Personals column

I wrote this specifically for all my readers, friends and fans who cheered me on as I became one of the highest-earning contestants ever on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

Ticket to ride

Somehow I just keep those Beatles-related headlines coming. (Other recent ones I've come up with include "Baby boomer group wants to get by with a little help from its friends," and my favorite, about a synagogue's Fab Four-related holiday musical: "And your shul can sing...")
This story was fun because I got to visit some of the liveliest seniors in Orlando at Kinneret Apartments, and because I love to write service pieces. If even one person's life changes for the better because of something I've written, I'm happy.

Vogue Orlando

OK, so there really isn't a Vogue Orlando (*sigh*). Or maybe there is one in my dreams....
The Jewish Pavilion, one of my favorite local organizations, scored big when they got Carmen Marc Valvo to bring a show to their January charity event. Besides the fun of seeing lots of my friends and bonding with new ones over Carmen's swoon-inducing creations, it was a chance to write about one of my great loves, the art of fashion.
Now, Lucky Magazine bans its writers from describing clothes with food-related metaphors for good reason. Here, I only slip on that banana peel once--with "confections." But to me, the word connotes the soft sigh of a swirl of chiffon (the fabric, that is, not the pie) as much as it does a more, er, comestible item.
I loved my brief encounter with Carmen, and when he told me his collection was inspired by sea and surf and sand, it was easy to set the mood with a few beach-y metaphors...

Colors of the imagination

Why I really love my job: Who else gets the chance to call up fabulous and famous people and have them tell you anything you ask? (Well, within the fairly fluctuating bounds of reason...)
I adore Peter Max's work--he worked with the Beatles among others. Peter was one of the first artists I ever interviewed for the newspaper, and I wondered if he'd be rambling and difficult to talk to. But he was erudite, thoughtful and wise and a great conversationalist, someone completely at home with himself and the world. I especially loved his stories of growing up as a refugee child in Shanghai, since I share his great love of Asian art and culture. (If you want to see something truly beautiful, visit the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco--www.asianart.org.)
The wonderful documentary film "Shanghai Ghetto" tells the story of the Jewish families who fled there, and seeing it soon after I interviewed Peter made me feel even more connected to him.
I thought a while before coming up with my lead for this piece, but when I focused on the feelings Peter had evoked during our talk, it came right away: A story fit for the Arabian Nights....

Elle Magazine Readers' Prize

I was thrilled to be chosen to contribute reviews to Elle Magazine for its 2004 Readers' Prize column. Free books and a byline are always an enticement. :)
I really loved the first book here, "Leg the Spread." I like non-fiction that's evocative and opens up a whole new subculture for me, especially about things I hadn't thought of getting interested in--here it's the vicious but oddly exhilirating world of stock brokering. "Journey From the Land of No" should be required reading for anyone interested in the real people of Iran, although I found the author's tone a bit detached.

Oren surveys 'Power, Faith and Fantasy'

I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with scholar Michael Oren. Before he wrote "Power, Faith and Fantasy" he gave us a magisterial history of the Six Day War and even penned a suspense novel--which I'm now eager to read.
Another thing I loved about Oren: He said I really made him think.

Reflections of silver, beneath the rain...

In this review, I was aiming for something a little different. The film itself was so different from the usual American fare, the whole viewpoint so European, that I felt I had to strive for something that would let the reader taste that flavor in my review.... I also experimented with alternating among the first persons singular and plural, and the second person, as needed--and, contrary to Creative Writing 101, it worked.

Who wrote the book of love?

This was a fun story to write, and I love it for several reasons. Dr. Yudit Greenberg is absolutely brilliant, witty and fun to talk to, and the idea of scholarly apparatus being applied to something as elusive as love was intriguing. (I also enjoy timing stories to the season: It came out right before Valentine's Day...)
I liked playing with metaphors that would describe her work accurately and also wink at the reader, and I think it reads a bit like those wonderful "Talk of the Town" pieces in the New Yorker. (Hint, hint, David Remnick...) :)

Lutherans: 'Peace not Walls'

This is the first major piece I wrote after returning from the Gralla fellowship program for Jewish journalists in the summer of 2005. (How long ago that seems!) I learned a lot at Gralla, but the most important lesson was how to think like a journalist.
I scrounged up this story myself, after a friend told me the Lutherans would be holding a convention in Orlando and that some anti-Israel resolutions were on the bill. I spent the weekend with the Lutheran delegates, learning their terminology, the various viewpoints within the church, and the key ideas that surrounded their vote on formally condemning Israel's security barrier. I made friends, but there were cultural differences: It was 8 a.m., the hall was filled with me and 1,000 Lutherans from all over the U.S., and (nice Jewish reporter that I am) I went in search of the table with the lox, bagels, cream cheese, juice.... After I'd circumnavigated the room without success, my Lutheran press counterpart asked me what was up. "Where's the food?" I demanded. "Oh," he said matter-of-factly, "we never have anything but water." I defy any other religious group to be so perfectly orderly and polite for three hours in the early morning with nothing but water....

Landmark series 'The Jewish Americans' debuts on PBS

I love to do reviews, arts and culture pieces, and interviews. This piece let me combine all those things, and it was great fun to talk to filmmaker David Grubin and to my mentor Dr. Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis U.

He stands up for Israel--Now we must stand with him

The most important story I ever wrote, and on June 24, 2008, I accepted a first place Rockower award for excellence in Jewish journalism for writing it. You can read Shoaib's newspaper at www.weeklyblitz.net. Also visit www.interfaithstrength.com for updates from Dr. Richard Benkin.

A shelter of wings...

This turned out to be my favorite book last year. When it flew over the transom, I was ready to dismiss it--I'm not a big fan of bird books. :) But for some reason--maybe because the cover reminded me of the beautiful vista from a certain stone observation deck in Jerusalem--I started reading and fell in love with the story, the language and the characters. Shalev is a powerful writer, and the ultimate Israeli, and the climax is something I've never come across before and probably never will again. 

By lovely coincidence, my friend Dan Pine of j. the Jewish weekly of northern california interviewed the author at the same time I wrote my review, so I borrowed his story to dovetail with mine. I always love to create experiences like that for my readers. And I think I did a nice job planning the layout, too.

I love feel-good stories with a message...

I love to promote local organizations, and Orlando's Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center is one of my very favorites. Here's a little under-the-radar story that's a win for everyone involved. And I'm especially proud of the picture--my paparazza skills are getting better every day.

This is one of my favorite stories ever--not just because it won me a 2008 Florida Press Association award for feature writing. Bob Petree is a delightful raconteur, a wonderful friend and a true Renaissance man. We talked about Israel--his great love--and bugs and literature and history, and I even managed to get an interview into the mix. Bob, you will always be my Atticus.

Breaking the code

This was the very first story I wrote for JVibe, published in their July/August 2007 issue, and it was lots of fun. It also made me even more aware of how important it is to bring your ethics to the workplace...

Light it up

This is a story I wrote for JVibe Magazine, November/December 2007. The students I interviewed about how to "Light It Up" taught me more about solar cars than I ever imagined I'd need to know. You might need to rev up the text by clicking on each image to read it more clearly.