Yesh Matsav

Blowing an opportunity with India Dec. 2, 2008 Kevin Kolben , THE JERUSALEM POST Like many others with India connections, for much of the last few days I have been bolted to my computer screen, trying to follow and absorb every development in the horrible attack on Mumbai. These are places and institutions very much […]

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Yesterday evening we held a small day after birthday celebration for Michal at our small place. To get ready for the event, I ran around trying to locate all those traditional birthday party necessities, such as decent goat cheese, charcuterie, wine, and of course some birthday candles for the gateau au chocolat that I bought […]

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We drove south from Tel Aviv for about two hours, and every few kilometers the land turned drier. The whole country is a desert, but certain areas look the part more than others, and it was clear when we had arrived in the Negev, as Israel’s southern strip is called. We pulled into the goat […]

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This week Michal and I took an amazing trip to the Negev. We will write more about this soon, but I thought I’d share a short anecdote about the process of renting our car for the journey. We booked a car online with El Dan, one of the major car rental chains in Israel. When […]

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It’s about 5 pm in Jerusalem, an hour before the fast officially ends. But I chose to end my fast early this year. I have taken a cup of Nescafe and a few honey cookies to the garden across the street from where Uzi and Esti live and where Kevin and I have been staying. […]

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Here is the latest piece I wrote for the Forward. Two years ago, in the midst of the Second Lebanon War, the popular French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy was sent to Israel by The New York Times Magazine to “ponder, discuss and travel,” as the title of his piece suggested. The result, an essay defending the […]

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Recently, Ulf, Gabriela, Michal, and I went to a wedding of Gabriela’s first cousin’s son, Daniel, which would make him Michal’s second cousin. For Israelis, the wedding probably just blended into some of the approximately 2000 that they go to in the course of an Israeli lifetime. For me, however, it was a small peek […]

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Yesterday was my first day of Ulpan (language class) at Ulpan Gordon. I was told to come in the morning for the placement test, and when I arrived I joined the teeming masses of seekers of Hebrew knowledge, and was given an exam to assess my reading and writing skills. Needless to say, they’re rather […]

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The name of this cafe is : “Coffee, Food…Come on, Food” (It reminds me a bit of the Little Engine that Could.)

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Street graffiti is one way of getting to know a country and Israel’s wall art is no exception. It reflects a country that is self-reflecting, deeply irreverant, and often despairing; a country divided and torn about how they see themselves and the world outside.  The lower image features one of the country’s most popular street […]

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