I just dropped my son Avraham off at the main entrance to our community.  He groaned when he saw the crowds standing near the guard booth, knowing he had a wait ahead of him for a ride.  He was on his way back up north to his  Israeli yeshiva program combining military service with Torah […]

  I’m not complaining.  I’m happy that my children are busy with day camps, National service, schoolwork and part time jobs, but I’m frustrated.  I have not found one day this summer that everyone is available for a family vacation.  My husband Kuti and I finally decided this past Thursday that everyone will make themselves […]

I was sitting at work in the CFOIC Heartland office a few weeks ago, when I heard the rumbling of thunder.  Within seconds it started raining.  I grabbed my car keys and ran out to get home, a minute drive away, to pull in my freshly laundered clothing, hanging on the line.  Only minutes later, […]

    Sarah loves a stage and the stage loves Sarah. I can’t imagine a situation where there’s an available microphone in the vicinity and Sarah’s not reaching for it!  And it doesn’t matter how large or intimate the setting is.  Our Karnei Shomron Cultural Center arranges parties, performances and activities for the community at […]

She always looks just right with her perfect poise, her slim figure, her coordinated hat, shoes and clothing.  She walks into our synagogue, her almost regal stature tempered by her warm smile and that special sparkle in the eye, as she greets everyone. Truth is, even when she’s dressed in a denim skirt and a […]

Up until 20 years ago, I lived in America, a country which preaches, rigorously, a separation of church and state.  Prayers are kept out of public school classrooms and synagogues and religious education are funded privately, by those who are interested… those who find these things important. When I moved to Israel, one of the […]

It was a little difficult to write about Celia Ulanovsky.  I knew her as a neighbor—as a lovely, modest, always pleasant, incredibly kind woman. But when I spoke to her, to get a bit of background, a little more of who she was, I was met with “Oh, there’s really nothing to say about me. Me? I […]

I will always associate my neighbor Alex with my move to Israel. Twenty years ago, I arrived in Karnei Shomron with my husband and four daughters, ages 9 months to 7 years old. We asked around for extra curricular activities which would appeal to the girls and signed them up for gymnastics. We showed up […]

  I spoke to Nomi Teplow the other night and it gave me a little twinge in my heart when I realized it was Sunday night and the women’s choir was assembling in her living room.  And I wasn’t there…  The past two years I stopped going to choir practice when life got a little […]

  My friend and neighbor, Lenny, is back at work this week after taking off for the week-long Passover holiday.  Lenny is the creator, owner, manager and chief baker for his bakery, here in Karnei Shomron, and Passover, with its strict and inherent prohibitions against eating leavened bread, gives him a forced vacation!  But during […]