This Is Not a Post Promoting War

War kills. People die in wars. Innocent people, on both sides. There is damage to infrastructure and property. Houses and schools are destroyed. Diplomacy is obviously the preferred way to settle conflicts, but sometimes there is no alternative.

Today, Israel is at war, and the United States is fighting at our side. This is a war of choice, a war we needed to start because the danger of inaction was too great. It is an unavoidable war, one that is causing great distress to Israelis and Iranians alike, but still, it is a war that must be fought.

I’ve always said, half-jokingly, that Israel lives in a very bad neighborhood. Enemies on all sides: Hamas, Hezbollah, and even the Houthis in Yemen. There is one bad actor directing all of these terrorist groups, and that is Iran. Iran has been calling for Israel’s destruction, and for America’s as well. We needed to take these cries of hatred for what they were, nothing less than an existential danger.

Iran’s nuclear program was not being developed for peaceful reasons. It became clear long ago that the country’s leaders had been lying about their true intentions. Enriching uranium to such high levels is only necessary for the production of nuclear weapons. Similarly, Iranian ballistic missiles were only intended to be fired at Israeli cities. These plans to develop weapons of mass destruction had to be stopped.

It should be clear that there is no hatred in Israel toward the Iranian people. Decades ago, there were strong trade ties and friendships between Tel Aviv and Tehran. In recent months, Iranians took to the streets to protest against the terrorist regime that has caused them immense suffering. The Iranian people deserve better lives. This war is not targeting them.

The world was quick to shout “Free Palestine” when Israel responded in force to the murderous assault by Hamas on its citizens, but why isn’t the world crying out to “Free Iran” from its murderous leaders?

The international media was quick to headline the loss of lives in an Iranian school, yet barely mentions the loss of lives in an Israeli synagogue and bomb shelter.

Innocent civilians should not lose their lives on either side. There should be no need to resort to military action, but sometimes there is no alternative.

We hope and pray that this war ends as soon as possible. That we will have better lives, and that the Iranian people will have better lives as well.

In the meantime, whenever there is an alert of incoming missiles, we will run to our shelters and safe rooms to protect our loved ones, because in the end, that is the most important thing.

 

Originally posted on The Times of Israel.

Zeeva Bukai’s ‘Anatomy of Exile’ Wins National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction

Congratulations to author Zeeva Bukai whose novel The Anatomy of Exile has won the 75th National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction. The awards are “giv­en to Eng­lish-lan­guage books of Jew­ish inter­est… which rep­re­sent the best of Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture and authors and their con­tri­bu­tions,” the Jewish Book Council said in its announcement.

Listed as one of the Awards’ notable winners, the novel The Anatomy of Exile was published by Delphinium Books in January 2025.

My review of the book noted that its “storytelling is rich with details and the author skillfully brings the characters to life with sentimentally charged dialogues.” I wrote that “readers will be captivated by this intimate journey of an Israeli family into their self-imposed exile, and by the struggles of [its protagonist] to keep her daughter safe, her marriage intact, and to find the way to bring her family back to the country she knows as home.”

The award comes just days before the release of Bukai’s second novel, The World Between (Delphinium Books, February 24, 2026). While markedly different in setting and structure, it is similarly ambitious in scope. The novel tells the story of a once-renowned actress of the Yiddish stage who arrives in Tel Aviv, only to find herself confined to a hospice in Jaffa. It is unclear to the woman, and to readers, how she came to be there. Only by peeling back layers of memory, Holocaust survival, Siberian gulags, marriage, friendship, and long-buried trauma, do we see the full beauty of the author’s powerful and moving prose.

Bukai is certainly deserving of the National Jewish Book Award and as a reader, I look forward to her future works of fiction.

Zeeva Bukai was born in Israel and raised in New York City. Her stories have been published in Carve Magazine, Pithead Chapel, the Lilith anthology Frankly Feminist: Stories by Jewish Women, December Magazine, Image Journal, Jewishfiction.net, Women’s Quarterly Journal, and the Jewish Quarterly. She is the Assistant Director of Academic Support at SUNY Empire State University and lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Originally posted on The Times of Israel.

"Quills in the Dark" Nominated for the Pushcart Prize

I am excited to share that my short story "Quills in the Dark," published by The Loch Raven on April 20, 2025, has been nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize.

The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Small presses are allowed to submit up to six works that they have published.

Previously, my story "Jerusalem Marathon" was nominated for the Pushcart Prizen by The San Antonio Review.

Read the story "Quills in the Dark".

