Remembering 9/11

September 11, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, education, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, War 

The past week has been full of conversations and discussions about the events of September 11, 2001. Where were we that day, what were our thoughts when we heard the news, the fact that children born since then or even right before 9/11, are too young to remember the day and what it was like for all of us living through it.

Here in Israel, as Rachel writes in Foto Friday, there have been a number of memorial sites established as Israelis strongly identify with the thoughts, feelings and experiences of New Yorkers from that period. And yet, with the day here, marking ten years since that terrible period in time, it can feel strange to be so far from the place where it all happened.

My sister and brother-in-law, who at the time worked a few blocks away and lived just over the Brooklyn Bridge, both say they find it hard to see images from the day. The experience is just too raw for them. But for some, it can be helpful to look at images from that time, and recollect how it all took place. Here in Jerusalem, local entrepreneur Robby Berman has installed an exhibit of his photos from that day that will be opening this evening. He was a journalist at the time, living in Israel but visiting in New York and found himself near the Twin Towers at the time of the attacks.

His photos aren’t those of a professional, but rather of someone who couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing, and simply snapped shots of everything that was happening around him. Here’s an account of his story from the weekend’s Ha’aretz. There will be a ceremony today at the exhibit, including the sounding of a a siren — in Israeli memorial style — to commemorate those who perished in the 9/11 tragedy.

The exhibit is being held at the Jerusalem House of Quality, across from the Jerusalem Cinematheque, 4 pm — 11 pm, until September 30.

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Foto Friday – The 9/11 Memorials

September 9, 2011 by · 5 Comments
Filed under: Art, design, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Life, News, Picture of the Week, Politics, War 

The horrific events of September 11, 2001 resonated strongly with Israelis. Firstly, because Israel is no stranger to terrorism. Secondly, because Israelis feel a close kinship to New York City — for many, New York is America. Israelis also understood immediately that the 9/11 attacks were directed not only at the United States but also at her allies.

In 2003, the Israel Postal Authority (now the Israel Postal Company) commissioned artist and Israel Prize laureate Michael Gross to create a commemorative stamp. The Postal Authority described the stamp as having an “X image, a symbol of erasure and cancellation, with the yellow and black lines, marks the towers and the airplane in red is seen hitting the towers. The work is therefore seemingly simple, but is actually very complex connecting between the artist’s personal agony to that of America and the entire world.”

I’ve written previously about my personal experience as a 9/11 refugee (really!), and find it hard to believe that it has been ten years. The world has changed a great deal over this time and we have little idea of what will happen tomorrow — hopefully things will be peaceful. Probably they will not. But at this moment, right now, today is a quiet day and it seems right to revisit the 9/11 Living Memorial in Jerusalem.

The 9/11 Living Memorial, located in Jerusalem’s Arazim Park, commemorates the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and stands as a reminder of shared loss and a call for collective understanding.

The monument, which includes a metal beam from the wreckage of the Twin Towers, was dedicated by Jewish National Fund (JNF) in 2009. It was designed by award-winning Israeli artist Eliezer Weishoff and was one of the first major international memorials to the victims of the attacks. It is also the only site (outside of New York) that lists the names of those who lost their lives in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. The Postal Company last year issued a new 9/11 Living Memorial stamp.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has expressed the Israel-US connection very beautifully in an essay published in The Jewish Forward, calling the monument a ‘Testament to the Shared Pain’”.

Oren also notes the link between the 9/11 Living Memorial and the new Reflecting Absence memorial that will be inaugurated on Sunday at the World Trade Centre site.

“Fittingly, this solemn masterpiece was designed by Israeli architect Michael Arad, a veteran of an IDF commando squad and son of a former Israeli ambassador to the United States. Two countries, two memorials, inextricably linked by the same sorrows, strengths and hopes.”

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DJ saved my life

August 29, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Crime, Entertainment, General, Israeliness, Life, Music, News, Pop Culture, War 

While East Coast Americans were hunkering down as Tropical Storm Irene wreaked havoc along the eastern sea board, in Tel Aviv, high school students were gathering at the famed Haoman 17 nightclub for a back to school dance party.

Internationally known Israeli DJ Yinon Yahel was spinning the discs inside, and 1,000 teens crammed the club for one of their last free nights ahead of the school year which begins on Thursday.

Unbeknownst to them, however, right outside a drama was unfolding, as a terrorist, rammed a stolen taxi into the police barrier right outside the club. He then emerged from the taxi and went on a stabbing spree, injuring seven people, five Border Police officers, a security guard and one civilian.

The suspect was tackled, taken into custody, and brought to Wolfson Medical Center in Holon in light condition. Inside the club, Yahel was informed about a terror attack outside the club shortly after it happened, but was asked by management to keep playing.

“The management came and told me that there was an attack outside the club, but told me to keep playing and not to say anything, so that people wouldn’t panic. Everyone was inside by then so they didn’t seem to know what was going on,” Yahel told The Jerusalem Post.

An hour later, around 3 a.m. when the attacker had been subdued and the scene restored to order, the club was finally ordered evacuated and the teens sent home.

For the 33-year-old Yahel, who performs at some of the top clubs around the world, and is an in-demand remix specialist for dance artists ranging from Kristine W and Deborah Cox to Christina Aguilera and P Diddy, it wasn’t a typical evening.

When I talked to him last year for a story, he said that his music usually brings people together, regardless of their origin.

“I get Palestinians and Lebanese attending my shows and coming up to me to talk. In a club, we’re all just people,” he said.

