Foto Friday – Hanukkah light
Filed under: Environment, Foto Friday, General, News, Religion
Hanukkah, like its other winter holiday counterparts, is all about light. This fact was pointed out to me once by a religion news reporter (yes, there are such beings), who also noted a peculiar human trait: that of making the best of things: as the days grow short, rather than curse the darkness, we celebrate the days with candles and light.
We light candles at Hanukkah (or wicks floated on olive oil) to honor the memory of the Temple rebuilt and its seven-branched menorah, with a nine-branched variant: one flame for each day of the holiday, plus the central, utilitarian shamash.
How sad, how sad and terribly ironic that the holiday which we celebrate with tiny points of light should be marred by the largest conflagration in modern Israel’s history. The winter drought – also history-making as Israel’s longest – made it a snap for the fire to take hold and spread in all its fury.
Tonight, as the flames begin to die down, we will light the third candle of Hanukkah and Friday night candlesticks. Sabbath will be followed by the work week where, together with our national mourning for lives lost and the destruction of our environment, there will be the inevitable finger-pointing, holding-of-accounts and passing-of-the-buck. Before the noise begins, take a quiet moment to consider light, the kind that illuminates the darkness and brings us joy.
© RomKri
Last day of Jerusalem festival of light – don’t miss it!
Map to the festival. Take the green route
Run, no sprint to the Light in Jerusalem festival, which is closing tonight after a successful seven day run. As my colleague Rachel has written here in Israelity, the event consists of tens of creative, playful and often awe inspiring light installations from internationally renowned “light artists,” displayed and often tightly integrated into the fabric of Jerusalem Old City – walls, windows sometimes entire sides of synagogues.
Last year, some 250,000 visitors from all over Israel attended, as did our family. While there were small klatches of overseas tourists, most of the participants wandering the Old City this week seemed to be part of large boisterous tour guide-led groups of Hebrew-speakers for whom, by the looks on their faces, this was their first time in the Old City perhaps since childhood.
Indeed, the winding alleyways of the Old City seemed even more packed than last year. Particularly in the Jewish Quarter, you often had to queue up just to pass through a particularly narrow arch.
We got a tip from a friend on Facebook – thanks Arlene! – which I want to pass on to you here. Avoid the crowds and take the green route which starts Kikar Zahal (the intersection of the Old City and Jaffa Street) and meanders into East Jerusalem. There are far fewer visitors and the installations are truly fabulous.
Two in particular stood out. In “What do trees do at night?” by artist Joseph Meir Jimmy, a large oak tree set against the Old City walls comes to life via clever projections of images, animation and an accompanying soundtrack. The tree, with wonderfully expressive cartoon eyes, was beset upon by birds, children and scorpions, while transitioning through rain and snow. When the lights went off, it was hard to believe we were looking at just a plain tree and a wall.
Zedekiah’s Cave (Solomon’s Quarry) is an enormous underground cavern, where rocks were mined to build the First Temple. For the festival, it was turned into a aquarium-like environment created by Eran Klein and Eli Kochavi. Phosphorescent blue lights lit the way through the cave towards a light installation simulating fish swimming through water while soothing new age music played. It was truly magical.
What was particularly unique was the fact that many of the light shows were built specifically for the locations. The images projected on Damascus Gate, for example, used the shapes and turrets of the gate to weave its tale. It wouldn’t have worked anywhere else.
There’s lots more to see – tall illuminated rods depciting green grass at Jaffa Gate; a history of the Old City projected onto the newly reconstructed Hurva Synagogue.
The festival runs tonight from sunset until midnight. There’s inexpensive parking in the City Hall (Kikar Safra) parking lot (that’s the closest to the green route). as well as the Mamilla and Karta lots with free buses from the farther flung Ammunition Hill and Old Train Station parking locations. Or take the bus. Just don’t miss it. More information from the festival’s website.
Foto Friday – Jerusalem Light Festival
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Pop Culture, Travel
The Jerusalem Light Festival in the Old City, taking place next week, June 10-16, promises to be an absolute delight — no pun intended. These images are just a few of the two dozen or so works by artists commissioned to use Jerusalem’s Old City as a canvas and light as their brush.
Digital artists Yosef Meir Gimi, event designer Ronen Aricha and artist-musician Uri Ben Shabat created a surrealistic journey through the Batei HaMachaseh neighborhood. There will be an exhibition of light-works by artists as well.
This is a mock-up of what is planned for Safra Square, site of the Jerusalem City Hall. Multimedia artists Malchi and Assaf Shem Tov of Studio AVS and Amit Fisher of Studio Locomotion have created a work that combines sound and light on the theme of the Twelve Tribes.
Museum designer Eliav Nachlieli was invited to create a laser light installation at the Wohl Archaeological Museum.
There will also be live entertainment on the Old City walls with performances scheduled twice nightly.
As a former lighting designer, who did quite a lot of work casting light and color on ancient walls in Jaffa, Acco, Jerusalem and the Judaean desert, this piece looks to be a very dramatic experience, in terms of breadth and color.
It’s entitled Night Panorama by Gil Teichman, one of Israel’s premiere lighting designers and contractors (he also does the Azrieli Center, among other large installations). Teichman will light up the Kidron valley surrounding Yad Avshalom (Absalom’s Tomb). Probably shouldn’t be missed — don’t see how it could be!
More images from the upcoming Jerusalem Light Festival are available at the festival website. Information in English at Jerusalem.com.
Oktober knows no borders
Filed under: Business, coexistence, Food, History and Culture
Modeled after Bavaria, Germany’s famous brew festival of the same name, which draws millions of participants each fall, the Taybeh Brewery held its own two-day version of Oktoberfest earlier this week. This is the fourth incarnation of the Palestinian village’s festival, sponsored by the industry named after it (the brewery’s founding Khoury family currently, er, occupies city hall over there).
The Taybeh Brewery, which offers Golden, Light, Amber and Dark beers, has a decidedly coexistence-themed flavor: It was founded thanks to peace momentum following the 1993 Oslo accords, it is marketed and bottled internationally, and a portion of the Oktoberfest profits is donated every year to peace-loving Palestinians and Israelis.
Although Taybeh is mostly a Christian village, the brewery premiered a non-alcoholic version at the festival, which should boost sales amongst the Palestinian nationalist crowd, traditionally forbidden to drink fermented liquids by the tenets of Islam. The festival also featured folk arts, musical and dance performances, as well as a tag rugby match between the Ramallah Blue Snakes and Beit Jala Lions.
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