Supplying TP to Egypt
Filed under: coexistence, General, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Politics
You have to love the different sides of the people you know. I was getting my hair cut by my hairdresser, Dave Silverman, a fellow Anglo with a deep Boston accent. Dave, as many know, gets to work and other destinations on his Harley Davidson motorcycle, strolling into his salon, Dave’s, on Derech Beit Lechem with his black fringed leather jacket and chaps, and then cuts and trims hair with easy skill.
As we’re discussing our various Pesach expeditions, he tells me that he made it out for one day of the annual Harley Davidson Israel tiyul, which took them down south to the Ramon Craters and beyond. The beyond included a little-known road that took them to the border with Egypt, alongside the IDF army bases and the Egyptian army base on the other side of the fence. This is an area that is under much surveillance, as it is where Egyptian and Bedouin smugglers try to pass drugs, arms and sex workers from one side to the other. As a result, Dave told me, in order to use the road, you have to get permission from the IDF, and have a gun, in order to protect yourself if necessary. Not surprisingly, most of the bikers have guns, and their ‘leader’, helpfully, is a former army bigshot.
So while they were taking a break from the hot sun, and drinking some H2O, they were waving at the Egyptian soldiers in a friendly exchange. Suddenly, one of the Egyptian soldiers gestures at his backside. When the riders didn’t catch on, he took a strip of newspaper and pretended to swipe at himself with it. Finally understanding, they all took rolls of toilet paper from their bikes and threw them over the fence, as the Egyptian soldiers ran around, picking up the rolls.
Just another example of the deep and abiding peace between Israel and Egypt.
Vacation diary
Filed under: education, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Travel
A view of Hanaton
We spent one very pleasant afternoon at Utopia, a tropical rainforest transplanted, literally, on the grounds of Kibbutz Bahan near Netanya. Besides the thousands of orchids planted throughout the recreated tropical rainforest, there’s a fun chicken area for admiring fabulous roosters and hens, a butterfly den, deer, barbary sheep, turtles and many other forms of wildlife, flora and fauna. Plus, it does work for a range of ages, something we had in our group, with 1.5-year-olds, toddlers, schoolkids, high schoolers, middle-aged folks and a couple of 80-year-olds.
There was also fun to be had at Gan Garoo, aka Kangaroo, an animal park focused on Aussie animals, in Gan Hashelosha near Beit Shean. Perhaps better known for its proximity to Sachne, the popular water hole, Gan Garoo does have a decent animal showing, including a couple of cute koalas, (which, btw, are not bears, and they’re low energy marsupials because their entire diet consists of eucalyptus leaves, which don’t give them a whole load of protein. Interesting, no?) kangaroos, goats, sheep, birds, etc. Thanks to Bank Hapoalim for underwriting all entrance fees to this park and others for the entire Passover holiday.
Then we stayed for a few nights at Kibbutz Hanaton, the Conservative movement kibbutz that has seen good times and bad, and has been in the press a bit of late because of a new garin of families who are trying to rejuvenate the place. We were there with my husband’s TRY high school group, and then some of our friends and family joined us as well. And I gotta say, the place is looking good. The rooms in their educational center are simple but clean and comfortable (if you can, stay in their new couples’ room), and the food, as it has always been, is tasty and plentiful. The pool wasn’t open yet, but there are great playgrounds, and ample grassy areas for lounging around and contemplating the blue skies. Plus, there is a now a mikveh if you’d like to rejuvenate yourself, run by Rabbi Haviva Ner-David, an old friend whose family also moved to Hanaton from Jerusalem. A great place to stay if you need a temporary home in the Galilee.
Hope everyone had a good holiday, and now we’re onto the national holidays. TK.
12 hikes for 12 years
One of the guiding principles of my relationship to Jewish tradition is to try, whenever possible, to develop creative approaches to time-honored rituals in order to add personal meaning. When my father died last year, for example, I took on a project to honor his memory by editing and publishing the book he’d been working on.
