Nostalgia Sunday – A look way back

January 1, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Blogging, education, Entertainment, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, News, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Pop Culture 

It’s the first day of 2012. A good day to check what was happening in Israel a decade ago, courtesy of the wonderful Wayback Machine, an online historical archive of preserved web pages going back to 1996. The Wayback Machine crawls the Internet, taking “snapshots” of websites which are added to the archive. Visitors to the Wayback Machine can then type in a URL, select a date range, and view the archived versions.

On December 16th, 2001, when Wayback Machine visited The Jerusalem Post, the headlines were concerned with an IDF crackdown on the Palestinian Authority in the wake of shelling from Gaza, a falling Cost Price Index and relations with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. JDate was the dating site of choice for Jpost readers.

The lead story on Ynet on December 17th, 2001, (only available in Hebrew at that time), was about victims of a shooting attack. Other stories included the opening of a second McDonald’s franchise in Jerusalem and the Bank of Israel’s fight against forged checks while online messaging pioneer ICQ offered up its ultimate tip guide and Ynet ruminated over who would be its choice for Person of the Year. Cupid.co.il was the premier dating site for Hebrew-speaking Israelis at that time.

That same day, December 17th, 2001, Haaretz also ran the story about the West Bank attack victims. US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said the US had no plans to invade Iraq and Arafat called for an end to violence against Israel. (It must have been true ’cause it was in the papers!) And JCupid, the English-language version of Cupid.co.il, was offering an end to lonely singledom.

Wayback didn’t crawl Globes around January 2002. It visited Globes on November 8, 2001, at which time the financial news headlines were concerned with, among other things, the acquisition of cement block maker Ytong, the public sector workers strike and the short-lived reopening of troubled Phoenicia Glass Works. There were no dating ads; the one advertiser was a bank.

Israelity didn’t get started until 2005. When it did, it looked like this:

And what of our own Israel21c? Unfortunately, due to its archive structure, the Wayback Machine isn’t able to reconstruct its “snapshot” — good thing I made a screenshot some time ago for another posting!

The Wayback Machine is operated by the Internet Archive, which collaborates with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. It’s great fun to go in and crawl around.

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Nostalgia Sunday – The sevivon spin

December 25, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, design, Entertainment, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Religion 

Hanukkah’s traditional motifs are the menorah, sufganiyot jelly doughnuts, potato latkes and the dreidel spinning top. Here in Israel, the latter two have lost in popularity in recent years. Face it, in terms of speed, color and excitement, playing dreidel pales in comparison to even the lowest freebie computer game. (And for some reason, deep-fried balls of dough dusted in sugar or coated in gooey frosting have gained on the hearty potato pancake. This probably due to effective marketing. It’s certainly not because one’s caloric content and health benefits outweighs the other’s).

Some years ago, to salvage the industry, dreidel-makers began producing more upscale and eclectic versions for collectors of contemporary Judaica. Styles encompassed everything from modern contemporary to silver and gold filigree and, of course, chocolate. The sevivon, as it’s known in Hebrew, has become less of a children’s game, more of a conversation piece.

In secular Israel, toy stores very often sell round tops at Hanukkah time, which is, of course, a mistake. A true sevivon has four sides, each emblazoned with a letter: nun, gimel, heh and peh — ness gadol hayah poh, a great miracle happened here. This, as opposed to the Diaspora, where the fourth side of the dreidel is marked with a shin for the word sham — a great miracle happened there. Clearly a Hanukkah holiday symbol throughout the generations.

But all that is just spin, if you’ll pardon the pun. The true origins of the dreidel have less to do with Hanukkah and more to do with keeping the children occupied, as is often the case with a week-long holiday. According to an essay (in Hebrew) by Israeli collector Rachel Bar Lev, “We all played sevivon in our childhood… but collectors know that the picture is far more complex: playing with tops is universal and prevalent in all continents of the globe. The top is not Jewish in origin and its connection to Hanukkah is late. In addition, tops appear in a range of shapes, sometimes with accessories to assist.” Bar Lev notes that archeologists have found tops dating back to as early as 2000 BCE.

