Foto Friday – Israel through the IR filter with Yariv Drory
Winter is upon us, more or less. Last week, the rainy season began in earnest, then backtracked for a week of unseasonably warm weather. Now, they tell us, it is now due to return with some serious cold, wet weather. It’s too early to tell if there will be snow this year but this series of images by Yariv Drory brings the thought to mind.
Drory has a particular interest in infrared cameras and his images of the Israeli summer landscape through the IR filter are almost hallucinatory.
In real life, the trees are green and the skies are blue but through the IR filter, the trees turn a feathery pink, the skies are black, the seas white, and spiky brush and weeds turn cottony and soft.
According to Wikipedia, which has a very nice entry about infrared photography, “When these [IR] filters are used together with infrared-sensitive film or sensors, very interesting ‘in-camera effects’ can be obtained…false-color or black-and-white images with a dreamlike or sometimes lurid appearance… mainly caused by foliage (such as tree leaves and grass) strongly reflecting in the same way visible light is reflected from snow.”
Also, according to Wikipedia, “…other attributes of infrared photographs include very dark skies and penetration of atmospheric haze… compared to visible light.”
More photos by Yariv Drory are on view at his website.
Israel gets its newest celebrity visitor
We get a lot of celebrity visitors to Israel. Bill Clinton, George Bush, the Dalai Lama, Madonna
, Leonardo DiCaprio, Grover from Sesame Street – you name it, the great and glorious come here. It’s a field day for the press, who follow their every move in Israel, trying to get that one great shot of Madonna at the Western Wall, or the Dalai Lama at Temple Mount.
The newest celebrity visitor to our shores, however, crept in without the slightest bit of press hoo ha, making surprise visits to a number of top Israeli hot spots without causing any kind of media stir or even extra security. It’s Alpha Rex, the Lego Mindstorms robot. Yes, you heard it here first.
As part of Lego’s 10th anniversary for its Mindstorms robot line, the company sent out two of its Alpha Rex humanoid robots to cross the globe.
The sturdy little robots left the FIRST World Championship in Atlanta in the US in April 2008 and have been travelling every since. One headed off to tour the US, and the other – clearly more adventurous – headed west to Japan, taking in Europe, Australia, Canada, Egypt, India, China, the South Pole, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, Iceland etc. etc. etc. along the way.
They aren’t alone of course. Lego employees, fans and business associates have guided them on their long, difficult and sometimes lonely journeys, taking snaps of them at their destinations.
Now it’s the turn of Israel, where Alpha Rex along with his human guide, David Schilling, got to visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the Sea of Galilee, enjoying some occasionally autumnal weather on the way
It’s not the end of Alpha Rex’s global endeavor. He’s still got quite a few countries to go – including Greece, Turkey, Saudi Arabia (hope the Israeli authorities didn’t stamp his passport), and Argentina to name a few.
At the end of it, the Lego team plan to make a screensaver showing all the places he visited. They should also consider setting it to music and putting it on Youtube. It worked for Matt Harding after all.
So what did Alpha Rex think of Israel? Wasn’t it the best place he visited? Does he plan to come here again? He declined to answer.
High school musical – the hike
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Travel
A uniquely Israeli creation, the tiyul shnati (Annual trip) has been part of our family’s lives since our oldest child was big enough for one of the outdoor overnight, multi-day trips.
Whether they attend secular or religious schools, the annual trips are generally chock full of walking the land, camping in the rough, rope and ladder climbing water hikes, barbecues, cameraderie, pranks, and living and breathing Zionism.
With 10 months spent cooped up in the classroom, middle and high schoolers earn their three days out in nature, and our 15-year-old son was up bright-eyed and ready at 5:30 am this morning waiting for one of us to drive him to school.
Of course, it’s not primarily about Zionism, it’s primarily about pranks. When I asked him what kind of pranks the kids play on each other these days, he recounted one successful mission last year of entering another tent in the middle of the night, and scrawling in red marker the name of a body part on the forehead of a ‘friend.’
The preparations begin days earlier, with the required trip to the candy story for obligatory ‘junk’ bag of everything we don’t let him have the rest of the year. The school list of required equipment includes enough bottles of water to stock a small pool, but he also insisted on buying a six-pack of Coke. Both the portable music player and the cell phone stayed at home, which was an accomplishment in itself, and almost worth the cost of the trip.
Which is a sore point – a number of students weren’t attending the trip due to the expense involved. On top of the annual school fees and miscellanous charges, the school charged NIS 790 (almost $200) for the trip. I know that there’s the costs of the buses, the guides, etc… but they’re not even staying in youth hostels or hotels, they’re camping out!
If it’s a class trip, meant to build a spirit of student togetherness, there should be a way for all the students to go, even if it means cutting out some of the schedule and shortening the outing by a day.
It’s a macro problem, but this morning, we were dealing with the micro, hastily digging the forgotten sleeping bag out of the closet at the last minute. With that squared away, our young man took his last shower for three days, packed an extra pair of shoes for the water, reluctantly stuffed in something to wear if it got cold at night, made sure he had his red marker, and put his candy in a water-proof section of his backpack. With attention to detail like that, he’ll go far in life.
