Judaism from a vending machine in Jerusalem
Forget Life in a Pita, the popular album by Teapacks. We’ve now got Judaism in a vending machine. You can get just about anything in vending machines in Israel that you can get anywhere else – drinks, candy, sandwiches. But I think this must be a uniquely Israeli offering.
At Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station, you can put your money in a vending machine and receive booklets on Jewish laws and traditions. Intrepid Internet maven Jacob Richman took these photographs of the machine, which is stocked by the religious educational outreach organization Hadaf Hayomi (The Daily Page).
I asked an intern yesterday to go to the bus station and stake out the machine to see if anyone was filling up with knowledge instead of empty calories. But despite most of the booklets being depleted, he reported that most people were choosing tortilla chips instead of Talmud. Evidently, it may take some time to replace ‘food for thought’ with ‘thought for food’.
A very Druze Knesset
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Politics, Religion, coexistence
The Israeli Druze are a mysterious and interesting people. They are known to eat raw meatballs. They find their spouses on the internet (okay, we do that too). Although it can be argued that they know no borders, they are historically extremely loyal to Israel, fighting as part of our military since the War of Independence and even teaching in our universities.
About a year ago, some alarming news reached the public when Israel’s National Resilience Survey results claimed that Israeli patriotism among the Druze was dropping rapidly. Balad party Member of Knesset Said Naffaa had harsh words to say to YNet on the matter at the time:
“Israel had always viewed the Druze as some type of domesticated beast, but now this previously docile animal is fighting back,” said Naffaa.
Moreover, Israel has taken quite a bit of heat recently when the government decided last month to ban two Arab parties from the upcoming election (Yes, Balad is one of them), given their track records for anti-Israel sentiment, rhetoric and actions.
With polls opening in a number of hours and election fever in full swing, one aspect to the situation that has unfortunately not been emphasized is the potential for this upcoming Knesset to be the most disproportionately Druze-represented than any ever before. How’s that for tolerance and diversity? Even extremist Yisrael Beitenu party has a Druze on their candidate list.
Haaretz did the math for us recently, revealing that a total of five Druze candidates were likely to garner seats:
According to the government’s statistical yearbook for 2008, Israel has about 120,000 Druze citizens, constituting 1.6 percent of the population. Five Druze lawmakers would be 4 percent of the Knesset’s 120 members, 2.5 times more than the proportion of the community within the national population.
And the best part is, the candidates hardly seem interested in only representing their small ethnicity:
Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahabi (Kadima), a Druze, said yesterday that his community cannot be expected to vote en bloc: “The large parties have to understand the importance of our community. I personally plan to represent my people faithfully, but also anyone who voted for my party, no matter what sector they come from. I believe in our involvement in Israeli society, not in separate parties.”
Tomorrow, Israel has much to decide and crystallize. At least there’s a good chance that our legislative body will be far more diverse and far less “special interest”-focused than we’re led to believe.
Image of a Druze man in the Golan courtesy tierecke from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
Should we allow porn in Israeli jails?
Filed under: Crime, History and Culture, Israeliness, Pop Culture, Religion
About five years ago, Emanuel Peled made headlines when he was convicted of fraudulently billing suckers for phone sex calls they didn’t make. He stole hundreds of thousands of shekels from strangers by threatening to make public these peoples’ love of audio porn, even though in most cases, the victims probably had no such attachments.
Now residing at the Hasharon Prison, Peled is making headlines again, this time for his own proud love of video porn. According to Haaretz….
The Public Defender’s Office says the petition [to the High Court] concerns the right to freedom of expression and consumption of information. The Israel Prison Service (IPS), however, claims that eliminating the ban on pornography could disturb religious inmates and lead to more violence inside prisons.
According to the petition, the prisoner does not have a partner and is therefore not privy to conjugal visits. He argues that being able to access pornography may offer a partial solution to his distress.
Apparently, Peled is notorious for getting the court system bogged down by his various appeals. But in a country where even those who assassinate politicians are allowed to marry people whom they’ve met while serving time, pornography seems like little to ask for.
