Foto Friday – Dead Sea wonders
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, Blogging, coexistence, Environment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Picture of the Week, Pop Culture, Travel
There’s now less than a week before voting closes for the New7Wonders of Nature, part of the New7Wonders movement, an international campaign to create seven symbols of heritage and nature. Here in Israel, unless you’ve been living under a rock, or a large salt formation, you probably know that the Dead Sea is among the leading candidates, having made it to the top 28 sites worldwide, out of hundreds.
What you might not know is that this nomination was put forth by three partners: Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, whose respective Tourism Authorities have been promoting the campaign this week in a final race to the finish.
High atop Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Tower, a giant counter is now ticking away, showing the time left to vote. The Ministry of Tourism and the Prime Minister’s Office has called upon the public to vote for the Dead Sea, either by texting “11.11.11″ to the number 2244 with the words: Dead Sea in English, Hebrew or Arabic, or online at the Ministry of Tourism’s website or on the campaign’s official website. Or you can just click on the New7Wonders link on the right-hand side of this page.
The New7Wonders of Nature campaign launched in 2007, immediately after the successful campaign to elect the man-made Official New 7 Wonders of the World. Its been reported on by Israelity since David first blogged about the nomination three years ago and a year later, when ISRAEL21c reported that the nomination was confirmed.
Various events promoting the campaign have included dancer-choreographer Ido Tadmor dance on the Dead Sea’s salty banks, a delegation of Harley-Davidson motorcycle bikers, and most recently, a mass naked happening by performance artist Spencer Tunick.
And now, as Brian wrote a few weeks ago, we are down to the final stretch.
The campaign has also been backed by regional environmental organization Friends of the Earth Middle East, who met this summer with New7Wonders President and Founder Bernard Weber and New7Wonders Director Jean-Paul de la Fuente to discuss their aligned interests.
Weber was quoted as saying, “New7Wonders and Friends of the Earth Middle East share the same nature-without-borders vision for the Dead Sea, and will continue to work together to ensure that positive and active participation in the New7Wonders of Nature will help foster dialogue and collaboration around natural and environmental objectives.”
Visit the New7Wonders website to vote, view and upload images to their online photo gallery, watch videos and read stories about the Dead Sea. Voting for the New7Wonders of Nature ends on 11.11.11, and the campaign to name the New7Wonders Cities has just launched. Jerusalem, anyone?
Pictures courtesy of the Israel Ministry of Tourism, New7Wonders.
An Israeli Halloween
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, Business, Entertainment, Environment, Food, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Pop Culture
Halloween cookies from the Cupcake Caterers
Not having celebrated myself growing up — rabbi’s kid, although we did hand out candy to all the neighborhood kids — I don’t have any strong connections to the holiday. And because we were the rabbi’s family, our house did not usually get pelted by raw eggs and such — neighborhood protection. So it was the best of all worlds; appreciating someone else’s ‘chag‘, despite the anti-Semitic associations (we lived in a fairly non-Jewish neighborhood) but not having to take it on ourselves.
Living in Israel, I haven’t really given it much thought, except for cruising through various online store catalogs for Halloween costumes that could work well for Purim. But something’s happening this year, at least through my lens. Halloween has always been different for me than Thanksgiving, which I’ve always celebrated here in Israel, and have continued to do so, despite light censure from Israeli-born nieces, nephews and stepdaughters who think that the American-born adults in their lives are crazy to continue with such a blatantly chulnik (Israeli slangish for ‘foreigner’) celebration.\
Maybe it’s Facebook, and the exposure offered to what other people are doing and celebrating. Or perhaps it’s that global village thing, in which we adapt and adopt others’ trends and rituals because they seem worthwhile. All I know is, Halloween is out there, now translated to ליל כל הקדושים, All Hallows Eve.
There are parties advertised online, mostly hosted by Americans, exhorting invitees to “Do it the same in Israel as we would at home!!” There’s also the potential for doubling up on costumes, wearing what you wore for Purim on Halloween, and vice versa. And there are the comments from many, missing that easy availability of candy corn, half off Halloween candy the day after.
Halloween isn’t the American version of Purim, as Senator John McCain once mistakenly noted, despite the similarities. But it does have its appeal, particularly to those of us who hail from the land of the U.S.A. Check out the cookies made by Sidra Collins Muoio, owner of Cupcake Caterers, for her co-workers.
