As a proud owner of Olivia, I enjoy “VIP” status when I travel to places Olivia charters. Once a year I indulge a lovely habit of going with a friend for a restful time—off season in a half empty hotel on some magnificent tropical beach without Olivia. I am always ambivalent to go without the 800 plus ladies of Olivia. The Olivia family that keeps me feeling safe and connected. If not for something inside of me saying “go go go” I would just stay in my comfort zone sitting on my deck looking out at Mt. Tam. I believe its important for habituated minds to change the scenery. This trip was for me and my very close friend, my “sister” Sima, just the two of us. The Vallarta Palace, now The Har
After my parents ended up in Japan as stateless Jewish refugees from Egypt and Iraq, I was sent to Catholic missionary school in Kobe, because it was the only viable option for me to get an education at the time There, I learned that Hitler would go to heaven but my Jewish soul was eternally damned for rejecting Christ as my Lord and Savior. I was routinely scolded by the nuns about how stubborn we Jews were for not quitting Judaism. The school I went to is now long gone, but the refrain I learned all too well still continues in one form or another. “Quit being a Jew.” “Quit Jerusalem.” “Quit Israel.” When the Jew, Saul of Tarsus fell off his horse and had a seizure of faith that replaced Ju
Reading famed author Alice Walker’s recent call on R&B singer Alicia Keys to boycott Israel sent waves of grief spiraling through my veins. I have known for a long time that Walker is no friend of Israel and has issues that I can only call anti-Semitism, but to actually read the words of this letter… it is simply more of the same old Jew-hatred against Jewish self-determination masked in “progressive” rhetoric that we see all too often these days. Walker claims she is “not against individuals (Israelis),” but she wants to fight an “apartheid state.” She counsels Ms. Keys against “destroying her soul” by performing in Israel. She states that the situation in Israel is “a vast eye-opener into
