Stuck between a beach and a hard place

Jerusalem Post, Metro; December 29, 2006

Tel Aviv Anglos find work more easily, but struggle for a sense of community. Two boxes at end of text.

It's Thursday night at Tel Aviv port, one of the more happening spots in Tel Aviv at the start of every weekend. Meimad Hahamishi, one of the veteran mini-clubs whose popularity has been dwarfed by the newer bars in the area, has been rented out by Merkaz Hamagshimim Hadassah, an absorption-community center for olim based in Jerusalem, for their annual Tel Aviv Hanukka party.

Unlike last year's party, this one never kicks off - at least by Tel Aviv nightlife standards - and draws only about 80 people. The chartered bus from Jerusalem, originally scheduled to leave at 2:00 am, heads back ten minutes earlier.

Moran Shtark, 27, who immigrated to Tel Aviv from Canada about seven years ago, decided to check out the party with two native Israeli friends because 'I haven't been in an Anglo environment for I don't know how long. I miss it a little.'

But after an hour of satisfying his nostalgia, he leaves early to throw back a glass of Red Bull and vodka at the trendy 'Whiskey A Go Go' nearby, which is so packed that the selectors have to turn people away in true Tel Aviv style.

Shtark's momentary straddling between two worlds - the Anglo and the Israeli - is representative of an experience common to single Tel Aviv olim: They are eager to assimilate into Israeli society, hang out with Israelis and party at Tel Aviv's stylish digs, while they miss a community of English speakers with whom they share a mother tongue, immigrant experiences and aspirations. Some look askance at Jerusalem as an Anglo 'bubble.'

A week later, Merkaz Hamagshimim throws a Hanukka party in Jerusalem at the Layla Bar. The place packs in about 200 people, and both Anglos and Israelis get down on the dance floor until four in the morning. The party's success is standard for many of its Jerusalem-based events, which are a prime source of social networking for Jerusalem olim. This is one of the first events Merkaz Hamagshimim has held in Jerusalem outside its campus in the German Colony, which serves as a melting pot for olim aged 19-35.

Hagit Sinai-Glazer, program coordinator for Merkaz Hamagshimim in Tel Aviv, has examined the social and educational frameworks available for olim in Tel Aviv, and noticed a difference in the profile and needs of Tel Avivian Anglos as opposed to their Jerusalemite counterparts. 'Olim in Tel Aviv are less religious and they want to integrate faster - more events with sabras, more meetings and opportunities to hook up together,' she observes. 'As for their own Anglo community, it's not that they don't want it or throw it away, but it's less important for them and they don't look for it as much as olim look for it in Jerusalem, for example. This leads to a lack of a community feeling.'

Regarding he low turnout at the Hanukka party, she cites minimal advertising and choice of venue as possible causes. Other events they organized this past year, such as their Yom Ha'atzmaut barbecue at Park Hayarkon, drew around 170 people and a summer party held in a dance club in Jaffa drew 150. A Thanksgiving dinner organized by Merkaz Hamag-shimim, together with Nefesh B'Nefesh, a non-profit organization that promotes and assists aliya, drew about 70 people - considered a respectable turnout for the Tel Aviv community.

Just this past week, Nefesh B'Nefesh welcomed its 10,000th oleh. Among the immigrants who moved to Israel with Nefesh B'Nefesh since its inception, some 450 immigrants chose to live in Tel Aviv, compared to 2,000 who settled in Jerusalem. Most of the Tel Aviv olim were singles, while the Jerusalem contingency included families, young and old.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 8,130 immigrants arrived in Israel between January and June 2006. Of these, 470 came from the US (about 6 percent). The top cities for initial immigration include: Jerusalem (863 olim, 40% from the UK and about one-third from the US), Beersheba (554), Ashdod (493), Haifa (479, 65% from the former Soviet Union), Netanya (385, 52% from France), and Tel Aviv (352).
The breakdown for Tel Aviv olim was unavailable, but Nefesh B'Nefesh notices a general trend.

'When someone moves to Tel Aviv, they're looking for a big city environment,' notes Adina Bennett, a member of the social services staff at Nefesh B'Nefesh. She works specifically with Tel Aviv olim to assist their acclimation through social programs and workshops. 'They're used to living in New York, Chicago, London - lots of people, running around. Tel Aviv is known to be a more metropolitan city.'

Job opportunities, particularly in the areas of hi-tech, finance and business, are usually more plentiful in Tel Aviv.

Bachelor Ari Gottesman moved to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem four years ago for the same reason that many other immigrants choose Israel's metropolis: employment. 'Jerusalem was very limited and there was a lot more available in Tel Aviv in hi-tech,' he says.

Having lived in Jerusalem for eight years, Gottesmann left behind a tight social circle only to find he had to start from scratch in Tel Aviv. 'In Jerusalem there was a very strong community. That's the big advantage of Jerusalem - it makes it easy to adapt, acclimate and get to know people. In Tel Aviv you're much more alone. You can meet people and individuals very easily, but it takes longer to get to know them.'

Gottesmann's sentiments are common among immigrant newcomers to Tel Aviv, both those who transfer from Jerusalem and those who move directly from English speaking communities abroad. Attracted by employment opportunities and a secular urban lifestyle, many sacrifice a soft landing in a close-knit Anglo community - such as that readily available in Jerusalem or Ra'anana - for more fast-paced, individualistic lives in the big city.

