My dad, the permanent Zionist

July 22, 2009 by · 4 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life 

A favorite photo of my father and my husband at our wedding a few years ago

A favorite photo of my father and my husband at our wedding a few years ago

I’ve been off Israelity for more than a week now because my father died nine days ago, at the age of 81, after several years of sickness. As is often the case in these kinds of drawn-out illnesses, his death was not unexpected, but came upon us suddenly, so it felt surprising despite knowing that this day would come. So the funeral and shiva were really a celebration of his life, as many friends and family sat and talked with us, my mother and three siblings, telling us stories about him and letting us describe who he was and how he lived his life.

He was a Conservative congregational rabbi for 40 years, and then moved to Israel to retire, a decision that had been many years in the making, and one which didn’t surprise anyone who knew him. For my father, Israel was the be-all and end-all, the Zionist homeland, the meeting place for all Jews, and in particular for him, the Brooklyn-born and New Britain, Connecticut-bred Ted Steinberg who was turned on to Beitar in his youth and tried to fight in the 1948 War of Independence. (While en route to then-Palestine with his college buddies at the tender age of 20, their shop was waylaid in Beirut because of their illegal visas and they spent two months in a Lebanese prison camp before the U.S. State Department got wind of the situation and had them freed.) He then spent the next 44 years teaching, learning, sermonizing and thinking about Israel, before making aliyah with my mother 17 years ago. In between, he brainwashed the four of us, creating, as I like to call it, the influences of Zionism through osmosis.

As my mother says, he always wore rose-colored glasses when it came to Israel, and had a hard time seeing anything negative about this confounding country. But what made me happy during shiva were all the anecdotes, stories and visitors who exemplified my father’s soul and spirit.

There was the Iranian woman rabbi whose name I recognized, who told me that my father persevered in including her in his weekly study group of fellow rabbis who weren’t so sure they wanted a woman in their very male crew. There was the friend who told me that my father’s weekly stint in the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens convinced him to join the same group of volunteers. A younger rabbinical colleague emailed us that my father shared with him one great piece of advice, which was, “On every page of a sermon there should be a window and a smile.” Which was very much my father’s m.o.

And one of my favorite moments was when my gardener, Yossi, came to pay his respects. For my father, the fact that I have a Jewish gardener for my small plot of Israeli land with whom I can discuss the issues of Jewish law and its effects on my fruit trees, well, hey. That’s why he moved to Israel. For me? It’s Zionism through osmosis, and I appreciate it more than ever.

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Promoting Israel’s virtues

July 22, 2009 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Blogging, General, Holidays, Movies, Pop Culture, Travel 

A promo for 'Men of Israel' (Courtesy Lucas Films)

A promo for 'Men of Israel' (Courtesy Lucas Films)

Between protesting open parking lots on Shabbat to protesting the arrest of an allegedly abusive Jerusalem mother, haredim in Israel may have missed this tidbit – one that contains more reasons for them to protest than the number of rocks they can lob.

The imminent release of Men of Israel, an adult X-rated film featuring explicit gay sex, is being touted by New York-based director Michael Lucas as a landmark – the first gay porno film to feature an ‘all-Israeli’ cast. Hurray for the blue and white!

According to a story in The Tablet, Lucas’s web site calls the film “a bold move to promote Israeli culture and tourism,” and extols extols the gay-friendly virtues of a country rich with natural wonders, intriguing museums, liberal politics, and friendly locals.

With names like Morr Foxx, Matan Shalev, Avi Dar, and Naor Tal, the actors in Men of Israel certainly expose a side of Israel that hasn’t yet been exploited in the hasbara wars. The Tablet story, by Wayne Hoffman, focuses on a few of the Jewish porn stars who have thrived in straight adult films, and mentions the short-lived film career of New York Israeli Consulate worker Dror Barak, who appeared in films for Raging Stallion Studios under the name Roman Ragazzi.

Whether it marks a trend in the future of promoting Israel, or whether our shores will be swamped with gay tourists from around the world as a result of Men in Israel remains to be seen. But maybe if the haredim hear about it, they’ll forget about the parking lot for a few weeks.

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How do you say Hannah Montana in Hebrew?

July 21, 2009 by · 6 Comments
Filed under: General, Movies, Pop Culture, Sports 

Miley Cyrus and Gregg Sulkin

Miley Cyrus and Gregg Sulkin

The Maccabiah Games, which have been taking place in Israel for the last week, have brought thousands of the top Jewish athletes in the world together in competition and cameraderie.

Despite the complaints about lack of proper facilities for some delegations and the scandal about the softball tournament in the Baptist Village being shut down by police for not having proper permits (after all, what kind of event could there be in Israel without a little controversy or incompetence? – It’s our unique mark and we’re proud of it), the Games, for me, are still one of the highlights of Zionism in action – showing how Jews from all over can gather here, like coming home to the slightly disfunctional mothership.

There are hundreds of stories in the naked stadium – athletes who overcame diversity to compete, Ethiopian atheletes whose families are still stranded in their country, and of course, Miley Cyrus’s boyfriend.