And, finally, there’s Rabies, Israel’s first horror film, which had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last May and played in Toronto in honor of Halloween.
If it’s a celebration of candy, costumes and good times, I’m actually all for it. And I can never argue with an Israeli film that succeeds on North American terms.
Foto Friday – Michael Silverman’s Beautiful Weeds
Filed under: Art, Environment, Foto Friday, General, Life, Picture of the Week, Profiles, Travel
Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice of situating built environments — buildings, rooms and even furniture — in spots with auspicious chi, meaning good life-force or energy. Photographer Michael Silverman, who is also a Feng Shui master, lives in such a place: the village of Clil, an ecologically-minded community in the foothills of the Western Galilee overlooking the Mediterranean.
Founded in 1979, Clil’s unique character has been determined by not only by its residents — many of whom are professional artists, artisans, musicians and writers — but by the surrounding landscape, fields and orchards planted over the years.
Silverman trained as a commercial photographer in the US and began studying Feng Shui in 1972. After moving to Israel in 1974 he worked in advertising, multimedia and later on, as high-tech in Israel gathered steam, in software, multimedia and Internet design.
Today, he teaches design and photography, and acts as a consultant to businesses interested in using Feng Shui principles in the workplace.
According to Chinese scripture, “Chi rides the wind and scatters but is retained when encountering water” (the term Feng Shui actually translates to “wind-water”). The art of creating a framework for the untamed describes perfectly the latest photographic series from Silverman, Weeds 2011.
Within his viewfinder, a simple blade of grass suddenly gains form and stature…
The world reflected in a drop of water…
A half-dead dandelion takes on new life…
More photos can be found on Michael Silverman’s Picasa page, Facebook page, and YouTube channel, where he’s also shared some lovely slideshows. Here’s one to start with. Enjoy.
Art in Umm el-Fahem
Ammar Younis has an exhibit at the Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery
We visited one of Israel’s most unusual museums last week. The Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery, in the Israeli Arab town of the same name, is a small gem, way off the usual museum track, and absolutely worth the visit if you’re traveling between Tel Aviv and the Sea of Galilee…and even if you’re not.
The Gallery houses several rotating exhibitions and a permanent floor exploring the history of Umm el-Fahem and the greater Wadi Ara environs. The Gallery’s aim is to bring contemporary art of all types – not just from Arab and Palestinian artists – to an area that has been mostly devoid of museums of this kind.
To wit, the current exhibitions include a series of striking portraits of men and women from Arab villages, adorned by jewels and beads glued on top of the paintings themselves, by artist Fatma Abu Rumi; impressionistic images of cityscapes from the Former Soviet Union by Nidal Gabarin, who left Israel to train in Russia; a collection of large framed photographs from Ammar Younis, all of which prominently feature donkeys in often amusing settings; and a playful exhibition of ceramic sculptures by Jewish artist Rafi Munz which adorn the Gallery’s rooftop, overlooking the sprawling town with its 50,000 inhabitants.
The Gallery’s biggest claim to fame, perhaps, was the 1999 exhibition of Yoko Ono’s “Open Window.”
We visited the Art Gallery with a group of 30 other Jerusalemites and were hosted by 55-year-old Said Abu-Shakra, the gallery’s founder and director who is an artist himself and a former policeman. He laid out his vision for the future of art in Umm el-Fahem.
The Art Gallery was founded in 1996 in a 100 square meter space. A few years ago, it moved to its current location with 1,500 meters on three floors. Abu-Shakra has commissioned plans that will expand the gallery again in a stunning architectural design that will hang over the Umm el-Fahem’s main street.
Local residents don’t tend to visit art galleries, Abu-Shakra told the group. So the design will force people to pass under the building, coming at least into proximity to the gallery. Abu-Shakra hopes that some of those transversing the town will eventually stop and visit the gallery itself.
“We knew the cultural situation in Umm el-Fahem and most of the Arab sector was close to zero,” Abu-Shakra said in an interview with Arieh O’Sullivan earlier this year. “But I’m not blaming anyone. I’m here to build.”
Abu-Shakra provided an example in an interview with Hadassah Magazine. He invited his neighbor Yousef, a gardener, to the opening, he explained. “The next day I saw him and said ‘Hey Yousef, why didn’t you come?’ And Yousef said: ‘I did come, with my two sons, but we stood in the door and looked in and when I saw all those fancy people inside with suits and ties, I looked at myself and said, this isn’t for me, and I went home.’ Yousef represents 80 percent of the people here. My challenge is how to reach these people and make them feel part of what we are doing.
