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Dead Sea skin

Israel may be bereft of natural resources, a common complaint when talking about water and land — okay, yes, that is a problem — but we do have the Dead Sea…and you can’t beat that combo of minerals.

It seems the Export Institute has realized just how unique our minerals are, and has arranged ‘dozens of meetings’ for a collection of Dead Sea cosmetics companies during a two-day marathon at New York City’s Pennsylvania Hotel. The companies attending include B4U, Biscol, Canaan Chic Cosmetic, InterCosma, Odeyah, Paloma Dead Sea, Sea of Spa – Dead Sea, Spa Cosmetics and Spider Pharm Industries.

The Israel Manufacturers Association has even developed a quality label for genuine Dead Sea products, with the aim of discerning between the original DS cosmetics manufacturers and the frauds, or in more genteel terms, pirate industry. According to sources at the Manufacturers Association, the companies that produce genuine Dead Sea products, such as mud, lotions and creams have to prove that the source of their products is the Dead Sea and not some random body of water…and that it contains the rich combo of minerals that makes the Dead Sea a source of skin rejuvenation and vitality.

If you’re in NYC, check out the Dead Sea folk at the PA Hotel, just through tomorrow. And back home, consider some Dead Sea cream for that dry skin on the heels of your feet. It’ll do the trick.

Foto Friday – Footprints

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.

Unmade in the shade of Masada

Friends from Canada are coming on vacation to Israel for a couple weeks in August. They’re been here many times, but their teenage kids have only visited once before, so they’re going to plan a combination of chilling at the beach with some touring around.

On one of their weekends, they’re going to stay at the youth hostel at the foot of Masada. And on Sunday morning, they’ll awaken bright and early to climb the snakepath up to the top, before ending the day at the nearby Dead Sea.

“Do you want to join us?” they asked recently in an e-mail.

Now, I love Masada and the Dead Sea as much as the next Zionist, but maybe I’ve just been here too long. Never mind that it’s the lowest place on earth – the idea of spending a Shabbat in August at what is likely the hottest place in Israel was not an offer I couldn’t refuse.

I’ll gladly go there in the cooler weather October, or even in January and chance the flash floods. But as far as seeing our Canadian friends while they’re here, I think we’ll stick to a barbecue in our backyard – where the temperature usually doesn’t rise above double digits.

And if it’s clear out, we might even be able to see the Dead Sea.

Foto Friday – Yuval Nadel takes to the air

It’s Passover week. And that means the entire nation of Israel is sitting sweltering in traffic jams as the entire north of the country goes south and the entire south of the country heads north — all in the name of family fun. While they do that, let’s for a moment, take to the air with photographer Yuval Nadel.

Kinneret – Photo by Yuval Nadel

Wadi Ara – Photo by Yuval Nadel

Ramon Crater – Photo by Yuval Nadel

Hefer Valley – Photo by Yuval Nadel

Ramon Crater – Photo by Yuval Nadel

Dead Sea – Photo by Yuval Nadel

And so, we land…
Kilometer 101, Arava – Photo by Yuval Nadel

More photos are available at Yuval Nadel’s website.

A 5-hour vacation at the Dead Sea

I don’t know if they have them where you are, but hotels in Israel have something called ‘Yom Kef’ – fun days. For a usually modest fee, you get to be a guest at the hotel for the day, but without a room.

Having not been away together in ages, and no chance on the horizon, my wife and I identified a quick window yesterday, and scooted an hour down the Dead Sea to the Ein Bokek strip of hotels. We had some discount ticket for the Ganim Hotel, and ‘checked in’ at around 10:30 am.

They give you a ticket for their spa, coupon for cake and cofee in the lounge, and entry to the dining room for a sumptuous buffet lunch. What could be finer? Instead of a room, you get a locker with a key in the changing room, where you can store your stuff, and shower.

The spa included a number of options – two indoor Dead Sea pools, filled with the minerals and aromas we’ve come to know and love; a couple indoor jacuzzis, a decent-sized gym with a number of contraptions, and a huge, Olympic-sized outdoor pool. All the other stuff, like massages, Dead Sea mud treatments, etc.. cost extra.

Most of the other guests – those actually paying to stay in the hotel, and those like us, who parachuted in for the day – were on the other side of 60. And they succeeded in making us feel both young and thin.

After an hour and a half switching back and forth between the Dead Sea pools and the jacuzzi, we layed back in the recliners by the outdoor fresh water pool in the 75 degree Farenheit sun and read for a while, munching on our cake and coffee.

The outdoor pool was a bit nippy for us, but there were some gallant souls doing laps. Instead, we worked up an appetite for lunch by taking a walk along the beach and checking out some of the shopping tourist traps along Ein Bokek.

Naturally, I stuffed myself at lunch, with a number of entrees and salads to gorge on. And by mid-afternoon, we were headed back home, totally relaxed and reinvigorated by our 5-hour vacation.

