Please Vote!

Hey good people,

Please join me in voting every day for Michael Ferraro's sandwich to earn the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research $10K. Let's keep the cause in 1st place!

Here's the long overdue link to Dad's Myspace page: listen to his February hour as DJ on KNTU (his alma mater the University of North Texas' jazz radio station), Dad telling his life story, his funeral service (17:35 Amy and Eric's Eulogies; 33:45 Rabbi David Stern's Eulogy), and Dallas' Ohev Shalom synagogue's Rabbi Rodin speaking about him.

All's good by me--just trying to rock out exams season. Speaking of, here's a hilarious spoof on dating during exams put together by some fellow Ben-Gurion University students. With two exams back-to-back weeks, I spent six days down south in the Negev. After never having prayed at such a synagogue, on Thursday in Beer Sheva and Friday in Kiryat Gat I prayed at two synagogues whose names honor the victims of the Holocaust. When a friend at school told me to go to the late Thursday morning minyan at the Auschwitz Synagogue, I just about fell off his couch. Sure enough, the synagogue is named in memory of the holy Jews who perished in Auschwitz, and my Shabbat experience in Kiryat Gat was at the synagogue in honor of fallen Israelis and Holocaust victims. The communities were very warm and both offered me honors during services, but I'll have to say those names are--for me, at least--an acquired taste in imparting an uplifting spiritual experience.

It was phenomenal to get back to my old stomping grounds--what can I say, I love Kiryat Gat! Dear friend Ruti (who featured prominently in the old blog) warmly welcomed me into her home; we had a warm Shabbat dinner with all the kids and her new granddaughter. Dad smiled down on us as we enjoyed Ruti's phenomenal Morrocan cooking, which Mom, Dad and I enjoyed immensely when Ruti hosted us for dinner back in '05. Saturday afternoon I took a stroll around the old hood, walked by the old house, and said hi to a couple Chicagoans staying in the Federation house. A fittingly simple song, which was all over the radio when I lived in Kiryat Gat, came to mind: הילה הררי עם כלא שש - זה היה ביתי/Ze Haya Beiti (that was my house). I was, however, unpleasantly surprised to see that the Chicago mural, painted on the side of the Shprintzak Elementary School (where I tutored English) by OTZMA volunteers the year before me, had been painted over :/

Ruti helped me to keep in mind the simple pleasures of Israeli life. After adding some lemon to a tuna salad, she exclaimed, "What an awesome lemon! לימון מוסיף המון (a rhyme for lemon adds a ton)," and then said "We have a lot of problems in Israel, security issues...but we have amazing fruit." Appropriately said for a woman who lives on HaRimon (Pomegranate) street, in a neighborhood whose streets include all of Israel's seven species (including my old street HaTe'ena (Fig), plus others like Parsimmon for good measure. It's always good to slow down, enjoy the beauty of the pomegranates (which grow daily) on my walk to my nearby synagogue, and smell the flowers (I think that's honeysuckle in the air these days)...

This is my kind of late life potential--friend Ester Golan (Cafe Europa participant)'s website and blog, and some ridiculous musical late life potential from 74-years-young Buddy Guy.

Not sure what to think of Glenn Beck's Restoring Courage event here in Jerusalem's Old City this August (which I certainly won't be paying to attend), but I for sure at least give him credit for successfully encouraging a ton of people to visit Israel.

Now I'll keep up Dad's legacy of sharing tons of music with loved ones by letting you in to my adopted Israeli soundtrack. As for my emotional state, this fantastic Yehuda Poliker song (lyrics: Yonatan Gefen) sums it up so well פחות אבל עוד כואב/ Pachot aval od co'ev (Less, but it still hurts). Here are some lyrics: "It comes and goes, you know" "We learn to live with it this way" והנה כל המילים.

אביב גפן - המכתב: Here's Aviv Geffen rocking out his classic song Ha'Michtav (the letter), featuring the message "אף פעם אל תפסיק לחלום: Never stop dreaming."

