undeniably successful program that has brought thousands of young Jews for a free 10-day countrywide tour, Schusterman takes great pride in this initiative and her other innovative projects, all designed to enhance Jewish identity through a connection to Israel.

"I will never forget the meeting I had with a 23-year Jewish man, who works on the New York Stock Exchange," she says as we sit in her high-rise apartment, Jerusalem sprawling out in seeming harmony beneath us.

"He told me he felt when the Second Lebanon War broke out that the war's only significance for him was that the price of oil was going up, but a few months later when he stood on the Golan Heights and understood the proximity of Lebanon to Israel, his whole perspective about the issue completely changed."

With no end to the stories of her interactions with the young people touched by her ventures, Schusterman goes on to recall a recent trip to India.

"[T]he Jewish tour guide took me to see a Jewish wedding there," she says. "The couple handed out a booklet describing how they'd met in 'their homeland' and it turned out they had met on a birthright trip. Seeing how the program had touched these people had a tremendous impact on me."

FOR SCHUSTERMAN it is this kind of effect on young Jews' perceptions and, ultimately, their Jewish identities that has spurred her to continue investing millions in the foundation that she established in 1987 with her husband, Charles.

Listed by Forbes magazine as one of the wealthiest people on the planet - with her inherited fortune still growing - Schusterman says that her and her husband's interest in Israel advocacy and Jewish identity was initially sparked by the experiences of their daughter Stacey, today the foundation's second director.

"We originally got involved in 1983 when Stacey was at Yale University," she explains, describing how Jewish students on the campus were learning to rationally debate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "We realized then the importance of US college campuses in changing opinions and perceptions."

Later, after the events of September 11, 2001, and with the second intifada in full swing, she realized that the already established foundation could be even more effective if it worked as a conduit for uniting the work of Jewish organizations.

Perhaps the most visible result of her work in this regard is Hillel: the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, which supports more than 250 smaller affiliates at over 500 universities, mainly in North America but also in Israel, South America and the former Soviet Union. It has also been active in bringing thousands of young people to Israel on birthright.

Also, Schusterman's dedication to the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization, ROI (Return on Investment) Global Summit for Young Jewish Innovators and various other Israel-focused programs has brought the foundation closer to achieving its goals.

What are the biggest challenges faced by young Jews in the Diaspora today?

I believe that this has been the worst year ever in terms of anti-Israel sentiment on US college campuses; several universities even held anti-Israel apartheid week.

However, we are trying to use all this negative activity to our advantage and are offering certain campuses the chance to develop their Israel programs, including taking on Israeli professors to act as ambassadors for Israel.

Another program that that tackles this problem is the American Jewish Committee's Project Interchange, which brings university presidents to Israel so they can get a complete picture of what is happening and prevent problems from springing up on their campuses.

How has the economic crisis affected your philanthropic work?
We are definitely looking at the grants we are receiving very differently this year. We are asking organizations to pool resources and work together for a common goal.

In addition, I constantly travel around the country trying to raise funds for birthright and BBYO; I give conferences to get people involved and to help them understand the importance of Israel activities on college campuses.

How do you persuade people to support Israel or Jewish activities when there are so many other worthy causes?
It's very difficult, especially when you weigh the needs of a soup kitchen against sending a kid to Israel, but my comment is always that if you want someone to take care of that soup kitchen in the future, then it pays to send someone now on birthright because afterward they will likely get involved and look into giving back.

Another thing I do is to talk about a Jewish future. If they are concerned about intermarriage or Jews disappearing, then I talk to them about getting involved and putting their money where their mouth is.

What are you doing to reach out to non-affiliated Jewish youth?
In a world like ours that is diverse and diffuse, there is no way for us to know exactly where or what types of programs to invest in. It is becoming clear, however, that the days of investing in one singular institution are over and to be effective one must be everywhere and into everything. You need to be on the broadest playing field possible.

Our idea is not to find one single person or program to ensure the future of the Jewish people, that is why we have programs like ROI, which has created a whole network of young people working for the future.

There are many young innovators out there who are ahead of the curve, but we want to focus on encouraging as many people as possible to be involved in spreading the word.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1251133671053&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Bernie's mad betrayal....

2009-08-25T12:16:00.000+03:00

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-08-24/sex-with-madoff/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsR2

End of vacation blues

2009-08-25T11:44:00.003+03:00

All good things must come to an end but before they do there are some sticky and tricky situations that one must deal with, especially when the good thing we are talking about is the school vacation.

Obviously while school vacation for some (children and teachers) is the holy grail, for the rest of us (namely young parents) its a turbulent time where acceptable codes of parenting go completely out the window. Where suddenly healthy children are allowed to eat chocolate spread sandwiches without end and have pizza for breakfast just to prevent more moaning and groaning from the little cherubs.

But the worst issue that raises its ugly head over the last few weeks of the summer vacation is the race by parents to pawn off their children onto other parents. The sheer desperation to be relieved of ones own children, even if it is just for a few hours.

We are all guilty of doing it, of having those feelings of elation when your child is invited to play at someone elses house and grimacing when somone elses kid wants to come to you, especially if its one that does not engage your child and you are the one who has to play with someone elses child until mummy or daddy comes to pick them.

Obviously it gets easier as they get older but the permanent dilemma is whether tocall our child's friend in a desperate bid to invite our own child over to play at there house but we also run the risk of allowing more savy experienced parents to convince us that their child has to come over to our house for that wonderful playtime. Then instead of getting rid of one child for a few hours you are actually gaining another one... one that usually does not listen to you cos you're not his/her mother.

There are few tips to help you cope with the dilemma. First, be assertive. Practise the conversation with the other mother... "hello, Ben really, really wants to come to your house and play with Sam... is tomorrow at 9am ok?" If she tries to suggest Sam comes to your house, tell her that you have a doctors appointment for one of the other children and its just not possible.

Second tip, 'help' your children select their friends. From the start of the school year identify children that are quiet and well-behaved, the ones that engage your children and make for a peaceful playdate. Then when you do get roped into taking someone elses kid, at least he/she is some harmonious.

Thirdly, know when to give in. There are times when you just have to give in. Have to agree to take another person's kid... but make sure to remind the other parent that they owe you one!!! hahahahahaha

deep breaths, deep breaths... its nearly over.

Tattoo musings

2009-08-25T11:06:00.004+03:00

Stereotypes notwithstanding, the tattoo artist that drew stars on my ankle was not impressed at all that I am going to see Madonna in concert next week. Now why did that not surprise me? And why is it ever so cliched that Eyal (a German-Jewish immigrant to Israel) was far more excited by the Ozzy Osbourne track on the radio than by our middle-aged mummy banter or our rendition of Michael Jackson songs?

