Jerusalem Post, Daily; Jan. 21, 2007;
In Israel's latest original reality show, you won't see ambitious teenagers singing, agile dancers pirouetting, romance-seekers kissing, or, as is the case with Uri Geller's new hit program, mentalists reading minds of celebrities. In fact, you won't see anything at all. This reality show is broadcast over the radio to religious families, many of whom don't own televisions. And if they did, they certainly wouldn't be watching A Star is Born or Born to Dance, which are replete with costumes and performances that offend religious sensibilities.
A Life of Riches and Honor, which premiered January 4 on Radio Kol Chai, Israel's highest-rated religious radio station, is much less glamorous than the reality blockbusters on TV. That's because this reality show deals with biting reality. Over the course of 10 weeks, 13 families representing a cross section of the religious spectrum, from religious Zionist to haredi (Ultra Orthodox), must prove they can run their household more economically and efficiently than the rest. A commercial teaser lures in listeners with household tips, such as: "Don't go supermarket shopping when you're hungry."
"In the religious community, especially the haredi communities, people don't have televisions at home. Whereas a secular person comes home after work and turns on the TV to watch news, a religious person comes home and turns on the radio," says Ido Lebovitz, CEO of Radio Kol Chai.
"We wanted to give our listeners a program that was useful, not mere entertainment." In fact, entertainment for entertainment's sake is not a desired value among very religious families.
"There is no recreation within haredim communities," explains Avinoam Hadas, strategic advisor to Kol Chai. Hadas assists the radio station with adapting modern broadcasting and entertainment trends to the needs and restrictions of religious communities as well as advising businesses on how to penetrate and cater to the religious market. Television is not only potentially immodest, he adds, it's also bitul Torah (a waste of Torah study time). "If you have free time, you study Torah."
To maintain its edge among Israel's religious population, Kol Chai adopted the reality format to help its listeners solve real-life, pressing household dilemmas. Producers chose 13 families among 100 applicants based on their profile, expressiveness, and drive not only to win, but to solve their financial troubles.
The profile of some families makes the show sound like a religious version of the American reality hit, Survivor. Family A with seven children ages three to 14 must survive on a joint salary of NIS 10,700. To make the mortgage payment of NIS 3,000 and to put food on the table, the father states: "We don't pay for things we don't use right away [such as school tuition, which he avoided paying for over a year]. I'm afraid of confiscations, but I have no choice."
Family C with 12 children ages four to 24 barely manages off a joint salary of NIS 8,300. "We try to maneuver here and there. We try to cut. The kids don't have after-school activities."
A LIFE of Riches and Honor forces these families to figure out how to cut costs and get out of the hole. At the second "taping" of the show on January 11 at the Kol Chai studios in Bnei Brak, all the contestants shared, on air over the phone, their experience overcoming the first, real, most basic challenge: purchasing weekly groceries while adhering to an individually customized budget provided by the producers.
"We tried to cut and buy only what we need, not just what was within hand's reach, but to think before buying," one contestant concluded. "We tried to buy more with less," said another.
In the studio, a panel of experts from the show's sponsors, Bank Poalei Agudat Yisrael, which caters to the religious community, sat around a table with the show's presenter and judged the contestants' shopping prudence. Producers keep detailed records of the contestants' finances and compile figures comparing their new spending habits with the old. The experts, along with the contestants and callers from home, offered their own tips, such as: "Don't take the kids shopping, and if you do, don't be afraid to say 'no'" and "Always go shopping with a list."
Listeners at home and the show's panel of experts and judges will vote for the winners based on their ability to cut costs. Unlike television shows, looks and charisma cannot bias the voters. At the end of each show, one family is sent back to its poorly managed home. The first place winner receives NIS 20,000 worth of electrical appliances-not a bad way to ease some financial woes.
But Lebovitz maintains, "The point is not to find a winner, but to increase awareness. The real winners are the hundreds of thousands of people who learn to save."