Foto Friday – Reli Avrahami’s “Diary”
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, Israeliness, Profiles, Travel
Beer Sheva-born Reli Avrahami is one of Israel’s premiere magazine photographers. A new exhibition of her work, “Diary”, will open next week at the Hadassah College in Jerusalem, where she once studied and is now a lecturer.
Avrahami has worked as a freelance portrait photographer since 1986, shooting celebrities, artists and politicians for Israel’s main newspapers and weekend supplements including “Maariv”, “Yediot Aharonot” and “Haaretz” where she is best known for her long-running series of Israeli family portraits.
In “Diary”, Avrahami invites viewers to look in on three generations of her own family: celebrations and tragedies, weddings and funerals, everyday life and unique occasions.
Her daughter – Botticelli curls cascading down her shoulders – en route to a Scout trip…
…the morning of her son’s induction into the IDF…
…her mother, fast asleep in a Netherlands zimmer motel…
or a “Girls Night In” with her sisters and mother.
“Diary” opens at 6:00pm, November 5, 2009 at the Hadassah College, 37 HaNeviim Street, Jerusalem.
A Night in the Desert
It’s been a couple of years since we last visited Succa Bamidbar, but as fall inches slowly towards winter, a visit to the magical “Succa in the Desert” would be warmly welcomed.
Succa Bamidbar is so far off the beaten track, there’s barely a road to get there. Located 5 km from Mitzpe Ramon, the establishment, founded in 1990 and run by the amiable Avi Dror and Chen Hadar, consists of 8 small succot – cabins made of wood and fabric – scattered across a barren rocky hillside. Don’t worry – they’re enclosed on all sides to keep the cold out.
Each succa is set no less than 150 meters from the next. There is no running water and many of the succot have no electricity either. You sleep on mattresses or low beds. Two eco-friendly outhouses are located at the center of the site.
The most striking element of Succa Bamidbar is the solitude. With no lights at night, you walk the narrow paths between the guest succot and the central “Succa of Abraham,” where two meals a day are served, with just a lantern.
Silence is also a major player in the uniqueness of the place. That is until 6:30 PM, when Avi and Chen ring an enormous gong, which sounds over the entire valley – the call for dinner. On our last visit, we had a delicious lentil soup with home-made croutons, macaroni and assorted vegetables. Our second night included freshly baked bread and home made sweet wine with a ginger cinnamon kick. The sweet potato soup and zucchini goat cheese casserole were both to die for.
Breakfast is also served: a panoply of home made jams, yogurts and cheeses, hard boiled eggs and a fabulous chunky humus (with an accompanying schug to warm up even the toughest desert denizen).
Succa Bamidbar is a 45-minute drive from hiking in the Machtesh Ramon; there is also a pleasant 25-minute hike from the Succa Bamidbar campsite to the edge of the crater with its breathtaking view.
Prices are not cheap but it’s worth it. You can find details on their website. But don’t look for an email – they don’t have a computer – or for that matter a cell phone. Now that’s roughing it!
Foto Friday – Robert Gorsoun sees Israel’s beauty
Robert Gorsoun is a photographer who takes pictures for the love of it. Wherever he travels, he snaps pictures and Israel is beautiful through his lens…
…the Banias in Israel’s north…
…a rainbow, captured in mid-storm over the Herzliya beach…
…a field of flowers by the roadside, stretching on forever…
…a water lily…
…or flowering cacti at the Utopia Orchid Park…
…and on through to the crater at Mizpe Ramon.
More photos by Gorsoun — including some spectacular panoramas that don’t fit on an Israelity page but should be seen — are posted on Panoramio.
Nostalgia Sunday – Lod Mosaic
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday, Travel
It may be more historic than nostalgic, but the big news in archeology last week here was that the Israel Antiquities Authority made an interesting discovery while detaching a magnificent floor mosaic for transfer to the IAA conservation laboratories in Jerusalem. They found ancient footprints! Apparently, while working on the plaster bedding (done before laying down the mosaic) the artisans trod on it in sandals and in bare feet.
The floor is a story in itself. According to the IAA: “The 1,700 year old mosaic, which is one of the largest and most magnificent ever seen in Israel, was exposed in the city of Lod in 1996 and was covered again when no resources could be found for its conservation. Thirteen years after efforts were made to raise the large amount required to treat the unique artifact, the IAA received a contribution from the Leon Levy Foundation that is specifically earmarked for the purpose of conserving and developing the site, in cooperation with the Municipality of Lod. The mosaic was re-excavated, exhibited to the public and is now being removed from the area for treatment in the IAA conservation laboratories.”
“The mosaic, which constitutes a real archaeological gem that is extraordinarily well-preserved, is c. 180 sq m in size. It is composed of colorful carpets that depict in great detail mammals, birds, fish, floral species, and sailing and merchant vessels that were in use at the time. It is believed the mosaic floor was part of a villa that belonged to a wealthy man in the Roman period.”