While educational opportunities for English speakers in greater Tel Aviv include the Inter-Disciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya and Tel Aviv University's Sackler medical school, which usually provide an automatic student community, no organized absorption centers or ulpans combine on-campus housing, as do Ulpan Etzion, Merkaz Hamagshimim and Beit Canada in Jerusalem.

Most Tel Aviv olim come into the city aware that it requires of them more independence and assimilation with Israelis. Software engineer Marc Fischman, 32, who made aliya from Dallas with Nefesh B'Nefesh three years ago, settled in Tel Aviv because he already had a base of friends in the city from his previous work in the US. 'In Tel Aviv you get thrown into Israeli society when you move here. This really helped me integrate into Israel better,' he says.

Fischman actually commutes to his job in Jerusalem, and would happily consider moving to Jerusalem in the future. 'I want to try it, see what it's like up there. Tel Aviv really is a fast paced city - it's the city that never sleeps. Jerusalem is more relaxed, and I think in the past few years I've relaxed a little. I'd like to get more involved in religion, and I think the community is better for it.'

Tal Zvi Nathanel, a sabra who studies at the IDC international program, founded an on-line social community and city guide called Eganu.com after noticing that his foreign classmates and roommates seemed lost navigating the Israeli system. 'People who come straight to Tel Aviv find it harder in comparison [to Jerusalem], because the nature of Tel Aviv is much more individualistic - everyone minds their own business,' he says.

Ben Ninio, an oleh from Australia who serves as advisor to Eganu.com, thinks that efforts to bring English speakers together are most successful when they start at the grassroots level, rather than through formal institutions. 'The organizations exist, but people don't use them. Since they are not used, other people aren't attracted to them. Eganu's big aim is not to be a structured framework,' he explains.

In conducting interviews for this article, it was much easier to find olim who moved from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv than vice versa. On a larger scale, the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies cited a negative turnover in migration in 2005, as 5,800 people moved from Jerusalem to other cities. In all, 10,400 settled in the capital, while 16,200 left.

Bradley Fish, however, a musician and music producer who came on aliya with Nefesh B'Nefesh two years ago, went against the stream and moved to Jerusalem, in part for its communal benefits and Jewish learning opportunities. 'I think socially it's nice for Anglos. There are so many here [in Jerusalem] that you get a little America. I wanted to do [Jewish] learning, but didn't have good enough Hebrew to study in Hebrew. There are a gazillion opportunities in Jerusalem, and almost none in Tel Aviv.'

Fish found more opportunities to jam with other musicians in Tel Aviv, the center of the music industry in Israel, but says that music opportunities can also be found and made in Jerusalem. 'There's a certain point in your career where you want to be in the mix - constantly bouncing off people, jamming with everyone - that's where Tel Aviv is. Then there's a point in your career when you want to be more introspective, creative. There are definitely more players in Tel Aviv, and I'm still working with some of those people,' he says.

Sinai Glazer of Merkaz Hamaghsimim is optimistic that Tel Aviv English speakers will soon develop into a more cohesive community: 'Jerusalem has been going on for a decade or so. That's the natural place to land when you make aliya. Tel Aviv is just now starting to kick off in this sense. It will take a while. You need patience, faith, and I believe eventually we will succeed to give olim in Tel Aviv what they need.'

(BOX #1) Not only for the secular
Observant olim may have a harder time cracking a city better known for its bars than synagogues. Avi Griss, who works in sales and marketing at a hi-tech firm, chose Tel Aviv for its heterogeneity, buts admits to experiencing difficulty in developing some sort of community, particularly as an observant Jew.

'I found myself jumping from Beit Knesset to Beit Knesset, which isn't great for building a community. You're kind-of like a nomad.' Eventually, he discovered a religious-Zionist yeshiva near Ichilov Hospital, Yeshivat Ma'ale Eliyahu , where he often prays and studies.

After experiencing similar difficulties in adapting an observant lifestyle to Israel's secular mecca, Australian native Rafi Zauer and several of his observant friends decided to form their own synagogue-based community, the kind with which they had grown-up with in their former Diaspora communities. 'We never found something that we felt we belonged to and accepted,' Zauer explains of his early shul-hunting.

In 2000, he and his friends started Minyan Ichud Olam as an informal minyan for religious Tel Avivians seeking modern-Orthodox style Shabbat prayers in a synagogue atmosphere, followed by Shabbat home hospitality. They were given use of a hall in Ihud Shivat Zion synagogue on Rehov Ben Yehuda, and the congregation has grown from its initial 40 participants to 150 members today. About half the members are native-born Israelis. The minyan's December 17 Hanukka party, held at Layla on Rehov Ben Yehuda, drew close to 200 people.

The synagogue caters to a definite niche within Tel Aviv, i.e. modern Orthodox olim, which may be one source for its relative growth. 'After a while, people started moving to Tel Aviv specifically because we existed,' says Zauer.

For some observant olim, like Kevin Lev, 27, who made aliyah from Los Angeles a few months ago, Tel Aviv still doesn't answer a desire for a rich religious life. While he had considered Jerusalem, he didn't want to suffer the commute to his job outside Netanya. He chose to settle in Givat Shmuel, a neighborhood located near Bar Ilan University in a Tel Aviv suburb.

'Tel Aviv doesn't have a whole lot from a religious standpoint, but Givat Shmuel does. It's a very vibrant, happening community,' he says.

