Celebrity Shavuot

June 2, 2011 - 3:10 PM by Jessica · 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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Tags: celebrities, Gal Gadot, Shaanan Streett, Shahar Pe'er, Shavuot, Uri Geller

Little red corvette

February 24, 2011 - 2:54 PM by David · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, coexistence, Crime, Entertainment, General

Lior Suchard is one of Israel’s leading mentalists – mind reading and object moving are specialties. After winning the Uri Geller reality show in 2007, The Successor, Suchard’s career has taken off, with Las Vegas bookings, appearances on the Jay Leno show and even being named one of the sexiest men alive by People Magazine last year.

When things started to go his way and he began to see some money from his labors a couple years ago, Suchard splurged and bought a red Corvette convertible to tool around in.

Unfortunately, soon after, it was stolen and Suchard thought he had seen the last of his beloved vehicle. In reality, though, it began a two-year adventure with the thieves, Palestinians in the Ramallah area, making contact with Suchard offering the car back in return for ransom.

That began a long process of sensitive negotiations, eventually involving the police, and culminating last month in Suchard and his father Eddi driving from Tel Aviv to the Atarot industrial area outside of Jerusalem to pick up the car.

Suchard was aghast that it was painted school bus yellow, but overjoyed to get the vehicle back in his possession. Showing it off to me outside a Jerusalem restaurant later the same day he got the car back, he wouldn’t disclose what he had to give in return for the booty, but acknowledged that he would do it again.

“I just can’t wait to paint it red, though.”

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Tags: Atarot, corvette, Lior Suchard, mentalist, People Magazine, Uri Geller

Michael Jackson mourned in Israel

June 28, 2009 - 11:39 AM by David · 7 Comments
Filed under: Art, General, Music, Pop Culture

Uri Geller with Michael Jackson.

As with every major event worldwide, there has to be an Israeli connection – even Michael Jackson’s death.

The British press has been full of interviews with Uri Geller, the Israeli psychic, who called Jackson his best friend. Geller says the stress of readying for a 50-show stint in London this summer may have contributed to his untimely demise.

‘He was in good shape. I’m not a doctor, but I can only assume he was under immense stresses and pressures, and you can ask any doctor, stress is a killer.’

Uri, 62, reckons Michael should never have agreed to perform 50 shows at London’s 02 Arena this summer.

‘The pressure of these concerts, putting under huge pressures, he was a perfectionist,’ Uri tells Sky News. ‘That could have been what did it. But that’s just my opinion.
‘I think it was a mistake to target 50 shows…3, 4, 5 maybe 10 shows is enough.’

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, where Jackson performed in 1993 on the second leg of the Dangerous world tour, fans gathered in Dizengoff Square in an impromptu show of sorrow for the musical icon.

“We connect to Michael not just through dance and music but also on a spiritual level,” one fan told Ha’aretz. “He supported peace, he supporting accepting people without discriminating based on religion or race. He is a kind of spiritual leader that we lost, and it’s tough. It’s heartbreaking.”

The fans lit candles and comforted each other and commisserated with each other.

Neor Zuberi, a 22-year-old musician from Tel Aviv, told Ha’aretz that Jackson had influenced culture, music, dancing.

“He also supported the IDF and visited an army base when he came to Israel. The things he did and the values he upheld influenced me. He inspired me to volunteer, like running a break dancing workshop in Sderot,” he said.

Watch a clip from Jackson’s show at Hayarkon Park in 1993 here.