Nostalgia Sunday – Yaffa Yarkoni

January 8, 2012 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Art, coexistence, Entertainment, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Movies, Music, News, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Profiles, tv, War 

It would be remiss of me if I did not mention the death of singer Yaffa Yarkoni at the age of 86 last week.

The papers, both local and international, reported on her passing — she was indeed the symbol of the War of Independence generation and a singer of some of Israel’s most beloved songs.

But she was also loved for being a fixture on the Israel Song Festival and Children’s Song Festival circuits, in the 1960s and 1970s, respectively.

For many years, she was an unofficial cultural ambassador for Israel, who charmed visiting international celebrities like Sean Connery, Cliff Richard and Sammy Davis Junior.

Like many women performers with a strong personality and powerful stage presence she, like fellow diva Shoshana Damari, inspired a generation of local drag queens.

Most of all, Yarkoni was a dyed-in-the-wool performer who was born to be onstage. In later years, she came out strongly as a member of Israel’s peace camp. In this interview, she covers topics ranging from cataloging her gowns, (so that she would never wear the same dress twice to a given venue), to face lifts (she didn’t have one and shows the back of her ears to prove it). She also describes the time she went down to Sinai to perform for the troops and ended up giving an impromptu performance to an onlooker who happened to be an Egyptian soldier on the other side of the line. “On the way back, I said to myself, ya allah, maybe we can end this war simply with song?”

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Shattered calm close to an Israeli home

December 18, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, Crime, General, Israeliness, Life, News, War 

The entrance to Ma'aleh Adumim usually looks like this.

To get into our city of Ma’aleh Adumim, you have to pass a compact roadblock usually manned by two people. It consists of a mobile barrier that drivers need to slalom around, slowing down enough for the guards to get a good glance at you.

It’s generally a boring place, despite the thousands of cars that pass daily, and the hundreds of construction workers – mostly from the neighboring Palestinian village of Azariyah – who on foot pass through the barrier on the way to their day jobs.

So, it was surprising to find out on Saturday night, after Shabbat came to an end, that a guard at the entrance had been lightly injured in a stabbing attack that morning.

According to The Jerusalem Post report, “a suspected Palestinian terrorist launched a knife attack against a security guard at the entrance to the Ma’ale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem on Saturday. The municipal guard was lightly injured in the assault. He was evacuated to hospital for treatment. Police and IDF forces were searching the area for the suspect.”

It took place on a beautifully sunny, mild winter’s day, less than a quarter-mile from my house, unbeknownst to the families in the neighborhood enjoying the day with their families.

An odd thing about the incident – generally Palestinians aren’t coming into Ma’aleh Adumim on Shabbat, since there’s no building or repair work going on. So either the perpetrator made a special trip to attack, or he had another reason to be coming to the city.

Either way, whether the attack was the result of cumulative anger, hate and frustration at Israeli ‘occupiers, or he had a personal vendetta about a work issue that left him humiliated or enraged, or whether he was mentally unstable and the guard was a natural target, the ‘business-as-usual’ feeling that passes for reality in the West Bank is a tenuous one that can be broken at any time with ease of a knife’s steel blade passing in the wind.

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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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Foto Friday – Bezalel takes on Ashdod

November 18, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, design, education, Entertainment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Travel, War 

The city of Ashdod has been in the headlines recently for some unpleasant reasons — missile attacks, burst water mains, port workers strikes and slowdowns — and so it is time to repay a visit to this port city, which is generally a very pleasant place. It has become a popular destination for Russian tourists, eager for some winter sunshine, and was also, according to the municipal website, “awarded all of the prizes granted by The Council for a Beautiful Israel”.

The modern city of Ashdod was founded on November 25, 1956 but the area has been continuously inhabited with human settlement in Ashdod dating back to the Paleolithic Period and urban settlement originating from the 17th century BCE under the Canaanites and then under the Philistines, who conquered the city in the 14th century BCE.

Ashdod developed into one of the five most important Philistine cities. During the Israelite period (600-1200 BCE), Ashdod was partially held by the Tribe of Judah and is mentioned 13 times in the Bible. By the way, Ashdod is home to the Corine Maman Museum, reputedly one of the only museums in the world dedicated to presenting the rich history and culture of the Philistine world.

