July 4, 2012 | 6:21 pm

Maybe This Should Have Been The First Stage of the Woody Allen Project

Posted by LW Ben Yechezkiel

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The Jerusalem Film Festival begins tonight (July 5) with a gala premiere in Brechat Hasultan, situated just outside the walls of the Old City.

The mee v mee (who’s who) of the Israeli enterntainment industry and many involved in the film industrty from around the world will be in attendance.

But who won’t be there ? Director Woody Allen

Maybe the Woody Allen project suggested by my friend JJ editor Rob Eshman should have started months ago: Mr. Allen” we make your film the premiere of our festival If you have the decency to show up.”

June 25, 2012 | 4:28 am

If You are In Israel and Not Planning to be in Tel Aviv Thursday Night….Change Your Plans

Posted by LW Ben Yechezkiel

Layla Lavan (White Night) is one of the most amazing events I have ever experienced…anywhere. Named after the designation by Unesco of Tel Aviv. it is an amazing citywide all night celebration,

This all night citywide festival includes too many events to describe. Here are a few all night opera concert starting at midnight, outdoor headphone dance party, street musicians and other musicians on the whole length of Rotschild boulevard, music and all night sales at the Yafo market.
And top Israeli performers from 1 30 am to sunrise in a free concert at Zuk beach in northern Tel Aviv. !30 am tillll sunrise..and Yoga on the beach at sunrise.

I dont care what you have planned for Thursday night….change your plans, you wont regret it…you can sleep on shabbat.

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June 25, 2012 | 4:22 am

Jerusalem Season of Culture Begins

Posted by LW Ben Yechezkiel

The Sacond Annual Jerusakem Season of Culture has begun with an extremely interesting event: Going Up to Jerusalem Reality and Art along route one . You can watch a live stream here.

The official description:

he Jerusalem Season of Culture presents “Going Up”: Reality & Art Alongside Route no.1

June 21-27

About:

This weeklong artistic event combines walking, creative expression, and human interaction as artist Guy Briller, who conceived of the project, leads 25 artists, social activists and intellectuals on a pilgrimage from the Neve Shalom communal settlement to Jerusalem. Throughout the pilgrimage, which will be documented and broadcast live on a website created specifically for this purpose, participants will engage in discussions about a range of social, cultural and political issues, as well as act and create in response to the spirit and inspiration of the discussions.

Participating:
Yonathan Avishai, Bik van der Pol, Yuval Ben-Ami, Eden Bannet, Yael Berda, Muhammed Jabali, Yossi Ghinsberg, Etai Darway, Kerem Halbrecht, Markha Valenta, Lavi Zytner, Rafram Chaddad, Meir Tati, Narkis Tepler, Porat Salomon, Noah M Fischer, Tahel Frosh, Jonathan Keren, Chaia Rukin

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June 25, 2012 | 4:04 am

Israel’s Social Protests and The Israeli Wall Street Jounal

Posted by LW Ben Yechezkiel

The social protests have begun again this summer….and have gotten off to a far rockier start. The US general and Jewish press pretty much buried the lede last summer trying to tie the protests to the American obsessions with Israel: Iran and the Israel Palestinian conflict.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The protests concentrated on the demands for “social justice “ (tzedek chevrati) and by the time of the largest demonstration the US equivalent of 20 million hit the streets. And although it is questionable how much has changed, the government felt obligated to appoint a prominent economist to produce a report calling for reforms. That would be roughly equivalent to seeing those developments attached to (a bit more moderate) occupy Wall Street.
But the interesting aspect of the protests I would like to discuss is the role played by Israel’s most prominent business newspaper The Marker roughly equivalent to the Wall Street Journal in business reporting—although affiliated but independent of the liberal Haaretz in itself a bit of a strange combination of the NY Times of Israel affiliated with the WSJ of Israel.

Last year I attended the MARKER’s Israel 2021 conference. The conference began with some obligatory speeches by politicians. Then the real action began.. A room full of round tables in which participants discussed the most important DOMESTIC issues facing Israeli society: integrating the charedi and Arab populations into the workplace and environmental issues among others. All through the winter and spring THE MARKER laid the intellectual underpinning for the protests writing way before the summer protests. This through their extensive reporting about the concentration of the ownership in the economy and lack of competition in the consumer market for numerous products.
This year’s conference (they got my back in the photo that appeared in the paper) went even further. The roundtables represented 120 different bottom up projects to improve the society. And free space was given for booths from all times of social action groups ranging from women’s rights, developing the economies of the Negev and galil, and Bedouin rights.

Today The MARKER carried extensive supportive articles on the protests. The front page headline here: The Police Demand Continued Custody for the Protesters, the Judge Freed them Immediately
Imagine all this from a leading business publication in the US?

Another way that Israel is (WAY) different than the US and the assertion that Israel has moved “way to the right” may not give the full picture.

….And sitting here in the coffee shop I struck up a conversation with a writer involved in the protest who emailed me two of his articles

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June 23, 2012 | 2:13 pm

A Tour Every Visitor Should Take

Posted by LW Ben Yechezkiel

I stated in my mission statement that I will avoid “hamatsav: Nonetheless I would be remiss not to mention that I took a tour of Hebron the group shobrim sheteeyka (breaking the silence) with a young Israeli who did some of his army service there. They conduct tours in english and you can do a virtual tour from their website/you tube.

I’ll leave it at that

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June 21, 2012 | 1:12 pm

Shavua HaSefer The People of the Book Show Their Stuff

Posted by LW Ben Yechezkiel

Last Saturday night marked the end of shavua ha sefer a week (actually 10 day) long festival where across the country publishers set up booths in a public park (Liberty Bell Park in Jerusalem, Kikar Rabin in Tel Aviv among many others) and offer the books at large once a year discounts. The turnout for the festival by some estimates reaches well over 150,000. In addition the month is marked by special programs in libraries and community centers throughout the country featuring talks by authors and poets. And why this time of year.?...because it coincides with Shavuot the time the Jewish people received the Book of all Books.

The booths are packed and people are buying ! and they’re not just buying self help books and pop novels there is lots of serious literature and non fiction both translated and in the original hebrew being purchased . There are displays of serious literature, judaica and poetry (as well as some self help books and pop novels many translated from english).

Several things never cease to amaze me both here at the festival and in bookstores.

Firstly people know books: there is informed discussion of the books and the staff both the young people manning the booths and most of the people I have found in bookstores actually know something about what they are selling (remember what that was like ?).

Secondly it is amazing how much gets translated and how quickly ...after all there are maybe 8 million people in the world (and that’s a very high estimate) that read hebrew as their main reading language…and several hundred thousand of those would never (at least openly) read most of the books that are being translated. Steve Jobs biography for example came out in Hebrew just about the same time as the English version and went straight to the top of the bestseller list. You can also find translations of Captain Underpants for kids and the Devil Wore Prada and similar chick lit as well as translations of virtually every major book that has recently appeared in English….and yes a translation of 50 Shades of Grey is expected to be released soon.

Judaica sells: there is almost always a book of Judaica on the bestseller lists Currently it is a book of stories of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. On a trip last summer I noticed Micah Goodman’s book on Maimonides stacked high in a bookstore on Dzeingoff in Tel Aviv. I asked the salesperson: do they read about maimonides n Dzeingoff she responded with an emphatic “why not”. A recent book composed of a very serious dialogue on religion and literature between 2 Rabbis with a literary background Rabbi Chaim Sabato a Rosh Yeshiva and novelist and Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein a Rosh Yeshiva with a PhD in literature from Harvard sold out of its first priining the first day it appeared in bookstores.

Of course sales of Judaica are higher in Jerusalem. At the book fair in Jerusalem Saturday night there were large crowds waiting for the popular Dati Leumi (modern orthodox in american terms) Rav Benny Lau sign copies of his 4 volume series Chachamim (The Sages) and the books are serious well researched works not light reading or hard core religious dogma. The first volume of the series btw is available in English,

Fortunately the discounts continue at the major bookstores til the end of June.

sts.

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June 21, 2012 | 1:08 pm

Israel Summer 2012

Posted by LW Ben Yechezkiel

Yesterday’s Yediot Acharanot newspaoer carried this picture. It was taken at a Kibbutz in the south near the Sinai border where residents were instructed to sleep in a secure structure. The only such place was the children’s house (it seems this kibbutz retained the old kibbutz practice of the children sleeping together separate from the parents) so everyone slept together in the children’s house. You can notice in the picture that the mother is sharing an ipad with her baby,

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June 21, 2012 | 12:25 am

The Light Rail Is Up and Running…Finally

Posted by LW Ben Yechezkiel

It’s finally running after 10 years of construction: the Jerusalem Light Rail I actually thought the messiah or peace would come first. The route winds from Har Herzl the military cemetery past the central bus station past the machane yehuda market down Jaffa Road past the Damascus Gate in the Eastern Part of the Old City then winds north with stops at French Hill, the Shufat Arab village and the only refugee camp under direct Israeli control before ending in the Jewish Jerusalem suburb of Pisgat Zeev.

Between the people watching,with soldiers,chassidim, arab women in head covering (often with jeans) among the riders, geography and scenery out the window you get a great insight into all the complications of Israel within about an hour.
True to Israel’s high tech reputation most riders pay through the “rav kav” card a plastic card with an embedded computer chip which is refillable to keep a balance. There is no conductor on the train so if you are purchasing individual tickets (almost a certainty since rav kav cards arent generally issued to short term tourists ) be sure to by a ticket before boarding. Although it does seem to be an honor system or there are only spot checks everyone seems to be compliant….which I admit was a surprise.

More high tech: when transferring to the bus to reach my final destination I used my rav card again ( it is used on buses as well) the drive told me it was a free transfer the card knew that i had just gotten off the light rail. As I entered the bus my iphone starting vibrating with emails, I looked up and saw a sign “wifi on this bus provided courtesy of Egged” I checked the news, financial markets and facebook on the trip back to my apartment. Wifi is also free on trains and many inter city buses.

The video is fun even though quite long

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