ADRIAN J BOAS

Having given expression to my love of cats, I have to make it clear to those demented few who find this an aberration, that I grew up...

I am a cat lover. I admit it without hesitation. There is something delightful about cats, about their independence and playfulness, and...

With anticipation, as the weddings of my two still unmarried sons approach this spring, it occurs to me that of the many great and small...

With the current outbreak of the corona virus - COVID-19, it is interesting to note how attitudes range between fear bordering on...

Last week, I took a group of students on a field trip to some rural sites in the Judaean hills. When we encountered an arched doorway in...

If streets and lanes are the veins and arteries of cities, city squares are their beating hearts. Trafalgar Square, Place de la Concorde,...

The Dead Sea is dying. It has been for some time. Since I first saw it a half century ago the shallow south of the lake has all but...

When I was sixteen, I pestered my mother into agreeing to buy me a pair of pale blue, chequered, bell-bottom trousers. Today I would not...

Last week I observed an interview on Israeli television of the writer whose recent book opposed certain views that were expressed in the...

My mother, thin and frail in her old age, though never frail of mind, passed away at the age of 89, after a brief but painful battle with...

We are not always certain about how to look after fragile things. Sometimes our efforts to care for them only endanger them the more. It...

The two most dramatic approaches to a city that I know are those of Venice and Jerusalem. Venice is approached across a flat expanse of...

What is a miracle? Something that defies logic, that does not accord with our understanding of nature, something that we cannot explain....

In nature, imitation has very practical functions. Mimicking of appearance, smell, sound and movement serves a variety of purposes. Some...

When I was fifteen my older brother left home and I inherited his bedroom, actually a little wooden shed at the far end of the garden...

In many countries the ever-rising number of private vehicles on the roads has made for massive traffic jams at peak hours, and the root...

In 2014, shortly after I moved into my apartment in downtown Jerusalem, one of the seasonal conflicts between Israel and the Hamas...

My favourite childhood book was titled The Big Book of Pegmen Tales. It was - and hold on tight to your seats for this - about a family...

As an expatriate who's "homing thoughts" (in the words of the song) fly to that now sadly blackened country, I dedicate this small piece...

My mother had a beaded belt, which I think she came into possession of during a childhood holiday in New Mexico. It was quite a beautiful...