With its concentration of religious singles and young couples, many of them drawn from the Bar Ilan student body, Lev doesn't feel lacking for a synagogue-based community and Shabbat hospitality. 'If the Givat Shmuel community had not existed, I probably would have ended up in Jerusalem,' he concludes.

(BOX #2) Ten Reasons to Live in Tel Aviv:
As an olah of seven years who has lived back-to-back in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and then Jerusalem again, I can attest that there are pros and cons to living in each city. Sometimes, the experiences are like two sides of the same coin, and if you're schizophrenic like me - respectful of Jewish tradition but admiring secular style, intellectually liberal but politically conservative, seeking excitement and glamor but appreciating depth and quiet - you might never feel truly at home in either city.
Ten Reasons to Live in Tel Aviv:
1. The beach
2. The relative warmth in the winter as opposed to Jerusalem's chill
3. You can make a decent living so you don't have to rely on favors
4. There are enough New York-style restaurants and bars where you go to escape and forget that you live in Israel
5. You can wear tank tops and tight shorts in the middle of the street and no one looks at you funny
6. On any given Friday night, you can venture into a bar or club looking good and end up leaving with free love
7. You look up and see skyscrapers, reveling in the modernity and creativity of Israel
8. Shops, pubs, restaurants are open on Shabbat
9. You learn Hebrew quickly, since you're not surrounded by Anglos
10. You can always find an excuse to get dressed-up and keep up on fashion trends
Ten Reasons to Live in Jerusalem:
1. The kotel
2. The relative dryness in the summer as opposed to Tel Aviv's humidity
3. If your car battery dies, you can stand by the side of the road and someone will stop to help you
4. People actually understand why you decided to move to Israel
5. You can tie an orange ribbon on your rearview mirror and no one looks at you funny
6. On any given Friday night, you can venture into a synagogue looking good and end up leaving with a free Shabbat meal
7. You look up and see the golden Jerusalem stone, reveling in the ancient roots of Israel
8. The Shabbat siren and the ensuing silence
9. You don't forget how to speak proper English
10. You can walk to the supermarket in your pajamas without feeling out of style

Ethiopian beauty queen encourages aliyah

Jerusalem Post, Daily; December 26, 2006

Shani Mashasha's aliya story reads almost like Cinderella. The Ethiopian-Israeli actress and model came to Israel at seven with her father and stepmother steeped in romantic stories about Israel and "Yerushalem," the Amharic name for Jerusalem given to her as a baby. Last week, 17 years after her arrival in Israel, Mashasha returned to Ethiopia as a beauty queen, speaking as "Miss Aliya" to Ethiopia's Jewish community.

"It's not my first time visiting Ethiopia, but this visit really moves me," Mashasha said in a telephone interview in the days before her trip. Crowned Miss Aliya several months ago in a televised beauty competition for Israeli immigrants, Mashasha is serving on the trip as an Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia - part of her prize for winning the Jewish Agency-sponsored pageant.

The trip is Mashasha's fourth to Ethiopia since she left the country for Israel as a little girl.

"It's not a regular visit," she said. "It makes me feel really good to contribute my knowledge and explain to [Ethiopian Jews] how life is in Israel, what my experience was like, how you have to behave here. It's different from my other visits - I'm doing something useful."

The 24-year-old beauty admits that hers is a story of unusual success among Ethiopian immigrants, a fact she attributes to persistence and a positive attitude. Mashasha, who adopted the more typically Israeli name Shani after arriving in Israel, was discovered by a modeling agency at 15 while a student at a religious high school for girls in Haifa, where her exotic looks and singing and acting abilities caught the attention of faculty and students. She has since appeared in commercials for the national lottery, Elite coffee and pain relief medication, as well as in fashion catalogs and on the runway. She has also acted in Ethiopian theater in the city for which she was named, Jerusalem.

Despite her success, Mashasha says she learned quickly that Israel wasn't the fantasy world she envisioned as a girl. In her early days in the country, she and her family lived in a Tiberias absorption center that didn't match the idyllic living conditions she'd imagined.

After serving in the army as a human resources coordinator, Mashasha rented an apartment on her own in Tel Aviv while supporting herself and her mother's family back in Ethiopia. Mashasha's mother, a former model, had stayed behind when her daughter left for Israel, ultimately having five additional children during her second marriage. Mashasha's mother and stepfather died seven years ago.

"I don't think I've had any more luck [than other immigrants]," Mashasha said of her aliya experience. "I just think that I knew not to let things make me despair, not to break. If I want something, I'll persist."

This, she says, would be her message to prospective immigrants in Ethiopia.
And her own big dream? "Hollywood," she said. "For sure."

Into the groove

Jerusalem Post, Daily; December 21, 1006

Click here for original

Israeli DJs are gaining a strong following among party-goers around the world, though the artists' compatriots are still their biggest fans

Though Israel's public image overseas may be a source of constant stress for policymakers, if one recent poll is to be believed, the country is among the world's most popular for devoted club-goers.

Infected Mushroom, DJ Yahel and Offer Nissim aren't likely to be familiar names to most people out of their 20s, but thanks to DJ magazine's recent ranking of the world's top 100 DJs, these performers - and three of their compatriots - are now among the hottest names on the global dance music scene.

The results of the prestigious DJ annual poll have been a boon to these Israeli artists, and to Israel's reputation on the electronic music scene. With six of its premier DJs ranked among the world's top 100 - actually, among the top 50 - Israel is disproportionately represented, in a very big way, among the countries whose performers appear on the poll.

