Nostalgia Sunday – 33 1/3 Album Cover Art Exhibit

October 31, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, design, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Movies, Music, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Travel, tv 

A new exhibit, “Israeli Records, Local Grooves” opened earlier this month at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design’s gallery space in Tel Aviv. The exhibition pays homage to a lost art: the large-format 33 1/13 RPM album cover, and the artists who created some of Israel’s most memorable pop images. For example, David Tartakover’s cover for Shalom Hanoch’s Mechakim La’mashiach (Waiting for the Messiah); a close-up of an ashtray containing all the hallmarks of Israeli impatience: chewing gum, a blister-pack wrapper of some sort of anti-anxiety medicine and, of course, cigarette butts, burnt matches and more cigarette butts.

Aris San was a beloved singer of sad Greek songs who found fame and fortune in the night clubs of Jaffa. He’s credited with bringing Greek and Mediterranean mizrahi music to the wider Israeli audience.

Zohar Argov was known as “The King” as one of the first mizrahi singers to successfully crossover into mainstream popular culture. This album was issued by a company called Galton - something more or less akin to an Indie label – but Argov’s mainstay was the cassette market: recordings purchased at central bus stations around the country.

Haim Topol became famous internationally for his portrayal of Tevye the Milkman in the film version of Fiddler on the Roof. But locally, he will always be remembered for his roles in Ephraim Kishon’s movies Sallah (more about that here) and Ervinke, in which he played a devil-may-care Tel Avivian.

Svika Pick (a.k.a: Tzvika Pik, Tsvika Pick, Henrik or Henryk) is the closest Israel has ever come to a true pop star. He started out emulating David Bowie, as you can see, on this album issued by another more or less Indie lable, Koliphon, run by two brothers out of their record store.

Pick later morphed into a local version of Peter Frampton, Elton John (complete with soccer playing) and more recently, something like Ozzy Osbourne (reality TV show). He wrote Dana International’s Eurovision winning hit, Diva, and has been a judge on the local version of American Idol. His daughter dated Quentin Tarantino. And he does it all with sunglassed nonchalance. And to think it started with a layer of silver body paint.

“Israeli Records, Local Grooves” runs through November 20 at the Bezalel Gallery, 60 Salameh Street in south Tel Aviv.

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Abe’s Market

October 31, 2010 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Business, Environment, Food, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Technology 

If you read the New York Times business section on October 13, you may have read about Abe’s Market, an e-commerce site that sells natural, organic and eco-friendly products such as organic shampoo from more than 180 small businesses around the U.S.

What the article didn’t mention is that both Jon Polin and Richard Demb live in Israel, in Jerusalem, and are running the company from here, with more than a few trips back to the old country throughout the year. Both lived in Israel while in their 20s, and then moved back to the States for a while, where they each established themselves professionally and then moved back here. In the process, they each looked for what they were going to do next, and came up with the idea of Abe’s Market.

Named for Jon Polin’s grandfather Abe, a pharmacist who owned Polin Drugs, a Chicago drugstore, the idea of the website is much like how Abe ran his store. He knew all his customers by name, and kept the place open until midnight on many nights. Similarly, Abe’s Market is always open, thanks to the web, and is dedicated to telling the stories of its sellers who offer their wares at prices that are the same or cheaper than sold elsewhere. And they gain great exposure on Abe’s, which is the secret to the business. As Polin told the Times:

“Our manufacturers are great at manufacturing products,” Mr. Polin said. “We’re great at selling products. Let them do their thing; let us do our thing.”

Check out this online, all-natural general store, and keep your eye out for some Israeli products. They’re bound to show up sooner or later.

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The eternal optimist

October 31, 2010 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: health, Immigrant Moments 

RivkA Matitya, z'l

My wife Jody recently attended her 30-year high school reunion in California. She remarked on her return to Israel how at the 10-year reunion, everyone was still in high school party mode. At 20 years, her friends were all talking about their families and careers. At her 30th, many of the attendees had gone through loss – divorce, death – and were much more sanguine and accepting about their place in the world.

Through it all, though, there was a sense, Jody said, that everyone was relatively in the same place, going through similar experiences at recurring decade markers.

I had this in mind as Jody and I attended the funeral of RivkA Matitya last night (yes, that’s how she spelled her name, to emphasize the accent on the last syllable). RivkA had battled breast cancer since 2005. Her blog – Coffee and Chemo – chronicled her trials and was widely read in the Jerusalem Anglo community and beyond.

RivkA was an eternal optimist, her husband Moshe told the more than 1,000 people who came out at 10:00 PM on a chilly Saturday night to the Har Hamenuhot funeral home. To her dying day, RivkA was still more concerned with taking care of others than dwelling on her own deteriorating situation. Her blog reflects that attitude, punctuating detailed medical information about her latest treatments with loving descriptions of camping with her family or what classes her kids would be taking in the coming year.

What made RivkA’s death so heart wrenching to many of her friends was how her life paralleled theirs, although on an alternate, devastating trajectory. She was in her forties with three teenage children – like us. She had made aliyah to Israel from the U.S. with passion and idealism – like us. She was committed to Jerusalem and tradition, and always strove in some small way to make the world a better place – (hopefully) like us.

