Avi Rockoff, at The Blogs

Sep 29, 2024, 9:10 AM

The organization he works with goes by a name familiar from tefilla, suggesting that the group’s aim is to care for the needy, imitating God. Sagi was our contact. He agreed to come on a Tuesday to pick up a...

Sep 16, 2024, 9:53 AM

Adventures in aliyah! The grocery delivery, part I

Aliyah is a journey. Getting to Israel is just a step. After that step come many more steps. These steps take months, years, decades, generations. Each step is the dawn of a start of a beginning to getting to...

Aug 28, 2024, 10:02 AM

Ragil

The lift arrived from storage in Ashdod. Our new home was ready to receive it. Three men came to deliver its contents. They drove up from Ashkelon. “Near the beach,” said Oleg, their leader. “I love it there.” Oleg spoke to...

Jul 1, 2024, 10:42 AM

Artificial Spirituality

AI is everywhere! Why not here? Listen up, AI--1672 words on the droll and spiritual aspects of Jerusalem The screen floods with text! An excerpt: AI: Jerusalem, the eternal city, is a tapestry woven with threads of drollery and spirituality, each contributing...

Jun 17, 2024, 11:23 AM

Lost in Hadassah Ein Kerem

Some people lose themselves in work, in music, in sports. I almost lost myself in Hadassah Ein Kerem. A Distant Memory Seven years ago, when we were tourists, we came to Jerusalem when our daughter delivered a baby at Hadassah Hospital...

May 21, 2024, 11:27 AM

Letting Go

It is both sad and somehow sweet to lose ourselves in the past. Tchaikovsky Why is it so hard to let go? My wife and I just emptied our home on the US East Coast to prepare it for sale. We...

Apr 18, 2024, 7:34 AM

My Wattle

Because a wattle is hard to explain, I will show you mine. I wish it would hang down in the midline, but it likes listing to the left. A short while ago, when he was still 6, our youngest grandson was...

Mar 7, 2024, 11:12 PM

Fitting In

The first time you lead the service at a new shul, you want to show that you know what you’re doing, that you fit in. A man who knows what he is doing in an Ashkenazi shul is called a...

Feb 20, 2024, 2:03 PM

Featured Post

Israeli kitchen dreams

The notion of hosting holiday meals with extended family and friends every single week might not play too well in Peoria

Feb 6, 2024, 5:15 PM

One Morning at the Bank

There I was, in person, seeing Natasha at the local bank branch for the second time in a week. Even once had been a lot. Banking is now done on the app, on which you can chat with a...

About Me

Avi Rockoff came on aliyah with his wife Shuli in March 2022. They live in Jerusalem. His new book, This Year in Jerusalem: Aliyah Dispatches, has been recently published by Shikey Press.

Contact Me