An oasis in the North (mosquitoes optional)
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, Environment, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Travel
We just spent the weekend in one of Israel’s most beautiful camping spots – Hurshat Tal.
Close to the border with Lebanon, it’s as close as you can get to the pastoral camping sites immigrants from North America are used to. Landscaped lawns and a well-kept campground occupy featuring ancient oak tress, natural pools and and a huge artificial lake of icy cold, refreshing spring water (and a couple impressively fast, long water slides off on the side), take up about 100 of the 190 acres of the national park.
During Succot, as well as the other weeklong vacation holiday of Pessah, the park is packed with campers – wall to wall with barbecues, raucous families and revelrers. However, no matter the noise level or body compression, but 10 pm or so, everyone winds down, there’s no ‘thumpa thumpa’ of trance music which is the norm in most Israeli campsites, and everyone chills out for the evening.
Our first night was like that, with seemingly half the country crammed into the site, weirdly humid weather inducing thunder storms and mosquitos galore, and tempers flaring between Jewish and Arab campers.
Our 9-year-old and his friends, who were unable to sleep, roamed the site in the middle of the night and came running back to report that the police had arrived and had broken up an altercation between two families. It was unclear if the fracas was racially motivated, but they noted that an Arab mother was pounding on the window of the squad car as it drove away with her teenage son.
We never got the full story, and by 4 am or so, after the last thunder storm, we drifted off into a fitful sleep for two hours.
The next morning, on Shabbat, about 95% of the campers fled for home, leaving our little group of four families with virtually the whole park to ourselves. The weather broke a little with cooler, less humid weather. And the camping trip turned into what I remember from my days in Maine – a joyous nature experience.
When the weather cooperates, there’s no place like Hurshat Tal in the country, and any visitor who reaches the North (and how can a visit to Israel not include a visit there?) should block off some time to hang out there, even if it’s just for a few hours.
A doctor, a lawyer and an NBA star
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Life, Pop Culture, Religion, Sports
Let’s hope he doesn’t take in a movie during his visit to Israel and sit in front of you. Otherwise, there’s no downside to the disclosure that NBA superstar Amar’e Stoudemire is here and basking in his Jewishness.
The former NBA Rookie of the Year and current New York Knick recently disclosed that his mother was Jewish, and has publicly embraced his roots – peppering his Twitter updates with Hebrew and now visiting the country with his girlfriend Alexis.
“The Holy Land has always been high on my list of places to visit, and when this opportunity arose, I wasn’t going to push it off any longer,” Stoudemire told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, adding that he was “so excited to be here, see all the important historical sites, learn Hebrew and to get a better understanding of my heritage.”
Stoudemire, who spent the first eight years of his career with the Phoenix Suns, joins Joining New Jersey Nets’ point guard Jordan Farmar and Sacramento Kings’ forward Omri Casspi, Israel’s favorite son, as the NBA’s only Jewish players.
“The holy land. Learn about it,” he wrote on his Twitter feed, adding, “ze ha’halom sheli” – Hebrew for “this is my dream.”
“I don’t really consider myself to be a religious person, but rather a deeply spiritual individual,” Stoudemire told the Post. “I have been aware since my youth that I am a Hebrew through my mother, and that is something that has played a subtle but important role in my development.”
“I have never hid my spiritual roots,” he said. “They just weren’t something that came under the spotlight. I am proud to be a Hebrew and embrace my Jewish background.”
Stoudemire also said that he was hoping to learn some Hebrew on his visit here. Perhaps it could even help his upcoming NBA season. He could pick up some of the local colorful curse words and throw his opponents off guard in the middle of a game, as he swoops past them toward the basket. Score one for the Jewish guy!
Sheikh Jarrah in your face (book)
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, coexistence, General, Life, Politics
For a few Fridays now, there have been demonstrations in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem against the move by Jewish settlers to remove Palestinian residents from homes they claim are Jewish-owned.
Over 20 protestors on the Israeli Left were arrested at last week’s demonstration, which drew over 300 people. And tomorrow, sparks are expected to fly when a counter-demonstration by members of the extreme Right like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel takes place opposite the Left demo.
While the media in Israel has been covering the protests, most of the information coming out – both in terms of mobilization for these events -as well as the play by play of what’s going on there – have been disseminated through social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, along with a slew of blogs.