He did inform us at the start of his artistic endeavors that "tattoo artists are humans too." That was after we laughed at his farewell greeting to a fellow tattoo artist: "Regards to the wife, cat and kids." But as the time unfolded and he embedded the stars one by one into my lower leg it turns out that tattoo artists might not actually be human beings, not the ones that most of us are familiar with, but infact a different species unique unto themselves.

Either that or there is a strict code of conduct that all such artists must adhere to, an exclusive club that one can only join if you despise mainstream popular culture. There is also the standard appearance, first they must have at least one arm inked from wrist to shoulder. The tats must be some non-descript design with at least one scantily clad woman peeking through the faded green ink. Their hair must be ratty, clothes all tatty and, most importantly, they have to have an attitude.

That attitude includes, of course, hating the world at large (probably a world that has dismissed them for being weird). They try to be non-conformist but in doing so obviously conform to their own norms and values and hence we have our stereotypes. For a tattoo artist to hate Madonna and other iconic pop artists with a passion is sooooo cliched! I wish I could find one that is strong enough to admit they admire such musicians for making a packet and reaching the heights of fame.

One other trait so important in a tattoo artist is that they must also make their canvas (i.e. the client getting the tattoo) feel that they are not cool enough or worthy enough to join their ranks (unless of course they are wearing their own tattoo artist uniform -- ratty hair, tatty clothes and shoulder to arm ink). But thats ok... I am ok with being a 30-something woman, a mother and wife, wouldn't want to be a ratty, tatty, world-hating tat-artist and I would rather go to the Madonna concert!!!!

An image to be reckoned with

2009-08-05T11:33:00.001+03:00

I don’t know what to do. I can’t get it out of my head.

The terrible images of a family (actually two families) evicted from their homes this week in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. The television cameras show them standing forlornly on the streets, all their belongings strewn around them, crying they no longer have a roof over their heads.

As they stand there dazed and confused, removal vans arrive bringing the belongings of the building’s new residents – Jews – who have been permitted by a Supreme Court order to move into their former homes. They are powerless, there is nothing they or the hundreds of protesters, who have been trying to help them save their homes over the past few weeks, can do.

The CNN reporter highlights this weakness, interviewing UN officials, British government people – whose offices are across the street – and other internationals all frustrated that their ad-hoc unofficial pleas to the Israeli police not to evict the families are falling on deaf ears.

It’s a difficult scene to watch and my heart goes out to them, these Arab-Israeli or Palestinian families, it’s awful.

But then, the CNN reporter digs the knife in…. “The Israelis came to evict them by surprise in the early hours of a quiet Sunday morning,” she says.

What?! I hear you ask… how could the Israelis just show up and surprise this poor innocent family on a weekend. A quiet Sunday morning, the day and time that it happened suddenly seems even worse than the fact that it has happened.

How awful? Suddenly, I just can’t shake it. These powerful images leave me with tears in my eyes and the fact it happened on a quiet Sunday morning… well that is even worse.

WAKE up, wake up… you don’t live in the West anymore. You haven’t lived in the West for more than 15 years. You know that the early hours of Sunday morning in Jerusalem are like a busy mid-week day anywhere else.

The hustle and bustle of the day has already started at sunrise. People are up early in Israel because of the heat and already on their way to work. Sunday is a work day in Israel, after all.
Wait, so if the Sunday pun is a ruse, then isn’t it possible that CNN is only showing a slice of reality? Could it be that once again we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg being played out on TV and, despite the harrowing images, not really getting a full and colorful picture of the history to this particular battle, which is heightened amidst the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Of course, it is never acceptable to leave a family stranded with no place to live. Allow young children to see their toys strewn all over the floor, surely there was a better way for Israel to have approached this incident? Offered the families living there some sort of deal, compensation, or some other alternative? After all, this incident will only leave another generation of Palestinians hating Israelis based on their own personal experiences.

SENSITIVITY aside for a second, let’s talk some realism. This eviction cannot be treated in the vacuum that it has been portrayed by most of the international media have portrayed it. Obviously it makes for better ratings and a more heart wrenching story. It also highlights the growing conflict of ideology between Israel and the new Obama administration in the US and there is nothing better for the media than a really good fight.

But it also has to be put in context, there has to be a history and, in contrast to popular international believes, the Israelis did not just come and evict the families to allow Jews to move in. This happened after years and years of disagreements, court hearings and a long, long paper trail.

In fact, according to some reports, the dispute over this property goes back more than 100 years to Jews claim to have purchased the land during the Ottoman Empire and owned it until the 1948 partition plan put the area under Jordanian control.

A New York Times article suggests that the houses on the disputed land were built in the 1950s by the United Nations for refugees who had fled west Jerusalem during the 1948 war.

When Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967 and united the city, according to some sources, the families were permitted to stay on as tenants. At some point, however, they stopped paying rent having become convinced that the Jews' deed to the land was a forgery.

Of course, it is almost impossible to know who is telling the truth but it is equally frustrating when a conflict such as this is not portrayed in the media with fairness and objectivity, when the facts are not presented in a straight and balanced way. When sensationalism and what sells dictates how what spin should be put on a story.

I am not sure how much longer we can forgive television for skimming over the facts of a story in favor of the colorful images that capture their viewer’s imaginations. Think about it.

Advocates for secular marriage use Tu Be'Av to highlight their struggle

2009-08-04T09:31:00.003+03:00

For Olga Samosvatov, 29, the decision to marry her long-time boyfriend Nico Tarosyan in an unofficial secular Jewish wedding ceremony on Tu Be'Av, the Jewish day of love, was easy.

"We knew the Rabbinate would make problems for us, so we never even approached them," Samosvatov, who made aliya from Ukraine in 1995, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. "In any case we are secular, not religious, and we just did not want to go through the battle of trying to get married here. Planning a wedding is supposed to be a happy process, and fighting for recognition from the Rabbinate is too stressful."

Tarosyan, 34, who emigrated from Moscow in 1995, does not have sufficient proof that he is Jewish. He is one of more than 300,000 Israelis, mostly immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU), who cannot get married here because the Orthodox Rabbinate has the final say in such matters, allowing only those considered halachically Jewish to marry other Jews.

However, thanks to the efforts of non-profit secular Jewish organization Havaya, which represents several other movements fighting the Orthodox Jewish monopoly on marriage, Samosvatov and Tarosyan will officially tie the knot on Tuesday evening in a public ceremony in Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Square.

Aimed at highlighting the struggle faced by other young couples whose Jewish roots are not completely clear, the marriage will be officiated by a secular master of ceremonies and will include Jewish blessings from high-profile figures such as former Jewish Agency for Israel chairman Avraham Burg and past Knesset member Naomi Hazan, both vocal advocates for secular weddings in Israel.

"I'm so excited to finally be getting married," Samosvatov told the Post. "It is just a shame that it will not really be recognized by the state and that we will still have to go abroad to get properly married."