And it looks like I’ll be headed back there sooner than I thought. When I arrived home, I realized that I still had the key to my locker in my pocket. Big deal, right? However, I had given in my ID card (teudat zehut) to get the key.

So Ganim Hotel, here we come again.

Foto Friday – Down at the Dead Sea with Shmuel Browns

Canadian-Israeli Shmuel Browns is a licensed tour-guide and artist who uses photography to share his love of nature. A recent exhibit, From the Lowest Place on Earth presented images of the Dead Sea, a miraculous body of salt water whose name belies its true nature.

The region – 420 meters below sea level – possesses unique geographical, biological and historical characteristics, and the sea itself is rich in minerals that, coupled with its stark beauty, have made it a center for spa tourism.

So much for the good news. The bad news is that the Dead Sea is dying or, more accurately put, being killed off. It is shrinking at a rate of 1 meter per year as both Israel and Jordan divert the waters flowing into it, leaving huge mud flats with hundreds of sinkholes that lie in the sun like open wounds crusted with salt.

In his artist’s statement, Browns writes: “Even as the world is rapidly changing, as humanity encroaches, these photographs capture nature in a serene moment. The exhibit explores contrast–between wet and dry, water and desert; the contrast between rock and vegetation, and between the broad horizontal expanse of the Dead Sea and the cliffs and mountains that rise vertically above it; the contrast between nature and human industry.”

This surreal moonscape is Dead Sea Works, a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals, a multibillion dollar industry and part of the lifeblood of Israel’s economy. Shutting it down isn’t an option for the immediate future but a comprehensive integrated development plan for the entire region has been proposed by Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME).

Last summer, Browns had the opportunity to show these images of the lowest place on earth in a Katmandu gallery, in the shadow of the highest mountains on earth. The exhibit can be found online on his Facebook page.

From Qumran to Rome

The Dead Sea scrolls have recently become a great excuse for intensifying Israel’s relationship with Italy. The Italians have been in the business of preserving antiquities for far longer than the Zionists, and a team of scientists from the Italian Central Institute for Restoration has been working together with the Israel Antiquities Authority to restore, analyze and maintain the famous Bible fragments.

The scrolls were well-preserved when they sat in clay pots in Qumran’s dry caves for 2000 years, but in the 61 years since their discovery, they’ve undergone some wear and tear – even the Israel Museum’s strange-looking yet high-tech and emblematic Shrine of the Book seems to be a problematic home.

Considered one of the most the most significant archeological finds ever, many of the Dead Sea scrolls have been on tour of the world’s museums over the years (including, among others, the Library of Congress, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and the San Diego Natural History Museum). So when Italian President Giorgio Napolitano came to Israel for a visit last month, to see first-hand how the restoration project is going, he used the opportunity to announce that many Dead Sea scrolls would soon be on display in Rome, telling Israel Antiquities Authority spokespeople, “I am extremely pleased with the cooperation and scientific ties that have been formed between our representatives in Italy and the IAA.”

Coverage of the visit and announcement in the Italian press included an estimate that the Rome exhibit would take place some time in 2009, as well as some good-old Israeli confidence.

”We are sure that the scrolls will arouse great interest in the Italian public,” [IAA spokesman Yoli] Schwartz said, adding that Napolitano had pledged to be ”the first visitor” to the show.

Photo of Napolitano examining a scroll that mentions the Ten Commandments courtesy of Clara Amit for the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Low-riding bike race

Awareness over the plight of the rapidly receding Dead Sea has thankfully been growing, and Israeli culture’s dedication towards cycling has too. Put the two trends together, and the time is ripe for the Tour de Dead Sea, a day-long bike event taking place this Saturday at the lowest pace on earth. The many versions of the race on offer through the event include road trails of 55 and 124 kilometers in length and off-road trails of 5, 16 and 42 kilometers in length.

Thanks to the event’s association with the International Cycling Union’s Golden Bike organization (which, among other roles, points the word’s most hardcore cyclists towards what they call the “best races in the world”), the Tour de Dead Sea is expected to attract over 1000 participants from many nations, including Jordan – Israel’s neighbor with which she shares the Dead Sea’s shores. Proceeds will go to efforts to save the Dead Sea.

Mid-winter is a slightly odd time to have chosen for such an event, but not just from a comfort perspective. When the winter rains come to Israel, much of the water that falls in the center of the country rolls downhill through a system of wadis (rivers that are dry for most of the year) towards the Dead Sea, making for flash floods and road closures. Tour de Dead Sea planners have, however, kept these conditions in mind, stating that even though it’s a rain-or-shine event, if the forecast calls for danger, they’ll postpone.

While ecologists will certainly be rooting for precipitation, the event’s participants and their loved ones may not, what with the array of activities on offer all day long. These include seminars on saving nature, musical instrument invention workshops, a bazaar selling fashion and cycling accessories, concerts, a group mud smear, back and muscle pain treatments (sponsored by organizations like No Pain and Way of the Back), and camping out on Kalia Beach – all free to participating cyclists and their families.