Lest you think all Israeli music is about breakups like those two, בעז בנאי - כל השבוע מרגיש כמו שבת: Boaz Banai's video for Kol Ha'Shavua Margish Cmo Shabbat (the whole week feels like Shabbat) gives a great taste of the amazing energy of Tel Aviv. Here's a super-cool Yoni Bloch choose-your-own-adventure video, and another fun one: Achariut (responsibility) יוני בלוך - אחריות.

Have a great week-שבוע טוב!

אריק/Eric

The Tale of a Champion

Dallas Mavericks, 2011 NBA Champions

On a cool, cloudy mid-June day in Jerusalem, when it even rained a bit, a new champion was crowned--the Dallas Mavericks--who, after being founded in 1980, finally broke through to win it all for the first time. The NBA for us growing up meant catching the Finals with Amy and Dad every summer, watching somebody else's team win it all. Our year didn't come til 2011...it really feels like hell froze over.

The 90's were a great decade for Samuels' sports teams: the Reds won the World Series in '90, our Cowboys won the Super Bowl in '92, '93 and '95, Michigan football took the title in '97 and Michigan hockey in '98, and the Stars hoisted the Stanley Cup in '99 (Ann Arbor's Walnut Street was the scene of my fanatical screams that night). Since then it's been one runner-up after the next--the Stars in '00, Mavs in '06, Rangers last fall, and Michigan hockey, who lost the title game the night Dad passed away. Here's hoping I won't wait 12 years to celebrate the next title (all eyes move to our Rangers to join the club).

But in the meantime, I celebrated this as if it might take a decade for the next one. I caught the game at home with four buddies. This was the culmination of many weeks of middle-of-the-night hoops, as my Mavs did what roomies David's Celtics and Noah's Bulls couldn't--vanquish the hated Heat. We waited until the second half to pop open some 5 am beers (I went with a Moosbacher pilsener from Germany for Dirk, while Noah chose an Israeli Goldstar to toast Dirk's country losing 66 years ago).

As for post-game, when their White Sox played for the title in '05, Noah and his dad put two bottles of champagne on ice: a good one for drinking, and a cheap one for the champagne shower. So with the Larry O'Brien Trophy in the building, I prepared appropriately. How sweet was that to continue the time-honored tradition of toasting a championship with champagne! I only wish I could have sprayed champagne on Dad to celebrate his beloved team's huge win...

Dad would have had so much demise of evil to celebrate lately: the Mavs taking down the despised Lakers and Heat, the ouster of Tressel and Pryor from o state, the Navy Seals' elimination of Bin Laden. (Did I go too far to put the sports guys in the same sentence as Osama?) Regardless, Dad's smiling his head off from above these days...

Our Mavs took us on one incredible ride. I caught a February stomping of Sacramento--my fellow Israeli Omri Casspi's Kings were overmatched from the tip-off (it was cool though to see several Israeli flags around the arena). The two-time defending champion Lakers--swept away with authority. Shannon Brown likes to think LA swept themselves (Ben Rogers called him out in this brilliant interview). The media focus in the Finals was again not on Dallas, but on Miami's failures. With all due respect to my sister's profession, what is wrong with these people who can't place the focus where it belongs, on this ultimate old-school team? These guys' determination to the last minute was unreal.

Here's the radio call of the crowning glory. The nba Mini Movie for Game 6 forced tears of joy down my cheek. The Mavs now join the fraternity of Dallas champs who urged them to victory in a pre-game message (as for me, The Time is Now to write two papers). And for some random trivia, sounds like Shawn Marion and I have identical left pinkies.

It's not the old NBA on NBC; here in Israel it's the NBA on ספורט/Sport 5, and this is the swagger song, my new anthem--עוד יהיה לי/Od Yihiye Li. It's a tasty Michal Shapira cover of a cheesy '89 pop song. This one was written for Jason Terry and this team. Some translation (הנה המילים): "One day I'll spread my wings, you'll see that I'm not afraid; I'll get the good news my heart sends me, I'll break through the long distance; I'll get what I wanted, what I've been missing. Why not?" A lot of the Hebrew doesn't translate terribly well, so think of it as a sort of Israeli "My Time After Awhile" (played here by Buddy Guy). That's me spreading my wings JET style on my street.

