Foto Friday – Bezalel takes on Ashdod

November 18, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, design, education, Entertainment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Travel, War 

The city of Ashdod has been in the headlines recently for some unpleasant reasons — missile attacks, burst water mains, port workers strikes and slowdowns — and so it is time to repay a visit to this port city, which is generally a very pleasant place. It has become a popular destination for Russian tourists, eager for some winter sunshine, and was also, according to the municipal website, “awarded all of the prizes granted by The Council for a Beautiful Israel”.

The modern city of Ashdod was founded on November 25, 1956 but the area has been continuously inhabited with human settlement in Ashdod dating back to the Paleolithic Period and urban settlement originating from the 17th century BCE under the Canaanites and then under the Philistines, who conquered the city in the 14th century BCE.

Ashdod developed into one of the five most important Philistine cities. During the Israelite period (600-1200 BCE), Ashdod was partially held by the Tribe of Judah and is mentioned 13 times in the Bible. By the way, Ashdod is home to the Corine Maman Museum, reputedly one of the only museums in the world dedicated to presenting the rich history and culture of the Philistine world.

The city was subsequently conquered by Assyrians — evidence of their presence was found at the Tel Ashdod excavations — Persians, Greeks, Byzantines, Crusaders, Arabs, Ottoman Turks, and in modern times, controlled by the British Mandate prior to the founding of the State of Israel.


Photo by Yair Aharonovic

I was actually in Ashdod last month* with my drinking and running group, the Holyland Hash House Harriers. As always, I was impressed by the city’s wide boulevards, spacious beachfront, green parks and public sculpture, of which there is quite a great deal — 300 statues, at last count.

In fact, modern Ashdod is an urban planning success story: it is the only city in Israel that was planned before being settled and is the fifth largest city in Israel, with a population of 230,000 living in 17 residential boroughs. The demographic composition is also unusual in that there is a balanced distribution of religious and secular Jews, Israeli-born sabras and new immigrants, the latter comprising 38% of overall population.


Photo by Yevgeni Doroshenk


Photo by Shai Mizrachi


Photo by May Castlenuovo

The city, old and new, is the subject of the exhibition, Bezalel in Ashdod, a collaboration between the Ashdod municipality and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. The exhibition will be on display for two days only – November 23-24 – at the old commercial center of Ashdod, Aleph District, and features works from 120 students and faculty of the Department of Photography who were guests of the city for a week last year.


Photos by Eli Singalovski (left), Neta Laufer (right)

During their stay, the students and faculty took photos of the different facets of the city: people and buildings, streets and parks, industrial and commercial areas, inside homes and of course, the port.


Photo by Vera Vladimirski


Photo by Sergei Litoinov

Curators Noa Zayit, Nir Evron and Noa Zdaka state, “The starting point of the exhibit was to concentrate on a single city, as it references examples of compassion, beauty and kindness, but also encompasses art criticism and conflict documentation – the result being a vivid, courageous and real-life picture of the city.”


Photos by Atalia Renaski (left), Gideon Levi (right)

*As luck would have it, we were just exiting the city when the siren sounded, warning of an incoming missile strike. That’s life in the Wild Wild Middle East.

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Riding on the wheels of love

November 18, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: education, Travel 

By Steve Zerobnick, associate director, Keshet

The excitement was electric as 700 cyclists climbed the steep ascent from Ein Kerem to Jerusalem last week. We were part of the annual “Wheels of Love” bike ride, the largest fundraising sporting event in Israel, whose purpose is to raise much-needed funds for Alyn Hospital, one of the world’s leading rehabilitative facilities for youth.

Alyn riders

The ride is proof-positive of the power of the individual. In September of 2000, eight riders and I made our way from Jerusalem to Eilat. We were due to take part in a ride to support a hospital in England which held an annual ride in Israel. Because of the outbreak of the intifada, however, the British hospital cancelled their ride, leaving us Israeli riders stranded. We were given two choices: Ride with the British hospital’s rescheduled ride in Spain, or cancel our participation. Fortunately, we thought of a third option – riding for Alyn Hospital.

As one of the would-be riders I offered to use my experience in running Israel tours for over 15 years to organize our own ride. The other riders accepted my proposal and the rest is history. That year our small group raised over $65,000 for the hospital and founded a committee which started the second “annual ride”. Since that modest beginning the ride has raised over $20 million, benefiting children who are the victims of terror attacks, car or other accidents, congenital defects and more.

This year two young men, one age 14 ½ and one age 17, both former patients at Alyn, rode with us as their way of giving back to the hospital. Keshet CEO Yitzhak Sokoloff and I were proud to be a part of this.

