Nostalgia Sunday – The Architecture, Industry and Aesthetics of Murder
Filed under: Crime, design, education, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Social Justice, War
The most important thing we can do on the eve of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day is remember. Those born after the War — and that means most of us at this point in time — will create memories from documents and artifacts, and hopefully not from inaccurate fictional fantasies. For us, the Internet can serve to provide primary source materials, factual documentaries and first-person survivor testimonies to view and consider, so that we too may “Never forget” that the war against the Jews was as systematic, well-tooled and finely designed as any other German industrial product.
Architecture of Murder: The Auschwitz-Birkenau Blueprints was produced this year by Yad Vashem, and presents the plans for the death camp complex (which was never fully completed) including detailed drawings of the gas chambers and the crematoria.
The Auschwitz Album is the only surviving visual evidence of the process of mass murder at Auschwitz-Birkenau. More films are on view at Yad Vashem and the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive at Hebrew University.
The Architecture of Doom (Undergångens arkitektur) is a 1989 documentary directed by Swedish director Peter Cohen that explores the obsession Adolf Hitler had with his own particular vision of what was and was not aesthetically, artistically and architecturally acceptable and how Hitler applied these notions in devising and carrying out the Final Solution.
A wealth of examples of the banality of evil are on view at Calvin University’s Nazi and German Propaganda Archive, a collection of materials produced by the Nazis to shape and promote their ideal, from fashion-forward uniforms to Antisemitic propaganda tip sheets.
And there perhaps is no better example of the Nazi obsession with aesthetics than Leni Riefenstahl’s propaganda film Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens). The documentary, which chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, was so advanced for its time in terms of technology and technique that it remains a strong visual influence on filmmakers to this very day.
A mole or a victim?
Filed under: A New Reality, Crime, General, Israeliness, Social Justice, War
Anat Kam in January (Photo: AP)
The case of the ex-soldier who allegedly stole 2,000 IDF documents – some of them extremely sensitive – and gave them to a reporter for Ha’aretz, has riveted the country, even though until today, Israelis could only read about from foreign news sources. If you haven’t read about it yet, you can do so here.
As the case unfolds, none of the sides involved – Kamm, the army, the Shin Bet, Ha’aretz – are looking very attractive, but if what’s being reported is true, it’s Kamm who comes out smelling the worst.
Hiking the Himalayas – the Jewish way
Certain birthdays take on an air of importance. At 20 you’re no longer a teen. At 30, you’re on your way to starting or expanding a family. 40 is the age when no one is supposed to trust you anymore. And 50 – well, that’s when you want to do something big – because you realize that you might not be around forever.
I’ve long dreamed of heading out for a challenging trek in foothills of the Himalayas. If I’d grown up in Israel, I might already have done my post-army travel time in Nepal, but as I inch closer to 50, I’m starting to actually plan.
When I first started to flesh out the idea, it was just going to be for me and my wife. But our 16-year-old daughter was having none of that. “You’re taking me and that’s it,” Merav confidently pronounced (knowing that she usually gets her way). And if Merav is going, well, then so are her two brothers.
How could we justify the expense? Turn it into a combined birthday expedition and alternative bar mitzvah party for our youngest son who’s turning 13 next year. And do it over the holidays so we can rent out our apartment. Yes, this was sounding more do-able all the time.
The next step was to find a trek operator. I found several via recommendations on the TripAdvisor website. The first, an electronically loquacious man named Raj, has spent thousands of dollars on ensuring his site is suitably search engine optimized. On it, he writes about treating his guides well and respecting the environment. But as I dug further, I learned he was just a one-man operation, albeit with a very good website. In fact, I turned out he hadn’t had a booking since last summer.
John was equally personable and he and his Nepalese partner put together a detailed itinerary that took us around the fabled Anapurna Circuit, building in rest days for Shabbat, and including home-cooked vegetarian food. But at over $1,000 per person, maybe it would be more sensible to make like an Israeli backpacker and do it on our own, I thought.
That’s when my friend Heidi, who had recently gone with her family to Nepal, suggested I speak with Micha Odenheimer who co-founded the Tevel B’Tzedek organization. Operating out of Kathmandu, Tevel B’Tzedek (which means “The Earth In Justice”) aims to bring wandering Jews closer to their heritage by marrying Jewish values with an ecological mission to make life a little easier for the downtrodden in that part of the world.
