Public potties

March 8, 2009 - 8:58 PM by Jessica · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, design, General

I had a bathroom epiphany the other day. It was one of those moments when a bathroom is needed, you’re out in public, and have already availed yourself of coffee and other treats at your favorite cafe. In fact, you’re far away from said coffee shop, otherwise it might make the most sense to just head back in there. There’s also no Aroma in sight — Aroma is to public bathrooms in Israel as McDonald’s is in most other places in the world — and you gotta go, bad.

Public potty on Hillel Street

And there, in front of me, was one of the first public, self-cleaning bathrooms that I’d heard tale of in Jerusalem. This one was situated outside the Museum of Italian Jewish Art on Hillel Street in downtown Jerusalem. The oval-shaped structure is quite handsome in design, faced in stone, of course, and pretty easy to use in practice. Just press the button, open the door and the public potty is available for your use, fresh-smelling and clean, really clean. It’s also wheelchair accessible (and fits a side-by-side double stroller) and even has soap in the dispenser and toilet paper on the roll. Can’t always find that in an Aroma restroom.

I’d like to say it was reminiscent of the public restrooms of yore, in which a restroom attendant sat outside, collecting shekels in return for two squares of scratchy toilet paper and a fairly regularly-cleaned restroom. But it’s really much, much better than that. It’s clean, sleek and high-tech, and very, very private. Word has it that there are others in downtown Jerusalem; and if Jerusalem has public, self-cleaning bathrooms, then Tel Aviv must’ve been there first!

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Tags: Aroma, Hillet Street, McDonald's, Museum of Italian Jewish Art

Israel Loves NY

October 2, 2008 - 7:43 PM by Jessica · 2 Comments
Filed under: Art, General, Pop Culture

I Love NY.jpg So it’s a well-known fact that Israelis love New York — think Aroma in SoHo, the number of post-army Israelis working for Moishe’s Movers and the amount of Hebrew one hears on the city streets — but Fern Penn, the owner of Rosebud, a SoHo boutique that sells only Israeli-designed clothing, is taking the I Love NY slogan back to Israel.

On her last trip to Israel, she brought four dozen I Love NY t-shirts to each of the designers she features in her store, and asked them to “fashion them up” in their own style. The one-of-a-kind t-shirts, recreated by 12 different designers, are being featured in Rosebud throughout October. On sale for $100 each, all proceeds will go to Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan, Israel, and to Elem/ Youth in Distress in Israel.

The designers participating in the project include Ronen Chen, Kedem Sasson, Yael Orgad, Katomenta, Naomi Maaravi, Comme Il Faut, Keren Mualem, Delicatessen, Maya Negri, Fishndag, Dorit Sade, and Ido Recanati.

C’mon, don’t you love New York?

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