Nostalgia Sunday – The Modern Israeli Woman In Old Newsreels
Filed under: coexistence, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, War
A few months ago, I posted an item about the Women’s Corps, timed to coincide with an exhibit about those brave women of pre-State Israel who volunteered for the British Army. Their service formed the basis for Chen, the Israel Defense Forces’ women’s corps.
But I hadn’t yet discovered a wealth of old newsreels produced by now defunct news service British Pathe, with its archive of 90,000 videos, stills and stories spanning 80 years, from 1896 to 1976. And how delightful to find a newsreel about the very same Women’s Corps, Girls from the Middle East Join the W.A.A.F. The British Army recruited all over the region, “Way out there,” the announcer snidely puts it, “Where men are men and women are not far behind!”
RECRUITING IN THE MIDDLE EAST
The film (click on the image to view) makes the past come alive with various shots of the women recruits being signed on at a Middle East camp of the W.A.A.F. (Womens’ Auxiliary Air Force). They unpack their bags, make their beds and smoke cigarettes before getting changed into uniforms, shedding high heels in favor of sensible shoes, and beginning to march.
A decade after the founding of the state, British Pathe was there to chronicle the development of Chen, the IDF Women’s Corps, in this newsreel entitled Girls Train to Defend Israel. Notice that times have changed — no snarky editorializing from the male announcer. Just the facts ma’am, just the facts.
ISRAEL – GIRLS TRAIN TO DEFEND
British Pathe also has additional outtake footage of women soldiers, including a very young Yael Dayan. Definitely worth a look.
ISRAEL PROMOTES WOMEN’S ARMY
Eilat under attack
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Politics, Travel, War
August is one of the busiest seasons of the year in Eilat, as well as its hottest. The kids out of school, summer camps finishing up, and semi-attractive deals offered by the dozens of hotels and resorts in the Red Sea haven all contribute to an influx of tourism from within during the month.
Especially since Israeli tourism to Turkey has dropped to virtually zero because of the post-Flotilla diplomatic tension between the countries, Eilat is even more packed than usual. Which makes this morning’s news about five rockets likely fired from Sinai landing near the city is sending tremors throughout the country.
The five rockets – two in the Red Sea, one in a field near Eilat, and two in Jordan – included one which reportedly landed in front of the Intercontinental Hotel at the neighboring Jordanian port city of Aqaba, injuring four.
According to initial reports, a possible group behind the rockets could have been Hamas, which is known to use Sinai to smuggle weaponry and operatives in and out of the Gaza strip. There are also known to be global Jihad elements in the Sinai who have the capability to fire rockets toward Eilat. The attacks could be a continuation of the weekend rocket attack on Sderot, an attempt by Palestinians rejectionist groups to torpedo planned direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Regardless of the reason, the fact that rockets are falling close to the main vacation center in Israel is disconcerting indeed. Some Facebook posts are already intimating cancellations of plans to go to the Red Sea location: “My summer vacation is ruined,” wrote one FB poster.
Rocket attacks in Eilat are rare but not unheard of, with two attacks having occurred in the last five years. In April, two rockets fired landed in Eilat and Aqaba.
But what’s more disconcerting about the attacks – both in the Eilat area and in the South near Gaza – is that if the terror groups are trying to goad Israel into another Operation Cast Lead-type incursion, these incidents won’t be remembered at all.
The world media will write about Israeli aggression and overreaction, and ignore the fact that a sovereign state has been attacked. The average newspaper reader of TV news watcher in the US or Europe probably has no idea these acts of violence have taken place against Israel. But, if Israel retaliates, you’d better believe they’ll know about it.
So, besides getting the word out that Israel is being attacked seemingly on a daily basis these days, there’s one other thing to do: keep going to Eilat. I’m not going to cancel my plans to vacation there near the end of the month, and I urge everyone else to do the same. The coral reef and the dolphin beach more than make up for the inconvenience of having to dodge a rocket here and there.
Patriotic Pride
Some 3,000 people marched from Jerusalem’s Independence Park to the Knesset in yesterday’s annual Gay Pride parade. My daughter Merav and I were there to support the community.
It’s been a long time since I was at a gay parade – I used to regularly join the massive San Francisco event in the 1970s when I was growing up. That parade attracted hundreds of thousands of merry-makers. I wrote about it here.
The march in Jerusalem is much smaller, of course, it also has an added religious dimension. There were as many police than participants on hand Thursday; they were on guard against attacks like the one three years ago by an ultra-Orthodox man who stabbed three people.
This year, the protests included right wing groups holding cardboard cut-outs of donkeys, calling the event a parade of “bestiality.” The protesters had originally asked for a permit to bring live donkeys, which the police rejected.
That same religious element cuts the other way too, though – towards tolerance – and it’s part of what makes the parade in Jerusalem so unique. There were many men sporting kippot (yarmulkes) on their heads as well as women dressed in uber-modest Orthodox garb (long sleeves & skirts, tightly covered hair).
Other participants wore t-shirts reading “I’m proud to be religious” or carried signs indicating which religious high schools they attended including Jerusalem’s prestigious Orthodox Horev and Pelech schools.
The message was clear: don’t exclude us from any community, including the religious. It’s in keeping with a statement released this week by 150 Orthodox rabbis and educators including Rabbi Benny Lau and Rabbi Shlomo Riskin stating that “Jews with homosexual orientations or same sex-attractions should be welcomed as full members of the synagogue and school community
The parade was accompanied by a marching band with drum and bagpipe as it wound its way toward the Wohl Rose Garden overlooking the Knesset where a large stage was set-up for speeches and song.
