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Foto Friday – Biking to the Extreme

Israel is a natural location for extreme sports. Some would even venture that just living in Israel is an extreme sport, given our highway conditions and of course that pesky security situation.

Even the Israel Postal Company has gotten into the act, with a series of stamps celebrating windsurfing, and — of course — the ever-popular all-terrain biking.

Yes, there are bikers all over Israel’s terrain, particularly on the weekends. when they come out in droves. It makes sense. The sport combines the positive effects of outdoor exercise with the even more popular crazy Israeli driver syndrome. There are extreme bikers in the Jerusalem Hills…

In Tel Aviv…

Very extreme biking in Haifa…

The popularity of ultra-sports is constantly growing (for proof, check out ISRAEL21c’s video about Parkour in Tel Aviv) and there are events scheduled for every weekend in the coming months. Shvoong is central repository for all sports-related information but unfortunately, the site is only in Hebrew, as is ProSport, which runs some of the country’s most fun and creative events. For English, try the Israel Cycling Federation, Cyclenix – MTB Israel, Ayalot, the Israeli Club for Runners and Triathletes or Sarma, the Israel Extreme Sports and Rescue Association.

And consider signing up for a charity hike or bike trip: Tsad Kadima’s Hike for Hope, Hazon’s Jerusalem To Eilat Ride 2010; ALYN Hospital’s 11th International Charity Bike Ride. All worthy causes and good fun.

Foto Friday – Painting Feb Red

It’s February which means only six more weeks of winter, or maybe just six minutes more, given the freakish weekend hot spell. The JNF-KKL has declared February a month-long Festival Darom Adom, or Scarlet South Festival, in honor of the wild red anemones now dotting the fields all over the country, but particularly the northern Negev region where the local residents have organized walking tours and entertainment.

Photo by Hirshfield, courtesy JNF-KKL

The red anemone or calanit, is a favorite of Israelis and one of the success stories of Israel’s campaign to save its wildflowers.

Photo courtesy of Free Israel Photos

According to website Wild Flowers in Israel, an excellent resource, “the Hebrew name ‘kalanit’ is related to the Hebrew word for a bride ‘kala’, referring to its beauty,” and is mentioned the Talmud.

Photo courtesy of Flowers in Israel

Hebrew University’s Flora of Israel Online has plenty of scientific articles and lots more photos of this beloved flower.

Photo courtesy of Wildflowers in Israel

For those who can’t be here right now to see these red beauties at their peak, we present a few images to enjoy. And please visit the JNF-KKL website to download their amazing screensaver of Israel’s wildflowers.

Photo by Gil Soffer

Foto Friday – Tu b’Shvat is here!

Tu B’Shvat, the New Year for Trees is upon us! The almond trees are in full bloom.

© Barak Sekeles

For those who live in cold climates and can’t get here in time…

© SOBO Dan

…here are some amazing images of pinky-white blossoms against brilliant blue skies.
Photo by Ester Inbar, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Last week was cold and rainy…
Photo by Eli Zahavi, courtesy of Piki Wiki Israel via Wikimedia Commons

…and given this winter’s wacky weather, who knows what next week could bring…
Photo by Ester Inbar, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

…but this weekend we will enjoy ourselves the warm holiday sunshine.
Photo by Dror K, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I’m a Groundhog’s Day baby, so believe me when I say: only 6 more weeks till spring!

© SOBO Dan

Foto Friday – Face, Body at Bezalel

Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Art & Design will be holding a conference this coming Tuesday entitled “Face, Body”.

Bezalel is Israel’s oldest and most prestigious academy of art and design whose students in the arts, design and architecture become leaders in their fields in Israel and the world.

Photo by David Adika

The conference, hosted by Bezalel’s photography department, will deal with the ways in which the face and body is presented in the plastic arts, in poetry, film and video, as well as in philosophy and science.

Photos by Eyal Ben Dov

The long explanations put forth by the organizers: “The face and the body are material and likeness. The face and the body are both real and the presentation of the real or the similar that enables the existence of the self and the other (everyone is both self and other) in various spheres as well as in discourse about the matter. The face and the body can also be addressed in the context of space and time, power interactions, as concepts and perceptions, as a covering and as what is contained within the cover.”

In a word: verisimilitude.

Image by Reuven Kuperman

Speakers include some of Israel’s leading art photographers and videographers, including department head Micha Kirshner, Reuven Kuperman, Simcha Shirman, Miki Kratsman, David Adika, Eyal Ben Dov, and videographer Alona Friedberg.

Click on the links to learn more about some of Israel’s premiere photographers. More information about the conference can be found on the Bezalel website.

Reviving Arad with Eldad Menuchin

The city of Arad is a sort of forgotten footnote in Israel’s history. Today, the selective and short memory of people living in Israel’s populous center associate Arad mainly with an annual festival of Israeli music. They forget, or worse perhaps, do not even know about Ben Gurion’s vision for Arad as a gateway to the Negev region, a center for industry and tourism because of its clean air, purportedly free of allergens and asthma-inducing pollens.

Photographer Eldad Menuchin does remember. As a child, his family spent summer vacations in Arad.

