No cellphones – a burden or a blessing?

December 2, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Israeliness, Life, News, Technology 

Yesterday will always be remembered in Israel as day of the great cellphone collapse. Millions of Cellcom mobile phone users around the country were unable to make calls or send and receive text messages on Wednesday after a malfunction occurred in Cellcom’s core network.

This was the worst technical problem since the founding of the company, Cellcom CEO Amos Shapira told reporters at an evening press conference in Tel Aviv, attempting to calm the ruffled nerves of the nation.

Though service was available in some parts of the country, it is estimated that about half of a total of 3.3 million Cellcom customers were unable to use their phones. The malfunction began at roughly 10 a.m., and service was only restored to most customers late Wednesday evening.

It was only mid-afternoon that I realized that my cellphone had been exceptionally quiet for a few hours. After checking out the news on the radio, I understood why.

The lack of cellphone use threw the country into a tizzy, and for some users, it was like their right hand had ceased to function.

Cellcom staffers were inundated at service centers throughout the center of the country, where most of the service was disrupted, by irate customers demanding their cellphones be restored to use, damn the reasons.

Certainly, in today’s information society, mobile phones are vital for many people – and in some instances are linked to life-saving security and medical services. However, for the vast majority of Cellcom subscribers, their cellphone is just a convenience, albeit a convenience that has evolved into a necessity.

As inconvenient as it may have been for many Cellcom customers Wednesday – trying to get in touch with their children, or their clients, or their doctor – there was also something quite liberating taking place. Like throwing our yokes off, we were temporarily unburdened by the ubiquitous little mobile device in our breast pocket.

Maybe some people took advantage of the communication lapse to catch up on work piled up at their office, pick up that unopened book on the counter, or remember to take care of more personal communication with family members.

The Cellcom fiasco had its silver lining – it reminded us that our lives are more than our mobile devices. I can’t wait to call people to tell them.

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Swap it

December 1, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: design, Entertainment, Life 

Last night was swap night. And I now have gray suede slides, a boiled wool sweater coat of my sister’s that I’ve hankering after for a long time (although she probably would have given it to me anyway), a linen hat and a swingy black and gray skirt. All free, all mine just for showing up with some bags of my own castoffs.

Clothing swap nights are distinctively female, definitely friendly and defiantly clothing-related. You can bring accessories, but this is not book club. It’s for people who really enjoy clothing, have more than a few pieces that they’ve never worn and never will wear, but aren’t obsessing over said pieces because they’ve got plenty of other items in their closet. It’s not for getting rid of those bags of giveaway clothing in your front closet or machsan (Hebrew for storeroom, our version of the basement), that stuff you just bring to your favorite charity (although you do bring the leftovers from a swap to a charity). It’s for the good pieces that just didn’t work for you, but may just work for someone else.

And let me tell you, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as having someone else try on what was once yours and seeing how great they look in it. It becomes a female cheering session, in which everyone’s able to chime in with their opinion, because it’s all about finding something that looks good. And if it doesn’t work, no harm done. No salesperson who won’t keep her mouth shut, no price tag over which you have to obsess.

I’m not claiming the swap as an Israeli invention, as witnessed by the current craze in the States, but if you hit an Israeli clothing swap, you will come away with a good load of Israeli-designed clothing, always a plus. Sure, there’s some Banana Republic, a little J. Crew, a few pieces from the Gap and Marks and Spencer, from our Brit friends. But by and large, it’s Israeli fashion, making the swap more current and even somewhat vintage.

Go, raid your closet and organize a swap. Your winter wardrobe will thank you.

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New Jewish environment website launches

December 1, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Environment 

Green websites are a dime a dozen these days. So when Jewcology launched this week, I wasn’t expecting much. But the site has two things going for it: an international cast of characters and a $50,000 grant from the ROI Community for Young Jewish Innovators.

Jewcology says its aim is “to advance Jewish environmental awareness and action.” The project brings together 19 environmental advocates, including several key players in Israel.

Baruch Rock

One is Baruch Rock, an Efrat resident and rabbinical student at Ohr Torah Stone. Another, Noga Zohar, is from Beersheva; she’s also the executive director of Shvuat HaAdamah (“Earth’s Promise”). Both have high hopes for the site.

”Jewcology is an amazing platform for organizations like ours to share some of the daily wonders and struggles in creating a sustainable future in the middle of the desert city of Beersheva,” Zohar said in a release. Rock describes the new Internet portal as “the go-to place for Jewish environmentalists and laypeople.”