The two, who currently live in Holon, are planning to honeymoon in Prague, where they will have a non-religious civil ceremony that will allow them to be registered here as married by the Interior Ministry.

"I did not know I was Jewish until I was 12, when neighbors kept painting anti-Semitic graffiti on the door of our home," recalled Tarosyan. "I immigrated to Israel as soon as I finished college and feel very much at home here. However, this need to prove I am Jewish to the rabbis is humiliating."

He added: "In Russia we were hated because we were Jews and here in Israel we are discriminated against as Russians."

"It's a very hurtful situation," commented Diti Degani-Peleg, director of Havaya. "We meet so many couples, immigrants from Russian-speaking countries, who have made aliya, served in the army, but get this slap in the face when they try to get married here."

According to Degani-Peleg, Havaya's aim is to provide a suitably spiritual and Jewish alternative to those who are unable to get married here under current Orthodox directives.

"The situation needs to be changed and we want to encourage as many couples as possible to utilize our alternative experience so that the government cannot go on ignoring this problem any more," she said, estimating that 50 percent of those who turn to Havaya are prevented from marrying here because they are not considered Jewish enough, while the other half simply prefer to have a secular Jewish wedding.

"We also help couples who want a Jewish experience but feel that the orthodox ceremony is not for them," added Degani-Peleg.

While Havaya's main focus is reaching out to those who cannot get married here, it is also involved in lobbying the authorities for a real change. Even though the Ministerial Committee for Legislation last month approved a government proposal for a bill allowing Israelis classified as having no religion to be registered as a couple, Degani-Peleg said this change did not go far enough and would only affect a very small number of people.

"We need a different law that will allow any Israeli to marry any other Israeli," she said.

Israel needs for clearer refugee policy

2009-08-01T10:44:00.002+03:00

Interior Minister Eli Yishai's cancellation of the controversial Gedera-Hadera policy on Thursday highlights the need for Israel to create a comprehensive and legally binding approach to helping thousands of asylum-seekers who have entered the country over the past five years, according to Anat Ben-Dor, an instructor at Tel Aviv University Law School's Refugee Rights Clinic.

A staunch critic of the government's treatment of those who arrive in Israel looking for a safe haven, Ben-Dor pointed out that in a High Court of Justice hearing on Wednesday - just hours before Yishai called on his ministry's Oz Unit to temporarily freeze its operations - government officials had virulently defended the Gedera-Hadera policy.

Set in motion a year-and-a-half ago, the Gedera-Hadera rule was aimed at preventing thousands of African asylum-seekers from settling in the Center of the country and taking jobs from Israelis. However, Yishai said on Thursday that the policy was actually more of a burden on towns in the periphery struggling with socioeconomic issues heightened by the current recession.

"Obviously I am delighted that [Yishai] has buckled to the pressure and made this change," Ben-Dor told The Jerusalem Post. "However, just the fact that one day this policy was being defended and the next day it was canceled shows how badly Israel needs a real refugee policy."

She added, "These rules are just not thought out properly. There is no research and no thought as to how such policies can negatively impact the lives of thousands of people."

Even though Israel is party to the UN's Refugee Convention, since 1951 it has only recognized a total of 170 refugees, even though more than 17,000 people from Africa, who claim they cannot return to their countries of origin, have been living here since April 2007.

According to Elisheva Milikowsky, public policy and activism coordinator for ASSAF - an aid organization for refugees and asylum-seekers - until these people are confirmed as refugees, they have no clear status, no healthcare benefits and no access to any government assistance.

She said that the organization, together with a collection of other NGOs, was attempting to generate broad-based political support for a bill that could eventually set a comprehensive policy on how to deal with refugees and asylum seekers.

The law, which was drafted by Ben-Dor, among others, is very short, said Milikowsky, but it gives clear directives on how refugees should be treated both before and after their status is official.

"The fact that policies toward them are constantly changing is very scary and unsettling for these people," commented Ben-Dor, who told the Post that the government was in the process of creating a body that would be able to look into peoples' claims that they could not return to their country of origin.

She continued, "Such legislation will hopefully put a stop to all the illegal activities that have been used to prevent refugees and asylum seekers from entering the country, including turning people back at the borders, throwing them into prison and moving them on to a third country."

Ben-Dor said she believed that Israel's policy until now seemed to have been based on a notion that "if life gets too comfortable for asylum-seekers, then many, many more will want to come here."

While a law protecting the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers is the only way forward to deal with this growing humanitarian crisis, Ben-Dor said its implementation had suffered delays due to the day-to-day battles, such as fighting the Gedera-Hadera policy and lobbying against the pending Prevention of Infiltrators bill. The bill has already passed its first reading.

"Many people do not realize how much harm this bill could do," Ben-Dor said. "It proposes to set into law the policy of turning people back at the border and wants to punish any person entering Israel illegally, without differentiating between those who might have arrived here to escape genocide."

She finished, "Before we can work on passing legislation to aid and protect refugees, we need to prevent bills such as this one from being made into law."

Artists unite to protest gov't policy on foreign workers

2009-07-30T14:28:00.004+03:00

(Activestills.org)

A collective of Tel Aviv photographers joined forces this week to launch a visual protest campaign against what they believe is a cruel and misguided government policy to crack down and deport illegal foreign workers, The Jerusalem Post learned Wednesday.

Photos by the artists group Active Stills depicting treatment of illegal foreign workers have been posted on utility boxes and other public locations in TA.

Calling themselves Active Stills (www.activestills.com), the group describes themselves as "documentary photographers acting for social change, convinced in the power of photography as a vehicle of change through awareness.

"We believe in the capability and obligation of photography and all arts in general to make a statement and to stimulate conscience. Photography is a channel of self-expression. The camera is the mouth. The picture is the scream."

The group's latest campaign includes a graphic depiction of the National Immigration Authority's recently launched Oz unit at work detaining foreign workers and asylum-seekers in the Tel Aviv area.

"Most people in Israel are blind to what is going on," explained Keren, one of the group's members, who didn't want to be fully identified out of fear that she would be arrested for running this illegal protest - some of the visuals are posted in places without permission.

"We want to raise awareness to the plight of foreign workers and asylum-seekers. This policy is unfair, the government dealing with them outside of the law," she said.

Keren added that the government's theory that foreign workers and asylum-seekers are taking jobs that should go to unemployed Israelis is no justification for what some describe as the brutal treatment of the Oz unit.

"For all those that are deported, many more are still going to come in, so their situation has no bearing on the state of unemployment," she said, pointing out that it is time the government adopted a more concrete policy towards those who arrive here looking for a safe haven.

"As a country that is familiar with the plight of refugees it is unacceptable that these people are not being dealt with in a decent manner," said Keren.

The photography campaign is also aimed at warning migrant workers and other foreign nationals of the dangers posed by the Oz unit, she said.

