Aida at Masada
Filed under: Entertainment, History and Culture, Israeliness, Music, Travel
Photo: Yossi Zwecker
It was a magnificent night at the opera even if the people behind me were more interested in their iPhone apps than with the classic story unfolding on stage.
I had been invited to attend the Final Dress Rehearsal of Aida at Masada, along with 140 other journalists, 40 foreign diplomats, and nearly 7,000 Israelis – many of them from periphery communities.
The Israeli Opera is very open about its mission to bring spectators from all classes of society to its shows, especially those who usually wouldn’t see this art form. And though the majority of the audience sat mesmerized in their seats throughout the nearly four-hour affair, the two couples sitting behind me missed the magic of the event and chatted throughout the first two acts before leaving early (lucky for me).
Their chatter aside, there was a feeling of great excitement in the air.
The desert backdrop was perfect for the improbable love story of the Ethiopian princess and the Egyptian army officer. The sets were incredible and the lighting design was astonishing.
American soprano Kirstin Lewis, who took the lead role of Aida, served up gorgeous high notes to an audience gathered at the lowest point on earth.
It was a grand-scale production in every sense of the word. Joining the 20 multi-national opera singers on stage were a Bedouin dance troupe from Rahat, a dance troupe from Arad, and dozens of chorus singers and actors. Maestro Daniel Oren was on the podium conducting the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion. And, being set in Egypt, there were herds of camels, too.
The production of Aida marks the beginning of the 2011 Israeli Opera Festival.
Having seen a good number of operas before, there is no doubt that this was a performance to remember. And, though they cut out early and showed complete disinterest, I believe that even the folks in the row behind me will keep a memory of being at the opera.
The two-hour commando tourist
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Travel, War
Tired of visiting the Kotel and climbing Masada? Tourists who come to Israel and are looking for that little something extra may find it with Sharon Gat and Caliber 3.
Gat, who served two decades in IDF special forces, founded the company as a firing range and security training firm for active-duty soldiers and private foreign and domestic security crews who train in cutting-edge counter-terrorism tactics, sharpshooting techniques, VIP protection, infantry tactics, and hand-to-hand combat.
But, according to a report on the Xinhuanet Chinese news site in English by Dave Bender and Gur Salomon, Caliber 3 is also open to tourist groups eager for a newer, edgier thrill than hand gliding or scuba diving.
Ranging from five to seventy years of age, and dressed in shorts and flip-flops, the newbies descend from the private bus and cautiously make their way to the asphalt-floored, camouflage-netted shooting galleries
For $125, a visitor gets to rub elbows with some of the best-trained and most deadly personnel in the counter- terrorism business. The two-hour package includes a demo by Gat and his instructors, followed by mandatory, basic drilling prior to firing live ammo.
The weapons used here can be found in any decent shooting range in the U.S. and Europe, including the Colt M-16 assault rifle. A more exotic weapon provided is the micro Uzi, a long-time favorite of Israeli SWAT teams. But the real “treat” — at least for the military cognoscenti — is the Israeli-made micro Tavor, the latest weapon to stock select Israeli armories.
While Gat is good at providing visitors a warm welcome, the ” good buddy” persona goes on hold when he briefs them about his uncompromising safety regulations.
“I’ll say it right now guys: everything you see on the tables are real weapons and real ammo. These things kill and injure,” he told a tourist group on a recent visit.
Gat told the reporters that upwards of a thousand tourists annually undergo their training, many of them well-established professionals, including physicians, attorneys, engineers and hi-tech heads.
But, said Gat, “Many of the people coming here are Jews who want to feel close to people who have dedicated their lives to saving other peoples’ lives, so there’s also some Zionism involved.”
If you do decide to partake of Caliber 3′s activities, it will surely be a vacation with a bang.
When’s the right time for a rite of passage?
Filed under: A New Reality, General, health, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Travel
It’s generally accepted that the Israeli perspective on the bar/bat mitzvah ceremony is different from its counterpart in the US.
