Foto Friday – New Year for Acasias

January 21, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Environment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Holidays 

The tree known as Acacia tortilis or Umbrella Thorn is a medium to large canopied tree native primarily to Northeast Africa. It also grows in the Middle East, where it is known to botanists as the Israeli Babool or to the rest of us by its Hebrew name “shitta” (pronounced “shee-ta”). Hmmm… it sounds better in Hebrew.


Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Although it’s the flowering almond tree that generally gets the glory on Tu b’ Shvat, the Jewish New Year for the trees, this year two others take central stage: planting conifers in the Galilee (though not at the Carmel Forest, which is being allowed to lie fallow and recover from December’s fire). And there is acacia tree planting in the Central Arava as the Adopt an Acacia project enters its second year.


Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Over the decades, the Central Arava has embodied the vision of making the desert bloom. But human habitation and agricultural progress have their price. Although the hardy acacia can withstand drought and the desert climate, it has faltered in the face of human progress. The water that was once available to the trees was now diverted before reaching the aquifer. The result: dead and dying trees.

The project — led by the KKL-JNF — has its volunteers plant acacia trees near villages and in other easily accessible areas, so that the caretakers can ensure their seedlings are properly cared for as they begin to strike root.


Photo: KKL-JNF

After all, there is a long-standing relationship between children of Israel and the acacia tree, which was used in the construction of the Tabernacle that served as a portable house of worship in the wilderness, as well as its furnishings — including the Ark of the Covenant.

Since those biblical times, the acacia has continued as an important part of the desert economy. Just like that animal whose every part is used “except for the squeal,” so the acasia has served as a multi-purpose resource. Its pods, leaves and flowers are eaten by desert animals fodder, the bark is a source of tannin, the sap can be used as glue and all of the above-mentioned can be found in items as diverse as decoration, weaponry and folk medicine.


Photo: Wikimedia Commons

There are species of acacia all over the world, from Australia and Argentina. to the Americas and Africa. In our region — the Negev, Sinai and Jordan — there are three species: Acacia tortilis, Acacia albida and Acacia iraqensis.

For more amazing photos in the spirit of Tu b’ Shvat, visit Free Israel Photos, Flowers in Israel and the JNF-KKL, which has two lovely screensaversfor download, free of charge. And tree-planting activities will continue throughout the month – check the JNF-KKL website for details.

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Foto Friday – Celebrating Ethiopian Ledet with Matanya Tausig

January 7, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, coexistence, design, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Holidays, News, Profiles, Religion, Travel 

Freelance photographer Matanya Tausig has always been fascinated by religion and religious subjects. For his final project at Jerusalem’s Hadassah College, Tausig chose to document the priests from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

The Ethiopian Church has two centers in Jerusalem: the historic Deir es-Sultan on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Debre Gannet constructed in the 19th century on Ethiopia Street. On one hand, both locations are only a short walk from the college; on the other hand, they are worlds away.

The resulting series went on to win second prize in the Local Testimony exhibition of regional photojournalism, (which runs concurrently with the annual World Press Photo exhibition).

The series is part of a larger project of documenting religions and religious ceremonies all around the Holy Land. “I generally work on things that take a long time; they percolate for years,” he says.

So, for example, last night Tausig was in Bethlehem, continuing work on his ongoing project by documenting the Orthodox Church’s Ledet (Christmas) midnight mass.

Ledet falls on January 7 in the Gregorian calendar (which is December 29 in the Ethiopian calendar). It comes after 43 days of daytime fasting known as Tsome Gahad (Advent), with a and is celebrated with processions, the mass service and a breakfast meal of traditional Ethiopian fare: cooked meat and vegetables served on injera (flat, spongy buckwheat bread), and washed down with tella (beer) or tej (a sort of weak mead).

In two weeks, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church will celebrate its most important festival of the year, Timket (Epiphany; also Timkat), a three-day festival commemorating Jesus’ baptism by Saint John in the Jordan River. Again, there will be processions and feasting.

Tausig maintains contact with his subjects and is planning future projects with them as well. Meanwhile, there are more photos to enjoy of the Ethiopian Orthodox priests on the Local Testimony site. And Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has more information about the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem.

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Hanging with Yuval at the zoo

January 4, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: education, Environment, General, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life 

It’s all happening at the zoo. The Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, that is. We were there — in case you were wondering what we were doing there on a Tuesday — because Gaby the Ganenet was taking one of her three personal days. The zoo is therefore the obvious choice for a morning activity, despite the chill air. And, in fact, we bumped into Be’er, a gan colleague of Ziv and Lev.

