Weekends in Israel don't really exist. Most Israelis don't stop working until Friday afternoon and then start back up again Saturday night or Sunday morning. This short period of rest, from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday, is the…
The more I integrate myself into the cultures of the Middle East, the more I cringe when I hear people of my native American culture making inaccurate statements about the people I’ve come to know so well. So I’ve…
It feels wonderful to be back in my favorite region of the world for Part 2 of my annual trip to the Middle East. I arrived in Jordan a few weeks ago and am now in Israel. I lived in…
I was sipping a cappuccino inside an alcove of Jerusalem’s Old City, when suddenly a man dressed as a medieval gypsy appeared. The Old City is not a place of smiles and light-hearted happiness, as every day members…
My new Syrian friends invited me to dinner in Jordan one night. In their airy white apartment we ate kubba nayeh, a dish native to their village in Idlib, we watched their children play and talked about the war. In…