Strategic Solution�s Floating Gas Pipes Could Avert Red-Dead Environmental Catastrophe

Those who have been following the Red-Dead canal proposal, and all its controversies, know that a lot is at stake. The Dead Sea is dying because natural estuaries, such as the Jordan River, Ein Gedi bottled spring water and rainwater are not making it to its shores. Politicians think that by carving a tunnel from the Red Sea all the way to the Dead Sea, Dead Sea water can be restocked easily and plentifully. Calling it the Peace Canal, they don�t consider the impact of such water as it passes through the desert landscape.

An Israeli company �Strategic Solutions� has announced a new technology that can transport seawater from the Med Sea to Dead Sea, using floating pipes filled partially with natural gas. According to the company, �this is a viable alternative to the canal/pipeline which is an ecological disaster but which has the backing of Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and World Bank. With this new technology it can be done cheaper, safer without impacting on the environment.�

Besides the vast distance, over 200 km of the Red to Dead Sea vs. 70 km Med to Dead Sea, the main obstacle is environmental. This entire route is on an earthquake fault and it is inevitable that earthquakes will cause fissures and the salt water will destroy the freshwater aquifer as well as making the soil even more salty so that agriculture will be foreclosed. The sea spray will kill wildlife and plant life.

They write Green Prophet where this post is x-posted from: �If, because of political or financial constraints, this is the only route to be considered, the only way for this to be viable is for the waterway to NOT be in canals/tunnels or pipelines on the ground, but rather the sea water must be enclosed and transported over the ground, in an aerial pipeline.

The Israeli scientists at Strategic Solutions designed a delivery system of natural gas and liquids, be it water, oil, or petroleum products. It is based on a very simple fact: natural gas is lighter than air.

Hope floats, we hope

Like with helium, fill a balloon with natural gas, it will float, the bigger the balloon, the stronger the pressure to rise. If the balloon is very tall, there will be stronger pressure to rise. If you put this very tall balloon on the side so that on one side the gas is coming in and the other end some is coming out, the middle will rise.

The fluids need to be pumped up, but travels by gradient like your drain pipes in your house. Using this aerial pipeline, natural gas can be delivered from isolated gas wells to industrial centers that need it. It can also deliver water to isolated regions that need it. It can deliver both simultaneously so that desalination can occur at point of need as there is also sufficient fuel, natural gas.

Viable energy production
Or the water falling can generate hydro-electricity and the desalination can be by one of the company�s cleantech solar desalination methods. This presents a viable alternative to the Red to Dead Sea canal/pipeline touted by Shimon Peres and backed by the World Bank, they write.

We�d love to see some illustrations of how this would work/look. And can just imagine Israeli kids using the pipes for target practice. Let�s wait and see.

Israelis like solutions that float. See Geotectura�s solar energy balloons in Solar Energy Hope Floats.

(Above illustration comes from New York-based architect Phu Hoang Office who seeks to address and solve Dead Sea issues with �No Man�s Land,� a series of artificial islands that would provide recreation, tourist attractions, renewable energy, and create fresh water. Via Inhabitat)

Shalom, Merry Christmas

You won’t be able to avoid them if you’re shopping in a US mall for the holidays. No, I don’t mean the Salvation Army folks… but the Israeli salespeople.

Sure, young Israelis, fresh out of the army, are manning those middle of the mall kiosks year round, selling Dead Sea products, and a whole lot more. But around the holiday times, their presence becomes… well, to put it politely, a little more forceful.

The Wall Street Journal picked up on the trend and ran this sordid expose a couple days ago

At malls across the country, shoppers are being besieged by a determined crop of salespeople: young Israelis who man mobile carts and have a no-holds-barred selling style.
Amid the grimmest holiday season in years, these workers are approaching passing mall shoppers or calling out from their stations, pitching body lotions, irons, toys and knickknacks.

They demonstrate their wares by flying remote-control helicopters, steaming shirts and applying makeup. Instead of charging American-style fixed prices, they harness the culture of the bazaar and often quote numbers based on what they think a customer will be willing to pay.

It’s a far cry from the selling style of many of their fellow cart vendors who tend to be more passive and let customers come to them.

Actually, it’s a refreshing change from the cookie-cutter ‘have a good day’ Barbie mentality one usually finds in Middle America commerce. And for the kids, it’s a pretty sweet deal, if you’re willing to work hard and don’t mind some Israeli-style balagan.

My daughter spent her six months prior to beginning her IDF service serving the public in a suburban mall near Indianapolis by selling Dead Sea creams and lotions. She lived in a crammed condo with six or ten other Israelis, sort of like a kibbutz dorm situation, worked all the time, made big bucks, and kept those Hoosiers glistening in fresh, creamy skin.

So, if you’re in America and headed out to the malls for some Christmas bargains, don’t forget to give the first Israeli you meet a big smile and hug. They’re a long ways from home.

 

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