The city was subsequently conquered by Assyrians — evidence of their presence was found at the Tel Ashdod excavations — Persians, Greeks, Byzantines, Crusaders, Arabs, Ottoman Turks, and in modern times, controlled by the British Mandate prior to the founding of the State of Israel.


Photo by Yair Aharonovic

I was actually in Ashdod last month* with my drinking and running group, the Holyland Hash House Harriers. As always, I was impressed by the city’s wide boulevards, spacious beachfront, green parks and public sculpture, of which there is quite a great deal — 300 statues, at last count.

In fact, modern Ashdod is an urban planning success story: it is the only city in Israel that was planned before being settled and is the fifth largest city in Israel, with a population of 230,000 living in 17 residential boroughs. The demographic composition is also unusual in that there is a balanced distribution of religious and secular Jews, Israeli-born sabras and new immigrants, the latter comprising 38% of overall population.


Photo by Yevgeni Doroshenk


Photo by Shai Mizrachi


Photo by May Castlenuovo

The city, old and new, is the subject of the exhibition, Bezalel in Ashdod, a collaboration between the Ashdod municipality and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. The exhibition will be on display for two days only – November 23-24 – at the old commercial center of Ashdod, Aleph District, and features works from 120 students and faculty of the Department of Photography who were guests of the city for a week last year.


Photos by Eli Singalovski (left), Neta Laufer (right)

During their stay, the students and faculty took photos of the different facets of the city: people and buildings, streets and parks, industrial and commercial areas, inside homes and of course, the port.


Photo by Vera Vladimirski


Photo by Sergei Litoinov

Curators Noa Zayit, Nir Evron and Noa Zdaka state, “The starting point of the exhibit was to concentrate on a single city, as it references examples of compassion, beauty and kindness, but also encompasses art criticism and conflict documentation – the result being a vivid, courageous and real-life picture of the city.”


Photos by Atalia Renaski (left), Gideon Levi (right)

*As luck would have it, we were just exiting the city when the siren sounded, warning of an incoming missile strike. That’s life in the Wild Wild Middle East.

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Nostalgia Sunday – Rain, rain, come

October 30, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Entertainment, Environment, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, War 

Israel’s rainy season has begun. Last month, Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, marked the transition from praying for dew to praying for rain. A week before we even started asking for it, the first rain of the season, known as the yoreh, had already fallen. And then… we had nothing but beautiful weather, marred only by the occasional yellow-red dust storm.

You wouldn’t necessarily think it of us but Israelis love rain and songs about rain, perhaps because we have so little of it. There are songs about the yoreh, songs about the last rain of the season, called the malkosh, and songs about raindrops and just plain rain, too.

Israelis love rain because it clears the air, calms the nerves and keeps us indoors where it’s cozy and safe. In anticipation of these attributes, needed so desperately at this time, and in addition to our actual need for rain to water crops, replenish Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) and the aquifer, we present a selection of songs about rain, starting with a golden oldie from 1968.

Geshem Yored – Lahakat HaBroshim

Lehakat HaNahal, the IDF Nahal unit’s entertainment corps was, at one point, the place for talented young performers to get discovered. The troupe had any number of hits to its credit, including this one, Geshem Bo (Rain, come). (Please note: The pictures are fun to watch but this video’s sound quality isn’t very good. Click here for a version with better audio).

Geshem Bo – Lehakat HaNahal

For some reason, rain was a very popular them in the Eighties. Here are a few examples:

Geshem – Benzin (featuring Yehuda Poliker)

Zeh HaGeshem – Nurit Galron

Geshem – Meir Banai

Singer Uzi Hitman, who died seven years ago today, was a prolific pop singer-songwriter who also made a good living putting out sing-a-long videos of classic Israeli children’s songs. Here is his version of HaYoreh.

HaYoreh – Uzi Hitman

For more recordings, check out the amazing Zemereshet website, an online archive of lyrics, songwriting credits and recordings.

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