Author: Miriam Drori

Author, editor, attempter of this thing called life. Social anxiety warrior. Re-Connections, a collection of short stories, published with Ocelot Press, 15/10/2025.

Categories
Books Israel memories

The Long and the Short of it

Apparently, this was my Facebook profile pic on this day in 2014.

To me, now, it looks as if I forgot to comb my fringe (bangs?). There are some better pics taken later that month.

Well, I’m not planning to change my profession to model of a certain age. But 1st January 2014 is significant because it’s the day I had my hair cut short, hoping for further changes that year. And they came, starting with a publishing deal with Crooked Cat for my romance novel (currently unavailable), Neither Here Nor There.

As I wrote to a friend on Facebook, that was the day when I shortened my hair and lengthened my expectations.

Do you have a significant first of January? Maybe yours is happening as I write. Do tell. And…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Watch out for my next post, which will be about an uplifting story.

Categories
Holidays

Chanukah, Day 8

To make up for my recent lack of attention to this blog, I’m posting thoughts about Chanukah for each day of the eight-day festival. Today, I’m talking about:

WOMEN

There are women associated with Chanukah. Their names are Hannah and Judith (Yehudit). That’s two women. Or maybe three. Or only one. I’ll explain.

Here’s a story about Hannah. It’s a story of sexual violation and hardly surprising, it seems to me, that it’s not told in kindergartens. But there is another story that’s told about Hannah.

Hannah witnessed all seven of her sons being tortured, one by one, and killed for refusing to bow down to an idol, or for refusing to eat pork – the story varies. Never did she beg any of them to comply with the commands in order to stay alive.

Is that the same Hannah or a different one? Then there’s Judith (Yehudit), who might also have been Hannah. She beheaded the Assyrian general, Holofernes.

Reading these stories makes me regard those ancient times as violent and dangerous. But are human beings really any better now?

We will continue to light candles and hope to bring light to a dark world.

Image by Chen from Pixabay

Thank you for reading this series of posts. I wish you all a happy and healthy 2023. My plans for 2023 begin with republishing my uplit book, Cultivating a Fuji, through Ocelot Press. More about that soon.

Categories
Holidays

Chanukah, Day 7

To make up for my recent lack of attention to this blog, I’m posting thoughts about Chanukah for each day of the eight-day festival. Today, I’m talking about:

SONGS

Festivals are not only about eating. There’s also singing. Of the many songs associated with Chanukah, here are some that I particularly like.

I’ll start with the two songs recited every evening with the lighting of the candles, but with tunes I prefer to the ones normally heard. Well, I would have done, but I couldn’t find my favourite tune for Hanerot Halalu at all on YouTube. I had to listen to numerous versions of Ma’oz Tzur until I found the one I wanted:

Of all the other songs for Chanukah, this is the one I like the best, just because of the tune:

Here’s a folk dance that’s associated with Chanukah, although it’s really about lighting candles in general. You can see the “candles” near the beginning and at the end.

Categories
Holidays

Chanukah, Day 6

To make up for my recent lack of attention to this blog, I’m posting thoughts about Chanukah for each day of the eight-day festival. Today, I’m talking about:

GREETINGS

Salutations! On the day of this post, you’re either approaching the end of a holiday, or just starting one, or neither, but I expect most of my readers will be in the first two categories, probably the second.

How do I greet those? Well, I know most people say, “Merry Christmas,” but I’m a bit wary of that because I remember certain Christians are less keen on the word “merry” because of its association with alcohol which they don’t drink. So I tend to say, “Happy Christmas.”

Likewise, “Happy Chanukah” is fine and so is “Chag Sameach” which means “Happy Holiday” and fits all the festivals.

But on most years, Chanukah is over before Christmas begins, and people feel they need to wish me something in return to my greeting, so they wish me a happy holiday season or something of that nature. While that would work for Jews living in the diapora, who are caught up in the holiday atmosphere, it doesn’t really work in Israel where life continues as usual. A better answer would be, “Thank you.” Pretend I’m wishing you happy birthday.

This year, of course, there’s no problem. So, to most readers,

🎄HAPPY HOLIDAYS!🕎

Categories
Holidays

Chanukah, Day 5

To make up for my recent lack of attention to this blog, I’m posting thoughts about Chanukah for each day of the eight-day festival. Today, I’m talking about:

SUFGANIYOT

They say that every Jewish festival can be summed up like this: They tried exterminate us; they failed; let’s eat. Chanukah follows the pattern.

Sufganiya (plural sufganiyot) is Hebrew for doughnut and shares its root with the word for sponge, due to its texture. Most are filled with jam. We prefer the ones with dulce de leche. Chocolate is also a popular filling. Some have exciting toppings.

Then there’s levivot (latkes) and other items from the various Jewish communities.

What all these foods have in common is that they’re fried in oil, linking them to the miracle, which I recounted on Day 2.

And yes, they’re all delicious and unhealthy. Fortunately, Chanukah lasts for only eight days!

