#Cross-Cultural Living

A selfie among Michelangelo’s angels. 🇫🇷 La version française suit la version anglaise. I took this photo at an immersive art exhibit. How often do I get to find myself surrounded by angels? Michelangelo’s, on top of that! So I took a selfie. Somehow, it felt fitting for this post about being new and immersed among New Yorkers. A few weeks ago, as I was entering a busy store in Manhattan, I held the door open for someone. Two other people quickly pushed their way through as

A distant, slightly blurry zoom shot of the Statue of Liberty against the horizon, capturing a humorous and imperfect view from the new neighborhood. Une vue lointaine et légèrement floue de la Statue de la Liberté à l'horizon, capturant un aperçu humoristique et imparfait depuis le nouveau quartier.

Cliquez ici pour la version française sous les photos A few nights ago, a sudden, sharp explosion jolted me—and, I suspect, everyone else—awake. When the relative Manhattan silence returned, I drifted back to sleep. Somewhere between asleep and awake, my brain slipped into a kind of lucid dream and answered a question I had been asking myself for days: What would my first post from the United States be about? The answer was surprisingly simple. I am in the United States, and

From childhood pen pals to cross-cultural marriage, a deeply personal reflection on travel, living abroad, and the emotional difference between finding a place to stay and truly belonging. The seeds of “elsewhere” were planted by my father—or perhaps by the fairies above my crib. ^_^ He spent his life in the navy and came home every few months with stories from far-off ports with magical names...

Every so often, life brings us someone who changes the direction of our lives. For me, in 1991, it was someone I had never imagined needing ever: a well-known, beloved North Tel Aviv rabbi. Though he has since passed away (z”l — may his memory be a blessing), I remember him with deep affection. I landed in Tel Aviv in November 1990, completely clueless about Judaism or the local attitude toward non-Jews. My husband, a very secular Israeli, was certain we would be fine as we w