“The tops most widely known in Israel are those with four sides, but in the world there are also tops with six and eights sides… Tops are also used in gambling. On such tops you can find letters instructing the player to pay the others, take the winnings, etc… So, for example, in Italy, the letters P,O,M,N are on the sides, meaning Pone ‘put’ (pay into the pot); Omne, ‘all’ (you won it all); ‘Medium’ (half, take half the pot); and ‘Nihil’, zero, nothing (you lost).”

“The Hanukkah sevivon, whose identifying characteristics are four sides, spindle and point, came to us from Germany. On Christmas in December, German children would play with tops to win nuts.” The tradition spread to the neighboring Jewish communities; Bar Lev says that it was the Jews of Poland who brought the dreidel game to the pre-State Land of Israel. “We find the German influence on our sevivon in the letters engraved on it – N,G,H,S – which encapsulate the instructions in German for playing the game.”

“As part of the ‘conversion’ process, the sevivon’s acronym was Hebracized to nun, gimel, heh, shin and received a new meaning: ness gadol hayah sham… intended to mask the game’s non-Jewish origins… As the years have gone by, it turns out that this creation of a link between Hannuka and the spinning top has been so successful that many tend to believe that the sevivon has always been a Jewish game.”

A note about the word “sevivon”. The root word is “svv” (“to turn”) and, according to Wikipedia and other sources, it was invented by a 5-year old Itamar Ben-Avi, the son of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the man who was the driving spirit behind modern Hebrew. However, the first usage of the word in print was on December 24, 1897, by journalist David Isaiah Silberbusch, who credited himself with the new term.

The poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik created a different word, “kirkar” (from the root “krkr” – “to spin”) and author Mendele Mocher Sforim created the word “hazarzar” (from the root “hzr” – “to return”) but neither of these were adopted.

Dreidel, by the way, comes from the Yiddish word “dreyen” (“to turn”). This is similar to German word “drehen”, which means same thing.

Dreidels have become so identified with Hanukkah, they appear in all things Hanukkah-related, including the American-Israeli Hanukkah stamp, the first stamp ever issued jointly by Israel and the United States.

Referring to the joint Israeli-US stamps, Bar Lev writes, “We can see the dilemma of which acronym to use in the First Day Issue envelopes. We find sevivons with the letters N,G,H. But the side that is supposed to have the letter P (for stamps issued in Israel) or S (for stamps issued in the US) — is hidden. Thus is created a philatelic item familiar to children in Israel and the Diaspora as one.”

A lovely PowerPoint presentation about spinning tops — Jewish, Israeli and non — is available for download here, courtesy of the wonderful Nostal.co.il site.

Proving that kids today do still play the game: just today, 15 children from New York, accompanied by their parents on the UJA-Federation of New York’s Winter Family Mission to Israel, met with 20 Ethiopian children at the Mevasseret Zion Absorption Center near Jerusalem to eat sufganiot and make glitter glue dreidels together.

Photo: Ilan Halperin, courtesy of UJA-Federation of New York.

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Nostalgia Sunday – Chanukah menorahs of Italy

December 18, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, design, education, Entertainment, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Nostalgia Sunday, Religion, Travel 

Jerusalem’s U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art is a small gem of a museum whose collection pertains to Jewish life in Italy from the Middle Ages through the present. House in the same building as the Conegliano Italian-Jewish Synagogue, the Museum is well worth a visit, particularly during this month’s Hamshushalaim 2011 celebrations, when it is open to the public free of charge every Thursday night through to the end of December.

The permanent collection includes Renaissance and Baroque arks of the Torah and religious objects. According to the museum website, “The period during which Jewish art in Italy expanded and flourished extends from the end of 15th century till the end of the 19th century, with the most remarkable handicrafts dating from the Renaissance and Baroque period.”

“These were brought from Italy to Israel in the 1960s by Dr. Umberto Nahon… These rare items were found in deserted synagogues that belonged to communities which had completely lost their members. They were kept in spaces adjacent to the synagogue until 1982, when the Museum was officially recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Science and Sport and was opened to the public. through a joint initiative in collaboration with the Jewish communities of Italy and Israel.”

