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:

4 Times 20

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — During the last few years, I have been spending part of the summer in France, supposedly to avoid the summer heat of Israel. That has come to be something of a joke, as the summers in France have been as hot as — or even hotter than —

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Lifestyles

Au Revoir to France, Shalom to Israel

The first thing that hits you as the plane starts the descent towards the airport in Israel is the difference in the colors on the ground. If you have just left one of the countries of Europe, as we did, there is a noticeable difference in the shades of green that you perceive. The brilliant emerald green of the fields of rural France (or Germany or England or wherever), even in the summer of 2022 when temperatures rose to unprecedented heights and there were restrictions on water usage, remained in one’s visual memory, only to be erased (or at least put in the shade) by the greys, browns and dusty dark greens of the Holy Land. And, of course, the ever-present white of the stone buildings. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Israel, Lifestyles, Travel and Food

A Prescient Account of Life in Pre-War France

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel —The novel Silbermann by Jacques de Lacretelle, which I read in French, was first published in 1922 It describes the life of a French schoolboy and his relations with a Jewish classmate. The general atmosphere in the school is one of rigid discipline and, as is often the case

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

Tel Aviv: Israel’s Playground

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — To start with, Tel Aviv features the Mediterranean Sea, with its long sandy beaches, kept relatively clean by the municipality, with designated areas for people to play games (ah, the dreaded “matkot” with their constant noisy batting to and fro of a ball against wooden bats), another area

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

Connections

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — A few years ago an enterprising resident of the suburb where I live, just outside Jerusalem, initiated and organized an association providing social and cultural activities for the growing number of retired persons living here. Since then the association has reached over one thousand members and conducts a

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Lifestyles