Foto Friday – Never Forget
Keeping The Memory Alive (Children in the Holocaust) is a poster contest being mounted across the world to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is today (Friday).
An international panel of distinguished judges, comprising experts in both design and in Holocaust Education, selected the 16 best posters from more than 300 submitted by design students from France, Israel and the Czech Republic. They were asked to present works on the theme of Holocaust commemoration, with an emphasis on the nature of memory and the plight of children.
The three finalists designed posters that stood out for their originality, beauty, and meaning.
The work by Veronica Novakova, a designer from the Czech Republic, portrays a well-known childhood punishment. “Traditionally, to correct a child’s errant behavior, an adult will force the ‘naughty’ child to write his misdeed over and over again, until he ‘learns his lesson.’ In this case, the misdeed is written by a child who is forced to denounce his friendship with a Jewish friend.
Designer Martina Cejpova also explores the effect the Nazi anti-Jewish policy had on children. “In her poster, she depicts a universally-recognized image from childhood: a hopscotch board, chalked onto the pavement. This particular game, however, is marred by a hateful symbol of discrimination drawn onto its cross-arms – the yellow star. Its inclusion here indicates that the insidious and pervasive hatred perpetrated by the adult world has also filtered down to the world of children, destroying their innocence.”
French designer Boris Grzeszcak deals with another theme in his work – the nature of memory. “His black-and-white poster presents a striking image of a scarred tree cut to expose the rings. A deep gash cuts to the very core of the trunk, where the word “emet” (truth) is written in tiny letters… [The artist says,] ‘The truth resides in the act of remembering and above all, never forgetting these dramatic events.’”
Peter Chmela of the Czech Republic says, “This poster wants to show the impotence of Jewish children against the Nazi soldiers. I tried to illustrate this theme with a big contrast between soldier and child.”
Yael Boverman, Israel: “The object that a survivor carries throughout a lifetime enables him or her to keep their memory alive. The closet symbolizes a collective closet, reflecting the repressed memories of the Jewish people as a whole. For every survivor, the memory is forever present under the thin veil of everyday functioning, represented by the new shirts, but at the bottom of the stack, there always lies the shirt kept from a different time – the persisting memory of a past that refuses to be abandoned.”
The project is funded by the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF), together with Yad Vashem, Israel; Mémorial de la Shoah, France; and the European Shoah Legacy Institute, Czech Republic; in cooperation with the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme.
In addition to the posters, there is also a lesson plan that provides tools to aid students and teachers in discussing the more universal aspects of memory — as well as the challenges facing those who use the visual arts to commemorate the Holocaust today.
Olive pit spitting: don’t try this at home, kids
Pit spitting in Spain
If its organizers were not so earnest, this would definitely qualify for the world’s wackiest competitive sport: olive pit spitting. Yes, there is an association, the International Federation of Olive Pit Spitting that operates out of Spain and is promoting pit spitting to be included as an official sport at the next Olympics.
Now, Israel is getting in the game. The Givat Brenner Pickled Olive Festival has invited the pit spitting federation to come to Israel and run our first official contest. Israel21c’s Viva Sarah Press reports that event is scheduled for February 10-11, 2012 at the Givat Brenner Nurseries.
Now before you fire up the TV and play Monty Python’s “Spot the Loony” game, consider this: olive pit spitting may go back to the stone age. According to the federation, prehistoric cave paintings depicting the sport were found in the Spanish city of Cieza; the town would like the pictures to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Right…
Archaeologists speculate that the competitions moved from caves to villages and, by the time of the Greeks, were even proposed for the Olympic games (they lost to the Discus Throwing Competition). The pit spitting website also goes into great detail about how the sport was banned (Islam didn’t much care for it, so Christians needed to play clandestinely).
The rules for a pit spitting competition are remarkably detailed. Participants with false teeth are recommended to “fix them well into place…the organization will not be held responsible for any injuries.” Ditto if “a participant experiences abdominal pain caused by a massive ingestion of stones,” or if a stone hits someone on the head (that spitter will also be disqualified). And just to be sure, the rules state that there must be no sexism – men and women are invited to compete in full equality.
As for the Israeli competition, our Sabra newbies have their work cut out for them. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the number one spit projectile at 21.32 meters.
As they used to say on television: “don’t try this at home kids.”
First Laundry
By Avi (Alden) Solovy
The scene: the basement laundry room in a new off-campus housing complex for students and guests of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. I’m with Ellen, a remarkably sweet woman from Albany, NY, who’s showing me how to work the machines. Ellen and her husband Jack, a couple in their 60s, are regular participants in the BGU winter semester ulpan where I’m also a more mature student. It was my first experience doing laundry in Israel.
Together we had three loads, but there were only two available machines. Someone left laundry in the others. We each started a load. A man came in, asked about the machines full of wet clothing. Not ours, we told him. He took the clothing out of one washer and put it in a dryer. I followed his lead, moving laundry from one machine to a dryer. So did Ellen.
Moments later a young woman stormed in, upset that her laundry had been moved. Five people are talking, questioning, arguing in two languages at once. She’s downright indignant.
“Don’t you know these machines are for students who live here, not just anyone who wants to use them?” she said. And: “You shouldn’t touch my laundry.” I pulled out my student ID and told her that we’re students, that we live in this complex and that I asked another student the protocol for the laundry room.
