A Michaels Cuebid is a conventional overcall in the same suit as an opponent's opening bid, derived by Michael Michaels of Miami Beach, Florida. It promises a two-suited hand, with at least five cards in each suit. Simply put, if the opening bid by the opponent is in a Minor suit, 1♣ or 1♦, your respective bid of 2♣ or 2♦ shows 5-5 in the Majors, H...

Tablemats quilted by Marilyn Butchins Bringing joy and excitement to Israel's needy  The nearly 100 families living on or near the poverty line, who received food parcels for Pesach this year through the Ray of Light project, had an extra element of joy in their packages – a pair of beautifully crafted festive table mats, created by Israel's quilters to make the festival even more...

By Isabel BermanAvailable through Amazon or the Book Depository415 pagesPublished by Mazo Publishers (2020) Reviewed by Pamela Peled Isabel Berman knows a lot about names and how they tie into identity. When she arrived to live in Israel in 1972, an officious clerk informed her that "Isabel" was the name of a queen who hated the Jews, and sugg...

Bess Myerson, Miss America 1945 Lillian Lux, Star of Yiddish Theater 1918-2005 It was 1971 that my wife Lenore and I and her parents were invited to spend the weekend at the summer home of Irving and Feige Lustig in Bloomingburg, New York. The Lustigs were cousins of my in-laws. They called their home Irving's Villa. It was near the old Route 17, t...

Kamil Sari Ehab Zidan Zainab Abu-Swaid Anat Harrel Photos by Anat Harrel Most tourists, and even many Israelis, are neither really aware of what a rich mosaic of peoples and communities makes up the kaleidoscope of society that is Israel, nor of how these diverse groups of citizens of Israel self-identify. The intriguing opportunity of exploring and meeting some of these communities in the Galilee,...

Text and photos by Lydia Aisenberg The longest piece of graffiti hip-hop art in Israel adorns the once drab outer 6-meter-high concrete wall of a soccer stadium, situated on the main road, and southern entrance, to the Druze village of Dalyat HaCarmel.   The work of Tel Aviv-based artist Dudi Shoval, the wall comprises a collection of panels o...

Photo by Gabriel Manlake on Unsplash If I were a fly on the wall I'd be privy to secrets I'd know it all. I'd know the Who and the What The When and the Why I'd have all the intel I'd make a great spy! Word would be out This fly is so smart I'd just wait for the bidding to start Wait for the call Highest bidder takes all! All that info could prove a tad heavy I'd be so full of myself,...

My grandfather's family originally planned to make Aliyah in the 1920s – exactly 100 years ago – with the intention of settling in a small village near Binyamina named Karkur. This is the story of Scottish and other British religious Jews, whose intense desire to live in the Holy Land led them to found institutions that would purchase land, sign up...

Character and attitude on three wheels Motoring history in a can In the late 1950's when I was a child in Caerphilly, South Wales, we used to collect car numbers. We became proud owners of bursting exercise books boasting lists of hastily scribbled number plates, usually 3 letters followed by 3 numbers. In retrospect, I cannot fathom why, but I recently realized that nowadays, at almost 75 years of age, when the...

Hazel with two cousins, Maisie Berman and Doreen Mendelson, in Haifa, 1950 Brother Donny Loon qualifying as a doctorwith sister Hazel completing physiotherapydegree at Wits University, 1948 Living through a pandemic is definitely not one of the scenarios I might have imagined could ever happen to me. After all, vaccinations have been protecting our lives for so long. Until recently, it didn`t seem even vaguely possible that the entire world could be thrown by a new virus, losing all grip on our wellbeing, as is evident today. And even...