Rather than waiting until the nightly news to watch footage of arrests of protests, viewers can go straight to YouTube and watch the unedited action.
According to a story in The Jerusalem Post, activists and journalists both described a situation in which protesters were relying on the Internet to try and affect change on the ground and raise awareness of the arrests made during demonstrations in the neighborhood.
“It’s all Facebook, e-mails and Twitter,” said Didi Remez, a human rights activist, who has become noticeably involved in the Sheikh Jarrah protests as of late. Remez was arrested during a protest there last Friday.
Remez also said that distant audiences, like American Jews, who might be deprived of Sheikh Jarrah coverage due to the mainstream media’s lack of interest, were instead staying abreast of the situation via social networking sites.
“The American media is for some reason refusing to cover this,” he said. “Even though it’s becoming a major issue in Israel. And still, despite that, there’s a lot of awareness [of this issue] among Jewish Americans, the reason being that they are increasingly connected through Facebook, Twitter, blogs and so on.”
Sure enough, this morning, my Facebook page was full of posts calling on people to mobilize against the Right demo tomorrow.
Hagai El-Ad, the director of the Association for Human Rights in Israel and one of the protesters arrested two weeks ago, said that the use of new media was a driving force behind the success of the Sheikh Jarrah protest organizers. But, he added, that’s only part of the battle.
“Yes, the mobilization happens online,” El-Ad added, “but the end result is the most classic form of civil protest.”
Looking at things (ir)rationally
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, War
Signing in at the induction site
Sending a kid off to the army is alot like coming to live here in the first place – a big leap of faith. It’s not really a rational decision – although for many, alot of thought has surely gone into it. But most of us assume that things will work out in this country, and there is some reason why we should be living here.
With the army as well, there’s the rational and irrational. Of course we need soldiers to protect our country – moreso here than just about anywhere else. Rationally there’s not much of a choice -unless you’re haredi, or Arab, or … well, let’s not get into that can of worms.
Heading to the bus with a lollipop.
In fact, one could argue that sending your child to the army is the ultimate objective in making aliya – we conceive little Israeli babies in order to increase the Jewish population of Israel and stock the fighting forces.
Obviously, like alot of people we knew who made aliya with us way back when, there was a naive hope we possessed that by the time we had kids and they turned 18, there would be no need for military conscription, and there would exist only a voluntary army like in the US. That dream seems as far off today as it did 25 years ago.
The point of no return for tomorrow's soldier.
Bidding farewell to Sarit yesterday, amid the other families hugging their child-turned-soldier for the last time (the next time we hug them, they’re not going to be the same people – even if it’s only two days later for Shabbat), I was touched by the irony of it.
We spend 18 years of our child’s life protecting them from harm, nurturing their soul, giving them a sense of security. Then one day, you simply hand them over to a body where there’s going to be bullets, tanks, explosions – things that you’ve been avoiding like the plague until now.
It’s hardly a rational thing to do for a parent, isn’t it? But unfortunately in the reality of Israel, for anyone who cares about the country, doing anything else would be irrational.
Foto Friday – Sukkot in Jerusalem
Filed under: Art, coexistence, Foto Friday, General, Holidays, Religion, Travel
The awe-ful part of the Days of Awe are behind us and now it’s time to party! Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is the holiday when Jerusalem gets itself all decked out…
© RomKri
…and small wooden sukkot, or tabernacles, spring up overnight…
© monti_clif
…dotting the urban landscape.
© Pes & Lev
The Municipality of Jerusalem gets into the act too, with a large public sukka – the perfect opener to this month’s Autumn Nights Festival…
© RomKri
…as well as the annual Jerusalem March, attended by walkers from all over the country…
© monti_clif
…and from all over the world!
© monti_clif
Another event taking place at this time: the International Christian Embassy’s Feast of Tabernacles festival, this year celebrating its 30th anniversary. The festivities begin today with a worship concert at Ein Gedi, continue with a week of prayer and Bible teachings, and conclude with the Jerusalem March on October 6th.
Below is a montage of photos from last year’s Feast of Tabernacles. The photos above are courtesy of the wonderful Jerusalem Shots website – always worth a visit. And here’s wishing a Chag Sameach (happy holiday) to us all!
Feast of Tabernacles 2008 Photo Montage from ICEJ on Vimeo.
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