It all comes down to how we define pornography as a people, and to what extent the evidence against the presence of porn holds water:
Attorney Tal Enar of the Public Defender’s Office claims that the IPS directive banning all pornographic material is disproportionate and illogical. The IPS claim that pornography in prisons will cause violence among inmates is scientifically unfounded, he says, adding that, pornography can instead be used to alleviate tension among sex offenders.
He also pointed out that the High Court rulings on the subject were handed down 25 years ago; since then, society’s attitude toward pornography has changed, he says: Consider, for example, the High Court’s decision to allow the Playboy Channel to broadcast in Israel.
It also comes down to the community of prisoners, which apparently has a high enough “religious” contingent that a porn infiltration might cause unrest among offended offenders. But really, it’s more of a question of philosophy. Of course convicts have rights too, but they’re not exactly put in these facilities to enjoy themselves either – it’s a matter of striking the right balance. The panel ruling on Peled’s plea, which includes Supreme Court Justices Hannan Meltzer (pictured), Elyakim Rubinstein and Dorit Beinisch, is not expected to decide in his favor.
In need of rain? Ask a government minister
I feel like a fish that has been left out of water too long. I’m literally gasping for rain. Being one of those foreign transplants from grey, rainy Britain, Israel’s warm climate is a frequent source of joy. But while I enjoy the heat and the sunshine, I still need the storms and rain of winter to help me get through the long, hot, barren, endlessly blue and sunny summers where I seem to suffer a kind of reverse seasonal affect disorder.
Oh for a good heavy rainstorm...
This year I’m not the only one. Even the most hardened Israeli sun-lovers, who normally complain of depression after just one day of rain, are protesting. And with reason. It’s been the driest January since Israeli records began, and it comes after four other exceptionally dry years.
From 1980 to 2007, the available volume of water in Lake Kinneret was 328 million cubic meters a year. This year it will be just 45 million cubic meters. Prof. Uri Shani, head of the Water Authority said the probability of Israel having such a dry winter, after a series of four dry years, was practically zero – but when did probability enter into global warming.
There are all sorts of plans afoot on how to deal with this water crisis – plans which quite frankly should have been put in place a year or two ago, but possibly the most kooky of the lot comes from Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon, who has come up with the idea of changing all the mezuzot in the Israel Water Authority offices.
Under Jewish tradition, a mezuzah is a piece of parchment inscribed with specific Hebrew verses from the Torah, which is put inside a special case and attached to doorframes as a kind of blessing. Some people like to kiss their hand and touch the case as they go in and out of the building, for good luck.
Simhon’s big plan, then, is to change the blessings inside these mezuzot in an effort to change Israel’s luck with rainfall patterns. The minister explained his logic by telling other ministers that when Labor was at an all-time low in the polls, he changed the mezuzot at the Labor House, and the party doubled its strength.
Good to know the water crisis is in capable hands, eh? Perhaps we should also consider bringing a tribe of native Indians across to do a rainfall dance. Of course water rationing, and a desalination plant or two might also help. But hell, what would I know, I’m not a government minister.
Foto Friday – Yuval Nadel
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Religion
The world of haredi observant Jews is one that most secular Israelis never get a chance to see – and if they do, they find it alien, even threatening. Photographer Yuval Nadel, an Israeli-born Jew with a secular up-bringing, became familiar with and learned to appreciate and respect the people who lead a religious lifestyle.
In a collection of photographs called “Custom, Prayer and Ceremony – The Jews of the Land of Israel”, he documents that meeting between secular and religious without trying to explain the lifestyle or Jewish customs. “As a photographer, it was important for me to show the religious experiences of Israeli Jews from my personal point of view,” he says.
The photographs presented in Nadel’s book were taken over four cycles of holidays and intermittent days between 2004 and 2008. Nadel writes that his journey began at the annual festive Lag B’Omer commemoration at Mount Meron. “I was captivated. Over the next four years, I traveled around the country to the various outposts and locations where Jews perform their mitzvot (commandments), ceremonies and prayers… I arrived to these places as a photographer, as a bystander observer and yet as someone participating in the experience. It was so, because that’s how I was received…”
While most such books “fall prey to the sin of anthropology… based, at worst, on patronizing voyeurism and at best, on intellectual curiosity,” writes Israeli journalist Kobi Arieli, an observant Jew, “Yuval Nadel’s approach arises out of a positive attitude that is nurtured and grows with each image… This book is a story about love and light, which is why it is both good and enjoyable.”
