Tel Aviv 10th best party city in the world
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, Travel
We have already known it for a long time, but now the authoritative Lonely Planet travel guide has officially coronated Tel Aviv as one of the 10 top party cities in the world. The list was compiled by Planet’s new book, The 1,000 Ultimate Experiences.
According to a report on Ynet, the book cites Tel Aviv’s relaxed and gay-friendly atmosphere among its attributes, writing “like elsewhere in the Mediterranean, Israel’s second largest city gets going late. The endless bars, pubs and cocktail venues start to fill up by midnight, from which point the nightclubs get revved up with dancing till dawn.”
“Nowadays an international crowd joins Israelis for a mixed bag of funk, pop, house and techno at the city’s dozens of entertainment hotspots. Tel Aviv has a relaxed air, and prides itself on being gay-friendly and outgoing.”
Tel Aviv was beaten out by the top five cities slot by Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, Montreal, Buenos Aires, and Dubai and the Greek city of Thessaloniki, and by a surprising number eight on the list, Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.
Approaching Tel Aviv from Jerusalem, or I suppose, from any other direction, it does feel a little like entering another, faster-paced world. And I always look forward to my excursions there, although they rarely include the ‘bars, pubs and cocktail venues’ that the Lonely Planet celebrates. I mean, just having a beautiful beach in the middle of a big city is all it takes for me.
Tel Aviv’s attributes, though, are not being lost on those promoting Israel as a tourist destination.
“The world is starting to discover Tel Aviv and understand what we, the Tel Avivians, have known for a long time,” Tel Aviv City Council Member Yaniv Weizman, told Ynet.
Weizman, who is in charge of the tourism portfolio for the city, added, “Tel Aviv is a fun, free and attractive city for tourists, and especially for young tourists. Tel Aviv’s marketing potential is huge.”
So next time, when you’re considering New York, Paris or London as your nightlife destination, be sure to include Tel Aviv on the short list.
A New York import
My friend’s father has a saying, “Our imports are better than our exports.” He’s generally referring to the presence of Jews from other movements within liberal Orthodoxy, and the skills and understanding that they bring with them. And while I wouldn’t want to hijack his saying to mean something else, it occurs to me that it can be applied to a few other situations. Not, for example, to Israel as a tech industry nation, for example, where our exports are actually as good as our imports, for example, if not better. Nor to food, where I think our tomatoes and oranges, avocados and organic herbs are a hell of a lot better than our imports. Then again, we’re not doing much importing of tomatoes and avocados, right?
But his saying could be expanded to refer to Israel’s ‘importation’ of people over the decades, the ingathering of the exiles, the Easterners and Westerners, Europeans and Mediterraneans, Americans and South Africans, South Americans and Australians, you get the idea. Namely, all the great people that have made their way here to enrich and enliven this country. But sometimes, our imports take a break from Israel and head to greener pastures to make their fortunes and find fame. At that point, they become, well, exports.
One prime example is comedian Yisrael Campbell, the former Philadelphian who converted three times — Reform, Conservative and Orthodox — and moved to Israel where he married and had three kids. He and his family moved to New York last summer to pursue a plan to put his one-man show on Off Broadway, and they’ve succeeded, as “Circumcise Me” recently opened at the Bleecker Street Theater. Reviews have been decent, and those of us who know and love Yisrael, can attest to the fact that this is a show well worth seeing, especially if you’re into Israeli exports.
Much ado about Gilad
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Politics, War
The country is sort of going a little crazy right now amid the flurry of reports about the imminent release of Gilad Schalit, the IDF soldier who’s been held captive by a faction within Hamas since 2006.
Rumors and speculation abound that the release in exchange for 450 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails – some hardened terrorists with ‘blood on their hands’, a euphenism for being the masterminds or perpetrators of terror acts – is only days away.
While media reports along the same lines crop up every few weeks, this is the first time since the whole ordeal began that it seems like there’s a semblance of truth to what’s being reported. President Shimon Peres said in Cairo on Sunday that progress had been made, and on Monday, a Hamas delegation from Gaza arrived in Cairo to discuss and decide on whether to accept the latest prisoner list provided by Israel. At the same time, Schalit’s parents, Noam and Aviva went to the Knesset to lobby the support of ministers to approve the deal on the Israeli side.
While all Israelis want to see Schalit come home to his family, some are saying that the price of releasing terrorists is too high. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Monday to hold discussions in the Knesset and with the public on the terms of a deal for the release of Shalit.
Netanyahu told fellow Likud MKs that the difficulties in making the decision lay in the government’s different goals in the negotiations.
“On one hand, the desire to take care of our soldiers and bring them back, sometimes at the cost of endangering lives – a very big principle for our people and in the Jewish tradition,” he said. “And on the other hand: refraining from encouraging future abductions.”
Members of the National Union party held a press conference urging Netanyahu to reject the deal, warning that it would increase terrorist attacks on Israel.
