A Very Obama Passover

Posted on: March 26th, 2013

Ever since his first campaign for President, President Obama has been running a Passover Seder, in which he celebrates the holiday of the Israel’s freedom, along with staff members and their families. Along with the Seder, President Obama released this official statement:   Statement from the President on Passover As we prepare for our fifth [...]

Passover, 1910

Posted on: March 25th, 2013

This picture was taken either during the Popkin family Seder in Duluth, in 1910, or right before the holiday. It’s difficult to imagine someone just snapping a photograph at the seder back then, because it probably required a very large apparatus, as well as a strong source of light, which probably didn’t go well with [...]

Floating Might

Posted on: March 24th, 2013

This is the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, USS George H.W. Bush, performing maritime support operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility, the Mediterranean Sea. It can deliver American power to any corner of the world within days. It is the power behind the speeches President Barack Obama delivered [...]

Arctic Obama

Posted on: March 22nd, 2013

Green Peace activists climbed the Chords Bridge at the entrance to Jerusalem, March 21, 2013, to hang a banner saying “Obama Stop Arctic drilling,” just as the U.S. President’s entourage was entering the city. Police arrested eight Green Peace activists who chained themselves to the same bridge, demanding Obama halt exploratory drilling in the Arctic. [...]

Copycat

Posted on: March 21st, 2013

Walking on the tarmac Wednesday afternoon, President Barack Obama took of his jacket and wore it, businessman style, over his shoulder. So, moments later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also took off his jacket and carried it businessman style. For a couple of minutes it was clear that Bibi was taken aback by his guest’s wardrobe [...]

Dry Run

Posted on: March 20th, 2013

These Israeli children are practicing their enthusiastic and totally spontaneous waving of Israeli and American in a rehearsal outside the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, March 19, 2013, a day ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit. And now, a song from my favorite recording artist, Mr. Randy Newman. Mr. President have pity on the working man [...]

The Race for Jerusalem

Posted on: March 19th, 2013

Here are Formula One Scuderia Ferrari team driver Giancarlo Fisichella (L) and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, toasting the launch of “Jerusalem Formula The Peace Road Show” in front of Jerusalem’s old city walls. The Formula One race in Jerusalem will take place on June 13-14, 2013. Here’s the press release: Jerusalem adds another feather in [...]

Israel’s Future Beauty Queen

Posted on: March 18th, 2013

This little girl is gorgeous beyond words. Can’t you just hear the pageant bells?

The Shtreimel Maker

Posted on: March 17th, 2013

Here’s a Haredi artisan peeking through the hole in a shtreimel he is cobbling in the small Grenzberg Shtreimel factory in the Mea Shearim neighborhood, March13, 2013. A shtreimel (pl. = shtreimelach) is a fur hat worn by many married Hasidic men on Shabbat, Jewish holidays and other festive occasions. In Jerusalem, the shtreimel is [...]

Iraqi Passover

Posted on: March 15th, 2013

U.S. Army Spc. Brian Lankin fills Capt. Richard Tachett’s glass with wine during a Passover Seder at the Freedom Rest at Contingency Operating Base Speicher, Iraq, March 19, 2010. Probably the first Seder being observed in Iraq in decades.

All in a Day’s Work

Posted on: March 14th, 2013

We caught this picture on the Life in Israel blog. According to them, two days before Rabbi Menachem Fromman’s death, MK Ruth Calderon (Yesh Atid) went to visit him in Tekoa. Rabbi Fromman was unconscious, so she said her good-byes, then rolled up her sleeves and went to work in the kitchen. She spent the [...]

Going Presidential

Posted on: March 13th, 2013

Here’s a Jerusalem municipality worker hanging an American flag near the Israeli President’s residence, in preparation for the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama, starting on March 20. It’s been rumored that, should Obama not bring a freed Jonathan Pollard with him on Airforce One, Jerusalemites will leave town on the 19th, leaving the visitors [...]

Chutzpah Time

Posted on: March 12th, 2013

The Israelites were ordered to get a lamb, each one of them, as God put it, speaking to Moses: Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a [...]

No Govt Is Good Govt?

Posted on: March 11th, 2013

Here’s the leader of the Jewish Home party Naftali Bennett, arriving at a meeting with Yair Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid party and most likely Israel’s next prime minister unless he messes up real bad, and Israel’s current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the latter’s office in Jerusalem, March 10, 2013. The meeting lasted [...]

Segways around Jerusalem

Posted on: March 10th, 2013

Love a good Segway picture. These tourists rode their Segways by the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, March 07, 2013. Here’s what Segwayz The Green Tour had to tell potential customers: We invite you to ride with us and watch the sun set over the Armon Hanatziv Promenade, or rise above Mount Zion [...]

Woman Behind Wheel

Posted on: March 8th, 2013

This image is titled “Women and Children on an Outing.” It depicts “A group of women and children, notable for the fact that there is a woman in the driver’s seat.” It was taken in or around 1919, by someone Jewish in St. Paul, Minnesota. Everybody in the picture is, presumably, Jewish. And, since most [...]

Locust in Israel – Delicious!

Posted on: March 6th, 2013

Here’s a a farmer displaying a captured locust in a farm outside Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, March 5, 2013. Gaza officials said the locusts had not hit Gaza in several decades. In the Negev, on Israel’s side of the border, on Wednesday morning aircraft will begin spraying the areas where swarms of [...]

Five Years Ago

Posted on: March 5th, 2013

On July 22, 2008, then U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., greeted a tribal sheikh in Ramadi, Iraq. Hagel was part of a congressional delegate visit with then Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Senator Jack Reed, D-R.I. Funny how things work out. Today defense secretary Hagel serves in President Obama’s cabinet. Jack Reed is still in [...]

On Trusting the President

Posted on: March 4th, 2013

The caption below this image on the White House website reads: President Barack Obama talks on the phone with President Vladimir Putin of Russia in the Oval Office, March 1, 2013. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken listen at right. The question is, of course, how do we know [...]

Jerusalem of Ice

Posted on: March 3rd, 2013

From March 3rd through April 4th, Jerusalem’s Old Train Station compound is set to unveil a frosty version of the Holy City dubbed “Ice City,” under the framework of the first-ever Jerusalem International Ice Festival. The festival grounds include an ice bar, an acrobatics show, ice models of Jerusalem landmarks – from the Tower of [...]