The Jewcology website is still a little rough around the edges – content is sparse and the look and feel could already use a make over – but the mission is one I applaud and hope will grow over time. In the meantime, that ROI grant should give Jewcology a little breathing room.

Other Israeli contributors to the site include Teva Ivri, an organization founded by Einat Kramer from the Galilee village of Eshchar to promote environmental and social values rooted in Jewish tradition, and Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, head of the Petach Tikva Hesder Yeshiva, who will be posting Torah lessons with an environmental message.

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Chanukah gelt guilt

December 1, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Food, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture 

Chanukah season is upon us, and it’s interesting to note what we do about it and for it. Yesterday I found myself spending three hours buying Chanukah gifts. Nothing extravagant, but many, and only for my nearest and dearest, which includes sons, stepdaughters, nieces and nephews, mother and mother-in-law, a little something for the husband, and some more somethings for siblings, dear friends and their kids, and one of the friends’ parents who just made aliyah.

That doesn’t include the purchasing of Chanukah candles, and ingredients for various Chanukah meals being eaten at Chanukah parties. Nor does it include the five-day vacation for the family next week, over the Chanukah break.

So is it conspicuous consumption? Christmas envy? The need for a holiday? I mean, we just had Thanksgiving last week, and I got to lavish a lot of love on an eight-kilo turkey, gravy and pumpkin-pecan pie.

I don’t think so. I know that I am a sucker for celebrations, and Chanukah — with eight days to fill — offers ample opportunity to mark the moments (It also explains the vacation, given that kids are off from school for a full week). It’s also a very kids-oriented chag, and with two-year-olds excited to experience candlelighting, that amps up the holiday. The presents? Well, I love buying gifts, and that particular tradition of giving to certain friends and family was set long before I showed up on the scene, so I’m just going along with the plan, albeit as frugally as possible.

In fact, at my family’s Chanukah celebration, we do a grab bag, on which we’ve had several variations, but the general theme is that each family puts in a gift worth about NIS 50, and then you grab another gift. Don’t like whatcha got? Trade with someone else. It always works and I’m still eating out of the purple cereal bowls that I grabbed five years ago. As for gifts, creativity can often be cheaper. Download some $0.99 apps for the teens, put together raw ingredients and recipes for the twentysomething with her own apartment, offer fluffy fleece blankets to the tweens and fun, comic book figure t-shirts for the 11-year-old boys.

Another blogger and old friend, Mara of Kosher on a Budget, put together a list of Chanukah crafts that are great for this week and next, and significantly easier on the wallet.

In any case, I’m not suffering from too much guilt, just thinking about what it all means. Bottom line, the best part about a holiday is spending it surrounded by people you enjoy. Chag orim sameach (Happy festival of lights).

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Staying alive

December 1, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, health, Israeliness, Life, News 

Reminiscent of the joke Woody Allen recounted in Annie Hall about two people complaining about the food in a restaurant with one going, “This food is terrible” and the other responding, “yes, and the portions are so small,” the portions in Israel are apparently getting bigger.

New statistics released by the Health Ministry this week showed that Israelis are living longer than they were 10 years ago. The report – comparing Israel’s health system results with those of the OECD, which Israel recently joined, and those collected in other countries by the World Health Organization – shows that in 2009, local women lived an average of 83.5 years, and men lived 79.7.

According to The Jerusalem Post’s medical correspondent Judy Siegel, this marks an increase of 2.6 years and 3 years, respectively, since 2000, and is better than the OECD figures for men – though it is similar to those for women.

I didn’t use the Woody analogy to suggest that life in Israel is terrible, but with all the problems that elderly people face regarding health and economic hardships, it’s certainly a mixed blessing that we’re sticking around longer.

And how are we dying? Not from terror attacks, as much of the world has been led to believe, but from the ‘normal’ causes.
Cancer became the leading cause of death in 2007 and remains so, with heart disease in second place. Deaths from infectious diseases are more common here than in other OECD countries, while suicide, road accidents, stroke and digestive system diseases are less common.

The report also dealt with the opposite end of the life cycle spectrum – birth. The average Israeli woman is waiting longer to procreate – giving birth to her first baby at 26.5, compared to 25.3 a decade ago.

Infant mortality rates are similar to those in the other OECD countries and declining, the report shows, with 3.8 per 1,000 live births – 2.7 for Jews and 7.6 for Muslims. In 2000, the infant mortality rate among Arabs was four times the current rate.

So, we’re doing a lot to insure that our citizens – whether babies or septuagenarians – are being kept alive. Now we just have to do a better job at making sure those lives are better.

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