And while the reality show is a far cry from Donald Trump's Apprentice, the contestants could probably learn a thing or two from the business mogul.
As one judge on the show put it: "Running a family household is a business in every way."
A Life of Riches and Honor is broadcast on Thursday from 8-9pm on Radio Kol Chai, 93 FM.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
A novel idea
Jerusalem Post, In Jerusalem; January 19, 2007
While Maggie Anton is a lover of fiction, she probably would have never believed that one day she'd be embarking on a whirlwind speaking tour as the author of her own historical novel. But early this month, the former chemist from California spoke at various educational institutes and community centers throughout Israel about book one of Rashi's Daughters, a trilogy that dramatizes the lives of the progeny of the most famous Jewish biblical commentator.
In Jerusalem caught up with Anton before her talk at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies to find out how she turned from a full-time clinical chemist who worked for 30 years at Kaiser Permanente Hospital to a sought-after speaker and author, with Penguin and HarperCollins waging bidding wars over her next installment.
"To my incredible surprise I fell in love with Talmud study," Anton says of her initial foray into Talmud with Jewish feminist scholar Rachel Adler in Los Angeles. Until then, she was little versed in Jewish scholarship or tradition, having grown up in a secular socialist household in LA, where she currently resides.
The idea of the book grew organically over several years, fueled by her independent study of Rashi's daughters and the era in which they lived.
"I was trying to find out if Rashi's daughters really wore tefillin or not," explains Anton, who belongs to both Conservative and Reform synagogues, but doesn't officially affiliate herself with any movement. "The legend says that Rashi's daughters wore them, but there is no evidence to say for sure they did. We know some women in Rashi's time wore tefillin, tzitzit, blew shofar. There were also mohalot who performed ritual circumcisions."
Her interest in Rashi's daughters turned into a fascination about the lifestyle and oft liberal Jewish observance of French Jewish medieval women. To uncover facts and curiosities about this era, in her spare time she spent hours at local libraries, including those at UCLA and at the University of Judaism, formerly associated with the Conservative Movement.
A tour of Troyes in the Champagne region of northern France and its Jewish quarter, which is decorated with a monument to Rashi, provided her with a picture of the community - its clothing, food and customs - well-described in her book.
"As I was telling people what I was doing, somehow I guess someone said to me, 'This is so interesting, you should write a book," she says, adding, "My children told me to stop 'hoching' them about Rashi and his daughters and told me I should write a book; they didn't want to hear me anymore."
Rashi's Daughters is a chronicle of Jewish community life in Troyes at the start of the second millennium as much as it is a story of Jocheved and her sisters, Miriam and Rachel (books two and three focus on the latter, respectively). The backdrop of Jocheved's life, from her love for Talmud study as a little girl until the early years of her marriage to Torah scholar Meir, is as central to the novel as its plot.
The novel describes Rashi's career as a winemaker, his role as a teacher and head of the Troyes yeshiva and his family's cordial relations with Jewish and non-Jewish neighbors. Also figuring in the plot are little-known customs of the time such as annual merchant fairs, Jewish ownership of slaves and the widespread use of herbal love and healing potions. Anton was keen to illustrate the relative prosperity of Jews at the time.
"It was so different than all the 'oy vey' stuff you get in Jewish history. I wanted to share it, celebrate it," she says.
Anton has found that the success of the novel is partly based on the interest of readers in a time period never explored in fiction. So far the novel has sold over 25,000 copies and is already in its sixth printing.
While Anton had secured a literary agent for book one, she decided to establish Banot Press with her husband to publish the book in time for Rashi's 900th yahrzeit in 2005. She was surprised to find that the only extensive commemoration of his death occurred in his native French community. In fact, France issued a half-Euro stamp in honor of Rashi, a historical figure in his homeland.
