Nostalgia Sunday – JNF-KKL stamp club
Filed under: Environment, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday, Travel
About a week and a half ago, an event took place at the Jewish National Fund House in Tel Aviv that might be termed historic: the revival of the JNF-KKL stamp collectors club.
Most people know that the Jewish National Fund – Keren Kayemet (JNF-KKL) raises funds using the trusty old Blue Box method of coin collection — in addition to Tree Planting Certificates and Soliciting Big Donations. But few today remember that the JNF-KKL also issued and sold stamps which, for a brief period in May 1948, were actually used as postage stamps in the newborn State of Israel.
Here’s what happened the other night, according to Dr. Arie Ben, founder and director of the JNF House museum and educational center. “The [stamp collector] group members, who came from all parts of the country, first visited our museum, which is celebrating 21 years of activity… Attending the gathering was a collector who is a pediatrician by trade, a retired academic from the Weizmann Institute who for years was a plant scientist, and a diplomat from Israel’s foreign service. Another of those present had set up a unique website offering information and collectors items for sale… we were also honored by the presence of a 92-year old collector who showed me a picture of the first meeting of the JNF-KKL collectors club… At the end of the evening, it was decided to revive the legendary ‘JNF-KKL stamp collectors club’, which was first founded in 1937 and held its first gathering in the JNF House meeting room, only days after being founded.”
The stamps hold a special place of honor in JNF-KKL history and the museum has an exhibition of stamps based on Ben’s research into 108 years of the organization’s activity. The JNF House itself, which includes the museum (also known as The Provisional People’s Council & Administration Museum), is a classic example of 20th century Tel Aviv Bauhaus architecture, and is located at 11 Zvi Shapira St., Tel Aviv, walking distance from the Dizengoff Center.
JNF-KKL’s online archive is also a treasure trove for the interested philatelist and include images of artist sketches for the stamps, as well as the stamps themselves. Another great source: the Sol Singer Collection of Philatelic Judaica.
Foto Friday – Jacob Ackerman’s Birds of Prey
Filed under: Art, Environment, Foto Friday, General, Travel
Whether in Israel or abroad, Jacob “Yaki” Ackerman spends days and nights in the heart of nature, lying in wait to capture its magic and power.
Patient and alert, he spends long hours for that perfect split second in which to freeze the action of a body in motion. Perhaps that is why he relates so strongly to birds of prey.
Ackerman’s work will be part of a group art show about Israel’s predatory birds opening next week at the Man and the Living World Museum in Ramat Gan.
This unique museum, situated within the Ramat Gan National Park, features a variety of natural history exhibits as well as a center for educational activity and cultural events.
Ackerman’s extensive portfolio includes images from around the world but his passion is nature photography, and birds in particular. He’s participated in numerous wildlife photography exhibitions and his website contains some magnificent interactive photo albums that should not be missed. Enjoy.
A year with CNN
Late last year, ISRAEL21c began working with CNN to produce video material for its highly successful and long-running program, CNN World Report.
Since our first video went up at the start of this year, we’ve had 10 feature stories appearing on the thrice-weekly program hosted by Guillermo Aduino and on the CNN website.
We don’t often toot our horn – in fact we’re so busy we barely even raise our heads long enough to chart our achievements – but, sometimes we really have to stop and say “wow”.
Ten of our stories showing the other side of Israel – the innovation, creativity, and culture – have gone out through CNN, to millions of viewers worldwide. This is a vital step in showing people everywhere about the unique value that Israel brings to the world.
In our last video feature for CNN, about Windows of Peace – a coexistence project bringing Jewish and Palestinian teenagers together to make a music video – CNN made a special effort to interview Nitsana, the reporter, about the project and about what it means to her and to the children taking part.
Nitsana makes some interesting comments about peace, not least that what surprised her the most was how she couldn’t tell these children apart. Something I’ve thought about often since moving here goodness knows how many years ago.
Below, you can also find some of our other CNN videos. They’re well worth watching. You can also see more on our YouTube site.
Fat is fabulous – re-educating the fashion industry.
Saving the bees.
And the birds too.
Foto Friday – Inspecting the Pipeline with Chaim Daon
Filed under: coexistence, Environment, Foto Friday, General, Profiles
Chaim Daon is a welding inspector working on one of the country’s most important energy infrastructure projects: the natural gas pipeline. When complete, the gas pipeline – an extension of the El-Arish-Ashkelon gas pipeline from Egypt to Israel, which became operational in 2008 – will be able to transport up to 7 billion cubic meters per year, relieve some of our industries’ dependence on oil, help clean the atmosphere and give additional economic weight to our cold peace with Egypt.
The project, under construction for several years now, comprises hundreds of kilometers of pipeline with joins all along the way, so the work done by welding inspectors like Daon and his colleagues is crucial for keeping pipes intact and leaks at bay.
Daon – or Captain Caveman as he’s known by the Holyland Hash House Harriers, an international drinking and running disorganization (to which I also belong) – allows us a peek at what’s going on just a few meters below the surface…
The tender to build the pipeline was won by a foreign multinational and the teams working on the project come from all over the globe. They work by day…
And by night…
The pipeline is intended to serve Israel’s major industries, chiefly Israel Electric Corporation (IEC), which is in the process of converting its oil-driven power stations to natural gas. IEC noted in its most recent Environmental Report that since the introduction of natural gas in 2004, a carbon dioxide emissions have decreased by 11%. More information about the Gas Market Law and gas reform in Israel is available at the Ministry of National Infrastructures website.
Israel at the center of alternative energy development
No matter what your politics, there was nothing to feel conflicted about in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech at the recent 2009 President’s Conference where he sketched out an inspiring plan to develop a feasible, cost effective alternative to fossil fuels within 10 years.
Israel is not unique of course in recognizing that the world cannot depend on oil forever. It’s clearly a threat to the environment, to the economies of those countries that import oil (that would be most of the world), and more critically global security.
Israel has an even more urgent agenda. We’re a small country and the supply of oil can – and has – been used against us. When I was growing up in the U.S., I remember the post-Yom Kippur War oil crisis. At the time, I was not really aware of what was happening on the political stage, but the lines around the block at gas stations made me want to blame someone. For many, the punching bag then (as too often now) was Israel.
Fortunately, Israel is perhaps ideally situated to develop an alternative energy solution. We are already at the cusp of innovation in many related areas – from agro-tech, nanotechnology and solar energy to battery technologies and renewable energies (take a look at this page from the main Israel21c website for Israeli companies involved in social energy) .
We also have more Nobel Prize winners and more venture capital money per capita than any other country. We’re already in bed with Shai Agassi’s A Better Place initiative to deploy electric cars and charging stations around the country within the next few years.
Netanyahu says he aims to establish “a national commission comprised of scientists, manufacturers, engineers, businesspeople and government officials.”
Can we do it? That’s another story. Rhetoric doesn’t always translate into action. Budgets get slashed. Bureaucrats squabble.
But the stakes are too high here. As Netanyahu put it succinctly: “We have the brains, but we also have the will.”
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