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Nostalgia Sunday – In the public service

The news this week about Israel is so bleak and twisted that it seems only right to look back at simpler times. Way back before so-called Facebook revolutions could be beamed instantly over 24-hour new stations to a jaded world. Times when Israel had only one television station and each new public service announcement broadcast before the evening news was discussed in minute detail the next morning. Public service spots by ad men like director Yoram Levy that created entertainment out of the most mundane of topics. For example, national blood drives led by a little old lady trilling “taram tee dam, taram tee dam” as she skips gaily along.*

Ads promoting local produce (the eggplant segment is highly recommended)…

Milk, of course…

Even this warning about how to deal with suspicious objects is kind of fun…

And here’s a totally Eighties take on buying Made-in-Israel fashion!

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* FYI: In Hebrew, taramti dam means “I donated blood”.

Foto Friday – Weizmann Wonder Wander

Passover week in Israel is a time for family travels around the country and sometimes even the world, depending on your budget. The nature reserves have been full to bursting, movie-houses, amusement parks, music festivals and museums all working overtime as the population migrates northwards, southwards and anywhere but home.

There are also day trip destinations that are not so difficult to reach in a small country and, thanks to the Internet, are also accessible online. How about, for example, taking a turn around the Weizmann Institute’s Weizmann Wonder Wander popular science site that — along with articles, lectures, photos and videos — also features a campus tour?

In the real world, the Institute’s Barbara and Morris Levinson Visitors Center offers self-guided tours featuring four main visiting sites: the Weizmann House, Wix Auditorium, Solar Complex, and Clore Garden of Science, an interactive outdoor museum.

Online, you can tour the Institute’s architecture, sculptures and gardens as well as view video lectures on topics such as quantum computing, systems biology, brain research and more.

There’s also an extensive online photo gallery of scientific images, like these magnificent crystal structures as seen through the microscope…

More information about visiting the Weizmann Institute is available online.

Foto Friday – The First Jerusalem Marathon

The First Jerusalem Marathon is now over and the entire city can breathe a collective sigh of relief. One reason is because cars can now move freely again around town. But more importantly, because the day passed without incident — and believe me, Wednesday’s terrorist bombing, so close to Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, which just happened to be the pick-up point for the runner’s kits, was on everyone’s mind.

I ran the 10k (1 hour 20 minutes*) and can report the event was well-organized and the trail — which we had all feared would be one big uphill, as is per usual in Jerusalem — was planned out nicely with uphills, downhills and even the occasional level ground. The drizzly, chilly weather was perfect for running, though not for hanging out in Sacher Park and enjoying a post-run adrenaline rush afterglow. But in all, the event was a feather in the cap of Mayor Nir Barkat, whose goal, as a self-described “sports fan and marathon runner who completed five marathons in different cities across the world” was to have Israel’s capital city “join the international map of marathons”. The countdown to 2012 has already begun.

Here are a few shots of what is was like, courtesy of the Jerusalem Marathon website. The runners lining up…

Mayor Barkat firing the starting gun…

And they’re off…

The front runners…

One of the high points: passing through the Old City…

And here’s Mr. Mayor again — walking the walk, not just talking the talk!

So that’s how it was in 2011. Here’s hoping that 2012′s run manages to engage even more of the city’s population groups and bring them closer not just to physical activity and a healthier lifestyle but, through sports, also to one another.

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*Slow but steady.

IDF soldier saves Palestinian baby

Here’s a bit of heartwarming news from the West Bank, an area which has recently experienced only grief with the brutal murder of five members of the Fogel family last week in the settlement of Itamar.

At the same time that IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was paying a shiva call to the Fogels at another settlement of Neve Tzuf, a taxi carrying a 20-year-old Palestinian woman in an advanced stage of labor arrived at the gate of the community.

According to Ynet, army paramedic Cpl. Haim Levin, reached the scene followed by civilian paramedics, and discovered the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby girl’s neck.

“When I arrived I saw a woman covered by a blanket in a yellow Palestinian van,” he said. “I moved closer and saw the baby’s head and upper body. The umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck, and the baby was gray and did not move.”

Levin assisted by other paramedics immediately cut the cord, and he then pinched the baby, who started crying. Both the mother and baby were reported to be fine.

Ynet reported that Palestinians from the nearby village of Nabi Salah gathered around the paramedics and thanked them, adding that the baby had been named Jude.

“I volunteered for Magen David Adom since age 15 and it’s the first time I witnessed childbirth,” said Levin. “It was an amazing feeling, to hold the girl that was just born in my arms, and to know that in this complex place we did something good.”

Gadi Amitun, who heads the Magen David Adom team at Neve Tzuf, told Ynet that they often help Palestinians in distress.

“They know we have a skilled medical team here, and in any case of accident or injury they arrive and we help them,” he said.

Ambulance driver Orly Shlomo who helped cut the cord said she had mixed feelings about the incident.

“It was touching, but I couldn’t help but think that a few meters from there, people were sitting Shiva for another baby, who was murdered,” she said. “I was touched to see the face of the new baby, but I also thought about the face of the murdered baby.”

Death and life in the West Bank only days apart and under very different circumstances. Just as the terror attack last week made it difficult to think there’s any possibility of peace, the birth this week made some people realize that there’s no alternative.

Pamela Anderson brings Biblical message to the streets of Tel Aviv

Pop culture icon Pamela Anderson was just in Israel last November for a guest stint in our version of Dancing With the Stars, but she’s already returning today – this time for a pet project, no pun intended.

The actress and pinup girl will be unveiling a pro-animal rights advertisement and appearing on behalf of PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals), an organization that she’s been very active with for years.

When Anderson was here last year, she met with Knesset members to lobby for a bill to prevent the import of clothing made from fur, and this time, she’ll be flanked by giant tablets reading, “Thou Shalt Not Kill … Animals”, as she greets diners outside the vegetarian Buddha Burgers restaurant in central Tel Aviv.

Anderson will also be signing copies of her new ad for PETA in Hebrew (pictured), with its banner headline: Every living thing has the same organs.

 

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