Watching Big Brother

February 15, 2011 - 11:15 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Entertainment, General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, tv 

Reality show fever is as big in Israel as it is in the US. Local versions of hit shows like A Star is Born (American Idol) and Dancing with the Stars, and especially (Ach Gadol) Big Brother, are among the top rated attractions on TV, telling you something about the need for escapism in our society.

Another biggie is the Israeli version of Beauty and the Geek (Hayefeh v’hanoun) which pairs comely young women with nerdy young men. Yesterday in our local mall, the producers staged an audition day where local residents aspiring to become cast members for next year’s third season could fill out an application, give a video audition and have a few minutes to impress the panel from the program.

A crowd of pre-teens and youth showed up to jostle for position outside the empty storefront that use to house Tower Records before it closed last monght. They were hoping for a glimpse of the would-be stars who arrived to audition, however they far outnumbered the actual contestants who had either the courage or the foolhardiness to enter the store and fill out the application.

Those that did were mostly female, with some sex appeal, and earnest expectations of being chosen for the show. While the handful of guys who showed up seemed like they were doing it as a good, very un-nerdlike.

Neither the male nor female applicants seemed like they had much to say, and are probably a good indicator of the audience who watches the show. As an interviewee last week on TV said who was being asked why Israelis weren’t amassing in the streets to protest rising prices in gas, water, bread and other basic neccessities, “We’re so stupid. We’re all inside watching Big Brother.”

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Jesse James meets the Hebrew Anvil

February 7, 2011 - 12:09 PM by · 4 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, education, General, Life, Pop Culture, Travel, tv 

We have notorious US gossip column fodder Jesse James – the West Coast Chopper CEO – to thank for revealing to the world that Israel is home to one of the world’s greatest blacksmiths – who knew?

The bike enthusiast – whose scandalous past includes a tabloid-filled marriage to actress Sandra Bullock that ended in divorce after his serial cheating became known, and an anti-Semitic trait powered by a passion for Nazi paraphernalia – evidently like the Jewish people enough to fly to Israel recently to learn at the feet of blacksmitch Uri Hofi.

Images of James in questionable poses – ranging from sporting a Nazi hat to smiling in a convertible next to a man in a Nazi hat flashing the “Heil Hitler” sign to holding a smiling caricature of Adolph Hitler – have surfaced over the years. However, apparently James had no qualms about learning at the Jewish altar of Hofi.

Hofi, whose shop is set up at Kibbutz Ein Shemer near Hadera, evidently guided James on how rebuild the a rare Harley – a 1937 Drake water-cooled knucklehead – for a new show to be broadcast on the History Channel called Jesse James Blacksmith.

Hofi founded The Forge, his smithery at Ein Shemer in 1987, consisting
of a workshop specializing in blacksmithing tools and a school teaching the art of blacksmithing. He later founded the Hofi Forging School in 1992 and has taught around the world.

According to his web site, Hofi has developed and manufactured special balanced hand hammers and anvils, tools that help follow the forging theories he developed which help to achieve the right design with minimal effort and damage to the body.

According to a blog posting by Tani Zarelli who met with Hofi, James first came to Israel over a year ago, when he was still married to Bullock.

He contacted Uri in Israel and asked to come and be personally trained. Uri gave him the agenda and cost. Then Mr. James says he’s bringing a camera guy and soundman. Uri says “that’s going to cost you a hell of a lot of money” he replies, ‘Money is not a problem.’

James came to Israel and spent one week and Uri taught him basic blacksmithing, one on one. After the classes were finished, he asks Uri ‘what do you need?’ He wanted to send something from the states. Uri didn’t need anything, as he had said earlier, he doesn’t ask for anything. After much pressure, Uri finally says, his granddaughter is a big fan of your wife Sandra Bullock, could you send her an autographed photo? After more pressure, Uri says, I could use some Prisma Verithin pencils in Metallic Silver #753 as they are very hard to get.

Hopefully, after being exposed to the Hebrew Anvil of Uri Hofi, James has put his anti-Semitic tendencies away, and he’ll soon be touting the virtues of Israel on the History Channel

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Stay-home Israeli dads

February 3, 2011 - 11:19 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, education, General, Israeliness, Life, Social Justice 

Israeli men may have the well-deserved reputation for being aggressive macho chauvinists, but things may be changing.

In a study conducted ahead of the annual Family Day on Friday (the Israeli day instead of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day), results showed that 70% of Israeli men would be willing to take paternity leave instead of their spouses.

Conducted by the Women’s Budget Forum, a non-profit umbrella organization uniting some 20 women’s and human rights groups, the study also showed that 20% were ready o take leave from work for an extended period of up to three months in order to care for their newborn infants.

According to the Jerusalem Post report on the study, 40% of the men said the main barrier stopping them from staying home with their children was a fear of being fired from their jobs. Only 15.7% of those questioned said that staying home with a baby was the role of a mother only.