Off to keep typing and write those papers now...As the Mavs' unmatched leader Coach Carlisle said last night, the Mavs said all year that "it's not about what you can't do; it's about what you can do." So it's time for me to be the Dirk Nowitzki of gerontology. Have a Shiner for me Dallas!!!

Eric/אריק

Happy Birthday Dad!

Dear beloved Dad,
Today, you would have turned 70. I'm glad we got to celebrate so many of your birthdays together.

Our Mavericks gave you an early birthday present last night (it was already June 3rd when I watched from Tel Aviv). I have no doubt that you were coaching the Mavs from above. You always said, "There's plenty of time left" when rooting for our Dallas teams--beloved, yet overwhelmingly underwhelming over the decades. You gave the Mavs the push for their 4th quarter comebacks in Game 1 against the Lakers, Game 4 against Oklahoma City, and last night against the team that I call the Miami Michael Jordans, i.e.
"Michael Jordan misses, Michael Jordan with the rebound. Michael Jordan throws the alley-oop to Michael Jordan for the thunderous jam." This Heat team is so unfairly, disgustingly loaded with talent. But at the end of the day, the best complete team wins the game. And doing the little things right got us that win: at the end of the day, we missed only 4 free throws, and the Heat missed 8 (17-21 vs. their 16-24). Ball game right there.
I was ready to say earlier in the game, that if we pulled out Game 2, that just meant we had forced a Game 5, a boon for the Dallas economy by ensuring 3 home Finals games. But the manner in which we stole a game that noone but you and the Mavs themselves believed we could pull off gives me a lot of hope for more wins to come. Just 3 more--with good health for Dirk's finger and Haywood's hip, we can do this!

Your message to the world is to always keep hope alive, whether in rooting so loyally for your usually hapless teams, or in fighting the vicious disease of pancreatic cancer for almost 21 months.

After the game today, I started in noting your birthday at a nearby synagogue. In saying the Mourner's Kaddish for these first 11 months from your passing, which I am aiming to do three times a day at the morning, afternoon, and evening services, I am revisiting the skill developed in my high school drum line days of listening to those around me, and coordinating for a tight, unified sound. The goal is for all mourners to say the Kaddish as one. The old drum line buddies would be proud.
I also have led services all over Dallas and Israel, a new role since you left us that is reserved for mourners during the week. I continue to find my voice and try to honor you while receiving the humbling honor of being a sort of spokesperson for each service's group of holy Jews praying for good things.

Your birthday continued on the spectacular Tel Aviv beach. The water today was simply stunning, with shades of turquoise and navy blue reflecting the glory of G-d's creation. You always wanted to watch me play beach volleyball, the sport which I usually manage to not make a fool of myself while playing. While 11 months off the court left my game rusty, I rocked a good serve and threw down 2 authoritative blocks of spikes at the net. Other than that, my teammate Mahmoud from Eritrea and I were overmatched by a solid pair of Israelis. But I heard you cheering for me anyway from above.

Now I'm back at long last visiting cousins Toker and Batya on their pastoral Kibbutz Urim in the Negev desert. I got in an invigorating 3-lap bike ride all the way around the kibbutz. The natural scenes reminded me of those I experienced riding through the Sam Houston National Forest during my epic Texas roadtrip with Mom last month. The trade was the scent of pine trees in Texas' Piney Woods for this season's beautiful lavender flowers descending from trees, which I have seen all over Israel this week, from Herzliya, to my Jerusalem neighborhood, to Beer Sheva, all the way here to Urim. While circling the kibbutz, the scents alternate between flowery, and less-so--courtesy of the dairy farm and horse stable. The sights include palm trees and an enormous cactus farm, and a refreshing breeze cooled me off as an unusually long stretch of delightful spring-like weather continues. I didn't make it out to the highway where we ran when you and Mom came to visit in '05--Batya and Toker don't have a helmet.

