Nostalgia Sunday – Shana Tova postcards
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Holidays, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture
This year, the Israel Postal Company has launched a campaign urging people to send New Year greetings by mail. “Bring back the excitement,” exhorts the leaflet stuffed in our mailbox (inserted by hand and not by mail, I should note). “Facebook, MMS, SMS – they’re not personal. It’s no longer exciting. Now more than ever in the digital age, let’s return to the hand-written postal greeting card. For personal attention and creative expression.”
The brochure comes with a postcard attached and instructions: “Detach this greeting card, write a moving greeting, stick on a stamp and send to your loved ones.” I found the last two steps particularly amusing. Apparently people no longer know how to do this.
The Postal Company has also designed a set of five postcards inspired by the era of good old fashioned snail mail. (Classic examples from previous Israelity postings can be viewed here and here). They’re available for purchase at post offices and agencies in Israel or online through their Hebrew and English-language websites. Each one contains a different New Year’s greeting. For example: May You Be Inscribed and Sealed for A Good New Year:
A Year of Flourishing and Prosperity:
A Good and Sweet New Year!
All of this and more do I wish for Israelity’s readers: a year of happiness, prosperity and above all, good health. Shana Tova!
Foto Friday – Miss Kaplan Loves Tel Aviv
Filed under: Art, design, Foto Friday, General, Holidays, Life, Picture of the Week, Pop Culture, Profiles, Travel
Natalie Kaplan sees things a little differently. Given that she’s an cartoon series scriptwriter, it’s only right that she has the ability to animate found objects and imbue each one with life, history and — through their titles — humor.
Happy Face
Working under the nom de plume Miss Kaplan, she wanders the streets of Tel Aviv, seeking and finding vignettes she likes. Or loves. “I fell in love,” she writes, “with that wooden wall. and i fell in love with the backyard of that wooden wall.”
I Fell In Love
Tu B’Av, the so-called “Jewish Valentine’s Day”, seems the perfect time for celebrating the love Miss Kaplan sees all around in Tel Aviv. Sometimes it’s right in front of you…
Lovely Mailboxes
Sometimes it needs to be coaxed out gently… She calls this one, Will u stop hiding?
But always look on the positive side… this one is called Half Full
And you can find love even in the most unexpected places. It Touched My Heart, she says.
Read more about Natalie Kaplan at Mint Magazine or visit her Flickr photostream for more Tel Aviv Magic.
Nostalgia Sunday – Shavuot Spring Harvest
Filed under: Food, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Nostalgia Sunday, Religion
Shavuot – the Feast of Weeks, is a harvest holiday. And over the past century, nowhere was this fact better celebrated than on the kibbutzim. Although these cooperative agricultural settlements were (and are) for the most part, non-religious, this holiday, like its autumn counterpart Sukkot – the Feast of Tabernacles, was a chance to show off their best crops.
Kibbutzim traditionally marked Shavuot with a parade and a pageant. In olden days, these were preceded by wagons loaded with produce.
Later on, more modern methods of transport took their place.
And of course, no self-respecting Shavuot celebration would be complete with out the dance of the tractors!
More lovely holiday images from various kibbutz archives are available to view at Wikimedia Commons. Happy holiday, everyone — and don’t overdo the dairy!
Foto Friday – Israel Independence Day is Coming
Filed under: A New Reality, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Picture of the Week, Pop Culture, Travel
Israel’s 62nd Day of Independence is coming and the country is bedecked with flags.
© Michael Freilich
All over Israel, the holiday will be celebrated with fireworks…
© Dudi.
And more flags…
© RomKri
As the citizenry continues its peculiar custom of showering friends and complete strangers with shaving foam. Well, that’s better than the other custom of hitting one another over the head with squeaky plastic hammers. And no, I’m not kidding about that.
© RomKri
And of course, Independence Day would be nowhere without its most important tradition, the outdoor barbecue!
© Пётр Рогов
Nostalgia Sunday – Pre-state Passover
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Nostalgia Sunday, Travel
Rishon Le-Zion is a fast-growing metropolis and Israel’s fourth-largest city. As home to a newly-opened IKEA — the largest in the Middle East – as well as a dizzying array of malls, mega-markets and movie multiplexes, we sometimes forget the important role Rishon Le-Zion plays in our country’s history as the second Jewish farming settlement.
Fortunately, the municipality of Rishon Le-Zion does remember. It has restored and preserved some of the scenery of its past in a unique open-air museum. Located in some of the oldest buildings of the settlement (the moshava), the exhibits retell the story of the city’s pioneer past and the beginnings of modern Zionism
One permanent exhibit, “Jewish Holidays in the Moshava” is a lovely presentation of domestic life in pre-State Eretz Israel. Many of the first families came from Eastern Europe with fine porcelain place-ware and tea sets. These were not used every day, but were reserved for special occasions and holidays, and handed down from generation to generation.
“Despite difficult living and economic conditions, most [settlers] did not abandon the household customs considered acceptable in their countries of origin,” writes curator Yona Shapira.
Afternoon tea was one such custom. Michael Pohachevsky, who arrived to Rishon in 1886, described being hosted at the home of Berta and Yosef Feinberg (the family is pictured left): “The tea was set in European style, in every detail and feature, and for a moment, it was possible to forget that you were in a young colony just being established in an ancient land.”
In 1890, Haim Hissin described a holiday meal at the Drubin household: “[the table] was set not at all in country style and was set with separate plates, forks and spoons, napkins, wine-glasses, pitchers of water and wine. The courses were, naturally, simple and few but prepared well and served in good taste.”
The exhibit also includes three monogrammed pieces from a set belonging to the Baron Edmond de Rothschild, patron of Rishon Le-Zion and other early settlements.
By the way, the connection between the Passover holiday and Rishon Le-Zion is long-standing as it was for over a century the home of Matzot Rishon Le-Zion. In 2008, in a grand upset for the bread-of-our-affliction sector, the veteran company was purchased by Matzot Yerushalayim.
Although one major industry might have been lost, the city can take heart in the fact that it still headquarters Carmel Wineries, long-time producer of crap sweet wine (what we in Israel call yayin patishim or “hammer wine” because of its effect both on the palate and the brain). And Carmel can take heart in the fact that in the past few years it has shaped up and begun producing some very decent fine wines.
Rishon Le-Zion itself continues to be forward thinking. Take, for example, this video clip produced by the College of Management R&D Institute for Intelligent Robotic Systems, where even the machinery celebrate in style. Here’s wishing a chag sameach to them — and have a happy and kosher one yourselves!
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