Me, ten years ago
Categories
Holidays

Chanukah, Day 4

To make up for my recent lack of attention to this blog, I’m posting thoughts about Chanukah for each day of the eight-day festival. Today, I’m talking about:

SEVIVON

Sevivon is Hebrew for spinning top. In Yiddish, it’s called a dreidel.

Don McLean wrote a song about it.

On the each of the four vertical sides of the spinning top cube is a single letter that stand for a word in a sentence:

נ – Nנס – Nesmiracle
ג – Gגדול – Gadolbig
ה – Hהיה – Hayawas
פ – Pפה – Pohere

In other words: A big miracle happened here.

But that’s only in Israel. In other countries, the last letter is ש – Sh, standing for שם – Sham, meaning: there.

I’m not sure I’ve ever played with a sevivon, but there’s a tradition of playing with it while the candles are alight, usually trying to win chocolate money or low denomination coins.

Categories
Holidays

Chanukah, Day 3

To make up for my recent lack of attention to this blog, I’m posting thoughts about Chanukah for each day of the eight-day festival. Today, I’m talking about:

MENORAH

What do you call that thing you stick the candles into?

In the UK, where I grew up, we always called it a menorah. But that name is wrong and should be reserved for the seven-branched candelabrum that stood in Jerusalem’s Holy Temple.

In modern-day Jerusalem there’s a menorah, created by Benno Elkan (1877-1960) that depicts “29 formative events, figures and concepts from the Old Testament and the history of the Jewish People.”

In Israel, we stick the candles into a chanukia. It has nine branches, one of which is set apart from the rest. The candle on that branch is called the shamash and is used to light all the other candles.

Categories
Holidays

Chanukah, Day 2

To make up for my recent lack of attention to this blog, I’m posting thoughts about Chanukah for each day of the eight-day festival. Today, I’m talking about:

STORY

Do you know the story of Chanukah?

The generally accepted (though disputed) story took place in the middle of the second century B.C.E (or B.C.) when the Second Temple stood in Jerusalem. The ruler of the Land of Israel at the time, Antiochus IV of Syria, led his soldiers to massacre thousands of Jews and desecrate the Temple. A rebellion was led by Mattityahu (Mattathias) and later his son, Yehuda (Judah) the Maccabee. The Jews drove the Syrians out of Jerusalem and set about cleansing the Temple.

The seven-branched candelabrum, representing knowledge and creation, was supposed to be kept burning every day, but there was only enough olive oil to burn for one day. By a miracle, the flames kept alight for eight days, leaving the people time to find a fresh supply of oil.

Jerusalem: a light show on the Old City walls.

The festival of Chanukah concentrates on the miracle and not on massacres. It’s a fun festival and also a minor one. In recent times, its proximity to Christmas (this year they coincide) has raised its status.

Categories
Holidays

Chanukah, Day 1

To make up for my recent lack of attention to this blog, I’m posting thoughts about Chanukah for each day of the eight-day festival. Today, I’m talking about:

SPELLING

How do you spell it? I saw this list, today:

There are many more variants in Latin script. French speakers, for instance, tend to place an o before the u. Fortunately, there’s only one spelling in Hebrew:

חנוכה

Possibly, it’s significant that the topic of spelling comes up each year. The story of Chanukah involves a ‘spell’, which is called a miracle. I’ll write more about that on another day.

Whatever you’re celebrating at this season, enjoy it.

Vietnam, 2018
Categories
Books Everyday life Interviews Israel

What was I Doing in Tel-Aviv on Publication Day?

Miriam Drori, author

Yesterday was publication day for Style and the Solitary, edition 2 with Ocelot Press.

My job was to announce the occasion on social media and respond to well-wishers, as well as sharing various guest posts that bloggers had kindly posted for me.

I did just that – in the morning. And then, after lunch, I went to Tel-Aviv. Why on earth…?

Sunset in Tel-Aviv
Miriam Drori, author

The publication date had been fixed for 27th October when our musician daughter asked if we’d like to go to a birthday performance by singer Ronit Shachar, held in a garden in Tel-Aviv. We couldn’t turn that down – we knew it would be good. Besides, I reckoned that after spending the day with my novel, it would be all right to go out in the evening.

Daughter got the tickets for the four of us. Then there was a suggestion that as we were all going to be in Tel-Aviv, we could meet earlier and do other things. We ended up meeting in Yarkon Park, where we went for a longish walk, then walking by the sea around sunset and eating some delicious vegan food in a restaurant called J17.

The concert, which also included other performers like Corinne Allal, was excellent and even worth the cramped seating on damp fake grass. And the proceeds went to an animal sanctuary.

After the performance, we had to collect a rather large electric piano which was hard to fit in our van. It was after 2 a.m. when we returned home.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to do the driving, and I spent the journeys trying to catch up with all the kind posts and comments about my book launch.

On the subject of blog posts, here’s what I’ve written about various aspects of Style and the Solitary:

BloggerTopicDate
Vanessa CouchmanSteeped in France25/10/22
Kateri StanleyInterview27/10/22
Nancy JardineInspiration27/10/22
Sue BarnardWhy I turned to crime28/10/22
Jen WilsonSettingsTBA
Cathie DunnSecretsTBA

Normal life will return shortly. Maybe.