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Volunteering for Rhianna

Even a seemingly ‘everybody wins’ scenario can hit some snags when thrust into the realities of Israeli life. Take, for example, the upcoming concert at Jaffa’s Bloomfield Stadium by R&B sensation Rhianna.

The concert’s promoter and its sponsor, cell phone provider Orange, have hooked up with the international organization Rockcorps, which has successfully galvanized thousands of young music fans into performing community volunteer projects, by offering tickets to shows by artists like Lady Ga Ga, Nelly and Akon in the US and England to youth who sign up for and carry out four hours of volunteer work.

Tickets to Rhianna’s show cannot be obtained through normal means – you can’t buy them – you have to be between 16-25 years old and you have to sign up on a special Orange Rockcorps Web site for one of the hundred or so volunteer projects they list and then get authorization that you carried out your task. The projects listed on the Orange Web site include working in Keren Kayemet forests clearing brush or painting pathway marks, distributing food at soup kitchens and sorting donated clothes.

It sounds like a splendid idea that will benefit everyone involved, until you realize that there’s a hefty percentage of Israelis in that age group who are currently serving in the IDF. According to some soldiers, and their moms, the policy is unfairly discriminating against them, as their free time is severely curtailed by their military assignments.

“Most of the people in this country between the ages of 18-25 are soldiers and a great portion are soldiers living on bases. This is completely unfair to them,” said Sharon Bar-Lev, a Kfar Saba resident whose daughter, a diehard Rhianna fan, is currently serving in the IDF.

“I would like to know how soldiers, who come home once every two weeks, and leave their base around noon on a Friday, can possibly do four hours of community service and make it home before Shabbat, using public transportation to arrive at the volunteer site and from there back home.”

Bar-Lev added that she was more than willing to buy a ticket for her daughter to see Rhianna, but a call to the ticket office confirmed that no tickets were being sold to the show.

Bar- Lev hopes her grassroots campaign will get the policy changed. Just last week, frustrated Metallica fan Tal Mussman was able to force promoters of the the American hard rock band to significantly lower prices for the group’s Ramat Gan show by launching a page on Facebook calling on fans to boycott the show.

While applauding the efforts of Rockcorps and Orange, Bar-Lev said that her daughter and other Rhianna fans serving in the army shouldn’t be penalized for doing their jobs.

“Isn’t my daughter giving two years of her life to serve in the IDF enough of a volunteer project?”

Oscar fever in Israel

We’ll have to either stay up all night or get up at 3 am Monday morning to watch this year’s Academy Awards to see if the Israeli entry in the Best Foreign Film category Ajami takes home the country’s first Oscar.

It’s the third year running that an Israeli film has been nominated (after Beaufort and Waltz With Bashir). And Ajami’s intense portrayals – intertwined stories of a young Muslim in the crime-ridden Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa gets caught in an Arab clan feud and his own forbidden romance with a Christian woman; a Jewish police officer in search of his missing soldier brother, and the tale of a Palestinian youth who sneaks into Israel for menial work – are making it, if not a favorite, then at least a strong contender for the Oscar.

And, as Hannah Brown wrote in The Jerusalem Post, Ajami has already won just by getting to the Hollywood ceremonies. Directed by an Arab – Scandar Copti – and a Jew – Yaron Shani, “it’s hard to overstate the symbolic value of the collaboration and friendship between these two, who are from different ethnic groups, religious affiliations and backgrounds. They spent seven years working on this gritty film about the crime-ridden Ajami neighborhood in Jaffa, which they managed to get into the Cannes Film Festival, where it won a special mention. These two young, first-time directors who had to live with relatives while making the film because they had put all their money into it, have seen it win honors and rave reviews on three continents.”

It’s been fun watching the the two, along with the cast and their families first forays into Hollywood – most of the cast consisted of Jaffa residents who weren’t really acting too much in their portrayals of the working class; for many, it was their first trip outside of Israel and for some, their first airplane ride. Star Shahir Kabahar, 25, had to take vacation days from his job as a bureka baker at his family’s Jaffa bakery, in order to travel to the ceremony.

Footage of them walking outside the Kodak Theater and staring wide-eyed at the spectacles on Hollywood Boulevard demonstrate the huge journey one can make with film and the impact on lives it can create. Good luck to Ajami tonight!

