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 — I never intended to become a translator. It just happened. I first began translating after my daughter was born and I could no longer go out to work. My knowledge of Hebrew was minimal and I frequently had to use a dictionary, but with the passing years this […]
The varied life of a Hebrew-English translator Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — When I first moved to Israel, some forty years ago, there was one supermarket in Jerusalem, and perhaps a few more in Tel Aviv. My housekeeping requirements as a student were not very great, and I seem to remember my forays to the supermarket as rare occasions, requiring
Going to market in Jerusalem is a gender issue Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel –As a result of a chance encounter at Lod airport at the beginning of the year I met Robi Damelin, spokesperson for the Parents Circle – Bereaved Families Forum, the group uniting Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families in an effort to attain peace, reconciliation and tolerance. Robi was struggling
Bereavement unites Palestinian and Israeli parents Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel–“Refugees.” That word means many different things to many different people. The readership of the magazine of the Association of Jewish Refugees (the British publication for which I also write) is loosely defined as having once fallen into that category. By today, however, most of those who once sought refuge from a
For refugees, policies of host countries make all the difference Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel–Been there, done that. Why was Israel not affected by the global economic crisis to the same extent as some other countries, specifically the US and the UK? It was probably due to a number of factors. In the 1980s, due to a combination of ideological rigidity and economic
How Israel avoided the global economic meltdown Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, USABy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel –No, not the conductor, Otto Klemperer, but his cousin, Viktor, Professor of Romance Languages at Dresden University. Most of Viktor’s extended family had left Germany for the US well before 1939, but Viktor had no children, was married to a non-Jew, had fought in the German army in the
Music and diary revive dark feelings of Shoah Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, USABy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel–“You must read this,” a friend said, thrusting some typed pages into my hand. They contained the text of a speech given by Elena Bonner, the Jewish widow of former Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, at the Freedom Forum held in Oslo, Norway, in May 2009. I read the typescript with
Elena Bonner tells Norwegians about their double standard Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, USABy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel –As readers of this column will have surmised by now, my husband and I are keen concert-goers. Israel abounds in opportunities to attend inspiring orchestral concerts, uplifting chamber performances, and impressive solo recitals. We try to attend as many of these as our energy and pocket allow, and these
Music and history abound throughout Israel Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — When 12-year old M. applied to attend the Jews’ Free School, the secondary school that was founded in 1732 and serves London’s Jewish community, he was not accepted. The reason? His mother was not born Jewish and her conversion was in accordance with the progressive, not the orthodox,
‘Who is a Jew’ Controversy Pops up in Britain Again Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson