Dana International and Miri Ben-Ari – making Israel proud

April 4, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, Entertainment, General, Israeliness, Music, Pop Culture, Social Justice, tv 

Israeli entertainers are getting around. ISRAEL21c profiles the country’s favorite transsexual Dana International, basking in the glow of being chosen for the second time to represent the country at the annual Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Germany on May 14.

The last time she appeared in the contest, in 1998, she won with her song ‘Diva.’ This time she’s singing an equally frothy ‘Ding Dong,’ – chosen by TV viewers during a live homegrown competition held in February in Rishon Lezion.

Americans may not get it, but the Eurovision contest is huge, with millions of viewers worldwide, 43 countries participating, and enough garish outfits and outlandish musical arrangements to fill a dozen seasons of Dancing With the Stars.

But Dana isn’t the only Israeli to be up on the international stage. Hip-hop violinist Miri Ben-Ari received a somewhat more cultured honor when last week she appeared at the White House as a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama.

The Israeli-born Grammy award who has performed with Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, played a hip-hop version of the Star Spangled Banner at a special women’s mentoring event hosted by Obama in honor of Women’s History Month. The First Lady invited 22 “remarkable women” from the world of business, entertainment, politics and sports to inspire and mentor young students.

Ben-Ari dedicated her performance at the event to the war on racism. She also played “Symphony of Brotherhood,’ which features Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

According to Ynet, when Ben-Ari told Obama she was Israeli, the First Lady said she had already known that.

“Michelle Obama is a very warm and direct person. She told us she was ‘just Michelle’, spoke about her difficulties in life and said she was moved by the choices each and every one of us made,” said Ben-Ari.

“I’ve performed at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden and everywhere else. I thought I had done everything and fulfilled all my dreams, but it turned out I hadn’t.”

Tags:

Nostalgia Sunday – Hebrew U’s 86th

April 3, 2011 by · 4 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, education, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday 

This past Friday, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem celebrated its 86th anniversary. Founded in 1925, Hebrew U. (also known familiarly as HUJI) over the years, it has developed into a world center of research, ranked among the world’s leading universities by the Times of London’s Higher Education Supplement.

It’s also home to the One Year Program — but more about that in a minute. First, some history.

Part of the early Zionist vision was to establish a “University of the Jewish People” in Jerusalem. The Zionist Organization acquired the land from painter Lady Caroline Emily Hill and her husband, Sir John Gray Hill.

The Gray Hills were great Middle East aficionados and, having acquired a tract of land on Mt. Scopus, and building an estate and artist’s studio there, used it as a home base for their travels.

According to a 1976 research paper, Caroline Emily Gray Hill: The Orientalist painter from Mount Scopus, “The couple was adamant about improving the quality of the environment in Jerusalem, especially in the areas of home construction, landscaping, gardening, and water supply, citing the garden suburbs built for workers around Liverpool as an example worthy of imitation.

“When they decided to sell their home in Jerusalem, Caroline Emily and Sir John Gray Hill preferred to sell it to the Zionist Organization rather than to other prospective purchasers, because they believed that the house would serve as the core for a university to be built for the ‘Hebrew race’”.

The cornerstone for the university was laid in 1918 and seven years later, on April 1, 1925, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was opened at a festive ceremony. According to the HUJI website, in attendance, were world Jewish leaders “including the University’s founding father, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, distinguished academics and communal leaders of the Yishuv, and British dignitaries including Lord Balfour, Viscount Allenby and Sir Herbert Samuel. Also in attendance were Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook, the poet Haim Nahman Bialik and many others.”

“The First Board of Governors of the University, chaired by Dr. Weizmann, included such luminaries as Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, Haim Nahman Bialik, Asher Ginsberg (Ahad Ha’am), Dr. Judah Leib Magnes, James Rothschild, Sir Alfred Mond, Nahum Sokolov, Harry Sacher and Felix M. Warburg.”

In 1931, the University awarded its first degrees, the Master of Arts, to 13 graduates. By 1947, student enrollment exceeded 1,000 and there were some 200 faculty members.