Foto Friday – Ron Shoshani’s Israel Eye Candy

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 – Netanyahu’s fixer upper

The members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet went on a little trip today up to visit historic Tel Hai in the Galilee. Going on tiyul is quite common this season — dozens of people are hiking Shvil Yisrael, the Israel National Trail this month — but it’s unusual for members of Knesset to move en masse out of their comfort zone and into the periphery.

However, this was a special occasion. Today being the 90th anniversary of the battle at the Tel Hai compound — itself refurbished thanks to the efforts of The Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites (SPIHS) — it was selected as an appropriate time and place for a cabinet meeting to approve a comprehensive plan, the largest ever, to “strengthen the national heritage infrastructures of the State of Israel”.

What is a national heritage infrastructure? As set out in Netanyahu’s plan (called TAMAR which in Hebrew is the acronym for “national heritage infrastructure”) it consists of about 150 “tangible/material cultural resources” (archaeological and historic sites) and “intangible/nonmaterial cultural resources” (archives and collections of literature, poetry, philosophy, arts, crafts, music and song, dance, theater, film, traditions, holidays, festivals, ceremonies, etc.) all in need of rehabilitation and/or enrichment. TAMAR will cost almost NIS 400 million, and will be funded by private donations to be matched by allocations from the budgets of 16 government ministries.

The list of sites — which is not yet finalized — includes 37 archaeological sites, 39 museums and collections, and 62 sites relating to Israel’s Jewish and Zionist heritage — many literally crumbling to bits, such as the magnificent painted ceiling in Jerusalem’s Meah Shearim Yeshiva. There are also 13 projects in the “intangible/nonmaterial” category that would restore cultural resources like the backlog of yet-uncatalogued movies still in cartons at the Israel Film Archive – as well as upgrade the archive building itself.

Two additional trails will be created in addition to Shvil Yisrael, promised Netanyahu, one a historic trail of archaeological sites from the biblical, Second Temple and other eras in the history of the Land of Israel, the other a trail tracing the places and events that gave rise to the modern-day State of Israel.

Netanyahu couldn’t have given a better example than this one: dowdy, dingy Independence Hall in Tel Aviv. “It is good that the city is open to the world and good that the city is alive and moving forward. But at 16 Rothschild Boulevard, there is a small auditorium in which the State of Israel was declared. There, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, declared the State of Israel.

“The hall is run-down. I am not saying that it is about to fall over but as far as the many young people and others, who flock to the street, to Rothschild Boulevard, are concerned, they do not know it. They do not visit it at all. And therefore, we will rehabilitate Independence Hall.”

The long-term payoff for TAMAR, say the plan’s authors, will be NIS 630 million in annual tourism revenue, job creation in the amount of 3,500 permanent positions plus 800 more during the 5-year period of the plan’s execution, and development of tourism to the Negev and Galilee regions. Later this week, the cabinet is due to approve the national transportation plan joining the Galilee and other regions to an accessible national transportation grid.

The cabinet also made a separate decision today on a new building for Israel’s National Library, funded by a donation from Yad Hanadiv (the Rothschild Foundation).

Israeli Oscar nomination imitates life

The good news – another Israeli film, ‘Ajami’ – the third in three years – has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
The bad news – if it wins, some of the actors might be in jail instead of at the ceremony in Hollywood.

The film, about the lives of Arabs and Jews in the impoverished, crime-ridden neighborhoods of Jaffa, uses amateur actors to capture the gritty realism that prompted its nomination. However that realism spilled over into… um… reality last week when two brothers of the film’s co-director were arrested for fighting with police in a scene that could have been pinched directly from the film.

According to an AP report, Yaron Shani, a Jew, and Scandar Copti, an Arab — shot “Ajami” on location in the rundown, scrappy neighborhood of the same name in the city of Jaffa, and used local residents to play the main roles in the film. One of them was Copti’s brother, who along with a third brother, was arrested in the skirmish over alleged drug use.

Residents said that on Saturday evening, two teenagers were burying a dead dog when police arrived, suspecting they were hiding drugs. When they questioned the youths, Arab neighbors, who generally distrust law enforcement, came to the scene, some scuffling with police.

Tony Copti, 29, who appeared in the film, told The Associated Press that police are often harsh with Arab residents. After confronting police, he and his brother Jiriass were handcuffed and sprayed in the face with pepper spray before being taken away for questioning, he said.

Police said they briefly detained the men for attacking officers, releasing them after questioning. They gave no further details.

In the ‘Ajami,’ police enter Ajami to arrest a drug dealer and neighbors protest, allowing the dealer to slip away. In the next scene, Jewish police blame Arab residents for preventing them from cleaning up the neighborhood.

“The story in the film, that’s how it really happens in Jaffa,” Tony Copti told AP.

While the whole incident was greatly unpleasant for the principals, it may inadvertently drum up better publicity for the film than a full page ad in Variety.

Foto Friday – Edward Kaprov helps splice the ends

Splicing the Ends is the name of a new art exhibition that opens next week, November 28th, at the Amiad Center in Old Jaffa. Over the past two years, Amiad has emerged as a unique center for the arts in Jaffa’s newly revived Flea Market area, now a hot nightlife spot for Tel Aviv’s young bohemian set.

According to the organizers, the exhibit celebrates the winter season festivals for the three major monotheistic religions — Hannuka, Christmas and Eid ul Fitr — by “telling the story of mankind through the different religions… exploring the themes of immigration, living as an individual and as part of a community, and how one relates to oneself and to one’s environment.”

The show features works by over 30 painters, sculptors and photographers , including Edward Kaprov. A veteran immigrant to Israel from the former Soviet Union, Kaprov has worked with Israel’s biggest newspapers including business daily Globes, Haaretz and Yedioth Aharonot. His features have been published by National Geographic, GEO, and Russian Newsweek as well as other publications.

His work on display in “Splicing the Ends” deals with how religion informs day-to-day life in Israel, whether in the army…

…at a soup kitchen for hungry children…

…motivating political protest…

Kaprov’s work ranges from news and commercial photography to personal projects, including a series on Shamanism in Israel.

Splicing the Ends runs from November 28 through December 21 at the Amiad Center. A portion of the proceeds from the exhibit will go to ILAN, Israel’s Foundation for the Handicapped.

Tel Aviv unwanted in Toronto?

Misguided protests from loopy bastions of the artistic Left over Israel’s policies regarding the conflict with the Palestinians have resulted in a new height of absurdity.

Some 50 artists, actors and filmmakers, including Jane Fonda, Wallace Shawn, David Byrne and filmmaker Ken Loach, have accused the Toronto Film Festival in an open letter of protest of “complicity with the Israeli propaganda machine” over its spotlight this year of Tel Aviv.

The City-to-City program at the festival, which runs from September 10-19, is highlighting Israeli films like Kirot, Jaffa by Keren Yedaya, The Bubble by Eytan Fox, and Phobodilia by Yoav and Doron Paz, films with festival co-director Cameron Bailey “explore and critique the city from many different perspectives.”

However the open letter by the artists, prompted by Canadian filmmaker John Greyson pulling his short film “Covered” from the festival, claims that the program “ignores the suffering of thousands of former residents and descendants of the Tel Aviv/Jaffa area who currently live in refugee camps in the Occupied Territories.”

“Looking at modern, sophisticated Tel Aviv without also considering the city’s past and the realities of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza strip, would be like rhapsodizing about the beauty and elegant lifestyles in white-only Cape Town or Johannesburg during apartheid without acknowledging the corresponding black townships of Khayelitsha and Soweto.”

Are these people serious? When did everything that happens in Tel Aviv, or any other part of Israel, suddenly get tied like a pretzel to the conditions of Palestinians? Even Bailey, in defending the decision to focus on Tel Aviv admitted that “Tel Aviv is not a simple choice and the city remains contested ground.”

Does that mean that Tel Aviv is occupied territory?

As the New York Times reported, “One thing is certain: What might have been one of the festival’s less noticed film series is going to get some attention when it opens on Sept. 11 with an 8:45 a.m. screening of “A History of Israeli Cinema, Part 1,” directed by Raphael Nadjari.”

Paper boats for three solstices

Every year, Chanuka is arguably the biggest week for children’s entertainment offerings across Israel, with options ranging from lavish pop stage productions like Festigal to museum activities to themed expositions at shopping malls.

Somewhere in-between all of the above is the free Origami Festival set to take place at the Jaffa Port tomorrow and a week from today. The festival explores the nautical theme inherent to its setting by offering workshops on how to fold square pieces of paper into sailboats according to Japanese craft traditions. Participants will also be given the opportunity to race their boats against one another on a specially prepared track, complete with fans to help replicate windy conditions, and prizes will be awarded to the victors.