According to figures released last week by the National Immigration Authority, an Interior Ministry division, more than 800 illegal migrants have left the country since the Oz unit started its activities earlier this month. Seven hundred people left the country on their own, and 100 were deported, a ministry statement said.

In addition, the unit has investigated the status of some 4,000 foreign citizens; 600 were detained and 400 were arrested.

Nongovernmental organizations working on behalf of migrants and refugees have criticized the unit's work, claiming that more than 60 percent of those being detained were African asylum-seekers who cannot be expelled.

Under a recently implemented Interior Ministry policy, however, African asylum-seekers are forced to live and work north of Hadera and south of Gedera. Those found in Tel Aviv are automatically taken in for questioning.

A spokeswoman for the Oz unit said that no specific groups were being targeted but that they were just making sure people were staying out of the Gedera-Hadera zone.

Pregnant pause: Will costly damages cases make employers think twice?

2009-07-30T14:15:00.001+03:00

With the economic recession forcing more and more pregnant women out of the workforce, financial settlements in two labor disputes over the past week could serve as a warning to employers not to be so hasty in laying off such women, according to Nirit Toshav-Eichner, a doctoral student and government researcher who specializes in women and work trends.

Toshav-Eichner, whose most recent study published in March showed a surge in firings of pregnant women and those undergoing fertility treatment since the recession started last year, said the Woman's Law of 1954 has certain loopholes but the proper interpretation of that law by the judicial system could improve the situation.

Speaking on Wednesday, hours after a woman was awarded NIS 108,000 in damages after being dismissed from her job in the Dan region while undergoing fertility treatment and a few days after a pregnant Jerusalem woman who was fired after only four days on the job received NIS 70,000 in compensation, Toshav-Eichner said, "These cases will hopefully make employers think and rethink their intentions to fire women in such a condition."

"There is a big difference between the law and the ruling in these cases," said Toshav-Eichner, who is also a trained life coach and an organizational consultant.

She explained that under the Woman's Law, any employer who wants to dismiss a pregnant woman must first receive permission from the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry. In today's economic climate, most employers claim the dismissal is out of financial concerns, even if that is not the case, she said.

A pregnant woman is usually considered the weakest link in a company because she will not be around for much longer, Toshav-Eichner said. Today's situation is very similar to what happened during other economic recessions such as in the 1980s and in 2001-02, she said.

"The courts look at these cases with a much wider perspective than the ministry does," said Toshav-Eichner, adding that she sees such cases as paving the way to reforming in the existing legislation.

A spokeswoman for the Israel Women's Network, which assisted the pregnant woman fired after four days on the job in gaining compensation, told the Post there is still a long way to go to improving the situation.

"Women are always the first to be fired during times of recession and even though implementation of the law is improving, it is still a big problem," she said. "There is still not enough knowledge among employers that this is simply not acceptable."

"I hope these cases will encourage other employees who have been victims of discrimination to come forward and speak up," said Orit Noked, deputy minister of industry, trade and labor, whose ministry oversees the Equal Opportunities Employment Commission. The commission represented the second woman, who was fired from her long-term position as a secretary for a large commercial firm while she was undergoing fertility treatment.

Attorney Sharon Avraham-Weiss, who represented the woman on behalf of the commission, said Wednesday that she hopes the case will send a clear message to employers not to discriminate against women in this way.

Photos from Chernobyl

2009-07-22T14:44:00.004+03:00

Reactor No. 4, Chernobyl nuclear power station, Ukraine

The deserted town of Pripyat, Chernobyl, Ukraine.

Am I crazy going to Chernobyl?

2009-07-22T14:34:00.001+03:00

I don't know but it was a once in a lifetime experience!

check out my article from there:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1246443820046&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Power of print

2009-06-12T22:15:00.004+03:00

While at first I was perturbed by Jonathan Rosenblum's article Think Again: Those primitive haredim - yet again in this weekend's Jerusalem Post magazine condemning a story that I wrote last week about the growing problem of child abuse in the Haredi educational system and the unwillingness of the community's spiritual leaders to address the issue, I later realized that my job of raising awareness to particular issues, even delicate ones like this, is actually being done. It has started a discourse on a very difficult subject and made it very hard to ignore.

Rosenblum's was not the first response to that article. The version that appeared on line garnered some 53 talkbacks and on one Haredi blog http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/2009/06/local-sexual-abuse-headlines-in-jpost.html#links
that I was directed to there are nearly 200 talkbacks to the article. Some are good, some are bad and some downright offensive but at the end of the day I am just pleased to have ignited debate and got people thinking. Thats important.

Although Rosenblum's article was critical of our approach, saying that my article was one-sided and did show the full picture, he also acknowledged the problems faced by the community and outlined some of the measures being taken to address the issue.

He quoted rabbis from the community in Ramat Beit Shemesh who assured him that the problems of sexual abusers were being dealt with, albeit in a quiet and discreet manner so as not to cause embarrassment to those involved. Hopefully this will put some people's minds at rest or at least reassure them that their leaders are not totally ignorant. Hopefully these leaders are being truthful and will follow through with what they have promised.

I just also hope that his lashing out at my article or those quoted in it will not cause those individuals or organizations harm because that they are only trying to help and day to day do amazing work for the entire community in Beit Shemesh.

At the end of the day, I truly believe that these people had good intentions and it was for those reasons that I decided NOT to mention specific names of alleged sexual molestors or institutions that have been accused of doing little to address the problem. That is the job of the courts or the police and not of a journalist.

Jonathan Rosenblum's article:
Think Again: Those primitive haredim - yet again
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244371074854&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

My original article:
Haredim take on sex abuse of children
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1243872320108&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

2009-06-11T21:06:00.003+03:00

Joel... sorry to have stolen your 'guilty pleasures' concept but I couldn't resist posting this song. I can't get it out of my head today, although now I can't stop singing 'When I need love' thanks to you.

I just want to know what this video is about... did they stop in hicksville, usa by mistake or were they scheduled to perform for a bunch of rednecks? really confusing.

This is my next job....

2009-06-11T11:36:00.001+03:00

New York Times appoints a “social media editor”
Paul Boutin May 26th, 2009

How’s this for a dream job? America’s paper of record has reassigned one of its editors to be the in-house expert on Facebook and Twitter.

You can read up on Jennifer Preston’s background in this morning’s entertainingly cruel Gawker post. More important is that the New York Times as an organization takes social networks seriously as a work tool. A leaked internal email describes Preston’s role:
Jennifer is our first social media editor. What’s that? It’s someone who concentrates full-time on expanding the use of social media networks and publishing platforms to improve New York Times journalism and deliver it to readers.

@NYT_JenPreston has already taken early feedback: She unprotected her Twitter updates this morning and is now trolling for input on her job. I’m sure 80 percent of that feedback will consist of “you’re an idiot” and “The New York Times will be dead in ____ days/months/years.” Hang in there, Jen. They did this to David Pogue, too.

