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:

Bad behavior at a London concert

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson LONDON, England –Proms? What Proms? Anyone looking for an uplifting musical experience should steer clear of the famous Prom concerts in London’s Albert Hall. The hall itself is enormous and impressive, seating several thousands at a time. In addition, especially cheap tickets are sold as standing room only in the center of the […]

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

Fiddling (on the roof) around in France

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson LONDON, England — Our summer across the channel in Limousin, France, concluded with a short stay farther south, at a Gite in the countryside near the picturesque village of Montcuq. Finding the place called Mondaunet put our GPS under a lot of pressure, as the name did not feature in its database, but eventually,

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Travel and Food

Terrorists are nothing but bloody barbarians

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson DOMEYROT, France — I consider myself to be something of a purist when it comes to the English language, which is hardly surprising since I’ve spent most of my adult life working as a translator/editor/writer. I try to avoid profanities, and will rarely even press ‘Like’ for Facebook items that use them. However, every

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International

Two novels about Jews in England

 By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson DOMEYROT, France — A book entitled A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss (published by Ballantine Books, New York, 2000) recently came into my hands by chance. The main subject – intrigues, violence and even murder in connection with trading on the stock exchange in early eighteenth-century England – is not one that would

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

Artist Charlotte Salomon’s life told in free verse

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson   MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Life is full of strange coincidences. I first encountered the story of Charlotte Salomon about twenty years ago, when an exhibition of her work, a series of paintings with captions describing her life and entitled Life? Or Theatre? was held at the Royal Academy in London. It made

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish History

Tel Aviv, Orlando, Birstall, Magnanville …

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel–Whether it was by coincidence or not, the supplement that came with the Ha’aretz newspaper last weekend contained a long article about – and interview with – Professor Telma Handler, a psychiatrist, psychologist and international expert on the brain whose most recent research has focused on the mechanism of empathy.

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Middle East, USA

German Jewish doctor brought health care to desert

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — The sudden collapse of bookshelves in Yigal’s study, fortunately without injury to life or limb, set in train a course of events (new bookcases in every room) that enabled a thorough sifting-through of books and other items collected in the course of some fifty years. One of the most

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Why French radio played ‘Bolero’ the entire day

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — After a week of cultural delights in Vienna, we spent a week in France to recover from our exertions before returning to Israel a few days ago. And so it was that, as usual, on our first full day in the beautiful Limousin region we tuned our radio

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

Whatsapp Baby?

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Some twenty-five years ago our son and his wife presented us with our first grandchild. She was the center of our life and our pride and joy, and over the subsequent fifteen years she was joined by another six grandchildren, three from the same couple and three from

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, The World We Share