Hanging with Bambi

December 1, 2009 - 9:42 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Environment, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness 

Dead_Sea_Ein_Gedi_2ibex-ppWe headed out today to Nahal David, David Stream, one of the two year-round streams in the Ein Gedi National Park, on the eastern border of the Judean Desert, on the coast of the Dead Sea. The ‘we’ was myself, baby boys, and two friends visiting from overseas, Bruce and his almost-ten-year-old daughter Ronit. The goal of the trip was for Ronit to swim — or float — in the Dead Sea, something she’d been waiting to do. I suggested the add-on activity of Nahal David, since it’s an easy walk (or so I remembered), and has a couple of waterfalls.

It was fairly easy, although it was my first time hoisting and carrying one of my boys on a carrier on my back, and climbing up and down stone-hewn stairs and slippery slopes. What was phenomenal was the wildlife we saw along the way. On our way in, as we tried to slip past the MASSIVE group of high school girls on a school trip, we spotted a few ibex among the trees, or as the teenagers called them, “Bambis.” Funny, those Israelis.

hyrazBut better yet, on our way out, after having frolicked in one of the waterfalls and bypassed the school groups, we came upon a whole family of hyrax, a guinea pig-like creature, all of whom were sitting on large boulders and just staring at us. According to Wikipedia, the word ‘rabbit,’ or ‘hare’ was used instead of ‘hyrax”‘many times in some earlier English Bible translations because European translators of those times had no knowledge of the hyrax (Hebrew שָּׁפָן shafan), and therefore no name for them. There are references to hyraxes in the Old Testament, particularly in Leviticus 11, where they are described correctly as lacking a split hoof and therefore being not kosher. It also details that the hyrax chews its cud, however this observation is due to the habit of the hyrax chewing without having ingested anything, resembling the chewing of cud (the hyraces studied by the Hebrews may have been in captivity). Hyrax tend to make chewing motions when they feel threatened. I would guess that they felt threatened when they were in captivity.

Moving on from the hyrax, we came upon another, well, herd, of ibex, just wandering around, even on the path where we humans were trodding. They’re smaller than deer, although the dads of the herd are bigger, with longer horns and this great ‘goatee’ that would look great on a human (which, hey, is probably why humans have adopted goat hair growth). In Israel, ibex are almost as ubiquitous as deer are in the States, although they don’t wander through our backyards. Even so, I don’t think I’ve ever been this close to one.

Nature. It’s a good thing.

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Foto Friday – Sharon Yaari

January 30, 2009 - 6:01 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, Israeliness 

Was it real or did I dream it? Photography on one hand, can document fact. On the other hand, it creates illusions, presents images without context to leave any narrative up to the observer, or records people, places, and things that have passed. By its very nature, photographs are short-lived, comprised of fragile paper, film, or – worse yet – digital data that will disappear forever with one good wave of a magnet.

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SharonYaari is an award winning photographer whose work has long dealt with the temporal. His new solo show “Jerusalem Boulevard” now at the Sommer Gallery in Tel Aviv are large-format photos of things readily identifiable as part of daily life in Israel: a checkered blanket of the kind that everyone used to have (we called them “sochnut blankets” when I made aliya, because the Jewish Agency distributed them to new immigrants); a classic semicircular Tel Aviv Bauhaus balcony; Ibex lying under a eucalyptus tree; a chair and some flowers; a woman at what is clearly (for Israelis) a memorial site.

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They are at once familiar and at the same time, raise questions on a practical level: Do they make those blankets any more? Aren’t the Ibex in danger of extinction? Will the Bauhaus structures, whose architectural philosophy never intended them to stand forever, survive urban pollution? Is that woman from the Twenties? The Forties? The Eighties? Now?

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They also raise questions on an existential level… does everything fade and die as undoubtedly these flowers did long ago?

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“Jerusalem Boulevard” will be at the Sommer Gallery through March 21st.

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