Dreaming of foliage
Filed under: A New Reality, Environment, General, Israeliness, Life
We almost thought that fall was here. Last week, temperatures dipped into the 70s for the first time in months, and at night, there was nearly a feeling of a chill in the air.
There was even a day of heavy rain that announced the beginning of a healthy rainy season. People were taking out their long-sleeved shirts and bed spreads from the closets ready to place the days of 100 degree September heat deep in the recesses of their memory until next summer.
But here we are again, experiencing 90 degree plus temperatures in mid-October, as we suffer through yet another in a seemingly endless chain of oppressive heat waves.
According to the forecasters, it’s going to last for a few days, so instead of dreaming about heading to the Hermon in the next couple months for some skiing action, we’ll be thinking about heading to the beach this weekend.
And people wonder why we can’t get anything going with the peace talks. We can’t even get our weather together!
Oiling the wheels and dusting off the siddur
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Religion
Yom Kippur arrives tonight, and the schizoid makeup of the Israeli public will once again become apparent.
Between the choices of fasting and attending synagogue services, walking, bike riding, and skating in the empty streets, or, if you live along the coast, heading the beach, makes the solemn day of atonement one of the busiest days in the Israeli calendar.
According to a poll conducted by Ynet and the Yesodot association, 61% of Israelis said they plan to fast on the holiday and 28% said no. Six percent said they would fast only part of the day and 5% had yet to decide. Interestingly, among secular Israelis, about half of respondents said they would fast (most of them all day).
Just because one fasts doesn’t mean that they’ll be attending a service, however. Ten percent of those that said they were planning to fast responded that they wouldn’t be going to shul on the holiday.
And in a more nebulous religious/secular question, 77% of the public plans on asking forgiveness from God or other people on Yom Kippur, as opposed to 23% who do not plan to make amends with anyone.
Relating to the uniquely Israeli tradition of youth jamming the streets on the eve of Yom Kippur with bikes and other wheeled vehicles, the public was divided. 35% responded that it is a violation of the sanctity of the day just as driving a car is, while 29% responded positively that it is one of the symbols of the day. Seventeen percent did not respond.
Like on every other day of the year, Yom Kippur provides ample proof that in Israel, anyone can find a way of life suitable to their beliefs and needs. May you find yours.
Marquis de Sand
I know, I’ve been writing about my various nieces and nephews a lot, but hey, they’re doing interesting things in their twentysomething-year-old lives of seeking and searching their future selves.
Today’s pick is nephew Adin, brother of Noa of storm chasing and army officer fame. Adin is something of an iconoclast, a lover of anything geographical, a traveler, happily living at home post-army and recent Africa travels, trying to figure out what his future holds.
And during this in-between period of his life, he and his friend, Shai, have become expert sand castle builders. You see, even in the rainy Israeli winter you can expect warm days, days that are warm enough for hanging out on the beach, just a short 45-minute drive from Jerusalem. So Shai the university student and Adin the soon-to-be student, have been spending a lot of time honing their sand-building skills on the Israeli shores, building fantastical structures that pay attention to the smallest details.
We, the family, got wind of this the other night while watching a video of Adin’s trip to Africa last summer. Of course, being his aunt, uncle, parents and grandmother, our reaction was, “Adin, you could use these skills to become an architect or an engineer!” I wouldn’t say our comments fell on deaf ears, but Adin kept his counsel to himself.
In the meantime, I’m sharing some of his creations with you, dear readers, and if you have any ideas about where Adin can share his sandcastle creations, or what he could do with such skills, pass ‘em on. I’ll be discreet.
Nostalgia Sunday – Kikar Atarim: What’s up with that?
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Travel
I have family visiting Israel this week and they are staying at a very nice hotel in Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, like most of the nice hotels in Tel Aviv, theirs is located adjacent to a local embarrassment known as Kikar Atarim (Atarim Square, also known as Namir Square). And like most visitors, they are curious as to the origins of this concrete and stone monstrosity whose sole purpose seems to be to block the view and the route to the sea. Oh, and to serve as a giant pissoir.
Google the phrase “kikar atarim” and what you’ll get is a series of items terming it everything from “the single most disappointing and embarrassing tourist attraction in the city” and “[a] prime example[s] of what can kindly be called ‘errors in urban planning’” to “a colossal failure”, “concrete atrocity” and “something I crawled over and got away from as quickly as I could.”
