Spin Takes A Turn With ISRAEL21c
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Life, Pop Culture, Sports
ISRAEL21c is now a contributor to SPIN Earth, a new web video initiative from SPIN Magazine. The first video up: a profile of the Israel Parkour Team, who use the sidewalks and walls of Tel Aviv as their training ground.
Give and drink
Here’s a good offer to take advantage of, in this time of Passover shopping and giving.
Crossroads, a Jerusalem-based social service in Israel that helps troubled teens turn their lives around, has put together a fundraiser that matches donations and Israeli wines. Purchase wine made in Israel and donate a portion to the Crossroads Center, through the Israel Wine Company. The founders of the two organizations, Caryn Green (a social worker who created Crossroads) and Ari Erle (a winemaking consultant who created the Israel Wine Company), have been friends for years, and developed this parternship in which ten percent of all proceeds will be donated to Crossroads, with an additional $75 donation for every new wine club membership created through the partnership.
The Israel Wine Company aims to bring the best of Israeli wines — and its more than 100 boutique wineries — to North America. There are currently 20 Israeli wines on the list, including Erle’s own label, Erle, (non-kosher) wines crafted in California and Israel, in the vineyard located near his home in Moshav Givat Nili, which is in the Zichron Yaakov area.
So, you can do some good, drink some good wine and do it all in a blue-and-white way. Just enter the name CROSSROADS in the notes area upon check-out from Israel Wine Company, so that they receive your generous contribution.
Hassidism at Boombamela
Filed under: A New Reality, Environment, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Music, Pop Culture, Profiles, Religion
A long-time disciple of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and a seasoned grassroots organizer, Michael Golomb used to spend his efforts marching against the Vietnam War. But since moving to Israel along with many of Carlebach’s Hassidim as part of that community’s mid-Seventies exodus from Haight-Ashbury, Golomb has busied himself with spreading a message of love at gatherings, encounter events and festivals – even mainstream, teenybopper-y ones like Boombamela, Shantipi and Beresheet.
Golomb and his crew have helped to organize Tents of Love and Prayer at several of these festivals, with the sub-camp serving as a festival within a festival for many party-goers. According to a statement released this week by director Guy Peleg, Boombalema’s planners love Carlebach-style Judaism because of its emphasis on happiness and love of mankind, making Golomb’s contributions key elements to the eye-opening, pan-spiritualist experience Peleg is trying to forge.
At the festivals, the Tent of Love and Prayer offers kosher food (which is even harder to come by during Passover), prayer services, meditation sessions, low-impact lectures and the like.
But it’s not always easy to keep one’s mind on lofty ideas when corporate sponsorship banners are flying high and scantily clad perky young ones are doing the same. And the mainstream festival circuit has received plenty of criticism in recent years about these trends from the hippie hardcore populace that first provided their critical mass about a decade ago. But Carlebach-style outreach was never afraid of “elevating the sparks” (as the Hassidic masters might have put it) out from the ditches. As The Chicago Tribune did put it back in 2007:
…Carlebach was one of the first emissaries of the Lubavitcher movement, a Hasidic group that pioneered outreach to disaffected Jews in the 1950s. Carlebach found himself particularly drawn to lost souls: drug addicts, runaway young people, the homeless.
Golomb carries this torch proudly, dancing while carrying a Torah scroll into the throngs of drum circle, sunset-hailing revelers at the opening evening of each festival. And it’s nice to see Boombalema’s leadership, which essentially represents the ultimate in the crossroads between mainstream pop culture and new-age (which usually means post-Jewish) spiritualism, appreciating his efforts.
This year’s three-day Boombamela Festival on Nitzanim Beach is set to kick off on April 9, with plans for this year including utilization of solar energy to cut down on electricity waste by half.
Israeli fans of Yeah Yeah Yeahs get active
We’ve already reported that fiesty art rockers The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have signed on to open the big outdoor show of the season – the May 10th Depeche Mode show at Ramat Gan Stadium.
However, some of the band’s fans in Israel are not too happy at the prospect of having to pay Depeche Mode prices – NIS 400 ($100) and more – to see a short opening set. And undoubtedly, the multitudes of Depeche Mode fans aren’t going to be too receptive to anyone taking up the time before their favorites come on stage, especially since the band’s show is so anticipated following their cancellation in 2006.
So some enterprising Yeah x3 fans have started an online petition requesting that the band perform an additional show while they’re here.
“The band has been confirmed by sources to be in Israel for three days, so there is time for a concert, but we have to convince the promoters that there is a demand. This is an amazing live band, so let’s make it happen,” cajoled one fan.
Another fan, Jason Silberman, who’s prodding his friends to sign the petition, explained his reasons.
“I am a big fan of the band, and would love them to be able to play their own full-length show here, at a smaller venue and at a more reasonable price. If they are already here, and there is enough people to fill up a venue like the Barby in Tel Aviv, or maybe a Jerusalem venue like Yellow Submarine or The Lab, for a second show, then it’s a nice opportunity,” he said.
So far, the petition has hundreds of signatures. The question is, will the Yeah x3 say ‘yes’?
It’s in your hands
Filed under: design, Environment, General, Movies, Pop Culture
Well, if Rafael’s Bollywood advertisement made you give up hope that Israelis could ever do marketing, then hopefully this advert will make you think again.
Created free by the ad agency, Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Young & Rubican for EcoOcean, a non-profit organization dedicated to marine education, it’s a touching but simple advert that gets its environmental message – about saving Israel’s turtles – across cleanly and powerfully.
The Hebrew message at the end: “Life is in your hands.”
No baby turtles were hurt during the shooting of this video.
Subscribe
Subscribe to Israelity via email:
Social Media
Categories
- A New Reality
- Art
- Blogging
- Business
- coexistence
- Crime
- design
- education
- Entertainment
- Environment
- Food
- Foto Friday
- General
- health
- History and Culture
- Holidays
- Immigrant Moments
- Israeliness
- Life
- Medical Breakthroughs
- Movies
- Music
- News
- Nostalgia Sunday
- Picture of the Week
- Politics
- Pop Culture
- Profiles
- Religion
- Science
- Social Justice
- Sports
- Technology
- Travel
- tv
- War
The Face of Israel Today
-
About Israelity
Free newsletter
Stories from ISRAEL21c.orgPopular Posts