Nostalgia Sunday – British Pathe and the Partition Plan
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Movies, News, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, War
It was 63 years ago minus one day, on November 29th 1947, that the UN voted for the partition of Palestine and the creation of an independent Jewish state.
The archives of news company British Pathe are an amazing way to travel back in time, and see how the news was reported around the world. Here is their report about the United Nations session on Palestine.
UN SESSION ON PALESTINE
British Pathe’s archive include films that are a rare glimpse into what life was like in 1947. For example, this footage documenting life in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv when martial law was declared following the bombing of a British officers’ club.
MARTIAL LAW IN TEL AVIV & JERUSALEM
(PALESTINE TODAY)
Raw footage from the Exodus when it docked in Haifa.
HAIFA REFUGEES SHIP
Of course, as important as these issues were — and are — to us, plenty of other things happened during that year. To put things in context, here’s a roundup of all the headlines from 1947.
LOOKING BACK – ON 1947
There’s plenty more to view and review at the British Pathe online archives.
Nostalgia Sunday – Tel Aviv on Film
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, design, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Travel
The Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive at Hebrew University is a trove of valuable celluloid treasures — several hundred of which have been uploaded to YouTube. The archive ranges from 1911′s The First Film of Palestine to the present and include home movies, short films and full length features.
Tel Aviv was from the outset was seen both as the first Jewish city for the yishuv (the early settlement) and a center of Western culture and technology that would set an example for the entire Middle East. This thoroughly modern city was celebrated on film, as in The White City, a selection of clips shot from 1926 to 1964 and edited together in 1999 in honor of the city’s 90th anniversary.
There is also Tel Aviv in Colors shot in 1938 by an unnamed cinematographer.
And cameraman Fred Dunkel’s view of pre-state Tel Aviv in the 1940s.
Beautiful Tel Aviv in Winter was created in 1950 to mark the city’s 40th anniversary. It was shot by Baruch Agadati, legendary artist, choreographer, man about town and self-styled “Creator of the First Hebrew Sound Film”. Agadati may have made the first Hebrew talkie but this film is silent. Nonetheless, Beautiful Tel Aviv in Winter is a delight for anyone who loves the White City.
Nostalgia Sunday – Ghosts of Cinemas Past
Filed under: Art, Blogging, design, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture
Architect Sharon Raz is a man with a mission: to capture Israel’s disappearing architectural heritage on film, and write about it, too. Going through Raz’s blog, Natush (meaning: “abandoned”) and his Disappearing Architecture website is like falling into a deep, deep well of what once was.
It can also be sad. It means revisiting ideals once held dear — from the fantasy architecture of early Tel Aviv and practical, functional Bauhaus to the swoops and whooshes of our Fabulous 60s (the Fabulous 50s came here a decade late) — seeing how they were expressed in concrete and stucco, and coming to terms with their current state of neglect and decay.
Raz’s special project on Israel’s shuttered cinemas reflects the state of things in general. Movie theaters have given way to small screened mega-multiplexes that, although far cleaner (one must never forget that for generations, Israeli movie goers were warned, “Do not roll bottles or crack sunflower seeds during the show”), they also lack soul.
Raz has methodically visited movie-houses around the country and created a comprehensive index of Israeli movie-houses that includes, in his words, “[the] old, abandoned, closed, destroyed, refurbished, some still standing, some under threat of the wrecking ball.”
With an architect’s eye for detail, Raz tries to present his viewers not only with general site shots but also the little things: the staircase that once led up to the balcony of Jerusalem’s Orna Cinema, now a stairway leading nowhere at the downtown McDonald’s. The Eden at the bottom of Lilenblum Street, Tel Aviv’s first movie-house — still elegant and seemingly waiting for customers to start lining up at any moment. And another Eden Cinema, this one in Jerusalem, whose whimsically round ticket booth now stands at the back end of a grotty parking lot. The Ron in Haifa, gaily decorated with mosaic musicians. Beer Sheva’s Orot, a circle of concrete diamonds, the motif repeated in the wrought iron ticket booth bars. All stand empty.