For his part, Nadel says, “If these photographs can contribute even slightly to help unite Jews through exposing a beautiful side of the world of observant Jews in Israel, I will have reaped my reward.”
Coexistence Exists
Filed under: Blogging, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Politics, Religion, coexistence
It’s no surprise that main stream news is focusing on the current situation in Gaza and southern Israel. Watching CNN’s coverage Israel looks like a battlefield right out of any epic war movie. The images are constantly played over and over again—which means I get worried phone calls from America, over and over again.
But there is more to life than the images on the news. In Jerusalem, all is pretty much quiet. Yes, tensions are high and I feel the added stress, but life is still not the media’s picture of Israel. In fact there is more coexistence happening on a daily basis than most people are aware of.
Here is Jerusalem Jews and Arabs work together building fancy new high rises or the new light rail train across the city. Today I spoke with an Arab-Israeli who was taking a five-minute-break from his moving job. He sat drinking coffee with his co-workers, both Arabs and Jews, and spoke about the weather (the very cold Jerusalem winter) and my dog’s funny looking sweater (I though he might be cold, but the dog clothing thing is just not for me). The point is that small talk still exists—talking still exists and not all forms of communication are from one rocket to another.
On a larger scale, I think back to the recent coexistence projects I filmed in the Israeli mixed cities of Acre and Lod. Again, the news’s projection is all about violence and crime in these areas, rather than focusing on the positive stories taking place.
Most people now think of Acre as that city that had riots this past Yom Kippur. But Acre quickly recovered from the fighting and both sides remain relatively calm during the current military operations. When I was there in November, I didn’t feel tensions, but rather found the coexistence projects’ efforts really taking effect. The Israel21c video below shows some of the projects, sponsored by the Jewish Agency, that are taking place in Acre.
Last month, I filmed a story about a new coexistence project in Lod. Aviv Wasserman, a native Israeli, founded The Lod Community Foundation about six months ago with the goal of getting this poverty-stricken city back on its feet. Aviv is hardcore, and now lives in Lod where he has set up shop in his apartment. From his office-apartment to monthly meetings, he has built a network of concerned citizens that want to rebuild the city together. Lod is a very diverse city (Jews, Arabs, Russians, Ethiopians, Bedouins, Christians, etc.), but Aviv has managed to have representatives from each community take part in the committees and meetings. Again, you can watch the video below to learn more about his incredible project.
So, there you have it, the other side of conflict. It does exist, even if it doesn’t make the news.
From Qumran to Rome
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Politics, Religion
The Dead Sea scrolls have recently become a great excuse for intensifying Israel’s relationship with Italy. The Italians have been in the business of preserving antiquities for far longer than the Zionists, and a team of scientists from the Italian Central Institute for Restoration has been working together with the Israel Antiquities Authority to restore, analyze and maintain the famous Bible fragments.
The scrolls were well-preserved when they sat in clay pots in Qumran’s dry caves for 2000 years, but in the 61 years since their discovery, they’ve undergone some wear and tear – even the Israel Museum’s strange-looking yet high-tech and emblematic Shrine of the Book seems to be a problematic home.
Considered one of the most the most significant archeological finds ever, many of the Dead Sea scrolls have been on tour of the world’s museums over the years (including, among others, the Library of Congress, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and the San Diego Natural History Museum). So when Italian President Giorgio Napolitano came to Israel for a visit last month, to see first-hand how the restoration project is going, he used the opportunity to announce that many Dead Sea scrolls would soon be on display in Rome, telling Israel Antiquities Authority spokespeople, “I am extremely pleased with the cooperation and scientific ties that have been formed between our representatives in Italy and the IAA.”
Coverage of the visit and announcement in the Italian press included an estimate that the Rome exhibit would take place some time in 2009, as well as some good-old Israeli confidence.
”We are sure that the scrolls will arouse great interest in the Italian public,” [IAA spokesman Yoli] Schwartz said, adding that Napolitano had pledged to be ”the first visitor” to the show.