I’ve now turned my attention to my youngest son’s bar mitzvah. The 12-year-old loves to get out into nature and hike, so I thought it would be wonderful for us to plan together 12 tiyulim around Israel during the year before his big day, culminating in the overseas trekking experience I described in a previous post for hike number 13.
We started our hiking journey this week with an easy walk through Sataf, a lovely mountainside stroll with a few steep inclines, suitable for kids of all ages. The area was originally settled during the Chalcolithic Age; its ancient system of terraces dates back 4,500 years.
There are several routes you can take in Sataf. Most lead down the hill to a pool fed by spring water which is used by some ultra Orthodox Jews as an outdoor mikve (a ritual bath).
Picture from Israelity writer David Brinn
When I first visited Sataf years ago, I was rather shocked by the sight of several skinny men shedding their black and white clothes, jumping in the water with just underwear, then removing said undergarments, holding them in the air and dunking.
This time around, our trip was during the final days of the Passover break and the are
a was packed with tourists. The men (different faces, same clothes) were still there but they kept their bathing suits on.
Sataf has ample parking and the trails are all clearly marked. Entrance is free. There is a snack bar with “Italian” ice cream (pretty good, actually) at the starting point and an information station. But don’t believe what the woman at the desk says. She told us our tiyul would take two hours plus; we finished it in just over an hour!
I’m now compiling a list of places to hike – I’d appreciate your suggestions. Please leave your comments at the end of this post.
Nostalgia Sunday – The Holy Land in Stereo
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Nostalgia Sunday, Picture of the Week, Religion, Technology, Travel
Back before Avatar, kiddies, there was stereoscopy. The technology today seems fairly simple — two separate images printed side-by-side and peered at through the lens of a stereoscope viewer — but the invention was groundbreaking and it was the virtual reality of its day.
The difficult part was providing the public with new and different pictures of faraway places that they could only dream of visiting. Intrepid photographers ventured forth to gather images from such places and, as was to be expected, the Holy Land proved a popular subject.
Take, for example, this glimpse of an “Easter procession of Greek Patriarch, entering the Church of Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem”.
Each Stereoview image came with a descriptive text, such as: “Pilgrims on the Via Dolorosa – the route to Calvary – Jerusalem”.
“Baptising in the Jordan, Palestine”.
These images are gleaned from the World of Stereoviews, an informative website and reasonably priced online shop featuring over 14,000 stereoscopic images dating from the 1850s onwards by well known photographers of the day such as the 1850s views by Francis Frith, B.L. Singley’s Fine Art Photographers’ Publishing Co. and Keystone Views (1890s up until the mid 20th century), the Underwood Company, and M.E. Wright’s Excelsior Publishing (1900s).
“Barley harvest near Bethlehem, Palestine”.
“Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem, from outside”.
The site’s owners, Jenny and Ray Norman note that Wright “was a quirky publisher who either stole or bought images from others… He is known to have produced Middle East views by dressing up his family and taking them in Lancashire – saved the trouble of the journey.” However, these fellows seem to be the real thing!
“Bedouin robbers, wilderness of Judea, near the road to Jericho, Palestine”.
Foto Friday – Camel Model 2010
Filed under: coexistence, education, Foto Friday, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Picture of the Week, Travel
The Joe Alon Center is an institute with a unique combination of museum, research center,and field school – all dedicated to the promotion of regional studies. The center devotes its activity to the geographical area between Mount Hebron in the east to the Coastal Plain in the west, Lachish Region in the north and Be’er-Sheva Valley in the south.
The Museum of Bedouin Culture at the Center is a collection of artifacts documenting Bedouin ways of life in different parts of the Negev and Sinai.
This Passover, the museum was host to The Camel Project, a collection of 10 life-sized statues decorated by artists, five Jews and five Bedouins, all of them residents of Israel’s southern regions.
The Camel Project was initiated by The Tent Volunteer Center at AJEEC, the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation. The project’s goal is to promote Arab-Jewish dialogue through art and, in particular, to provide a platform for artists from the Gaza border region and the towns of Segev Shalom and Lakiyya.
The event also included activities about the desert way of life, including workshops and family activities – not to mention matza-pizza making and rides on the real thing!
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