Israeli driver training

December 23, 2011 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Crime, education, General, Israeliness, Life, Travel 

Having possessed a car for much of the last 25 years, I’ve grown accustomed to the driving habits most Israelis have adopted – habits that have justifiably given us the reputation of being among the worst drivers in the world.

Driving around Jerusalem the other day, my wife and started joking about what we would do if we were given citizen’s rights to give traffic violations. We decided to keep track of the various infractions Israeli drivers are guilty of on a daily basis.

Within a couple minutes, we witnessed one driver speeding up as a traffic light turned red and barreling through the intersection. “That’s a license revoking offense,” I offered.

A couple streets later, a car over on the right shoulder had just evidently mistakenly passed a side street and was backing up against the traffic in order to turn right. I think that should prompt taking their license away and also impounding their car and forcing the driver to take an IQ test. It’s probably the most dangerous thing you can do on the road besides driving blindfolded.

“This is too easy,” my wife said, as we continued to witness one violation after another – cyclists weaving in and out of traffic, drivers making right turns from the left lanes, and someone blaring thumping trance music from their open window – itself a capital offense.

We thought we had seen everything, and had handed out probably 20 tickers during our imaginary shift. However, driving up the highway incline to our neighborhood, a station wagon passed us containing what looked like Palestinian laborers on their way home. A quick glance came up with nine passengers in a six-seat car, and these guys weren’t tiny.

We couldn’t help but laugh at the negligence around us, but one more sight topped it all. Across the median on the shoulder heading downhill, a taxi was pulled over to the side. The driver was standing around the front of the car, facing away from the road and urinating for all to see.

After all we had witnessed on that trip, it didn’t seem to be so bad at all.

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Foto Friday – 360 degree Holy Land

December 23, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, coexistence, education, Entertainment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Movies, Picture of the Week, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion, Technology, Travel, tv 

The Internet offers us endless ways to view the sites and sounds of the Holy Land. This week, we present some of the many panoramic photo and video images that are available online.

Panoramic photography, states Wikipedia, “is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography.” (Click here for more about the methods used to create 360 images). Panoramic photo images have been around since the mid 1800s; this one of Jerusalem was taken in the early 20th century.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

As with everything else photographic, clearly, the technology has evolved. Take, for example, this amazing 360 degree panoramic photo of the Galilee.


Tel Yodfat, Galilee, Israel in Israel

The Church of All Nations is located on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, next to the Garden of Gethsemane. Click on this photo — the link will take you to a panoramic view of the Church, the Garden and the walls of the Old City, courtesy of 3D Israel.

Israeli company Simply Live has developed a highly technologically advanced 360 degree video camera (only last week presented at the Bezeq Expo innovation showcase). Click on this photo of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — the link takes you to their site where you can view an interactive video that allows you to enter and move through the Church interior.

A fascinating if politically charged panoramic view of Israel’s coastline as viewed from the West Bank is available at MyIsrael.com. The site owners are very blunt about the purpose of the wide-angle shot: they wish to show how vulnerable Israel would be to an attack were pre-1967 borders to be reinstated. It takes only one look to see why the situation here is complicated.

Even on its own, the image is complex: a very wide-angle view (MyIsrael.com say it is the largest publicly available) with interactive controls so that viewers can zoom in on highly detailed close ups. Photographer Yaal Herman provides several pages of explanation on how the photo (really hundreds of photos stitched together) was accomplished. Click on this thumbnail to see the full version.

Whatever the political future holds, we can still hope for stability, quiet and — dare I say it? — peace. A few weeks ago, I was in Bethlehem once again for the annual Papal Peace Run. Instead of a highly secured, quick in-and-out, I would like to be able to return one day at my leisure to visit the Church of the Nativity. Till then, I will visit this way — and invite you to do so, too. Happy holidays to all.


Church Nativity Bethlehem in Israel


Grotto of the Nativity – Church of the Nativity, Betlehem in Israel

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Spreading some Hanukka light

December 21, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Social Justice 

History was made Wednesday night – the second night of Hanukka – in Ma’aleh Adumim.

The members of Havura Ma’aleh Adumim, the first and only egalitarian, pluralistic congregation in the city outside Jerusalem welcomed its first Torah with a touching service including dancing and singing outdoors, a candle-lighting for Hanukka and the ceremonial eating of some gourmet sufganiyot (donuts) from the local Neeman bakery.

I’m one of those members, and along with my wife, helped to found the havura more than 15 years ago. Cutting against the grain of the city’s religious establishment, and a chief rabbi who doesn’t recognize any stream of Judaism except Orthodoxy, we’ve kept a low profile over the years, meeting on Friday nights, as well as holding shiurim, special events for holidays and community activities. But until this year, we never held Shabbat morning services requiring a Torah.

After launching morning services earlier this year, with a borrowed Torah, we’ve finally built our numbers up to the level where the Masorti Movement in Israel has given us a sefer Torah on permanent loan.

Speaking to the congregants at the ceremony, havura co-founder Shelley Brinn tied in the holiday of ‘lights’ with the concept that our egalitarian congregation is helping to shed its own light in the midst of ever-increasing darkness around the world – from the countries threatening our existence to the forces that would separate men and women on buses.

May the light of Hanukka continue to shine on all of us.

