A cultural scream
Filed under: Art, design, General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture
The original image
Galai was an amateur photographer working in high-tech in New York when he first took the self portrait, first leaving it in his personal computer files and later uploading it to the Flickr photo sharing website. Because Flickr users can take any photo they like and use it, for free, for any purpose, it didn’t take long for Noam’s facial expression photo to spread. It was just a couple of years later that one of Noam’s co-workers asked him if he’d begun selling tee-shirts. Noam hadn’t, but someone else had had the bright idea of using his scream photo on a shirt, and then selling it for $25.
Eventually, his photo made it to the cover of several political magazines (with his permission), revolutionary posters, event invitations, and, wall graffiti in Iran.
Overall, Noam told newspaper Yediot Achronot that he’s flattered, and feels that the things produced with the image are “pretty cool and creative.” He considered suing the makers of the tee-shirt, but decided not to waste his time. Wisely, he’s taking the whole thing as a compliment.
Beaten with hummous, Israel goes for falafel record
Filed under: A New Reality, Food, General, History and Culture, Pop Culture
Dignitaries, including Israel NBA player Omri Casspi (the tall one) stand in front of the not-too appetizing falafel ball in New York.
An Israeli chef at the New York restaurant Olympic Pita has used thousands of chickpeas, 40 liters of oil and a variety of spices to create the world’s largest falafel ball, Ha’aretz reported.
Weighing in at 10.9 kilograms and with a circumference of more than a meter, the falafel ball is expected to enter the Guinness Book of World Records in the coming days.
“The record set today is nothing compared to the goal we have set for ourselves for next year – the world’s largest gefilte fish,” said Israeli Consul General Asaf Shariv, kicking off a week’s worth of Israel-related events in New York, including the annual Israeli day parade on Fifth Avenue.
I’m not sure if I’d want to bite into the humoungus falafel ball. Falafel joints throughout the country have making the delicacies down to a science, and usually, the smaller the better. A falafel ball of that size just seems too much of a good thing.
As Israel’s number one fast food (I’m sure we stole this from our Arab neighbors as well), there are plenty places to find the balls fried to perfection. I’d be very happy to let another country take the biggest falafel ball award – maybe we can convince Lebanon to make their own and give us back the humous record.
A New York import
Filed under: Art, General, Immigrant Moments, Life
My friend’s father has a saying, “Our imports are better than our exports.” He’s generally referring to the presence of Jews from other movements within liberal Orthodoxy, and the skills and understanding that they bring with them. And while I wouldn’t want to hijack his saying to mean something else, it occurs to me that it can be applied to a few other situations. Not, for example, to Israel as a tech industry nation, for example, where our exports are actually as good as our imports, for example, if not better. Nor to food, where I think our tomatoes and oranges, avocados and organic herbs are a hell of a lot better than our imports. Then again, we’re not doing much importing of tomatoes and avocados, right?
But his saying could be expanded to refer to Israel’s ‘importation’ of people over the decades, the ingathering of the exiles, the Easterners and Westerners, Europeans and Mediterraneans, Americans and South Africans, South Americans and Australians, you get the idea. Namely, all the great people that have made their way here to enrich and enliven this country. But sometimes, our imports take a break from Israel and head to greener pastures to make their fortunes and find fame. At that point, they become, well, exports.
One prime example is comedian Yisrael Campbell, the former Philadelphian who converted three times — Reform, Conservative and Orthodox — and moved to Israel where he married and had three kids. He and his family moved to New York last summer to pursue a plan to put his one-man show on Off Broadway, and they’ve succeeded, as “Circumcise Me” recently opened at the Bleecker Street Theater. Reviews have been decent, and those of us who know and love Yisrael, can attest to the fact that this is a show well worth seeing, especially if you’re into Israeli exports.
She’s leaving home – for Ramat Gan
Air-conditioned Ramat Gan
My wife has second cousins living in the Tel Aviv suburb of Givatayim who have visited us in Jerusalem about three times in 24 years. It’s not because they don’t like us, I don’t think, but because to them, driving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (about 40 miles?) is akin to driving from New York City to Syracuse – it’s something you just don’t do, unless there’s a bar mitzvah or a funeral.
“Jerusalem? I hate going there. It’s so crowded, there’s no place to park, it’s so religious.” Those are some of their excuses. But take aways the religious aspect, those same complaints could be said of Tel Aviv.
I, on the other hand, love any excuse I can get to make the quick jaunt to Tel Aviv. It’s a refreshing change, both visually and in pace of life, from the rather small town Jerusalem mentality.
And apparently, I’m going to have lots more opportunity to explore Tel Aviv and its environs. My oldest daughter is flying the coop and setting up residence in her own apartment in Ramat Gan this summer.
While I have mixed feelings about a child of mine moving away (The Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home” keeps bubbling up in my mind), it will be kind of fun to have a crash pad in Tel Aviv. I just hope that my daughter doesn’t start thinking about Jerusalem in the same way that her Givatayim cousins do.
Life in Tel Aviv is a beach
Filed under: Environment, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Travel
If you can’t make it Tel Aviv this summer to enjoy one of the greatest beaches in the world, Israel can bring the beach to you.
Artificial beach fronts, complete with ‘arcticim’ (ice pops), ‘matkot’ (paddle ball), DJs, food, and live musical performances will be set up this summer in honor of Tel Aviv’s 100th birthday in three locations – New York’s Central Park on June 21, Vienna (from April 28 to September 1) and Copenhagen (from July 25 to August 2)
Sponsored by the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Centennial Administration, the Foreign and Tourism ministries, and corporate partner El Al Israel Airways, the Tel Aviv beach project is attempting to give people a taste of what our Mediterranean coast is really like.
In New York, that means shipping in 30 tons of sand to cover the 15 yard by 15 yard ‘beach’ that’s being erected at the Naumberg Bandshell in Central Park. That costs money, and $200,000 is being allocated to the NY-Tel Aviv beach, an expenditure that Mayor Ron Huldai thinks is money well spent.
“If tourists are going to come to Israel, it will cover the project tenfold,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “There is another Israel, not only wars and crisis.”
The one-day event, which is free to the public, will start at 11 a.m. and finish at 6 p.m. At noon, DJ Hadar Marks will host a beach party and Israeli reggae band Hatikva 6 and rock band Flow will perform.
The notion that most Americans don’t have a notion that the Tel Aviv beach is one happening place was brought home during a comedy routine Sunday night by US comic David Crowe, one of four American funnymen currently touring Israel on behalf of Comedy For Koby.
Crowe, along with fellow comics Avi Liberman, AJ Jamal, and Jeffrey Ross, wowed the sold out Jerusalem show, and the Catholic-raised Crowe (“My grandfather was a priest… evidently not a very good one”) described his first experience in the Holy Land.
“I go down to the beach outside my hotel in Tel Aviv, and I can’t believe it. There’s bronzed-skin women in tiny bikinis, drum circles, dance music. I know the Jews wanted a homeland, but I didn’t know it was Brazil!”
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