As an adult, he returned to Arad to create a series of images that capture perfectly the stultifying stillness of a summer afternoon as the city bakes underneath the hot desert sun.

But Menuchin’s work also depicts a city in steady decline since July 18, 1995 when a tragic event — in which three young persons were crushed to death by the festival crowd — tarnished the city’s reputation and deprived Arad of an important source of income.

The circumstances of what has come to be known in Israel as The Arad Catastrophe, were as follows: in May 1995, two months prior to the festival, pop group Mashina announced they were breaking up and Arad would be their farewell concert. On the day of the concert, thousands of teens began crowding the gate leading into the open-air concert venue. The fence caved in during the performance of warm-up act Tea-packs and two young men were killed instantly. A third young woman died in hospital a few days later.

At the time, then-President Ezer Weizman blamed the horrific event on “the Americanization washing over us… Israel must beware of McDonalds, we must beware of Michael Jackson, we must beware of the Madonnas.”

In fact, as official investigation later revealed, the parties at fault were the organizers who oversold tickets, did not open additional gates, and did not have a security officer present on the grounds. In addition, the police deployed an insufficient number of personnel — just 54 officers, according to the Wikipedia entry (in Hebrew) about the tragedy. Well, it wasn’t the first or the last time Weizman got things completely wrong.

The festival experienced something of a revival this past year when sponsorship taken over by mobile phone company Cellcom which renamed it Volume Arad — an attempt, it would seem, to break with the past, and hopefully bring the crowds back to the city.

Foto Friday – AgroMashov’s Fruits & Veggies

For 20 years now, the AgroMashov exhibition at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds has been the place for Israel’s farmers to unveil the new and different breeds of fruits and vegetables that are Israel’s agricultural calling card. Since the 1970s, Israel’s agricultural export policy has been increasingly geared towards the out-of-season, the colorful, the exotic and the just plain weird lookin’… but tasty.

According to an essay on Israel’s agricultural sector, “Growing vegetables has become an art in Israel – based on choosing the right hybrid varieties, fertilizers and irrigation methods, selecting greenhouse covers designed for specific crops and employing innovative growing tools, harvest equipment and post-harvest treatments. In recent years farmers have also been seeking profitable market niches. Examples are a big increase in production of organic produce, as well as specialties like herbs and selected mushrooms.”

At this year’s AgroMashov — which runs from January 13-14 — you can get a first peek at Gac (above center and below*), a Southeast Asian fruit that looks like a spiky orange and is known for its medicinal and nutritional properties.

And then there are the ones that come in different colors but taste about the same, like these multicolored carrots and cauliflowers!

More information about AgroMashov is available on their website , more about Israel’s agricultural innovations can be found on ISRAEL21c, and you may enjoy this video, too.

*Gac interior image courtesy of Jennifer J. Maiser and http://www.lifebeginsat30.com/.

Foto Friday – Oren Izre’el’s fresh look at rehab

The Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation Center — or as it’s familiarly known here, Beit Levenstein — is marking its jubilee anniversary this year with an exhibition of photo and video art on the hospital grounds. Loewenstein Hospital is a national referral center for the rehabilitation of brain-injured patients, where it focuses on the evaluation and rehabilitation of locomotor, cognitive and communication disorders.

The show, entitled “A Place of Hope” gives viewers the chance to learn about Beit Lowenstein’s rehab programs that range from traditional occupational therapy and hydrotherapy to novel treatments such as horticultural therapy, Snoezelen – where it is the first hospital to use this controlled multisensory stimulation technique in unconscious patients — as well as laughter therapy.

Photographer Oren Izre’el spent the past year observing Loewenstein Hospital; the result is a fresh point of view of the hospital’s staff as they care for patients and, by extension, their families, too.

The center coordinates vocational training and psycho-social assistance to help patients integrate back into their homes, communities and workplaces.

The center also takes charge of the rehabilitation of a high percentage of Israel’s wounded soldiers, and has researched and developed new techniques and improved prosthetic devices. Many of these have come into much wider use and patients from hospitals in other countries of the world are referred to Loewenstein Hospital for care.

Loewenstein Hospital, part of Israeli health maintenance organization (HMO) Clalit Health Services, is located in Ra’anana; it has 240 beds for short and long-term hospital care, a large number of specialized outpatient clinics, a general day care hospital, a pediatric day care unit and a traumatic brain injury day care unit.

More information is available at the Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation Center website.

Foto Friday – Yoram Reshef’s pride of researchers

Yoram Reshef heads a commercial photography studio that produces images for some of Israel’s leading brands. “I love taking pictures in factories,” he says. “The encounter with machinery, the steel, the noise is exciting to me. I’m very proud of Israeli industry which creates and produces a world of its own, just as I, as a photographer, produce photos and images for my clients.” Reshef also takes pride in the work he does for institutions such as Tel Aviv University (TAU), producing portraits of scientists and academics working on technology’s cutting edge.

For example, marine biologist Prof. Yehuda “Hudi” Benayahu, a world-renowned expert in the taxonomy, ecology and biology of soft corals. Benayahu has warned that coral extinction could mean a global environmental catastrophe.

