A protest is born

August 23, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Music, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion 

A Star is Born finalist Ohad Shraga'i gets ready for the Jerusalem showdown.

When does a pop culture song contest become turn into a religious altercation? When it takes place in Israel apparently.

It’s going to happen when the final telecast of the popular singing competition A Star is Born (based on the American Idol format) takes place on September 4th on a Saturday night from Sultan’s Pool outside the Old City walls in Jerusalem.

The decision to hold the finale in Jerusalem only and hour and a half after Shabbat ends has raised the ire of the religious establishment in the country’s capital who insist that the preparations for the show will require Shabbat violations.

They also are upset that the heavy traffic expected will block the road for those planning to get to the Western Wall for the first night of selichot (penitential prayers said before the High Holy Days).

According to the Jewish Chronicle in London, the coup of staging the show in Jerusalem for the first time was due to the efforts of Mayor Nir Barkat, over the stauch opposition of some of his coalition partners.

“Quiet talks with the mayor did not result in anything,” said United Torah Judaism city councillor Shlomo Rozenshtein. “We are moving from quiet activity to open demonstrations of pain and protest at the desecration of Shabbat.”

Yossef Rosenfeld, the chairman of the Committee for the Holiness of Shabbat, promised that there would be big demonstrations backed by all the main leaders of the Charedi community. “Seeing such a serious desecration of Shabbat we will not remain quiet, but take to the streets.”

Both the producers of the show – Keshet – and representatives from City Hall are reassuring the protesters that all the preparations for the show will be completed on Friday, before Shabbat begins. And since the show won’t begin until 90 minutes after Shabbat ends, there’s nothing to worry about, right?

It seems like, though, with all the hoopla surrounding it, it’s unclear what the real show will be – the crowning of the new singing champion of Israel, or the protests leading up to it.

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Twelfth Night

August 22, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: General 

Get thee to the current outdoor production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at Gan Hapa’amon, which will be playing one more night, Monday, August 22, produced by Theater in the Rough.

Bro-in-law Ira as Sir Toby Belch

I may have mentioned before that Jerusalem is truly a small village. It is, which was brought home to me once again this afternoon during today’s fabulous first production. Granted, the sense of familiarity was driven by the fact that it was directed by my sister, and four of the actors are from her family — her husband, Ira, and two of their sons, Natan and Gabe — and they were all wonderful. But really, to be reminded of the quintessential summer experience of sitting on a lawn, listening to Shakespeare and laughing at the dialogue, while looking around at the many, many people in the audience, was great. And, moreover, to be able to appreciate a very approachable version of Shakespeare. Which was the whole point.

Avital Sykora as Maria, the gentlewoman

Besides my family, there was also the daughter of the friend who traveled through Europe with my brother thirty years ago, playing Viola (Cesario), the daughter of other friends, who played Olivia’s gentlewoman-in-waiting, and various other friends and hangers-on. And there were the props as well, which were familiar. There was the metal folding table that served as one of the box offices. The black argyle socks worn by Sir Andrew Aguecheek looked very familiar, and most comical were the yellow leggings worn by Malvolio, the pompous steward who becomes the butt of the play’s revelry. Those were a gift from a friend’s shopping trip to Target; granted, not the most flattering, but if I’d known….

But truly, get yourselves to tomorrow’s production. It’s funny, summery and basically free, although they are asking for a NIS 20 donation to offset security costs. You’ll thank me and my family. And one more thing: Be prepared to pick up your pillow or folding chair, as it’s ‘on the move’ theater, with different scenes in different places.

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Nostalgia Sunday – Yashar Yashar

August 22, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Technology, Travel 

We are traveling this week, in the company of a GPS navigator named Koby. That is to say, our Global Positioning System has a selection of audio interfaces, each language interface has a name and gender identity (you can select a male or female voice), and the male Hebrew-language interface is called Koby.

Koby is a great asset for many reasons, first and foremost because he brings us to through unknown territories to our destination. (Well, he is a computer and that is his primary directive). But his absolutely genius feature is that if he makes a mistake — and he does err — we can get mad at him instead of at one another. So Koby saves relationships. Plus, it is so fun, for once, to yell back at that Israeli man-on-the-street who thinks he knows everything!

Think back… 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago… or to last week, when you asked the man-on-the-street — let’s call him Yossi — for directions. “Okay, go to the right. Go to the right and then go to the left. Then go all the time straight, yashar, yashar, all the time in front of you. Go to the end. And okay, you will see it.”

This happens more often than not. Because the phrase “I don’t know” is anathema to Yossi and therefore directions you will get, right or wrong. Follow them and within some hours you should find yourself on the border of Lebanon, Syria or Egypt. They are, in fact, all the time in front of you.