'We don't promote our acts in Israel,' says Avi Brand, the managing director of BNE, a Holon-based record and artist management company representing a number of the country's top club DJs. Most of BNE's prominent DJs are booked well into 2007 in countries as diverse as Ukraine, Canada, Portugal, Mexico and Japan. The company's top act, Infected Mushroom (#12 on the DJ list, up 14 spots from a year ago), is performing almost every night this month just in Brazil, a country emerging as one of the top markets for trance music.

A former executive at the Hed Arzi music label, Brand was among those responsible for marketing pop artist Ofra Haza overseas, helping to turn the 'Im Nin Alu' singer into arguably Israel's most successful performer abroad, with a Grammy nomination, Tonight Show appearance and unexpected European club following all to her name.

The process of marketing Israeli DJs abroad has clear parallels with his past efforts. 'It's years of hard work - years of contacting people, sending them samples, [distributing] DJ sets recorded by the artist,' says Brand. 'We introduce them. Every record that comes out gets a lot of exposure throughout the world.'

To streamline the effort, BNE performs all of its promotional work itself, with publicists working long and unconventional hours so that they can be in contact with tastemakers and club bookers in other parts of the world. Colorful newsletters go out from the company every month to foreign nightclub promoters, industry executives and music fans to keep the company's artists in the spotlight.

When it comes to the following the Israeli DJs have attracted overseas, the true meaning of the DJ magazine poll may be a bit difficult to interpret, though the ranking clearly shows the energy and commitment of Israeli music lovers themselves. Much like on reality TV shows, winners of the DJ ranking were selected by fans, with Israelis making up the sixth largest voting bloc, falling in after their counterparts from the US, UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Brazil. Some 4,817 of the 217,102 ballots came from Israel, magazine officials said.

'Every year, certain countries get into the poll, [and] more and more people in that country hear about it,' says Terry Church, DJ's news editor. 'If an Israeli DJ gets into the poll, then other Israeli DJs are aware the poll exists, and they'll get their fans to vote for them. [The 2006 poll] has something to do with Israelis taking the poll seriously.'

And regardless of the online poll's statistical shortcomings, Church says Israeli DJs have indeed made their mark on the international clubbing scene. 'Psy-trance' - psychedelic trance music popular at rave parties - 'coming from Israel has certainly become quite a big genre,' he says.

Israeli DJs' international prominence may have its roots in local culture, according to Avi Nissim of the trance group Astral Projection. In a three-page feature in DJ about the Israeli artists ranked in the poll, Nissim told the magazine that the pressures of living in Israel may have contributed to the rise of the genre here. Many Israelis, the article suggested, initially discovered trance music at raves during post-army trips in Goa, India, then brought the music home.

'Psy-trance really takes people away spiritually,' Nissim told DJ. 'Because living here is so hectic, it just pushes you to be more creative and do something to escape this world. That's what people love about psy-trance. It's not about drugs or alcohol. People just listen to the music and dance, and it touches them somewhere.'

The professional skills of Israeli DJs are growing, according to Ronen Heruti, the director of Tel Aviv's Muzik School of Creation and Production. 'Those who come today to learn how to be DJs don't come for the hype, but because of their artistic interest in the profession,' Heruti says.

Founded in 1997 as the 'DJ School of Contemporary Music,' Muzik became one of the first music schools to offer courses for DJs. The school recently expanded its curriculum to include a three-year academic program for music production - a move reflecting the production background of the Israeli DJs represented in the poll.

BNE's policy of signing DJs who are also producers further indicates the connection between music production and successful work on the dance floor.

'I'm looking for musicians first who then become DJs,' Brand says. 'To transfer someone from a musician to DJ is much easier than to make a DJ a musician.'

Despite Israel's rise on the global dance music scene, Dr. Motti Regev, a lecturer in sociology and a popular music expert at the Open University, hesitates to identify a specifically 'Israeli' musical component as the source of the country's growing prominence.

'One thing that comes to mind is that for many years, producers of contemporary music in Israel, just as in other small and peripheral countries, dreamed of succeeding and making it in the world market,' he says, noting the relatively small role of language and lyrics in dance music.

The success of Israelis on this year's poll bodes well for the future, Regev says.
'Once you have one or two musicians who succeed in any one genre, you have more people follow,' he says. 'It signals to peers that there is the possibility to make it outside of Israel É It's a chain reaction - one thing leads to another.'

Midnight at the oasis (bar reveiw)

Jerusalem Post, Billboard; December 15, 2006

Temperatures may be dropping even in Eilat as winter arrives, but things continue to heat up at the coolest restaurant-bar there, the Park Avenue.

One would think that Eilat, Israel's premier resort town, would by now have several bars and pubs that appeal to older, stylish, discerning people who don't count trance as their favorite musical genre. But Park Avenue, which opened two years ago, is among the first of its kind.

Located away from the popular, folksy tourist center, Park Avenue is an alternative to the dingy, loud and seedy Eilat watering holes. Frequented by the better-dressed tourists, local yuppies and celebs vacationing in the city, Park Avenue is the most glamorous, exclusive New York-style resto-bar in the area.

While the design isn't as invested as some of its Tel Aviv counterparts, it certainly has an air of modernity, sexiness and sophistication. The bar, for example, is shaped like two breasts, to allow for maximum interaction and lines of sight among patrons. The atmosphere is relaxed as befits Eilat, yet lightly prestigious.

