Nostalgia Sunday – Tel Aviv on Film
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, design, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Travel
The Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive at Hebrew University is a trove of valuable celluloid treasures — several hundred of which have been uploaded to YouTube. The archive ranges from 1911′s The First Film of Palestine to the present and include home movies, short films and full length features.
Tel Aviv was from the outset was seen both as the first Jewish city for the yishuv (the early settlement) and a center of Western culture and technology that would set an example for the entire Middle East. This thoroughly modern city was celebrated on film, as in The White City, a selection of clips shot from 1926 to 1964 and edited together in 1999 in honor of the city’s 90th anniversary.
There is also Tel Aviv in Colors shot in 1938 by an unnamed cinematographer.
And cameraman Fred Dunkel’s view of pre-state Tel Aviv in the 1940s.
Beautiful Tel Aviv in Winter was created in 1950 to mark the city’s 40th anniversary. It was shot by Baruch Agadati, legendary artist, choreographer, man about town and self-styled “Creator of the First Hebrew Sound Film”. Agadati may have made the first Hebrew talkie but this film is silent. Nonetheless, Beautiful Tel Aviv in Winter is a delight for anyone who loves the White City.
Hellacious Holon
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, Business, design, education, General, Israeliness, Life, Travel
Large sculptures in one of Holon's 'Story Gardens,' which are public parks that have oversized sculptures that depict famous Israeli fairy tales and children's storie. (Photo: Edmund Sanders / Los Angeles Times)
The once-nondescript suburb of Tel Aviv didn’t have much to offer, except a way out. These days, the city and its mayor Motti Sasson are receiving accolades around the world for its transformation into a cultural magnet, believe it or not.
Sasson was named one of the world’s top 10 mayor this past summer by British magazine Monocle, which covers business, culture and design – one of the world’s top 10 mayors, never mind one of Israel’s top 10 mayors!
The article said Sasson “has miraculously put a mid-sized bedroom community on the world’s cultural map… the 63-year old workaholic has brought five new museums to Holon, including Ron Arad’s groundbreaking 24 million euro Design Museum, generating an influx of youngsters while inventing a distinctive urban brand from scratch.”
And a couple of months before the article appeared, Conde Nast Traveler dubbed the Holon Design Museum one of the new wonders of the world.
Now the Los Angeles Times has published a big feature on the city’s revival “as an arts attraction rebranded around kids and digital arts.”
With a dozen new museums, libraries, theaters and other cultural centers — all focused on the city’s unique rebranding around kids culture and digital arts — Holon has become an international model for urban renewal, drawing 400,000 tourists last year.
“It’s a very ambitious little town,” said Ron Arad, an Israeli architect who designed Holon’s new landmark Design Museum. “Every cultured person in Israel now finds themselves in Holon, which is amazing.”
The article also cites the Cartoon Museum, the International Puppet Theater, the School for Street Theater — teaching juggling, face-painting and hand-walking — and Israel’s only Children’s Museum, “taking kids through interactive worlds, where aliens teach tolerance, caterpillars offer lessons about life’s changes and sight-impaired tour guides help them experience what it’s like to be blind by making their way through pitch-black re-creations of a rain forest, a street corner and a shopping market.”
It all comes back to mayor Sasson, though, described in the article as “a bachelor with no children and a self-avowed Luddite who doesn’t use a computer or e-mail.”
A short, unassuming former budget manager for Israel’s social security fund, Sasson, 63, admitted he’s not exactly a big fan of the futuristic digital art now showcased in Holon. He’s not the kind of guy who enjoys pontificating about what experts call Holon’s emerging “trandisciplinary culture complex.”
Instead, Sasson seems happiest when crunching numbers and explaining how he slashed costs and improved efficiency to turn Holon’s municipal deficits into a surplus.
“I understand the importance of enriching the soul,” said Sasson, who estimated the city has spent about $100 million on cultural projects over the last decade. “Without the soul, there is no life. You can teach children many things, but to enrich their soul makes them happy.”
In the works for Holon’s near future include a concert hall, a sports center, a new city hall and a sand-dune preservation park. So next time you’re on the highway and see the exit for Holon, don’t pass by like you usually do. It’s time for a visit.
