“Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God,” wrote Kurt Vonnegut, who went to my alma mater, where he behaved considerably worse than I did. I took a peculiar travel suggestion last Sunday—to spend a week of hiking and community service at Livnot U’Lehibanot, “To Build and Be Built,” a Tzfat-based NGO that seeks to […]
Monthly archives for July, 2015
Tzfat Kabbalat Shabbat
According to Jewish tradition, there are four holy cities, each corresponding to one of the elements with which God created the universe. Jerusalem is fire—the spark at the center of the world. Hebron is earth—the burial place of our ancestors. Tiberias, on the Kinneret, is water—the final convening point of the Sanhedrin. And Tzfat, in […]
Skinny Dipping in Caesarea
Caesarea, like much of the Israel of old, was built by King Herod, who—despite being barely Jewish, was appointed King of the Jews by the Romans in 37 BCE. As his way of saying thanks, Herod ordered the construction of the port of Caesarea over the Phoenician town of Strato’s Tower on the Mediterranean coast. […]
Learning Hebrew in Haifa
I spent the past few days Couchsurfing in Haifa. My original plan was to crash by a couple of nudists who live in the German Colony beneath the Bahá’í Gardens, but they’re having their house redone, so instead I’m staying with a New York-born Israeli and his bodyguard girlfriend. We’re not all getting naked together, […]
Old in Tel Aviv, Young in Jaffa
A lot of people (Israelis especially) hate on Tel Aviv, and I guess you can’t really blame them. It’s the beach party, the most modern, international city in a country where history and tradition are tremendously important to the national identity. I was in Tel Aviv last Thursday for Laila Lavan, the annual White Night […]