Celebrity Shavuot

June 2, 2011 - 3:10 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Entertainment, Food, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Movies, Music, Sports 

Shavuot partying in Tel Aviv

In researching a certain Shavuot article that then got killed, as sometimes happens in the professional writing world, I researched some somewhat interesting info about what Israeli celebrities think of Shavuot, the holiday that often gets ignored. Here’s what they — and I — had to say:

Despite being yet another three-day school vacation right before Chofesh Hagadol, the big school break, Shavuot is a very Israeli kind of chag, and even Sabra celebrities, including those not currently living in the land, endeavor to celebrate. Take former Miss Israel Gal Gadot – who currently holds her own as an ex-Mossad agent with Vin Diesel in the latest “Fast Five” movie – and is planning on making her specialty cheese lasagna for her family’s big Shavuot feast. “The reason why I like this holiday is the food,” admits Gadot.

Tennis player Shahar Peer says she always anticipates her family’s festive Shavuot dinner with its plethora of fruit and dairy dishes.” “That’s the food that I love,” adds the tennis player, who often tweets about what she’s about to eat, whether its Belgian waffles and chocolate in Brussels or her plan to “eat the entire fridge” whenever she’s home.

Besides the dairy emphasis, Shavuot in Israel is still fairly agricultural in nature, with plenty of opportunities to celebrate the summer harvest. Peer remembers donning a wreath of flowers when she was in the third grade and participating in a school play, a fairly common scene around this time of year. Some cities have tractor parades in the days leading up to Shavuot, marking the farming contribution of the country’s moshavim and kibbutzim, with tractors making their way from the farms outside the city.

Model and actress Gadot reminisces about going with her family as a child to a moshav or kibbutz to watch the cows being milked. She also remembers having water fights with her friends, while Sha’anan Streett, lead singer of hip hop/funk band Hadag Nachash, has a vivid memory of dumping an entire pail of water on his synagogue rabbi, who only grimaced and went on with his sermon.

Water fights a while back

Streett was only following tradition. Shavuot has always been Israel’s water festival, as kids swarm the streets with water guns and balloons, celebrating an early-in-the-season water day. Some claim it’s a custom from North Africa, where Jews equated Torah with water – both life-giving sources. It could also be because Shavuot falls in the late spring/early summer, when the weather starts heating up.

For psychic Uri Geller, Shavuot is very special, particularly the learning aspect of the holiday, which he says he tries to do from his home in London. “What’s interesting to me about Shavuot is its spiritual angle and the aura and the energy that emanates fro this holiday,” he says. “It is the holy holiday of the achievement of spirituality and you count back from Passover, it’s 50 days, it’s like going up a ladder that counts 50 steps and 50 in the Kabbalah is the number of infinity, so it has significant ritualistic meaning to me of spirituality.”

Whatever your angle, enjoy your celebrations.

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The Dubai Apartheid Tennis Tournament

February 19, 2009 - 4:00 PM by · 4 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Politics, Sports 

peerYou don’t have to be a tennis fan to be outraged at how Dubai is treating Israel and her favorite tennis daughter Shahar Pe’er.

Pe’er, Israel’s top female tennis star, and 45th ranked on the international circuit, has become a cause celebre since The United Arab Emirates (UAE) earlier this week denied her an entry visa to participate in the Dubai Tennis Championships – one of the most lucrative tournaments on the WTA Tour. Why? Only because she’s Israeli.

According to Reuters, WTA chief Larry Scott has said the $2 million Dubai tournament could be scratched from next year’s calendar if UAE officials persist with their stance of barring Israeli competitors.

Said Scott:

“There certainly will be (sanctions) imposed on the tournament but we’ll make those decisions following this year’s tournament. They were awarded this tournament with a very clear understanding and their agreement that if an Israeli ever wanted to play, they would be allowed to play. But (the agreement) had never been tested until now. Whatever we decide here will send a very clear signal.”

The Association of Tennis Professionals is waiting to hear whether Israeli doubles player Andy Ram will be issued a visa to the UAE, enabling him to play in the Dubai men’s tournament.

In an interview with the BBC, Ram suggested what should be done if he’s refused a visa.
“Maybe cancel the tournament or sanction them with money or something else,” he said. “But something should be done to make sure this situation does not develop again next year.”

Tournament officials defended their stance, with the extremely lame excuses that fans would have boycotted the event if an Israeli was allowed to compete and that Peer’s safety could also have been compromised.

Alan Solow, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, called on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) to impose sanctions against the UAE. “We find the United Arab Emirates’s decision to deny a visa to Ms. Pe’er because of her nationality offensive, discriminatory and unacceptable,” the statement said.

The Conference of Presidents also called for sanctions against the Dubai tournament.
It urged its sponsors, Barclays and Sony Ericsson, to withdraw their support, and that the tennis championships be cancelled in 2010 “unless and until appropriate corrective measures are taken.”

“If they’re going to bar Israelis, why not just rename it the `Dubai Apartheid Tournament’?” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Wiesenthal Center.

But it’s not just Jewish organizations who are lining up on Israel’s side of the court. The Tennis Channel and the European edition of the Wall Street Journal are both boycott the tournament. In an interview with The New York Times, Ken Solomon, chairman and chief executive of the Tennis Channel, called the network’s move “an easy decision to come by.”

“Sports are about merit, absent of background, class, race, creed, color or religion,” Solomon said. “They are simply about talent. This is a classic case, not about what country did what to another country. If Israel were barring a citizen of an Arab nation, we would have made the same decision.”

And tennis mega-star Serena Williams, who won a third round victory in Dubai and moved closer to a semifinal matchup, gave a backhanded compliment to Pe’er, saying in essence that Pe’er was a good egg even if she was from evil Israel.

“I know she’s previously played in the Middle East, in Doha, so it was my understanding she would have the opportunity to play here also, despite legislative issues,” she said, according to AP. “Obviously I am disappointed she hasn’t had a chance to do this because she’s a good person and works just as hard as anyone else on the tour, and should have the opportunity to play. She shouldn’t be denied, it’s not right, she’s just a person. We are all people, no matter where we are from.”

And despite defending Pe’er, Williams made it clear who she was looking out for in defending her decision not to boycott the tournament – number one.

“I have to look at the bigger picture. The big picture is that Shahar Pe’er didn’t get a chance to play but, making an immediate decision, we also have to look at sponsors, fans and everyone who has invested a lot in the tournament. We are all going to consider what are the options for next year, but [this year] we didn’t even know till Saturday that Pe’er had been denied a visa. I think there are rules and protocols as to how you can proceed.”

Don’t worry about Serena, when they start banning blacks as well, we’ll be right behind you.

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