The town of Isfiya, in the Carmel Mountains of Israel, is so close to Haifa as to be considered almost a suburb. Yet it is markedly different. Built on the site of an ancient Jewish village, Isfiya is a Druze village, and 80 per cent of its 9,000 inhabitants are followers of the secretive, mystical…
The Bible and modern cosmology in perfect harmony
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The Biblical account of the creation of the universe is in “complete and remarkable agreement” with the latest findings of modern cosmology, notes a leading Israeli physicist who has written a book on the subject. “At least regarding the first chapter of Genesis, the era of contradiction between Torah and science is over,” says Professor…
Seeking new prospekts in St. Petersburg
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Our first day in St. Petersburg, Russia, we took a tour that showed off the magnificence of this city of exquisite palaces, cathedrals, prospekts and Venetian-style canals. We saw the Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Admiralty, the Church of the Resurrection, Nevsky Prospekt, Smolny Cathedral, miscellaneous grand palaces, Palace Square and the…
Book Review: The Hare with Amber Eyes
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Edmund de Waal, London-based author of The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss, has described this memorable book as “a biography of a collection and the biography of my family.” The collection he refers to is an assortment of some 264 netsuke, tiny elegant figurines carved by Japanese craftsmen in…
Toronto’s Tom Sandler, photographer to the Royals
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Although Tom Sandler’s family lived in England in the late 1800s, none of his relatives ever came into contact with royalty until he became the British royal family’s photographer of choice during their frequent visits to Canada. The Toronto camera pro’s relationship with the royals blossomed from his volunteer involvement, beginning more than a decade…
Obit: Ben Weider, built bodybuilding empire (1923-2008)
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Ben Weider, who with his brother Joe founded a billion-dollar bodybuilding empire and helped launch Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career in the United States, died October 17 (2008) of heart failure in his native city of Montreal at the age of 85. Weider was also a collector of rare Napoleonic artifacts, and donated some sixty valuable pieces…
Obit: Canadian arts patron Bluma Appel (1919-2007)
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Known for her patronage of the arts and her dedication to social causes, Bluma Appel died of cancer July 15 (2007) in a Toronto hospital. She was 86. Born in Montreal, Appel supported many arts and cultural organizations as well as individual artists. An officer of the Order of Canada, she was also the founder of…
Sigmund Freud House and other Viennese Jewish landmarks
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The November 29 (1993) issue of Time Magazine featured a likeness of the founder of psychoanalysis on its cover with the caption, “Is Freud dead?” in conscious parody of the magazine’s well-remembered “Is God Dead?” cover of April 1966. Inside, several articles asserted that recent chemical discoveries and psychoanalytic treatment modalities of dubious value have…
Vered Hagalil, popular ranch north of the Sea of Galilee
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Yehudi Avni has a dream — to mount one of the 20 horses at Vered Hagalil, his horse ranch and guest farm north of the Sea of Galilee, and ride around the lake and through the valley to Amman, the capital of Jordan. “When peace will come, and if it will be a real peace,…
Israeli infiltrated Germany’s neo-Nazi movement
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Having boldly infiltrated the top echelons of Germany’s neo-Nazi movement, former Israeli paratrooper Yaron Svoray felt more than mildly uncomfortable the day in 1992 that he sat with about 30 neo-Nazis in the woods and an elderly ex-SS guard put a gun to his ear, screaming, “Juden! Juden!” Quickly, Svoray leaned forward, out of range…
