Ellis Shuman, at The Blogs

Jan 14, 2025, 2:45 PM

Review of ‘The Anatomy of Exile’ by Zeeva Bukai

It's July 1967, one month after the Six Day War. Tamar Abadi and her husband, Salim, are relaxing on a Tel Aviv beach when a radio broadcasts news of what appears to be a terrorist attack. A woman has...

Oct 15, 2024, 7:51 AM

Review of ‘Saving Abigail’ by Liz Hirsh Naftali

When Hamas attacked Israel in the early morning hours of October 7, 2023, one of the hardest hit communities was Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Nukhba Force terrorists smashed through the border fence and launched a murderous rampage, going from house...

Oct 2, 2024, 9:22 PM

Review of ‘Songs for the Brokenhearted’ by Ayelet Tsabari

If there’s a soundtrack to Songs for the Brokenhearted by Ayelet Tsabari (Random House, September 10, 2024), it probably sounds very much like Ofra Haza's ‘Yemenite Songs’ album. Like the album, this outstanding novel is a stage for Yemenite...

Sep 1, 2024, 9:05 AM

The Story of Bulgarian Jewry I Was Compelled to Tell

March 1943. Bulgarian authorities prepare to deport 20,000 Jews from Bulgaria, expelling thousands from their homes in Sofia and sending them to the countryside. Held in detention camps, they fear they will meet the same fate as the 11,343...

Jan 25, 2024, 8:46 AM

Review of ‘Bulgaria, the Jews, and the Holocaust’ by Dr. Nadège Ragaru

The facts appear to be clear-cut. Despite Bulgaria's alliance with Germany during World War Two, its 48,000 Jewish citizens were not deported to the Nazi death camps. That said, 11,343 Jews from the Bulgarian-controlled territories of Macedonia, Serbia, and...

Dec 11, 2023, 7:40 AM

Volunteering to Help Israeli Farmers

"I've been here for 60 years and I'm just not going to continue," said the tired-looking moshavnik from the south. His Thai workers had fled, a rocket had hit one of his greenhouses, his pepper plants' leaves were wilted,...

Nov 10, 2023, 9:12 AM

Review of ‘West Jerusalem Noir’ – short stories

Noir fiction can be defined as crime fiction with dark themes, often featuring “a disturbing mixture of sex and violence.” The stories of West Jerusalem Noir (Akashic Books, November 2023) are somewhat tamer; their protagonists are confronted with the...

Nov 9, 2023, 10:12 AM

Review of ‘East Jerusalem Noir’ – short stories

The Six Day War in 1967 brought the reunification of the city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital but the reality on the ground is different, with the city clearly divided into East and West. Israelis rarely venture into East...

Oct 27, 2023, 5:33 PM

What Terrifies Me More Than Anything Else

Audio shared by the Israeli Defense Forces on social media.

Today is the 21st day of war. A war that started when Hamas terrorists infiltrated through many breaches in Israel's security fence to massacre more than 1,000 civilians and soldiers in kibbutzim and towns. A war that started when...

Oct 19, 2023, 7:44 PM

The World Must Hear These Stories

No words can ever give justice to the victims of the horrific Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. Men and women, teenagers and babies, Holocaust survivors and soldiers – all of them innocent Israelis targeted by Hamas when...

About Me

Ellis Shuman made aliya to Jerusalem as a teenager, served in the IDF, was a founding member of a kibbutz, and now lives on Moshav Neve Ilan. Ellis is the author of ‘The Burgas Affair’ and ‘Valley of Thracians’ - suspense novels set in Bulgaria; 'The Virtual Kibbutz' - a collection of short stories; and 'Rakiya - Stories of Bulgaria', which was published by GenZ Publishing in June 2024. His writing has appeared in The Times of Israel, The Huffington Post, The Jerusalem Post, Israel Insider, and on a wide range of Internet websites. Ellis lived with his wife for two years in Bulgaria, and blogs regularly about Israel, Bulgaria, books, and writing.

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