Or archeologist Yifat Thareani-Sussely, whose doctoral dissertation focuses on the pottery of the 7-8th centuries BCE. Don’t be fooled by the antiquities around her: TAU’s Department of Archaeology includes a Laboratory for Comparative Microarchaeology, an Archaeobotany Lab, Pottery Restoration Lab and other high-tech methods used for exploring the ancient world.

Biochemist Prof. Gali Prag researches proteins, specifically ubiquitin, a dynamic regulatory signal that can affect protein activity. A former researcher at NIH, he was recruited to head his own lab and the university has high hopes for his future research.

Adv. Liat Golan is the professional director of the Alfred Akirov Institute for Business and Environment. An environmental lawyer by trade, she trains the next-generation of business leaders to meet the threats and opportunities created by rapidly changing environments, both natural and corporate.

.

Tel Aviv University alumnus Chemi Peres, managing general partner and co-founder of venture capital firm, Pitango Venture Capital, continues to be involved by serving on the Board of Directors of Ramot, the commercial arm of the university that focuses on technology transfer with some very nice success stories to its credit.

By the way, Peres also chairs the advisory board of TAU’s Faculty of Management — as well as serving on the boards of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the IDC- Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. More about those fine institutions another day.

Foto Friday – The Italian Synagogue

The Conegliano Synagogue in Jerusalem is the heart and soul of the local Italian Jewish community. The building, formerly a German Catholic school for girls, houses a museum, a restoration center, research and educational center, and a chapel, magnificent though modest in size, whose interior was rescued from destruction and brought to Jerusalem imported from Italy after World War 2.

The Italian synagogue, or Minhag Bnei Roma (the Roman rite), also serves to protect the Jewish prayer rituals not only of Rome but of communities from all over Italy, the roots of which date back all the way to the Second Temple period. According the Jerusalem Italian Jews Association website: “It is still possible to identify some traces of that ancient rite in the present Italian rite, such as the special Shema blessings on the eve of Shabbath “asher kila ma’asav beyom hashevi’i” – “emet ve-emunah bashevi’i kyamta” and the Hebrew “kol nedarim” on Yom Kippur night, instead of the Aramaic one “kol nidre’” which is said in other rites.”

The synagogue itself, however, is far less classical Ancient Rome and way more fabulous over-the-top Baroque. The womens’ section has elements of a balcony at the opera…

I should point out that the Italian rite is traditionally open to influences — there is no one Italian ritual, with Northern Italian communities having a more Ashkenazi rite, central Italian communities having a more Sefardi one and all of Italian Jewry now being influenced heavily by Chabad — and Bnei Roma has an informal sort of gender-neutral area outside the main hall where men and women pray alongside one another. Definitely worth visiting on any Saturday morning – check the website for details. And if you can’t get there right away, take the virtual tour.

I also want to mention that the photos were taken by Jonathan Sierra; a sensitive and imaginative photographer, he is also my beloved life partner who suffered a sad loss this week when his father, Professor and Rabbi Sergio Joseph Sierra, passed away at the age of 85. Rabbi Sierra was a great scholar who, together with wife Ornella, reconstituted the Jewish community of Bologna after the war. He also researched, wrote and edited books and essays on medieval Jewish scholarship (he translated a good portion of the commentator Rashi into Italian), was Chief Rabbi of Torino (Turin) and, after coming to Israel a decade ago, continued as an active member of the Italian Jewish community in Jerusalem until Alzheimer’s cruelly stepped in and vanquished his mind and spirit.

This week, as the family mourns, the entire Italian community has gathered to pay tribute – whether physically at the shiva, or virtually through emails, instant messages and even Facebook – and to pray in the Italian rite.

Foto Friday – Edward Kaprov helps splice the ends

Splicing the Ends is the name of a new art exhibition that opens next week, November 28th, at the Amiad Center in Old Jaffa. Over the past two years, Amiad has emerged as a unique center for the arts in Jaffa’s newly revived Flea Market area, now a hot nightlife spot for Tel Aviv’s young bohemian set.

According to the organizers, the exhibit celebrates the winter season festivals for the three major monotheistic religions — Hannuka, Christmas and Eid ul Fitr — by “telling the story of mankind through the different religions… exploring the themes of immigration, living as an individual and as part of a community, and how one relates to oneself and to one’s environment.”

The show features works by over 30 painters, sculptors and photographers , including Edward Kaprov. A veteran immigrant to Israel from the former Soviet Union, Kaprov has worked with Israel’s biggest newspapers including business daily Globes, Haaretz and Yedioth Aharonot. His features have been published by National Geographic, GEO, and Russian Newsweek as well as other publications.

His work on display in “Splicing the Ends” deals with how religion informs day-to-day life in Israel, whether in the army…

…at a soup kitchen for hungry children…

…motivating political protest…

Kaprov’s work ranges from news and commercial photography to personal projects, including a series on Shamanism in Israel.

Splicing the Ends runs from November 28 through December 21 at the Amiad Center. A portion of the proceeds from the exhibit will go to ILAN, Israel’s Foundation for the Handicapped.

 

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