Sculpture of Noor Inayat Khan in Bloomsbury, London Polish born Krystyna Skarbek, whose mother was Jewish and father a Polish nobleman, became a successful SOE (Special Operations Executive) Agent during the Second World War. She took the name Christine Granville and although surviving daring missions behind enemy lines well worthy of a James Bond story line, she was brutally stabbed to death on the...

Joy Rosen relaxing with a recorder Machon Dance Group Troupe — Joy Rosen second from right People often ask me "What is a beautiful memory in your life?" and of course there are many.I will never forget the Four-Day March to Jerusalem of 1964 that concluded with balconies filled with people cheering and the feeling of fulfilling a dream. It all started with being selected in 1963 to go on a course called Machon Le Madrichei Chutz L'Aretz...

Second in "Tension on a Pension" cozy mystery seriesApril 25, 2020 By Carol NovisAvailable on Amazon ($7.99), Kindle ($2.99) and Kindle Unlimited (free)Reviewed by Eli Libenson   Carol Novis continues to write delightful cozy mysteries. Knock off the Old Block is the second in her "Tension on a Pension" mystery series following Long in the Sle...

Bill Strubbe "Friday's Soup", the story which won first prize in the ESRA short story competition 2020, was written by Bill Strubbe, who lives on Kibbutz Ein Hashofet. It's a moving story about a woman who prepares soup for the needy in spite of her own poverty, and who influences her children to do the same after her death. Since it's told from the point of vi...

In boxing terms, upper-cut applies to a swift, strong blow to the underside of the jaw, generally knocking the opponent out. An upper-cut in bridge is the play of a card forcing declarer to use a high card and thereby promoting a card in partner's hand to become a winner. The effect on declarer's hand possibly has the same effect as in the boxing r...

 Banking for senior citizens often needs to accommodate planning for the future, such as looking to make some changes in the way they manage their finances. Proper management of a senior citizen's bank account can help ensure that in the future the senior citizens do not find themselves facing issues such as having their account frozen, or in ...

How my cooking courses helped domestic workers in South Africa improve their lives  The Corona period we are all going through now has given me the time to browse through my old papers (of which I'm a collector). I came across material that brought back warm memories of my days as a cooking instructor to domestic workers in South Africa. In 19...

We first met, Dolores and I, in the Medical Records Department of the Children's Orthopedic Hospital in Los Angeles. It was early January 1966, the era of dictaphones, shorthand, and first electric typewriters, and we were medical secretaries. I was 24, she was 28, and the mother of three. Instant affinity… My daughter Yael was born on Dolores' dau...

Daniel Silva Goes All-Out Political in The Order  If you love both Israel and espionage thrillers, Daniel Silva has been your go-to novelist since he introduced Gideon Allon as The Kill Artist twenty years ago. We first met Gideon as a newly-recruited Mossad agent who tracked and assassinated the Black September murderers of Israeli athletes a...

ESRAmagazine Short Story Competition - First prize  The first time I saw old Leonard with his baggy pants and stringy hair, he stumbled towards us with a big smile, his missing front teeth frightening me even more. When I pressed back against my mom he looked sad because he'd frightened me. I felt my mother's reassuring pat on m...