On July 24, my 19th birthday, I will make aliyah. Whatever kind of teenager you picture when you hear that sentence, it’s probably not me. I grew up in a…
“Are you an American Jew, or a Jewish American?” The teacher’s question, posed to Marty Friedman 33 years ago on a teen trip to Israel, totally threw him.…
Sticky arms and face from three popsicles too many. Dirty feet from running around barefoot in orange orchards. Hair wild from dipping in and out of the…
I was raised in a New York labor union Jewish family, and from my childhood through my teens my parents sent me to a commie Quaker camp, so I missed out…
This past summer, in the South Hebron Hills, a girl called down to me from the gnarled branches of a tree and knocked me in the head with a ripe, fuzzy…
When our tour guide Gadi rolled down the window and addressed the security guard as “achi” — “my brother” — I was surprised that he just happened to have…