The other theme to the festival that resonates with its setting is coexistence. Jaffa is home to sizeable Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities that live side by side, so the festival is a celebration of the winter solstice holidays of all three faiths – hence the justification for its pre-Chanuka launch.

Origami actually has a tradition of being tied to coexistence-themed initiatives. Famed Hiroshima atomic bomb victim Sadako Sasaki, who died in a hospital in 1955 of leukemia, spent her final days folding paper in to cranes, inspired by an old Japanese adage that those who fold 1000 cranes are entitled to a wish. Since then, Sadako and her folding efforts have been employed as a symbol for mankind’s longings to get along, and it was based on these teachings that Miri Golan founded the Israeli Origami Center, based in Ramat Gan, in 1993.

Golan and the IOC have held many ethnic-encounter workshops and events, including a major convention in Jerusalem’s Old City this past July, which was attended by many of the world’s ambassadors to Israel, many of the superstars of the international Origami scene and 1500 folded works of art sent as blessings for peace in Jerusalem by craftsmen of many faiths. The organization’s activities have also included Folding Together, a series of workshops bringing Israel’s Muslim and Jewish youth together via origami since 2002.

Israeli kitchen makes me hungry and inspires

I’ve been blogging in some shape or form for over six years now and though food has always been a topic I’ve written about it’s never been the exclusive topic of any of the blogs where I’ve written. About three years ago I considered starting a blog called “The Middle East Confit” but the idea never came to fruition, it just marinated in my mind. Then we had a baby, then work got real busy and then…well…yeah. I barely find the time to blog at my own blog – most of it coming from lack of inspiration rather than time.

I’ve been thinking about writing exclusively about food and plan on redesigning my blog in the coming weeks (months?) Where did this inspiration come from? The excellent Israeli food blog Israel Kitchen. Written by Miriam, a current resident of Petach Tikva who has live in both Jerusalem and Tsfat and even spent some time in Venezuela. Her recipes are varied. Running the gamut from that Ashekenazic staple Kasha Varnishkas to Tunisian Mafroum (meat stuffed potatoes). She also makes her own wine.

Miriam’s photography is top notch as well with colorful photos of her travels around Israel. She visits shuks, cheese makers, wineries and restaurants.

So if you are looking for a taste (nyuk nyuk) of Israel not to be found elsewhere be sure to visit Israeli Kitchen.

Memories of the Mob

Looks like a couple of the big mob families are “going to the mattresses” after underworld figure Ya’acov Alperon was assassinated on a Tel Aviv corner just two days ago. Organized crime here runs rampant and there have been numerous innocent citizens caught in the crosshair of attempted assassinations.

I remember back in 2003 or 2004, the wife and I went to Tel Aviv to meet some friends visiting from New York for dinner. After a kick ass meal of grilled meat and 3,000 salads in Jaffa we went to Brasserie M&R at Rabin Square for some coffee and dessert. Shortly after we arrived I noticed about four or five security guards standing in front of the restaurant and one stayed in front of the two Mercedes illegally parked out front. Someone sitting with us (a spokesman for a MK) said that there is no way that it is a government minister because the only person in the government who has that much security is Ariel Sharon. Curiosity set in and after a short discussion we concluded it must be a mob boss. Turns out we were correct.

Now I don’t know much about security, but I do know if I was a mob boss and have had several attempted hits on my life I would take one of my security guards with me to the bathroom. My friend and I happened to go at the same time and as I opened the door as the now jailed Ze’ev Rosenstein was on his way out. I held the door for him (as I would do for anyone) and he actually said thank you. I was going to offer my drug smuggling services but why would he bother with me when he has former government ministers to do that for him? Anyway, we could have TOTALLY taken him out – easily. I wouldn’t have made it out alive and even if I did I would be on the run for the rest of my life but its fun to fantasize about. There have been many attempts on his life and innocent bystanders have been killed and severely wounded in failed assassination attempts. The irony wasn’t lost on me that we were sitting outside at a cafe in the middle of Tel Aviv and didn’t think twice about a potential suicide bombing but were suddenly worried about being caught in the crossfire of a mob hit.

My visiting friend (who is no stranger to Israel) was dumbfounded by the fact that his reputed mobster was wearing shorts, a really ugly shirt and crappy sandals. I don’t know if he was expecting him to be wearing an Armani suit or something but this is Israel. It’s as casual as it gets – even for mobsters.

Afterward, on the drive home, I wondered why my friend was looking at his feet.

 

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