Posted Writings

Canaanite Sculpture-Israel Museum, Jerusalem (photo by Geoffrey Clarfield) Every year, I spend time in Israel. This year, I am here as a film producer and writer for two documentary films and two books that will be based on these documentaries, all on Jewish themes of one sort or another. And every year my wife Mira and I visit the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. It is a marvelous place dedicated to exploring the relationship of the Bible to its wider Egyptian and Mesopotami

Mosaic Floor from Byzantine Synagogue in the Land of Israel (photo by Geoffrey Clarfield) The secular men and women, and the modern Orthodox soldiers of the IDF deserve our gratitude and praise. They have fought and continue to fight an on and off war on seven fronts, against implacable enemies of the Jewish People and the State of Israel. Many of their best friends and close relatives have died in battle or have been wounded. And, they are fighting during an exponential rise

Famous people like to come to Marrakech and why not?  Winston Churchill did it. Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti did and so did Brian Jones and the rest of the Rolling Stones. There were so many and then there was me. Marrakech is the city from which we get the name of Morocco. It is a flat town whose old city is surrounded by red walls, punctuated by Moorish gates. The town is not industrial and despite the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit it each year to get a ta

Ein Kerem December 16, 2025 I walk the streets This ancient town Terraced homes Cobbled roads All connected None alone When winter’s rains Come tumbling down Shops all shuttered Doors shut tight I recall the tune of evening prayers Psalms of David Beside lite rail I wake the cats Who own the night I heard the younger children laugh They have no need of smarter phones At night in mother’s, father’s home I took the well worn Limestone path You turn one way Then you turn round T

Wren Library at Cambridge University (Cmglee/Wikimedia) I recently visited Trinity College at Cambridge University. I was based in London, so I took the “fast train” from Euston Train Station at Russell Square. The fast train simply means that the train does not stop on the way. It takes a little more than an hour to arrive. Part of the pleasure of the journey is that you get to see from your window bedroom communities, quaint-looking small towns, farms, and the English count

An alligator drives a car He cannot get very far For he will be blocked here By golfers under par So far, so good It is right that he should Should, could, would Catch the iguana At the fourth hole’s wood Should, would, good If he would wanna Remember the Bwana The authentic wannabe A dressed up chief Drinking British tea We shall see, he shall see We are all doing CBT Behaviour therapy, Cognitive with a C I can’t let the idea Get loose from me It ties me up Like a rope and

Israelis shopping  in Mahanei Yehuda Market, Jerusalem I once used to live and work in Israel. Since that time I have come back for regular visits. Of course, close family and friends draw me back. But I also come just to watch and absorb what is going on around me for Israel is always changing and yet, I would like to think at some level it does not. Year to year, it is almost physically unrecognizable. What was once an open field, plain or hill, is suddenly covered with hou

I spent a week in Manhattan just before Zohran Mamdani got elected. It was clear to me that the tide was moving in his favor. Despite all the hustle and bustle and robust capitalism of the place, New Yorkers have been moving to the left for decades. Cultural Marxism and its alliance with radical Islam are growing rapidly in the minds of more and more New Yorkers. (Read about the Red–Green alliance ). And now, just like that other capital of the Anglosphere, London, New York h

Newly excavated extension of the Western Wall with inscriptions. (Photo by Geoffrey Clarfield) I first set foot in Jerusalem in 1971. I was an agricultural volunteer on a kibbutz and with my modest pay, took a bus to Jerusalem, stayed in a youth hostel, and toured the new city and the old city, mostly on foot. I walked for miles. I visited every above and below archaeological and historical site that I could, as well as all the museums. I was enthralled. More than five decade

May 09 2023: Dr. Jane Goodall on a Roots and Shoots event A few days ago, on October 1, 2025, Dr. Jane Goodall, world-famous primatologist, writer, and conservationist, died. She was 91. She pioneered the long-term, in-depth field study of chimpanzees and inspired a generation of primatologists and conservationists. Not content with being a world-famous scientist, she also became an advocate for biodiversity, conservation, and that ever so hard to define idea, sustainability