60 years of Israeli Design
Call it nepotism but I feel like I would be robbing you of something good if I didn’t point out a great post on my wife’s design blog, Designist Dream. She started her blog as a creative outlet, focusing on design, fashion and art in Israel. In honor of Israel’s birthday she put together a post about Israel’s greatest contributions to design over the past sixty years, featuring Bauhaus, Dan Reisinger, Gottex and more.
A couple of months ago she was contacted by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs who asked for permission to use reprint the post in a supplement that ran in the Serbian daily Pilotka (circulation of over 150,000).
That means that hundreds of thousand of Serbs now know how innovative, creative and even how kitschy Israelis can be.
Guesting
Filed under: General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life
A significant part of the Israeli summer experience includes hosting guests from abroad. Not that it doesn’t happen during other parts of the year — but the summer is pretty much high season for family and friends…including people who you may not have seen for years, but are now entering that phase of life when their kids are being bar/bat mitzvahed, going on teen tours and family trips and travel abroad is a tad easier.
Lest anyone think that I don’t like hosting, let me say right now that I love it. I relish the opportunity to have people come and stay in my house, to have the late night chats and early morning conversations. or to have them for a meal and give them the chance to see how I live in this place called Israel.
There are the pre-preparations, whether that includes checking out an apartment they want to rent for the duration of their stay, figuring out the meals they want to eat together or making the guestroom bed. Then there is the duration of the visit, when you’re reacquainting yourselves, showing them around town, taking them to the local pool and helping them navigate the map of Israel so they don’t get completely turned around in their rental car. There are visitors who come bearing American treats, from bags of Jelly Bellies, Redskins jerseys, People magazines and silicon baking trays to teenagers who bring a simple bouquet of flowers and those who spring for a great bottle of Israeli wine or a fresh bottle of whisky from duty-free at the airport.
It’s the rare visitor who doesn’t offer to help out, whether by loading the dishwasher, stripping their sheets or taking you out to a great dinner in thanks for your hospitality. But what really comes of these visits are the conversations about your life and theirs. It’s not that we’re doing such different things over here. There’s work, family, mortgages, cars, aging parents, health, all the usual subjects. But when you let people into your bubble of a home life for a few days, they see you in a way that you don’t.
They see your daily struggles and triumphs; the way you converse with your neighbor and negotiate with the “installator” (Hebrew for plumber); your method for traversing Israeli traffic or taking care of your kids. They see your life in a way that you may not, and if you’re lucky, they’ll tell you. It’s a worthwhile compliment for putting out the proverbial sprig of grapes.
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Freebies
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness
In the 14 years I’ve lived in Israel, which isn’t a very long time compared to some, I’m consistently amazed by the increasing sophistication of product placement in this country. Granted, there are a few other things to be impressed by, whether it’s the Silicon Wadi, medical advances or perhaps other items of a higher moral standard.
But when you’re coming from a place that practically created product placement — whether it was the plastic Coke cups from which we slurped our 7-11 Slurpees or the Tropicana orange juice t-shirts that were available through a mail-rebate offer — to go live somewhere that doesn’t know from touting its products, well, it’s just missing some flavor.
So you can imagine the pleasure and pride I felt at two recent events where different companies used the opportunity to tout their products in a fairly creative, somewhat useful manner. The first was at the opening event of the Jerusalem Film Festival, where each attendee received a hot cup from Nescafe, including packets of the all-important Nes coffee packets inside. I’m not a particular fan of drinking ‘Nes,’ and would have much preferred another of the light fleece blankets that Pelephone handed out last year, but I could appreciate the effort.
The next handout was a few nights later, at another film festival event, one of the free outdoor movies at Jerusalem’s old train station. After getting our free tickets, my friend noticed the Orange mobile phone posters telling customer to punch in the word ‘Enjoy’ and send it to 999 for a treat from the company. With great excitement and anticipation, I approached the stand and was handed my gift in an Orange bag. Could it be a blanket? But no. It was a sweet, slightly edgy gray teddy bear. Perhaps useful as a cushion while watching The Band’s Visit from the hard, stadium-style seats and certainly a welcome collection to my stepdaughter’s stuffed animal collection. Yet nothing like the white Bezeq-branded cushions we were given years back at a Shlomo Artzi concert in Caesarea.
Still. Effort counts. And I’m getting a lot of use out of my complimentary Khalifa pen; received when I purchased my new pair of Teva Naots. So that’s something.
Upgrades to transport resisted
Borat’s infamous anthem “Throw the Jew Down the Well” has two verses. The first begins with the couplet “In my country there is problem / And that problem is transport.” The second opens with “In my country there is problem / And that problem is the Jew.” Yes, Jews and transport make for trouble.
Many have argued that the primary reason that Jerusalem’s highly anticipated light rail system keeps delaying its launch is that the Egged bus giant is doing its best to delay development every step of the way, in an attempt to protect its bread and butter.
Say what you will about conspiracy theories like these, but Egged, a collective that’s owned by its employees, happens to maintain the world’s second-largest fleet of coach buses (only Greyhound’s is bigger), so when you talk about old-time Israeli institutions wielding power comparable to that thrown around by American “big business,” Egged is case in point.
A similar process is reportedly going on in Tel Aviv now, where activists and the municipal government are encouraging the local (near-monopoly-hording) Dan bus company to redesign its counter-intuitive, unsound line structures. Dan, of course, is vehemently opposed, but Deputy Mayor Peer Visner (pictured), a Green Party man through and through, says that if they don’t, then maybe the city ought to implement some sort of Dan alternative – an alternative that could only compete with the big boys if it were to offer rides for free.
For Visner, it’s all in the name of making sure that Israel’s metropolis is as friendly, quiet and waste-free as possible. “As soon as there’s public transportation that’s convenient, efficient and affordable, people will start leaving their cars at home,” he explained to the NRG website (translation ours).
As much as Jerusalem’s light rail can seem like it’s nothing more than a pipe dream, Visner’s vision somehow comes off as even more fantastical. With elections looming and several green-themed parties vying for our love (more on this tomorrow), we have little choice but to wonder just how practical his vendetta against Dan might prove to be over time.
Gift credit
We’re in the thick of the Israeli wedding season and wedding present methodology has just reached new heights of absurdity.
Wedding hosts can now rent an automated teller machine that takes guests’ credit cards, allowing them to punch in a shekel figure and leave a ‘gift’ for the bride and groom that is transferred into their bank account the next day. The machine, which is rented for NIS 500, even prints out a deposit slip for the guests who can sign a quick mazal tov and slip it in a box for the happy couple.
Talk about paying for your plate…but it’s not an altogether surprising step for the mass wedding industry in this country, where the guest list is long — think 400 to 600 — and the family goes into hock paying for the party. Moreover, the DJs are loud and the guests often start eating their chummous before the chuppah is over. And forget gifts; there’s always a box with a slit on top where checks are deposited and guarded over by one of the waiters.
Personally, I’ve yet to see one of these credit card machines in person, and am doubtful that the three weddings I’m attending this summer will have one. Then again, if you’ve forgotten your checkbook or are fearful that the bank will bounce your check because of an overdraft, the credit card solution could be just the answer.
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