PerfectlyWritePoetry: Why Islam Cannot Be Modernised

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Why Islam Cannot Be Modernised: Amid warnings that the fall of Aleppo may be just the start of “a bloodier phase” in Syria’s continuing civil war, I’d like to take time o...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Why Islam Cannot Be Modernised

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Why Islam Cannot Be Modernised: Amid warnings that the fall of Aleppo may be just the start of “a bloodier phase” in Syria’s continuing civil war, I’d like to take time o...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Being Alone –Together!

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Being Alone –Together!: Israeli President Reuven Rivlin was abroad when his predecessor Shimon Peres died. So  perhaps his visit and important speech to the Ukra...

Alwayswriteagain: Winter Arrives – a Week Too Late

Alwayswriteagain: Winter Arrives – a Week Too Late: Winter is beginning to make its presence felt in Israel. But only just and about seven days too late. If only the  hard blistrering winds...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: As Great Men Leave The World ….

PerfectlyWritePoetry: As Great Men Leave The World ….: Among the flood of tributes to the late Cuban leader, Fidel Castro has been one at The Guardian newspaper where historian Richard Gott no...

Alwayswriteagain: U. S. in the Shadow of Kennedy’s Glare

Alwayswriteagain: U. S. in the Shadow of Kennedy’s Glare: Everyone then alive remembers where they were – what they were doing – when US President  John Kennedy was murdered. It was a terrifying p...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: A Living Will

PerfectlyWritePoetry: A Living Will: This poem was first written as part of a  story and has been published in its present form by Mark Ulyseas of   L ive Encounters Magazine ...

Alwayswriteagain: What Will Larry and Kate Do Next?

Alwayswriteagain: What Will Larry and Kate Do Next?: South African-born software creator Daniel J Miller is not all he seems. So it’s no surprise that when he wears his other hat as writer, D...

Alwayswriteagain: One Woman’s Appeal for ‘No War, No More’

Alwayswriteagain: One Woman’s Appeal for ‘No War, No More’: On November 23 1956 the ancient Jewish community of Egypt was obliterated overnight. Thousands of people, many of whose families had hel...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: This Nobel Prize Is No Joke!

PerfectlyWritePoetry: This Nobel Prize Is No Joke!: As luck would have it,  I was reading an obituary of Italian Nobel literary laureate, Dario Fo when news broke about this year’s winner, Bo...

Alwayswriteagain: Sage Advice Needed Here

Alwayswriteagain: Sage Advice Needed Here: When we recall the story of the Vietnamese Boat People we tend to think of refugees who fled their war ravaged homeland and Communism to in...

Alwayswriteagain: Delayed British Government Report on "’Muslim-Only...

Alwayswriteagain: Delayed British Government Report on "’Muslim-Only...: The British Government has been accused of “allowing some areas [of the country] to operate as if they were Muslim-only zones." The Ho...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Celebrating ‘Jewtown’

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Celebrating ‘Jewtown’:   Just in time for the Jewish New Year I’ve received  a sweet gift of poetry celebrating the story of the once vibrant Jewish community of...

Alwayswriteagain: She Performs, She Prays …

Alwayswriteagain: She Performs, She Prays …:   There must be precious few secular  musicians  invited to lead synagogue prayers. But this happened last night  in Karmiel, Galilee whe...

Alwayswriteagain: 5777 כתיבה וחתימה טובה

Alwayswriteagain: 5777 כתיבה וחתימה טובה:   The first day of Rosh Hashana , the Jewish New Year, falls next week, Monday 03 October 2016. May everyone who is celebrating have a gr...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: On Rachel’s Birthday …

PerfectlyWritePoetry: On Rachel’s Birthday …: Israelis love their writers so much that many  are lauded as latter- day seers and saints. So it is with Rachel Bluwstein whose 126th birt...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: A Jewish Dadaist Without Borders

PerfectlyWritePoetry: A Jewish Dadaist Without Borders: Jacob Glatstein   ( Yankev Glatshteyn ) was one of the great figures of mid-20th century American Yiddish literature. I mention him now bec...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Disinheritance and Continuation

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Disinheritance and Continuation: In less than a month this past summer American writer John Sibley William s has become the father of twins and produced a new collection of...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: What Black Poets Know By Heart

PerfectlyWritePoetry: What Black Poets Know By Heart: A 20-year-old US black poet has won the prestigious ‘Most Promising Young Poet Award’ from the Academy of American Poets. Donte Collins sc...

Alwayswriteagain: Like Chalk – and Ashes?

Alwayswriteagain: Like Chalk – and Ashes?: An ageing, virginal spinster dies unexpectedly, leaving her dispirited suitor  to dine alone. An orphaned bull calf is reared on bottled mi...

Alwayswriteagain: From Monster to Mensch!

Alwayswriteagain: From Monster to Mensch!: Three days after his birth in July 1961,  American baby Howard Shulman developed a bacterial infection that devoured half his face.  But f...

