Are there “Cool Jews” in Israel?
Lisa Alcalay Klug has elevated kitsch to a new level. Her witty new bling-covered book “Cool Jew” has been a must have on many Jewish reading lists since its publication a year ago. “Cool Jew” chronicles what Klug called in a lecture this week in Jerusalem “the Jewish cultural revival.”
That cultural renaissance – which it should be pointed out is more of an American one than Israeli (more about that in a moment) – started in 2000 with the launch of the irreverent Heeb magazine, Klug explained.
Before you knew it, there were products of all shapes and sizes: a candy confection called “Meshuga-nuts”; a Jewish beer dubbed “He-brew”; “Heroes of the Torah” drinking mugs; a Moses action figure; and even a bobble-headed rabbi doll with a black hat and a logo of the San Francisco Giants that now sells for $50 on eBay.
One enterprising young woman designed a t-shirt that took a popular national park and Jewishly re-punctuated it as “Yo.semite.”
And then there’s the overtly Jewish music, the kind that would have been decidedly in the closet back just a few years ago. Matisyahu brought reggae and religion to the late night talk shows, but there’s also the Cuban-flavored Havana Negila and the “Hip Hop Hagaddah” by Josh Dolgin (certified kosher for Pesach, or so it says on the album cover).
These examples and many more lace the pages of Cool Jew, which was originally conceived as a Jewish alternative to the popular “Preppy Handbook.” Klug has done a fine job documenting the American Jewish experience. But is there an Israeli equivalent?
The answer seems to be no. While there’s no shortage of deprecating humor here in the land of milk and honey, we don’t reach playfully into our past for ironic Yiddish-inspired chochkies – that would invoke the ultra-Orthodox which in Israel is not a subject you want to make jokes about (at least not in the vicinity of a parking lot or semiconductor plant on Shabbat).
Israelis in general don’t revere the past in the flip kind of way presented in Cool Jew. We’re either scrupulously analyzing our heritage as a means to discover the “truth” according to Jewish law…or we’re angrily trashing it while jetting off to a skiing vacation in a Europe we once clamored to flee. When it comes to tradition in Israel, it seems, anything prior to Arik Einstein is ancient history.
This is not a criticism of either approach. They both reflect their respective milieus. In that respect, maybe Klug needs to come out with a Hebrew-version of her book. We might have to swap out Mama’s gefilte fish for “sushi with hummus” (a combination that shows up surprisingly often at our shul’s community Kiddush), and replace Phillip Roth with Etgar Keret, but hey if it can help promote understanding between the American cool Jew and his hotheaded Israeli counterpart, I’m all for it!
Picture of the Week: The shots that won’t make it to the catalog
Okay, I know it’s supposed to be just one picture in the Picture of the Week, but if you can’t break the rules in a blog, where can you break them? And this seems like an ideal pairing – the photos that WON’T make it into the advertising campaign.
First off we’ve got some poor soul from Holon getting a swine flu shot. A man shrieking in pain as a nurse gives him the flu jab is clearly not the message that the government wants to give. One look at this picture, and my kids wouldn’t have an inoculation again in their lives.
The Israeli health authorities have started vaccinating the population against swine flu. The Health Ministry purchased 7.3 million doses of the swine flu vaccine – enough for every Israeli –but is increasingly perturbed by the reluctance of Israelis to actually take the darn thing.
Only 30 percent of health care officials and personnel took the shot, and the general public seems to be following suit – so far just 160,000 have rolled up their sleeves. No doubt news that three people – all dialysis patients mind you – died shortly after receiving the vaccination, has made the injection a little less appealing.
If this keeps up, millions of expensive doses of swine flu vaccine will simply just go to waste. In response the Health Ministry is now thinking about offering the inoculation in shopping malls and workplaces.
Next up, we’ve got Bar Refaeli posing for Fox’s new summer catalog with Noam Tor. Refaeli and Tor are the current ‘faces’ of Fox, a popular Israeli clothing chain for men, women, kids and babes that offers relatively cheap, fashionable items.
This year’s shoot, for next year’s fashions, was at Mevo Horon, and supposedly in the spirit of Woodstock. Wasn’t the Woodstock revival last year?
While you’d be hard put to find a bad picture of Refaeli, you can be pretty sure that this shot won’t be making it into next year’s catalog. And sorry Fox, but what is that thing she’s wearing?
Pic of the man suffering Trypanophobia (that’s fear of medical procedures involving needles) by Yossi Zeliger/Flash90. Pic of Refaeli and Tor by Yossi Zamir/Flash90.
Going home
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Travel
I knew I was headed home to Israel as soon as we passed security in Philadelphia and entered the protected Israel-bound departure gate at US Air. After hearing nary a raised voice for a week, the tranquility was shattered by a woman’s voice shrieking in Hebrew.
She was complaining about something to do with another passenger encroaching on her space in the waiting area, or maybe cutting in line – it wasn’t totally clear. But in either scenario, I had to chuckle at the pot calling the kettle black – those are both Israeli inventions, so maybe she was just upset at having her tactics nicked.
