Foto Friday – Edward Kaprov helps splice the ends
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, Pop Culture, Religion
Splicing the Ends is the name of a new art exhibition that opens next week, November 28th, at the Amiad Center in Old Jaffa. Over the past two years, Amiad has emerged as a unique center for the arts in Jaffa’s newly revived Flea Market area, now a hot nightlife spot for Tel Aviv’s young bohemian set.
According to the organizers, the exhibit celebrates the winter season festivals for the three major monotheistic religions — Hannuka, Christmas and Eid ul Fitr — by “telling the story of mankind through the different religions… exploring the themes of immigration, living as an individual and as part of a community, and how one relates to oneself and to one’s environment.”
The show features works by over 30 painters, sculptors and photographers , including Edward Kaprov. A veteran immigrant to Israel from the former Soviet Union, Kaprov has worked with Israel’s biggest newspapers including business daily Globes, Haaretz and Yedioth Aharonot. His features have been published by National Geographic, GEO, and Russian Newsweek as well as other publications.
His work on display in “Splicing the Ends” deals with how religion informs day-to-day life in Israel, whether in the army…
…at a soup kitchen for hungry children…
…motivating political protest…
Kaprov’s work ranges from news and commercial photography to personal projects, including a series on Shamanism in Israel.
Splicing the Ends runs from November 28 through December 21 at the Amiad Center. A portion of the proceeds from the exhibit will go to ILAN, Israel’s Foundation for the Handicapped.
Not just any third birthday
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Religion, War
One of the most quickly forgotten aspects following any terror attack is the survivors. We all mourn the victims, obsess about the perpetrators, and move on, as those left behind attempt to pick up the pieces of their lives.
Three-year-old Moishe Holzberg has proven to be the exception. A year ago, Moishe’s parents, Rabbi Gavriel Holzberg, 29, and his wife Rivka, 28, were killed along with 170 other victims when Pakistani Islamic terrorists raided the Chabad house in Mumbai, India. The Holzbergs had lived in Mumbai for six years as official emissaries of the Chabad movement.
The two-year-old life of Moishe was saved when he was spirited away from the attack by his Indian nanny Sandra Samuel. He’s been raised at Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv by his grandparents for the last year. And on Wednesday, the community hosted a memorial ceremony for the couple, which was attended by 2,000 people. During the event, Moishe celebrated his first haircut, a coming-of-age event for three-year-old boys, known as an “upshirin” in Yiddish or “chalaka” in Hebrew.
“Moshe may be without biological parents, but the entire Chabad family has adopted him,” the head of the Chabad Youth Organization in Israel, Rabbi Yosef Aharonov, told The Jerusalem Post which attended the event.
Across a blue-grey curtain on the wall of the womens’ section of the tent, dozens of blue and white balloons spelled out “Moishe, three years old.” Moishe himself was carried in by Sandra shortly before the beginning of the event, and stood before a gaggle of reporters and cameras, calmly, even lazily, taking in the spectacle.
Rabbi Holzberg’s father, Rabbi Nachman Holzberg, said that the outpouring of support for his family has been tremendous over the past year, and that Moishe was doing very well. Holzberg also expressed his hope that the tragedy “will only bring the entire world closer to redemption.”
Samuel, surrounded by a sea of reporters and swarmed by well-wishers from the moment she entered with Moishe, said that she was feeling a mix of emotions at the event, both great happiness that Moishe was doing well and sadness at the fact that his parents could not be with him.
Samuel said that “the baby is fine, he’s a normal kid, he plays, he jumps.”
With a mixture of sadness and joy, which, after all, is a regular recipe in Israel, the shortened lives of the Holzbergs and the hopefully long life of their son Moishe was celebrated in the only way Israeli know how – with all their hearts.
Picture of the week: The Ethiopian journey comes to an end
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Holidays, Picture of the Week, Religion
It’s been a long journey for Israel’s Ethiopian Jews, airlifted out of Ethiopia to Israel in 1984 and 1991, but this week, many must have felt their travels were really and truly over.
Thousands of Ethiopian Jews descended on Jerusalem on Monday to take part in the prayer of the Sigd on a hill overlooking the Mount of Olives.
Ethiopians Jews, who are thought to be descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel, celebrate this holiday every year. Back in Ethiopia, they would climb a mountain called Amburver to pray and beg God to bring them to the Holy Land.
Now in Israel the 80,000 strong population continue to celebrate the holiday. This year, however, the whole of Israel celebrated with them. The holiday of Sigd has been declared a national holiday and mandatory educational programs will be initiated to teach children about the celebration.
It’s a significant step forward for a people who haven’t always found it easy to adapt to their new life, and who still face prejudice from some quarters. Keep an eye out on ISRAEL21c for our video on the holiday.
Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90.
Religious ruptures
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion
Ultra Orthodox demonstrators rioting against the opening of a parking lot on Shabbat. (Photo credit: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)
The riots were reportedly peaceful, but as one coworker of mine commented, “How peaceful is it to head to a riot after shul on Shabbat?”
Can’t argue with that. I personally like to head home for some whisky and olives on Shabbat afternoon.
According to a survey taken by Hiddush, an NGO promoting religious freedom and equality in Israel (and headed by Rabbi/lawyer Uri Regev, who used to head the Reform movement in Israel), 76 percent of Jewish Israelis – and 93% of secular Israelis – believe haredi rabbis are spearheading religion-inspired conflicts in an effort to advance partisan haredi interests, and only 24% of the 500 polled believe that recent riots are inspired by love of Israel and the wellbeing of society.
This isn’t the first time that an Intel factory in Israel is working on Shabbat, but it is a newly revamped Jerusalem Intel plant that is manufacturing a certain kind of chip, which requires non-stop production. Given that Jerusalem is a city lacking jobs and industry, the presence of Intel is a boon, and one that clearly, no one wants to lose. At the same time, it’s not too pleasant dealing with religious hatred on a regular basis.
And so, against this background, I happened to end up at the Haredim photography exhibit in Beit Avi Chai, originally shown at the Eretz Israel Museum, with photos by Menahem Kahana of Haredim in all walks and situations of life, from synagogue rituals and family gatherings to celebrations, funerals and yes, demonstrations, from over the last ten years.
The curator is Alex Levac, winner of the Israel Prize for photography. Worth seeing and thinking about.
Picture of the week: October in the Old City
It’s October.
The evenings are getting cooler and Jerusalem is one of the first places in the country to feel the change in seasons.
In the evenings, the Old City walls are lit up, creating interesting shadows. Photo by Miriam Alster/FLASH90.
Guru in our backyard
The Israeli meditation community was all a flutter this week with the arrival of meditation guru (both figuratively and literally) Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who spoke yesterday at Hebrew University to a crowd of about 600.
Shankar is best known in Israel as the founder of the Art of Living, a type of meditation that includes very strenuous breathing exercises (not the usual calm “notice your breath”). My wife Jody has been an active practitioner for several years now and swears by the process.
Like a traveling Gandhi, Shankar has jetted around the world, from his home base of India to Baghdad, Kashmir, Sri Lanka and beyond, spreading his message of peace and love. He is speaking this week at the 2nd Israeli Presidential Conference. He was last in Israel in 2003 during the height of the suicide bombings.
The Hebrew University event included a talk by Shankar, guided meditation, and music by an Israeli ensemble on sitar and percussion.
At the end of the evening, Shankar invited the audience to come and stay with him in India. While some certainly will, many Israelis were happy to have gotten a glimpse of their guru in their backyard.
When’s the right time for a rite of passage?
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Travel, health
It’s generally accepted that the Israeli perspective on the bar/bat mitzvah ceremony is different from its counterpart in the US.
I remember when Susie and three of her closest friends decided to celebrate their bat mitzvahs together – they were all around 40-years-old at the time.
They had been studying Torah as a group in Jerusalem for a year and a half. It all started when Boston-born Susie, who had already been in Israel for more than 20 years, started to feel that while her Jewish identity was her primary identity, which is why she had moved here, it was time for her to confront her “awe of the Torah.”
Sally, Ruti and Janet had also been in Israel for a couple of decades and for various reasons, none of the four had had a bat mitzvah back in the States. In fact, the first bat mitzvah was held by American rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, a major figure in Jewish thought and the founder of the Reconstructionist movement, for his daughter Judith in 1922.
So the culmination of 18 months of study and learning to read from the holy book was a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Kol Haneshama .
Now the idea didn’t resonate with everybody, but at that June ceremony 12 years ago no one could fail to be moved by the four women’s obvious quiet joy and pride in their achievements.
The bat mitzvahs of those forty-somethings inevitably came to mind when I received an e-mail recently, telling me about another group of delayed bar/bat mitzvah celebrants, en route to Israel.
Some of the participants at the upcoming celebration will be using walkers. Oxygen and wheelchairs will be available for emergencies. Five nurses will be traveling with the group. The average age of the participants in this particular version of the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony? Eighty-five.
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Unrolling the Torah
I’m still flying high from Simchat Torah. The festival, which took place this past Shabbat in Israel and yesterday outside of the country, celebrates the conclusion of the annual public reading from the Torah.
In most traditional synagogues, the Torah is removed from the ark, there is lots of dancing, and everyone gets called up for an “aliyah” where they say a blessing on the Torah (this was classically just for men but in many Orthodox congregations today, women get their chance too).
This year, we decided to try something a little different: Simchat Torah at Nava Tehila, Jerusalem’s only Jewish Renewal synagogue.
About 200 congregants met outdoors at the Jerusalem Nature Museum under a canopy that shaded us from the mid-morning heat. The service started with 45 minutes of singing, accompanied by guitar and drums (this was definitely not an Orthodox gathering), and original music composed specifically for the holiday.
After singing, we received our aliyot in groups – all those over 60, 40-50 year olds, 30somethings, kids and so on.
But the highlight of the day was a literal unrolling of the Torah. As in the picture above (not taken on Shabbat), congregants arranged themselves in a circle with each person gripping a page as the entirety of the scroll was unfurled.