Steinitz gazing at the penguins...

But besides us, and Be’er — and her mother and brother who was also taking a personal day — was Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and his staff, presumably. To be honest, I didn’t realize who it was at first, although I knew he looked familiar, and was clearly a known entity, given the man with a telephone cord wire curled behind his ear. But it was Be’er’s mother who made the call, and right she was. Clearly, the finance minister’s staff was celebrating the calling off of the local authorities strike, which had been a possibility as of Sunday.

They basically followed us around all morning. First we had baigeles in the zoo cafe, and then they had breakfast. We went to visit the penguins, and they were right behind us. We took the train to see the rhinos, hippo, giraffes and zebras, and wouldntcha know it? They were on the next train.

We had a good time; hope they did too.

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At Nitzana

January 3, 2011 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: Art, coexistence, education, Environment, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life 

Sometimes you’re brought to remote but interesting places. My latest was Nitzana (נִצָּנָה, ניצנה‎‎), a youth village and communal settlement in the western Negev desert in Israel, right at the Egyptian border. It’s just about 2.5 hours from Jerusalem but feels much farther, probably because there’s not a lot happening in the near vicinity, unless you count an ancient Nabatean city and international border crossing.

We were there with a bunch of family and friends, continuing our week-long celebration of my nephew Akiva’s bar mitzvah. Why Nitzana? One of my sisters had been there recently and liked the location as well as the clean, simple and inexpensive hostel-like accommodations for our large group. Built as a youth village in 1987, it now has a population of around 50 families and serves as home for a variety of populations including disadvantaged Israeli, Arab and Bedouin youth learning science, technology and ecology education, as well as Asian students studying at an agricultural outpost of Hebrew University and a range of guests who come to stay in the new guest quarters. The place was founded by Aria Lova Eliav, a beloved Israeli who died just this year, after 89 years of life in Israel, where he moved at the age of four. Lova Eliav, as he was known, founded the city of Arad in the eastern Negev and was responsible for developing the towns of Lachish and Kiryat Gat. When he saw that the South lacked facilities for youth, and he had an idea to turn the sand dunes of Nitzana in the Western Negev into a youth village.

They weren’t the first ones to stake out the desert as a possibly creative and productive outpost. Nitzana appears to have been a station on the eastern branch of the ancient Spice Route, serving pilgrims and merchants travelling to Sinai or central Egypt. A tel to the south of the modern settlement is home to several ancient churches, a well and some living quarters. There’s also a manmade cave that appears to have been hewn out of the stone above to serve as temporary living quarters for travelers.

It’s all ironically similar to the current scenario down here, where the Nitzana Border Crossing used to once handle pedestrians and private cars between Egypt and Nitzana, but no longer. Now it only handles commercial trade and is just across the road from the Path of Peace, an environmental sculpture of columns created by Israeli artist Dani Karavan. Running over three kilometers, from the hills of Nitzana to the border, the 100 round columns are each inscribed with the word ‘peace’ in a different language, each one representing all those who have traveled through or lived in this region.

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Was it Christmas?

December 26, 2010 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Religion 

Christmas in Israel is always a bit strange – mainly because it’s so easy to forget that it’s Christmas!

Unless you shlep to the Christian quarter of the Old City or to Bethlehem, where services and festivities are taking place, there’s virtually no sign of the holiday.

My friend Barry Leff, a rabbi and businessman, nicely articulated the conundrum of transplanted Americans, used to the clues at every street corner that the holiday has arrived, suddenly living in a Christmas-less society. On his blog at the Neshama Center, he states:

I actually think Christmas is TOO low profile in Israel. It should be a little more visible. There are some over the top religious people who can’t tolerate any other religions, who protest anything that even looks like Christmas lights. I’m not kidding, click here to see an article titled “Haredim threaten to boycott Mamilla Mall.” Why? Christmas lights. The management of the mall tried to quickly claim it was Hanukkah lights left up late.

Why should they do that? Not only do Christians make up 2% of the population in Israel, we get a LOT of Christian tourists this time of year, for obvious reasons. Why shouldn’t we do something to make them feel at home? Most major cities in the US do a Chanukah menorah lighting in a public place, why can’t we in Israel reciprocate and give Christians some acknowledgement of their holiday in our public space?

Read the rest of his entry here

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