But the mood turned somber as speakers recalled August 1, 2009, the day a shooter entered the Tel Aviv Bar Noar gay and lesbian youth center and killed two members, wounding 15 others. This year’s parade in Jerusalem was delayed several months to coincide with the anniversary of the Tel Aviv tragedy for which the assailant has yet to be found.
As Merav and I prepared to leave, we passed several booths selling souvenirs. Merav bought a multi-colored bracelet to show her support. But she also had her eye on a dog tag necklace with an Israeli flag, which I gladly purchased for her. After all, isn’t that what patriotism is all about: supporting equality for all Israelis no matter which shade paints their rainbow.
The war against croutons
In the war against croutons, Bamba, and cleaning products, the “Badatz Free” protest group is claiming its first victory: Massive food manufacturer Nestle has launched its new Joya line of gourmet ice creams without the controversial kosher certification of the Eda Haredit.
Several months ago, Badatz Free launched a campaign calling on the public to boycott products with the “Badatz Yerushalayim” sponsored by the Eda Haredit, a group that has been at the forefront of many of the more extreme conflicts between halacha (Jewish law) and the running of a modern state.
The Eda Haredit, a small but vocal ultra-Orthodox sect numbering just a few thousand in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh and comprising such Hassidic courts as Satmar, Toldot Aharon, Dushinsky and Breslav, was behind the recent rioting against the construction of the rocket-resistant emergency room at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.
The Eda Haredit also rioted to protest the opening on Shabbat of a parking lot near the Old City of Jerusalem, which was intended to relieve severe illegal parking on sidewalks, and the Shabbat operation of an Intel’s fabrication plant in the Har Hotzvim Industrial Area, even though it would have been operated entirely by non-Jews. Collectively, these riots have resulted in millions of shekels of damage as traffic lights were destroyed and trash bins set on fire.
The Eda Haredit is also one of the most public anti-Zionist groups. A YouTube video shows numerous signs in Jerusalem’s Meah Shearim reading “Jews are not Zionists” and “No passage to Zionists,” along with pictures of Eda Haredit members burning the Israeli flag.
Badatz Free is urging consumers who don’t agree with the policies and actions of the Eda Haredit to hit the group in its collective pocketbook by not purchasing products for which the Eda Haredit provides kosher supervision (and receives payment in return).
That won’t be easy – especially for families with young children. In addition to Nestle, on the boycott list are Osem (the makers of perennially popular snack foods Bisli and Bamba along with a popular brand of salad and soup croutons), Angel (the number one bread maker in the country) and, inexplicably, Sano which makes cleaning products, not food.
The boycott campaign was kicked off several months ago by an article from journalist Nahum Barnea, writing in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, who asked why, if one checks the price, the ingredients, the weight and the expiration date of products we buy, why not also its kosher certification? A follow-up piece by Michael Hirsch in the Jerusalem Post agrees, urges that those “who are careful in their adherence to the kashrut laws should question the validity of kashrut supervision provided by an organization (Badatz) which condones and implicitly supports…anti-religious behavior.”
A recent poll found that 23% of respondents said that, given a choice, they would prefer to purchase products with a different group’s supervision and 21% would endorse a full boycott.
The term “boycott” is controversial, to say the least. Israelis bristle when educational institutions overseas put our country on the no contact list. Others say a boycott will never work and suggest a letter writing campaign instead. When I put this out on Facebook, many responded that the most stringent kashrut supervision is the only way to ensure Jewish culinary unity.
Nevertheless, the decision of Nestle to separate its new Joya gourmet ice cream from the company’s overall Eda Haredit heksher was welcomed by Badatz Free as proof that a boycott campaign can work. The organization vows to plow on until all Nestle products are supervised by a different group.
In the meantime, the Badatz Free website provides a list of controversial products and alternatives you can buy instead (substitute Vita croutons for Osem). The group also has a Facebook page with nearly 1,500 members.
Only Israel
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Music, Politics, Pop Culture
In between all the clips of flash mobs and dancing soldiers, one of the latest YouTube sensations shows just a young woman sitting solo at the piano.
The unlikely newest viral celebrity is Yedida Freilich, the 22-year-old Israeli resident of West Bank settlement Neve Daniel, whose song “Only Israel” has received almost half a million views since it was posted at the beginning of the month.
The pro-Israel song is a little heavy handed lyrically, as much as it is haunting and moving musically, but it has struck a chord in among viewers who feel that Israel is being subjected to an international double standard regarding what it can do to defend itself.
With a chorus stating “Darfur is ignored, Russian troops in Chechenya, only Israel has no right to defend itself, because the world cares nothing about Jewish blood,” the song is not going to become a Top 40 hit, but long gone are the days when radio is required to make a song popular.
Freilich, a composition student at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance, wrote the mournful piano ballad along with her father Gabby and brother Yuval, following the Gaza flotilla incident last month.
The video clip of Yedida’s peformance on piano and vocals, with lyrics switching between English and Hebrew, is juxtaposed with images of Kassam rockets, Gilad Schalit, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Richard Goldstone, and the Mavi Marmara.
It’s not very subtle, but it’s certainly effective. And with one svelte swoop, the nationalist camp in Israel has received a new mouthpiece.
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