“In this life’s work, which is original, unique, voluntary, activist and Sisyphean, I work with conviction to preserve on film for future generations our constructed environment. I photograph many structures – abandoned factories, neglected vacation spots, empty houses, shops, industries, farms, centers for culture and recreation, public and private buildings — most of them old and abandoned. But of all the structures I photographed, I’m particularly proud of the old movie-houses. They are romance incarnate; structures we all remember and hold dear in our hearts, buildings where vast numbers of citizens visited, that gave birth to endless memories and longings.”
Raz’s Disappearing Architecture website and Natush blog are available only in Hebrew but there are amazing photos, including pictures of how the cinemas looked in their heyday. Definitely worth a click.
Nostalgia Sunday – July 4th 1976
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, War
The Bicentennial Celebration of 1976 was a very big event and the entire USA was decked out in red, white and blue. We — my father sisters and I — instead got a plane on July 3rd and flew to Israel. It had been a rough year, with my mother’s death in early November, and somehow coming to Israel to be with family and friends was a comfort. Israel being Israel, we arrived to the latest national crisis: the hostage situation in Entebbe.
The next morning, we were awakened to the news that the hostages had been rescued. Israel’s reaction was euphoric — not since 1967 had there been so stunning a win! — although everyone knew that the victory was bittersweet. Four hostages and IDF Commander Yonatan Netanyahu were killed. Nonetheless, the raid was a tour de force of Israeli think-on-your-feet strategy and bravado in the face of the cartoonishly evil dictator Idi Amin Dada.
That same morning, I went down to Jerusalem’s Ben-Yehuda Street with my dad and he bought this T-shirt for me.
The text balloon says, “Kol ha-kavod le-Zahal” or “All respect due to the IDF” — probably the last thing Amin was thinking of saying at that moment. The shirt was doubly humorous for having made new use of the most hackneyed of Israeli cliches about the military. As far as we were concerned, it was “Kol ha-Kavod to Lord Kitsch” which had somehow managed to speedily produce the T-shirts in a matter of hours.
And then, the next day, Miss Israel, Rina (Messinger) Mor, was crowned Miss Universe!
It was a double-coup for the Jewish State and its people were ecstatic. We were riding a wave of popularity on the international scene, it was felt. This was only reinforced by Israel’s Eurovision wins in 1977 and 1978. Surely we were becoming a nation like all others, with beauty queens and pop stars, a nation able to vanquish its enemies to the approval of the international community and, like anybody else, glorify those victories in made-for-TV movies. It seemed possible. But those were more innocent times.
Nostalgia Sunday – Dizengoff 99
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Movies, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture
Thirty years ago, apparently, the film Dizengoff 99 hit Israeli movie theaters and apparently I was there. I distinctly remember going to see the movie but, beyond that, have very little recollection about what it was actually about. You would think this might indicate a forgettable film. But no. In fact, Dizengoff 99 has just been released on DVD, with additional material and interviews about what is being touted as an Israeli cult flick.
Hmmm… I do remember there was a menage a trois with Gali Atari, Anat Atzmon and my beloved Gidi Gov… and so does everyone else, I guess, because that’s what comes up when you Google it and seems to be what this alleged cult is all about. Well, you didn’t get many scenes like that in Israeli movies, back in those days, so it must have made an impression.
What is impressive is the cast and crew. Aside from Gov, who was making a transition from singer to singer-actor, and Atari, who subsequently made an about-face back to the safety of the recording studio, there is Atzmon, a legendary beauty and every Israeli man’s fantasy as the dream girl in Lemon Popsicle (a true Israeli cult film). Also worth noting: this was one of the first films produced by Arnon Milchan.
The director, Avi Nesher, has made some truly great Israeli films such as The Secrets, Turn Left at the End of the World, and another true Israeli cult film – Ha-Lahaka, (also: Sing Your Heart Out), about the life and times of an IDF entertainment troupe. Dizengoff 99 may not be his finest work, but it does serve to document Tel Aviv nightlife in the late 70s and the soundtrack features the era’s great: Yehudit Ravitz, Zvika Pick, Arik Sinai, David Broza, Danny Litani, Dori Ben-Zeev, Yitzhak Klepter, Ricki Gal, Yigal Bashan and of course, Gali Atari, fresh from her 1979 Eurovision “Hallelujah” win.
By the way, there really is a Dizengoff 99 — today it houses the Bauhaus Center.
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