A balanced response

February 4, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Environment 

Jerusalem Nature Museum

The battle between real estate developers and local activists advocating for green space and community gardens is never ending it seems in Jerusalem. As every remaining plot of open land gets snatched up, the resulting luxury apartment complexes are an increasing blight on the city, driving prices up and forcing young families out.

The latest battlefront is the site of the old Nature Museum in Jerusalem’s German Colony. In this case, though, the proposed development is not exclusive homes but Israel’s first liberal arts college run by the Shalem Center, a center-right leaning think tank.

Leaders at the Ginot HaIr Community Council, which represents the German Colony, have been pushing for the creation of a “Jerusalem Center for Green Living” on the plot, which includes the Nature Museum and a large but decrepit parking lot next door. But when Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat threw his support behind the Shalem Center, the Ginot HaIr representatives took a surprisingly pragmatic approach.

“Fundamentally, we support the concept of building an institution/campus on the parking lot and this is a better option than building 30/40 more ‘ghost’ apartments,” Tzurit Yair wrote in an email sent out to local residents following a meeting on the issue.

The operative argument here is that, if the plot is going to be developed (which makes sense: the buildings at the Nature Museum have long been neglected and the museum itself has moved to a new site near the Science Museum), a college would be a better fit than the aforementioned apartments which would undoubtedly be left empty the whole year except for the High Holidays and Passover when their owners make their annual pilgrimages to the Holy City.

The Ginot HaIr team has a number of relevant concerns, which it would like addressed before any plans are implemented. How large will the college be? How many students will attend? Can the neighborhood’s existing infrastructure handle the new institution? Will there be parking and will it be free (as it is now)? Can the building be constructed “green” and environmentally sustainable? Will the existing community garden (which has been lovingly nurtured over the last 10 years) be preserved as part of the campus?

Ginot HaIr emphasizes that it hasn’t given up on its Center for Green Living vision (and hopes that it could possibly even be combined with the Shalem Center college). Still, its balanced response lends hope that an equitable compromise can be worked out this time, rather than another pitched battle.

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Stay-home Israeli dads

February 3, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, education, General, Israeliness, Life, Social Justice 

Israeli men may have the well-deserved reputation for being aggressive macho chauvinists, but things may be changing.

In a study conducted ahead of the annual Family Day on Friday (the Israeli day instead of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day), results showed that 70% of Israeli men would be willing to take paternity leave instead of their spouses.

Conducted by the Women’s Budget Forum, a non-profit umbrella organization uniting some 20 women’s and human rights groups, the study also showed that 20% were ready o take leave from work for an extended period of up to three months in order to care for their newborn infants.

According to the Jerusalem Post report on the study, 40% of the men said the main barrier stopping them from staying home with their children was a fear of being fired from their jobs. Only 15.7% of those questioned said that staying home with a baby was the role of a mother only.

In recent years, many European countries have begun to implement paternity leave laws that run in addition to the time allocated to mothers. Usually during this period, the fathers are entitled to benefits for staying home with the child, in some places it’s 100% of their salary.

The Women’s Budget forum is currently in the process of drafting legislation that will allow fathers to take time off to be with their babies, in addition to the 14 weeks already mandated for women. Currently, the Paternity Leave Law, passed in 2007, allows fathers to take up to six weeks of leave – six weeks after the child’s birth. If a father decides to take the leave, the mother must cut short her maternity leave. According to National Insurance Institute statistics only a very small percentage of men have taken advantage of the Paternity Leave Law since it was passed four years ago.

As any parent knows, going off to work is much easier than being at home with a new born. So, while Israeli fathers may still be chauvinists, they’re not stupid.

On the other hand, being home during a baby’s first few months can be magical. When my second daughter was born, I was working in the evening, and was her primary care giver from the age of three to 18 months. I loved it, and we still have a special bond today as a result.

So fathers, practice your diaper changing and kitchen cleaning skills. Your time is coming.

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Cow chocolate

February 1, 2011 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Art, design, Entertainment, Food, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, tv 

This one comes by way of a friend who works at the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive at Hebrew University, and clearly gets some time at work to chuckle and guffaw at vintage reels.