“The War of Independence in 1948 left the University campus cut off from Israeli west Jerusalem, and alternative facilities were found throughout the city. In 1953, construction began on a new main campus at Givat Ram in the heart of Jerusalem. A few years later work began on a health sciences campus in Ein Kerem in southwest Jerusalem, in partnership with the Hadassah Medical Organization. By the beginning of 1967, the number of faculties and schools had been greatly expanded, and enrollment exceeded 12,500.”

“With the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of June 1967, work began on restoring and expanding the Mount Scopus campus. In 1981, the historical Mount Scopus campus again became the main home of the University.”

Which brings me to the One Year Program of 1981-2, where I was a student. The Program got underway in 1955 but was formalized in 1971. And in 1981 (that year again), it was officially renamed the Rothberg International School. The Program has played an important role in creating and strengthening bonds between Diaspora Jewish students and Israel. And HUJI recently realized the importance of that bond, and established an Alumni Association that, among other benefits, entitles its members to a “Hebrew University Alumni” card.

Bizarrely enough, even though it was a very important year in my life, I don’t think I have a single photo from then! (Well, I was too busy running the Rachel Neiman off-campus hostel for wayward youth. More on that another time). If anyone has any pix (of me or anyone else) you can post them on our Facebook page.

By the way, today the are 23,500 students enrolled at HUJI, including 11,700 undergraduates, 6,900 master’s degree students, 2,700 doctoral candidates, and 2,200 other students. There are 1,200 tenured academic faculty, 1,500 full-time administrative and technical staff working at four campuses: Mount Scopus, Givat Ram, and Hadassah-Ein Kerem in Jerusalem, and the agricultural school in Rehovot.

Hebrew University has a great YouTube channel, by the way, where you can enjoy lectures by faculty and catch up on their latest research.


© RomKri

Tags:

What time is it? Israel springs ahead

April 2, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Technology 

On Thursday night, Israel joined the US and Europe in implementing Daylight Savings Time. We turned clocks forward in a move that will last for 185 days and will end October 2, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

The move to Daylight savings Time in Israel has long been accompanied by disputes between religious factions in the Knesset, hoping to shorten it in order to make it easier on the religious population to get up for prayers during the high holidays – secular parties, aiming to extend until November like in the US.

61 MKs have signed a petition to set a fixed date in the Gregorian calendar that would mark the end of Daylight savings Time instead of the annual push and pull dispute. But next year, chances are nothing will have changed and the clocks will go back to Winter Time before Yom Kippur.

In my household, whenever the clocks change, we have our own solution to the struggle between the hours – we keep both times.

Changing old-fashioned wall clocks is no problem, but microwaves, ovens, DVDs, car clocks and other devices sporting clocks can prove to be a challenge to technology-challenged families. So, I change what I can, and too lazy or inept to follow the instructions in the user manual, I leave some devices on the old time.

For instance, on our VCR (yes, we still have one), I know that the correct time is easily gotten by adding an hour and an addition al 12 minutes gained from previous ill-advised attempts at changing the clock.

And in the car, it’s a matter of doing the opposite – subtracting an hour minus five minutes for wear and tear.

So whether it’s Daylight Savings Time or Winter Time, in our household, the time is always right.

Tags:

Foto Friday – Springing and Singing in Tel Aviv

April 1, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Entertainment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Movies, Music, Picture of the Week, Pop Culture, Travel 

Spring in Tel Aviv is the season when the locals begin shedding their outer layers and taking their pasty, flabby selves out into the sunshine. The perfect time to take a tour of the city, courtesy of the municipality’s website…

We’ll follow musician Uzi Ramirez of local bands Boom Pam and Ramirez Brothers, as he rides the Number 5 minibus down Dizengoff Street. This video gives you the full miniboos experience — including the highly developed system of passing change from the driver to the passengers in the back seat.

Once we hit Dizengoff Center, let’s disembark and walk up King George Street to the Gan Meir park, named for the city’s first mayor…

As night falls, let’s accompany singer Akuka as she wanders through beautifully refurbished Bialik Square.

The music videos are part of the Indie-City project, a co-production of municipality and Israel Channel 8 that presents musicians performing on the city’s streets, parks and boulevards. More can be found on the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality’s YouTube channel.

Tags:

Page 8 of 8« First...45678

 

© 2012 ISRAELITY | Sitemap