At a certain point though, if you stay here long enough, this national tic, yashar, yashar, becomes familiar and then, weirdly, almost beloved. You start to wait for it and you’re disappointed when it doesn’t come. Thankfully, there is another version, in which Yossi ends his litany with “Then you ask someone where to go after there.” And indeed, that is true. You can always ask another Yossi and start playing the game over again.

But since we do have to reach our destination eventually, we love Koby, although he and his ilk are replacing Yossi and his yashar, yashar as the national directional fallback. Mourn not for Yossi, however, whom I envision as your typical gadget-happy Israeli man. He already has GPS installed in his car, his jeep and his running shoe. He’s no freier*.

I should point out that whoever did the recording for Koby is a very practiced radio-TV announcer with perfect pronunciation. But, in a way, I wish the manufacturers had given us a third option: Yossi man-on-the-street. Then we could really go to town. If it were to be truly realistic, however, Yossi would cuss us out with better, juicer phrases — as in this advertisement for the MIRS GPS, where the driver gets a big surprise when he misses a turn. Truly a slice of Israeli life: high technology combined with Jewish guilt.

And another one, just for fun, because it’s sort of in English:

*Usually translated as “sucker”, “patsy” or “loser” the word deserves a column all on its own, so more on “freier” another day. Let’s just say, in short, that it’s everything an Israeli doesn’t want to be.

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Ravishing Rosh Pina

August 22, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Travel 

With Turkey off the natural list of prime destinations for Israelis this summer, more and more vacationers have been looking closer to home for some r&r.

The ‘tzimmer’ – or bed and breakfast industry – has flourished here in recent years, especially in the Galilee. You can’t go ten feet without another private home advertising luxurious or rustic surroundings for couples or families.

And nowhere has the b&b explosion hit more squarely than in Rosh Pina, the quaint, hillside town just east of Safed. Stocked with new age craft stores, natural food cafes, cobblestone roads and incredible views, the once-sleepy town is now alive with Israeli tourists looking for a little bit of Switzerland in their own backyard.

On our recent visit there, we chose a tzimmer called “Love in the Orchard,” an adorable four-tzimmer establishment run by Yoram and Zahava Shamai, two salt of the earth Rosh Pina veterans. They turned their huge backyard into a beautiful orchard with fruit trees, surrounded by two cottages (with another two on the top floor of their house).

Each room is meticulously decorated, and stocked with a huge jacuzzi, giant double bed, kitchenette, LCD tv with cable and DVD, wireless, and every other anemity imaginable. Not only that, there’s a decent-sized swimming pook in the back yard with a relaxing patio – perfect for early evening swims with a glass of wine.

The ‘breakfast’ part of the the b&b comes via an option for a breakfast complete with herb omelettes, sparkling wne, fresh whole wheat rolls, cheeses, fruit and cider. By the second day, we had to beg off because there was just too much food.

Rosh Pina, besides, being a great location to stroll around in despite the steep inclines, is a perfect jumping off point to explore the Galilee, whether you head toward Safed, Kiryat Shmona or stick close to home and the amazing Tel Hazor archeological site 10 minutes away.

A few years ago, there was a rumor that Madonna was negotiating over buying a place in Rosh Pina, so she could be close to the sources of Kabbala in Safed. Now we can understand why.

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Thumping the watermelon

August 22, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Business, Food, General, Israeliness, Life 

It’s not a great summer for fruit in Israel; prices are high as a result of the extreme heat we’re experiencing this summer, and the Farmers’ Association reported that the main fruits affected by the heat wave are peaches, plums, grapes, nectarines, and watermelons. A shortage of these fruits is likely, they say, and moreover, their quality isn’t great. The peaches turn rotten within seconds, the nectarines aren’t as sweet as usual and the watermelons aren’t worth the trouble.

When we cut open a “personal watermelon” yesterday afternoon, besides being full of seeds — horrors! — it just wasn’t any good. Which led to a discussion of how the watermelon had been chosen.

“Did you ask for help?” I asked my husband, Daniel, who handled the food shopping this week. He looked back at me in disdain, as if he would need help for such a task.

At that point, my brother-in-law chimed in with his watermelon-picking story of the previous week. He was choosing a watermelon, which in his case meant looking over the selection and sticking one in his cart. Meanwhile, another customer, an older Israeli gentleman, was busy thumping all the watermelons in the case, clearly checking for that hollow sound that lets you know the watermelon is ripe and ready for eating. When he saw that Ira was picking without checking, he was astounded by the carelessness of his act.

“What, you’re not gonna check to see if it’s ready?” he asked Ira. Knowing Ira, he probably smiled and shrugged. Maybe he smirked. So the older man thumped it, nodded and handed it back to Ira.

The moral of the story? I’m thinking that regular watermelons are probably better this season than the engineered kind. As for our dud, I ate some with feta cheese, which saved it a bit. As for the rest, I’m going to try a granita, which is never a bad thing during this kind of weather.

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