Report From the Nave
NOTE: This was written on Friday but I was only able to post it today:
I am sitting in the center of the world, sort of. Where I am is a booth whose design is inspired by the walls of Jerusalem, located right smack in the center, the nave of the Rimini Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples 2008, the annual pow-wow of Communion & Liberation.
CL, as it is popularly known here in Italy, is a Catholic faith-based movement founded by Father Luigi Giussani that came to the fore both in response to the student riots of 1968 and in reaction to the ossified Catholic establishment, to affirm that “the Christian event, lived in communion, is the foundation of the authentic liberation of man.” Since then, the movement has grown in size and scope, with communities all over the world.
Work and self-sufficiency is essential to being, according to CL. Over the years, as the movement grew and students became professionals, they established CdO, a network representing the small and medium-sized enterprises that wield enormous economic clout here in Italy where SMEs – particularly family-owned ones – comprise a large part of all businesses.
Some people stop by this booth because they want to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Others want to do that, but would like to do business as well – and there’s no contradiction in terms, as far as CL is concerned. Because the Holy Land as a living, breathing modern entity is also integral to CL’s belief, it established CdO Jerusalem, headed by my significant other, Jonathan Sierra. Which is how I got to this desk and WiFi hookup here in the middle of everything.
And there is quite a lot to see. The Rimini Fiera exhibition center comprises six halls, hundreds of booths and pavilions on 460,000 square meters of grounds that include an on-site railway station and a helicopter landing pad – the better to serve the numerous leaders from across the political and religious spectrum arriving on a daily basis to make pronouncements at the Meeting. I am telling you, this event is a very big deal.
The theme of this year’s Meeting is “O Protagonisti, O Nessuno” – this unfortunately translates literally as “Either Protagonists or Nobodies” – which I am assured is as opaque in Italian as it is in English. In any case, the intention is to have visitors reflect on the concept of the person. (Click here for a better explanation).
You wouldn’t think that a heavy topic like this could be made fun for the masses, but CL has done it in a sort of mass city-cum-country-fair. There are lectures, literary cafes, kiddie shows, sing-a-longs, shows, and numerous didactic exhibitions — one I liked in particular was about finding spiritual redemption while in the bonds of physical imprisonment, sponsored by a prison baking collective.
Plus, there are also important visitors to the Meeting, ranging from then Pope John Paul II to author Chaim Potok, Polish union leader turned President Lech Walesa to modern dance pioneer Martha Graham, inspirations such as Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama to literary lights like Eugene Ionesco. Each year, Israel’s Ambassador to the Vatican – yes, we have one and his name is Motti Levi — pays his respects, and several important Israeli encounters with the Arab world have taken place at the Meeting.
On Tuesday night, prizewinning Israeli author Aharon Appelfeld spoke — gave his testimony, as they call it here — to the Meeting about The Beauty and Positivity of Life.
It is quite interesting to observe a Catholic audience in the 21st century listening to a Jew speak about his near escape from destruction. Appelfeld, known for works such as Badenheim 1939 and Story of A Life, told the listening audience – numbering in the hundreds — he would “present a series of sensations, images and emotions which molded me and my generation” — referring to the time “when Jewish children were condemned to death”, himself included.
Coming to pre-State Israel at the age of 13 where, he said, “the Jewish past was regarded as a curse from which one had to escape” had no healing effect. What ultimately reconstituted his soul was his discovery of the Biblical narrative that informs his writing, and the resurrection of Hebrew, “the language that bound me to my grandparents… I, who came from Hell, needed a primordial language like that to speak for me. The Hebrew language not only opened my heart, it also connected me to my ancestors and their ancestors.” There is a full video recording of Appelfeld’s speech online and someone has kindly posted a transcript as well.
Whew! I didn’t mean to get all heavy just there. But that is the nature of this event – it moves from the material to the spiritual and back again – the sort of discourse that we are so accustomed to in Israel as well.
Better than Paul?
With Beatlemania belatedly in full swing in these parts, ahead of the September 25 appearance in Tel Aviv of Paul McCartney, the $130 tickets are being gobbled up at a rapid pace.
I’ve been underwhelmed at the prospects of seeing Sir Paul with 69,999 other aging Beatles fans. Sure, if I was presented a ticket on a silver platter, I’d be there without a moment’s hesitation. But aside from hearing maybe 8 or 10 Beatles classics, one of them probably being “Michelle”, the only clunker on Rubber Soul, the rest of the show is going to be… well, Paul’s solo career.
Let’s face it, the legends that claim an imposter took over after Paul was killed in that 1966 car crash, may not be too far from accurate. Sure the fake Paul mustered on with stellar work through the White Album and Let It Be, but by the time his solo career was launched, he was plumb out of ideas. There have been occasional moments of that old Beatles magic in “Band on The Run”, and, uh… er.., well, some of those songs with Elvis Costello in the late 80s like “My Brave Face” were pretty punchy. But is anyone going to be happy listening to his latest offerings off Memory Almost Full, albeit his critically lauded latest album?
