Foto Friday – Sharon Yaari
Was it real or did I dream it? Photography on one hand, can document fact. On the other hand, it creates illusions, presents images without context to leave any narrative up to the observer, or records people, places, and things that have passed. By its very nature, photographs are short-lived, comprised of fragile paper, film, or – worse yet – digital data that will disappear forever with one good wave of a magnet.
SharonYaari is an award winning photographer whose work has long dealt with the temporal. His new solo show “Jerusalem Boulevard” now at the Sommer Gallery in Tel Aviv are large-format photos of things readily identifiable as part of daily life in Israel: a checkered blanket of the kind that everyone used to have (we called them “sochnut blankets” when I made aliya, because the Jewish Agency distributed them to new immigrants); a classic semicircular Tel Aviv Bauhaus balcony; Ibex lying under a eucalyptus tree; a chair and some flowers; a woman at what is clearly (for Israelis) a memorial site.
They are at once familiar and at the same time, raise questions on a practical level: Do they make those blankets any more? Aren’t the Ibex in danger of extinction? Will the Bauhaus structures, whose architectural philosophy never intended them to stand forever, survive urban pollution? Is that woman from the Twenties? The Forties? The Eighties? Now?
They also raise questions on an existential level… does everything fade and die as undoubtedly these flowers did long ago?
“Jerusalem Boulevard” will be at the Sommer Gallery through March 21st.
Belly dancing on the Red Sea
Filed under: coexistence, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Pop Culture
In a trend that runs parallel to the exploding popularity of pole dancing lessons among North American soccer moms, Israeli women – even Baby Boom-generation Ashkenaziot (Jews of Eastern European descent) – have been flocking to belly dancing activities and workshops in recent years.
The art form’s renaissance in Israeli culture, which always seems to be searching for ways to marry Middle Eastern folk arts with contemporary lifestyles, was on display in full force this past weekend in Eilat, where the fifth annual International Belly Dance Festival took place with much fanfare at the Golden Tulip hotel, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Workshops with over 20 instructors from around the world introduced participants to a variety of schools of thought on the subject of abdominal writhing. A wares fair offered goods like Turkish outfits, Indian jewelry and Egyptian recordings. A belly dance-off allowed participants from Russia, France, Germany Belgium and Israel to compete for a slot in an upcoming Berlin competition as part of that city’s Bazar Oriental festival.
And recital performances kept those in attendance entertained, thanks to shimmying from the likes of Egyptian-bred Magdy El-Leisy and Moroccan-raised Mayodi.
Image of an Israeli belly dancer courtesy YanivG from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
Voting in the Israeli elections with a compass
With elections only 11 days away, it looks like a shoe-in for the Likud party led by Binyamin Netanyahu. But according to polls, there’s about 400,000 voters – which almost 10% of eligible voters – who haven’t yet decided which of the 34 parties running for Knesset to vote for.
You could count me as one of them. Alot of friends and acquaintances are voting for the Green Movement-Meimad ticket, but I fear they’re going to get 90% of the vote among liberal religious Anglo residents of southern Jerusalem neighborhoods like Baka and Talpiot, and 0.2% everywhere else.
Will they cross the threshold of minimum votes to gain at least one Knesset seat and not result in a wasted vote? Their TV ads aren’t very convincing – using Rabbi Michael Melchior giving a speech instead of utilizing one of the young, dynamic members on the list like Alon Tal. Melchior’s fine, but he’s a known entity, and his Meimad party has limited support around the country.
Perplexed, I ended up on this site my wife told me about – the Election Compass - a multiple choice questionaire about different issues related to Israel’s security mostly. Based on your answers, you receive a report with a compass on the political map pointing to the party you should be voting for – or at least the general vicinity.
Launched by the Israel Democracy Institute, the site had nearly 500,000 visitors by Thursday. Questions like ‘Would you be willing to give up Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem for a Palestinian state?’ have to be answered with a ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’ checkpoint range.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the model was initiated in the Netherlands for that country’s 2006 elections and was eventually used by 3.4 million people out of 12.6 million voters. The Israeli version was developed by a team of IDI scholars and researchers lead by Senior Fellow Prof. Asher Arian.
“The compass has three main goals,” Arian told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. “The first is to help the perplexed voter find his position within the Israeli political map. The second is to encourage parties to be more forthcoming with specifics regarding their various platforms. And the third is to encourage political participation. We’re very concerned about the low participation rate in Israel, and we thought that this could add a buzz.”
After dutifully answering the questionaire, I awaited the tally and the compass page to find out who I should be voting for. And, my compass pointed to an area populated by – guess what – the Green Movement-Meimad.
Cold remedies
Winter colds are insinuating themselves into our family unit these days, despite the warm weather. Or perhaps it’s because of the warm, unusually sunny days — where’s the winter rain?? — and cold Jerusalem nights.
For the larger people in the house, we’ve been trying two different remedies: one is Liptons’ Echinacea Winter Infusion tea, a really great-tasting combo of echinacea, ginger, lemongrass, nettle leaves, basil, turmeric and cloves. With some honey stirred in, it makes any sore throat feel a lot better.
And then a good friend turned me on to this hot water concoction:
1 cup of water
1 dried chili pepper
couple slices of lemon
one clove garlic sliced in half
a piece of fresh ginger
teaspooon honey
Boil it all up together and drink it while it’s hot. It’s truly a balm for a stuffed nose and sore throats.
New Israeli booking agency brings the bands to you
Efrat Gosh is one of the top rate Israeli artists available through the IAA.
A new Tel Aviv-based agency – The Israel Artist Agency (IAA) – has launched what they call the definitive Israeli booking solution for placing all Israeli artists abroad, the first Israel-based agency strictly dedicated to the export and promotion of Israeli talent.
With a 30 artist roster featuring both well-established rockers like Berry Saharof, Hadag Nahash, and Meir Banai, as well as young, alternative acts ncluding Useless ID, Coolooloosh, and Midnight Peacocks (who will be playing the prestigious SxSW Festival in Texas this year), IAA is targeting JCCs, college fraternities/sororities, Hillels, Jewish summer camps, youth movements, Federation functions, fundraisers, and festivals that might be looking to bring over some Israeli talent.
According to the agency’s philosophy, people in Jewish communities in the Diaspora need to connect to their roots via Israeli contemporary culture, and need to have easy and full access to the vibrant musical scene here.
“This is an essential solution to a challenge that has existed for so long; oftentimes, those that wish to provide exciting content/artists in their community in order to make Israel a more relevant place cannot connect with the right people to make it happen. The vast &
expansive nature of our work will make it easier than ever to bring live quality entertainment to the community,” said IAA co-founder Michael Tapuach.
With Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations not too far off, now’s the time to think about bringing Aviv Gefen or Efrat Gosh to help celebrate in style.
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