Jerusalem Walks Leon's Walks

I like being in step with the latest news. We think that this is something that our modern world has given us, because of modern technology; the internet, TV, movies, newspapers and what not else. But this isn't really true. People in past ages, before all the modern means of communication spent a lot of time on the roads. I don't mean travelling from home to work. I mean people spent a lot of time travelling on roads that connected countries and cities with one another.News

Read the original Hebrew News Item in Israel Today Sun 20th Aug 2017 The minister of commerce and industry, Eli Cohen, comes out in support of the presidednt of America, Donald Trump, following criticism launched against him in the last few days about racism and anti-semitism: “The attempt to associate Trump with anti-semitism is pathetic.” Said Cohen and added: “we are talking about one of the pro-Israel presidents.” According to Cohen, “since Trumps entrance to the White Ho

Tisha Be-Av is a religious festival, celebrated every year by the Jews, to mourn the destruction of the temple, first by the Babylonians in 586 BCE then by the Romans in 70 CE. In fact it wasn’t only the destruction of the temple that took place, but it was also the destruction of the nation. Two events happened, the destruction of the temple and the destruction of Jewish nationhood. Since it’s inception, 2000 years ago, however, Tisha Be-Av has been celebrated as a religiou

Having experienced the warm feelings expressed by Egyptians toward the Israelis, when I visited there as a guide and an escort for Israelis visiting Egypt in 1981, I was puzzled, on the one hand, by the coolness of the economic relations between the two countries since then and on the other by the friendliness of ordinary Egyptians; they literally embraced me when they heard that I was from Israel. One taxi driver stopped his car in the middle of dense traffic in Cairo, when

From Israel Today written by Efrat Forsher: 27.06.2017 00:25 translated by Leon Gork Under the Israeli nose: The Palestinians have paved a new route, crossing an IDF firing zone, connecting to the smuggling route and exploiting the breach in the fence • On the part of the route there is even concrete. • Meaning: easier life for illegal aliens and smugglers of weapons, drugs and women. A journey through the no-man's-land The road to smuggling Efrat Forsher Published by Israel

It didn’t matter where I went on Rosh Hashanah as long as I was spending time with my kids, by this I mean my grandkids, although I’m happy spending time with any kids who want to spend time with me. Spending time with them doesn’t mean that I’m really doing very much, it just means that I’m sitting on a comfortable white plastic garden chair, with them at a place where they can find things to do, what some educators of children call a challenging environment. This is a very

Shalom everyone, Practically every year students strike. Now the reason is to have a government committee scrapped because they suspect that amongst other findings of the committee they will also find that fees need to be increased. At the same time teachers are on strike for higher pay and anesthetists are on strike for more staff. This all comes after the big demonstration accusing Olmert of mishandling the war in Lebanon last year. To top it all the president of the suprem

Shalom everyone, Yesterday for the first time in several weeks I met my friend Shaul for coffee in the Shuk. That is Shuk MahanehYehudah where all the nobodies of town come to expound their opinions to each other on the pretext of doing the weekly shopping. The media even asks our opinions on the unimportant matters of the day on the pretext of getting public opinion. Yesterday they put a microphone in front of me and I told them I didn't think the Winograd report on the cond

Shalom everyone, My thoughts are definitely stimulated by encounters I have with observant Jews. In Israel observant Jews are everywhere; in religious neighborhoods, in cars on the road, at picnic sites, in the bank, in the post office etc. Here encounters with observant Jews crop up all the time in places and times that aren't particular to religious Jews. A few weeks ago I guided a group of 3 observant young ladies on a tour of the Galilee. They did things that tourists us

Shalom everyone The great writer of the beginning of the 20th Century, Herman Hesse, in his book, "Siddhartha" gives a beautiful description of a river as an allegory of life: "You have already learned from the river that it is good to strive downwards. To sink, to seek the depths. The rich and distinguished Siddhartha will become a rower; Siddhartha the learned Brahmin will become a ferryman. You have also learned this from the river." Usually we enjoy the brilliance of the

Dear friends and family, This week some really sad things happened here in Israel. On Tuesday one of our most beloved and famous singers, Shoshana Damari, passed away. I was very sad about this as I always am when someone dies. Dying is just the worst thing that can happen to a person. I'm sure that no matter how much suffering there is during life it's nothing compared with the suffering of dying. She had a very unusual style of singing. It was a combination of Yemenite yode