Co-owner Shlomi Amar, an Eilat restaurateur, deliberately focused on creating a high-quality, affordable menu to maximize the fun at the bars and tables - the more people eat and drink, the more lively the place. The prices are way below what such a venue could demand. Cocktails go for NIS 26 - a major bargain - and tasty salads, pastas and sandwiches start at the same price.

For those looking for a quality nightlife experience in Eilat (minus the dancing), Park Avenue is a definite recommendation.

Park Ofira (across from the Dan Panorama), (08) 633-3303
Music: DJ nightly: Sun: Ethnic; Monday: '70s, '80s, '90s; Tuesday: Israeli; Wednesday: guest DJ; Thursday-Saturday: Freestyle

Charm school

Jerusalem Post, Daily; December 13, 2006

Celebrated psychic Uri Geller returned to Israel last month to groom an heir. The resulting reality TV series has proven magic in the ratings

It's been almost exactly 10 years since I first interviewed controversial author, television personality and mind reader Uri Geller for The Forward in New York. Back then, he was promoting his motivational book Uri Geller's Mindpower Kit. These days he's hard at work on his new reality show, The Successor, a televised talent show in which Geller seeks to pass the torch - or telekinetically- altered spoon - to an heir chosen from among nine contestants.

Physically, the world-famous 'paranormalist' - that's Geller's preferred term - has hardly changed in the decade since I last met him. 'I still haven't had plastic surgery. It's still my hair, ' he says when asked about his widely remarked-upon, youthful appearance.

I've noticed a few more wrinkles under Geller's eyes, but he's wearing a stylish puffy black sports jacket, and my eyes are drawn to the golden highlights in his hair. Geller carries himself as if he were in his twenties, and seems more relaxed, even a little wiser, than when I first met him, as if he now has nothing to prove and no one to impress.

I meet him at a lawyer's office in Tel Aviv for an exclusive interview for The Jerusalem Post - beyond commercials for The Successor, Geller hasn't done much publicity for the show.

And no, he's not at the lawyer's office for legal advice - despite the mild controversy surrounding his show (a Haifa elementary school student recently passed out trying to emulate a pulse-stopping contestant), Geller's not facing a lawsuit. The lawyer is simply a childhood buddy who played basketball with Geller as a teenager, Geller says with nostalgia in his voice.

I produce a copy of the article I wrote about Geller a decade ago, and he's pleased. It's dated December 20 - his birthday, as it happens. Next week he'll celebrate his 60th.

'I can't believe this, and you didn't know that [it was my birthday]. That's so far out. You have to admit that's far out,' he says.

I remind him that 10 years ago he bent a spoon for me and duplicated a sketch of a flower I drew without his looking. I ask if he'll read my mind again, but he politely declines. 'But did you bring a spoon?' he asks.

I haven't, unfortunately, but that's okay. Though Geller won't have an opportunity to perform his most famous trick - bending a spoon with his mind - he's ready to tell me about the significance of his Israeli comeback after 35 years of living outside the country.

'I walk on the beach to my hotel, and I say, 'Wow, this is my country,'' he says. 'Walking on the streets of Jaffa - it's like a circle. I came back to my roots.'

'My mother,' he continues, 'came [to Israel] on a ship - she escaped the Nazis - and I actually met a guy on the street today who started crying in front of me, shaking, telling me that his parents came with my mother ... These are very emotional things.'

Despite leaving Israel to pursue the wealth and fame he's undoubtedly achieved, Geller says he's never forgotten his homeland.

'In the back of my mind I always have the burning energy, desire to support Israel. And I always have, on every show that I do - radio, television. I always say I'm an Israeli and [that I was] born in Tel Aviv. I always feel that I'm an invisible ambassador for the state of Israel.'

Geller's currently flying to Tel Aviv every week from London, where he lives with his wife, for Saturday evening tapings of The Successor, and he's also spending time giving motivational lectures to local businesses. He intends to spend his birthday at Tel Hashomer hospital with wounded soldiers, cheering them up with some spoon bending. He recently bought an apartment in Jaffa and plans to spend more time in Israel.

Geller was approached about doing The Successor during a visit to Israel earlier this year while serving as chairman of International Friends of Magen David Adom.

'[The Keshet production company] unfolded this unique format, and I liked it. I liked that it came from Israel, where I was born,' he says. 'I thought if I would ever do a reality TV show where I look for my successor, it must start here, in my homeland.'

Despite his psychic powers, it's unlikely Geller could have foreseen the show's breakout success since it began airing last month. The Successor broke ratings records with its debut episode and has won the weekly ratings race with each subsequent show.

Geller's name has been back in the national headlines ever since, with the psychic garnering more publicity and controversy in Israel than he has in years. The success of the show has also inspired a healthy number of parodies, with TV news satire Eretz Nehederet devoting significant screen time to Geller in the first two episodes of its new season. (A major ratings hit in its own right, Eretz Nehederet may delight in parodying Geller, particularly his frequent use of English on his show, but it hasn't managed so far to beat him in the ratings.)

Geller says he isn't bothered by the attention he's received, despite critics who've continued to call him a fraud and opportunist. 'To the critics, I have to send a bouquet of flowers,' he says, though he adds that he's toned down his flamboyant public persona a bit over the years. 'When I was young I used to state categorically that what I do is real and has to do with supernatural forces and so on. Today I learned to be broader about what I say about myself ... I love the fact that people argue about me, that people try to debunk me, that people spend hours arguing whether [what I do] is real or not. That's really what fueled the wheel of publicity around me all these years.'

