An Instant In An Eternity

Tonight we took the kids to a program put on by the city to celebrate Immigrant Day, or Immigration Day, depending on how you want to translate it. The posters around town were very basic, not much detail. After inquiring with some friends there was recollection of a similar event in the past focused on the Ethiopian aliyah story and history. So I had high hopes for this evening, even as there was a little voice of skepticism on my shoulder. We arrived and there were people milling around outside the theater enjoying various ethnic cuisine - injira bread with vegetables and lentils, kube, blintzes, and something that I think was Moroccan couscous and veggies. It was meant to be a selection of foods connection to various groups who had immigrated to Israel. It was a nice multi-cultural smorgasbord courtesy of the city council and my tax dollars. As I looked around I saw a lot of Russian/Ukrainian/Former Soviet Union immigrants. I heard a lot of Russian or Ukrainian. I didn't see a...

This time of year tends to get almost out of control busy. As soon as we pack up our Passover supplies we run right into the time of year known as YomHaShoah-YomHaZicharon-YomHaAtzmaut-LagB'Omer-Shavuot. It's all one HUGE breath that flies by faster than you can imagine. Then add into that things like school and birthdays and this year, a Bar Mitzvah, and it becomes a blur of color and sound. I meant to sit down and write parts of this weeks ago. I'm finally taking a moment or two as the wind howls outside and the rain batters the house. It feels like we are approaching Halloween or Thanksgiving, except those aren't celebrated here and it's almost May. A while back I watched a short video about an amazing community oriented singing experience called Koolulam . It's a one year old initiative that has taken on a life of its own. The name comes from a blend of "cool", "kol" the Hebrew word for voice, "kulum" which means everyone i...

Last week Alan Alda was in town and gave a talk at The Technion. Thanks to a Wellesley friend we heard it was happening and grabbed seats to listen. Having a chance to hear from Hawkeye Pierce in person was pretty amazing. What he had to say as Alan Alda was thought-provoking. He was in town as part of his Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science . He and his team were working with a group of young scientists on how to communicate complicated science to the general public. His talk that evening was more general about communication. He said a few things that I think are well worth considering and internalizing. 1. If you are really listening you'll be open to being changed by the speaker. His point is that if we are really open minded and really listening then we aren't crafting our response or counter argument while the speaker is talking. Therefore we've totally opened and cleared our minds and that allows for us to have our opinion changed as a result of the speake...

As we finished out 2017 an article in The New York Times caught my eye and secured part of my 10 free articles for the month. Anne Patchett wrote about her year of no shopping . This wasn't anything new to me - I've heard about no shopping or reduced shopping efforts before. For some reason, though, this article resonated with me - maybe because we had read one of her works for my book club this past year. Maybe because she is a book store owner, and therefore earns a special place in my heart. I read the piece and then saved it as a PDF to my desktop. The point of the piece is simple. The writing is well done and conveys her experience. What would a year without shopping look like? Even more, what does that even mean? What can I buy? What can't I buy? Why? She writes a compelling piece - no wonder, she's a compelling author. Part of what attracted me was that she first encountered the idea in 2009 and it took her 7 years later in 2016 to engage fully with the li...