Celebrating November 29 in Jerusalem

November 29, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, education, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Social Justice 

November 29 is a pretty ordinary day around the world – a couple days after Thanksgiving and “Black Friday.” Even many Israelis would likely not be able to identify its significance under duress.

November 29 is the date in 1947 when the United Nations General Assembly voted by a two-thirds majority to partition the small state of Palestine into two smaller states of about equal size, one Arab and one Jewish. Jerusalem was to remain under international rule. It was the vital step in the process that a few months later resulted in the creation of Israel.

To mark the 64th anniversary of what’s called Kaf Tet B’November in Hebrew, the World Zionist Organization held a celebratory “reenactment” of the day in front of the Jewish Agency building in central Jerusalem.

Busloads of student dance groups were brought in to lead folk dancing and the traditional hora, and the plaza was given a full 1947 makeover: actors portrayed citizens and soldiers, as well as historical figures like David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir who arrived in vintage cars from the era. The idea was to recreate the joy the Jewish people in the yishuv felt when the partition plan was accepted and the glimmer of a Jewish state was in sight.

Guests of honor like Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky and Likud MK Danny Danon watched from the terrace above the plaza and addressed the crowd. Down below, it was the usual Israeli balagan, with photographers jostling each other, proud parents hovering around their twinkle-toed kids (alright, I was one of them) and enough noise and tumult to probably top whatever took place in 1947.

I’m not sure what the founding mothers and fathers of the country would make of the 64-year-old child they’ve reared – probably a mixture of awe and puzzlement, and maybe a little dismay. But it’s clear what today’s kids think of their 1947 antecedents – they rocked!

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20,000 Birthrighters in Israel last summer – but why?

November 29, 2011 by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Life, Travel 

I’m always heartened to read about the ever-growing numbers of young people the Taglit-birthright program has brought to Israel. In the latest report, appearing today on Ynet, last summer nearly 20,000 young adults (including 10,000 from 712 colleges across North America) participated. Leading the pack were universities in Michigan, Florida, Indiana, Maryland and Pennsylvania. More than twice as many young people applied than there were places and Taglit has set an not unreasonable target of 51,000 annually by 2013.

I wonder, however, how many of those students were coming to see the country and how many for the promise of sex and drugs (and a little rock and roll clubbing to boot)?

Take a look at the Jewlicious blog’s “Unofficial Guide to Sex on Birthright Israel,” a primer for pre-trip safe sex that appeared earlier this year and, based on comments I’ve heard from those who’ve participated on a Taglit trip, is pretty spot on.

Among the revelations: while making it with an Israeli soldier is tres sexy, watch out – despite their macho demeanor, male soldiers can form surprisingly emotional attachments from what a Taglit gal may have thought was a quickie. As for the women soldiers, compared to the army men they’ve had to deal with, Taglit participates are “soft in the middle and tremendously immature,” writes “Wendy in Furs,” the author of the Jewlicious blog post.

Sex with counselors, tour guides and bus drivers are a definite no-no, Wendy adds, but if you can figure out how to be alone in a shared room, other participants are fair game.

There are also some forthright tips, such as an exhortation to buy condoms only from the large pharmacies rather than the cheap ones sold at the local makolet (grocery store) that are more likely to, um, malfunction.

Wendy ends by adding some sobriety to her irreverent primer. “The vast majority of people participating in Birthright do not have sex on the trip,” she writes. But that headline sure makes for guaranteed reading.

P.S. – there’s now also an unofficial guide to drugs on Birthright on the Jewlicious site. Among its takeaways: there is no right against unreasonable search and seizure in Israel; marijuana in Israel sucks; hashish comes mostly from terrorists in Lebanon; and drug transactions involving tourists don’t usually end well. Stick with the sex, I say.

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Duggars in the land

November 29, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Blogging, Business, Entertainment, General, health, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Travel, tv 

Duggars on ElAl

I can’t believe I missed this when it was happening, but it appears that the Duggars, that conservative Baptist family of 19 (!) children (all stars of “19 Kids and Counting”), — soon to be 20, cuz Mom Michelle is pregnant again — recently visited Israel while on a grand world tour, tv crew included.

Duggars heading into the Kinneret

They clearly had very little press while they were here, because it wasn’t mentioned on the news or in the papers at the time. Then again, families with many children traveling around is not that uncommon around here, although 19, soon to be 20, is worth mentioning, even in this land of large families. Highlights included a boat ride on the Kinneret, baptizing in the Jordan River, eating falafel and pita, a camel ride, floating in the Dead Sea, buying pickles in Jerusalem’s Old City (not clear about this one, did they mean Machane Yehuda?), and other famed Christian sites, including the Garden Tomb.

Outside Yad Sarah

What did bring the Duggars to local attention was their visit to emergency clinic Terem and then aid organization Yad Sarah, when Josie, the baby, was heavily congested and required a doctor’s visit as well as extra oxygen to help her through the illness. As reported on Ynet, their guide brought them straight to Yad Sarah for the equipment, and then Mama Duggar, one of the older daughters and Josie, the youngest, ended up staying in Israel for another week while the rest of the family headed home.

Here’s a clip of their stop in London; the Israel part of the trip isn’t online yet, as it just aired on Sunday.