British actor Gregg Sulkin, who is playing on his country’s soccer team has recently made waves as the teen-heartthrob boyfriend of actress-singer Cyrus, better known to millions of fans as her TV alter ego Hannah Montana.

The 17-year-old Sulkin was previously in Israel for his bar mitzva, which was held at the Western Wall. Because of his time spent in Jerusalem on his bar mitzva trip, he has come to “love the culture, the people, the food… just everything about Israel,” Sulkin told The Jerusalem Post. “I love how united Israel is as a country, as a family,” and later joked that “the weather here is so much better than in London.”

Sulkin has acted in various films and television shows – including the Disney Channel comedy As the Bell Rings and the Paul Weiland film Sixty Six with Helena Bonham Carter. He’s flying to Los Angeles directly after the Maccabiah Games in order to attend callbacks for a number of new parts.

Sulkin didn’t make any committments when asked if he’d try to get his girlfriend to accompany him on his next trip to Israel.

“If she wasn’t that busy, I’d love to persuade her to come to Israel, but she’s amazing at what she does and that’s why she’s always so busy. I wish she could come to Israel. Next Maccabiah, hopefully.”

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Saving a stitch in time

July 20, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, Crime, design, General, History and Culture 

One of the clocks on display at the Islamic Museum

One of the clocks on display at the Islamic Museum

I’ve never felt the need to own a watch – between cell phones, car clocks and sun dials, I’ve pretty much got it covered. But some people are more enamored with time – and time pieces. People like Sir David Lionel Salomons, a former mayor of London in the 1800s, who amassed one of the most valuable collection of ornate clocks and accessories in the world.

Sir David’s daughter, Vera Bryce Salomons, donated the collection to the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem in 1974, the same year, she endowed the museum with funds to enable it to open.

The clock collection, including over 55 clocks by influential 18th-century French clockmaker Abraham Louis Breguet, featured the ‘Marie Antoinette.’ Commissioned, according to legend, for the French queen by a lover, the clock was considered the crown jewel of Breguet’s career and the highlight of the Salamons exhibit.

The collection became so popular that the staid museum near the President’s residence in Talbieh became known as the ‘Clock Museum.’

All that changed on April 15, 1983, when the biggest robbery in Israel’s history at that time took place. Overnight, between the museum’s closing on Friday night and Shabbat morning, thieves pried open the bars on a small window, climbed into the building and drove away with over 100 items from the clock collection, including the Marie Antoinette; another priceless Breguet table clock from 1819 known as the ‘Sympathique,’ which ran on a system in which a watch placed in a recess of the clock was automatically set and reset; and an 11 cm.-long, gold “pistol clock” created at the beginning of the 19th century in France.

Ever since the burglary, not a word has been heard or sight seen of the missing priceless clocks. That’s what makes tonight reopening of the exhibit ‘The Mystery of Lost Time’ – with almost all of the clocks restored and returned to their home even more remarkable.

Read the whole story on your own time here.

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Nostalgia Sunday – On the street where you lived…

July 19, 2009 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: design, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Nostalgia Sunday, Travel 

Today I visited all the houses where I’ve ever lived in Israel. Almost — I’ll get to that in a minute. Thanks to Zoomap.co.il, which has been photographing the city streets and each and every building in Israel, you too can take a look at your old digs and check up on how badly the place has continued to deteriorate since you yourself lived under its leaky roof.

For example, the apartment building near trendy Sheinkin Streeet in Tel Aviv where I don’t live anymore. Don’t be put off by the disgusting facade. Location is everything.
Ahad Haam 134 Tel Aviv

And then the place in glorious north Tel Aviv, off HaYarkon Park, where I moved to escape trendiness and find parking.
Brandeis 49 Tel Aviv

And the place after that — not a great apartment — but still right on the park.
Kosovsky 32-Bavli 44

I started to get hooked on finding a picture of every place I’d ever lived here. That’s when I found out that Zoomap also has its flaws: this is a picture of the building in front of the Jerusalem building where my family lived in 1973-4. You can see our building peeking out on the left-hand side. Apparently the Zoomap folk were too tuckered out to walk up the hill to take pictures of the cul-de-sac.
Tschernichovsky_3not3A

But I got back on track with this picture of my grandmother’s old apartment which was Party Central for several years in the early 80s.
Kovshei_Katamon_11_Jerusalem

I could not find an address for the Hadassah Youth Center on Mt. Scopus and so could not do a search for a picture — another failing of Zoomap is that, like GPS, it doesn’t recognize institutions, only addresses — but I’m pretty sure this is the immigrant absorption center in Dimona where Young Judaea parked us for a few months om 1979. Again, the dowdy appearance is deceiving; the Black Hebrews were also living there at the time, which made it kind of cool.
dimona

And this is where I live now! Back to Jerusalem, just up the street from grandma’s old apartment. Life is funny.
nili_Jerusalem

Google Earth doesn’t get down to building resolution for Israel so use Zoomap to take a trip down memory lane. Or purchase some real estate. It’s part of Bezeq’s 144 directory assistance site which is now translated into English. Happy trails!

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