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
Foto Friday – Camel Model 2010
Filed under: coexistence, education, Foto Friday, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Picture of the Week, Travel
The Joe Alon Center is an institute with a unique combination of museum, research center,and field school – all dedicated to the promotion of regional studies. The center devotes its activity to the geographical area between Mount Hebron in the east to the Coastal Plain in the west, Lachish Region in the north and Be’er-Sheva Valley in the south.
The Museum of Bedouin Culture at the Center is a collection of artifacts documenting Bedouin ways of life in different parts of the Negev and Sinai.
This Passover, the museum was host to The Camel Project, a collection of 10 life-sized statues decorated by artists, five Jews and five Bedouins, all of them residents of Israel’s southern regions.
The Camel Project was initiated by The Tent Volunteer Center at AJEEC, the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation. The project’s goal is to promote Arab-Jewish dialogue through art and, in particular, to provide a platform for artists from the Gaza border region and the towns of Segev Shalom and Lakiyya.
The event also included activities about the desert way of life, including workshops and family activities – not to mention matza-pizza making and rides on the real thing!
Foto Friday – Biking to the Extreme
Filed under: A New Reality, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, Sports
Israel is a natural location for extreme sports. Some would even venture that just living in Israel is an extreme sport, given our highway conditions and of course that pesky security situation.
Even the Israel Postal Company has gotten into the act, with a series of stamps celebrating windsurfing, and — of course — the ever-popular all-terrain biking.
Yes, there are bikers all over Israel’s terrain, particularly on the weekends. when they come out in droves. It makes sense. The sport combines the positive effects of outdoor exercise with the even more popular crazy Israeli driver syndrome. There are extreme bikers in the Jerusalem Hills…
In Tel Aviv…
Very extreme biking in Haifa…
The popularity of ultra-sports is constantly growing (for proof, check out ISRAEL21c’s video about Parkour in Tel Aviv) and there are events scheduled for every weekend in the coming months. Shvoong is central repository for all sports-related information but unfortunately, the site is only in Hebrew, as is ProSport, which runs some of the country’s most fun and creative events. For English, try the Israel Cycling Federation, Cyclenix – MTB Israel, Ayalot, the Israeli Club for Runners and Triathletes or Sarma, the Israel Extreme Sports and Rescue Association.
And consider signing up for a charity hike or bike trip: Tsad Kadima’s Hike for Hope, Hazon’s Jerusalem To Eilat Ride 2010; ALYN Hospital’s 11th International Charity Bike Ride. All worthy causes and good fun.
Foto Friday – Ron Shoshani’s Israel Eye Candy
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, Israeliness, Picture of the Week, Profiles, Travel
The first thing people think when they see works by Ron Shoshani is that they aren’t really photographs. They are. But given our generation’s obsession with artifice, Shoshani takes care to ensure that his models – in his case, buildings, cities and even rocks – wear a healthy layer of makeup.
“Everything undergoes cosmetic treatment these days – models, TV presenters, even chefs dress up their food. We put makeup on everything. And that’s how I relate to photography. But the subject has to have a good basis. And when I take pictures, I look for and show the beauty.”
Using what he calls his ‘Secret Sauce’, Shoshani is able to make things appear as if they’ve been sprinkled with a dash of ‘Ever-So-Much-More-So’. “I always check the weather before I go out to photograph. Some things look better in daylight, others at night. I generally examine a site 2-3 times before the actual shoot. And I wait for the right day.” Working with a digital camera, he takes an initial set of photos after which the real work begins.
“The ‘Secret Sauce’ is to select the site, get it under the right weather conditions and then I start the maquillage. I can work on a frame for three days, I can work on it two weeks – post-processing or retouching – what people call Photoshopping, though I don’t necessarily use that.”
Israel becomes beautiful through Shoshani’s lens, particularly Tel Aviv, a city that can appear unlovely and unkempt to the uninitiated. “Every major city in the world has an image, like a poster, that shows it is an interesting cosmopolitan place. I wanted to create that sort of image, that makes people say ‘Wow, I want to go there!’”
Shoshani is also well-aware that his audience has both little viewing time and a limited attention span. “People view thousands of images a day and the amount of time people will spend on looking at a photo is maybe a quarter of second. So I try to create ‘eye candy’, one shot that will make you stop and think and see things not as they usually are. I try to make people look in wonderment. The photo of Tel Aviv skyline… you can look at it a long time.”
Shoshani’s work hangs in the lobbies and meeting rooms of Israeli companies. “They are proud of Israel and want to show that it’s a modern, technological and inspiring place.” Many more images are on view at his Facebook page and framing-quality prints may be ordered directly by writing to ronsho@gmail.com. (Shoshani says his prices are “comfortable”). Since posting his work on Facebook, Shoshani has received thank-yous from all over the world. “I got over 600 comments in three days. People were very emotional, writing things like ‘You should show this to the world’. I’m happy to. It’s not Zionism. I just think this country has an enormous variety of things to see.”
Nostalgia Sunday – Purim Parties Past
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Holidays, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture
One of the hard truths of life in Israel is that it always rains on Purim. It is as if the weather conspires to prove that we Jews can never hold a joyous celebration without breaking a glass or making a little baby boy cry.
And events conspire as well. A few days ago, Magen David Adom issued a stern directive against dangerous masks and costumes, in particular warning against Avatar-wannabes who might paint their bodies using blue chalk or charcoal. Spoilsports. And just today, the Homefront Command announced that the new gas mask distribution project has commenced. What impeccable timing.
Today is particularly stormy which makes it that much harder to get into a festive mood. But party we must! Even under the most difficult of conditions, Purim has been celebrated and documented — just see Yad VaShem’s online exhibition Purim – Before, During, and After the Holocaust) which is historic, not nostalgic, but important to know. And check out these photos of Purim kindergartens from the pre and post-State period, courtesy of the PikiWiki Israel project. (Click images for large version).
Kibbutz Sarid kindergarten – 1930s
Szold kindergarten, Netanya – 1935
Kindergarten in Tel Aviv’s Montefiore neighborhood – 1941
Purim celebration on Moshav Beit Itzhak – 1956
And check out these mini-hippies from Quneitra-Merom Golan, circa 1967!
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