Hopefully, the floor’s restoration holds the key — along with other innovative social welfare efforts reported on by ISRAEL21c — to turning Lod around from the center of drug-related crime to the tourist haven it ought to be. The IAA stated that, “The municipality, in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority, plans to integrate it into a tourism circuit that will include a number of historic sites in the city.” Given the magnificence of the artifact, there is every chance that the plan could work.
Foto Friday – The Israel Photography Exhibition 2
POV, the Israeli Photography Exhibition at Hatachana, the Old Train Station in Tel Aviv’s Neve Tzedek, came out swinging earlier this month with individual retrospectives of works by well-known Israeli photographers. Additionally, there were also collective exhibitions on view at Hatachana — well worth visiting — and on YouTube. These include works by leading photographers, yet-unknowns and news agencies, the unsung heroes of photography in the field.
Last Summer
Israel Sun photo agency
Tomorrow’s Photographers
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.
Read more
Kfar Blum’s Pastoral Pastures
Filed under: Environment, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Travel
I’ve always had a thing for the kibbutz, that is, the kibbutz lifestyle, where you live in a tight-knit community of people whom you hopefully like, can avail yourself of the kibbutz pool and have the opportunity to eat freshly fried schnitzel at almost any given time. I mean, hey, that’s living, right?
So you can imagine how pleased I was to be spending part of our Sukkot vacation at Kibbutz Kfar Blum’s hotel, now known as Pastoral Kfar Blum. What was once just a run-of-the-mill kibbutz hotel has become a higher-end version of this Israeli standard, with lush grounds, a truly stupendous breakfast and dinner spread and great access to all the local attractions.
As a New York Times article quoted back in 1990,
“When I asked the manager of Mitzpeh Rachel, whom everybody calls Juhah, to explain the difference between his hostelry and ordinary hotels, he answered: ”At the kibbutzim the staff owns the hotels, so everybody cares. It isn’t just a job. And where else will you see a guest and a waiter – a kibbutz member – sitting after dinner and chatting over a cup of coffee?” A guest there put it this way: ”A hotel is a place where you sleep. Here, I am at home.”
19 years later, much of what Nitza Rosovsky wrote in her review of Israel’s best kibbutz guesthouses still rings true, and many of the kibbutzim have taken it a step beyond, with renovated guestrooms, sumptuous spreads, spas — yes, spas — and a very casual, easy atmosphere that makes it comfortable for all sorts. There’s even a Kibbutz Hotels Chain, with a website, although it seems to be closed until October 19, strange.
In any case, as the website points out, kibbutz hotels are everywhere — well, anywhere where there are kibbutzim — from Eilat’s Red Sea to the snowy slopes of Mount Hermon.
Kfar Blum, which is an easy ride to Mount Hermon and other northern destinations, was founded in November 1943 by the Labor Zionist Habonim (now Habonim Dror) youth movement, according to Wikipedia. The founding members of the kibbutz were primarily from the United Kingdom, South Africa, the United States and the Baltic countries, and the kibbutz was named in honor of Léon Blum, the Jewish socialist former Prime Minister of France who was the focus of a widely-publicized, and ultimately unsuccessful, show trial in 1942 mounted by the collaborationist Vichy regime.
Besides working with agriculture, light industry and tourism — including the hotel and the kibbutz kayaking/rafting company, the kibbutz was once home to Hapoel Galil Elyon, a top division basketball team, which in 1993 became the only club from outside Tel Aviv to win the championship. I’ve also heard that its Olympic size pool was once the only one around for miles, and was used for Olympian trainees, but couldn’t confirm that particular fact.
Prices are not cheap, particularly during the high season of the holidays. But if you’re looking for an easy getaway, and for a guestroom that doesn’t have a Jacuzzi next to your bed — a common feature in many Israeli tzimmers — I’m voting for Kfar Blum.
Subscribe
Subscribe to Israelity via email:
Social Media
Tag Cloud
photographer hamas Waltz with Bashir Yom Kippur photography photograhy Green Prophet Food succot IDF jerusalem israeli photography Rosh Hashana War Sderot Israel photographers Art coexistence Kadima Religion Tel Aviv Paul McCartney festival Gaza israeli nostalgia Dead Sea photo Operation Cast Lead Nostalgia Sunday election shopping knesset Foto Friday race holiday Israelis nostalgia Politics Environment tourism Music photo exhibition vote TravelCategories
- A New Reality
- Art
- Blogging
- Business
- coexistence
- Crime
- design
- Environment
- Food
- Foto Friday
- General
- health
- History and Culture
- Holidays
- Immigrant Moments
- Israeliness
- Life
- Medical Breakthroughs
- Movies
- Music
- Nostalgia Sunday
- Picture of the Week
- Politics
- Pop Culture
- Profiles
- Religion
- Sports
- Technology
- Travel
- War
The Face of Israel Today
-
About Israelity
Free newsletter
Stories from ISRAEL21c.orgPopular Posts