Writing a travel column for Kol HaBirah has allowed me to share my experiences of visiting interesting and exotic places. Perhaps my articles have even inspired others to travel! This, of course, would be very flattering. It also, however, would impose upon me the responsibility to make my readers aware of the dangers of travel, as well as provide them with information that will encourage safe travel decisions.
More than 60 leaders and supporters of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) from all walks of life and from across the United States traveled to Israel Nov. 10-17 as part of the FIDF National Leadership Mission, getting an exclusive look into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and showing their solidarity with and appreciation for Israel’s brave soldiers. Mission participants received in-depth geopolitical briefings by senior military officers, met with state leaders, toured strategic IDF bases to get a behind-the-scenes look into the Israeli military, and experienced Israel in an entirely new way.
Founded as a rewards redemption service, Get PEYD initially focused solely on assisting consumers in maximizing airline miles and credit card points. Get PEYD’s latest venture, PEYD360°, takes it to an entirely different sphere.
On May 28, 2016, Harambe died. Many mourned his death, but I was particularly distraught. You see, I might have known Harambe’s father... or his sister... or perhaps his cousin?
I attempted to push myself above the surface of the water, but I was blocked by the weight of the raft. I tried to remove my lifejacket and dive underneath, but the buffeting rapids propelling me along made this impossible. I thought to search for an air pocket, but I was reluctant to move toward the middle of the raft, from which it would be even more difficult to extricate myself; I also doubted I had enough oxygen for this maneuver.
A Saros Cycle is a period of time — roughly 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours between the recurrent relative line-up positions of the sun, moon, and earth — that has been used since antiquity to predict eclipses.
Carolina Gartenberg of Washington, D.C., visited the Beit Ambousa Ethiopian Cultural Center as a member of the Israel Bonds National Women’s Division 2017 Israel Delegation last month. Co-chair of Israel Bonds’ Young Investors Society, Gartenberg also serves on the social action committee at the DC Minyan.
Moshe, the savior of Israel, received his name from the daughter of Pharaoh, who said, “Ki min hamayimm’shitihu — I drew him out of the water.” I also have my own personal savior. He is a ukulele-playing, heavy-drinking, one-toothed Hawaiian with a rubber dingy and a major record deal. His name is Ali’i Ali’i Kai and he was born in the water.
When I was a child, my mother insisted that I always give my seat up to someone older on the bus or subway. She would add that this was the way that boys and girls in Israel behaved.
My mother, Perla Brandriss, often mentioned to us as children that it was Erev Rosh Hashanah, 1942, that the Nazis came to take her parents. They and their two youngest children were rounded up and taken to the railway station in their home town of Lille, France, together with many of the city’s other Polish Jews, to be sent to their deaths at Auschwitz.
In 2007, I attended a bar mitzvah at the Nairobi Hebrew Congregation in the capital city of Kenya. During the Torah reading, the gabbai called relatives and friends for aliyot by their Hebrew names. For one aliyah, however, the gabbai called the name “Charles Njonjo.”