There’s a bigger story here: I’m sure a thousand social media consultants are wailing in pain now that the Gray Lady has drafted an internal journalist instead of an external expert. But America’s paper of record has taken their advice, and has made it acceptable for all other newspapers to assign a full or part-time social media expert.

(Disclosure: Paul Boutin is a freelance writer for the New York Times.)

Me and the mayor

2009-06-11T10:47:00.003+03:00

I just had to put this on the blog, me talking to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. We had a long conversation about the Shabbat issue and his decision to open a municipal parking lot on Saturdays to ease visitor traffic around the old city. The Haredim did not like it and rioted last Saturday. They should try parking near the Old City on Shabbat, its a nightmare.... I just hope that he does not bend to the pressure.

Here is a link to the article I wrote:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244371045292&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Ruth's song of the day

2009-06-10T20:36:00.003+03:00

Kindergarten politics

2009-06-10T18:09:00.005+03:00

Okay, so I just blogged about divorce (see below) because that is what I have spent the last two days focusing on professionally. Now I have to say a word about the politics at my daughter's kindergarten. Its a situation that would leave even those in the Knesset miffed.

Last week... no I will start at the beginning of the year. Since the beginning of the year there has been one little, 3-year-old trouble-maker (I am sure there is one in every kindergarten). He's the one who is at the center of every controversy. Hitting, kicking, biting and general unruly behaviour. I'll even allude to the fact that he bit my precious daughter's bum when he was dressed as lion on Purim, but that is only a minor fact.

Up to date, I will take you through to last week when the father of one little boy -- who it seems has taken most of the beatings from the this class bully -- arrived at the kindergarten with the aim of teaching his little one how to stand up for himself. Taking his son's hand he showed him how to hit bully boy on the head. Not a smart move, especially seeing as it was infront of the entire kindergarted staff and all the little kids.

The situation then exploded, with the hard done by father being thrown off the premises and told not to return. The parents of bully boy threatening to press charges with the police and everyone else just about hysterical.

So why am I writing about this? No reason really just think its an interesting study in human behaviour and leads to the question who is right and who is wrong. It seems in this case, everyone is in the wrong and everyone is in the right. Amazing how that happens but I guess it does sometimes, right?

Parents of bully boy were rightly distraught that the kindergarten is no longer a safe place for their son. Parents of bullied boy -- who perhaps over-reacted -- were right to not be prepared to allow the suffering of their son to continue. Apparently, they had alerted the teacher to the bullying but in their eyes not enough was done to prevent it.

So there you have it. bye for now.

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

2009-06-10T17:27:00.004+03:00

I've been writing and hearing alot about divorce lately, some of it personal stories from friends and some of it from legal experts dealing with the whole ugly process. Of course I would never go into details of the situations that my friends have found themselves but I do think that the break up of a couple and their behaviour towards each other always makes for an interesting anthropological look at individual people and our society as whole.

Obviously, in Israel the matter is one more step towards the extreme because of its two legal systems -- the secular and religious court system. Now the secular court I can get my head around, it is based more on a western approach to divorce and other family matters but the religious court system is almost impossible to relate to. Their rulings and decisions just seem to range from absurd to completely alien or archaic.

Today I wrote about a ruling this week by the Rabbinic Court Administration (RCA) in Jerusalem. A judge revoked a previous ruling that a wife should get alimony from her ex husband because he proved that she cheated on him. The spokeswoman of the RCA seemed perfectly ok with that and explained that because she cheated she should not be entitled to anything.

While on the surface that seems reasonble when you think about it, it is such an outdated notion. Obviously there is no moral excuse for cheating on your husband but that still does not take away the fact that the couple were married for 13 years, that she most likely cleaned his house, cooked his food and took a crappy, low paying job so that she could raise the children and has now left herself virtually unemployable in any real sense. He, on the other hand, probably just continued to work and be the bread winner.

My question is, despite what she might have done, why is she not entitled to some of his money?

Oh, and another twist to the story, he admitted to cheating on her and that was why the RCA awarded her alimony in the first place. If he cheated on her and she cheated on him, then surely the slate is clean and they are equal?

This all just reminds me of the concept of paradigms. Within the paradigm of the religious judgements, this ruling is totally legitimate but put it outside itself and its totally absurd. Why does a person need a grounds for divorce anyway? We are all individuals, if a person wants to do something then they should be allowed to do it... right?

Who makes up these rules of war?

2009-01-20T22:21:00.002+02:00

So, we keep hearing about Israel and its possible use of chemical weapons or that it broke the international rules of war in Gaza by using a substance called white phosphorus.

Of course, Israel denies that it broke international war rules (is there a book or something?). Some sources say that only a little bit was used and not in the amounts that are illegal (am I missing something here? Isn't all killing illegal?). Others point to evidence of foul play because of the type of medical treatment needed -- "We have seen people who suffered from burns that can only be caused by white phosphorus," said a Jordanian paediatrician who was in Gaza last week.

Anyway, I feel like I am missing something with these allegations. What are these rules of war? War is war, no? Who decides on the rules of war and why do countries have to follow them? Surely any act of war is illegal?

I would just love to get my hands on the "Idiots Guide to Warmongering." Who wrote these rules? Europeans? Maybe some Arabs or Israelis?

I just have this image of boring bureaucrats or ex-army personnel getting together to discuss what is fair play in war and what is not.
"You can shoot a person in the head, that is fine," says one. "But chemicals ... now that is really, really bad."

Now, I do not profess to be an expert on military matters but it does strike me that perhaps if the whole world banned guns, rockets and anything else that kills a person as well as the chemicals then perhaps war would end?

Its just a suggestion and maybe I am just missing point?

Its so much easier being an Arab

2009-01-19T18:03:00.002+02:00

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/video/video.php?v=1068425036360&ref=share

So, after watching this stunning video and reading the comments, I have decided its much easier to be an Arab. So easy to justify only one side of the story and to block the other side. There's no guilt for sounding anti-Semitic, no nightmares for murdering hundreds of Jews and so easy to ignore the facts.

What a wonderful existence. I wish more Jews felt like this, then ANY chance of peace would be completely erradicated.