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Unhappy cafe

November 28, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Food, Social Justice 

It was clear from the moment we entered that this was not a happy place. It was our oldest son’s 20th birthday and we decided to celebrate over food. We’d heard that Roza, which has branches in town and on Emek Refaim in Jerusalem, had a creative menu and reasonable prices.

We made a reservation for 6:15 PM and arrived slightly late. The greeter at the door scowled at us, didn’t even look at the reservation book, and pointed to several tables that would fit a party of four. As we skimmed the menu, we noticed that none of the other wait staff were smiling. There was a general feeling of malaise at best, or more likely passive aggressive disquiet.

When Gal, our waiter arrived, my wife made a point of acting chipper. Gal seemed to brighten at her energy. She then proceeded to ask if the establishment has a tav chevrati. The tav is a sort of parallel to kosher certification. Rather than referring to the food, it is given based on whether the employees are treated well, given favorable work conditions and a sufficient salary.

Gal had never heard of the tav chevrati. When my wife Jody asked if the restaurant has terms that might grant it such a certificate, Gal was quick to answer “absolutely not.”

Which is a shame, because the food was quite good. I had a fajita with stir fried veggies on a sizzling platter, our son had a steak sandwich so stuffed that it was hard to figure out how to fit it in his mouth without using a knife and fork. We also had an awesome starter of a lamb kebab foccacia.

We have friends who won’t eat at restaurants without the tav chevrati. I’ve already boycotted at least one, despite the café’s truly excellent crushed ice lemonade with fresh mint.

Jody thought about telling the manager that his or her employees were not happy, but we were in a hurry at the end of our meal and the thought slipped her mind. In any case, it seems like a case of preaching to the wrong choir. But maybe if enough people voice their concerns, conditions will improve.

Try it for yourself – order a meal (that part will be good at least) and if the wait staff are grumpy on your visit, tell the manager. We’ll go back and do the same.

Consider it your own little tent protest for social justice.

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Nostalgia Sunday – Snacks n’ shtetls

November 27, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Business, Entertainment, Food, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture 

Israel’s latest in laugh-out-loud commercials was broadcast about a week ago and immediately went viral.

The TV spot, for baked goods manufacturer Bagel & Bagel’s latest offering, Bagel Dak Dak, (meaning: thin, thin pretzels) is a best described as a 21st century re-imagining of the modern State of Israel’s 19th century roots. It could also be described as the native Israeli sabra’s idea of life in the Pale of Settlement, with an approximation of Yiddish and every Israeli immigrant stereotype thrown in for good measure.

Watch first; a translation follows below. And keep in mind: in Israel, the words beigeleh (singular) and beigelach (plural) refer to pretzels.

Title: Bagel & Bagel bakery, Poland 1880
Son: Father! Mother! I have an idea! Thin, thin beigelach… with flavors!!!
All: [Shocked] What?
Father: Flavored beigelach?
Son: Yes, yes. With peppers… with cheddar cheese… with spices!
Father: Pepper? That’s for Moroccans!
Mother: Flavor… in food?! We’re Polish!
Father: Sweetie, on the day that little Ben Gurion over there is Prime Minister in the Land of Israel… then we will make beigelach with flavors. [Aside] What a golem.
Voice Over: Nation of Israel! The time has come for flavored thin, thin beigelach! New from Bagel & Bagel. Thin, thin pretzels in a variety of flavors.

The ad is rife with historical inaccuracies: flat pretzels (also known as pretzel crisps or pretzel chips) were patented in the US in 2004, Ben Gurion was born in 1886, he grew up under Russian rule, his father was a lawyer and there is plenty of photographic evidence to prove he was not a bald-headed child. But despite these, or perhaps because of them, the commercial has become a wild success.

According to survey company Geocartogaphy’s weekly listing of Best Loved and Most Memorable commercial advertisements of the week, as published by Globes, “Bagel & Bagel’s commercial for thin flavored pretzels, produced by Baumann-Ber-Rivnay, heads the list of the week’s most memorable commercials. The memorable nature of the commercial was 50% higher than the semi-annual average. The company invested $794 million the commercial.”

To my mind, the flat pretzel is genius, eliminating all unnecessary parts of the pretzel, leaving only crunch, and salt. There are several such products on the local market: Meir Bagel’s Shtuchaleh (which captured 26% of the entire flat pretzel market within one month of launching), Osem’s Shtuchim crispy smashed beigeleh, and the new flavored Dakim Dakim by Bagel & Bagel, which is owned by Unilever.

In honor of the launch, Bagel & Bagel issued some interesting stats about the Israeli snack food market: pretzels are mostly consumed by adult consumers (25-55) in Israel. Older consumers tend to consume pretzels as a snack on a regular basis. Of these, about 90% combine personal pretzel consumption with pretzels served to guests. Adults with families tend to buy pretzels at a higher rate (84%), as compared with singles / couples without children (76%). (TNS Monitor, December 2010).

The company further pointed out that, to date, innovations in the pretzel category had to do with shape only and that studies indicated the main obstacle to pretzel consumption was that their taste could be perceived as boring. Hence, the introduction of a flavor component which was not invented by an excitable young man running down the muddy shtetl streets, but chosen by taste tests and focus groups.

The snack food wars are on! We’re looking forward to the next installment.

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