Now the holy Shabbat is coming. May you rest in peace on this day of rest and peace. שבת שלום/Shabbat Shalom.

I miss you and love you more than the whole world.
אריק/Eric

P.S. Here's the less-than-stellar OECD report on Israel's elder care והסיפור בעברית

We're #1

Well, it's been awhile. Great to be back!

I took two phenomenal trips of late:
-Staffing an incredible Shorashim/Koach birthright trip for special needs participants in late December. As Bruce Sharon said, there was some serious holiness on that bus, with simply incredible people all around.
-Yet another holy pilgrimage to Dallas. Dad rocked it out in the studio of KNTU, one of America's top five jazz radio stations for market share. His hour as DJ is online here on his Myspace page. The weekend with Amy, Aron and nephews Jake and Ben was amazing as always--Jake beat me in backyard softball 17 - 5, and Ben is walking and talking up a storm! We met Dad's wonderful staff at the Crowley Clinical Trials center--he's in phenomenal hands.













Now it's incredible to be back where I belong in Israel. I got back late Monday night and went right back to Ben-Gurion University for spring semester classes starting Tuesday. This semester I have a ton of Nursing Home Management (six hours of various courses weekly), as well as Human Resources Management in Elder Care.

Our professor for Policy of Elder Care informed us that Israel has moved up one spot over the last year, and now...
We're Number One* for male life expectancy (*it's a tie).

Back in Dallas, everybody and their dog was asking me what Israel and I are thinking about the destabilization of the Middle East. Can't lie--it's a bit unsettling. But...
What, me worry?!? My life expectancy went up by a few years with my move to Israel, all the way to the longest for males in the world! Now, our women's life expectancy stayed put at seventh place--nothing to sneeze at! But our prof explained that discrepancy as such: Israeli women take great care of the men, but Israeli men aren't quite as good to their wives. The prof didn't comment on American-Israeli men...

As for Zionist history in the context of the new Middle East, Daniel Gordis' Jerusalem Post Magazine piece is goose-bump worthy.

Also in the newspaper Friday was...me. This sad piece of news includes my picture on page 5 of the Haaretz English print edition. That's not my favorite paper, but it's pretty exciting to grace the pages of an Israeli paper for the first time nonetheless.

I represented Northwestern Hillel (from my staff days) proudly at former student Ilene's wedding at the spectacular Beit Shmuel Wednesday night. Mazal tov to Ilene and Noach!

That night, while we were celebrating the building of a new house in Israel while overlooking Suleiman the Magnificent's Old City walls, two rockets fell on Beer Sheva--the first since Operation Cast Lead more than two years ago. They fell one neighborhood over from where I stay. The false bubble of security burst along with them; I will be very aware of the locations of shelters around town now that they are suddenly relevant again.

Are you thinking I might be less determined to study in Beer Sheva now? Are you high?!? My trademark Israeli resilience will certainly not let the pathetic excuses for human beings who launch those rockets (with the goal of indeterminately targeting anyone from my toddler cousins to the 80-somethings I have interviewed for my research job) determine how I will lead my life in Israel.

Shabbat was restful and lovely; I got back to the Kotel/Western Wall this morning after a too-long hiatus, followed by lunch at elder care mogul Leah Abramowitz. Her family has been in the same Old City apartment since before 1973's Yom Kippur War.

On the walk back to my Jerusalem neighborhood, there is a view of the separation barrier in East Jerusalem. (The section that you can see from the Old City is among the less than three percent of the separation barrier that is made of concrete.)