Sunday night in Tel Aviv, his music almost became the backdrop for a horror movie, one that was thankfully averted. While the club goers interviewed by the Post made light of the situation after the fact when they found out about, it’s likely bound to be a back to school event they’ll never forget.

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Sweating the small stuff too

August 22, 2011 by · 7 Comments
Filed under: Israeliness, War 

Hutzot HaYotzer arts and crafts festival

While it’s the big news that gets all the headlines, sometimes it’s the small stuff that’s the hardest to sweat. Last week, terrorists attacked along the Israel-Egypt border just north of Eilat. The ensuing days have been filled with IDF strikes and Gazan counterattacks. More people have died.

Meanwhile in Jerusalem, the seminal rap-rock band HaDag Nahash was playing a concert at Sultan’s Pool as part of the annual Hutzot HaYotzer arts and crafts festival. Our 17-year-old daughter Merav had a plan to dance up a storm with her friends at the show. She got all dolled up, then received a phone call.

“There’s a terror alert in Mamila (the mall that is adjacent to Sultan’s Pool). Everyone’s been ordered to get off the street and hide in the stores. There are police everywhere. It’s really serious,” her friend on the phone said.

“What should I do?” Merav asked us. “I want to go…”

“…but you don’t want to die,” I finished her sentence.

“Right,” she responded.

We checked the news. There was indeed a “high alert” going on in Jerusalem, but it was mostly along the highways entering the city from the north and west – Highway 443 was reported to have back-ups for up to 10 km coming towards the checkpost from Modi’in. But nothing written about trouble in town.

“If they’re locking down the mall, they must have some good lead,” I speculated.

“Maybe I could get to the concert from the other side,” Merav offered.

“No, they’ll have closed everything,” I said.

“And the other way is kind of dark,” Merav remembered. “Oof, this sucks! I really like HaDag Nahash.”

“And I really like you…alive,” I replied. I wish I were trying to be ironic.

Merav sat in the kitchen, now with two of her friends. While we’d tried to leave the decision up to Merav (with some strongly worded parental advice), one of her friends had much stricter marching orders.

“My mom says I can’t even leave your house,” she said gloomily.

The truth is, this kind of terror lock down has been pretty rare in recent years. During the early 2000s, it was a nearly daily occurrence, but nowadays we take for granted that we can sit at a Café Aroma and sip an iced limon-nana on a warm Jerusalem night with carefree abandon.

But an arts and crafts festival with tens of thousands of nightly attendees makes a pretty good spot for an attack. It’s a reminder that, despite our protestations and blogs to the contrary, Israel is not quite yet that “normal” nation we proffer it to be.

And yet the contrary is just as true: we say (and we mean it) that we won’t let the bad guys stop us from living our lives. If Merav had received a call just then saying the threat had passed, she would have been on the next bus to town, with our blessing.

The girls wound up reluctantly taking a pass on the show. We watched a family movie instead: “The Invention of Lying.” It was an amusing distraction.

Later, Merav talked to a friend of hers who had made it to the show. It was amazing, Merav quoted. “But he said everyone was terrified. They spent the whole concert looking around, trying to spot if there was a terrorist in the crowd.” She added, almost parenthetically, that she was, in fact, glad she hadn’t gone in the end.

There was no terror attack and the threat level was lifted by morning. My wife and I are scheduled to attend the festival and show on Tuesday (Ehud Banai is playing live). And unless the roads are closed, we’ll be there, defiant, proud and enjoying a warm Jerusalem evening.

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A tranquil calm in the North, war in the South

August 21, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, News, War 

Wading in the Zaki River in the Golan while rockets rain down on the South.

It wouldn’t be summer without a military skirmish in Israel. And this one looks like it could blossom into a doozy.

Funny thing is, that while one part of the country is under siege with rockets raining down, and buses being shot up, other areas are full of tranquility. We had just started a four-day vacation in the North on Thursday, just east of the Kinneret in a beautiful bed & breakfast chalet inside a Golan moshav. Late in the afternoon, we got a call from a friend just checking if our daughter (serving in the IDF along the Egyptian border) was alright.

A little perplexed, I thanked the friend for his concern, then asked why he was interested. He then explained about the terror attacks near Eilat, which we were oblivious to. We quickly got off the call and tried to contact our daughter, but only got her voice mail.

Nothing to get alarmed about, we said, she’s usually on exercises in areas that don’t get cell phone reception. Meanwhile, we tuned into the news on the radio, detailing the awful events of Thursday, getting brought up to date during a time we were supposed to be getting away from it all.

A couple hours later, soldier daughter called to say she was fine, nowhere’s near the violence and leading her recruits in various exercises. We spent the next few days – while the rockets were landing on Beersheva, and other southern points, rafting in the Jordan River, take a jeep trip through the trails and rivers of the Golan and chilling at the amazing pool of Moshav Ramot, with a breathtaking view of the Kinneret and surrounding mountains.

Unless you deliberately tuned into the news, you wouldn’t have known that people were losing their lives a couple hundred kilometers away. That’s Israel for you.

I’m not sure how what’s unfolding down south is being portrayed in the world media ( likely something like “Both Israel and Palestinian actions are escalating the situation along the Israeli borders with Gaza and Egypt”), but anyone with half a mind should and does realize that there’s no equivalency here – moral or otherwise.

Terrorists started this thing all by themselves with no provocation (other than Israel’s existence) and Israel is only doing what any sovereign country would do to protect its citizens. But for some reason, we always end up sharing half – if not more – of the blame for the violence. Returning from the Golan to the reality of another war-filled August in Israel, it was a stark wake up call that the vacation was over.

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