The Successor is giving the wheel a few more turns. Geller attributes the show's success to the aggressive and clever promotional campaign behind it, but also says his return to Israel is itself worthy of all the attention.

'Since everyone in Israel knows how I succeeded abroad, it's kind of like, 'Let's see what Uri Geller has to bring,' he says. 'There is also the aspect of the situation in Israel - the psychological pressures, the wars, the struggle. People are looking for an escape somewhere, a light at the end of the tunnel.'

'The show,' he continues, 'is about, 'I want to be amazed. I want to be astounded.' I want people at home to feel their hair stand on end.'

The show has received press attention worldwide, and Geller says Keshet has been approached by production companies abroad interested in buying the show's format. 'It's great for Israel,' Geller says of The Successor's success.

But while he believes the series could be adapted successfully in other countries around the world, Israel stands out as a place to stage such a contest. Jews in particular have a talent for understanding and manipulating natural phenomena, Geller says, citing Harry Houdini (ne Weiss), David Copperfield, David Blaine and even Albert Einstein as examples.

True or not, it appears that the show has sparked the interest of a new generation of aspiring Israeli mentalists. The day before our interview, Geller had performed on a children's TV show and shared his e-mail address with the audience. He now gently interrupts the interview to check his Blackberry, proudly announcing that he's received 900 e-mails in the intervening 24 hours.

Geller says he'll respond to each of his young fans, taking inspiration from the time Chubby Checker, on a visit to Israel, went out of his way to sign an autograph for the 12-year-old Geller. 'That was the greatest lesson of my life: always be accessible, always be open, always be nice,' Geller says.

His response to young fans' inquiries, he says, is always the same: 'Forget spoon bending. Instead, what's more important is to focus on school, believe in yourself ... and never, ever smoke or touch drugs.'

The response doesn't satisfy those who really want to know how he bends spoons, of course, and given our 10-year history, I'm hoping he'll share his secret with me.

'I have a simple explanation for these phenomena, and my explanation is this: you think you are sitting in a solid room, you can touch it. It feels solid to you, but you're dead wrong. This is not a solid room; neither is the table, the computer, or me. I'm not solid and neither are you. We are energy ... Everything is energy. I think I learned how to manipulate that energy.'

Bars for Bugsy (bar and restaurant review)

Jerusalem Post, Billboard; December 8, 2006

In 2003, husband-and-wife team Zvika and Haya Shichor stood in the center of Florentine in south Tel Aviv and envisioned a booming local nightlife. They started it with Bugsy.

They named their first bistro bar after the mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, noting that he had the guts to go against the grain and establish the Flamingo Hotel in the barren desert that was about to turn into the Las Vegas Strip. While Florentine has replaced Sheinkin as Israel's bohemian center since the late 1990s, there was no heavily invested, carefully planned bar in the heart of the old neighborhood until Bugsy came along. Today, Bugsy is the center of a sizable nightlife compound on Tel Aviv's hip strip.

Bugsy's decor reflects the charm, artsiness and vintage feel of the Florentine neighborhood. The leather chairs and fuzzy stools are ultra retro, and even some of the servers look like they wish they lived in the 1970s. Bugsy is a mixture of bar and diner, offering breakfast, lunch and business menus - eggs, salads, hamburgers, steaks and the like. The Shichors believe that for a bar to last, it has to offer more than just liquor.

"Bugsy wasn't the end for us," explains Haya. "We try to be very updated in the field."

And their next venture, Benjamin Siegel, proves that they are.

IF BUGSY is their Flamingo hotel, then Benjamin Siegel is Caesar's Palace. Located on the first floor of the Opera Towers along the Tel Aviv Promenade, Benjamin Siegel sticks out like a jewel in the sand. Located smack between the strip joints and worn-out beachside restaurants, Benjamin Siegel is a world-class, richly designed bistro bar.

"The promenade is a wasted area," Haya explains. Attracted to the beach, the view and the former charm of Allenby Street, she decided to try her luck in an area usually mobbed by the folksy masses, in the hope of upgrading the entire area. "I didn't open it for passersby; it doesn't speak to them. People will seek it out."

While Bugsy is first a bar and then a restaurant, Benjamin Siegel is first a restaurant and then a bar. Bugsy is like the rocking, long-haired, older brother of the aristocratic, refined and snobby Benjamin Siegel. Anyone who spends time in both places will notice that the layout and design motifs - the use of fuzz, leather and mirrors - are different yet related.

The interior of Benjamin Siegel could certainly pass for the dark, sexy state room of an extremely wealthy Mafia man. The fur-lined bar stools, finely crafted mirrors and elegant dangling crystal in the large expanse all scream "no compromise." It's winner take all - or nothing.

Haya and Zvika Shichor thus demonstrate that excellence is possible amidst mediocrity. The rich, eclectic menu features a fusion of gourmet and creative dishes spiced to perfection by chef Eran Goldstein, who left a culinary career in Canada to join the Benjamin Siegel posse. It's no wonder that Wine and Gourmet magazine chose Benjamin Siegel as the venue for its 10th anniversary last week.