Pondering these issues, I took the wife and younger kids to see a Beatles tribute band on Thursday night in Jerusalem’s Safra Square at an end of summer free show for the city’s residents.
The Magical Mystery Tour Band has been together for seven years, and man, are they good! Not only do they sound as close to The Beatles classic sound as is humanly possible, they also play with the enthusiasm of the Fab Four on The Ed Sullivan Show.
It was one classic after another non-stop, from “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “All My Loving” to “And Your Bird Can Sing” and “Back in the USSR”. Even though these guys are native Hebrew speakers, their vocals are dead on, and their harmonies were fantastic.
As much as seeing Paul McCartney up on stage, even if he looked like a postage stamp in size, would be a once-in-a-lifetime thrill, for reliving the magic and wonder that was The Beatles, the Magical Mystery Tour did just fine.
Flipping presence
As of today, the Jewish month of Elul has begun, which means that thousands of post-high school American yeshiva and seminary students are beginning to arrive in Jerusalem in droves. Just as the main international tourism season has wound down, and a few weeks before the autumn holidays bring a new batch of American family pilgrims, the influx of teenagers who have left their parents’ homes for the first time ever, here on a spiritual quest, can be felt everywhere. More English is spoken on buses and on streets, and the pubs are packed with young people getting sloshed in public for the first time.
The influx of yeshiva kids is a bona fide phenomenon when it comes to the Jerusalem leisure and urban atmospheric scenes, but it’s even more of an attention grabber when it comes to the sociological impact that such years of study have on the individual Jews involved as well as on the communities who spawn and send them.
Published by Yashar Books together with Yeshiva University, Modern Orthodoxy’s seminal institution, Flipping Out? Myth or Fact: The Impact of the ‘Year in Israel’ tackles these very issues. Named after a song by Blue Fringe that self-mockingly recounts the experience of becoming observant to the extreme in Jerusalem, the book meditates on the experience of yeshiva study as a rite of passage that changes the student’s outlook on religious life, and it also questions the impact of this phenomenon on American Orthodox Judaism, which is said to be moving steadily towards the Right.
In its review, The Observer, the YU student paper, asserts that “This book is a brave attempt to begin answering the plethora of questions that students, parents and observers raise about the seeming dramatic effects of the experience.”
But Miriam Shaviv over at The Forward disagrees, focusing on how the empirical backbone of the study betrays its moniker:
But you cannot properly discuss “flipping out” by looking at how many halachic stringencies students, on average, adopt. “Flipping out” is a minority sport that has as much to do with emotional and psychological factors as with halachic ones. Students who are affected may have trouble relating to their family; become obsessive and dogmatic about some aspects of religion, and shed central parts of their old personality. These are all harder to measure, but without addressing these issues substantially, the book cannot be said to be about “flipping out” at all.
So is the “year in Israel” experience essentially one of measurable spiritual acculturation or is it an ephemeral rite of passage? It doesn’t matter. They’re on their way regardless. Flipping aye.
Tel Aviv is the new Miami
The Tel Aviv municipality has launched several information points for tourists – except you might have a tiny bit of a problem locating them since they are mobile!
Our friends at Green Prophet report:
The unique, colorful Segways can be found on the streets of Tel Aviv seven days a week from 13:00 – 19:00, particularly in areas of concentrated tourist traffic such as the Tel Aviv Port, the boardwalk or tayelet along the seashore, Jaffa, the Neveh Tzedek neighborhood and Rothschild Boulevard. The stewards on the Segways offer tourists general information and details about events and special happenings in the city, and distribute maps, flyers and promotional material that will help the tourist make the most out of his time in the city.
It seems like Tel Aviv has finally warmed up to the huge potential the city has a tourist destination and the potential revenue that such a destination can bring. The Association for Tourism Tel-Aviv-Jaffa has also recently launched a new website promoting tourism to Tel Aviv (though the video on launch is a huge web design no-no). The site features events, nightlife, restaurants, free walking tours, bus tours and of course Tel Aviv’s incredible and accessible beaches.
Foto Friday
Head to Holon, Israel’s new cultural mecca, to view the photographs of Meir Paz, and what he sees in the peeling bark of the eucalyptus tree. The trees aren’t native to Israel, but were planted in great numbers at the turn of the century because of their ability to drain swamps, create shady forests and supply wood.
These elegant trees lose their bark gradually over time, and as a result, comments Paz on trekearth, one can see naturally carved shapes on their trunks — kind of like images in the clouds — that can look like people, animals and other abstract forms. Paz was so fascinated by this when he discovered the phenomenon that he goes back “again and again to spend hours near them in order to photograph and commemorate their special appearance.”
“Face of the Eucalyptus” will be shown at the Holon Theater, Yad Lebanim, 11 Kugel Avenue, Holon, opening September 4.
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