At times, Rashi's Daughters reads more like a romance novel than an in-depth examination of the cultural, theological and philosophical issues that may have underpinned the lives of Jewish women. Steamy sex scenes between the headstrong, learned Jocheved and her young, scholarly husband are described in detail, and the central conflict deals more with Jocheved's struggles bearing children rather than her clandestine Talmud study. Although, says Anton, the sex in the book is not without its religious grounding.
"In the Talmud there are sections that talk about the quality of a child as proportional to the quality of the sex act that conceives that child," she notes. "The better the child, the better the sex you had."
Later this year, Penguin (the winner) will release book two and JPS will release a young adult version of book one.
While Maggie Anton is a lover of fiction, she probably would have never believed that one day she'd be embarking on a whirlwind speaking tour as the author of her own historical novel. But early this month, the former chemist from California spoke at various educational institutes and community centers throughout Israel about book one of Rashi's Daughters, a trilogy that dramatizes the lives of the progeny of the most famous Jewish biblical commentator.
In Jerusalem caught up with Anton before her talk at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies to find out how she turned from a full-time clinical chemist who worked for 30 years at Kaiser Permanente Hospital to a sought-after speaker and author, with Penguin and HarperCollins waging bidding wars over her next installment.
"To my incredible surprise I fell in love with Talmud study," Anton says of her initial foray into Talmud with Jewish feminist scholar Rachel Adler in Los Angeles. Until then, she was little versed in Jewish scholarship or tradition, having grown up in a secular socialist household in LA, where she currently resides.
The idea of the book grew organically over several years, fueled by her independent study of Rashi's daughters and the era in which they lived.
"I was trying to find out if Rashi's daughters really wore tefillin or not," explains Anton, who belongs to both Conservative and Reform synagogues, but doesn't officially affiliate herself with any movement. "The legend says that Rashi's daughters wore them, but there is no evidence to say for sure they did. We know some women in Rashi's time wore tefillin, tzitzit, blew shofar. There were also mohalot who performed ritual circumcisions."
Her interest in Rashi's daughters turned into a fascination about the lifestyle and oft liberal Jewish observance of French Jewish medieval women. To uncover facts and curiosities about this era, in her spare time she spent hours at local libraries, including those at UCLA and at the University of Judaism, formerly associated with the Conservative Movement.
A tour of Troyes in the Champagne region of northern France and its Jewish quarter, which is decorated with a monument to Rashi, provided her with a picture of the community - its clothing, food and customs - well-described in her book.
"As I was telling people what I was doing, somehow I guess someone said to me, 'This is so interesting, you should write a book," she says, adding, "My children told me to stop 'hoching' them about Rashi and his daughters and told me I should write a book; they didn't want to hear me anymore."
Rashi's Daughters is a chronicle of Jewish community life in Troyes at the start of the second millennium as much as it is a story of Jocheved and her sisters, Miriam and Rachel (books two and three focus on the latter, respectively). The backdrop of Jocheved's life, from her love for Talmud study as a little girl until the early years of her marriage to Torah scholar Meir, is as central to the novel as its plot.
The novel describes Rashi's career as a winemaker, his role as a teacher and head of the Troyes yeshiva and his family's cordial relations with Jewish and non-Jewish neighbors. Also figuring in the plot are little-known customs of the time such as annual merchant fairs, Jewish ownership of slaves and the widespread use of herbal love and healing potions. Anton was keen to illustrate the relative prosperity of Jews at the time.
"It was so different than all the 'oy vey' stuff you get in Jewish history. I wanted to share it, celebrate it," she says.
Anton has found that the success of the novel is partly based on the interest of readers in a time period never explored in fiction. So far the novel has sold over 25,000 copies and is already in its sixth printing.
While Anton had secured a literary agent for book one, she decided to establish Banot Press with her husband to publish the book in time for Rashi's 900th yahrzeit in 2005. She was surprised to find that the only extensive commemoration of his death occurred in his native French community. In fact, France issued a half-Euro stamp in honor of Rashi, a historical figure in his homeland.
At times, Rashi's Daughters reads more like a romance novel than an in-depth examination of the cultural, theological and philosophical issues that may have underpinned the lives of Jewish women. Steamy sex scenes between the headstrong, learned Jocheved and her young, scholarly husband are described in detail, and the central conflict deals more with Jocheved's struggles bearing children rather than her clandestine Talmud study. Although, says Anton, the sex in the book is not without its religious grounding.
"In the Talmud there are sections that talk about the quality of a child as proportional to the quality of the sex act that conceives that child," she notes. "The better the child, the better the sex you had."
Later this year, Penguin (the winner) will release book two and JPS will release a young adult version of book one.
A winning shot
Jerusalem Post, Metro; January 19, 2007
Shay Koren, the winner of the 9th annual national bartending contest at Tel Aviv's Whiskey A Go-Go, is off to compete in Finland later this month.
Prior to preparing his guava martini with red grapefruit, Shay Koren meticulously cut a guava star topped with caramel made from brown and white sugar. This artistic piece of fruit served as the finishing touch of his yummy long drink, which he prepared as part of the national bartending competition held January 8 at the Whiskey A Go- Go mega bar located at the Tel Aviv port. Koren's creativity and presentation wooed the judges, and he will represent Israel at the international Finlandia bartending competition January 29 in Finland.
The national competition has become an annual tradition since Israel starting competing in Finlandia's international competition four years ago, said Shmulik Wohoberg, brand manager for Ackermann, Israel's largest alcohol importer and competition sponsor. Wohoberg was among the judges in the semi-final rounds, in which he and Ackermann representatives toured bars around Israel for three months to find those who could mix drinks with the most originality and style.
"It was important to go to their home environment, the bar where he or she worked," explained Wohoberg, who also served as the competition's MC.
Twelve bartenders were chosen out of 100 semi-finalists to wow the judges in their preparation of three categories of alcoholic beverages: aperitif, digestif and long drink.
Spirits were naturally high at Whiskey A Go-Go during the informal competition, which had nine judges, made up of alcohol experts, bartending school faculty and culinary journalists, sitting at the bar munching sushi while competitors strutted their bottles. Friends, family and owners of bars represented in the competition stood around the stations to cheer on their favorites and taste the results. Some even brought signs to show support.
"We give scores according to five different criteria: the look of the cocktail, the taste, the aroma, the performance and conduct of the bartender; and a general grade for creativity," explained Ariel Leisgold, beverage manager of Moses restaurant chain and last year's winner. He took home first place in Finlandia's aperitif competition.
The competition flowed speedily with twelve lightening rounds. The bar was divided into three sections for each drink category. All drinks were required to include Finlandia vodka as the base and were limited to six ingredients. Many of the contestants brought ingredients from home, like marzipan decor, exotic fruits, and sorbet.
Gadi Avekases, director of Bartender bartending school, however, said that the contest environment wasn't conducive to judging elements which are crucial to a successful bartender: "You have to feel comfortable with the bartender. He or she has to know how to serve, when to talk to the customers and when to be quiet - to create chemistry."
Hardly any of the bartenders demonstrated the skill of, say, Tom Cruise in the film Cocktail, in which he fancily juggled bottles and glasses. In fact, many of the bartenders, whose hands were shaking from nerves, spilled drinks on the counter while pouring. This was no beauty contest, either, even though it helps for a bartender to have good looks to lure in bargoers. The bartenders weren't particularly beautiful or charismatic, nor did they dress to impress. Many competed in casual day clothes.
The tall and dark Koren, a bartender at Moses restaurant in Herzliya, however, demonstrated superiority in both preparation and taste. He experimented with various ingredients until he came up with the winning cocktails, including a martini mango made with ground mango, vanilla, and lime and a digestif made with vanilla sauce, vodka and coffee liquor.
