Devorah Blachor
In 2002, I covered the Aqsa Intifada for the New York Daily News. The Israeli-Palestinian “Peace Process” was in ruins, and it was a bleak and heartbreaking story. Already saddled with the lugubrious genes of a bitter, negative Polish-Jewish grandmother, the despair and the bloodshed worked on me until I fell into a familiar pattern […]
On July 4, 2000, Lou Reed played a concert at the Cinerama in Tel Aviv. I was living in Jerusalem and there was no doubt that I’d go. Lou Reed brought me back to the time when I defined myself by music. As a teenager I liked alternative music, therefore I was alternative. I didn’t […]
A few weeks ago my son Cai was playing soccer with another boy, who I’ll call Peter. More than a year younger than Cai and considerably shorter, Peter turned out to have a ferocious competitive streak not yet tempered by the “winning doesn’t matter” ethos. He was bossy and shouted frequently, and finally Cai shrugged […]
When I was pregnant with my second child, my husband and I told our 3-year-old son, Cai, that he could name the baby. This would help him feel like an important family member before his universe collapsed. “O.K.,” Cai said. “Her name is Mary.” No, it’s not, I thought. I wasn’t worried. I knew that […]
Don’t compare yourself to others. Let go of striving and accept the world as it is, not as you’d like it to be. Practice humility and gratitude. Forty-three years, and this is the Buddhist wisdom I’ve learned to embrace, the foundation on which my inner peace rests. Until I got my son’s first report card. […]
At a recent kids-included party in Jerusalem, I spent much of the time either on the floor with my daughter Mari or trailing her around to make sure she didn’t eat anything toxic. A successful American journalist living here chatted with me for a few minutes, and as I left her to intercept my daughter […]