Learning From Ari Shavit’s ‘My Promised Land’

By Alex E. Lipton March 27, 2014

  I My stepfather always told me that all the best books have maps.  So when I opened Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel a map was the first thing I looked for.  I found it on the first page of the book, just after the title page and the…

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The Reading List: Self-Destructive Jewish Philanthropy and more…

By Ben Sales August 18, 2010

I am about to tell you a dramatic tale about the internecine conflicts of the Jewish philanthropic world. Here are your characters: First, there’s the Jewish Federation–in this case the Houston branch–an umbrella Jewish fundraising organization in Israel and abroad that donates to the full gamut of Jewish causes locally, nationally, internationally and–of course–in Israel….

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Egypt II

By meuriarte March 10, 2010

This is the second post of a series. To read the first post, click here. The next morning we walked passed the synagogue on our way to the main boulevard. It was an impressive cement building with a giant Magen David centered above the entrance, which had two Greek columns on either side. The temple…

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Egypt 5770 (Part I)

By meuriarte February 24, 2010

Rob, Hannah and I took turns posing in front of the “Welcome to Egypt” sign as we crossed the border.  We were on break for Sukkot and thought the best way to celebrate the exodus from Egypt was to visit Egypt. At the last of four checkpoints, the three of us conferred and decided not…

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All in the Family

By meuriarte February 9, 2010

I was in Wadi Musa Jordan to see the ruins of Petra, one of the seven wonders of the modern world, when our Bedouin tour guide called me “cousin.” This was the first time I had ever been called “cousin,” and I was unsure how to take it. I was traveling with seven friends from…

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Capital of Terror

By meuriarte February 3, 2010

There is no Two-State Solution. The IDF physically forced my grandparents from their home and chased them down the street, said Anwar, an Israeli-Arab. A group of us, mostly Americans, were sitting in a friend’s dorm alongside a full moon when the topic came up. She was recounting the story about the Nakba, cataclysm in…

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Shabbes in the West Bank

By meuriarte January 26, 2010

My heart hastened its pace as we our bus passed through the security check point and crossed into the West Bank. The guards stared at the tinted windows and held fast to their M-16s. We, my friend Deb and I, were on our way to Karnei Shomron, a Jewish settlement a half hour north of…

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Germans in the Holy Land

By meuriarte January 19, 2010

It was a beautiful sunny day with a crystal clear sky. Outside the airplane’s window we could see Gaza and the ocean beyond. The jump instructor asked my friend, Regina, where she was from; she had such a pretty accent, but he couldn’t place it. Germany, she told him. Alright, her instructor shouted, just like…

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White People in Keffiyehs

By meuriarte January 5, 2010

I was in Bethlehem with four White friends, and by White I mean Caucasian American. We were greeted at the House of Peace Hostel by an elderly couple who welcomed us into their “prison of air.” Paul, their son, escorted us around town to make sure we did not get lost or hassled. At dinner…

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Christmas Chinese Balloons

By meuriarte December 29, 2009

Bethlehem, Christmas Eve 2009. It was a dark, still night. I huddled close with friends and drank hot tea poured from a thermos by a vendor circulating the crowd to keep warm. Red and blue lights illuminated the crosses over the Church of the Nativity. A towering fir tree glistened on the side of the…

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