However, could the judgment of the judges have been impaired after sipping twelve cocktails each? "We don't drink too much, just taste," said Avekases. "I'd love to get a drink but this is not the time."
Mira Eitan, editor of Wine and Gourmet, justified the choice of the winner: "He was the most creative, his ingredients were interesting, and his work ability was good, his presentation was interesting. He was abovethe others."
A law student at the Academic College in Rishon Lezion, Koren has been working as a bartender for five years. And while he seems to have a bartending career ahead of him, bartending remains for him a serious hobby.
"Today in Israel working as a bartender is like working as a waiter," he said. "Maybe it will develop in a few years and bartenders can make it a profession. It's possible that when I finish studies I'll consider the field of bartending and restaurants."
(BOX) What is an aperitif, digestif and long drink?
For those who don't like or know how to drink, Mira Eitan, editor of Wine and Gourmet and the only female judge at the competition, explains the difference between the three kinds of drinks judged at the competition.
"An aperitif is a drink you sip before eating. Aperitifs are characterized by several elements. They have low alcohol content so you don't get drunk before eating. They are not too sweet since sweetness makes you feel full. They are usually served cold to whet the appetite."
Classic aperitifs include: rum, campari, martini, cinzano; cocktails include manhattan and cosmopolitan.
"A digestif is drunk after the meal to aid digestion (hence its name), and comes in two types: functional, which helps us digest because it is made up of herbs; and classic, like cognac and whiskey, with a high alcohol percentage to relax after the meal."
Popular digestifs include: cognac, jagermeister, fernet branca, grand marnier and drambuie; cocktails include rusty nail and white Russian.
"A long drink is one that you drink in any context, like at a bar. It combines alcohol with non-alcoholic ingredients so that they can be drunk at any time, often not in the context of a meal, without being too strong or heavy."
Shay Koren, the winner of the 9th annual national bartending contest at Tel Aviv's Whiskey A Go-Go, is off to compete in Finland later this month.
Prior to preparing his guava martini with red grapefruit, Shay Koren meticulously cut a guava star topped with caramel made from brown and white sugar. This artistic piece of fruit served as the finishing touch of his yummy long drink, which he prepared as part of the national bartending competition held January 8 at the Whiskey A Go- Go mega bar located at the Tel Aviv port. Koren's creativity and presentation wooed the judges, and he will represent Israel at the international Finlandia bartending competition January 29 in Finland.
The national competition has become an annual tradition since Israel starting competing in Finlandia's international competition four years ago, said Shmulik Wohoberg, brand manager for Ackermann, Israel's largest alcohol importer and competition sponsor. Wohoberg was among the judges in the semi-final rounds, in which he and Ackermann representatives toured bars around Israel for three months to find those who could mix drinks with the most originality and style.
"It was important to go to their home environment, the bar where he or she worked," explained Wohoberg, who also served as the competition's MC.
Twelve bartenders were chosen out of 100 semi-finalists to wow the judges in their preparation of three categories of alcoholic beverages: aperitif, digestif and long drink.
Spirits were naturally high at Whiskey A Go-Go during the informal competition, which had nine judges, made up of alcohol experts, bartending school faculty and culinary journalists, sitting at the bar munching sushi while competitors strutted their bottles. Friends, family and owners of bars represented in the competition stood around the stations to cheer on their favorites and taste the results. Some even brought signs to show support.
"We give scores according to five different criteria: the look of the cocktail, the taste, the aroma, the performance and conduct of the bartender; and a general grade for creativity," explained Ariel Leisgold, beverage manager of Moses restaurant chain and last year's winner. He took home first place in Finlandia's aperitif competition.
The competition flowed speedily with twelve lightening rounds. The bar was divided into three sections for each drink category. All drinks were required to include Finlandia vodka as the base and were limited to six ingredients. Many of the contestants brought ingredients from home, like marzipan decor, exotic fruits, and sorbet.