In this Elite commercial circa the late 1950s, I would guess, the ‘shmartaf‘ — the then word for babysitter (which means children-watcher), although, interestingly, you’ll also catch the word ‘babysitter’ used in the commercial, is tied up by the kids while the parents go out for an evening of theater. Why? To gorge themselves on Elite chocolate, the ‘cow’ chocolate so beloved by Israeli children for generations.

Funny, no? Although it’s hard to imagine gorging oneself on Elite chocolate these days, however beloved the ‘cow’ may have once been. These days, Elite is owned by Strauss, the dairy company, and they even provide 60% cocoa chocolate, which is pretty good when you’re desperate for the deep, dark stuff. To get a sense of what Strauss and Elite produce besides chocolates, check out the collage advertisement created for Strauss by Israeli artist Hanoch Piven.

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Just another day in the neighborhood

February 1, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, News, Politics, tv 

Tahrir Square in Cairo on Tuesday.

These are historic times in the region, and watching the nightly news it seems like one cataclysmic event after another is unfolding before our eyes.

Tonight for examples, Channel One’s nightly Mabat news broadcast and its presenter Inon Magal didn’t know what to do first – report on:

1 – the ‘Million Man March’ in Cairo and the nearing of the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s reign

2 – the decision by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to cancel the nomination of Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant as the next chief of staff adue to ‘ethical flaws’ in allegedly shady, if not illegal, behavior regarding a number of land affairs on his moshav, Amikam
3 – or Jordan’s King Abdullah feeling the domino effect of what’s transpired in Tunisia and Egypt and proactively sacking his prime minister and cabinet as thousands of Jordanians also began taking to the streets.

So they decided to mix all three up, switching back and forth from reports in Cairo to Galant’s bitter interview to the scene in Jordan.

That’s not even mention the other stories that, on any other day, might have been the big news – a Grad rocket fired into Israel from Gaza last night which landed so close to a wedding hall with an event taking place that all the attendees jumped out of their seats when it hit.

We like to take pride at Israelity in the fact that Israel is indeed a place of much more than strife and conflict – you can read about all the other aspects of the amazing country we live in here every day.

But it’s times like these that remind us there is something just a little crazy about life here – there is strife and conflict all around us. And even though it’s our neighbors who are experiencing the brunt of it right now, we can never forget that anything can be right around the corner.

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New kosher wine, clothing and YouTube too

February 1, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, Technology 

It’s been busy week for the kosher market. Ynet reported on three new certifiably kosher products, including one online.

Tulip Winery goes kosher

The first is the most mundane. Tulip, a well-regarded boutique winery, will be kosher by the fall. The reason, says the winery’s CEO Roee Yitzhaki, is purely financial. “We did the math and realized that we lose 8,000 holiday gift baskets each year because our wine is not kosher,” Yitzhaki told Ynet.

The transition hasn’t been cheap ($421,000 has been invested so far) or quick (it’s taken four years).

YouTube gone kosher

Less time in development is the new Glatube, an all-kosher alternative to YouTube. Indeed, “it’s exactly like YouTube, with one exception: No promiscuity,” says Sharon Bokobza, the site’s creator and a student at an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva belong to the Breslov Hassidic movement.

Glatube (which is a play on the words “glatt kosher”) already has 1,000 clips uploaded, most of them religious music and classes by heavily bearded rabbis. Bokobza promises there will be no images women and absolutely no women singing (he’s employed a team of kashrut “supervisors” who vet each video). There is apparently a clip of a cat playing the piano. A klezmer tune I assume?

Make sure to get kosher clothes too

The final entry in our purity parade is another form of kosher supervision, this one for clothing stores in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim and Geula neighborhoods.

“The Committee for the Sanctity of the Camp” sends haredi women across town to inspect clothes and then gives those stores that are sufficiently modest their official certificate of approval.

How do all these fit together? Well, I’m planning on spending a nice evening watching Glatube, sipping a glass of kosher Tulip wine, while my wife is adorned in officially sanctioned modest clothing. Care to join me?

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