Less than ten minutes later, I walked by a memorial to eight holy Jews who were murdered in a bus bombing during the intifada of the early 2000s. I stop and look at this memorial just about every time I walk by; I also stop and pay respects at the other memorials littered around Jerusalem on my regular walks. For the first time, I connected the two stark visuals together. And I thanked G-d for the people who constructed the security fence, and by doing so thwarted the attempts of the pathetic excuses of human beings who would murder Jews for the "crime" of living in our eternal homeland.

All this may have you thinking I've been overcome by hatred, but that's not the case. Thanks to my best efforts, I don't hate Hamas terrorists. But I have zero love for them whatsoever. If there was a number smaller than 0, that would be how much I love them. Interestingly, I read that the Palestinian street's version of the region's revolution is to call for an end of the schism between Fatah and Hamas. As Gaddafi's era is waning in Libya, G-d only knows what the next developments will be...

This is the perfect time to bust out this classic, with which I quickly became enamored after my aliyah to Israel. Mordechai Ben David and his Hollywood-caliber video production team are just the ones to get the smile back on my face. The streets he circles in the video are the same I circled today (I may or may not have relived his slow-mo running scene). To translate the chorus, "We're believers, sons of believers, and we have noone to lean on. Noone except G-d, in Heaven." That says it all.

Between MBD and my אחלה/achla/awesome life expectancy, I'm sleeping just fine tonight! And big thanks to all y'all for reading--I feel the love! Much love back at you from Jerusalem,
אירק/Eric

Summer is still here in Israel

Greetings from the unbelievably pleasant Jerusalem. The entire city seems to be enveloped in a cloud of the most heavenly scent of jasmine flowers--it has to be the scent of the Garden of Eden. We've survived the nearly-unbearable summer, and the prize is perfect weather these days. However, you'd never know it from the forecast on the nightly news. You know you're in Israel when a forecast of "It's perfect weather out" comes from a meteorologist who looks like she just told you your beloved uncle passed away. The catch, of course, is that we are beyond desperate for rain, and the nation of Israel's prayers for rain over the land of Israel have been answered only very sparingly so far during this "rainy" season.

It's been amazing to be back in Israel after my five-week US trip: back to school (very interesting classes), work (stimulating, challenging, and fulfilling), and regular life (in one word, phenomenal). Monday I successfully donated blood to Magen David Adom for the seventh time since my aliyah!

Please visit the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's profile of my hero, Dad's story. They cut out "Medical City" before "hospital"--I like to think you know my syntax is better than that. Speaking of syntax, enjoy this phenomenal set of Ron Washington clips (more on the 2010 American League Champion Texas Rangers to come).

For now I must go pray and wish you a שבת שלום!
אריק/Eric

It's Uncle Time

Here are the highlights from my extended stay in Dallas:

-Having the Blums and their adorable and friendly kids over.
-Lots of laughs with former Jerusalem roommate DT and his very much Texan dad (like father, like son).
-Drinking a Shiner or 6 with the old elementary school-era 3 Amigos: Andrew and Evan.
-Catching Bedford Blues Fest with the awesome Smith family, and catching the legendary Taj Mahal with Eli.
-Wonderful conversation imbued with a lot of meaning with old friend Lauren Eastburn and some amazing commonalities with my religious Christian friends--the Smiths and Lauren.
-An amazing Rosh HaShana long weekend with Amy and the Davidson boys--blue Ben smothered in his 1st bday cake and teaching Jake “On the Road Again” on the way to the pond for tashlich (find link).
-Cheering on the Rangers with Mom as Cliff Lee swept the loathed Yankees out of Texas, and catching another nice Rangers win with Evan.
-Going for a swim with Lexie--dear friends Natalie and Jason’s dog. I better hit the pool--I sadly kept losing in a race with a golden/poodle.
-Good times with all the family/family friends--the Davidsons, Cohens, Kramers, Blums, Browns, Habermans and more.
-Taking the DART light rail downtown for lunch with Stephen and meeting his incredibly good match of a girlfriend.
-Experiencing Jerry Jones-World with the incredibly generous and kind Kamans. The only appropriate word for the place: ridiculous. After being paraded as gods, replete with great balls of fire to welcome them onto the field, the “team” laid an enormous egg and were put in their place by da bears, who played a great game. Most of all, this cast of grossly overpaid characters just made me reminiscent of the good ol’ days when Dad and I had season tickets starting in ’92 to witness Aikman, Emmittt, Jay Novacek, “Moose” Johnston, and some real teams just go out and dominate the NFL for a few years. This place is one giant display of misplaced American values. I did notice that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are very serious about tzni’ut (modesty)--religious Jewish women generally wear sleeves to their elbows in public. “America’s Sweethearts” take it one step further in covering their entire arms! Wait a second...looks like that’s about all they’re covering. Anyway, I’m glad I made it to the show once, but can’t imagine I’ll return.
-Celebrating with Mom and Dad as the Rangers clinched their first division title and playoff berth in 11 years. What a treat! I implore you boys to keep on winning for my dad!
-The incredible depth of Jewish knowledge and Torah that Rabbi Aryeh Rodin passes on to nearby Ohev Shalom synagogue every day (but in particular over the slew of holidays we’ve just celebrated). Wonderful hosts for Sukkot meals, Shiner in the sukkah (the one time when it’s a mitzvah to simply drink beer--man, I love G-d!), the Sukkah-hop which took us to eight neighborhood sukkot (and had me direct a herd of Members of the Tribe crossing bustling Hillcrest).
-The significant amount of Hebrew I heard (and joined in on) at our local kosher restaurants, and at the Dallas Jewish Film Fest for the fantastic Israeli flick, “A Matter of Size.”
-Watching so much great stuff with Dad--Gershwin biopic “Rhapsody in Blue,” finally seeing “West Side Story,” a great PBS documentary on Jerusalem, a fantastic Fred Hersch documentary, and footage of Ray Charles’ performance in Israel and tour of the country (including a meeting with David Ben-Gurion) shortly before the Yom Kippur War.
-Enjoying with Dad the sublime new Kurt Elling tribute album to John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman--one of our all-time favorite albums rejuvenated by one of our favorite tandems of singer Elling with his pianist and arranger Laurence Hobgood. Oh and of course our old favs such as Mel Lewis-Thad Jones' Central Park North.
-Just sitting back and witnessing the musical genius that is my dad.
Listening to his high school performances and feeling his excitement leading up to the 50th Woodward High reunion this weekend in Cincinnati.
-Catching the fascinating exhibit on Mayan connections to the sea at Fort Worth’s Kimbell Museum.
-Listening to the audio tape of my bris (!) and hearing my sis (age 3 then) say she loved me, as well as a lost track Dad composed for me, which happens to be a fantastic tune!
-Sitting in on several of Dad’s doctor appointments and getting an even better sense of the incredible angels taking care of him and guiding him to recovery.
-Standing next to Dad as the scale finally told him he was gaining some weight back (those 300-calorie servings of Cincinnati’s own Graeter’s ice cream are finally doing the trick).

And now I’m back uncling away in Connecticut for another long weekend before heading back home to Jerusalem early next week.

To catch up on old news, Eilat’s annual Red Sea Jazz Festival cemented its position at the top of my jazz fests list. I had another spiritual moment at Danilo Perez’s show. He fed heavy doses of his infectious energy to his trio, as well as the crowd, and afterwards this pure spirit got on the phone with Dad to wish him a quick and complete recovery (they had met in Dallas in the spring when Dad mentioned that a line from Rhapsody in Blue in Perez’s version of Bright Mississippi sounded awfully familiar). Gary Burton and Jeff “Tain” Watts’ groups killed, and the choir of Chicago at-risk youth, “Soul Children of Chicago” uplifted the crowd like something you’ve never seen before. Then a finale of fest artistic director Avishai Cohen jamming with Danilo (just as when I was first introduced to both with Dad at the 1997 International Association of Jazz Educators convention in Chicago) at the jam session (that went til sunrise) was the absolutely perfect bookend for the perfect festival at the stunning setting in Israel’s port city.

