Foto Friday – Dan Haimovich gets Hip(stamatic)

December 31, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, Blogging, Food, Foto Friday, General, Life, Pop Culture, Profiles, Travel 

Professional photographer Dan Haimovich left the field several years ago and returned recently to find something completely different. Over the past decade, photography had changed radically by going 100% digital and — thanks to mobile devices and the Internet — becoming part of everyday conversation.

Working with the Hipstamatic app for iPhone, which enables users to take pictures that look like those taken by the analog plastic cameras of the past, Haimovich captures small slices of life in Tel Aviv.

“The app reminded me of the age of film. Under certain lighting conditions it works exactly right and it unleashed something in me — a creative force that I haven’t experienced in a long time. ”

One feature of Hipstamatic , in mimicking its analog predecessor, is to create a slight disparity between what is seen through the viewfinder and the resulting “through the lens” image. It’s a retro touch that Haimovich enjoys. “What’s fascinating is that you have to approximate the frame so things come into it that are unplanned, unexpected.”

Haimovich has been posting the new works on his blog and on Facebook, often with short descriptions about how a particular series came into being. “With with these [Hipstamatic] works I found the ability to connect text to images. I give them short titles that are very intuitive and immediate. I find this combination works very well. Plus, you get feedback which is very nice. It’s very interesting to see what works and what doesn’t.”

Another project since returning to the medium is food photography. He most recently completed shooting a vegetarian cookbook with his sister Miki Haimovich, one of Israel’s premier newswomen (who last week announced she will be stepping down from her position co-anchoring the Channel 10 nightly news to pursue other projects).

To honor these and all other new beginnings, we’ll close with a new broom and wish all Israelity readers the very best for 2011!

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Fast lane to Tel Aviv coming next week

December 30, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Life 

Fast lane to Tel Aviv

For several years I worked in Tel Aviv, making the daily commute from Jerusalem, an atrocious grind that can easily take two or more hours – each way. While thankfully I now have a 30 second “commute” up the stairs to my office, I have a world of empathy for workers still stuck in that lack of vehicular velocity that constitutes Highway 1.

Hope may be on its way. In just a week, reports The Marker the “fast lane to Tel Aviv” will open to the public. A new, dedicated lane starting just past Ben Gurion Airport will whisk buses and carpools past what can often be an hour-long jam in a promised 11 minutes. It’s not a complete solution – once the fast lane ends, you’ll be hurtled back into traffic at the entrance to Tel Aviv proper, but it’s an important component to promoting public transit and filling up all those empty spots in the backseat.

The fast lane is mainly for buses, but private cars can travel for free with four or more passengers. Less than four and you’ll pay between NIS 6 and NIS 20. Why the difference? The lane deploys some sophisticated technology to dynamically change the price based on how many cars are using it. You can decide if you’re willing to pay extra for a faster ride.

I imagine there will be a large sign flashing the latest toll, although I shudder to think what will happen if a car is heading for the fast lane, the price jumps, and the driver impulsively jerks back into speeding traffic.

There are some other oddities. Despite the system’s advanced sensing, counting who’s in the car will be done manually. Cars will have to stop and pass an inspection before being allowed in the lane for free. If there’s a line, that could be pretty off-putting.

Other Israeli norms may derail the lane’s value. Drivers using company cars already get discount to use Highway 6, currently Israel’s only toll road. Will corporations pick up the bill for single passenger vehicles using the fast lane?

And then there’s the “park and ride” which will allow you to drive to the start of the fast lane and jump on a shuttle bus – except that the bus’s  last ride is 11:00 PM. Leave your car there past midnight and you incur a NIS 50 fine. At least there will be a Cup o’ Joe branch to down your sorrows.

But with Israeli gas prices reaching record highs – the price for a liter of 95 octane fuel is going up to approximately NIS 7.10 (about $1.98) this week – the bus will be looking mighty attractive. I’m still not heading back to work in Tel Aviv anytime soon – my commute is just fine, thank you – but for the occasional business meeting, I may just give the fast lane a quick spin.

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Grappling with the Katsav verdict

December 30, 2010 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Crime, General, Israeliness, Life, News, Social Justice 

Does today’s conviction of former president Moshe Katsav on two counts of rape as well sexual harrassment and committing indecent acts show Israel in a positive or negative light?

After all it’s not everyday that a leading public figure is found by judges to be a criminal, guilty of heinous acts. It doesn’t cast a glowing light on the state of our leaders, the neanderthal views toward women by a certain segment of Katsav’s generation of males, or our ability to suss out the bad apples in the barrel.

On the other hand, Katsav’s conviction is a testament to Israel’s vibrant democratic process, in which even the most powerful in the land are not above the law. Most reactions to Thursday’s court findings commented on this dichotomy.

While calling it “a sad day for Israel,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu also said that “the court today delivered two clear messages, one being that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law and the second the right of every woman to be in control of her own body,”

The state prosecutor Ronit Amiel also referred to the sadness surrounding the event but asserted that the verdict represented a “badge of honor for Israeli democracy.”

And Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch said at a swearing-in ceremony for new judges that the verdict “demonstrates the value of equality before the law.”

Speaking at the same ceremony, President Shimon Peres said: “There are not two States of israel. There is only one State of Israel. There are not two justice systems in Israel. There is only one justice system. There are not two types of citizens in Israel. There is only one type of citizen, and all are equal before the law.”

And the Katsav case is not the only example of the good, bad and ugly of Israeli society. Since 2008, courts have indicted former PM Ehud Olmert for fraud, sentenced former finance minister Avraham Hirschson to five years imprisonment for theft and money laundering, and convicted former health minister Shlomo Benizri of taking bribes.

While we Israelis feel the bile and nausea over the realization that our former president committed depraved acts in the very halls which represent the country’s independence, we can also stand tall amid the legal process that brought him to justice. It was indeed, the worst and the best of days.

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The amateur tour guide

December 30, 2010 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: Entertainment, Food, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Travel 

We’re in a hosting week. Given that it’s Christmas-New Year’s week, it’s time for visitors to come, well, visit. For us, there’s the added incentive of my nephew’s bar mitzvah — Akiva, my special, special-needs nephew who did fabulously at his bar mitzvah on Monday morning — and the more than 30? 35? friends and relatives who decided to take advantage of a vacation week and come celebrate with us over here.

And so, I’ve got four cousins staying with me, plus some more family up the block in a rented apartment, and a variety of others staying in a range of hotels, from the simple to the more luxe. When that happens, you become tour guide for the week. Or ten days. Or two weeks.

It’s a funny thing. I mean, what do I know about being a tour guide? I didn’t take the tour guide course, of course, but when you’ve lived somewhere for 15 years, and it’s a place that people like to visit, you end up gathering information and knowledge about this kind of stuff. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that I just finished a project updating the Jerusalem section of the Fodor’s guidebook, and am now a local expert — among family and friends — about where to eat, stay and shop in Jerusalem.

We’ve tramped around Machane Yehuda, wandered through the newly renovated Israel Museum, walked around the ‘Mitcham HaRakevet’ in Tel Aviv and gone shopping in Gan Hachashmal. I’ve sent them to eat and see a flick at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, feed the goats in Moshav Tel Shachar and munch on grilled chicken in the shuk.

It’s fun to rediscover your fave places through the eyes of others. And, hey, to vacation in your own town.

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Open door policy

December 29, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, News 

New immigrants arrive on a Nefesh B'Nefesh flight.

I thought it was beginning to feel more crowded here. Two recent statistical reports help explain why.

2010 saw record-breaking tourism to Israel as well as a 16% rise in the rate of immigration to the country. Good news indeed, unless you’re stuck in a traffic jam on the Ayalon Freeway wondering where all these people came from.

And even then, you’d have be a pretty major Scrooge to complain. After all, it’s why Israel’s here, isn’t it? More than 19,000 people move to the country in 2010, well up from 2009, according to the Immigrant Absorption Ministry and the Jewish Agency for Israel reported jointly on Tuesday.

And the surprise is that they’re coming at a younger age – an average of just below 30 – and many are coming from Western countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Switzerland. According to Ruth Eglash’s story on the report in The Jerusalem Post, the largest group of immigrants – 40% – still came from the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Germany, with 7,700 people.

Other immigrants came from as widespread locations as Malta, Japan and Rwanda, China, Monaco, Japan, Hong Kong, Honduras, and Malawi.

South American countries showed the biggest leap in immigration with Jews from the troubled community in Venezuela increasing their numbers by 280%, from 38 people in 2009 to 150 people in 2010. As far as English-speaking immigrants, a total of 3,980 olim arrived here from North America, an increase of 6% over the previous year’s 3,767; from the UK there was a drop, 760 people made aliya compared to 853 in 2009; and 1,470 South African olim arrived in Israel this year, an increase of 8% from 2009’s 1,233.

While it’s the Jews making aliya, it’s the non-Jews who are bolstering the number of tourists to the country. 69% of all incoming tourists in 2010 were Christian, 23% were Jewish, and the remainder either from other religions or with no religious affiliation.

According to Tourism Ministry figures, 38% of the visitors defined the purpose of their trip as pilgrimage, 15% said it was for a holiday and leisure and 13% for touring and sight-seeing. A total of 69% of visitors defined the purpose of their trip as tourism.

The most visited sites included the Western Wall (77%), the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem (73%), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (61%), the Via Dolorosa (60%) and the Mount of Olives (55%).

Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov said that the satisfaction level of tourists visiting Israel was also very good, with the country as a whole scoring 4.3 out of 5 in service satisfaction surveys conducted by the ministry.

The big victory will be seen if this year’s new immigrants to the country also give 4.3 scores on their absorption process. Welcome, new countrymen and tourists alike! Just watch out for the Ayalon during rush hour.

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