The Ramadan way
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, Food, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Religion
Speaking of Ramadan, I was having an interesting conversation about Ramadan with our butcher, Suleiman, over at SuperDeal in Baka. He was telling me that he leaves early for his home in Abu Tor most days of Ramadan, except for Thursday, when he cuts up many chickens for those preparing for Shabbat. He’s not the most religious Moslem, he admitted, and doesn’t head to prayers when he does go home early during the days of Ramadan. In fact, while his mother and wife spend “hours in the kitchen preparing all kind of complicated cooked dishes”, such as chicken or meat and rice, dozens of salads, decadent fruit trays, baklava, and all the other parts of these elaborate Iftar meals that come after sunset, he often prefers to steal outside and grab some chummous and falafel.
“That just suits me better after a long day of fasting,” says Suleiman. Not surprising, really, when I think about what I like to eat after a fast. I’m kind of an old Jewish man myself at those moments, loving nothing more than a shot of Scotch and some herring for my first taste of food. Then some eggs, a bagel perhaps, and a glass of OJ and I’m back to myself.
In any case, my conversation with Suleiman took me in a different direction for another story, about Ramadan observance and accommodation in Israel, for JTA. Read it here, and let me know if you’ve had your own Ramadan experiences.
Edgy thespian workshop
Run by Tel Aviv University’s prestigious Theater Department, the SmallStage festival kicks its seventh year of operations off this Sunday for five days of fringe drama performances.
The festival is constituted of productions headed by those studying in or otherwise associated with the department, which is the country’s largest and arguably most respected drama program. Many of its alumni have moved on to become among the elite in Israeli theater and entertainment, including the festival’s founder, Lilach Dekel-Avneri, who now works with the Tmuna troupe.
Including staged plays as well as off-stage dramatic “happenings,” the festival itself maintains a decidedly fringe vibe thanks to the hunger and integrity of its participants, but also thanks to strict guidelines that all shows stick to low spending budgets, high standards of edgy creativity and a crisp 50-minute duration ceiling.
This year’s festival has been largely conceived by artistic director Liron Libskind, currently working on his master’s degree in theater. Among the intriguing performance titles are Three Small Silences (pictured), She and Birdman.
Israeli Emmys
Now Israel can boast about a new kind of successful export after “In Treatment,” based on the Israeli series “B’tipul,” took home two Emmy awards on Sunday.
The popular psychodrama series scored Emmys for actress Dianne Wiest, who won the award for best supporting actress in a drama series, and Glynn Turman received the Emmy for guest actor in a drama series.
“B’tipul,” which follows a psychoanalyst through his week, was created by Hagai Levi, who is now one of the executive producers of “In Treatment.”
The role of the therapist in “In Treatment” is played by Gabriel Byrne, while Israeli actor Assi Dayan (yes, the son of general and the black eye patch-wearing Moshe Dayan) played the role in the Israeli series. Wiest’s role was played by Israeli grande dame Gila Almagor in “B’tipul.”
The two Emmys are definitely a coup for Israeli television, and, as Israeli producer Zafrir Kohonofsky commented to me recently, perhaps a new version of Zionism, as this kind of exported culture allows Israel to show what life is really like over here.
I’m not sure “In Treatment” can do that, as the American version is an Americanized take on an Israeli concept. But one of Kohonofsky’s shows, “A Touch Away,” also recently purchased for American development by HBO, is a Romeo and Juliet story dealing with the relationships between a Russian immigrant family and an ultra-Orthodox one living in the same apartment building in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak.
Kohonofsky told Ynet “certain changes” in the show’s original format “will naturally be made… but ultimately the American version will be very similar to its original counterpart.”
Those changes will remain to be seen, but I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with Bnei Brak.
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