“Okay, okay, I was just shocked.” She started her dryer and left.
After we got our laundry going, Ellen and I moved to the adjacent study lounge. There, sitting at one of the desks, was the angry woman from the laundry, Adar from Eilat. She shoots a smile that says, what’s done is done, no problem! – and says hello. We get acquainted. She wonders why I’m considering aliyah. We talk about Jews living in our own land. I ask about her family. We talk in Hebrew and in English. Good practice for us both.
Adar’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Her grandfather came here in his teens, spoke no Hebrew, knew nothing and no one. “It was a rough life,” she said. Her family now lives in Haifa and Eilat. “You should come to Eilat.” Her mother can fix me up with a date, she said.
Adar plays guitar and writes love songs. She’s a scuba diver. Near the end of our conversation, she confesses that she doesn’t actually live in these dorms. She shrugs. We laugh.
I forgot to ask her what she studies here at BGU. No problem! We traded phone numbers. Perhaps we’ll catch coffee. Or a beer.
It’s true, what they say. You can argue with an Israeli and, when it’s over, you can make a friend.
Shoe shopping
Need shoes? Then again, does one ever, really, need shoes?
After years of not enough shoes in Israel, unattractive imported shoes or too-familiar, Teva Naot, Nimrod and other sandal-focused shoes — Israeli shoe designers have been multiplying at a welcome rate, joined by their brethren in spirit and style, accessories designers.
In fact, there are so many shoemakers, so to speak, that shoe and accessories man Jonathan Proim — whose wife Michal Miller is one of the designers — is hosting the second Zugot (Pairs) shoe fair this coming weekend.
Held at Beitan 10 of the Tel Aviv fairgrounds — Ganei Hataarucha — there will be 40 brands, 30 of them shoes, selling their wares at end-of-year prices. Most of the designers are local, but there are some imported brands, such as Fly London, which carries a certain Israeli sensibility, says Proim.
Last fair, some 8,000 people attended over the course of two days, and he says the designers have learned to up their inventory before setting up for the fair, and will have enough shoes to meet demand.
The fair will also include accessories, bags, socks and tights, and shoes for men, women and children. But no Crocs.
Friday, January 27-Saturday, January 28
10-7 Friday
10-10 Saturday
NIS 10 entrance fee
Internet medicine is coming: doctors protest
In my last post, I wrote about how I managed to get an MRI done in a hurry by arranging it in Beer Sheva, rather than Jerusalem where I live. The trip was a schlep, but the best part of the experience was actually after the fact.
Rather than needing to call the hospital for the results and then have them faxed to me, I was given a website, username and password and told to simply log in a week later, where my MRI information would all be online. I am happy to report that the system worked as promised.
It’s not the first time I’ve been able to handle medical issues via my computer in Israel. I can routinely check the results of blood tests – they’re updated in real time – and I can also request and receive permission for a referral to a specialist and even make appointments without ever picking up the phone.
Sounds like Israel’s HMOs are finally getting their digital act together. Which was why I was rather surprised to open the morning paper and discover that doctors and the Israel Association of Family Physicians were loudly protesting increased use of the Internet for the very functions I’ve found so useful. The reason: it’s likely to “downgrade the professional status” of doctors.
The complaints so far are being directed at the Clalit HMO, probably following a very public advertising campaign to raise awareness among the public of the new services being offered. Clalit is the nation’s largest HMO with 3.9 million insurees.
Listen to what some of the doctors quoted in the article are saying: “You no longer have to go to the doctor – the clerk in the branch will do what you ask via the Internet.” How is that a bad thing? It saves time for both the patient and physician.
And “this campaign and others continue to destroy the image of the expert family doctor, which was created with great effort – the doctor who specialized for years and is a professional in his field and provides good medical care for his patients.” Oh really, how exactly do you spoil the image of the gruff, abrupt Israeli doctor with no observable bedside manners? Sure, the Internet has no bedside manner, but you don’t expect it to.
The physician’s association was more measured. “There is room for online work alongside a family doctor, as well as for the use of various technologies, but… there should be limitations.” That is, “Internet medicine is good when it’s done in moderation.
Look, no one is saying that a website can replace a doctor entirely, heaven forbid! If my Internet service provider says cough or bend over, I’m making sure that I’m still on the Israelity site and not some “other” URL. Still, anyone who has ever waited hours in a cold Israeli HMO clinic fighting with the other patients over who was there first (“I was after him” is as common at the doctor’s office as in the line in the supermarket), increased computerization is the last thing I’d want stifled.
A Clalit spokesperson got it right: “We have to suit the service to a new generation that wants quick answers and quick service. Medicine is no different from other services, such as those of an electric company or a bank….why can you get forms on the Internet today from any government institution, and only in medicine will people have to continue visiting the clinic and waiting in line? In such a situation, the patient will also develop greater responsibility for his health.”
The services offered by Clalit are still rather limited and can always be superseded by a doctor’s request – for example, in many cases you can renew a prescription automatically over the web, but the doctor can insist the patient come in for an appointment first.
The real revolution – and the one the doctors probably fear the most – is when the HMOs start providing complete transparent access to your entire medical records. Imagine the whining that will arise when you or I can actually see what our doctors have written about us – entirely unmediated by the professional judgment of an inflexible stethoscope.
Clalit hopes to launch the new service by the middle of 2012. Physician: heal thyself.
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