Finding Peace in Israel

None of Israel’s God-made wonders, neither the Red Sea corals nor the Judean Desert palms, neither forests of the Galilee nor salts of the Dead Sea, can let my restless heart forget the stories of holy  Jerusalem. Entering Jerusalem, the bus rolls up soft green...

Cairo’s Slow Fast

Gaean. I’m hungry. An hour before iftar, the nightly breaking of the fast during Ramadan, the 9th month of the Islamic calendar, a single thought occupies the minds of most of Cairo’s 15 million people. I’m hungry.  Each day of this holy month,...

Bringing the World Home

By making a circular journey, once I stepped away from home, I had already stepped toward it, and I never really stopped looking there.  America was my reference point to explore three continents, 12 countries and even more cultures. Now the world is my lasting...

A Tourist in Thailand

The tourist authorities plug “Amazing Thailand” as a happy land of smiles and beaches; the press likes to paint it as a deadly refuge for sex and drugs. I see Thailand as a fascinating mirror of our motives, desires and defects as travelers. In the tourist...