Foto Friday – Ben Gurion’s University
Filed under: coexistence, education, Foto Friday, General, Israeliness, Medical Breakthroughs, Picture of the Week, Technology
The first semester of Israel’s 2010-2011 academic year opened this past week. There were little to no threats of a faculty or student strike for once — that pleasure was left to the Union of Local Authorities of Israel — and 293,000 students began studying on time at Israel’s 66 institutions of higher learning.
Of these, 228,740 young persons entered into or continued their first degree studies. More significantly, of this number, 88,500 are studying at colleges (35 academic and 23 teacher training colleges); this is the first time that this number exceeds registration at the seven universities where 75,200 students are registered for Bachelor’s degrees.
Ben Gurion University of the Negev stands out with more than 19,000 students, including 4,650 new ones. The number of students enrolled for a first degree rose, particularly in humanities and exact sciences; this may be due to new study tracks that allow for interdisciplinary studies — not an unusual notion for North Americans but a new concept here. Here’s a glimpse into the little university that has become the number one choice for undergraduates both Jewish and Arab from all over the country due in part to its research and development capabilities…
It’s ultramodern campus, shining like a beacon in the desert…
Its medical school, affiliated with Columbia University and Soroka Medical Center, which provides medical care to all populations throughout the region…
Encouragement of innovation…
And fulfillment of David Ben Gurion’s vision of the Negev as a testbed for science and R&D.
More photos by Dani Machlis can be found at BGU – The Year in Pictures. Information about the University is available on its website. And check out the BGU YouTube channel to see more amazing R&D, like these wall climbing robots developed at the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Dreaming of foliage
Filed under: A New Reality, Environment, General, Israeliness, Life
We almost thought that fall was here. Last week, temperatures dipped into the 70s for the first time in months, and at night, there was nearly a feeling of a chill in the air.
There was even a day of heavy rain that announced the beginning of a healthy rainy season. People were taking out their long-sleeved shirts and bed spreads from the closets ready to place the days of 100 degree September heat deep in the recesses of their memory until next summer.
But here we are again, experiencing 90 degree plus temperatures in mid-October, as we suffer through yet another in a seemingly endless chain of oppressive heat waves.
According to the forecasters, it’s going to last for a few days, so instead of dreaming about heading to the Hermon in the next couple months for some skiing action, we’ll be thinking about heading to the beach this weekend.
And people wonder why we can’t get anything going with the peace talks. We can’t even get our weather together!
Misguided Israeli extravagance
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Israeliness, Life, Music, Pop Culture
Former pinup Samantha Fox is wanted in Israel.
But lately, those artists seem to be everywhere, becoming the equivalent of American crooners in cocktail lounges, as they regularly appear as featured attractions on cruise ships in the Mediterranean.
So taking the cue from Russian-born oligarchs who relocated to Israel like Arcadi Gaydamak and Roman Abramovich – who would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring over artists like Pink or Enrique Iglesias to fly over to sing for a private party in an exclusive Tel Aviv port club – the upper crust is now doing the same, according to a feature in Yediot Aharonot.
Except, that they don’t really seem to have much taste in music. According to the report, Israelis are forking over big bucks to bring marginal talents like Boney M, pinup Samantha Fox, Kool and the Gang and Gloria Gaynor
Three such events are taking place this month, including a performance by the Gypsy Kings at an annual bash thrown by hotel magnate David Fattal in Eilat, in which the lively ‘80s band will receive around $50,000, according to the report. Fox received $33,000 to perform at a private event in Karmiel, and Boney M arrived for $31,000 not including flights and lodging.
“The Israelis have gone nuts,” a local promoter said. “They’ve realized they don’t have to settle for local artists. People here love to impress, and having Kobi Peretz at your wedding doesn’t impress anyone anymore. You need to bring someone who will make the guests say, ‘Wow.’”
“The oligarchs used to bring foreign artists on occasion, but two years ago the trend reached a whole new level and trickled down to a broader segment of the population,” says Pedi Yitav of Pedi Music and Productions Ltd. “Nowadays you don’t have to be an oligarch to book an artist from abroad for your event. It’s enough to have average plus financial capabilities.”
Average financial capabilities? I’m not sure that’s all required to pay those amounts. And if you’re already spending so much, why not bring over someone of substance? I guess if you have money in Israel, it must affect your judgement.
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