Gadi Avekases, director of Bartender bartending school, however, said that the contest environment wasn't conducive to judging elements which are crucial to a successful bartender: "You have to feel comfortable with the bartender. He or she has to know how to serve, when to talk to the customers and when to be quiet - to create chemistry."
Hardly any of the bartenders demonstrated the skill of, say, Tom Cruise in the film Cocktail, in which he fancily juggled bottles and glasses. In fact, many of the bartenders, whose hands were shaking from nerves, spilled drinks on the counter while pouring. This was no beauty contest, either, even though it helps for a bartender to have good looks to lure in bargoers. The bartenders weren't particularly beautiful or charismatic, nor did they dress to impress. Many competed in casual day clothes.
The tall and dark Koren, a bartender at Moses restaurant in Herzliya, however, demonstrated superiority in both preparation and taste. He experimented with various ingredients until he came up with the winning cocktails, including a martini mango made with ground mango, vanilla, and lime and a digestif made with vanilla sauce, vodka and coffee liquor.
However, could the judgment of the judges have been impaired after sipping twelve cocktails each? "We don't drink too much, just taste," said Avekases. "I'd love to get a drink but this is not the time."
Mira Eitan, editor of Wine and Gourmet, justified the choice of the winner: "He was the most creative, his ingredients were interesting, and his work ability was good, his presentation was interesting. He was abovethe others."
A law student at the Academic College in Rishon Lezion, Koren has been working as a bartender for five years. And while he seems to have a bartending career ahead of him, bartending remains for him a serious hobby.
"Today in Israel working as a bartender is like working as a waiter," he said. "Maybe it will develop in a few years and bartenders can make it a profession. It's possible that when I finish studies I'll consider the field of bartending and restaurants."
(BOX) What is an aperitif, digestif and long drink?
For those who don't like or know how to drink, Mira Eitan, editor of Wine and Gourmet and the only female judge at the competition, explains the difference between the three kinds of drinks judged at the competition.
"An aperitif is a drink you sip before eating. Aperitifs are characterized by several elements. They have low alcohol content so you don't get drunk before eating. They are not too sweet since sweetness makes you feel full. They are usually served cold to whet the appetite."
Classic aperitifs include: rum, campari, martini, cinzano; cocktails include manhattan and cosmopolitan.
"A digestif is drunk after the meal to aid digestion (hence its name), and comes in two types: functional, which helps us digest because it is made up of herbs; and classic, like cognac and whiskey, with a high alcohol percentage to relax after the meal."
Popular digestifs include: cognac, jagermeister, fernet branca, grand marnier and drambuie; cocktails include rusty nail and white Russian.
"A long drink is one that you drink in any context, like at a bar. It combines alcohol with non-alcoholic ingredients so that they can be drunk at any time, often not in the context of a meal, without being too strong or heavy."
Friday, January 12, 2007
For surreal clubbing (dance bar review)
Jerusalem Post, Billboard; January 12, 2007
You know a Tel Aviv nightclub is ultracool when it opens not at midnight but just past 1 o'clock in the morning.
At 00:50, I get to Dada - rated by Time Out as the second best Tel Aviv nightclub of 2006 - and a buff, short Russian security guard wearing a puffy black jacket tells me the place is closed (as in, not open for the night), implying with a condescending tone that I'm an undesired element. But a nicer guard, who lacked the Russian's pretentiousness, assured me that they would open in 10 minutes.
Despite the police station in the area, Dada is located on a street where you would not feel comfortable walking alone at night. The area is grungy, dingy and industrial, making you feel that at any moment some drug addict might panhandle you. So after shooting an espresso at Aroma across the way on Yehuda Halevi Street, I head back to Dada, ready to find out what all the fuss is about.
The club is empty, even at 1:10 am. Some "happening" club.
"It won't fill up until 3 a.m.," the cashier informs me.