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American grandma to power Tel Aviv light rail

November 16, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, design, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Technology, Travel 

Barbara Levine is helping to get the Tel Aviv light rail system on track.

Despite some major hiccups, the Jerusalem light rail system is up and running. The ticketing system still doesn’t work, so the line, which runs from Pisgat Ze’ev in the north of the city, to Mount Herzl in the west, is still free. The drivers are threatening to quit because their pay is considerably less than that of their previous jobs as bus drivers, and because the synchronized light changing system which will allow smooth train sailing still isn’t working at most intersections, the trip is considerably longer than expected. But otherwise, hey, it’s great.

And now, the country’s other major city, Tel Aviv, is following suit as it begins work on its own light rail system.

In early October, bulldozers started burrowing three 82-foot vertical shafts through which the mining equipment will be lowered to dig out the underground, Petah Tikva-to-Jaffa section of the Red Line. The entire route, planned to open in 2017, will reach as far south as Bat Yam and Holon.

In addition to the Red Line, Tel Aviv will get a Green Line, partly underground and partly at street level, and a Purple Line at street level. All are designed for easy transfers between LRT stops as well as bus stops and Israel Railway stations.

All told, the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Mass Transit System is the biggest infrastructure project in Israel’s history. And one of it’s prime movers who’s in charge of “rolling stock” – the vehicles, signaling, traction power, tracks and fare collection system is a transplanted American woman – 62-year-old Barbara Levine.
Read all about her on ISRAEL21c.

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Importing the new iPhone? Not so fast…

November 16, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Politics, Technology 

iPhone 4S

Here they go again. The Communications Ministry has banned imports of the iPhone 4S, Apple’s latest. You would have thought Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon would have learned from the previous debacle, where his agency attempted to ban Apple’s iPad. That ended after massive public pressure forced Kahlon to change his mind.

In the iPad version of the story, the Communications Ministry claimed that the iPad’s WiFi specifications did not match Israeli standards and Apple needed to tweak the device before it could be imported. Everyone knew that the story was a bunch of hoo-ee. There’s no difference between WiFi in Israel and Europe and the iPad was designed to work with WiFi anywhere in the world.

The real reason, clearly, was that the cellular companies, which wanted first crack at selling the device, had colluded with the Communications Ministry to get a head start.

This time around, the Communications Ministry didn’t even hide its corruption. According to The Jerusalem Post, importers won’t be able to bring in the phone “until Israeli mobile carriers launch (the) iPhone 4S” and, until then, “the ministry will not issue a certificate for a new device and will not allow it into the country.”

Could they be any more obvious?

The article continued that this plan was part of a telecommunications law “reform.” I’m guessing that the social justice protesters this summer weren’t pushing for this kind of reform.

It isn’t clear whether the ban refers only to commercial importers or to individuals as well. In any case, since the iPhone 4S is identical in design to the iPhone 4 (which is permitted), unless customs officials are particularly savvy, it’s doubtful they’ll flag the phone. Unless the owner decides to declare it through the “red line” at the airport.

In response to inquiries, The Post quoted the Communications Ministry as saying, “Following the request by the importers and mobile carriers on this matter, the ministry is in the approval process, and commercial imports of the devices will be approved as soon as possible.”

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Squeeze your chummous

November 15, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, design, Food, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Movies 

Having a quick visit in NYC, and I was both charmed and dismayed to discover a new product at the hotdog stands — an always expected sight on the New York streets — squeeze chummous in a bottle. It seems that Squeeze-Z Chummous has already been on the market about a year, a creation of a former Israeli, Ami Blashkovsky, who has been living in New York for the last 25 years and was looking for a new adventure.

When he saw the success of various chummous joints around the city (I’ve been noticing the various Aroma-alike coffee places around the city, owned by Israelis), as well as the American love of condiments, he hit upon chummous in a bottle. According to this Ynet story, he first called the business Zohan Hummus (note the hummus rather than chummous), after the Adam Sandler movie in which the character uses ‘hummus’ in every facet of life.

But, long story short, he couldn’t use the name Zohan so went with a more onomatopoeic name, describing the product and its service. So he went for Squeeze-Z. It’s appropriate, really, given that he’s not the first Israeli to put a condiment in a squeeze bottle. There was Yad Mordechai, the Israeli kibbutz that put honey into a squeeze container, modeled on a shampoo bottle. And I blogged here about silan, date honey, in a squeeze bottle, my new fave.

I’m not sure how I feel about chummous and hot dogs, but I definitely like the idea of chummous on a New York hot dog cart. For Blashkovsky, who clearly has the entrepreneurial spirit, like his wife, Emily Frances, a former New York broadcaster who just started her own production company, it’s all about finding what pleases the local palate. More power to him.

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