Nostalgia Sunday – Blue Box Redux
Filed under: Environment, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Pop Culture
Here’s a fun fact: Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with more trees than it had at the beginning of the 20th century. For years, tree-planting in Israel was synonymous with the Jewish National Fund, which itself was synonymous with the small blue coin collection tin. Some of these are now on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, as part of an exhibit entitled The Map of Israel as Illustration, Artwork, and Icon.
The exhibit, curated by Orna Granot, looks at the map not in geopolitical terms but as a graphic element used “to increase the viewer’s familiarity with the land [of Israel] and to strengthen love of the land in experiential, educational, and aesthetic ways”.
Etzleinu be-Khitah Alef (In Our First Grade) by Shlomo Kadesh, Illustrations: Shlomo Cohen; Ever Publishers, Jerusalem, 1952. Courtesy of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Of course, the Blue Box is a wonderful icon in itself. So much so that Keren Kayemet-JNF, has re-launched the beloved “pushke” after a 30-year absence. This time though, says KKL-JNF world chairman Efi Stenzler, rather than land acquisition, the coins collected will go to furthering Israeli environmental conservation projects. As part of the relaunch, Stenzler has been distributing Blue Boxes to dignitaries of note, including Pope Benedict XVI, who plans to visit Israel in May.
Given the season – political, not meteorological – Israeli party candidates have been also been getting on the KKL-JNF bandwagon. Benjamin Netanyahu today planted one of 7 million saplings KKL-JNF has planned for the next several years. And here’s Ehud Barak with his 2009 model pushke.
The KKL-JNF website has a lovely timeline of Blue Boxes throughout history – it’s in Hebrew only but definitely worth a look.
It’s also a good opportunity to plant a tree in honor of Tu B’Shvat and to take a moment to consider Israel’s green future and how to best “strengthen love of the land”.
From Qumran to Rome
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Politics, Religion
The Dead Sea scrolls have recently become a great excuse for intensifying Israel’s relationship with Italy. The Italians have been in the business of preserving antiquities for far longer than the Zionists, and a team of scientists from the Italian Central Institute for Restoration has been working together with the Israel Antiquities Authority to restore, analyze and maintain the famous Bible fragments.
The scrolls were well-preserved when they sat in clay pots in Qumran’s dry caves for 2000 years, but in the 61 years since their discovery, they’ve undergone some wear and tear – even the Israel Museum’s strange-looking yet high-tech and emblematic Shrine of the Book seems to be a problematic home.
Considered one of the most the most significant archeological finds ever, many of the Dead Sea scrolls have been on tour of the world’s museums over the years (including, among others, the Library of Congress, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and the San Diego Natural History Museum). So when Italian President Giorgio Napolitano came to Israel for a visit last month, to see first-hand how the restoration project is going, he used the opportunity to announce that many Dead Sea scrolls would soon be on display in Rome, telling Israel Antiquities Authority spokespeople, “I am extremely pleased with the cooperation and scientific ties that have been formed between our representatives in Italy and the IAA.”
Coverage of the visit and announcement in the Italian press included an estimate that the Rome exhibit would take place some time in 2009, as well as some good-old Israeli confidence.
”We are sure that the scrolls will arouse great interest in the Italian public,” [IAA spokesman Yoli] Schwartz said, adding that Napolitano had pledged to be ”the first visitor” to the show.
Photo of Napolitano examining a scroll that mentions the Ten Commandments courtesy of Clara Amit for the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Miraculous space pulp
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, General, History and Culture, Technology
Curators at the Israel Museum have worked in conjunction with Israel’s State Archives to sort through millions of archived documents and are now presenting a special exhibition entitled “Blue and White Pages: Documenting the History of Israel,” opening two days from now and closing February 7, 2009.
In celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary, most of the documents on display at the exhibit are available for viewing by the general public for the first time ever. Some of the highlights include the blood-stained copy of “A Song to Peace” lyrics found in Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s pocket on the night of his assassination, Israel’s original Declaration of Independence and peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan.
But perhaps the piece de resistance is two pages restored from the remains of a journal kept by Ilan Ramon while in space. Israel’s first-ever astronaut, Ramon and his co-crew members died when the Columbia fell apart while attempting to land on earth on February 1, 2003. Remains of his diary, which fell several miles to the ground, were found two months later in a field in Palestine, Texas. Years of restoration by the Museum’s Paper Conservation Laboratory yielded 37 rescued pages, most of which are being kept private as per the requests of Ramon’s family.
The Jerusalem Post has this to add:
A little over two months after the shuttle explosion, NASA searchers found 37 pages from Ramon’s diary, wet and crumpled, in a field just outside the US town of Palestine, Texas. The diary survived extreme heat in the explosion, extreme atmospheric cold, and then “was attacked by microorganisms and insects” in the field where it fell, said museum curator Yigal Zalmona.
“It’s almost a miracle that it survived it’s incredible,” Zalmona said. There is “no rational explanation” for how it was recovered when most of the shuttle was not, he said.
According to a statement released by the Museum’s spokespeople, the two pages on display “include Ramon’s description of the experience of life in space and a handwritten copy of the Kiddush, the Jewish blessing over wine, intended for use in live transmission while on board the Columbia spacecraft.” Read more
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