The 12th day of Hanukka
Filed under: A New Reality, education, Entertainment, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Music, Pop Culture, Religion
I know, Hanukka is over, but here’s one more reminder of what fun it’s supposed to be.
A group of students who are studying in Israel at the Ein Prat Israel Academy for Leadership in Kfar Adumim decided to create their own Hanukka spiel – and recorded a video of the Black Eyed Peas song “I’ve Got a Feeling,” with a few appropriate changes for the Festival of Lights.
The clip by the American students, dubbed the Ein Prat Fountainheads, hasn’t received the same attention as the similar YouTube Hanukka tribute by the Maccabeats, the Yeshiva U a capella group, but it’s not bad.
“We wanted to come together to do a little project for Hanukka as a way of getting together to have fun, and as a way of brightening up the holiday for everybody else by putting it on the Web,” student leader Aaron Rotenberg told The Jerusalem Post.
The Ein Prat Academy where Rotenberg studies claims on its Web page to seek students who “aspire to become people who seek excellence in all aspects of their life – body, mind and soul. These young men and women are looking to develop into citizens who strive for a better Israeli society, a more advanced Jewish world, and a richer education for themselves and for others.”
Their Hanukka video isn’t a bad start.
An Israeli shout out from Glee
Filed under: A New Reality, Entertainment, General, Israeliness, Medical Breakthroughs, Pop Culture, Technology, tv
The Christmas episode of the popular American TV series Glee that aired in the US Wednesday night also featured a gift to Israel on the last night of Hanukka.
Artie, a character confined to a wheelchair, took a few halting steps with the help of a machine called the ReWalk.
“It was invented by some guy in Israel,” he said, before using the ReWalk and crutches to move across the floor.
And, indeed, as ISRAEL21c reported in 2008, the ReWalk isnt’ some television fantasy. It’s made by a Haifa-based company, Argo Medical Technologies, that, according to its website, “develops and markets walk restoration devices for people with lower limb disabilities. The company’s flagship ReWalk product offers an ambulation alternative to wheelchair users, enabling paralyzed people to stand, walk and even climb stairs.”
Argo’s ReWalk system enables wheelchair users to stand and walk upright. The device was developed by Dr. Amit Goffer, an electrical engineer who was paralyzed in an auto accident. He developed the prototype at home, and then set up the company to take it commercial.
The 21c article about the ReWalk shot the company to worldwide attention, and since then, has been filmed by 12 TV networks around the world, including CNN. It has also featured in dozens of newspapers, from The Washington Post, to The Teheran Times.
The ReWalk was recently approved in the US for institutional use by the Food and Drug Administration which means that hospitals and rehab centers will be able to purchase the device, starting early next year.
When comedian Paul Reiser visited Israel last year, he and his family went to see the company. “A friend showed me the article and it looked like such a cool technology,” he said. “It looks like some cool Robocop mechanism. It’s a tremendous innovation and a remarkable piece of technology. It’s amazing to see such a cool innovation with fabulous commercial potential coming out of this tiny little office with just a handful of guys.”
Now, that’s something to sing about.
Under the sea in Tel Aviv
Filed under: A New Reality, Entertainment, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Pop Culture
Taking a child to one of the plethora of special Hanukka musicals and stage shows that are featured every year is wrought with dangers.
First of all, you have hundreds of screaming kids letting out their pent up energy during the week-long Hanukka vacation from school. Then there’s the gum that’s likely to end up everywhere from your shoes to your hair. The traffic in Tel Aviv, where most of the shows are staged, is terrible and the parking is expensive. But…
…But the shows, at least the show my young son and I saw, was marvelous. It was a Hebrew adaptation of the fabled Disney hit The Little Mermaid (in Hebrew Bat Yam Hak’tana), and if historically, kids’ Hanukka shows were cheesy, semi-professional and instantly forgettable, then this was the anti-show.
All stops were pulled out – choreography, costumes, a costly film/stage integration to invoke the sea, and the acting were all top notch. The local production, headed by director Moshe Kaftan and choreographer Oz Morag, did Disney proud, as did the cast led by actors Guy Zoaretz (Munich, Tipul Nimratz) as Prince Eric and children’s video star Rinat Gabbai as Ariel.