In recent years, many European countries have begun to implement paternity leave laws that run in addition to the time allocated to mothers. Usually during this period, the fathers are entitled to benefits for staying home with the child, in some places it’s 100% of their salary.

The Women’s Budget forum is currently in the process of drafting legislation that will allow fathers to take time off to be with their babies, in addition to the 14 weeks already mandated for women. Currently, the Paternity Leave Law, passed in 2007, allows fathers to take up to six weeks of leave – six weeks after the child’s birth. If a father decides to take the leave, the mother must cut short her maternity leave. According to National Insurance Institute statistics only a very small percentage of men have taken advantage of the Paternity Leave Law since it was passed four years ago.

As any parent knows, going off to work is much easier than being at home with a new born. So, while Israeli fathers may still be chauvinists, they’re not stupid.

On the other hand, being home during a baby’s first few months can be magical. When my second daughter was born, I was working in the evening, and was her primary care giver from the age of three to 18 months. I loved it, and we still have a special bond today as a result.

So fathers, practice your diaper changing and kitchen cleaning skills. Your time is coming.

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Egypt revolt strangely missing Israeli element

January 31, 2011 - 9:48 AM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Life, News, Politics, War 

A demonstrator in Cairo - where's Israel? (Photo: Melanie Lidman)

The whole scene being played out in Egypt has left Israelis feeling quite uneasy.

Notwithstanding unfounded rumors that President Hosni Mubarak might find refuge if he flees his country in Tel Aviv, or fear of what an Islamic takeover of Egypt will mean for our southern border and future ties with the Arab country we’ve had a peace treaty with for over 30 years, the most glaring element of the whole revolt is how little Israel has to do with it.

As Herb Keinon wrote in The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, “for the tens of thousands of protesters who took to Egypt’s streets over the weekend, defying the curfew and calling for the departure of President Hosni Mubarak, Israel and the Palestinians were simply not on the agenda.

“And the same was the case during the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia earlier this month, and in the demonstrations intermittently taking place in Jordan, Yemen, Algeria and Morocco. No cries of death to Israel, no signs to “lift the siege” of Gaza, no chants against housing projects in Ariel.”

Melanie Lidman, the Post’s report in Cairo, wrote that anti-US and anti-Israel sentiment is growing over those country’s lack of overt support for the popular uprising. But from an Israeli perspective, it’s refreshing to have demonstrations and riots in the region that seemingly have nothing to do with us.

Which doesn’t diminish our vested interested in what transpires an iota. While the anti-government, pro-democracy demonstrators are demanding Mubarak’s ouster, there’s the extremist Muslim Brotherhood just waiting for a vacuum to rush in and turn Egypt into another Iran, this one with borders abutting Israel.

No matter how it turns out, one thing is clear. Settlements, Jerusalem and Israel’s policy on Gaza are not the main issues threatening stability in the Middle East.

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‘They’re gonna put me in the movies’

January 27, 2011 - 3:37 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, Entertainment, General, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Pop Culture, Social Justice 

Israel may have been shut out of the Best Foreign Film category in next month’s Oscar competition for the first time in a few years, but that doesn’t mean we’re not represented.

Strangers No More, a 40-minute documentary by American filmmakers Kirk Simon and Karen Goodman, has been nominated in the Best Documentary Short category, to be awarded at the 83rd Academy Awards on February 27. And the subject of the film is the lives of students and teachers at south Tel Aviv school Bialik-Rogozin, home to a diverse student body, including many immigrants and children of African refugees.

The film focuses on principal Keren Tal and teacher Smadar Moeres and takes viewers over the course of a school year into the day-to-day lives of three students: Johannes from Ethiopia, Esther from South Africa and Muhammad from Darfur. With a new culture to adjust to amid strange surroundings, the school becomes the children’s safe haven. The school – in a poor Tel Aviv neighborhood – teaches more than 800 children from 48 countries, all brought together through the language of instruction, Hebrew.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Bialik-Rogozin has become famous in Israel over the past year, as the issue of the children of foreign workers and asylum-seekers and their possible deportation has regularly made the headlines.

Filmmaker Simon said he hoped the nomination would raise the profile of the issue about children of migrant workers in Israel, and enable them to stay in the country.

Though it’s his fourth Oscar nomination, Simon said “this nomination is very special to me, as I’ve grown very close to both the teachers and students at the Bialik-Rogozin school.

“I believe that the mission of the school is worthy of worldwide recognition, and these children should be able to stay and be educated at the school,” he told The Post.

News of the film’s nomination thrilled Keren Tal, the principal of Bialik- Rogozin, who features prominently throughout the film. She said that the school’s success in educating students from dozens of countries speaking a multitude of languages could not have been made possible without “the best teaching staff in the world” and a great deal of support from the Tel Aviv Municipality and the Education Ministry.

“The school’s message of hope and the way it reminds us of our basic moral values as Jews will now be sent across the world,” Tal said.

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