And when she left us last Friday, we were all forced to imagine, at least for an unbearable moment, what our lives would be like if we lost a spouse; if our children had to grow up without their mother.

In his eulogy, Moshe shared how a friend told RivkA how angry she was at God for giving RivkA such pain. RivkA responded that she was not angry at God at all. How could I be, she asked. “Look at all the blessings I have around me.”

And that’s what I think RivkA would want from us – to recognize what we have, the good in our lives, the joy of being present, rather than fearing what could happen at any moment to any of us.

If we can internalize this sense of mindfulness – no, to act on it – then the world will indeed have been made a better place because RivkA Matitya has been a part of it, however briefly.

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Rivka gave a series of lectures on living with cancer and overcoming adversity. They’re on YouTube: here’s the link.

YouTube Preview Image

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Foto Friday – Desert Queens set forth

October 29, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Environment, Foto Friday, General, Life, Sports, Travel 

This week, dozens of women from Israel and around the world embarked on an adventure: the third annual women-only Desert Queen jeep expedition. Part outdoor experience, part competition, the Desert Queen combines 4WD driving through Israel’s desert with personal empowerment.

Organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel and Geographical Tours with the cooperation of the Ministry of Tourism, the Israeli jeep expedition is a sister project of the international Desert Queen journeys that, for over a decade, have been bringing adventuresome women to exotic destinations around the world, such as the Balkans, South Africa and Lapland.

The Israeli journey got its start in 2008 when, in honor of the State of Israel’s 60th Anniversary, the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 program and Geographical Tours brought women from the world’s Jewish communities together with Israeli women on first Desert Queen expedition to take place in Israel. In three short years the journey has become a well-known brand, with thousands of women applying each year, either individually or as a team, to take part in the pre-selection trials. It doesn’t come cheap. If they pass, the finalists pay a $1,500 price tag to participate in the Desert Queen.


Photo: Eva Taylor

The journeys are based on a 4×4 jeep convoy in which the female team members (3-4 per vehicle) drive through challenging terrain and are put to the test as individuals and as a team. Along the way, participants contend with various geographical, physical, cultural and personal challenges that includes hiking, self-exploration, teamwork, sleeping out in the field and night time activities that apparently have something to do with dancing and fire!

Participants must be aged 20 and over, with a valid driving license but previous 4WD experience is not mandatory. The organizers say, “We teach the participants everything they need to know for the journey, so that even the most inexperienced – can enjoy the driving. You do not need prior knowledge, and by the end of the journey you’ve completed all there is to know about off-road driving.”


Photo: Aya Ben-Ezri

This year’s seven-day journey (from October 27 to November 2, 2010) takes place in Israel’s southern region. It includes Mitzpe Ramon, Nahal Barak and Moa but the organizers keep the final route to themselves, revealing details to participants on a day-to-day basis. The organizers do state that in addition to the traditional jeep and outdoor adventure, Desert Queen 2010 will also include special features, for example, visiting young communities, army bases, a unique desert ecological project and orientation day at the Ben Shemen Forest with MK Tzipi Livni. What more could a girl want? Probably a hot bath… but only when the trip is over and done.

Take a look at expeditions past — and there are more on their YouTube channel. Potential future Desert Queens can apply for the expedition through their website.

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Big man on campus

October 29, 2010 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, tv 

I was in Tel Aviv last week interviewing some people for a story I’m writing on the Israeli version of the hit British and American comedy series, “The Office.”

The show’s been airing on the YES cable network for subscribers only, and much more than its predecessors, focuses on the relations between Israelis of every sort. And it’s basically thrown the politically correct dictionary out the door, preferring to let the characters say what they think about their haredi, Arab, Russian, disabled co-workers.

Nobody is a bigger offender than the branch manager Avi Meshulam, played by veteran actor Dvir Bendak. The portly, jovial presence takes the part immortalized by Rick Gervais and Steve Carrell and transforms it into the quintessential Israeli – arrogant but lacking self-confidence, annoying but endearing, racist but loveable.

We sat outside at a Tel Aviv café near the Habima Theater, and everyone seemed to know Bendak. People would stop and say hello, or wave from the sidewalk or a passing car, the staff was bending over backwards to help him, and other diners kept looking his way.

Considering the bald-domed Bendak wears a toupee in ‘The Office’ and as a result, looks altogether different than Avi Meshulam, I found it a little surprising that he was such a celebrity around town.

Then, it hit me. Bendak is currently appearing in a TV ad that seems to be on every couple minutes on the commercial channels. It’s for Bank Tefahot and advertises their new brand of mortgages. Bendak is sitting outside his home with his wife, and thanks to all the money they saved on this great mortgage, he bought her an anniversary gift – plane tickets to see Manchester United play soccer.

The wife (played by Bendak’s real life wife) is downcast but puts on a brave face. Bendak is clueless and ecstatic in his ignorance. A lot of Israelis must be able to identify with either him or the wife in the ad, because it seems like it’s a popular one – or at least has made Bendak an identifiable figure around Tel Aviv.

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