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Radio Free Nachlaot celebrates its second birthday

December 20, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Music 

Steve and Lorelai from Radio Free Nachlaot

Jerusalem’s Radio Free Nachlaot turned two this month. The Internet-only radio station, whose slogan is that it broadcasts from “an undisclosed location somewhere deep in the heart of Nachlaot” plays a mix of Grateful Dead (and Dead-inspired) music, mixed with Shlomo Carlebach and Torah talks “24/6” (the station rests on Shabbat).

Except on Wednesday nights, when the station’s founders, Anglo immigrants Lorelai Kude and Steve Levine, give me a chance to rock out.

Since August, I’ve been on the air playing everything except for the Grateful Dead. Whether that’s the latest indie rock (think of the improbably named New Pornographers or Death Cab for Cutie – hey, maybe there is some Dead on my show); classic 70s pop (be honest: you can never hear too much of “Amie” by the Pure Prairie League); or melodic grunge (Spock’s Beard or Smashing Pumpkins), come 7:00 PM, I’ll be spinning the tracks for two energetic, eclectic hours.

Running a radio station these days is a far cry from my stint as a DJ during college. Internet stations like Radio Free Nachlaot can now gain a worldwide following without the need for expensive transmitter towers, FCC licenses or ever expanding libraries of LP’s and 45’s.

In fact, there are no more records (or CD’s for that matter) at all. All you need is a computer, a one-time purchase of a broadcasting software program, a virtual stack of MP3’s, a decent microphone, and somewhere in the vicinity of $99/month for streaming bandwidth and, voila, you can be heard beyond the 10 mile radius that was my audience in 1983.

Moreover, you can even broadcast from a laptop in your bedroom (which Steve and Lorelai do in the wee hours of the night when shlepping to the main studio in Givat Shaul would be insomnia inducing).

That freedom is great, but computerization takes some of the fun out of DJ’ing – instead of cue’ing up two records and artfully mixing them together, now the software handles all the segues between songs – and frankly, most of the time, a lot better than a human being would.

Radio Free Nachlaot joins Rusty Mike Radio as the two main English-language Internet stations beaming out of Israel. The stations are unusual in that they feature real people behind the mic’s; most other Internet stations are either pre-programmed or custom-driven by the individual listener (see Spotify, Pandora and Last.fm).

The truth is, it’s somewhat of a miracle I got the gig at all. When Israelity colleague David Brinn made the initial shidduch, Lorelai’s first interview question for me: “So what’s your relationship with Jerry” (referring to the Grateful Dead’s late Jerry Garcia)?” I sheepishly replied that I had none and then proceeded to wax nostalgically about The Buzzcocks and The Tubes.

On its two-year birthday, Radio Free Nachlaot is averaging about 2,000 listeners a week, split almost evenly between Israel and the U.S., although there are also listeners from some 95 other countries. Lorelai told The Jerusalem Post’s Gil Zohar earlier this year that “considering we’ve never spent an agora on advertising and rely only on social media and word of mouth, that’s tremendous.”

You can listen from the station’s website or via iTunes Radio (it’s under the world/international category). In addition to my decidedly eclectic show (past playlists are here), there are programs featuring jazz, soundtracks from musicals, “homegrown” Israeli rock, and live broadcasts on Sunday nights that have featured the likes of Lazer Loyd from Yood and Yehuda Katz from Reva L’Sheva.

And let’s not forget the “9 Days of Jerry” broadcast in August to mark the birthday and yahrzeit of Jerry Garcia. Because at the end of the day, my show notwithstanding, Radio Free Nachlaot will live – and die – with the Grateful Dead.

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Artsy desert kibbutz wins bid to design Waldorf interior

December 20, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, education, Travel 

By Geoff Winston, Keshet

On a family vacation in the Arava Desert, we popped in to see the new Art Center of Kibbutz Neot Smadar. When driving toward Eilat, we had always seen the tower sticking out of this tiny kibbutz, but never had the opportunity to check it out from up close.

Neot SmadarAs we approached the enormous building, it felt as if we were entering a palace from a fairy tale: bright pastel colors right out of a Crayola box, surrounded by manicured gardens and well-placed water fountains (in the desert!) balconies surrounding the inner courtyard, decorated by cement birds in place of guardrails – and huge dimensions.

Kibbutz Neot Smadar was founded in 1989 in the middle of nowhere. The idea was to form a relationship with the desert and the environment through organic farming, water recycling, etc. In the late 1990s, the members embarked upon building an art center, creating new architectural techniques and building materials using the resources of the desert. The heart of the project was the six-story air chimney that collects the wind, cools it via a water spray system and then uses the force of the wind to disperse the air through underground ducts and vents to cool the center’s studios and workshops — in essence, an efficient natural air conditioner.

Neot SmadarI bumped into a former teaching colleague who decided to leave suburbia some five years ago in order to join in the completion of this project, which took 13 years. Yuval was known at the “botzan” – the mud teacher. He would build things around the school out of natural products, such as a huge teepee out of palm branches, benches out of mud, a fish pond, a gazebo. With Yuval’s help, the builders were able to complete the art center using only materials that they created and their own manpower.

And there’s more to the story of this quirky kibbutz, where members eat their meals together in silence and start each day with a mandatory yoga/meditation session.
Exhibiting their newly created natural concrete molding reliefs and sculptures, the kibbutz put in a bid to design and decorate the inside of the soon-to-be-opened Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem – and won! Soon we will be able to see the relationship between the extravagant, world famous hotel and little-known, minimalistic Kibbutz Neot Smadar.

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