Let the Hasbara war begin

2009-01-19T16:16:00.000+02:00

Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza may have halted on the battlefield but with the harrowing pictures of what many around the world are calling a “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza still being aired, this conflict is turning into a powerful offensive of images against the Jewish state and Israel might never recover from the onslaught.
Alongside the heart-wrenching photographs and video footage of the death and destruction in Gaza, which have already been seen by most of the world, are also the inflammatory catchphrases such as Holocaust, genocide and massacre that are being associated with Operation Cast Lead. Add to that the debate in some circles over Israel’s “real” intentions (some say Israel wants to re-occupy Gaza or is trying to annihilate the Palestinian people) and we have a real war on our hands trying to explain and justify to the entire world, and the Arabs in particular, the recent conflict that has destroyed so much.
Representatives of the Israeli media who last week attended a journalist’s workshop in Europe with counterparts from the Arab media were shocked when those who essentially create the news in their countries did not even know basics from the other side (including that the rockets being fired into Israel’s south almost daily for the past eight years are called Kassams).
In addition, those Egyptian participants could not see how their country may have had a hand in the unrest, if only because their government did not prevent Hamas from building up its supplies of weapons. And the Syrians at the conference would not even acknowledge the presence of Israeli citizens in their midst, even if only to hear an alternative point of view.
If these are the attitudes of some of those shaping the news across the Arab world, then it will likely take many years for Israel to challenge the views and stereotypes of the ordinary people in neighboring countries.
Newsmakers aside, a quick glance at the Jordan Times, an English-language daily based in Amman, gives a glimpse into how these ordinary people feel about Israel. In a poll run last week by the paper’s on-line edition asking readers if they felt “the objectives of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip go beyond destroying Hamas,” the overwhelming majority said they believed that Israel’s aim was much more than just eliminating the terrorists.
Of course, this attitude is unsurprising given that those in the Arab world have just watched three weeks of Israel’s offensive through highly censored Hamas-approved lenses and most likely heard very little about the suffering on the Israeli side or have conveniently forgotten the history of on-going terror attacks here.
All the same, the truth of what they think about us is alarming and does not bode well for Israel’s efforts to one day live in peace.
In short, we still have a lot of work to do to change these popular perceptions and misconceptions about Israel specifically among our Arab neighbors and in general around the world. While military victory against Hamas is arguable, it already seems clear that we have totally lost the hasbara (informational) war.

The trip of a life time...

2007-07-19T12:47:00.001+03:00

I am still floating and on a high from my unbelievable experience as a journalist covering a one of a kind trip to Ethiopia. It was the largest delegation of Diaspora Jews ever to visit the African nation and I was there writing down their every word, every emotion and reaction. It was really something.
Here is a link to my story that appeared in the Jpost immediately upon our return:--
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184168552724&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Reigniting this blog

2007-07-19T12:35:00.000+03:00

So I have decided to reignite and reinitiate my blog. I have been lazy, very lazy. Bad, bad, bad, me. I promise not to be lazy from now on and keep this up regularly.

The reason for this re-energizing is my recent trip to Ethiopia, details of which I will post in the next item.

snowey Jerusalem

2006-12-28T11:11:00.000+02:00

The weather in this country is as nuts as the country itself. As I look out of my window and see the balls and other games that the children had been playing with only a few days ago covered in thick white snow, I realize that from one day to the next we have gone from summer to winter. It was only two days ago that I broke out the kids' new winter coats, the ones their grandma and papa bought them in Milwaukee that see ridiculously too heavy for Israel. Hats, gloves, scarfs and umbrellas... spanking new and never been used.
Yesterday, when we left the house to go to gan and the heavens were sending down sheets and sheets of rain, the children danced around the car with their umbrellas delighted to finally be able to use them.
This morning, they ran outside in glee to play with the snow and straggled around scooping up the slush and trying to build a snowman and form snowballs. How sweet.
While it is still cold outside right now, the skies are blue and the sun is shining. A perfect opportunity to teach Ben and Gefen about melting and the concept of cold water freezing into snow and ice.
Only sad thing is that Ela has no clue what all the fuss is about. Oh well, she'll have to wait until next time....

Terrible neighbour story

2006-11-16T11:06:00.000+02:00

I am still freaked out by this. Yesterday, as I sat in my home working on a story for The Post, a burglar broke into my upstairs neighbours house and stole all their money and jewellery. It was broad daylight, in the middle of the day. She had only gone out from 11-2 and when she returned she saw that the door had been bashed in and her bedroom turned upside down in the search for valuables. Awful. i felt so sorry for them and felt like a real idiot that I did not hear or see anything at all. It was terrible. I felt like someone had broken into my own house. Afterall, we are one house really. How could it have happened while I was downstairs in the house. I heard no noise at all.

Thank god another day is nearly over

2006-11-14T20:18:00.000+02:00

Do you ever wake up in the morning, get out of bed and then longingly look back at the crumpled bedsheets thinking "I can't wait to get back into bed tonight?"

The days when I was free to sleep till noon and beyond seem like a dream. Did they really happen? I guess they did, three years at university and five more years until Benji was born. Now it is work, work and more work and do I get any gratitude? NO!!

All I get is Gefen telling me that she loves Daddy better than me and Ben crying if I so much as raise my voice one tiny decible. Then there is Ela, who although cannot speak yet, is such a terror climbing up on the table all the time and then falling off and hitting her head. Tonight she learnt how to take off her socks and slippers. It never seems to end, never. Just banging my head against the wall.

I went to school with a terrorist

2006-11-10T20:49:00.000+02:00

So a few things have happened since I became a single mum this week. The most astounding revelation is that I, infact, went to school with a terrorist. Dhiren Barot, who was convicted this week in London of being Al Qeida's top agent in England, was in my year at school. It is a little freaky.

I don't actually remember the guy, though I did stare at his picture for about an hour trying to conjure up some long suppressed memory but nothing. Still, it does not seem that far fetched that this Hindu-born boy converted to Islam and became a radical. I am actually quite impressed, though I do not condone what he was planning in any way shape or form, I just thought that everyone who went to Kingsbury High with me ended up being a complete loser! Obviously, some were destined to bigger and better things than working for McDonalds.

The other thing that happened to me this week was that I became one of the thousands of victims of on-line banking fraud!!! Yes, that is right. I foolishly fell for one of those emails from Barclays Bank telling me that I need to enter all my banking details in and up date my account information. Apparently the email was from some fraud ring!! Unbelievable really but I did manage, after numerous phone calls, to sort it all out and as far as I know no money was stolen.

Life as a single mum of three

2006-11-10T20:31:00.001+02:00

Wow, I am really wondering how single parents manage to survive. It is really tough from every angle. Mike is in America at the moment, which explains why I have been ignoring my duties as a blogger and tending to more mundane things like changing nappies and driving older kids to their after school activities, oh and work whenever I can fit it in.

So this time it has not been as difficult as I expected it to be with three children and a full-time job. Benji is really grown up and does his own thing. He gets dressed on his own in the morning and has even learnt to take a shower on his own. Ela is still the same sweet old thing and as long as she is tied down to something cannot get up to too much mischief. Gefen has her ups and downs but on the whole is trying to be good.

It is just all the shlepping that takes it out of you. And the early mornings, and the constant need for attention from the kids, and the job, and basically everything. God, I don't know how single mummys do it. Respect.