As we sat down to wait for the flight and ran into a friend from Jerusalem on the same flight (also a longtime immigrant from the US), we got to talking about other cultural differences we’d noticed on our visits to the US. I recounted a day trip to Boston with my brother in which a car veered close to his one-month old Infinity forcing him to blast the horn.
“At least the horn works,” he said, looking on the bright side of the encounter. All I could think about was that he had spent a month driving prior to that without having to place his hand on the horn – Imagine being able to last a day like that in Israel?
We laughed together about Americans’ obsessions with the weather (when in both Minnesota and Maine, where we were respectively, the forecast for a few months can just be one one word – cold) and sports, especially fantasy football leagues which take on a far greater importance to fans than the actual games being played.
We contrasted those interests with what we Israelis spend our days debating – the Gilad Schalit release, the settlement freeze, and granted, to a lesser extent, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the weather – at least as far as rainfall and its impact on our water situation.
Of course, Americans also think about issues – the health bill, gay rights, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – but there’s still a sense of being once removed from them, of observing from the outside. We wondered out loud what it would be like to return to that environment.
My friend – who had lived for many years in the US as an adult before moving to Israel – said that he had made the choice, and that he would do it again without hesitation. Giving up the comfort, the football, and manners of the US for the cramped, in-your-face disfunctionality of Israel was a natural decision all because of this, he said, pointing to his 11-year-old daughter sitting next to him.
With that, our flight was called for boarding, and the planeload of mostly American tourists began to line up. It was time to go home.
Israeli beauty
I hadn’t given too much real thought to the Israeli cosmetics industry until I was asked to do a kind of global piece about it for Women’s Wear Daily, one of my assigning newspapers. Yeah, sure, I’ve rubbed my share of Ahava cream into my hands and feet, and I tend to prefer Super-Pharm drugstores to any other Israeli drugstore chain. But perfumes? Which shampoos and conditioners are the most popular? What types of makeup are used most? Hadn’t thought about it, although I still do tend to ‘import’ my own mascaras and blush, ordering online from drugstore.com and Sephora.
A good bit of research, many phonecalls and a few days later, I had some answers. Seems that Israelis care a lot about skincare, primarily because of the hot sun glaring down on us for many months of the year. Makeup is more of a “mood purchase”, with older rather than younger women looking for different products and brands. At the same time, Israeli women, like their global sisters, are seeking high quality beauty products in their quest to look younger. And the newer, the better.
With the constant, strong sun exposure, many Israeli cosmetics companies emphasize skin care. Whether it’s issues of age, the strong light or the different ethnicities possessing a range of skin tones, the focus has been on creating creams that offset those concerns. Israelis are willing to spend on skin care. Careline has found that Israelis will replenish their skin care products about every three months. Makeup is more of a mood purchase here, and one that older women tend to invest in more than younger.
“There’s a major influence in Israel of the young on the older generations,” says Iris Sade Friedman, manager of cosmetics marketing for Careline. “Israelis want to look younger and you have to work hard here for that, because of the sun, the quality of the air and the desert sands that can blow for days on end. You don’t have that kind of weather to contend with in Europe. It wreaks havoc with your skin. At the same time, Israeli women have joined their global sisters in the kinds of beauty care products they seek, says Vidovsky. While Israelis may have more dry skin or age spots than European or American women their age, they want to look younger and are willing to spend money on the products that will help them look better. What is specifically Israeli about their approach is that Israelis love new products and are constantly seeking out what is new and different, which has resulted in an unintended—and beneficial— consequence for beauty companies.
“Israel is an incredible market for brands to test new ideas and concepts,” says Ido Leffler, chief executive officer of Yes To Carrots. “It’s a very multicultural society for such a small market, and as such, you get a wide, dynamic viewpoint of how people are going to feel about your product.”
One more point of interest: What Israel sells in the cosmetics arena for export is anything to do with the Dead Sea, currently $165 million worth of products, manufactured by Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories and others, including L’Oreal Israel.
‘I just went out to get milk, and I’ll be right back’
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, Business, Crime, General, Israeliness
I may not be in Israel right now, but I want it to be known that someone is constantly in my home. It’s not empty! There’s no reason for burglars to think that it’s an easy target.
There, maybe I’ve covered my butt with my insurance company. According to reports floating around the blogosphere and Facebook, some Israeli insurance companies have started denying payments to clients whose homes have been robbed if they previously posted their plans on Facebook.
There’s already been well-discussed incidents of Facebook users getting in trouble with their employers after calling in sick and then posting photos of relaxation on the beach in Bahamas. But that’s just sheer stupidity.
This time, there’s alot more gray area. When I post on my Facebook updates that I’m going to travel to the US, only my 300 (very odd) friends are supposed to see it, not the villains from ‘Home Alone.’ I can only think of a handful of friends who might actually rob homes and most of them have either given it up for the straight life or aren’t even in Israel, so I should be safe, right?
Not according to some insurance companies evidently. As regular readers may notice, I’m not a fan of the insurance biz, neither in Israel nor abroad, and this is just one more example of their attempts to weasel out of valid coverage by hard-working home owners.
So next time you’re planning a vacation, think twice about letting anyone know about it – or if you do squeal, make sure you let everyone know about the IDF battalion that is going to house sit for you.
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