Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels in Israel

March 27, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, Entertainment, General, Israeliness, Life, Music, Pop Culture, Travel, tv 

Gene Simmons courts the press at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem

It’s not too often that royalty visits Jerusalem – no, not Queen Elizabeth or Jordan’s King Abdullah, don’t hold your breath for either of them – but Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed.

Alright, it’s tabloid pop culture royalty, but anyone witnessing the scene last week at the swanky David Citadel Hotel would admit nonetheless that it’s royalty – even more so than the visit which ended the day before Simmons arrived of Sarah Palin who stayed next door at the Mamilla Hotel (after reservations were changed when news was leaked she’d be staying at the David Citadel).

The Israeli-born co-founder of rock giants Kiss and his Playboy playmate girlfriend indeed cut a glamorous cloth around the hotel as they arrived along with Nick, one of their two children, to film episodes of their US reality show “Gene Simmons Family Jewels.”
Simmons moves more slowly than the days when he was regularly breathing fire and spitting theatrical blood onstage as the front man and bassist for Kiss, rock’s biggest spectacle in the 1970s. But speaking respectable Hebrew from the nine years he lived as a youth in the small town of Tirat Carmel, Simmons takes over whatever space he’s in with a long mane of black hair, a dark sports coat and sunglasses. And he had a great story to tell.

His mother had been in Auschwitz and witnessed most of her family go to the gas chambers. Arriving in Israel after the Holocaust, she married and gave birth to Simmons (born Chaim Witz), but in 1960, left her husband and took her young son to a new life in Brooklyn. Witz became Gene Klein and eventually Simmons, now a household name.

Proclaiming to be ardently pro-Israel, Simmons never returned to his homeland until last week, and that was only after the Tourism Ministry helped to foot the bill for his entourage of producers, camera men and assistants who took up eight rooms at the hotel.

“As an American, there’s no choice but to be supportive of Israel,” he said. “This is the Holy Land, and it’s no secret that everybody in America perceives Israel as it’s only real friend in the Middle East – who else are you going to rely on?” said Simmons during a round of interviews at the beginning of his week-long visit which is taking him to Jewish and Christian holy sites around the country.

He told AP that he’s ridden a camel and enjoyed watching Tweed float in the Dead Sea.

Israel last week survived a terror attack in the capital, the Jerusalem Marathon and the sentencing of its former president for rape. Will we be able to survive Gene Simmons and his family jewels?

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Foto Friday – The First Jerusalem Marathon

March 25, 2011 by · 4 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, education, Foto Friday, General, health, Israeliness, Life, News, Picture of the Week, Politics, Sports 

The First Jerusalem Marathon is now over and the entire city can breathe a collective sigh of relief. One reason is because cars can now move freely again around town. But more importantly, because the day passed without incident — and believe me, Wednesday’s terrorist bombing, so close to Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, which just happened to be the pick-up point for the runner’s kits, was on everyone’s mind.

I ran the 10k (1 hour 20 minutes*) and can report the event was well-organized and the trail — which we had all feared would be one big uphill, as is per usual in Jerusalem — was planned out nicely with uphills, downhills and even the occasional level ground. The drizzly, chilly weather was perfect for running, though not for hanging out in Sacher Park and enjoying a post-run adrenaline rush afterglow. But in all, the event was a feather in the cap of Mayor Nir Barkat, whose goal, as a self-described “sports fan and marathon runner who completed five marathons in different cities across the world” was to have Israel’s capital city “join the international map of marathons”. The countdown to 2012 has already begun.

Here are a few shots of what is was like, courtesy of the Jerusalem Marathon website. The runners lining up…

Mayor Barkat firing the starting gun…

And they’re off…

The front runners…

One of the high points: passing through the Old City…

And here’s Mr. Mayor again — walking the walk, not just talking the talk!

So that’s how it was in 2011. Here’s hoping that 2012′s run manages to engage even more of the city’s population groups and bring them closer not just to physical activity and a healthier lifestyle but, through sports, also to one another.

*Slow but steady.

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Post a bombing

March 24, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life 

The #74 bus route

The strangest thing about the day after a bombing and grad rockets down south is how normal everything seems. Last night and yesterday afternoon, it was all I could think about as my husband and I went about our regular routine, feeding dinner to the kids, reading books, washing dishes, bathing them and putting them to sleep. I wanted extra hugs and kisses, and thought to myself that I’d never let them ride a bus again, no matter how much they love it. But bottom line, we were getting to do all the regular stuff, and those who had been involved in the bombing, or killed by it, would never be quite the same again.

And now, it’s late morning in Jerusalem and the world looks a little different, despite the newspaper headlines or lack thereof. It wasn’t quite the first thing I thought of when I woke up, and it took some Facebooking and blog rolling before my memory was jogged. And even then, it was on to the business of the day, work and food shopping and kids, and putting some pizza dough in the fridge for tonight’s dinner, and heading out for a long overdue coffee date with a dear friend. Out on the street, buses whizzed by on Derech Hevron, including the now infamous Egged #74 which is one of my regular buses, and was hit in yesterday’s sidewalk bomb. I don’t take buses on a regular basis, only when I need to head into downtown Jerusalem, which is pretty infrequently. I’m lucky that way.