Alwayswriteagain: Should Buyers Beware the Seven Pillars of Success?...

Alwayswriteagain: Should Buyers Beware the Seven Pillars of Success?...: “Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars.” (Proverbs, Chapter 9) The Art of Success   suggests James Melouney , rests ...

Alwayswriteagain: Walking Back To Happiness …!

Alwayswriteagain: Walking Back To Happiness …!: I’ve just spent about a week reading a self-help manual for moderate depression ** . I was about two-thirds of the way through when I dropp...

Alwayswriteagain: Ageing Crocs In Denial!

Alwayswriteagain: Ageing Crocs In Denial!: This week, as we await the release of the film about US historian Deborah E. Lipstadt 's courtroom battle with Holocaust denier, David I...

Alwayswriteagain: For Rainy, He Reigneth Every Day ..!

Alwayswriteagain: For Rainy, He Reigneth Every Day ..!: Like all brilliant ideas it was simple. Knowledge is power. So, mused journalist Mark Ulyseas , share it via an online cultural journal th...

Alwayswriteagain: Honour Bright: Does Ben Suffer from Stockholm Synd...

Alwayswriteagain: Honour Bright: Does Ben Suffer from Stockholm Synd...:   The text berlow is a direct quote from that first published on Youtube yesterday, Sunday 07 Aug 2016: My view is that the benighted Mr...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: A Sporting Chance for Brazil’s Finest Flower

PerfectlyWritePoetry: A Sporting Chance for Brazil’s Finest Flower:   Almost 30 years after his death, the modernist poet, Carlos Drummond de Andrade is still regarded as Brazil’s greatest writer of the 20th...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: A Sporting Chance for Brazil’s Finest Flower

PerfectlyWritePoetry: A Sporting Chance for Brazil’s Finest Flower:   Almost 30 years after his death, the modernist poet, Carlos Drummond de Andrade is still regarded as Brazil’s greatest writer of the 20th...

Alwayswriteagain: ‘They Tried to Kill Us. We Won. Let's Eat!’

Alwayswriteagain: ‘They Tried to Kill Us. We Won. Let's Eat!’: Remember how the Israeli secret agents in Steven Spielberg ’s Munich enjoy a huge nosh up before going out to catch their prey? In scene ...

Alwayswriteagain: From His Lips …!

Alwayswriteagain: From His Lips …!: Marsha Kolman introduces Yisrael Ne'eman at last night's packed ESRA Karmiel meeting. Mr Ne'eman, an Israel-based historian...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Yeats Saw This Coming

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Yeats Saw This Coming: Even former British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Lord Sa cks says the present worldwide political storm is like nothing he’s seen in his lifetime. ...

Alwayswriteagain: Plagiarism? It’s Plain Theft!

Alwayswriteagain: Plagiarism? It’s Plain Theft!: The Atlantic magazine is a hugely respected literary journal whose influence spreads throughout the English speaking and reading world. So...

Alwayswriteagain: Terrorism –Then and Now

Alwayswriteagain: Terrorism –Then and Now: It was Wednesday last week and I’d barely assimilated details of a terrorist attack from the 1970s when I was assaulted by a barrage of fre...

Alwayswriteagain: What a Lot of Bottle!

Alwayswriteagain: What a Lot of Bottle!: Take one enchanted evening. Line with unreasonably pretty surroundings at the Baron’s Gardens, Rosh Pina, Galilee. Pour in hundreds of w...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: The Right to Write in a Small, Still Voice

PerfectlyWritePoetry: The Right to Write in a Small, Still Voice: Charles Adès Fishman is a Pulitzer Prize nominated Jewish poet who lives in the United States. Smita Sahay, young enough to be his daughter...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: The DNA Election, 2016

PerfectlyWritePoetry: The DNA Election, 2016: With apologies to the Israeli poet, Zelda ( Shneurson Mishkowsky )       Everyone has a name for it. They imbibe it from their mum, ...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Few Bees; Many Bonnets!

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Few Bees; Many Bonnets!: Even as Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales was advising the world how to deliver Hamlet’s best known lines, I was reading an anthology of...

Alwayswriteagain: Yet Another Way to Leave Your Lover

Alwayswriteagain: Yet Another Way to Leave Your Lover: Fictional stories about domestic abuse always capture the public conscience. Why not? It happens so often in reality ,  imaginery versions s...

Alwayswriteagain: Being Adam MacDonald …

Alwayswriteagain: Being Adam MacDonald …: Adam MacDonald is a Canadian  actor turned film director probably best known to his countrymen as the villain, Josh MacIntosh in the  popul...

Alwayswriteagain: Deer Only Here for the Beer!

