No standing on ceremony here

February 19, 2011 - 6:41 PM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life 

We headed down south to Dimona this week for an army ceremony for our daughter who finished up a four-month commanders’ course.

I don’t think I’ve been in Dimona, about a half hour from the Beersheba, the nearest city, more than once in the 25 years I’ve been in Israel. Entering the nondescript town, our task was to find ‘the soccer stadium’. And following most of the cars in front of us, we located it on the other side of town pretty quickly.

Hundreds of vehicles were already lined up in the dirt parking lot, and the ‘stadium’ was little more than a crumbling concrete wall surrounding a soccer field, with one section of bleachers.

Maybe because the ceremony for the some 300 soldiers graduating from the commanders’ course was taking place in a soccer field, the mood among the spectators and family was somewhat less solemn than previous IDF landmark ceremonies we’ve attended. It was almost like attending a… soccer game!

Some soldiers had cheering sections with signs and megaphones they would use to should out their loved one’s nickname. All fine and in good spirits, except they were doing this in the middle of speeches by decorated generals and during roll calls for awards given for exemplary service by soldiers in the course.

Standing behind the cyclone fence generally used to keep hooligans off the soccer field, we even had to turn and ‘shhhh’ the neighbors more than once, exposing our genteel, Anglo allegiance to decorum.

Thankfully, the ceremony, like most in the IDF, was so short that our blood was only halfway to boiling before it was over and everyone crowded onto the field to find their special soldier. We can stand a little Israeli obnoxiousness, realizing that the recipients of the calls and cheers were kids our daughter’s age who had also just gone through the rigorous travails to become a commander.

As one father, who a minute before had been yelling out his son’s name at some inopportune time, told some other soldier’s mother who had muttered out loud that she couldn’t see where her son was lined up: “It doesn’t really matter. They’re all our children.”

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Nostalgia Sunday – On the street where you lived…

July 19, 2009 - 4:00 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: design, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Nostalgia Sunday, Travel 

Today I visited all the houses where I’ve ever lived in Israel. Almost — I’ll get to that in a minute. Thanks to Zoomap.co.il, which has been photographing the city streets and each and every building in Israel, you too can take a look at your old digs and check up on how badly the place has continued to deteriorate since you yourself lived under its leaky roof.

For example, the apartment building near trendy Sheinkin Streeet in Tel Aviv where I don’t live anymore. Don’t be put off by the disgusting facade. Location is everything.
Ahad Haam 134 Tel Aviv

And then the place in glorious north Tel Aviv, off HaYarkon Park, where I moved to escape trendiness and find parking.
Brandeis 49 Tel Aviv

And the place after that — not a great apartment — but still right on the park.
Kosovsky 32-Bavli 44

I started to get hooked on finding a picture of every place I’d ever lived here. That’s when I found out that Zoomap also has its flaws: this is a picture of the building in front of the Jerusalem building where my family lived in 1973-4. You can see our building peeking out on the left-hand side. Apparently the Zoomap folk were too tuckered out to walk up the hill to take pictures of the cul-de-sac.
Tschernichovsky_3not3A

But I got back on track with this picture of my grandmother’s old apartment which was Party Central for several years in the early 80s.
Kovshei_Katamon_11_Jerusalem

I could not find an address for the Hadassah Youth Center on Mt. Scopus and so could not do a search for a picture — another failing of Zoomap is that, like GPS, it doesn’t recognize institutions, only addresses — but I’m pretty sure this is the immigrant absorption center in Dimona where Young Judaea parked us for a few months om 1979. Again, the dowdy appearance is deceiving; the Black Hebrews were also living there at the time, which made it kind of cool.
dimona

And this is where I live now! Back to Jerusalem, just up the street from grandma’s old apartment. Life is funny.
nili_Jerusalem

Google Earth doesn’t get down to building resolution for Israel so use Zoomap to take a trip down memory lane. Or purchase some real estate. It’s part of Bezeq’s 144 directory assistance site which is now translated into English. Happy trails!

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Dimona brings the soul

March 3, 2009 - 8:49 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Music, Pop Culture 

Soul Messages from DimonaI’m an avid fan of Sound Opinions – the world’s only rock and roll talk show – hosted by the rock critics from the Chicago Sun Times and Chicago Tribune. Their show runs the gamut – they cover the latest pop trends, industry news, desert island discs, interview current artists and dissect the classics. It’s a rock and roll geek’s perfect hour of radio. I’m a few weeks behind and the show I listened to today on my way to Jerusalem was a gem. They interviewed the founders of the Numero Group, a Chicago-based label who hunt down and reissue obscure albums that never got the audience they deserved. They focused primarily on soul and I was seriously digging the interview as well as the music. There was something about the feel of the tunes that matched the gloomy weather as well as my gloomy mood. I was in the zone. I was feeling it. And then BAM, my ears perk up when they mention “Soul Messages from Dimona,” an obscure compilation that was released in the late seventies. The Black Hebrews, a group of African-Americans who moved en masse to Israel in the seventies, have been supporting their community in Dimona for years with profits from their music. I must have been at least a dozen weddings where members of their community have performed and have seen other performances elsewhere but I had absolutely no idea that this album existed. It’s something special. It’s an incredible amalgamation of funk, soul, gospel, and a smidgen of psychedelia. The music blogosphere has universally praised it and the always biting and not too generous pitchforkmedia gave it a very rare high rating. This is a *must buy* for all fans of soul and an interesting part of Israeli history. And here I thought I knew everything about this country.

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Whose Mother?

May 25, 2008 - 12:00 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Blogging, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Travel 

Katrina Yellow of The mad bad and crazee life of me (that’s not a blog title; that’s a book chapter!) traveled to Israel’s desert for a bit of R&R prior to giving birth.

1) Honey you’ll need it. SLEEP WHILE YOU CAN!!! (consider yourself warned)

2) Katrina & travel partner-in-crime Bob came across this sign in Israel’s Dimona’s Desert outskirts.

What was that about Israel and subtlety? Oops. Wrong country. My bad.

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