BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

I never learned there was any Jewish heritage in my family until I was in my early 40s. There was talk... whispers... but nothing conclusive said or seen. My father is from New England stock. A family that goes all the way back to the Mayflower, a small historic cemetery in Oxford, Mass., familial relations to American writer Booth Tarkington and a pride in all things American. I only dated one Jewish man - twice. We worked together and after two dinners on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where we both lived I finally told him that he, being a Modern Orthodox Jew and I, being Catholic -- there was no way this relationship would ever be anything but a friendship. I was very involved in my acting career, I was traveling a lot, and while his parents seemed to like me I was a shiksa ... I would always be a shiksa and I just didn't have the time or inclination to be involved with anyone, let alone someone who's culture (I felt) would never accept me. I was involved with o...

With my dearest friend up and moving out of the country in which she was born and raised, partly because of the fear of the rise of militant Islam where she is now... I felt this article was particularly timely. by Ruthie Blum 'I always thought I'd be writing novels," says Bat Ye'or, her wistfulness somehow adding an extra touch of class to her thick French accent. "Not such serious work." Given the gravity of her subject matter, and what some might consider her alarmist way with words, this is hard to believe. But then, so is the historian's life story, which is the stuff that sagas are made of. Hers began in Egypt during World War II. The daughter of a middle-class Jewish family named Orebi, Bat Ye'or (her trademark pseudonym, which in Hebrew means "daughter of the Nile") fled with her parents to England in 1957 - after suffering the brunt of the anti-Semitism she claims characterized the entire Arab world. In 1959, she married a Briton - ...

TRULY FRIGHTENING Time Out's London Edition this time is really scary. Take a look - do you think this a GOOD THING? Well, its certainly being presented as such. From TIME OUT: THE ISLAMIC ISSUE Is London's future Islamic? Islam is the fastest growing religion in London. Despite benefiting from a mutually nourishing relationship for centuries, a misunderstanding of the Muslim community still lingers in London. In this issue Time Out asks what is the root of this suspicion? What can we learn from Islam? And if the capital becomes a predominately Muslim city in years to come, what would this actually mean? Would you be enriched or enraged? LINK TO THE MAGAZINE HERE PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME