Leaves of Hope
by Jerry Waxman
Sometimes it seems Sderot has no life.
I was walking around the other day, just observing things. I saw three dogs playing on a lawn and went closer to watch. Why?
Seeing dogs play is a rare thing, believe it or not. Most dogs in Sderot wander around kind of [...]

Rays of Hope
by Jerry Waxman
Did you know that there really is a place where people are happy?
The holiday of Succoth ended last weekend. Saturday was Simchat Torah.  I did not stay in Sderot last weekend.
It wasn’t the town that I wanted to get away from, but the little things surrounding my life here. Sometimes, [...]

Obama and Netanyahu at the U.N.
posted by Jerry Waxman
[U.S. President Barack Obama spoke eloquently at the United Nations today. Several hours after Obama's speech, Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu also spoke eloquently and passionately at the United Nations. Below is the part of the text of Obama's speech that is relevant to Israel. [...]

When Anger Doesn’t Work: Part 2
by Jerry Waxman
To recap: There was a day like any other day that was meant to go well. 1)I was to go to a school and get a job. 2)I was to settle things with the rav who owns the kollel where I have been working – and that [...]

When Anger Doesn’t Work: Part 1
by Jerry Waxman
I have a right to be fed up. This is the third time I’ve had to go back to the beginning to re-write this post. And that’s just the frosting on the gigantic cake of things going the wrong way.
Then again maybe being fed up isn’t a [...]

School Days and Friendly Kids
by Jerry Waxman
The kids went back to school a few days ago – September 1, to be exact. It’s easy to see how this changes the schedule of the whole town. Whether or not there are school kids in your household, there are several schools for different age ranges [...]

Of Fears, Scams and a Song
by Jerry Waxman
Sderot is known mostly for the kassams, the rocket attacks on a civilian population by Arab extremists in Gaza over the past 9 years. I have a thing about over-exploitation of victimhood. It doesn’t sit well with me that every visitor to Sderot is treated to a tour [...]

Cat Ladies and Helping Hands
by Jerry Waxman
The town cats are legendary, even if no legends have ever been told about them. They are everywhere, at least wherever a trash bin is nearby. They recognize that humans live in their midst, but find them below their stature to communicate with.

Some people feed them. On [...]

Irritations, Roommates, and Bombs
by Jerry Waxman
I never wanted a roommate, not of the same gender at any rate. It’s a small apartment with one bedroom and one living room. I scored a desk a week or so ago, and I was just getting my homelife a little better organized when suddenly I got a [...]

The Bukhari; a Lesson in Roots
by Jerry Waxman
In the early Sabbath morning, I headed out the door, talit (prayer shawl) in hand, to find the Bukhari synagogue, up near the entrance to Sderot. A friend had shown me where it is, but as I am known to chronically misnavigate, I decided to start [...]

Hide and Seek and the Ice Cube Air-Con
by Jerry Waxman

A few clouds graced the blue desert sky today. Most have left, but a few have stayed to lend the night an essence of aesthetic peacefulness.
The moon is still new – only a sliver now – and a reminder that our Islamic neighbors have begun [...]

Jews from Morocco built Sderot.  They came here in the early years of Israel’s statehood.  So it’s no surprise that Moroccan culture is part of living in Sderot.
The Karaoke Guy, for example, sings Mizrahi songs with the familiar high pitched nasal quality of North African tastes.
In this neighborhood, even when the Karaoke Guy isn’t singing, [...]

even here in Sderot, we’ve heard about the “Beer Summit” while the visit of President Arroyo got no press at all. Your “beer summit” came about after a misunderstanding. As you said, your words about the incident were not calibrated well,

Every night the neighborhood is serenaded by “the karaoke guy.” He practices his favorite Mizrahi tunes for hours on end.

The Cockroach Wars Part 3
The Noose Is Naught
by Jerry Waxman
[This is an update report. Previously, I had become frustrated with the behaviors of domestic cockroaches so much that I reached into an arsenal of inventions I had once collected to rid the house of these pests. The first weapon was a noose. [...]

by Jerry Waxman
In response to the article in:
The New Republic, April 15, 2009 edition
Washington Diarist: At The Window by Leon Wieseltier
Here are a few excerpts from Wieseltier’s article:
“Of three or four in a room
there is always one who stands at
the window.
He must see the injustice among the
thorns
and the fires on the hill.”
Yehuda Amichai, 1958
“. . [...]