Seeing a Torah from beginning to end is quite a sight. Patterns begin to emerge; you see the start and ends of each of the five books of Moses, the Ten Commandments particularly stand out. Many people crawled under the parchment and walked around the pages, marveling like they would at a work of art hanging in a museum.
What happened next was even more wondrous. Several leaders of the community approached each person and asked him or her to point to a passage in the section below – without looking. The leader then read the section and gave it a humanistic interpretation.
I pointed to the section in the book of Genesis where Abraham and Sarah go down to Egypt and Pharaoh admires Sarah’s beauty. The meaning for me: that I should focus this year on the most beautiful woman in my life (the leader motioned to my wife standing next to me).
Our eleven-year-old son pointed to a section on kingship and was blessed with the challenge to act like a king this year – taking on responsibility to do good in the world.
The service ended with more singing, Yizkor and the prayer for rain (something this country is in dire need of).
Nava Tehila meets monthly on Friday nights in Jerusalem. More info here.
Of Matisyahu, Larry David and their [dis]connection to Israel
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Religion
Matisyahu - Israel a life-changing experience (AP)
It’s always interesting to learn how the American Jewish experience end up informing their views on Judaism – and Israel. For the 25-year-old, California-raised Attias, having an Israeli father was the key. He used to spend summers with his dad’s family in Kiryat Malachi, and liked it so much that he would lie to his parents about coming home and end up staying another month or two.
“One year, I did the Gadna military program – my Israeli friends said, ‘are you crazy, you’re volunteering?’ But I loved everything about being in Israel,” he told me.
It was also during his summers in Israel in the late 1980s that Attias – nicknamed the Young Lion – first grew to love reggae music, travelling every weekend to the Soweto Club in Tel Aviv.
“I was only 12 or 13 but I used to get on a bus in Kiryat Malachi by myself and go to Tel Aviv to the reggae clubs,” said Atias. “They had this DJ spinning the records, an Arab guy who loved the music but had no idea who he was playing, so they would ask me to announce the songs, and I’d hang out in the DJ booth all night long.”
Matisyahu also has a teenage Israel story which proved to be a life-changing experience. As a secular New York 16-year-old, he spent a semester in Israel at the Alexander Muss High School in Hod Hasharon.
“I remember one moment. They took us up to Mount Scopus around sunset to look at the Old City. For the first time, I got all emotional, and swept up in the idea of me being part of the Jewish people. Until then, it was a minor component of my identity, but it began to raise my awareness of the history and ancestry and rich background that I had. It was overwhelming,” he said, adding that it took a few years until Matisyahu became an Observant Jew and changed his name from Mathhew Miller.
These days, Matisyahu, who performed this week twice in Israel, spends a month here over the holidays every year.
Contrast the Attias and Matisyahu experiences with those of Adam Green and Larry David, born 30 years apart. David, who grew up ‘very Reform’ in Sheepshead Bay, New York, ended his Jewish experience after his bar mitzvah.
Since we were speaking a couple days after Rosh Hashana, I asked David how his holiday was, and he replied, “Uneventful.”
You don’t go to services on Rosh Hashana, I asked, treading dangerously close to a Larry David moment.
“Nah. I used to go to when I was married, that was part of my marriage arrangement, but it isn’t anymore,” he laughed.
Neither is Israel, apparently. When I asked if David had ever visited the homeland of the Jewish people, he answered, “No, I have no particular interest. Naturally, I want Israel to prosper and survive, but I’m not active in my support.”
Thirty years after David’s assimilation, a similar thing occurred to Adam Green, the quirky Brooklyn folkie, who as a member of The Moldy Peaches in 2001, co-wrote “Anyone Else But You,” the cloyingly charming song sung by the main characters in the 2007 indie sleeper hit film Juno.
Growing up in Mount Kisco, New York, he also was bar mitzvahed, but today, “I’m an atheist. I’m not at all observant now, what’s the point?” he said, adding, “I hope it’s not too late to make my first trip to Israel.”
Perhaps that’s the question all of American Jewry should be asking.
Foto Friday – Sukkot in Jerusalem
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, Holidays, Religion, Travel, coexistence
The awe-ful part of the Days of Awe are behind us and now it’s time to party! Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is the holiday when Jerusalem gets itself all decked out…
© RomKri
…and small wooden sukkot, or tabernacles, spring up overnight…
© monti_clif
…dotting the urban landscape.
© Pes & Lev
The Municipality of Jerusalem gets into the act too, with a large public sukka – the perfect opener to this month’s Autumn Nights Festival…
© RomKri
…as well as the annual Jerusalem March, attended by walkers from all over the country…
© monti_clif
…and from all over the world!
© monti_clif
Another event taking place at this time: the International Christian Embassy’s Feast of Tabernacles festival, this year celebrating its 30th anniversary. The festivities begin today with a worship concert at Ein Gedi, continue with a week of prayer and Bible teachings, and conclude with the Jerusalem March on October 6th.
Below is a montage of photos from last year’s Feast of Tabernacles. The photos above are courtesy of the wonderful Jerusalem Shots website – always worth a visit. And here’s wishing a Chag Sameach (happy holiday) to us all!
Feast of Tabernacles 2008 Photo Montage from ICEJ on Vimeo.
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