Jerusalem Walking Tour (Along part of the 1948 armistice line)

Posted on: September 28th, 2012

For 19 years Yerushalayim was a city divided, cut in two by the 1948 armistice line. After Israel’s War of Independence on November 30, 1948, at the time of the official cease-fire, Moshe Dayan sat with Abdallah Tell and UN mediators, slicing up Yerushalayim. Using a map scaled at 1:20,000, each side used a different coloured wax pen to delineate the furthest point under its control. Israel drew a red line and Jordan a green line. This is the origin of the phrase used to describe land that is “behind the green line.”

Wadie Chaverim

Posted on: August 23rd, 2012

Israel’s Negev Desert is majestic. Covering more than half of Israel’s total land area, it is bustling with rugged beauty. With its different formations and colors, its stark physical beauty is outstanding, making it a captivating and enchanting place.

Orient Impressions: China

Posted on: August 10th, 2012

China assaults the senses with a cacophony of sounds and colorful sights amid its teeming masses. As we arrived for a month’s trip in October the noxious smog of vehicle-packed Beijing assailed our nostrils. But the past still dwells in the shadows of the modernized capital. At dusk a row of elderly stooped men shuffled along the road beneath our apartment in Mao-style uniforms. We would see the same gray men plodding by in the morning.

Machtesh Ramon

Posted on: July 23rd, 2012

Machtesh Ramon is considered by some to be the most exquisite site on the planet. Located south of Beersheba in the Central Negev, not only is Machtesh Ramon the most spectacular geological sight in Eretz Yisrael, it contains within it some unique geological formations that are not found anywhere else on earth.

Where To Go – Summer Guide

Posted on: June 27th, 2012

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The Negev

Posted on: June 18th, 2012

When contemplating the Negev, one must set aside any preconcieved notion of what a desert is. In Eretz Yisrael there are no rolling yellow sand dunes in softly rising and falling landscapes as unbroken as the sea. Far from being a simple expanse of sand, the Negev is marked by a mélange of cliffs, crags, boulders and dry river vadies. Where the Judean Desert ends, the Negev begins, an impressive region of low sandstone hills, rocky peaks (for example the high plateau area of Ramat HaNegev - The Negev Heights - stands between 370 meters and 520 meters), and plains rutted with narrow canyons. The Negev Desert is mesmerizing, beautiful and rich in geological history.

Purim In Hong Kong

Posted on: March 23rd, 2012

A traditional Purim in Hong Kong requires an obligatory visit to Pottinger Street in the bustling Central District. Also known locally as Stone Step Street, Pottinger Street is more of a steep, irregularly paved pedestrian stone path (with steps too small for Western feet) than a street. My children run ahead up the stone slabs as I carefully balance my size nine feet on the thin, uneven stairs. My five year old stumbles but quickly recovers and catches up to the big kids.

Two Israeli Hotels Make Conde Nast Top 10

Posted on: December 7th, 2011

Two Jerusalem hotels have been ranked among travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler as among the best 10 in the Middle East.

King David Hotel Named One of World’s Top 100

Posted on: December 6th, 2011

Jerusalem’s historic King David Hotel is being called one of the top 12 “iconic hotels” and one of the world’s best 100 by Fodor’s.

Kutshers And The New Kosher Catskills

Posted on: May 5th, 2010

For Yossi Zablocki, Kutsher's was supposed to be there forever, as permanent as the mountains along Route 17. It was after all, for him and many others like him, much more than just a place to camp out for the summer and the holidays. It was an entire world - a brighter, greener, more tranquil world than the one he passed through each day as an attorney in lower Manhattan.