What else on the street? Banners and signs about tomorrow’s marathon; signs of another weekend, from the challot piled in the bakeries to the gleaming displays of fruit and vegetables. Everyone’s going about their business, working, talking, buying, being. And wondering what, if anything, is next.

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A marathon of a different kind in Jerusalem

March 24, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, News, War 

The scene after Wednesday's terror attack in Jerusalem as taken by Fox News.

Like Brian recounted, everyone has their stories about yesterday’s terror bomb that exploded in Jerusalem killing a woman, wounding dozens, and throwing many residents back to those dark, Second Intifada days of a decade ago when terror in Jerusalem was rampant.

I had just left home, turned on the car and tuned in the radio – on my 15-minute journey into Jerusalem to pick up my teenage son at Binyanei Hauma, the convention center across from the Central Bus Station – exactly where the bomb exploded.

Hearing the breathless voices on the radio and the words “ambulance,” “Central Bus station” and “Jerusalem” within a few seconds prompted me to immediately stop driving a couple yards from where I had started, and try calling my son. He’s never been early for anything in his life, so I wasn’t so concerned that he was already at our meeting place when the bomb went off… but you never know.

After a few minutes of blocked out phone service, I was able to reach him (he was still at his girlfriend’s house a mile away from the blast) and we canceled our plans, and I turned the car around. I spent the next hour with my wife watching the live TV reports, and getting déjà vu chills from doing the same thing 10 years ago.

Later I called my son and told him I’d drive in to pick him up when the post-attack traffic had cleared, but he said ‘don’t bother, I’ll take the bus.’

My wife and I argued with him at first, since he’d be going to the bomb site to pick up his bus home, but we relented, and a few hour later, he was home. His only comment about the scene he arrived at at the bus station was, “It was cool, I saw the TV crews with the reporters filming right there.”

Whether it was dumb teen immortality delusions or an attitude of ‘they’re not going to change my world,’ his comment reflected the get-on-with business attitude that most Jerusalemites adopted. Mayor Nir Barkat assured everyone that the Jerusalem Marathon on Friday, in which swarms of runners from around the world will be ascending on the capital, will go on as scheduled. And many people on their Facebook status posted that they’d be making a point today of riding the number 74 bus, which was idle, next to the explosion.

Other FB posts focused on Reuters coverage of the attack – particularly the news agency’s insertion of quote marks around the term ‘terror attack.’

Jeffrey Goldberg, blogging in The Atlantic, chided Reuters thusly:

Those Israelis and their crazy terms! I mean, referring to a fatal bombing of civilians as a “terrorist attack”? Who are they kidding? Everyone knows that a fatal bombing of Israeli civilians should be referred to as a “teachable moment.” Or as a “venting of certain frustrations.” Or as “an understandable reaction to Jewish perfidy.” Or perhaps as “a very special episode of ‘Cheers.’” Anything but “a terrorist attack.” I suppose Reuters will mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11 by referring to the attacks as “an exercise in urban renewal.”

Other FB posts took a more general take on the recent ominous upswing in terror incidents directed at Israelis, with many posting the following status

News flash: Family in Laredo, Texas massacred in their sleep, bomb hits bus #74 outside D.C. convention center injuring dozens and killing at least one; dozens of rockets and missiles continue falling in Fairfax, Virginia. Do I have your attention? Is this completely insane and far fetched? Then why is it allowed to happen in Israel??????

It’s a question we’ll continue to ponder as we continue to live our normal lives in this extraordinary place we call home.

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Terror returns to Jerusalem

March 23, 2011 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: War 

Photo from Ynet earlier today

At about 3:10 PM, my daughter Merav called me on my cell phone from school. Someone had said there was a bomb and did I know anything. I quickly checked the Internet. Nothing. But I already could tell that wasn’t the case. All the way from across town, I heard a boom. It could have been a firecracker or a garbage truck but it was followed by more simultaneous sirens than I’ve heard since the murderous days of the Second Intifada.

I kept pressing refresh on Haaretz and Ynet in Hebrew until eventually the story appeared (it was a good ten minutes more before the English language sites picked it up). I began reporting to Merav who, I could hear in the background, was forwarding the news to her classmates.

What’s the first thing you do when the news is bad? Tell your wife? I decided to spare her, at least until there were more details.

The phone rang. It was from the U.S. A friend had already heard the news. Soon Jody was calling to me. She couldn’t reach Merav on her cellphone. All the lines were down. I quickly calmed her: I’d already spoken to Merav, everything was fine.

Of the hundreds of thousands of people in Jerusalem, what are the chances that it would be one of our kids who’d be involved in a terror attack? That’s one reason why Israelis get on with their lives so quickly. But we have another experience. In 2002, our cousin Marla Bennett was killed in the Hebrew University cafeteria bombing. Every attack is personal now.

It’s been nearly 7 years since the last bus bombing in Jerusalem. And this wasn’t a bus attack per se, nor was it a suicide bomber. That doesn’t make it feel any better. Even worse, our son’s bus from Tel Aviv stops every night at that same kiosk near where the bomb was placed. He called and asked if I could pick him up tonight. Merav decided to walk home.

Will this be a return to the early 2000’s? I doubt it. But it’s a painful reminder that we are not at peace, and it may be a long time before the threats around us are gone.

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