Among the ritual objects are antique and rare Chanukah menorahs. “The lamps are made of silver or brass; they are richly decorated with images of animals, Jewish symbols or motifs inspired by Italian architecture. One the lamps lamp’s design, for instance, clearly recalls the characteristic shape of Firenze’s [Florence's] Palazzo Vecchio and of Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico (both built in the 14th century). The 17th century Italian Jew that created this lamp, could not certainly even imagine that his creation will be eventually exposed in Jerusalem…”

A typical feature of Italian Jewish art is the fusion of ancient and traditional motifs… with the prevailing style of the period…” Because Jews were prevented from working as artisans, “most of the objects were commissioned to non-Jewish artisans that were influenced by their personal taste and skills.”

“Helmets of Austrian soldiers were turned into beautiful Chanukah lamps after the battles of the 18th century. The helmets were made from brass, which was perfectly suited for the lamps, as candlelight reflects beautifully from them.

“The most important metal utilized in the fabrication of the different handicrafts is silver. During the 18th century this was due mainly to the decrease in the price of this metal, but also because it was the favorite material of the European bourgeois in the same period.”

The Museum also operates a Center for the Restoration of Wood and Textiles which specializes in detailed restoration of objects dating from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The specialists, trained in Italy and around the world, use the same techniques as those used during the Renaissance period.

This past year, the center invited to public to observe a wood restoration project of a rare gilded 16th century Italian Holy Ark and a textile restoration project of an embroidered silk, velvet and gold Torah binder from the late 17th century — hopefully, the “live viewing” project will be continued in 2012.

Hamshushalaim 2011 runs for the next two weeks. In addition to free museum entry every Thursday night, there are live musical performances at little or no cost at various locations around the city — including concerts in the Italian Museum newly restored Fresco Room.

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Nostalgia Sunday – Riding the waves

December 11, 2011 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, education, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Profiles, Social Justice, Sports, Travel, War 

Israel’s Lee Korzits won the gold medal this past weekend at the Sailing World Championships in Perth, Australia. Her achievement, along with Gal Fridman’s Olympic gold medal and Shahar Zubari’s bronze, is remarkable on its own. Even more so, given how new pro surfing is to our young country. And, like most things Israeli, it started with a dream.

Before surfboards arrived on our shores, there was the hasakeh, a sort of platform on which lifeguards would stand and paddle. Used from at least the 1930s onwards, there are several theories as to how this banana-shaped wood vessel came into being: one that it was used by Arab fishermen, another that it was based on a 1926 design by legendary surfer Tom Blake.

Its use by the Israeli Navy was immortalized in song in 1972.

Hasakeh

Riding the waves on a hasakeh, however, was not surfing. According to an online essay about the History of Surfing in Israel, that began with Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, an American surfer and physician visited Israel in 1956. Wikipedia states that he volunteered for the Israeli army during the Suez Canal crisis but was rejected. Nonetheless, during his year-long stay, he found happiness on the beaches of Tel Aviv where he conceived of a dream: to found the first Olympic surfing team from the young state of Israel. Paskowitz imported six long-boards imprinted with the Israeli flag and began scouting the beach for potential talent and for someone to manage the project.

“…he arrived on Frishman Beach, [where] he found a lifeguard named Shamai Kancepolsky, also known as Topsea, and presented the idea to him. Says [Topsea's son] Nir Almog, ‘There was an immediate chemistry between them and my father decided to take on the project.’

‘At that time, lifeguards caught waves using hasakehs alone. Dorian gave them lessons and slowly, the lifeguard booth gang began surfing. In those days, [before breakers were built] Israel had high waves that broke on the shore itself… and going into the sea to surf was considered an act of bravery bordering on insanity…”

“A few years passed and the gang gained experience… but there was still no Israeli representation abroad. Dorian [Paskowitz] returned a second time, bringing a load of surfboards with him that were distributed among the new members.”

“Nir Almog adds, ‘In the Sixties, a huge storm damaged the storeroom where the surfboards were stored, and broke some of them to bits. After that, my dad decided to restore one of the big ones and shortened it to 1.80 meters. I was the only one in Israel with a shortboard.”

