Marian Lebor

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May 5, 2014, 3:27 PM

An ever-open wound

The elderly man walked slowly round his son’s grave, carefully watering the shrubs and potted plants that lay either side of it. When he finished watering, he took a large cloth and gently cleaned the gravestone. I saw from...

Dec 31, 2013, 10:46 PM

1999: A memorable New Year

Well, we tried to get together with some friends but it seems they are too tired to come over to toast the new year. Either that or they’re out at a rave party and have omitted to tell us. So...

Apr 8, 2013, 4:41 PM

My mother’s photo album

At the bottom of a drawer in my mother’s bedroom there was a large album full of sepia photographs. As a young girl I sometimes took it out and looked at it and wondered who all the people were. But...

Feb 28, 2013, 8:03 PM

Once more into the bleach, dear friends

No sooner have we put away the peroxide hair dye than it’s time to go once more into the bleach, dear friends – at least once more – as we begin the mammoth task of Pesach cleaning. A wide variety...

Dec 25, 2012, 4:32 PM

My First Christmas as an Israeli

It may seem a little odd considering it was eighteen years ago, but I remember my first Christmas Day in Israel very clearly. I’d been here almost five months and I went to my ulpan class that morning, as usual....

Nov 27, 2012, 10:53 AM

Israel needs an ehudna

Ehud Barak has announced his retirement from politics. Please. I don’t buy it for a moment. We’ve been here before. By rights, Barak’s political career should have been over for good after his humiliating electoral defeat in February 2001. At the time, he said he was...

Nov 20, 2012, 6:33 PM

Amidst the doom and gloom, a bright light shines at Alyn

“Doesn’t anyone have any good news?” was the plaintive question a friend posted on Facebook yesterday. “Yes, I have,” I replied. And here's my good news. After braving torrential rain, fierce winds and rocket fire as they rode from Arad to Jerusalem via...

Oct 29, 2012, 3:23 PM

Remember the 4th of November

I remember exactly where I was on the evening of Saturday November 4, 1995, when I heard that Yitzhak Rabin had been shot. My family had spent a lovely Shabbat away with a group of friends at a field school in...

Sep 27, 2012, 7:12 PM

From the still of Yom Kippur to the hustle and bustle of Sukkot

As soon as Yom Kippur’s palpable sound of silence comes to an end, there is the unmistakable clank of sukkah building and the flurry of activity that traditionally accompanies Sukkot. By the next morning, sukkahs have sprung up all over...

Sep 23, 2012, 11:04 AM

Time to introduce Yom Kippur Time

It is officially winter time. So have we brought our winter duvets, woolly hats and thermal underwear out of storage? Not yet. From where I sit – which is in my garden, early this Sunday morning – the temperature is already...

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About Me

I came on aliya with my family in 1994. I am a freelance writer, editor and film-maker.