In her Haaretz article, A white elephant from outer space in the heart of Tel Aviv, author Shani Shilo relates that during the first Gulf War, then-Tel Aviv Mayor Shlomo (Cheech) Lahat “remarked that he hoped an Iraqi missile would land on Atarim Square and destroy the thing.” I had it on my Saddam Hussein wish list as well.
The square, built on a cliff leading down to the sea, was designed as a multifunctional structure and tourist attraction by one of Israel’s most dominant architects, Yacov Rechter, as a prime example of Brutalist architecture in Israel. When it opened in the early 1970s, it was very successful for a time: the Kolbo Shalom department store had a branch called “The Drugstore,” modeled after Le Drugstore, (a famous Parisian 60s hangout); people flocked to the Shahaf Cinema and sat in cafes under the concrete mushrooms. Here’s a lovely picture (above) of screenwriter Moshe (Pommy) Hadar and his wife Bella Levin in front of Drugstore Shalom.
In 1978, the municipality changed the name of the square to honor the late Mordechai Namir, who was mayor from 1959 to 1969. But the square had already begun a downwards spiral from which it has yet to emerge.
Tel Aviv lore has it that Kikar Atarim is a sort of No Man’s Land run by shadowy underworld types who take astronomical amounts in protection fees, thus preventing any businesses from being able to sustain, let alone flourish. And, according to Wikipedia (in Hebrew), this is probably true: “Towards the end of the Seventies, it changed entirely. Criminal elements took over the shops and a police station was established on the premises, the stores on the lower levels closed or were turned into gambling clubs. The Kolbo Shalom branch closed and the round structure stood abandoned for a number of years.”
And then, in 1982, Kikar Atarim experienced a sort of revival when the round structure was turned into a disco called the Coliseum (sic). Grace Jones, pop’s original and true diva, performed at the club opening and for years it was the place to go, see, be seen and get picked up. The surrounding area, however, continued to deteriorate to the point that Ora Namir, Ambassador, MK and widow of Mordechai Namir – and no slouch when it came to PR – requested that the municipality disassociate her late husband’s name from the place. And that, children, is how Haifa Road came to be know as Namir Road.
And then came the early Nineties and Mayor Lahat’s pronouncement, so reminiscent of the cry raised by the residents of St. Louis’ Pruitt-Igoe housing complex when asked what action could make their residence habitable. They chanted, “Blow it … up! Blow it … up!”. (The authorities complied).
Unfortunately, the Tel Aviv municipality in 2009 has it harder than that of St. Louis in 1971, mainly because of Kikar Atarim’s umpteen property owners and their descendants who, according to Wikipedia, “are not able to cooperate in maintaining the square. Unlike the malls, the square has no maintenance company and essentially there is no entity that manages or maintains it. The cheap construction materials from which it was built, along with its proximity to the sea, contribute to its accelerated deterioration.”
In 2006, the municipality announced that it would not knock down Kikar Atarim and would redo it instead. Apparently, the repairs were only structural so I put in a couple of nice pictures of that dream. Believe me, it’s now a few days shy of 2010, I just spent a weekend walking and running in, out and round about Kikar Atarim, and the only thing that’s changed is that a few new layers of urine have been added to the stairwells.
The good news is that the Coliseum just reopened! It can no longer lay claim to the title, “The Biggest Disco in the Middle East,” but the refurbishment is nice. Too bad about the neighborhood.
Foto Friday – Footprints
Filed under: Foto Friday, General, Pop Culture, Travel
Sometimes it’s good to take a moment and see Israel from a different vantage point. In summer if you look down, for instance, you’re very likely to see “balatot” — the ubiquitous light limestone floor tile — plus a variety of fun footwear that takes you from work to the beach and back again.
A trip to the Dead Sea affords another type of shoe, suited to mud baths and salt water.
Which is different to what you’d wear to snap some sidewalk graffiti while walking up and down Rothschild Boulevard at Tel Aviv’s Laila Lavan all-night street fair. (This takeoff on the Peace Now logo says “Shalit Now” in reference to captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit).
And sometimes a girl needs to take a rest from those heels at a sidewalk pub (note the Ackerstein paving blocks so typical of Tel Aviv).
A little culture never hurt.
Though these shoes might — especially the price. (Three thousand-plus shekels!)
Thank goodness, at the end of the day, there’s a place to relax on the edge of the Med.
PR woman Efrat Gurman is a consummate media professional who’s made a career out of positioning things differently. She’s a colleague and friend to photographers and in her few spare moments, snaps pictures of her own, mostly of of things that interest her – or that she makes interesting. For more of her “Footprints” series click here.
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