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#46

Mazal tov, James Snyder! The director of the Israel Museum was recently included in a pretty prestigious list of the 100 most influential people in the art world, as compiled annually by the Journal des Artes, the French sister-edition of The Art Newspaper.

Snyder was 46 on the list which includes collectors such as Leonard Lauder, colleagues Glenn Lowry, director of The Museum of Modern Art (James’ previous place of employment); artists Damien Hirst and Anish Kapoor (whose sculpture current graces the redesigned museum); architects Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid; designers Ron Arad and Philippe Starck, who have their own Israel connections (Arad designed the well-regarded Holon Design Museum and Starck did the Yoo Tel Aviv, a prestigious set of high-rise apartments).

Snyder has been the director of the museum since 1997, which recently completed a massive, $100 million renovation, the most comprehensive since its 1965 establishment.

Hard to say how much longer he’ll be here, but it’s been good to have him here.

Foto Friday – Viewing Israel with Rafael Ben-Ari

Rafael Ben-Ari is a noted Israeli photographer and educator with over 20 years experience. He’s worked for Israeli and international newspapers and magazines, traveled extensively and his photographs has been presented at exhibitions and countries around the world.

Ben-Ari also runs Israel Photo Tours, which offers one-on-one private photography workshops and lessons in Israel. These are day tours, says Ben-Ari, “for photographers on all levels who are serious about their craft and wish to improve their skills while seeing Israel.”

Ben-Ari’s experience with cameras ranges from analog 35mm, digital, and SLR to panoramic and underwater cameras. Light is essential to his work and on location, he makes use of both artificial and available light and light. His students, he states, “learn the art of using light to capture the true essence of Israel”.

He suggests various tour itineraries, such as the ancient, sun-washed city of Acre for those who love the picturesque…

© Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye

The dusty Negev desert for those interested in archeology and nature…

© Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye

Jerusalem, the city central to Judaism…

© Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye

The places holy to three monotheistic religions…

© Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye

And for a change of pace, the beaches, sun and fun of Tel Aviv.

© Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye

There are a lot more wonderful pictures to view on the Israel Photo Tours website, along with contact information, itineraries and testimonials.

Foto Friday – Ron Shoshani’s Tel Aviv winter

It’s been about a year since Ron Shoshani was profiled in this column and it’s been quite a good one apparently. Shoshani’s color-saturated, hyper-realistic “eye candy”, as he calls it, makes up the background graphic for the Channel 2 morning show; he’s had the cover of Time Out Tel Aviv, and a newly uploaded stop-motion video marks a new direction into animation.

Shoshani loves Tel Aviv and his cityscapes express that affection. As winter draws to a close, here a few images of Tel Aviv in winter: the clouds, rain and strong colors that will soon fade to dusty pastels in the summer heat.

Tel Aviv Morning – February 15, 2011

S-I-M-C-I-T-Y

Tel Aviv – First Railway Station

Tel Aviv LEGO 4/4

Sarbata Sunrise

The Sartaba isn’t in Tel Aviv; it’s the highest mountain in the Jordan Valley. Shoshani took the picture from within the ruins of a 1st century fort on the summit. After snapping the initial image, he works his magic using a combination of digital techniques. You can read more about it here, order prints directly from directly from ronsho@gmail.com and view many more amazing images on his Facebook page.

It’s a wrap

We first became aware of it back in 2005 when ISRAEL21c reported how American soldiers wounded while fighting in Iraq were being treated with a special, new Israeli-made bandage that effectively stopped traumatic hemorrhaging wounds with a built-in pressure bar.

The Emergency Bandage, developed by First Care Products, a tiny four-man Jerusalem start-up, allowed medics to twist the bandage around the wound once, and then change the direction of the bandage, wrapping it around the limb or body part, to create pressure on the wound. The pressure bar also enables a soldier to use the bandage on complicated injuries like the groin and head, which require wrapping in different directions.

The Emergency Bandage was back in the news this week in another more recent context – the January 8 shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. First responders credited the Emergency Bandage, commonly known as “the Israeli bandage” with saving lives in the aftermath of the shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that left six dead and 13 wounded.

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency report by Ron Kampeas, Pima County officials displayed the kit at a Jan. 21 news conference in Tucson, along with other military-grade gear used in ministering to the wounded in the Jan. 8 shooting.

“Without this care it would have definitely been a different situation,” Dr. Katherine Hiller, who had attended the wounded at University Medical Center, told The Los Angeles Times.

While it wasn’t clear whether the Israeli innovation was used specifically on Giffords, the bandage is known for its utility in stanching head wounds, and one model covers both entry and exit wounds, which Giffords is known to have sustained.

Since its 1993 invention, the Emergency Bandage has become standard issue in militaries throughout the world and is considered the first major innovation in bandages since the 1940s. It was invented by an American immigrant to Israel, Bernard Bar-Natan, who served as a medic in the IDF, and disgruntled at the stunted growth in the bandage field, formed First Care.

If there ever was a case to back up claims that Israeli ingenuity and saving lives around the world, this is it. Even Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, reportedly said that learning of the bandage’s role in saving lives in Tucson has been a highlight of his stint as ambassador.

Rebuilding Ikea

Both Rachel and David made their own comments about the Ikea fire in Netanya, but this cartoon commentary by The Wall, a self-proclaimed new media Tel Aviv advertising firm, really says it all.

First, the title: Natanya2011 How to Build Ikea Again; I’m not sure if the name Netanya was misspelled on purpose, as Israeli spelling in English — given that it’s not their first language — tends toward incorrections.

As for the rest of the piece: We have the obvious and necessary method of poking fun at Ikea instructions, as well as the obvious and necessary ways of poking fun at Israeli society. There are the four million wooden pegs, more than 2 million screws and just one Ikea Allen wrench. There are the 15 Solel Boneh trucks — Solel Boneh being one of the largest construction companies in Israel — the 40 Manofei Avi cranes, just your random crane company, the 1500 fire extinguishers, natch, and recognizable by the Arabic writing on their shirts and kaffiyehs on their heads, the 100 Arab construction workers necessary to rebuild the place, a comment on who does the building and construction in these parts.

By the way, it seems the fire was caused by a short circuit in the store’s electrical system. Plans are to rebuild within the year.

 

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