‘Jerusalem Marathon’ will be published by GenZ Publishing

I am excited to share my news! My new book ‘Jerusalem Marathon’ will be published by GenZ Publishing. The book is a collection of 25 short stories. These are stories of cappuccinos and porcupines, Gaza war traumas and Iranian missiles. Stories of love and death, of sandcastles and shtetls. Stories of Tel Aviv parking and Jerusalem races. You’ll soon have a chance to read them all in the new book!

Farewell to Net-Bet

The last time I addressed everyone in this conference room when I launched my new book, I started by asking, “How many of you have been to Bulgaria?” and “How many of you have gone on relocation?”

This time I’m starting with the question, “How many of you have retired?”

Well, for me it’s the first time as well.

When I joined Net-Bet in 2016, our website was available in 14 languages, and our launch in New Jersey seemed to be just weeks away. There was also talk about launching a new website. One day.

Jackpots rolled over and jackpots were won. Licenses were achieved but also markets closed. Languages were discontinued and scratchcards and casino games were introduced. And a new website finally became a reality. It’s truly been a rollercoaster of ups and downs.

During the past 9 years I wrote and edited, coded and uploaded, managed the frustrations of working with Management and Dashboard, and introduced the XTM translation platform before closing it down when we had fewer languages. And finally, I learned how to work with Lokalise. The ‘Content Guide to Working with Lokalise’ that I wrote is available on Confluence.

At Net-Bet and in TheLotter Group, I have worked alongside very talented people, learning from them and working together as we moved forward on varied projects. I won’t begin naming names, I'll only thank those who are sitting here in the room..

Today I’m leaving the Content Team, part of the Marketing Division. I thank my team for their help, support, and companionship as we worked on new and ever-changing challenges, successfully maintaining, improving, and advancing our many websites.

My hope is that the contributions I made to the team will serve as a sound launching pad for their future endeavors. I am confident that they are capable enough to handle anything and everything that will come their way.

Finally, going back to how I started this talk – this is the first time I’m retiring, so what exactly will I be doing with all my free time? I will be devoting more time to my family, that’s for sure, and even my dog will appreciate my being around the house more. I’m looking forward to volunteering, to finding ways to help improve Israeli society. I’ll have more time for writing and for learning new things. There will be plenty of ways for my wife and me to enjoy the next chapter of our lives.

I thank Net-Bet and its management for giving me the opportunity to be part of the rollercoaster world of online lottery. I wish you all huge success in the years to come.

It's Official! I Retired!

My Story Arrives in the Mail, 3 Years Later

In the Fall of 2022, my story "The Table at the Back of the Coffee Shop" was published by New Plains Review, a student-run literary journal at the University of Central Oklahoma. The journal was published as a paperback and is available for purchase at Amazon. Yesterday I received in the mail a contributor's copy of the journal.

No, the journal did not get lost in the mail - the postmark indicated it was mailed in August 2025.

It's always great to see one of my stories in print, even if it arrives three years after being published.

You can read the full story here: 

"The Table at the Back of the Coffee Shop" - short story

Qesher Book Club: Rakiya - Stories of Bulgaria

I spoke to the Qesher Book Club about my book Rakiya - Stories of Bulgaria. Qesher features books with Jewish themes, both fiction and history, so the first thing I said to my audience was "You’re probably wondering why a collection of short stories set in Bulgaria would be featured on the Qesher Book Club. I’m hoping that by the end of this evening, you will not only understand why, but you’ll also learn about the fascinating story of Bulgarian Jewry during the Holocaust."

In the talk I told about growing up in Sioux City, making Aliyah, founding Kibbutz Yahel, setting up a home on Moshav Neve Ilan, starting a career in marketing online poker, a job that took me to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, to Macau, and finally to a two-year relocation contract in Sofia.

I spoke about my books and short stories, and how my experiences on a kibbutz led to The Virtual Kibbutz and how our life in Bulgaria resulted in my writing Valley of Thracians, The Burgas Affair, and Rakiya - Stories of Bulgaria.

I gave details of my research into the subject of Bulgarian Jewry during World War, and how that fascinating period of history compelled me to write my short story "Forgiveness".

The online talk was attended by 89 people from all over - there was even someone joining in from Bulgaria. After my talk ended, there was time set for questions.

Surprisingly, many of the questions related to my growing up in Sioux City! How did my childhood there influence my writing? How did my parents end up living in Sioux City in the first place? Did I know that was where Dear Abby came from? (And Ann Landers).

I think everyone enjoyed themselves - I certainly did!