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!”
International Mayumana ensemble’s capital premiere
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Pop Culture, Profiles
With all the talk in recent years about Israeli popular music exports, it’s easy to forget that there are plenty of Israeli entertainers in other realms who have been enjoying growing successes overseas. The world over, there are plenty of Israeli illusionists, dub bassists, jazz saxophonists, supermodels and even boxers - you name it.
When the percussive Mayumana dance troupe got started 13 years ago, many dismissed it as a local knockoff of international sensation Stomp. Now the ensemble maintains a busy schedule touring worldwide. Today Mayumana employs 100 people globally and has starred in ads for brands like Fiat and Coca Cola. Last week, the ensemble premiered Momentum, its new show, for local audiences of thousands at the Jerusalem Theater, under the framework of the Israel Festival.
Ha’aretz recently interviewed Tel Aviv-born Mayumana co-founder Boaz Berman as well as producer Roy Ofer, who joined the team shortly after its launch.
Ofer believes that the key to Mayumana’s success has been the way that he makes sure to keep things in-house:
“We have our own people who we work with, and we rarely involve people from the outside. On tours abroad, we have our own way of doing things. We don’t just perform and leave. We performed in Madrid for eight months, we were in New York for six months, and so on.”
Berman, meanwhile, remembers the early days fondly:
“Our goal was to put on a show that would be different from anything else out there. We were so fired up that we were sure we’d succeed. The people who worked with us then did it for free, because they all believed in us. We worked all day every day, and when we had enough material we started doing open presentations to friends on Wednesdays, which evolved from week to week.”
But according to Ofer, it’s unfair to call Mayumana a “troupe,” when so much more comes into the performances:
“In a troupe, the members all do one specific thing – dancing or drumming or whatever,” Berman explains fervently. “With us, everyone does everything, even though on the face of it they’re completely disparate – one is a professional dancer, another is the national archery champion, another one’s an actor, this one’s a contortionist. Our job is to unite them. It’s a group of people, not a troupe.”
Hey, man. Whatever terminology you prefer. Just keep doing whatever it is that you want to call what you’re doing, because people seem to like it.
Elliot Zimet and friends to magically appear in Israel tomorrow
Launched back in 2003 by Los Angeles’ comic Avi Liberman, the annual Crossroads Comedy Tour has been garnering media attention for its international and relatively high-profile talent pool.
The series of events is a fundraiser for Jerusalem’s youth-at-risk-oriented Crossroads Center, with this year’s shows including tomorrow in Beit Shemesh, Sunday in Ra’anana and two Monday performances in Jerusalem. Tickets are available by clicking here.
The 2009 fundraising tour, however, focuses less on stand-up comedy and more on the allegedly nefarious art of illusion, under the moniker “The Crossroads Comedy Magical Mystery Tour.”
Ben Cohen, who has served as a consultant for David Copperfield and has been named New York’s Magician of the Year, joins a lineup headlined by Elliot Zimet, the Bronx’s hop hop magical wonder.
Zimet’s style is somewhat new to the magic world, thanks to a show dominated by special effects, lighting, dancers and East Coast beats. Clips of his performances (pictured) can be seen on his MySpace profile. Zimet has put on shows at private events hosted by Sean Combs, at Madison Square Garden, and on several TV shows, including NBC’s America’s Got Talent. He has also toured with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
The tour follows in the footsteps of Israel’s recent International Magic Convention, which was staged in Holon two months ago.
Israeli model Esti Ginzburg shot in New York
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Pop Culture
Bar Refaeli seems to be getting some positive attention headed Israel’s way, thanks to her recent appearance on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition and other correlating accomplishments, as I enumerated earlier this month:
Bar is going to save Israel from a water crisis. Bar ate at these three Tel Aviv restaurants (I’ve eaten at all three as well). Bar wins a Women’s World Style Award. Bar appears on Ellen Degeneres. Bar’s body appears on the fuselage of a 737 jet. Bar eats a hamburger (this is news apparently). Bar shuts down the New York Stock Exchange. And my personal favorite, Leo (that kid from Growing Pains) must convert to Judaism in order to marry Bar.
I’m not the only one getting sick of her hotness. The Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) is apparently wondering about Refaeli’s contributions to the greater good of womankind.
Basically, the gist is, can’t there be another Israeli hottie about whom we can get excited? And the answer is decidedly yes. Meet Esti Ginzburg, a Tel Aviv teen who also featured prominently in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, for which she was photographed in Naples.
She’s come a long way since her first modeling gig, for the Tnuva dairy farms, at age eight. Two years ago, she replaced Yael Bar Zohar as the face of Fox clothing, and she hasn’t looked back since. Ginzburg went on to become an international talent, representing brands like FCUK, Pull & Bear, Castro, Tommy Hilfiger. She also recently featured in promotional materials associated with the H&M clothing store’s Winter 08-09 line (pictured). She’s also been on the cover of the French version of Elle magazine four times.
Ginzburg was recently announced as joining the stable of Victoria’s Secret models on the Israeli website for the E! entertainment industry news channel (story in Hebrew). Apparently a shoot is already underway in New York, where Ginzburg is celebrating her 19th birthday. Mazal tov.
Israel Loves NY
So it’s a well-known fact that Israelis love New York — think Aroma in SoHo, the number of post-army Israelis working for Moishe’s Movers and the amount of Hebrew one hears on the city streets — but Fern Penn, the owner of Rosebud, a SoHo boutique that sells only Israeli-designed clothing, is taking the I Love NY slogan back to Israel.
On her last trip to Israel, she brought four dozen I Love NY t-shirts to each of the designers she features in her store, and asked them to “fashion them up” in their own style. The one-of-a-kind t-shirts, recreated by 12 different designers, are being featured in Rosebud throughout October. On sale for $100 each, all proceeds will go to Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan, Israel, and to Elem/ Youth in Distress in Israel.
The designers participating in the project include Ronen Chen, Kedem Sasson, Yael Orgad, Katomenta, Naomi Maaravi, Comme Il Faut, Keren Mualem, Delicatessen, Maya Negri, Fishndag, Dorit Sade, and Ido Recanati.
C’mon, don’t you love New York?
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