IsraelityBlog

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 [...], Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:28:02 +0000

Giving insurance companies an (even worse) name

This is about as mundane a subject as is out there, but it certainly reflects that the reality of living in Israel has very little to do with the headlines most people read, and more to do with the trials and tribulations we all face no matter where we live. I wrote a few weeks ago [...], Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:26:56 +0000

Beaujolais Nouveau

If it’s the third Thursday in November, that means it’s a) the Thursday before Thanksgiving and more importantly, b) the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau, the first wine of the harvest. Drunk when the wine is still young and fresh, the million cases of Beaujolais Nouveau that are shipped from France worldwide each November has become [...], Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:11:19 +0000

Room 124

Israeli bureaucratic institutions have been slowly but surely modernizing over recent years. You can get in and out of the infamous Interior Ministry in less than a day…and you don’t have to line up at 8:00 AM just to shove your way in through the heavily guarded front door. The health funds now have computerized kiosks [...], Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:17:32 +0000

Not just any third birthday

One of the most quickly forgotten aspects following any terror attack is the survivors. We all mourn the victims, obsess about the perpetrators, and move on, as those left behind attempt to pick up the pieces of their lives. Three-year-old Moishe Holzberg has proven to be the exception. A year ago, Moishe’s parents, Rabbi Gavriel Holzberg, [...], Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:44:05 +0000

Picture of the week: The Ethiopian journey comes to an end

It’s been a long journey for Israel’s Ethiopian Jews, airlifted out of Ethiopia to Israel in 1984 and 1991, but this week, many must have felt their travels were really and truly over. Thousands of Ethiopian Jews descended on Jerusalem on Monday to take part in the prayer of the Sigd on a hill overlooking [...], Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:31:33 +0000

TIME cites Israeli for creating ‘new art form’

e wrote about him back in March and now the rest of the world is catching on. One of the top 50 inventions of 2009, according to TIME magazine is the music video montage Web site created by Israeli musicians Ophir Kutiel, who goes by the name Kutiman. Kutiel’s site, thru-you.com, has atttracted more [...], Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:14:22 +0000

Protesting Israel-style

The email we received last week was dire. Our neighborhood was in grave danger of being ruined by unscrupulous real estate developers, it read. A massive 210-unit apartment project had been green-lighted to be built right in the middle of an already congested neighborhood. The resulting traffic, pollution and just plain lack of aesthetics (the planned [...], Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:42:20 +0000

Austrians forget how Hatikva goes

People wonder why Israel is always on the defensive, when things like this explain it perfectly. At an international fencing competition over the weekend in Austria, two Israeli teens – Dana Stralinkov, 14, and Alona Komarov, 13 – won the gold and bronze medals respectively. However, at the ceremonies awarding them the medals, instead of playing the [...], Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:21:41 +0000

Nostalgia Sunday – Old ads are more fun

If we are to learn anything from Mad Men, it’s that advertisements are most fun and best viewed in retrospect. We look back in “What were they thinking?” wonderment at the positioning of certain products. For example, here’s a slideshow of Israeli advertisements from yesteryear – including one for Osem’s Bamba as a crispy late-night [...], Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:43:13 +0000