Only five months old, Benjamin Siegel is slated to become a hot spot for high-class tourists, businessmen, government officials and Israeli cuisine connoisseurs. The prices are relatively affordable for a place that looks like a hideout for high rollers. It will take time to see if the million-dollar gamble pays off, but they're going for the bank, and Benjamin Siegel has the makings of a jackpot.

Bugsy, Rehov Florentine 26, Tel Aviv; (03) 681-3138; from 9 a.m.
Benjamin Siegel, Rehov Allenby 1, Tel Aviv; (03) 516- 6224; from 9 a.m.

Sleight of mind

Jerusalem Post, Metro; December 8, 2006

Click here for original


Magicians and mind readers gathered at the recent Magic at the Red Sea convention to share some of the tricks of their trade. Mentalism is becoming a national craze and a fast-developing entertainment genre

About 100 magicians and mentalists (aka mind readers) waited to watch Gregory Wilson, one of the world's top performers of magic, enact a close-up of his famous sleight-of-hand and card sharping. The charismatic and comedic Wilson was the headliner at last month's Magic at the Red Sea (MARS) convention and festival, which brought Israeli magicians and mentalists together in Eilat to share some tricks of the trade.

As Wilson set up his act for the show - open exclusively to convention participants - members of the audience became antsy, so a few pulled out decks of cards (which they carry around like wallets) and began to do tricks on one another.

An aspiring teenage magician sitting next to me told me to pick a card and remember it. I happily and curiously obliged. While the teenager tried to guess, an older and more experienced mentalist sitting one seat over gave a self-assured nod, wrote down an "8" and diamond symbol, and snuck the card to me before the teenager could respond.

He was right. Indeed, the card I chose was the eight of diamonds. I had not even exchanged one word with him until then.

This was just one of many breathtaking encounters that took place throughout the weekend. They were enough to make even a skeptic like me think again.

Soon enough I revealed that I was a journalist, and a small panic spread through the crowd - not only because in such intimate company the presenters are allowed to mess up (which some did) but because during the convention they shared secrets and techniques with one another, and I never signed the magician's oath.

Not only that, but several of the people in the audience - including the one who had read my mind - are contestants on national television's latest blockbuster The Heir, a televised contest in which sensationalized and controversial Israeli mentalist Uri Geller seeks his successor. The contestants have signed contracts strictly prohibiting them from speaking with the press.

These overnight celebrities were relative unknowns outside their field until The Heir premiered on Channel 2 on November 18 to record-breaking ratings (one third of Israel tuned in). They were the main attraction at the Isrotel King Solomon hotel, which sponsored and hosted the MARS convention and accompanying public festival.

They freely roamed the halls, getting stopped by kids and adults alike who recognized them from television, showing that mentalism is becoming a national craze and a fast- developing entertainment genre.

Mentalist Nimrod Harel, star of his own weekly reality show Bilti Nitpas (Incomprehensible) on Channel 10, gave his own stage show in which he not only read minds but boggled them. He effortlessly bent a few spoons (a feat made famous by Geller), inserted thoughts into other people's heads, and dramatically revealed the childhood trauma of a middle-aged woman who once forgot her daughter in Ashdod. He determined the memory right down to the city and even made her cry.

But the man who stole the show was the American star Gregory Wilson, who led a workshop on impromptu magic and performed at the festival's gala. He, too, couldn't walk a few feet without kids, adults and convention participants begging him for attention. A former professional con artist turned professional entertainer, Wilson now uses his skills and Hollywood star quality to entertain audiences, magically turnings dollar bills into hundred dollar bills and stealthily slipping watches off people's wrists. He employs both mentalism and magic, as well as quick-witted improvisational humor into his performances.

"I've come to experience that Israeli magicians and mentalists are not afraid of hard work and diligent practice," Wilson said in an interview with Metro of his new colleagues and students, some of whom own his instructional videos. "They're remarkably good thinkers, and they specialize in mentalism probably because of Uri Geller, who kick-started the whole phenomenon."

On the Saturday night after the convention, his new friends took him to see The Heir. filmed live in Herzliya studios, which he enjoyed thoroughly. "I thought it was brilliantly conceived and constructed, professional in every way," he said.

But the mentalist who most impressed him wasn't an Heir contestant. At the risk of alienating and offending the other mentalists, Wilson confided that if Nimrod Harel had entered the contest, Harel would have received his vote. During the convention they spoke at length privately, sharing techniques and ideas.

"Nimrod has multiple layers of deception that make him clearly better than even the best mentalists. He has such a commanding presence that I could tell - even when I didn't understand his language - how the audience was rapt with attention. The finale to his show was evocative and emotional enough to bring a lady on stage to tears."

The MARS convention was like a rite of passage for the participants and, along with the new reality shows, a testament to Israel's leadership in the mentalism field.

"In the area of mentalism and psychic entertainment, Israeli mentalists have a high profile in the UK and US," said Quentin Reynolds, a British mentalist who lectured and performed at MARS. "Israeli mentalists I have met perform at a very high standard and frequently come up with new ideas that are fresh and novel."

The convention's timing couldn't have been more fortuitous - it took place only a few days after the The Heir premiered.

Roei Zaltsman, organizer of the convention and also a contestant on The Heir, says the timing was coincidental, but one can't help but suspect that he had subconsciously influenced the minds of the show's producers months before to bring attention to his bold and successful initiative.

"I saw other conventions throughout the world, and I said we have to do something on an equally high level in Israel," Zaltsman said.