We wrote about Odenheimer in Israel21c two years ago. Tevel B’Tzedek runs one and four-month programs where volunteers work with teachers, build toilets and promote organic methods of agriculture. Odenheimer’s aim is no less than creating “a new Jewish language of social and environmental justice in the age of globalization,” Odenheimer told Israel21c at the time. With some 50,000 Israeli backpackers passing through south Asia every year, the opportunity is not insignificant.
Now his group is offering a new service: to organize eco-tours and treks in Nepal. The idea is intriguing: spend a week volunteering in a poor village, the follow it up with 5-7 days of traditional hiking.
Living and working in village, Odenheimer told me, is something that most travelers never experience. It provides a much more down-to-earth perspective than simply climbing ever skyward towards Mount Everest. Plus going through Tevel b’Tzedek can be seen as a kind of charity – helping enable the organization to further its important goals.
I’ve still got time and a whole lot of planning in front of me. But I can already feel the trail beckoning. I’ll keep you posted along the journey.
A (c)hair raising experience
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Social Justice
Praying in the Jewish tradition can be hazardous to your health – at least if you’re a woman at the Kotel.
On every Rosh Hodesh – the Women of the Wall - a coalition of Conservative, Orthodox and Reform women – gather on the women’s side of the Wall for the morning Shaharit service. And on every Rosh Hodesh, there violent attempts by seemingly religious men to stop them.
On Tuesday, chair throwing was the violent act of choice. Rena Magen, one of the participants in the service described it like this:
I thought you would like to see this video of our “c-hair raising” experience at the Kotel this past Tuesday when I went to daven with the Women at the Wall.. it was not even 7:00 am yet (the starting time of the minyan) and we were simply standing around waiting, not even 10 of us.
All of a sudden, chairs started flying at us from the men’s side of the mechitzah, with great force. About 10 total, one after the other, very quickly. It was so outrageous that we hardly had time to be afraid. I am amazed that whoever shot this clip had the presence of mind to do so.
The police came quite quickly after it was all over and from that moment on there were MANY police guarding us on either side of the mechitzah. We had a nice service after that, complete with the requisite angry incessant shouting from the men and the nasty comments and curses from the women.
The group’s next minyan is Thursday, April 15, Rosh Chodesh Iyar. Let’s make it a big one…
Volunteering for Rhianna
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Israeliness, Life, Music, Pop Culture, Social Justice
Even a seemingly ‘everybody wins’ scenario can hit some snags when thrust into the realities of Israeli life. Take, for example, the upcoming concert at Jaffa’s Bloomfield Stadium by R&B sensation Rhianna.
The concert’s promoter and its sponsor, cell phone provider Orange, have hooked up with the international organization Rockcorps, which has successfully galvanized thousands of young music fans into performing community volunteer projects, by offering tickets to shows by artists like Lady Ga Ga, Nelly and Akon in the US and England to youth who sign up for and carry out four hours of volunteer work.
Tickets to Rhianna’s show cannot be obtained through normal means – you can’t buy them – you have to be between 16-25 years old and you have to sign up on a special Orange Rockcorps Web site for one of the hundred or so volunteer projects they list and then get authorization that you carried out your task. The projects listed on the Orange Web site include working in Keren Kayemet forests clearing brush or painting pathway marks, distributing food at soup kitchens and sorting donated clothes.
It sounds like a splendid idea that will benefit everyone involved, until you realize that there’s a hefty percentage of Israelis in that age group who are currently serving in the IDF. According to some soldiers, and their moms, the policy is unfairly discriminating against them, as their free time is severely curtailed by their military assignments.
“Most of the people in this country between the ages of 18-25 are soldiers and a great portion are soldiers living on bases. This is completely unfair to them,” said Sharon Bar-Lev, a Kfar Saba resident whose daughter, a diehard Rhianna fan, is currently serving in the IDF.
“I would like to know how soldiers, who come home once every two weeks, and leave their base around noon on a Friday, can possibly do four hours of community service and make it home before Shabbat, using public transportation to arrive at the volunteer site and from there back home.”
Bar-Lev added that she was more than willing to buy a ticket for her daughter to see Rhianna, but a call to the ticket office confirmed that no tickets were being sold to the show.
Bar- Lev hopes her grassroots campaign will get the policy changed. Just last week, frustrated Metallica fan Tal Mussman was able to force promoters of the the American hard rock band to significantly lower prices for the group’s Ramat Gan show by launching a page on Facebook calling on fans to boycott the show.
While applauding the efforts of Rockcorps and Orange, Bar-Lev said that her daughter and other Rhianna fans serving in the army shouldn’t be penalized for doing their jobs.
“Isn’t my daughter giving two years of her life to serve in the IDF enough of a volunteer project?”
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