“In the early Seventies, a paratrooper commander by the name of Yair told Topsea that the army used a material — a aerated plastic called polyurethane foam — made by a company in Haifa. The material was similar to that used to make surfboards. Yair raised the possibility of manufacturing surfboards made of this material… Topsea and Nir began trying to design surfboards… and began a small surfboards producing industry. Most were rented out, and so a new generation entered into surfing…”

Topsea managed a small workshop on Hilton Beach and, along with renting out Hasakehs, designed surfboards. He, his wife Naomi — Israel’s first female surfer — and their children, all became lifelong surfers.In 1977, son Nir founded Almog Surfboards, Israel’s first pro surfboard company. Topsea co-founded the Israel Surfing Association in 1986.

The sport has continued to grow in popularity; according to the Encyclopedia of Surfing, “Israel is home to about 15 surf shops and 10,000 surfers”.

Paskowitz, by the way, gave up practicing medicine to become a professional surfer. He and his family founded and run Surf Camps and are known as The First Family of Surfing. In August 2007, he founded Surfing 4 Peace together with his son David (along with Israeli surfer Arthur Rashovan and eight-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater) to deliver surfboards to the surfing community in Gaza.

A wonderful online photo archive, can be found at the Topsea Israel Surfing Center website. Topsea’s youngest son Orian runs the center, carrying on the tradition and legacy of his father. The Center also hosts a YouTube channel where there are more videos about the legendary Shamai “Topsea” Kancepolsky and the history of surfing in Israel.

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Nostalgia Sunday – A Good Old Fashioned Aliya Campaign

December 5, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, design, education, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Religion, Social Justice 

The latest flippity flap to get everyone’s knickers in a bunch — including mine (ouch) — was The Jewish Channel’s report of the so-called “semi-covert” ad campaign on billboards, YouTube and The Israeli Channel. (I am at a loss to explain how use of these publicly available platforms makes a campaign in any way covert, semi- demi- or otherwise).

The campaign is targeted at Israelis living in the US with the aim of guilting them into going home. As the daughter of one such mixed marriage — sabra Israeli mother, nice Jewish-American boy father — I can say with surety that the ads were absolutely on-message, that is to say, my sisters and I witnessed in real-life, all of the scenarios depicted in the videos.

The American-Jewish reaction, as everyone Jewishly or Israeli-ly involved now knows, was to take umbrage, with an emphasis on the second syllable. Since the ads were not targeted towards American Jews, the extreme reaction — among other things, accusing the Ministry of negative stereotyping, “luring expats” and “scare tactics” — is interesting.

More to the point, the target audience — Israelis living abroad — found the ads an insult to their intelligence. This may be so. No professional ad agency has yet come forth to take credit for the campaign so maybe it was indeed devised solely by thumb-twiddling bureaucrats tootling up and down the Ministry’s corridors. What I do find amazing is that this Ministry — so ineffectual at drumming up North American aliya that the job was handed over in part to outfits like Nefesh b’Nefesh — decided to do anything at all.

As to whether or not the campaign would have served to get the expats a-packing, I cannot say and we will never find out because it was pulled — by no less than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — although at this moment it still exists on the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption’s website. FYI.

Anyway… it’s time to take a deep breath and look back on the images that put forth positive messages, ones which made us truly, madly, deeply want to come to Israel, to make aliya*. This was one of my favorites:

Here, the Ministry tries to be hip… with Hippies!

Now THIS is messaging!

Even then, companies like Rolnik Publishers often did a better job of conveying the aliya message than the Ministry itself. Who can forget these iconic images?

All the preceding, with the exception of the Rolnik images, come from the Palestine Poster Project Archives, an online collection of posters published by 1) International artists and agencies; 2) Zionist and Israeli artists and agencies; 3) Palestinian nationalist artists and agencies; 4) Arab and Muslim artists and agencies.

* Aliya and aliya alone. In those days yordim were shunned, reviled and condemned for desertion, instead of courted with pricey ad campaigns linked to websites with boatloads of benefits for returning residents. When my mother, an Israel Consulate employee in the early 1950s, announced her engagement, there was serious discussion as to whether she would be able to retain her Israeli citizenship.

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