Jerusalem Walks Leon's Walks

The Spirit of the Jewish Pioneer I’m often in the bus and the Jerusalem Mini Rail and last week I even used the train to travel from Tel Aviv to Cfar Saba to attend my cousin Avremele’s funeral. I felt sad about him, because he and his brother and the rest of the family gave me a very warm welcome when I arrived in Israel for the first time, at the age of 19, in December 1959. I remember piling into a Packard, stuffed between the door and one of my aunts, I think it was Ida.

If I forget thee O Jerusalem By 12 o’clock yesterday the snow had stopped falling. I was sleeping when it started so I can’t say for sure if it snowed continually for a certain amount of time, but enough snow had accumulated by the time I awoke and stepped boldly, smartphone camera in hand, towards the snow. I gulped a lungful of the cold, silent air, full of pitch darkness and brilliant whiteness. White is beautiful and it sets off the darkness. It didn’t take it away, as a

Shalom Friends, This has been a busy week. Last night, after I had spent a little time with my son Ariel, his wife, Lilach and his kids, Ophir and Alon and of course Ollie, Ettie fetched me, after she’d spent a day shopping and “clearing her head” which I doubt is a good idea, with her favorite cousin Ayala, in our beautiful Prius, that I don’t drive since giving up my driver’s license for the sake of the bus and walking, to meet our old friends Carmela and Shimon, Ettie’s fr

Newsletter 224: Israel's Hebrew Culture The announcement of a Hebrew Language conference, to be sponsored by our prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu, in the beautiful town of Rishon Lezion’s cultural center was definitely more interesting than the news, which belabors us incessantly, every day of the elections to take place in March, where some people think Bibi will be ousted from power. There’s expectation in the air that he’ll topple from his pedestal; everybody’s saying “look

Shalom Friends, Happy New Year for 2015. This week I’m guiding a group for a great Dutch tour organization called Israel Idoed Reizen. The name means Israel Encouragement Tours and that’s exactly what they do regarding Israel. They tour Israel specifically to encourage Israel and they bring people who want to encourage Israel, by visiting and touring the Land that God promised His people Israel. On Saturday night we arrived at our hotel, the Astoria in Tiberias, to begin the

Merry Christmas to Christians all over the world. One can’t easily pass over an amazing event, such as the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem on this night. As a Jew I love my Christian friends and I can truly say that I am happy for all people who believe in Jesus and so are saved and I am happy to wish them happiness because their savior was born on this night. So I wish you, my dear Christian friends and Christians all over the world, a very Merry Christmas. As you know I have a

An item, some weeks ago in Haaretz newspaper announced the opening of Herod’s Pool to the public. I had heard about archaeological excavations in the 1930’s that discovered a palace and a pool of Herod’s in Jerusalem near the Armenian Quarter, in the vicinity of the Jaffa Gate, I’d also read a bit of Josephus’ Jewish Wars where he describes Herod’s beautiful Jerusalem palace, apparently the most beautiful palace of all. He had palaces in many places, the most visited and ther

Shalom friends, The New Year is upon us. There is no escaping the feeling of excitement that it brings. No matter how many new years I have celebrated I don’t manage to feel blasé about the arrival of yet another one. It’s always a big surprise for me. It’s like visiting the same place for the umpteenth time and instead of getting bored I’m excited anew. As far as I can see religion is just the repetition of customs. In fact the word “Shana” means to repeat. Some people see t