He explained that magic and telepathy were combined at the convention because both involve creative thinking as well as performance, although some mentalists are wary of being associated with magicians because they want to be perceived as possessing special, even supernatural powers.

Wilson elaborated on the difference. "Magic is sleight of hand, mentalism is sleight of mind. Physical versus psychological."

I admit that after hanging around the magicians and mentalists for the entire weekend, I managed to glean a few subtle secrets. But I'm still completely stumped as to how that man knew I was thinking of the eight of diamonds.

A classical concert seven decades in the making

Jerusalem Post, Daily; December 6, 2006

Founded in 1936 by refugees from Hitler's Europe, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra will mark its 70th season with a series of celebratory concerts

As the playful shrill of a flute sounds out against the bombast of a trombone, the soothing moans of the violin and the soft banging of the timpani create a sense of drama in Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium. This unconventional cacophony isn't characteristic of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, but it's Monday morning, and most of the musicians are on a break from rehearsal, with just a few continuing to practice alone on stage for their evening performance of Schoenberg and Brahms.

Sounds like these have accompanied Zeev Dorman, a bassoonist and the current chairman of the IPO's board of managers, for the past 37 years. Now a veteran member of the orchestra, Dorman recalls the musical monopoly the IPO held when he first joined the orchestra in 1969.

"We were the only show in town," Dorman says, speaking to The Jerusalem Post at the Mann Auditorium, the IPO's home since 1957.

The creation of new listening media, diminished interest in classical music among younger music fans and a growth in the number of orchestras and ensembles in Israel have continually pushed the IPO to renew and reinvigorate itself, Dorman says. "The orchestra has to be better and the impact has to be much stronger" than in the past, he says.

The IPO's 70th anniversary is being used to demonstrate to local and world audiences that although the IPO may no longer be the only show in town, it will continue to be among the most relevant, active and celebrated.

"The first [priority] is to keep up the standards of the orchestra," says IPO musical director Zubin Mehta, who was honored at the White House and received a lifetime achievement award Sunday at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. "I believe we've not only succeeded in doing this, but also in raising the standards of the orchestra through the years."

The orchestra's 70th birthday will be marked with a series of 12 concerts held between December 17 and 31. Headlining the concerts will be world-renowned soloists and conductors who have accompanied the IPO throughout the years, among them Daniel Barenboim, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Kurt Masur, Gustavo Dudamel and Yefim Bronfman.

"We want to create a feeling of internationalism," Zubin said. At the same time, the lighting of a hanukkia during the first week of the concerts will add a uniquely Israeli tone to the festivities.

Mehta, who turned 70 earlier this year, is as old as the orchestra, and his career at the IPO spans four decades. The IPO's 70th birthday celebrations will demonstrate Israel's continued cultural vibrancy despite the summer's war and the fighting of the last six years, he hopes.

Established in 1936 as the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra, the IPO was founded by Polish-born violinist Bronislaw Huberman as a performance vehicle for Jewish musicians fleeing Europe. The celebrated Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini oversaw the orchestra's first concert in 1936, telling audience members he was "doing it for humanity."

Since Israel's founding, the IPO has represented the country at a range of international festivals, recorded with world-renowned musicians and played for soldiers during Israel's wars. Among the orchestra's most symbolic performances outside Israel have been shows held in Germany, Poland and the former Soviet Union.

Baruch Gross, an IPO cellist and member of the board, joined the orchestra in 1974, a year after immigrating to Israel from the USSR. He considers the influx of immigrants from the former Soviet Union a milestone in the IPO's development.
"In the late 1980s, when many musicians from the previous generation retired, we were worried about the future, because the young generation hadn't produced many players of string instruments. Then a miracle occurred, and the immigration from Russia in the 1990s filled the rows."

Today, musicians from the former Soviet bloc make up about 40 percent of the orchestra.

Gross says the IPO's audience has also changed considerably.

"The audience was different [when I first joined the IPO]," he says. "People would come to the concerts with the scores. It was an audience that came from central Europe with extensive musical training."

The number of IPO subscriptions now stands at approximately 26,000, as opposed to 30,000 in 1974. Gross attributes this drop, in part, to what he sees as the neglect of musical education among younger people.

To counter this decline, the IPO has instituted several programs to raise interest among teenagers and those in their 20s. Five Thursday evenings a year, an "IPO in Jeans" program hosts celebrities who present classical works, then offers young listeners a post-concert party with a DJ, dancing and beer. To groom an even younger generation of potential concertgoers, the IPO also sends its members to perform and speak in front of elementary school students, who later attend IPO concerts.

The orchestra's 70th birthday has attracted attention outside Israel, with the European television network ARTE scheduled to broadcast a celebratory concert featuring Barenboim and violinist Pinchas Zukerman.

A video exhibition about the history of the IPO will be shown on six plasma screens each night of the 12-concert series, and will also travel with the IPO to European festivals next summer.

Locally, Helicon Records has produced a special 12-set CD of the IPO's most noteworthy performances, and Channel 1 will broadcast the opening concert of the anniversary series on December 17. Conducted by Mehta, the concert will feature works by Mozart, Schumann and Brahms, with special guest performers to include pianist Evgeny Kissin, violinist Julian Rachlin and cellist Mischa Maisky.

The IPO has marked each decade of its existence with gala concerts, and members say the orchestra's sound has only improved with time. "Maturity in music is always good," Gross says.