Blog of note: Jerusalem Wanderings

jerusalem wanderings is a new blog by, Leah, an American born Israeli woman. She's only been blogging since April, so if you go there now you can read all the posts pretty quickly and be on board for what looks like a great blog to follow. There are several reasons why I love reading jw. For one thing, if you follow events in Israel, even if you follow them closely, it's hard to get any sense of what life is like for people living there. Leah gives many wonderful details that capture bits of daily life in Jerusalem. Also, I like her politics. Outside of Israel, if you're on the left about Israeli-Palestinian issues and you love Israel, you can end up feeling quite embattled and lonely. Leah doesn't pontificate about politics. She reports on Israeli-Palestinian peace movement stuff, but mostly her politics are expressed in what she tells about her personal interactions and experiences. Leah's been living in Israel probably for 20 years or more. There's plenty personal and political that could make her cynical and bitter. But her love of life in Israel is intoxicating. Her love of Palestinians and their culture is also clear. She doesn't hesitate to call folks on their stupid racist assumptions about Palestinians. Let's, see what else . . . the writing is unpretentious and really good. Anyway, go read it . . .

(I found jw while surfing the Jewish Bloggers Webring ( >>) and then realized I'd already read about it in my friend Rebecca's blog, Mystical Politics. Rebecca is currently collecting links to blogs by Orthodox / ultra-Orthodox / Hasidic Jews. If you want to learn about that world, you can find some good links on Mystical Politics. If you know of some good Ortho blogs, stop at Rebecca's blog and leave her a comment or email her with your links.)

Correction: Heard from Leah herself, who told me she's been living in Israel 10 years, not 20. I guessed wrong based on the ages of her children. I assumed her children were all born in Israel, but that was not the case.