We are living in an age when anti-Semitism is on the rise here at home.
Paris. Toulouse. Malmo. Copenhagen. Brussels. Berlin. For most people, they are lovely cities where you might happily take a holiday. But for the world's Jews, they are something else, too. They are place names of hate.
Anti-Semitism has been a fact of European life for more than 2,000 years.
For reasons historic, aesthetic, and political, we Jews are most attuned to the anti-Semitism of the far Right - and we find the most sympathy among our progressive allies when these are our attackers.
Most women who go public with #MeToo stories are fearful for obvious reasons. There is the pain of reliving traumatic experiences. There is the rage of not being believed.
I thought I would come to Australia and learn to surf. Instead, I learned to walk.
Many older people I know are focused on the past. When they talk about the future, they are, quite understandably, preoccupied with the hassles and obstacles of their increasing age.
Race walking is hard. Trying to do it while maintaining a conversation is much harder.
Australians have more fun. They just do. I guess I should not be surprised by this fact given that this is the place that birthed both Hugh Jackman and Kylie Minogue.
In my experience, American office Christmas parties mean that everyone gets a thimbleful of lukewarm Champagne in a plastic cup.
The conspiracy theory of the Jew as the hypnotic conspirator, the duplicitous manipulator, the sinister puppeteer is one with ancient roots and a bloody history.
One of the casualties of Israel becoming an increasingly partisan issue has been American Jews themselves, who vote overwhelmingly Democratic and who see Israel's rightward turn as betraying fundamental liberal values.
It is a strange experience to have another person spit on you.
Despite the fact that the vast majority of Israeli Jews are not Orthodox, the ultra-Orthodox hold the keys not just to Israel's Jewish sacred places, but to the life cycle events - conversions, weddings, divorces, burials - of the country's more than six million Jews.