Alwayswriteagain: Deer Only Here for the Beer!: Israel’s Ayalim (‘Deer’) Ass ociation encourages young immigrants to live in the country’s less populated areas in the Galilee and the Ne...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Israel: Poetic Friends and Enemas

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Israel: Poetic Friends and Enemas: I have just spent a fruitless half-hour searching for an English translation of any poetry by the Israeli witer, Benny Ziffer . But it’s as...

Alwayswriteagain: A Betrayal Beyond Compare

Alwayswriteagain: A Betrayal Beyond Compare: Dr Harold Shipman was Britain’s most notorious and prolific serial killer. No wonder former High Court Judge Dame Janet Smith , who chair...

PerfectlyWriteFamilyTales: ‘Give It a Rest - Bitch Face!’

PerfectlyWriteFamilyTales: ‘Give It a Rest - Bitch Face!’:   Scientists  now say that the emotion they term  ‘Resting Bitch Face’ is real. This is where “ subtle facial expressions like a slightly ...

Alwayswriteagain: Where – and Why! - the Shepherd Began His Journey

Alwayswriteagain: Where – and Why! - the Shepherd Began His Journey: Remember the Bedouin shepherd who made a solo odyssey to the west? Now’s your chance to see where his courageous journey began!  Join an E...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: What Katie Did First!

PerfectlyWritePoetry: What Katie Did First!: The year was 1988 and a 14-year-old London school girl named Kate Moss was on her first fashion shoot.  Photographer Owen Scarbiena advi...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Taking the Hump!

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Taking the Hump!: Har Gamal , just outside Karmiel, Lower Galilee is a hill with a twin-humped camel-shaped top, formed by centuries of wind and rain erosion....

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Writing More for the Ear than the Eye

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Writing More for the Ear than the Eye: Madison Smartt Bell is an American novelist best known for his stories about the Haitian Revolution and Toussaint Louverture,   a leader of...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: They Were Also at Entebbe

PerfectlyWritePoetry: They Were Also at Entebbe: In memory of the civilian hostages murdered at Entebbe, July 1976. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Operation Entebbe, the counter-...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Always with His Heart

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Always with His Heart: While cynics insist that Valentine’s Day is vastly overrated, newspapers like  Britain’s   The  Telegraph   have treated readers  to  a  sel...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Another Poet. But This One’s King!

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Another Poet. But This One’s King!: I’ve been astounded to discover that modern Israeli high school students know little or nothing of their country’s major poets. This surel...

Alwayswriteagain: A Sky-High Family Saga

Alwayswriteagain: A Sky-High Family Saga: The death of a child may tear a family apart and it takes a strong one to weather the storms of  grief and recrimination that surely follow....

Alwayswriteagain: Renew This Town’s Life - As in Days of Old

Alwayswriteagain: Renew This Town’s Life - As in Days of Old: “Help us turn to You, and we shall return. Renew our lives as in days of old” הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ יְהֹוָה | אֵלֶיךָ וְנָשׁוּבָה (כתיב וְנָשׁוּבָ)חַ...

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Of Great Wisdom and Hot Wine!

PerfectlyWritePoetry: Of Great Wisdom and Hot Wine!: A public reading of favourite poems invariably says as much about the participants as the authors and the works they choose. Certainly, the...

Alwayswriteagain: ‘Tempest’ Blows in Fair Winds of Arab-Israel Dialo...

Alwayswriteagain: ‘Tempest’ Blows in Fair Winds of Arab-Israel Dialo...: So, even British Prime Minister, David Cameron is a Shakespeare fan! An opinion piece penned by him and published in early January by Isr...

Alwayswriteagain: Giving Israel It’s Day in Court

Alwayswriteagain: Giving Israel It’s Day in Court: Almost exactly five years ago, former US President Jimmy Carter was sued for allegedly defamatory remarks he made about  Israel in his boo...

Alwayswriteagain: Nahariya's Three Thousand Year Old Citadel

Alwayswriteagain: Nahariya's Three Thousand Year Old Citadel: The remains of a 3,400-year-old Canaanite citadel unearthed in the beach resort of Nahariya, northern Israel will become part of a smart b...

Alwayswriteagain: Life and Death: It’s All Timing in the Feisty Stat...

Alwayswriteagain: Life and Death: It’s All Timing in the Feisty Stat...: It’s all down to timing.    Jewish Israelis Alon Bakal and Shimon Ruimi were in the wrong place at the wrong time in Tel Aviv on ...

Alwayswriteagain: Saturday Night Irish Fever – In Haifa!

Alwayswriteagain: Saturday Night Irish Fever – In Haifa!: Plans for the opening night of the new branch of Patrick’s Irish Pub in Kiryat Biyalik, Haifa must still be under wraps. But whateve...

Alwayswriteagain: Mollie Kaplansky – ATribute

Alwayswriteagain: Mollie Kaplansky – ATribute: While one of my long-time US friends in Israel barely avoided being caught  in the New Year’s Day terrorist incident in Tel Aviv, it is my  ...