Simon and Mimi

2006-10-28T19:01:00.000+02:00

Simon and Mimi were featured in the post, here is the link:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193518299&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Benji's sixth birthday party

2006-10-27T18:01:00.000+02:00

We celebrated Benji's sixth birthday party today and I am happy to report that my 11th children's birthday party was a big success despite the obvious obstacles.

By obstacles I mean, that for some reason with Ben's birthday party there is always the eternal question of what we should do. He can never make up his mind (typical male) and he also does not have a clear best friend, like girls do. Therefore from his gin we never know who to invite and it is too much to invite the whole gin. (It is common practice in Israel for parents to invite the whole gin -- 37 children-- to birthday parties and to hire an entertainer or go to a jamboree or something). Mike and I feel that these big birthday parties are silly, especially at age 6. The child does not appreciate it and getting 37 presents is slightly exaggerated.

Anyway, we finally decided on the perfect formula -- actually Ben believes he came up with the idea himself to have a party at gin for his gin friends and then a home party for his Anglo (English-speaking friends, or rather, my friends and their children).

That was all settled. It would be about eight children in total and Mike and I would organize traditional party games. A perfect formula and I could sit and chat with my mates.

Of course, the day before Ben's decided to get an ear infection and was deathly ill. I did not fret though because it has happened every year since he was 1. He was fine by the morning of the party.

Then, by 10 am (the party was set to start at 2) it was threatening rain. Again, I did not worry because it is almost always nearly raining when we hold benches party.

In the end, even the lopsided baseball cake came out great. We played a host of party games from Egg and spoon race, to sack race to musical chairs. All a great success but the biggest success of was the piniata that I diligently made over a three day period earlier in the week. At first I thought that it would break immediately, then after about 50 wacks it was still standing and I panicked that it would never break but finally it did and the kids gathered up the sweets with glee -- just like you see in movies. Really.

A sick day

2006-10-27T17:48:00.000+02:00

Just when I thought my life could get no more hectic, not one but two of the kids decide to be ill. So not only do I have to work, get ready for Benji's birthday party and a girls night out, but I also have to tend to two very sick little bodies.

Firstly, Ela got the requisite 'shilshul.' Actually I am surprised that it took so long in coming. After starting gan in September, she has been a picture of health. Anyway, that all turned sour this week when she got her first wiff of a virus.

Then, Benji decided that he would have an earache. He seemed fine and had no fever but after seeing the doctor, he decided that it really hurt and spent the next two hours screaming and crying. I even resorted to putting a drop of hot olive oil in his ear -- the remedy that my Kurdish adopted mum always pushes for. As he finally fell asleep for a much needed afternoon nap, I suddenly remembered that it was his birthday party the next day and it is required practise for him to be sick just before the party. It is also required to rain on Benji's birthday.

In between caring for the two sick kids, I still found time to write two articles for the paper and ice Benji's birthday cake (a baseball bat, mit and ball), straighten my hair and even take a 1 hour nap.

Needless to say that by the time Susie came to pick me up and whisk me away to Tel Aviv for a night out on the town with the girls I was completely ready for it. I couldn't escape the house quick enough, even though I could hear Gefen crying in the background "Don't go mummy, I love you." But I went anyway, and had a bloody good time

Feeling slighted right now

2006-10-23T21:14:00.000+02:00

I am feeling extremely slighted right now and a little freaked out. Actually, I feel like I am banging my head against the wall.

On Saturday I decided that perhaps I would buy myself a domain name. Feeling rather proud that I had thought up a pretty good blog name, I thought perhaps there might be a chance that headagainstthewall.com was up for grabs I checked on the website directNIC.com if it was free. Sure enough no one in the whole world had thought to buy that domain name. Should I spent a whopping $15 on buying a domain name. You never know, some big company could come along and buy it off me for more than twice of what I made for it and then I could make some money?

I finally decided that today I would go and buy myself a domain name but oddly when I went back to the .com purchasing website, that domain name had been bought up by another company.

Weird or what?

Anyway, it just goes to show that you should run on your first instincts otherwise you could miss a good opportunity.

Our car returns to life

2006-10-23T20:33:00.000+02:00

We finally picked up our car on Friday morning and it seems to be running like a dream. I am just trying to forget how much money we spent to make it better and try to appreciate it for what it is -- a super huge luxurious Mazda MPV, where all five members of the Eglash family have their own little space and the three children are not fighting each other squeezed in the back. Only time will tell if we made a big mistake in getting it repaired and should have lost the money and just raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan with it.

Israel at its best

2006-10-17T15:04:00.000+02:00

So I've been trying to think of what to write on this blog and it suddenly came to me that the everyday, mundane things in life are sometimes the best. Anyone looking to read something intelligent stop right here. Goodbye. Hello to my real friends who appreciate the day to day ironies.

Last night I went shopping at my local supermarket. I was exhausted but the Eglash's love their food and we need to keep the fridge stocked for the growing household.

It is a weekly event and I am learning my way around the store pretty well. There are the usual aisles and then there are the food counters with fresh meat, cold cut meats and cheese, which are always better to avoid. A few months ago when i approached the meat counter (you know chicken, beef etc.) I could smell that antagonistic smell of cigarette smoke but thought it was my imagination. Wrong, it was the meat guy smoking in the back room. I love Israeli health codes.

Anyway, last night I had to make a stop at the cold cut counter (you know the sliced Turkey and beef). I really hate stopping there because it just takes forever and I always end up getting stuck who wants six thousand cuts of meat.

So I arrive at the counter and smile at my luck that no one else is there. The spotty girl behind the counter is lounging on the bar text messaging her friends (anywhere else she would be standing ready to attention but no such luck in the land of crummy service). I ask for Spanish salami, to which she responds: "Where is it?" She tells me she can't find it in the counter and that I have to find it for her!!! "But don't YOU work here? Isn't it YOUR job?" I pointed out logically but she just looked at me blankly. After finding the meat in question it took her about three hours to unwrap it and then slice it. A 1-hour shopping trip turned into a 3 hour battle with a shop assistant. Typical Israeli service, I love it...

2006-10-15T22:09:00.000+02:00

For all my friends who watch Footballer's Wives, Lisa D. brought to my attention a new show on Israeli TV called Mile High. It is on every night on Channel 30 and features the rough and ready lives of cabin crew members on a cheapo airline. (I tried to make this blog intellectual but I guess this is more me!) Anyway, read the review below:

This is a terrific new Sunday night soap. It's late-ish (10 p.m.) start means that it's able to get a lot "closer to the knuckle" than most soaps. Whereas in most soaps the sexual shenanigans are merely implied or taken as fact, in "Mile High" we actually see the protagonists 'getting jiggy' with each other, sometimes with next to nothing left to the imagination. A few of the sex scenes to date could even be classed as borderline soft porn. And the language has a tendency towards being fairly 'Anglo-Saxon' at times, with the "f" word cropping up numerous times in most episodes so far.The characters are also for the most part quite interesting as well, the hard-as-nails purser Janis and the "camp-as-a-row-of-tents" gay steward Will being particular stand-outs.It's not arty-farty cerebral fare by any stretch of the imagination, but it's great entertainment and the best possible way to see out the weekend on a Sunday night. Hopefully it will be renewed for a second season once this series ends.

