Dorothea Shefer-Vanson Archives - Page 17 of 38

30- year- old Holocaust research still relevant today

July 5, 2019

The Journey Back From Hell: Conversations with Concentration Camp Survivors by Anton Gill, Grafton Books, 1988. By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Although published thirty years ago, this book is at least as relevant today as it was when it first appeared. As the survivors of concentration camps grow old and die it is […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History

Arabs’ straight line to nothing

June 27, 2019

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — It pains me to write this, but there seems to be a straight line between the rejection of the UN Partition Plan by the Arab countries in 1947 and the Palestinian Authority’s current refusal to attend the Bahrain workshop arranged by the USA in an attempt to move

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, USA

Cell phones cause whingeing at concert venues

June 15, 2019

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — One of the Facebook groups I belong to is called ‘Brits Whingeing in Israel’ (motto: ‘Lose some, whinge some’), having split off from ‘Brits Laughing in Israel,’ which in turn split off from ‘Brits Living in Israel.’ The politics behind the various groups and sub-groups is not clear

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Why Israelis must endure a new election

May 31, 2019

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Oh botheration. ‘Ere we go again, as the earwig said as it fell off the rim of the jar. The midnight hour struck last night and no fairy godmother appeared to turn the pumpkin into a carriage. So we poor benighted citizens of Israel face another two-and-a-half months

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East

Play review: ‘My Ex- Step- Mother- in- Law’

May 22, 2019

By Dorothea shefer-Vanson JERUSALEM — Actually, the one-woman show of the above title that I saw last week has very little to do with the subject of the title, namely, mothers-in-law. I am one such, and even an ex-one in one case, but not a step one, or not yet, at least (and I hope never).

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

An opera about Auschwitz!?

May 8, 2019

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson JERUSALEM — I was one of the brave souls who attended a performance of the opera, The Passenger’ by Mieczyslaw Weinberg. I did so mainly because a friend of ours was the revival director of the production by the Israel Opera, and not because I’m a “glutton for punishment,” as I have

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Book Review: ‘Asylum’

May 1, 2019

Asylum by Moriz Scheyer (Translated by P.N. Singer); Little, Brown and Company, 2016 By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Written at the time of the actual events, this powerful book starts by describing the atmosphere in Vienna before the Anschluss by Nazi Germany, followed by the author’s flight, together with his wife and non-Jewish housekeeper, who

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History

Has Spring finally sprung in Israel?

April 25, 2019

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — After blowing hot, then cold, then hot, then cold again, the weather in Israel seems finally to have settled down to the appropriate behavior for this time of the year. Yes, I know that for a while last week it was warmer and sunnier in London than here,

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East

Israelis abroad: Glimpses of the USA

April 24, 2019

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Six weeks, eleven flights, six states, one one-week cruise and four countries (in addition to the USA). That is feeble compared with the Beatles’ tour of the USA in 1965 (twenty-five cities in thirty days), but they were much younger than we were (and probably flew first class).

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Travel and Food, USA

A challenge to the ‘cabal’ that runs Israel

March 27, 2019

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson JERUSALEM — Israel is due to hold a general election on April 9th, and polls are indicating that there might be a chance that Bibi Netanyahu and the Likud will not be forming the next government. I’ll probably be annoying a few readers by saying that it’s high time that Israel saw a

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East

Hassadna teaches music to all classes of Israelis

March 15, 2019

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson JERUSALEM — I was privileged to attend a concert in a private home given by young musicians who are students at Jerusalem’s Hassadna Music Conservatory. Together with the rest of the audience, I was greatly impressed by their professional standard and aplomb. Some of the musicians were of Ethiopian background and displayed

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Academic sightseeing in the Galilee

March 8, 2019

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel –An acquaintance connected with the UK’s UIJA (United Israel Jewish Appeal) suggested that I write an article about the Western Galilee College for the AJR Journal (Association of Jewish Refugees), for which I write a monthly column entitled ‘Letter from Israel.’ The college, situated just outside the ancient city

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, Travel and Food

Recalling the friends of our childhood

February 21, 2019

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Elena Ferrante’s novels about her childhood in a run-down Naples neighbourhood and her life subsequently focus to a great extent on her friendship with Lina, a.k.a. Lila, the girl who dominated her life as a child and to some extent as an adult, too. The character of Lina

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Middle East

The Second Generation Syndrome

February 7, 2019

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Growing up in postwar London I never heard the term ‘Second Generation,’ nor was I aware of it until many years later. In Israel at some point in the 1960s or 1970s there was a discussion, possibly even an argument, as to whether people who had fled Europe before,

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish History

30- year- old Holocaust research still relevant today

Arabs’ straight line to nothing

Cell phones cause whingeing at concert venues

Why Israelis must endure a new election

Play review: ‘My Ex- Step- Mother- in- Law’

An opera about Auschwitz!?

Book Review: ‘Asylum’

Has Spring finally sprung in Israel?

Israelis abroad: Glimpses of the USA

A challenge to the ‘cabal’ that runs Israel

Hassadna teaches music to all classes of Israelis

Academic sightseeing in the Galilee

Recalling the friends of our childhood

The Second Generation Syndrome

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