I remember when Susie and three of her closest friends decided to celebrate their bat mitzvahs together – they were all around 40-years-old at the time.
They had been studying Torah as a group in Jerusalem for a year and a half. It all started when Boston-born Susie, who had already been in Israel for more than 20 years, started to feel that while her Jewish identity was her primary identity, which is why she had moved here, it was time for her to confront her “awe of the Torah.”
Sally, Ruti and Janet had also been in Israel for a couple of decades and for various reasons, none of the four had had a bat mitzvah back in the States. In fact, the first bat mitzvah was held by American rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, a major figure in Jewish thought and the founder of the Reconstructionist movement, for his daughter Judith in 1922.
So the culmination of 18 months of study and learning to read from the holy book was a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Kol Haneshama .
Now the idea didn’t resonate with everybody, but at that June ceremony 12 years ago no one could fail to be moved by the four women’s obvious quiet joy and pride in their achievements.
The bat mitzvahs of those forty-somethings inevitably came to mind when I received an e-mail recently, telling me about another group of delayed bar/bat mitzvah celebrants, en route to Israel.
Some of the participants at the upcoming celebration will be using walkers. Oxygen and wheelchairs will be available for emergencies. Five nurses will be traveling with the group. The average age of the participants in this particular version of the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony? Eighty-five.
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Unmade in the shade of Masada
The snake path at Masada - no place for a human to be in August.
On one of their weekends, they’re going to stay at the youth hostel at the foot of Masada. And on Sunday morning, they’ll awaken bright and early to climb the snakepath up to the top, before ending the day at the nearby Dead Sea.
“Do you want to join us?” they asked recently in an e-mail.
Now, I love Masada and the Dead Sea as much as the next Zionist, but maybe I’ve just been here too long. Never mind that it’s the lowest place on earth – the idea of spending a Shabbat in August at what is likely the hottest place in Israel was not an offer I couldn’t refuse.
I’ll gladly go there in the cooler weather October, or even in January and chance the flash floods. But as far as seeing our Canadian friends while they’re here, I think we’ll stick to a barbecue in our backyard – where the temperature usually doesn’t rise above double digits.
And if it’s clear out, we might even be able to see the Dead Sea.
The Jurassic Park of seeds
Filed under: Environment, Food, General, Technology
Israeli agrotech experts like to break the bounds of science every now and then – well actually pretty frequently. So it should come as no surprise that a team of Israeli researchers has now resurrected a 2,000-year-old date tree by using a seed excavated from Masada.
What a fun project this must have been.
Apparently the seed was one of three discovered at the ancient Jewish fortress in the 1960s and was radiocarbon-dated to the 1st century BCE – AD73 to be exact – around the time the Romans laid siege to Masada.
Three years ago, a team from the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies bathed the seeds in fertilizer and enzyme-rich solutions and then planted them.
Lo and behold, about four weeks later one of the seeds sprouted, making it the oldest germinated seed in the world. Today’s it’s a four-foot tall Judean palm sapling called Methuselah –named by the scientists after the oldest person in the Hebrew bible.
The main researcher, Elaine Solowey – who was featured on ISRAEL21c some months ago and specializes in reviving extinct plants, said: “I really never thought we would get life out of this group of seeds because when we first acquired them, they looked so dry. Most of the seeds were dead and then suddenly, we saw that we could get life out of this one.”
According to the scientists this region was once covered in thick forests of Judean palms reaching up top 80 feet high, but they have all become extinct. Methuselah is the only living Judean date palm in the world.
The researchers hope that by reviving the plant they can study its medicinal uses. It’s also got quite a bit of history behind it – researchers believe the seeds were most likely the remnants of fruits stored or eaten by the Zealot Jewish community living in Masada at that time.
Perhaps I watch too much Sci-Fi. Although I think this is absolutely fascinating, there’s also part of me that finds it faintly scary.
A resurrected seed… what comes next?
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