While that could possibly be an outcome of the prisoner release, it will be difficult, if not impossible for the government to turn back the deal. Apropo to Brian’s touching post below, in a country in which most families have a daughter or son, father and mother who have served or are serving in the army, the national sentiment is top heavy toward bringing Schalit home at any price.
Most of us who may bear the brunt of freshly released terrorists within arms length are willing to take that chance for the opportunity to see Gilad Schalit hugging his parents.
My Son in Greens
On his way back from Tel Aviv, 18-year-old Amir called to ask if I could pick him at the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. He was carrying a heavy bag and didn’t want to schlep it all the way home. Fair enough.
I arrived at our agreed upon meeting place but I didn’t see my son.
“I’m just before the traffic circle,” I said to Amir over the cell phone. “Which circle?” he asked. “The one next to the parking lot,” I replied. “I’m there,” he said. “I don’t see you…wait a minute…are you wearing greens?”
And there he was, sauntering down the sidewalk, a tall lanky figure dressed in a brand new uniform and carrying a large “kitbag.”
When he left that morning, Amir had been a civilian. He was returning home now at the end of the day as a soldier. Amir had just joined the Israel Defense Forces.
When we first arrived in Israel 15 years ago and Amir was only three, the thought of the army was just a whisper, a patriotic inevitability, but far from any sense of reality.
Now that the moment had arrived, I knew it would be emotional but I surprised even myself by the depth of pride that enveloped me at this staunchly Zionist rite of passage, no less intense than my feelings at Amir’s birth, brit and bar mitzvah.
That feeling was backed up by a second picture from the day that has already been seared into memory: the look on Amir’s 15-year-old sister’s face as he walked in the front door in uniform – a buoyant sense of awe and appreciation mixed with a dash of apprehension and followed by a hug that reflected the faint trickle in her eyes.
Eleven-year-old Aviv was more circumspect, letting out a startled hiccup before throwing himself into Amir’s arms as well.
It’s nevertheless jarring to have a child in the army. Amir is the first in our family; none of his grandparents or even great grandparents ever served.
“What’s in the bag?” Jody asked our new soldier son, eyeing his hefty green accessory. Amir listed off a Jerusalem mixed grill of supplies: two uniforms; a heavy winter jacket; a toothbrush, razor and sewing kit; several white t-shirts, socks and even underwear.
The army has to provide everything in case a soldier is all on his or her own, or comes from a home that can’t provide the basics, Amir explained. After the initial supply, the soldier gets NIS 350 (just under $100) for monthly essentials.
The army is full of traditions we learned. The first apparently is “shaving the beret.” The new cadet’s cap has little fuzzies all over it. In order not to look too green, so to speak, soldiers take a knife and scrap off the fluff. Other tricks include washing your uniforms several times so they don’t shine so much.
Amir’s first day in the army was a short one: he received his uniform and instruction in how to wear it properly (“you’re representing your country whenever you’re out,” the army representative had said).
Then, after getting his dog tags, Amir underwent a head scan, a full dental mold, fingerprints and a DNA test (which consisted of a prick on a finger and then squeezing out blood to fill several patterns on a paper).
The reasons for the latter were unfortunately clear: the military needs a way to identify a soldier should he fall in battle – a stark reminder of the reason we need an army in the first place.
But for now, we’ll put that aside and for one day at least, bask in our pride.
Nostalgia Sunday – Turkey Feeder
Filed under: A New Reality, Food, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Life, Nostalgia Sunday
You would think that Thanksgiving would be a more popular holiday here, given the size of the poultry-breeding industry and the large quantities of turkey meat Israelis consume. Yes, Israel has the highest per capita consumption of turkey in the world at 28.8 pounds annually.
But no, Thanksgiving remains an obscure oddity to Israelis, one quirk among the many exhibited by the “Ameri-kooky” population here. No matter. On one day a year, we celebrate the United States and all the good things it has done and continues to do. We also, as do our Stateside counterparts, stuff ourselves silly with… well, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and, of course, a big roasted bird.
Many of us who worked on kibbutzim as volunteers in the 60s, 70s and 80s, had the dubious pleasure of dealing with turkeys who are, bluntly put, the stupidest of birds. Yes, it’s true, they will look up in a rainstorm and drown themselves. They do peck one another to death. And one of the worst jobs one could get was an all night shift to vaccinate them – the only saving grace was that you were allowed to sleep late the next morning.
And yet, amidst all the stink and squalor of the turkey house, one element stood out, a modern design so strong it could not be ignored. These were the water dispensers manufactured by the Plasson company. Every few meters or so there hung a bowler hat-shaped “bell waterer” made of red plastic that was well-nigh indestructible — try though we might. They were a symbol of Israel’s agri-technological prowess — Plasson has set the worldwide industry standard for 30 years now — and those rosy sawed-off globes glowing under the bright turkey house lights at midnight were a somehow beautiful sight.
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