Building won’t be cheap: the plan for the new museum, which has been allocated a 4-acre plot, requires a not insignificant $40 million to be realized. Abu-Shakra said he’s willing to build in phases.
An art gallery in Umm el-Fahem is all the more surprising given the town’s recent, violent history. In October 2000, three residents were killed by Israeli police during riots that swept through the Wadi Ara region. Then, in March 2009, members of the Israeli right marched through the town (under police protection), resulting in clashes in which 16 were wounded.
The Gallery receives some money from the Israeli Ministry of Culture, as well from donors abroad. It’s hard to raise money from the local population, Abu-Shakra said, which is struggling just to make ends meet amid severe poverty and unemployment. Some 40,000 visitors came in 2010. If Abu-Shakra has his way, that will increase dramatically.
If you like discovering the off-beat or lesser known attractions in Israel, now is the time to visit – before the Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery becomes the next big thing.
Nostalgia Sunday – Tmol Shilshom
Filed under: Art, Food, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Profiles, Travel
Some places some are born nostalgic, some achieve nostalgia and some have nostalgia thrust upon them. Bookstore-cafe Tmol Shilshom is all three. Founded in 1994, the location alone — a 130 year-old building on Jerusalem’s winding cobblestone Nahalat Shiva street — would be enough to guarantee a sense of days gone by. And then there’s the name, the phrase “tmol-shilshom” which can be translated as “those were the days”. See? Born nostalgic.
Tmol Shilshom quickly became a fixture on Jerusalem’s literary landscape as a venue for Israel’s best known writers to read from their works. The late Yehuda Amichai, who read from his poetry at the cafe’s opening, was one of its major patrons: his favorite chair still stands in the corner. And so, despite its youth (as compared with other of the city’s older establishments), Tmol Shilshom has acquired a antiqued patina.
In 1996, the cafe expanded to include two separate seating areas, one hall frequently accommodating literary or other events, the other serving regular customers.
Like most public venues in Jerusalem, particularly those in the center of town, Tmol Shilshom was greatly affected by the second Intifada. Frequent terrorist attacks made people afraid to venture out. Many businesses closed but Tmol Shilshom weathered the storm, or, as their website pluckily puts it: “Having survived all that, we’re now one of the veteran and favorite cafes in town. Some people like us for the food, others for the books, and others yet for the atmosphere. There`s always something to do at Tmol Shilshom.”
Despite being classified as a bookstore-cafe, Tmol Shilshom is really more of a bistro if you look at the menu (highly recommended), and their Friday morning breakfast buffet is legendary.
The interior is lined with bookshelves, framed pictures, snapshots of famous patrons and even the menus, covered with images from literary classics, hark back to yesteryear. And then there are the plates — decorated with quotations — and of course, the hot beverage glasses with their metal holders, just like grandma’s.
And the place-mats, which quote both Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and The Jefferson Airplane’s Go Ask Alice. (Click on image to view full-sized). Trippy…
Other well-know authors and poets — Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, Batya Gur, David Grossman, Jonathan Safran-Foer and others — have frequented Tmol Shilshom as well; the place prides itself on being an inspiring atmosphere in which writers can park themselves at a table and nurse a cup of coffee for hours upon hours.
Tmol Shilshom also encourages talent by hosting writers groups and classes. Upcoming is The Book of Beginnings: From the first family’s story to your own (26 October – 28 December 2011) is an English-language creative writing workshop with writer Ilene Prusher, who will guide students in writing fiction and/or nonfiction works inspired by the family stories, inter-generational struggles and complicated relationships in the Book of Genesis.
Writer Judy Labensohn has for several years been conducting an English-language “Writing Gym” at Tmol Shilshom, where she promises there will be “No sore muscles, as in other gyms”. Called Loosen Up, the program is scheduled to resume in 2012.
You can check out CultureKey Jerusalem for other upcoming events at Tmol Shilshom.
Tmol Shilshom is located at 5 Yoel Solomon Street. Open Sunday-Thursday, 9 a.m. till 1 a.m. Closes early on Fridays, closed on Shabbat. Click here for 10% discount coupon from Eluna.com.
Photos by Ella Cohen, Ivan Tihienko
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