Lime giveaway
Filed under: coexistence, Environment, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness
I’ve been trying to get rid of the limes on my lime tree. I know, I know, why would I want to do something like that? Well, as mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been following various tenets of Jewish law in the maintenance of my backyard garden, and we’re not eating any of our fruit because of orla, the law which prohibits one from eating fruit for the first three years of the tree’s life.
It’s a tough one, because after all this time that we spent deciding which trees to plant, it’s hard not to eat the fruit that finally began to grow.
So I’ve been trying to get rid of the limes. Like many matters in Jewish law, you can’t give the fruits to another Jew, secular or not. Although I did ask our gardener, Yossi, whether he eats orla fruit. “Never!” he said, looking aghast that I would have even asked such a thing. “Just wondered,” I said.
I continued the search, and, wouldn’t you know it, not a whole lot of non-Jews wandering around Arnona, Jerusalem. Until I stumbled upon Sayef, the Arab carpenter who’s doing some work for us. Sayef is pretty frum in his own right, a strict Moslem who just came back from his third pilgrimage in as many years to Mecca (more on that another time). And he was delighted at the idea of taking home a bag of limes, because he’d found that avocados didn’t taste as good with lemons, which sent us on a whole other tangent of recipes using limes. So yes, some moments of coexistence, enhanced by his insistence that we leave more than a few limes on the tree, because a fruitless tree doesn’t look good, Sayef told me. Too true.
The good news is that it seems my lime tree flowers several times a year, so we’ll be eating our limes very soon, after the next blossoming. Wish us a good crop!
‘Slumdogging’ it in Tel Aviv
Freida Pinto and Dev Patel practice their Hebrew in Tel Aviv.
The 24-year-old former model Pinto and Patel first met on the set of the smash film and have until now denied that they were romantically involved. Recent statements reported by tabloids which I religiously read had Pinto saying “I won’t talk about my relationship with Dev”, and Patel adding, “She is very beautiful but there’s no romance.”
Patel has been in Israel for the last few weeks filming her upcoming movie by Julian Schnabel entitled “Miral”. The 18-year-old Patel reportedly flew to Israel in order to meet Pinto on the set. The two played on-screen lovers in the film, and now it looks like life is imitating art.
“She couldn’t help cuddling up to him. They kept staring into each other’s eyes,” a source said about the couple. The exact date of the incident has yet to be known though.
“They were certainly acting like a couple, especially when she put her head on his shoulder,” the gossip Bible site Celebritymania.com reported a witness saying. “The only time they split up was when they left the bar and tried to act like they weren’t together.”
Hopefully, Pinto will still have time to shoot the film – based on a screenplay was adapted by Schnabel (“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”) from a book by Palestinian-Italian writer Rula Jebreal, who collaborated on the script. It focuses on the interwoven lives of a few Israeli and Palestinian women, from the early years of the state through the early 1990s. The film costars Hiam Abbass (“Lemon Tree”), a Palestinian actress who lives in France.
Any other sightings of Pinto in Israel? Keep up informed!
Fashion in a global world
I imagine for Israeli fashion designer Mirit Weinstock it must be a blast. In a new project on her internet site, she invited her customers worldwide to send in photographs of themselves wearing her clothes.
Fashion becomes real - Mirit Weinstock as worn by New Zealander Daryia Bing.
It’s probably the ultimate accolade for a designer. Rather like a journalist feels when they see some stranger out on the street not only reading one of their articles, but actually commenting on it.
It also actually makes for pretty compulsive viewing to anyone with a vague interest in fashion. Since the website was launched at the end of January, women from over 30 countries have sent in self-portraits of themselves wearing items from Mirit’s collections.
The nice thing about seeing the same clothes on different people from around the world is that they look SO different. In our global world, people often complain that we all wear the same clothes from the same chains, and that we are losing our individuality.
But as Weinstock’s site, Miss Mi, proves, when someone in Italy puts on a Mirit Weinstock jacket, they don’t look the same as the woman from Sweden, or Israel.
It’s a fact that hasn’t gone unnoticed. In a recent interview, Weinstock said: “What interests me is the girl’s fantasy, or the way she views herself. Their interpretation of my fashion is fascinating to me. I take pleasure in seeing how each one is taking it to a place of her own. They often wear the garments in ways that I had not imagined when designing them, which is inspiring!”
Thirty-two-year-old year old Weinstock has been in the fashion business seven years. A Shenkar graduate, she interned at the Alexander McQueen fashion house in London and later joined Maison Lanvin, one of the leading fashion houses in Paris.
She returned to Israel in 2004 and set up her own label of ready to wear fashion, designing out a studio located in Jaffa’s flea market. She launched her first US collection in 2006 and now sells in stores across the US and Europe.
Weinstock came up with the idea for Miss Mi, when she was browsing Flickr one evening. She saw the pictures there and decided to find five women from all over the world to take pictures of themselves in her new spring collection.
She found the participants on Flickr and Facebook, sent them a package of five of her garments and asked them to do self-portraits, expressing their own personal take on the garments. She then used the pictures for her spring catalogue.
Since then, the idea has grown into Miss Mi. Weinstock says the project isn’t just about clothes, it’s about creating a community of women from all over the world, who share their pictures, thoughts, favorite web sites. Etc. etc.
It’ll be interesting to see if other fashion designers pick up on this new marketing tool.
Tel Aviv hosts ‘short film’ festival
A scene from 'Silence' by Hovav Shoshan
The festival is being held this weekend simulatenously in over 70 cities around the world – including for the first time in Tel Aviv. And another first – there’s even an Israeli entry – Silence, by Tel Aviv University film student Hovav Shoshan. Check it out Silence here, albeit dubbed into French.
In the film, which features live actors and not animation, two young girls encounter each other in the same cramped hiding place as they try to evade soldiers, implied to be Nazis. Despite its brevity, the film manages to incorporate suspense, plot twists, violence and tenderness.
”You need to be precise in every moment and really have it detailed. There’s a short time you have to relay the relevant information. But at the same time, you don’t want to feeling you’re cramming too much in,” said the 29-year-old aspiring film maker who’s graduating this spring.
If you’re in Tel Aviv, you can catch Silence, as well as a few dozen other films on Saturday night at the Castille Building in south Tel Aviv on Rehov Alfasi. Interestingly, the organizers said that another city that’s holding the festival is Ramallah, which is holding its screening on Sunday.
Israel Celebrates “Earth Day” Today Only Tomorrow, With Lights Out, Beach Cleaning, Concerts and Green Awards
(Photographer Yuval Chen spent almost two years snapping shots of hedgehogs in Tel Aviv’s urban landscape. For more see ISRAELITY).
Celebrated since 1970, Israel is for the first time celebrating Earth Day nationally. They didn’t put their lights out for an hour a few weeks ago to mark Earth Hour (there was a big football game after all), but plan to mark Earth Day, today, with full respect. Take note that other Middle Eastern countries like Jordan did mark Earth Hour.
With most Earth Day events held in Israel tomorrow, on April 23, reports Haaretz, lights out will be the central event, where cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem will turn their lights out from 8 to 9 pm in a bid to raise awareness about energy conservation.
A concert at Rabin Square featuring the Balkan Beat Box and more will celebrate Earth Day, and rumor has it the event will be powered by human cyclists and biodeisel, in a similar style to last year’s Earth Event as Karen reported.
Israel joins other cities around the world who will turn their lights off for the green cause. The United Nations has ruled that the event be marked worldwide. Read more
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