Going to watch it now.

G'nite Ruth

too tired to talk

2006-10-12T21:36:00.000+02:00

You are probably wondering why I have been so lazy about updating this blog. Yeah, I know there are some blogs that are updated every two minutes or so but being a mum of three crazy kids and an even crazier husband, I am just left exhausted every day.

Today i had all three of them at home on my own until about 11 am. All I will say is that I will never become a kindergarten teacher! I don't think I sat down even for 1 second -- "mummy I want juice," "mummy, I want to eat something," "mummy, ben is bothering me," "mummy, Gefen hit me...." and so it went on.

Needless to say, that morning compounded with my work equals very little time or patience to blog to you.

On that note, I will say goodnight and go and veg out on the couch.

4 going on 14

2006-10-11T09:07:00.000+02:00

Gefen has spent alot of time with her friend Maria this week and the two of them do make me smile. They are so clique, there is so much whispering and gossiping going on, they are like two old ladies. On Tuesday, the two of them were here and they provided Ela with two very experienced mothers. They are both very bossy and love to tell her what to do all the time. Today, Thursday, Gefen spent the day at Maria's house and came back with glittering eye shadow and blusher on her cheeks.

When Maria said goodbye to Gefen, there was alot of whispering going on. I suppose we shall never find out what it was all about but it sure gives us an insight into Gefen 10 years from now and g-d help us!

Eternal questions

2006-10-10T14:18:00.000+02:00

The final analysis came back on our car, a refurbished engine will cost us close to NIS 30,000 (7000 dollars), a shit load of money. So now we have to work out if it is better to sell the car as is and just cut our losses before they get worse or to have the repair done and hope that it will be the end of it.

If there is anyone reading this who knows about cars, perhaps they could give us their expert opinion?

I think it is really just luck, maybe me and Mike will play a game of backgammon over it. If I win then we will sell the car and get another one, if Mike wins then we keep it. What do you think?

Interesting times

2006-10-10T14:11:00.000+02:00

Just thought I would link to this article that I wrote yesterday about David Borenstein, a New York Jew who visited North Korea last year. He has a very interesting story to tell and I am rather proud of how the story came out....

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193404378&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

How our car got heated

2006-10-09T10:28:00.000+02:00

Okay, here is the full and juicy story of how our car got so heated that the engine blew up. First of all, I will start by saying that everytime we are on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway and I see a car broken down with a full broad of kids inside, I say to myself "that is really my biggest nightmare, breaking down on the miserable excuse for a hard shoulder with three screaming kids in the back," then I shudder.

Well, it just goes to show you should not mock other people's bad luck because it always ends up coming back to you.

Saturday we were returning from a lovely tri-lingual birthday party of my nephew Natan, aged 2, (we sang happy birthday in Hebrew, French and English).

The car had overheated on the way there but we thought it just needed some water and would be fine. Logical, right? Wrong, after about 15 minutes the car started juttering and there was a loud rumbling noise coming out of the engine. I told Mike to pull over and he came to a sudden stop. That is when the car died, the last time we ever drove our famed Mazda MPV.

We called the towing service and a good friend called Harry who came within 20 minutes to pick me, Judith (my sister) and the kids up to take us home. Mike stayed with the car and waited for the tow truck.

Benji, aged 5, was very traumatized by the whole affair. Being the oldest child, he takes on alot of the responsibility for the whole family. He had to fight back his tears and then went on to ask two billion questions about why cars break down, how they break down, why our car broke down, why all the other cars in the world break down and how we fix them all. I love the way he views the world, he is still trying to understand so many things. When we got home Benji asked if the whole episode would be reported on the news. So sweet.

Gefen, always the optimist, was much more relaxed about the whole affair. In her usual comical way, she put her head out the window and yelled: "Save us God!!"

Ela also played a part in the proceedings and struggled like Houdini to escape the constraints of her car seat. She is now known as "Smalldini"

More bad news

2006-10-09T10:13:00.000+02:00

We just got some awful news. Our car, that we really researched and invested in, has completely died. Now in a normal country, you would probably get it fixed and that would be that, but in Israel the price of cars and repairing them is the cost of a small house.

We spent every bit of savings we had here on that car -- a seven seater Mazda MPV. With three children in car seats we had no other choice, our Swedish Volvo (sporty and luxurious) was only designed with two blonde aryan children in mind, not three crazy Jewish kids!

Anyway, the dream is now gone. No more seven seater, no more room for visiting parents and in-laws. We are grounded.

The worst part is that we will have no car until we decide what we want to do with the broken car. Sell it, or have a new engine put in.

Its awful.

Time for some self promotion

2006-10-09T10:11:00.000+02:00

Anyway, I have decided to send out my blog address to all my friends so that everyone who knows me can read what I am writing. Not that I have anything that interesting to say but if they are my friends and family members they should be somewhat interested in what I write, right?

We shall see what happens

Meet the Eglashes

2006-10-08T21:05:00.000+02:00

Okay, it does seem a little vain that I would put my own photo up on this blog (see right), but then again this is a blog about me and when I read something about someone I like to put a name to a face.

Anyway, I live in Israel and despite what conclusions you might have jumped to already just because I said that, you are probably wrong. I was born and brought up in England in a very liberal and multi-cultural setting. I make my mind up about individuals and try not to generalize but I do not pretend to be unbiased about anything. Everyone in the world has pre-conditioned biases that they just can't get away from. I guess the reason i bring all this up right now, while introducing myself, is because I am a journalist and people automatically assume things about you when you say that.

I have three beautiful children (and on that I am not biased) and a loving, though sometimes crazy, husband. Life with him is surely a roller coaster. We live ten minutes outside of Jerusalem in a lovely wee town called Mevasseret Zion, it is set in the beautiful hills around the holy city. It is very peaceful, despite the situation all around us, and very picturesque.

I guess now is the time I post some pics of the little ones as they are simply darlings.

Welcome

2006-10-08T20:50:00.000+02:00

Do you ever feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall? That however far you go, you end up back where you started? That just when things are starting to get better, they get bad again? And the worst thing is that all you want is a simple life, just to put the kids to bed and watch TV or read a book. Then you find yourself dealing with one nightmare after another and it never ends.

Okay, I confess, my problems are nothing too startling. No loss of life but just the irritating things that make you want to hit your head on a brick wall.

Do you get what I mean?