To catch up on politics, here’s a barrage of overdue links:
Barry Rubin on the prospects of a two-state solution. The mother of Sbarro massacre victim Malki Roth writes an impassioned plea to Israel to take the pressure off of Netanyahu to remove Hamas prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit. Here's friend Elana Kieffer on the 210 humanitarian aid trucks that entered the Gaza Strip from Israel one Sunday. Here's an interesting Arab look into the Palestinian street's resentment of the PA. David Horovitz urges Israel not to underestimate our enemies here. Here's some great news on strengthening U.S.-Israel military ties.

Here's a great George Will editorial on my Prime Minister Netanyahu's nationalism in a post-nationalist world, another censuring those who urge us to take "risks for peace", plus another on the mirage of the peace process.

Dershowitz says it well here as to the challenges of achieving a peace deal with the Palestinians. Here's Rubin again, on the "Blame Israel" phenomenon.

During my visit, Time managed to add themselves to the “dead to me” list for their pernicious, misleading magazine cover, an article which among other heavier faults depicted the life-blood of my existence, Jerusalem on Shabbat, as a mausoleum, is now off the team. Hats off to Ambassador to the US Michael Oren and David Horovitz for eloquently expressing my sentiments (links to come).

In Israeli music news, a summer of many stellar concerts included this phenomenal Gidi Gov duet with Rona Kinon
“הריקוד המוזר של הלב”

On the way to hear incredible song-writer and one of the torch-bearers of the young generation of Israeli rock, Aviv Geffen, I heard the legendary Jethro Tull. Unbelievable city I live in. Here's "Keren Or" by Achinoam Nini.ומידע אליה בויקיבדיה. Here's a really cool piece about the inclusion of religious texts into Israeli music.

And here's an interesting piece on gerontology demographics and the compounding effects of the economic slowdown

Um, can't say I've run across GloZell until I saw this, but my goodness she and SK are a riot here as they prepare for their maiden voyage to a synagogue.

With that, I wish a festive Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, and a year imbued with Torah learning and values (if that's what you're into, of course)! Much love,
Eric/אריק

Almost there!

I just have to wrap up a paper here to close out spring semester at Ben-Gurion University. Doesn't feel much like spring here in the baking oven that is Israel in August. I made it through exams in one piece. Room for improvement? Absolutely. But I'm feeling incredible to have these doozies: epidemiology, budget management & planning, & pathophysiology-all in Hebrew-in my rearview mirror.

I'll have to throw a bunch of links for your reading pleasure (ok, maybe most of this isn't the most leisurely reading), and then get back to work...
I'll start with friend Elana Kieffer's article on behalf of the Israel Defense Forces' Spokesperson's Unit about last week's Lebanese attack across our northern border, killing one soldier and seriously wounding another. This Jerusalem Post editorial urges a new approach to Lebanon from the US. I'd urge as I regularly do that you follow AIPAC's latest action items. Barry Rubin answers who's to blame for conflict in the Middle East. Here's a column about Shimon Peres versus the Brits. You probably see all about Israel oppressing Palestinians if you read, say, the New York Times. Less likely that you've seen measures that the Palestinian Authority’s security forces are taking against those connected to Hamas. I did find this Times op-ed enlightening on Arab views towards the Palestinians. Also interesting are a David Horovitz interview with deputy defense minister Matan Vilna’i and this Wall Street Journal piece on changing Arab-Israeli relations.

In lighter news, it's always fun watching coverage of the latest Nefesh B'Nefesh flight full of new olim to Israel. And if you managed to miss clown Amare Stoudemire's interview on an Israeli sports channel, and feel like a laugh, check it out. Interesting that he hasn't had his bat mitzvah yet.

I'm afraid the only thing I'll be writing for now is that essay. See you back here after I get that bad boy off the to-do list. For now, let's go Texas Rangers!

שבוע טוב, וחודש טוב,
אריק/Eric