Meet Israel’s ‘Rosa Parks’

December 19, 2011 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, Politics, Religion, Social Justice 

Tania Rosenblit meeting with Transportation Minister Yaakov Katz on Sunday.

She’s being dubbed the ‘Israeli Rosa Parks’ but Tanya Rosenblit insists she wasn’t looking to be a role model when she refused demands last week by ultra-Orthodox passengers to move to the back of the Egged bus she was travelling on between Ashdod and Jerusalem. She just wanted to get to work.

But her bravery in the face of angry haredim on the bus line – which has traditionally placed men in the front and women in the back in deference to the high percentage of religious men who patronize the line – has made the 28-year-old a symbol of defiance against religious coercion.

She posted about her experience on Facebook, and soon the Israeli media was all over the story.

“I could tell that the other passengers were looking at me with disdain. One of them yelled ‘shiksa’ at me and demanded I move to the back of the bus, because Jewish men can’t sit behind a woman,” Rosenblit told The Irish Times. “I wasn’t causing any provocation. It’s a normal bus and anyone can ride it. I bought my ticket, just like they did and they have no right to tell me where to sit.”

While the phenomenon of gender-segregated buses has become more prevalent in recent years, the Supreme Court ruling states that voluntary segregation on buses is permitted, but bus drivers must intervene to prevent forced separation. When the Egged driver did just that, the haredim held up the bus for 30 minutes until police intervened and allowed Rosenblit to stay in her seat up front.

Rosenblit turned into an instant celebrity, with Opposition leader Tzipi Livni praising her actions on her Facebook page, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger condemning the incident and the latter suggesting that the haredi community establish its own transportation company, Transportation Minister Yaakov Katz meeting with her, and Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat inviting her to testify before a government committee examining women’s public exclusion.

The gender-seperation phenomenon in Israel is still marginal, (and not worthy of comment by the likes of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton), but the Rosenblit incident serves to show that it can affect any woman at any place. Maybe her act of drawing the line on the Ashdod-Jerusalem bus will be the tipping point that will raise public awareness and send religiously imposed gender segregation back to the dark ages.

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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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Celebrating November 29 in Jerusalem

November 29, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, education, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Social Justice 

November 29 is a pretty ordinary day around the world – a couple days after Thanksgiving and “Black Friday.” Even many Israelis would likely not be able to identify its significance under duress.

November 29 is the date in 1947 when the United Nations General Assembly voted by a two-thirds majority to partition the small state of Palestine into two smaller states of about equal size, one Arab and one Jewish. Jerusalem was to remain under international rule. It was the vital step in the process that a few months later resulted in the creation of Israel.

To mark the 64th anniversary of what’s called Kaf Tet B’November in Hebrew, the World Zionist Organization held a celebratory “reenactment” of the day in front of the Jewish Agency building in central Jerusalem.

Busloads of student dance groups were brought in to lead folk dancing and the traditional hora, and the plaza was given a full 1947 makeover: actors portrayed citizens and soldiers, as well as historical figures like David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir who arrived in vintage cars from the era. The idea was to recreate the joy the Jewish people in the yishuv felt when the partition plan was accepted and the glimmer of a Jewish state was in sight.

Guests of honor like Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky and Likud MK Danny Danon watched from the terrace above the plaza and addressed the crowd. Down below, it was the usual Israeli balagan, with photographers jostling each other, proud parents hovering around their twinkle-toed kids (alright, I was one of them) and enough noise and tumult to probably top whatever took place in 1947.

I’m not sure what the founding mothers and fathers of the country would make of the 64-year-old child they’ve reared – probably a mixture of awe and puzzlement, and maybe a little dismay. But it’s clear what today’s kids think of their 1947 antecedents – they rocked!

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Unhappy cafe

November 28, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Food, Social Justice 

It was clear from the moment we entered that this was not a happy place. It was our oldest son’s 20th birthday and we decided to celebrate over food. We’d heard that Roza, which has branches in town and on Emek Refaim in Jerusalem, had a creative menu and reasonable prices.

We made a reservation for 6:15 PM and arrived slightly late. The greeter at the door scowled at us, didn’t even look at the reservation book, and pointed to several tables that would fit a party of four. As we skimmed the menu, we noticed that none of the other wait staff were smiling. There was a general feeling of malaise at best, or more likely passive aggressive disquiet.

When Gal, our waiter arrived, my wife made a point of acting chipper. Gal seemed to brighten at her energy. She then proceeded to ask if the establishment has a tav chevrati. The tav is a sort of parallel to kosher certification. Rather than referring to the food, it is given based on whether the employees are treated well, given favorable work conditions and a sufficient salary.

Gal had never heard of the tav chevrati. When my wife Jody asked if the restaurant has terms that might grant it such a certificate, Gal was quick to answer “absolutely not.”

Which is a shame, because the food was quite good. I had a fajita with stir fried veggies on a sizzling platter, our son had a steak sandwich so stuffed that it was hard to figure out how to fit it in his mouth without using a knife and fork. We also had an awesome starter of a lamb kebab foccacia.

We have friends who won’t eat at restaurants without the tav chevrati. I’ve already boycotted at least one, despite the café’s truly excellent crushed ice lemonade with fresh mint.

Jody thought about telling the manager that his or her employees were not happy, but we were in a hurry at the end of our meal and the thought slipped her mind. In any case, it seems like a case of preaching to the wrong choir. But maybe if enough people voice their concerns, conditions will improve.

Try it for yourself – order a meal (that part will be good at least) and if the wait staff are grumpy on your visit, tell the manager. We’ll go back and do the same.

Consider it your own little tent protest for social justice.

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