Leora asked a number of Israeli bloggers – including yours truly – to share some thoughts on Tu B’Shvat. Here’s what I came up with: Growing up in the States, Tu B’Shvat was simply a day to eat (or, more likely, NOT to eat… Read More »

TSG had to write a position paper for school on the pros and cons of belonging to a youth group (i.e. a tnu’at no’ar , for the Hebraically-oriented amongst you ). She graciously offered to translate it into English so that I could post it here on Our Shiputzim. Read More »

Just about two years ago, I blogged about the fact that Israeli high school seniors have almost no classes during the second half of the school year, and I noted that, ironically, a certain then-senior spent a weekday afternoon watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off . Read More »

Reason #3122 for making aliyah: While addressing the Knesset plenum, MK Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Minister of Environmental Protection, directed his remarks to one of the Arab MKs and quoted the beautiful and well-known first Rashi on the Torah: Hat tip: Rafi G. Read More »

Over the weekend, SZ shared the following story and graciously agreed to let me post it here on Our Shiputzim: The custom in SZ’s company – as is the case in many Israeli workplaces – is that when one has a birthday, one bakes or buys a birthday cake for one’s colleagues. Read More »

As some of you know, we spent this past Shabbat in the beautiful northern Shomron. Special thanks to our special hosts – longtime Our Shiputzim readers – for their incredible hospitality! We really had a great time! On the way there, we ran into some Read More »

Reason #7112 for making aliyah: Starting today (Rosh Chodesh Shvat 5772 ), there will be a daily minyan for Minchah – 15 minutes before sh’kiyah (sunset ) – at every gas station along Kvish 6 (the Trans-Israel Highway ). For more information about this great initiative, do a search for “תפילה בשש” on Facebook. !חודש טוב ומבורך P.S. Read More »

The Our Shiputzim Editorial Board proudly presents: The Top 10 Ways You Know Your Klitah * Is Complete (10) Your American relatives mention that their kids’ school has a strictly-enforced “no-nit policy,” and you assume they must be joking. Read More »

Last year, in honor of Parshat Shmot, I posted Shimi Tavori’s classic song “ Moshe ” – winner of the Mizrachi Song Festival and an old family favorite. Read More »

In general, I try to hold on to the few remaining shreds of my semi-anonymous status. But nevertheless, once in a while, I’ve willingly divulged a number of personal details. Read More »

Several items of note from around the J-Blogosphere: 1) Both Ruti and Treppenwitz have fair, balanced, and levelheaded takes on the issue of religious soldiers being forced to listen to women singing in the IDF. 2) Jameel shares a fascinating historical find . Read More »

It’s a fast day today (there’s about twenty minutes left to go, but who’s counting… ), and you know what that means. That’s right! It means that it’s time for a food-related post – especially since I just realized that I never got around to posting the menu from the bar mitzvah . Read More »

The entire editorial board and writing staff extend a very special mazal tov to our military advisor and wind turbine expert, Be All You Can Be, who recently visited his 47th US state and thus now holds the official Our Shiputzim record for Greatest Read More »

“ Let me guess. When you blog about this place, the post will begin: ‘Admittedly, it wasn’t a national park , but we had a very nice time anyway.’ Yes? ” YCT (who’s always been like a brother to me ) asked rhetorically. Read More »

We interrupt your completely unscheduled blog hiatus to bring you the following post. ===== Seeing as tonight is Zot Chanukah – i.e. the last night of Chanukah – I figured I should first share some Chanukah pictures before posting more about the bar mitzvah . Read More »

I’m not really back to blogging yet, but I wanted to quickly touch base in order to thank you for all the wonderful comments and emails about the bar mitzvah and to wish you a happy Chanukah! B”H, the bar mitzvah weekend was beautiful; we all had a great time; and the bar mitzvah boy did an amazing job BA”H. Read More »

I first posted the following song back in August, in honor of our family’s aliyah bar mitzvah . As you may recall , it features one of the Shiputzim kids (but not the current bar mitzvah boy ), who recorded the song for his/her grandparents in the States about a year or so after we made aliyah. Read More »

Seeing as the entire Our Shiputzim writing staff is off preparing for the upcoming bar mitzvah IY”H, I figured I’d share a handful of posts which you may have missed the first time around: Misplaced optimism – Which answers the age-old question: What Read More »

{ cue: TV announcer voice } The challenge: Help your daughter build a model of the Mizbei’ach (the Altar in the Mishkan/Beit HaMikdash ) for school, when: The teacher only gave the class three days to complete the assignment. You are IY”H making a bar mitzvah in less than two weeks. Read More »

Several items of interest from around the J-Blogosphere: 1) Rabbi Stewart Weiss shares his thoughts after his recent visit to Prague . 2) A Mother in Israel has an amusing list of Hebrew bloopers made by new (and not so new! ) olim. Read More »