- The New York Times reports that Israel “moved closer to its goal of energy independence on Sunday as natural gas from a large offshore field began flowing into the country.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the development “an important step toward energy independence.” In 2011, Ben Sales reported on John Brown, the founder of Zion Oil and Gas, a company that drills only in Israel and relies on the Bible for guidance on where to drill. “I asked God for the oil, and I believe he heard my prayer,” Brown said. In our March/April 2013 issue, managing editor Sarah Breger looked at the status of Israel’s once-pioneering solar energy industry, which, according to many of its stars, has stalled due to bureaucratic red tape.
- Happy opening day! To celebrate the start of baseball season, read David Elfin’s 2011 piece on the golden age of Jewish baseball (spoiler alert: it’s now).
- New York magazine has remembrances of things past in their “Childhood in New York” feature. Former politician Anthony Weiner recalls: “You were either a Union temple kid or a Garfield temple kid. It was like a Reform Jewish version of the Sharks and the Jets, and we were a Union temple family.” Musician Regina Spektor remembers: “I came to New York from Russia via Vienna and Italy when I was about 9 and a half. We lived in this walk-up on Kingsbridge that was kind of cool—there were a few Russian families who moved there all at the same time, so we had a lot of friends in the building. But there were bars on the windows, and a lot of cockroaches, and it was kind of scary in its own way.”
