Trees and Shrubs of Israel - Book Review

April 2008 Life in Israel Travel Israel Literature

By Noam Kirshenbaum;

Illustrations by Tuvia Kurtz

Nature in Israel, publishers. NIS 29

Noam Kirshenbaum has produced a new addition to his popular series of guides to nature in Israel. His latest, 'Trees and Shrubs of Israel', joins three previously published guides to Israeli birds, mammals and wildflowers. Like the others, 'Trees and Shrubs' is a twelve-paneled laminated cardboard pamphlet—just the right size to be slipped into the side pocket of a backpack.

With superb illustrations by Tuvia Kurz, Kirshenbaum presents short but informative descriptions of no fewer than fifty trees and shrubs that are indigenous to Israel. We are introduced to several species of desert, woodland, riverside, oasis and planted forest trees, along with ten varieties of wild shrub. Each description is concise and the illustrations are clear and painstakingly done.

As with his other 'Nature in Israel' guides, Kirshenbaum's 'Trees and Shrubs in Israel' can be purchased at local bookstores, in National Park giftshops and in camping supply stores. The cost of each guide is NIS 29; a giftpack of all four guides can be had for NIS 99.

About the author

Carl Hoffman

Carl Hoffman grew up in Boston and was educated in New York and Philadelphia. He held a Ph.D. degree in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, and lived among headhunting groups in Borneo and a remote hill tribe in the Philippines.

He worked as a university lecturer in the United States, a research anthropologist in Indonesia, and as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines; followed by a series of odd jobs with the U.S. State Department Refugee Programs, the Philippine Department of Education, and the Japanese Embassy in Manila. Dr. Hoffman lived in Israel since 1997 with his wife and two children.

Semi-employed as a freelance writer, his articles appeared more or less regularly in The Jerusalem Post and ESRAmagazine, and sporadically elsewhere. He was amazed and deeply grateful to have won a “First Place” award for “Excellence in Feature Writing” from the American Jewish Press Association for his article, “19 Hours and 20 Minutes in Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station,” published in the U.S. by Moment Magazine.

Carl is the author of two books: Punan (1986), an anthropological study of a jungle tribe in Borneo, and Lovetaps (2003), a collection of short stories. Dr. Hoffman also taught an advanced course in reading comprehension of academic writing for students in the social sciences at Israel’s Open University.

Dr. Carl Hoffman passed away in December 2019.

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