Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

Dorothea Shefer-Vanson is a freelance journalist based in Mevasseret Zion, Israel.

Her published works, available on Amazon, include:

Novel shines a light on Soviet WWII decison- making

Red Sky at Noon by Simon Sebag-Montefiore; Penguin, Random House, UK, 2017 By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel —  This novel gives a detailed account of the days leading up to the German attempt to take Stalingrad in the summer of 1942, doing so by tracing the exploits of a group of former prisoners, taken […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International

For others it’s DIY, for her it’s Do- It- Themselves

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson DOMEYROT, France — One of the first things we encountered when we came to France was the prevalence of do-it-yourself (DIY) shops. Actually, shops would hardly be the right term, as they’re more something of an emporium. On that first visit Yigal thought he had died and gone to heaven. All there was

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Middle East, Travel and Food

Tapestries in a medieval castle inspire visitors

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson BOUSSAC, France — The region around Limoges has been known since medieval times for its weavers. The art of tapestry-making once flourished there for many generations, passing down from father to son. Today the towns of Aubusson and Felletin are no longer famous for that particular specialty, though remnants of those ancient

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Travel and Food

Suicide’s memoir indicts the Gur sect of Hassidim

Doing His Will (Osah Kirtzono) by Esti Weinstein, published in Hebrew by Kinneret, Zmora-Bitan, Dvir, 2016. By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson  JERUSALEM –The poor woman who wrote this book (and eventually committed suicide) was born into a specific sect, tantamount to a cult, of ultra-Orthodox Judaism known as the Gur Hassidim As a child and teenager the author

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish Religion, Middle East

Bravo, Americans, for standing up for the children!

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — The recent furore over Donald Trump’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents and placing them in enclosures that have been likened to cages, seems in the end to have brought out the best in American society. After all, virtually all Americans, Trump included, can trace their roots

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, USA

‘Jacob and his Sons’ at the Israel Museum

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson JERUSALEM — The exhibition of paintings by  Francisco de Zurburan, a seventeenth-century Spanish painter, has been a major attraction at the Israel Museum for the last few weeks. I had never heard of him, so I made use of a free morning to go and take a look. What met my eyes

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Exhausting, yet fun, travel in North America

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Six weeks, eleven flights, six states, one one-week cruise and four countries (not including the USA). That is feeble compared with the Beatles’ tour of the USA in 1965 (twenty-five cities in thirty days), but they were much younger than we were (and probably flew first class). One

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Travel and Food, USA

Book describes education in utropia

Uscolia by Gabriel Lanyi;  Sycorrax Books, Boston, 2017 By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — It is many years since I read material on the theory of education, and this book on the subject came into my hands through the kindness of our new neighbor, who also happens to be the author. But it is no

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Science, Medicine, & Education

Royal wedding invoked Hebrew imagery

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — As befits an English woman living abroad, I watched the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on television, and reveled in the pomp and circumstance of each shot and every angle. I loved the sight of the beautiful mixed-race bride, her dress, the bridesmaids and page-boys, the various

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

‘The Crown’ captivates English ex-pats

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — When we were in Las Vegas last year, visiting our son and daughter-in-law, on one particular evening they were otherwise occupied. They made sure to seat us comfortably in the living room facing the large TV screen, handed us the remote control, and told us to find something on

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Theatre, Film & Broadcast