New Book Trailer: I is for Israel - An ABC of Peace

I wrote a new book about Israel!  It’s a little different from some of what I’ve written before – it’s a rhyming book about peace and coexistence called I is for Israel, which I wrote in response to a book that just came to my attention recently called P is for Palestine.  Rest assured – my book is better. :-)

I invite you to watch (and maybe even like!) this trailer:

I kind of vowed that this trailer would be one of the first things I’d get around to doing once the wedding was over and done with.  To find out more about the amazing process of creating this book, please see this post on my other blog.

Or – just check out the book itself!

Tzivia / צִיבְיָה

Free (sometimes-) weekly aliyah tips and more:

And now for something (a little) different…

One reasons I haven’t been blogging so much lately is that I went back to school last year to finally start working my way towards a master’s degree.  This winter, I did a course in Creative Nonfiction, and for the final project, I was supposed to write a narrative essay informed by the techniques of creative nonfiction, as a genre, as well as by graduate-level research into a subject of interest.

So I thought: “What could be more interesting than Israel?”  Obviously!

I have been sharing some thoughts here all along about the idea of politics, and what it means to get political when it comes to the situation here on the ground, and I figured I’d pull it all together into a sort of story of a nice Canadian who is reluctant to deal with politics but who has been forced to due to living in Israel.

If you’ve been reading here for a while, you’ll know that politics is not what I do naturally, or best. 

So much so, perhaps, that when I tried to write a serious post on Palestinian identity, one person nastily took it upon him/herself (I’m guessing HIMSELF, for some reason) to comment, “Better to stick with tips on a successful Aliyah than playing the political game.” 

Like I said,

Things that are weird in Israel #16: Book covers

Maybe it’s just me?  Or maybe you’ve wondered about this, too?

Read on and let me know in the comments.

I’ll start by saying I love a great book cover.  It’s almost the most important part of the book. 

Sure, we’d all like to think we don’t judge books by their covers, but really… we do.  Of course, the inside is MOST important, but you’re never going to get to the inside if the outside is lousy.

Am I right?

Which is why book covers in this country continue to perplex me.  Astonish me.  Surprise me with the depths of terribleness to which they are allowed to sink.

To give you a sense of how awful things are, here is a fairly random sampling of some books in translation, so you can compare them to their English equivalents.

Haveil Havalim, the Yikes-it’s-Yitro (Yisro) Edition

Parshas Yisro (Parashat Yitro) already???  Know what that means? 

Yes, the firecrackers going off every 15 minutes in our neighbourhood tell us that even though Tu b’Shvat is just over, the Purim train is on its way… with the inevitable “caboose” that is Pesach. 

(Love the Israel quote up above?  Find it and 8 other mind-blowing quotes about Israel here.)

What is HH?

It’s a weekly roundup of what’s new and great in the Jewish / Israel blogging world.  I host once a month to give you a taste of what other great blogs are out there that you might enjoy.  Hopefully, you’ll find some new favourites.

• Last week’s was hosted by Batya at Shiloh Musings 
• Next week’s carnival host is Paula, at A Soldier’s Mother.
• For more details, a complete schedule of future issues or to host an upcoming issue, please join the HH facebook group.

Don’t forget – the point of social media is… SOCIAL (huh?  really??).  Stop by and visit some of the blogs listed here.  Leave a comment to let them know you came from HH!

This week’s roundup is kind of rabbi-heavy and a little on the eclectic side… but all Jewish.  Just the way I like it!

Jewish Food & Books

Yes, there’s a Kosher Cooking Carnival (KCC) coming up in Adar (and I’m hosting it over at my Adventures in Breadland site), but just in case you’re hankering in the meantime…

Gift ideas for friends and family in Israel? Look no further!

How dumb is this post topic?  Who writes about gift-giving in January?

Right.  Yay!  Can you see my hand up, waving proudly, from all the way over here?

If I was a better, smarter blogger, more interested in dollar signs (and shekel symbols), I would have posted this in December.  Hmm… guess not.

And I could save it for December 2015, but really…?  The way my brain works, it’ll never happen if I put it off.

Anyway, I’m reminded of gifts today because our winter-holiday-seasonal gift arrived from Akiva’s sister in Canada. 

She mailed it on November 24th, and today it is January 27, so that’s a little over 2 months.  And I’m not saying what it cost to mail.  We’ll open it when the kids are home from school, and I can’t wait to see what’s inside.

So that’s one kind of gift.  Don’t get me wrong.  One of the highlights of living here is GETTING STUFF.  I love receiving packages.  Our local post office knows us well and I’m sure they have our number on speed-dial.

But there are other ways to send something special that feel just as “gifty” without breaking the bank on postage charges.

Giving or getting gifts to and from Israel can be a huge challenge, which calls for a little creativity.

Try an “intangible” gift that won’t take up space

If you’re in Israel and want to send gifts back to North America… (if you’re sending the other way, read on anyway)

Instead of buying something bulky and overpriced in Israel and paying more than you spent on the gift to ship it to North America or Europe, think about "intangibles" you can buy and ship for nearly free.

Some good ideas: