Dorothea Shefer-Vanson is a freelance journalist based in Mevasseret Zion, Israel.
Her published works, available on Amazon, include:
* All Quiet on the Midwestern Plains: A Tale of Deception, Betrayal, and Vindication
* The Balancing Game: A Child Between Two Worlds, A Society Approaching War
* Chasing Dreams and Flies: A Tragicomedy of Life in France
* The Diary of Anne Frank (Cliff Notes)
* Levi Koenig: A Contemporary King Lear
* Time out of Joint: The Fate of a Family
Shefer-Vanson also is a Hebrew to English translator, with those works on Amazon including:
* The Rainy Day Man by Amnon Jackont
By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — One of the readers of the AJR Journal (Association of Jewish Refugees), published in London, to which I contribute a monthly column entitled ‘Letter from Israel,’ wrote an irate letter to the editor complaining about what I write. They wrote: “Why doesn’t Mrs. Shefer-Vanson write about the real […]
Jerusalem and Northwest London Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — It is a matter of routine for the majority of Israel’s population that when children, whether boys or girls, reach the age of eighteen they go into one of the forces that make up the IDF in order to give two or three years of service to
When a grandson finishes his IDF training Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East
By David Amos SAN DIEGO –Every trip to Israel is an adventure, a revelation. No two trips are the same, and our recent ten day visit was no exception. Yes, we had the usual encounters with family and Israeli musicians, but after not being in Israel for years, we were treated to the country’s phenomenal
A Jordanian guide’s dream of peace Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — The subject of the status of women in Israel is a tricky one, because on the one hand Israel aspires to be a modern, democratic society, and in the public sphere women are treated as equals, on the whole. On the other hand, though, its laws
Women’s status in Israel reflects a long ago age Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson TEL AVIV–Going to gala concerts isn’t really our thing, but when the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra announced that in honor of its return to the refurbished Heichal Hatarbut (Palace of Culture), its home in Tel Aviv, it would be performing Mahler’s fifth symphony, along with Beethoven’s violin concerto (with Itzhak Perlman as soloist)
Ahhh, Mahler, Beethoven, Perlman and Mehta! Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-VansonBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel–Although I was not in Jerusalem for Jerusalem Day this year, having been called away to fulfill grandparental duties, it was very much in my thoughts. I still have a very clear memory of those six days in June, just 46 years ago, when I was only dimly able to
Israel Museum provides Christian tours for volunteers Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson JERUSALEM–The exhibition currently on show at the Israel Museum reveals just a tiny fraction of the grandeur and ambition of King Herod, the Idumaean who once ruled Judea with some help from his Roman patrons. He was known mainly for his grandiose building projects throughout the region, most notably the Second Temple in
Israel Museum features exhibit on King Herod Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-VansonBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson EIN BOQEQ, Israel — Just one and a half hours’ drive away from my home just outside Jerusalem lies the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth, whose water is so salty that the human body can float quite easily on its surface. It rains very rarely and the temperature there never
Ah, the respite of the Dead Sea Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-VansonBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — The world is in tumoil. But is it any more so than usual? Perhaps yes. Young Jung Kim Un is threatening to use nuclear weapons against someone, maybe the US, possibly South Korea, or even Japan, or any of the countries of South-East Asia (which constitute the world’s
Something familiar about all these world troubles Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel –Having grown up in a British home where Passover/Pesach was observed with rigour, it came as something of a shock when I arrived in Israel to find that not everyone did the same. It was only in Israel that I heard about people filling their fridges and freezers with bread
Search for chametz can go to an extreme Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish ReligionBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — The visit to Israel of US President Obama caused great excitement for a variety of reasons. The first was why had he come? Was it to reach an agreement regarding dealing with Iran’s steady progress towards a nuclear bomb or to exert pressure towards a solution of the
Some impressions of Obama’s Israel visit Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel– On our recent visit to Malta we were given special permission to examine the enormous painting by Caravaggio, ‘The Beheading of John the Baptist,’ that hangs in the massive co-cathedral (double cathedral) of Valletta, which is run by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. After the cathedral was
John the Baptist, Crusaders, Jerusalem invoked in Malta Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-VansonBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson GIVAT CHAYIM IHUD, Israel — The Theresienstadt Memorial Museum is situated in Israel’s verdant Jezreel Valley, in premises attached to this kibbutz. Once or twice a year I receive the museum newsletter, continuing the subscription taken out by my late father. For many years it appeared in stencil form on plain
Theresienstadt memory kept alive on Israeli kibbutz Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MILAN, Italy — To find oneself sitting in the majestic auditorium of La Scala here is thrilling enough in itself. To be attending a performance of Verdi’s opera Nabucco, which describes the biblical episode surrounding the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the exile of the Jewish people to
Babylon exile, Shoah conflated in ‘Nabucco’ Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson