Dead Sea skin
Salt at the Dead Sea
It seems the Export Institute has realized just how unique our minerals are, and has arranged ‘dozens of meetings’ for a collection of Dead Sea cosmetics companies during a two-day marathon at New York City’s Pennsylvania Hotel. The companies attending include B4U, Biscol, Canaan Chic Cosmetic, InterCosma, Odeyah, Paloma Dead Sea, Sea of Spa – Dead Sea, Spa Cosmetics and Spider Pharm Industries.
The Israel Manufacturers Association has even developed a quality label for genuine Dead Sea products, with the aim of discerning between the original DS cosmetics manufacturers and the frauds, or in more genteel terms, pirate industry. According to sources at the Manufacturers Association, the companies that produce genuine Dead Sea products, such as mud, lotions and creams have to prove that the source of their products is the Dead Sea and not some random body of water…and that it contains the rich combo of minerals that makes the Dead Sea a source of skin rejuvenation and vitality.
If you’re in NYC, check out the Dead Sea folk at the PA Hotel, just through tomorrow. And back home, consider some Dead Sea cream for that dry skin on the heels of your feet. It’ll do the trick.
Jerusalem to become accessible to the disabled
Jerusalem’s Old City is one of the top tourist attractions in the world, but with its ancient alleyways and endless stairs, much of the area has been inaccessible for visitors with handicaps. That’s set to change.
An article in Ynet today reported that the Jerusalem Development Authority recently allotted NIS 10 million (about $ 2.7 million) to make the Old City of Jerusalem fully accessible to the physically disabled. The money comes from a special fund in the National Insurance Institute (Israel’s version of Social Security).
Among the improvements: making Jaffa Gate and its surroundings wheelchair-friendly; preparing accessible walking paths in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim Quarters; and possibly buying a car to drive handicapped people around the Old City.
Other tourist attractions to be upgraded include the Tower of David Museum, the Jerusalem Archaeological Park and Davidson Center, the City of David and the Herodian Quarter and Wohl Archaeological Museum in the Jewish Quarter.
Most intriguing: the project includes technologically innovative services for deaf and blind people, such as three-dimensional models which can be touched, vocal signs and visual transcriptions.
As someone who’s father was never able to visit Jerusalem due to the relative lack of physical consideration for people with disabilities, I applaud the city’s efforts. But there’s much more work to be done in the capital and around all of Israel.
When’s the right time for a rite of passage?
Filed under: A New Reality, General, health, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Travel
It’s generally accepted that the Israeli perspective on the bar/bat mitzvah ceremony is different from its counterpart in the US.
I remember when Susie and three of her closest friends decided to celebrate their bat mitzvahs together – they were all around 40-years-old at the time.
They had been studying Torah as a group in Jerusalem for a year and a half. It all started when Boston-born Susie, who had already been in Israel for more than 20 years, started to feel that while her Jewish identity was her primary identity, which is why she had moved here, it was time for her to confront her “awe of the Torah.”
Sally, Ruti and Janet had also been in Israel for a couple of decades and for various reasons, none of the four had had a bat mitzvah back in the States. In fact, the first bat mitzvah was held by American rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, a major figure in Jewish thought and the founder of the Reconstructionist movement, for his daughter Judith in 1922.
So the culmination of 18 months of study and learning to read from the holy book was a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Kol Haneshama .
Now the idea didn’t resonate with everybody, but at that June ceremony 12 years ago no one could fail to be moved by the four women’s obvious quiet joy and pride in their achievements.
The bat mitzvahs of those forty-somethings inevitably came to mind when I received an e-mail recently, telling me about another group of delayed bar/bat mitzvah celebrants, en route to Israel.
Some of the participants at the upcoming celebration will be using walkers. Oxygen and wheelchairs will be available for emergencies. Five nurses will be traveling with the group. The average age of the participants in this particular version of the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony? Eighty-five.
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Will we live in a Flat world?
With one in eight women likely to get breast cancer at one time or another in their lives, it’s a topic that makes an awful lot of women extremely nervous. Israeli film maker and breast cancer survivor Nitsana Bellehsen decided to take a different approach – humor.
Her film, Flat, which has been selected as the only Israeli finalist in the Breast Fest Film Festival in Toronto, tackles the subject of the rising rates of breast cancer with a sense of black absurdity that leaves you both concerned and amused at the same time.
In her short four minute film, Nitsana – who does many of ISRAEL21c’s video features on YouTube – leaps ahead to 2050 to see what the world will look like. It’s not pretty.
You can watch the movie here, and don’t forget to vote. Voting closes on October 15.
A teaser follows.
Foto Friday – Gil Lavi’s Soldiers in White
Gil Lavi is a world-class commercial photographer, portraitist and brand image consultant. He also has a keen eye for documentary photography, as seen in his series, “Soldiers in White” which explores the world of Israel’s emergency medical technicians at Magen David Adom.
The living quarters where sleep can be interrupted in a moment…
… as EMTs launch into action.
Lavi also takes special note of the relationship between religious and secular EMTs…
… and the camaraderie between male and female, young and old.
MDA’s heroic efforts in bringing medical services to all sides under the most trying circumstances have been well-reported by ISRAEL21c , but Lavi’s is a more intimate look. It’s a far cry from the high gloss commercial work for which he is famous — Lavi was named one of the 300 most influential Israelis under 40 for 2009 by Forbes magazine — but ties in to his photographic roots: during his army service, he was a photographer for the Ground Forces Command and then head of the IDF Still Photography Department. In fact, darkroom fluid flows in his veins: his father is renowned photographer Moshe Lavi (more about him, hopefully, on another Friday).
Other works by Gil Lavi can be found on his website at http://portfolio.gillavi.com/
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