Rather than playing down to the young audience, the Israeli version of The Little Mermaid subscribed to the theory that children deserve top quality entertainment as much as adults. And funnily enough, adults enjoyed the show as much as children.
Brothers in arms against the fire
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, Environment, General, Israeliness, Life, News, Politics
Members of the Bulgarian fire fighting delegation arrive in the Carmel. (Photo: Ben Hartman)
But maybe there is a silver lining in the national disaster that has befallen us – the result, it seems of the carelessness of two teens who didn’t smother their bonfire.
I’m talking about the willingness of our global neighbors – near like Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority; regional like Greece, Cyprus and Turkey; and those as far as Russia, Bulgaria, France, Italy, England and the US – to send supplies and forces to help our country in its hour of need is a heartwarming eye-opener.
On the one hand, there shouldn’t be any surprise at the offers of aid – it’s a natural reaction that should be taken for granted. Human life is in danger, so you help, regardless of your geopolitical differences.
On the other hand, we’ve been conditioned over the years to be paranoid, whether it’s justified or not. The world is against us, and if a government utters a pro-Palestinian statement, it means they’re either at best anti-Semitic or at worst seeking Israel’s destruction.
An example of our national obsession with connecting everything to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the unfounded rumors that spread almost as fast as the flames that the fire was the result of arson perpetrated by everyone from al-Qaida to Hamas.
Those suspicious pro-Israel advocates who see an enemy around every corner must have been shocked that such “cold peace” friends like Egypt and Turkey have done the right thing and mobilized for a neighbor. Even the Palestinian Authority, our closest neighbors and those whom we are most at odds with, sent fire trucks to Taibe and Barta’a, two Arab villages in the Galilee. It’s almost as satisfying as them recognizing Israel as the Jewish homeland.
Of course, it’s reasonable to assume that this show of solidarity will have no bearing on future relations with Turkey or our ability to negotiate with the Palestinians. But who knows? Maybe it will.
Listening to reports of firefighters from Bulgaria and Greece standing shoulder to shoulder with our exhausted men, barely unable to communicate beyond a shared goal of containing the killer blaze, was indeed an example of the spirit of the global community in practice, not just in theory.
It’s a clear illustration – far beyond Israel’s participation in the Olympics or in the Eurovision song contest – that, despite the bitter divide over the future of the land we are destined to share with the Palestinians, we are an accepted member of the family of nations. It’s too bad it took such a monumental tragedy for that to be revealed.
Foto Friday – Hanukkah in Jerusalem
Filed under: Foto Friday, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, Travel
Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, starts tonight with the lighting of the first candle on the hannukiya – the seven-branched menorah. Jerusalemites have a tradition of lighting oil based hannukiyot encased in glass boxes against the wind. It is a beautiful sight.
© pmos_nmos
Of course, it is more dramatic when lit up at night!
© RomKri
© RomKri
Hanukkah this year fell on a chilly Friday but despite the foreboding clouds it felt like the city was settling into a holiday mood, with young couples taking their babies out for a stroll at the new Mamilla Mall and overwhelming demand for sufganiyot at the Roladin bakery-cafe.
Both Nicky and David have blogged about the caloric and nutritional disaster that is our local holiday fare, so I will only add that Roladin has, for several years now, taken up the mantle of master sufganiya baker. They’ve created a whole series of so-called gourmet doughnut delights – the “Hanukkah Collection 2009″ – ranging from pistachio and banana to dulce de leche as well as the traditional red mystery jam. They’ve also devised a gaily decorated long square box for easy transport.
This week’s photos of Hanukkah in Jerusalem are courtesy of the wonderful Jerusalem Shots site. I should note that, as I do each time before sitting down to write the holiday column, I tried to figure out the current spelling of the Festival of Lights’ name, this time putting Google on the case with the following results: Hanukkah – 1,920,000 hits; Chanuka – 222,000; Hanuka – 219,000; Hannukah – 141,000 ; Channukah – 129,000; Chanukka – 71,800; Hannuka – 66,100. So, (although it’s not spelled as it was when I was a girl) — Hanukkah wins.
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