Photo of Napolitano examining a scroll that mentions the Ten Commandments courtesy of Clara Amit for the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Ho Ho Ho! Christmas in Nazareth
Filed under: History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Travel, coexistence
I think it was only appropriate that my first trip to Nazareth be during the holiday season. This year, ISRAEL21c decided to cover Christmas in the Holy Land. Nazareth is known as Jesus’ childhood home and today it has the largest community of Christians in the country. Visiting the city just days before Christmas was the perfect place to see how the holiday is celebrated among Christians in Israel.
Traveling through the main streets of the city (you have plenty of time to look around since there are endless traffic jams), you’ll find tons of Christmas decoration shops, with Christmas trees, lights, Santa Clauses and even a red cowboy Christmas hat. I was actually surprised at how much these shops looked identical to those in America.
That’s the modern side of things, over in the Old City there are the Christian historical sites and lots of Churches. It was amazing to walk through the churches and learn about Nazareth’s history. A Nazareth resident, who has belonged to his church for over 80 years, told me that he sees thousands of Christian pilgrimages come through Nazareth each year.
From the old city to the new city, we ventured over to a restaurant owned by a Nazareth Christian resident, Mary Abu Jaber, who told us that she never planned on owning a restaurant but wanted to show the Nazareth community the true potential of the city. Her restaurant, “Coincidence,” is featured in the video and was one of the most beautiful restaurants I have been to in Israel. She used an old structure of an abandoned building, to create the main dining area and also built an art gallery. In fact she told us that they’re currently building a book shop to add to the facility. If you are ever in Nazareth I highly recommend checking it out.
My first trip to Nazareth was an awesome experience and I got to capture that feeling in this video. Unfortunately being there before Christmas, I wasn’t able to see their huge parade which is held in the afternoon of Christmas Eve, but then again there is always next year.
Happy Hanukka, Merry Christmas
Christmas in Bethlehem - A little hot-buttered rum, perhaps?
Back when I lived in the US, I remember having a very low tolerance for the commercialized Christmas season – the radio and TV ads and circulars, the glitter and tinsel in store windows, the two months of Christmas songs on the radio (unless if was Bruce’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”), and all the other encoutrements of the American culture which I didn’t belong to.
But on the couple of times I’ve been back there to visit during the holiday season, it wasn’t so bad. I actually appreciated the elaborate home decorations, the perceived feeling that people were in a better mood, and even the shmaltzy music.
Here in Israel, unless you’re in a Christian Arab community, you won’t find many outward signs of Christmas. And this year, we have Hannuka coinciding, so the lights and colorful candles are out in full force and dominating the landscape.
Still, despite the inclement weather, thousands of Christians in Israel will be freely celebrating Christmas tonight and tomorrow (is this the only Christian holiday that runs on Jewish time, beginning in the evening and continuing til sundown the next day?).
According to Bloomberg News, Bethlehem is experiencing a fourfold increase in visitors after seven bleak Christmas seasons, with 250,000 visitors here this week.
“All 3000 rooms in Bethlehem have been booked for Christmas,” said Samir Hazboun, chairman of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “Unemployment in the city has fallen to 23 percent from 45 percent last year.”
Michael Kreitem’s Bethlehem Star Hotel, along the ancient footpaths where Mary and Joseph once strolled before they returned with a son, was bustling with hordes of Russian-speaking Christian pilgrims, arriving from a one-day tour of Nazareth.
And if you can’t get there in person, IPrayTV is streaming the scene from Nativity Square and from the Church of the Nativity on Christmas Eve through Christmas evening.
Me, I’ll be spending the fourth and fifth days of Hannukka eating another in a countless batch of sufganiyot and latkes, and grumbling about gaining weight. But I may find the time to put “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” on the CD player.
Hannuka and the taco-flavored donuts
Filed under: Blogging, Food, Holidays, Life, Pop Culture, Religion
It’s Hannuka in Israel, and comedian Benji Lovitt and videographer Molly Livingstone went out onto the streets of Jerusalem to see how people celebrate.
As Benji admits in his blog, What War Zone, “we laughed….we cried…..we made people uncomfortable (hellooooo, cutting room floor!) But we definitely had fun and we think you will too.”
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