Going downstairs to get to the dance floor, I already get the sense that this is the underground of Tel Aviv nightlife, in part because the place feels like a cellar with its low ceiling, long rectangular dance floor, minimal lighting, simple gray and black design, and a DJ booth located at eye level.
As East Village-esque Tel Avivians begin to filter in to the filtered electronic bass lines, it becomes clear that this is a place where sounds, looks, moves and touch matter more than words. Not surprisingly, as I seek one of the owners to get the scoop on Dada, he is reticent, probably because the less people know about Dada, the more allure and exclusivity it maintains.
Gal (it would be poor etiquette to ask his last name) says the point of the place is to bring back the glory of Tel Aviv's nightlife scene, which translates into: the hottest DJs, parties that begin late and end past six in the morning, gay friendliness, and well-dressed, well- tattooed and well-pierced late 20 and 30+ year-olds (as opposed to "kids" and soldiers). Dada already has a successful model, The Breakfast Club on Rothschild Street, founded in 2005 by the same owners, which quickly rose as Tel Aviv's trendy epicenter.
The main feature of Dada, Gal says, is the music. The electro, progressive house and generally dark beats and basses fit any and all forms of unconventional intoxication, to the extent that Dada can easily turn into a surreal fantasyland of sensation.
But as I leave, it becomes clear that either I came on a bad night or Dada's goal to attract the beautiful bohemia of Tel Aviv has backfired. Waiting in line to be selected were dozens of freaky- looking guys (and hardly any women) with frightening hairdos, pimply skin, bad tattoos, and gruff manners. The crazy thing was that most of them waltzed right in. Surreal, indeed.
Harakevet 6. Open Thursday, Friday from 1 a.m. Music: Electro, progressive house, techno. Cover: NIS 30-50
You know a Tel Aviv nightclub is ultracool when it opens not at midnight but just past 1 o'clock in the morning.
At 00:50, I get to Dada - rated by Time Out as the second best Tel Aviv nightclub of 2006 - and a buff, short Russian security guard wearing a puffy black jacket tells me the place is closed (as in, not open for the night), implying with a condescending tone that I'm an undesired element. But a nicer guard, who lacked the Russian's pretentiousness, assured me that they would open in 10 minutes.
Despite the police station in the area, Dada is located on a street where you would not feel comfortable walking alone at night. The area is grungy, dingy and industrial, making you feel that at any moment some drug addict might panhandle you. So after shooting an espresso at Aroma across the way on Yehuda Halevi Street, I head back to Dada, ready to find out what all the fuss is about.
The club is empty, even at 1:10 am. Some "happening" club.
"It won't fill up until 3 a.m.," the cashier informs me.
Going downstairs to get to the dance floor, I already get the sense that this is the underground of Tel Aviv nightlife, in part because the place feels like a cellar with its low ceiling, long rectangular dance floor, minimal lighting, simple gray and black design, and a DJ booth located at eye level.
As East Village-esque Tel Avivians begin to filter in to the filtered electronic bass lines, it becomes clear that this is a place where sounds, looks, moves and touch matter more than words. Not surprisingly, as I seek one of the owners to get the scoop on Dada, he is reticent, probably because the less people know about Dada, the more allure and exclusivity it maintains.
Gal (it would be poor etiquette to ask his last name) says the point of the place is to bring back the glory of Tel Aviv's nightlife scene, which translates into: the hottest DJs, parties that begin late and end past six in the morning, gay friendliness, and well-dressed, well- tattooed and well-pierced late 20 and 30+ year-olds (as opposed to "kids" and soldiers). Dada already has a successful model, The Breakfast Club on Rothschild Street, founded in 2005 by the same owners, which quickly rose as Tel Aviv's trendy epicenter.
The main feature of Dada, Gal says, is the music. The electro, progressive house and generally dark beats and basses fit any and all forms of unconventional intoxication, to the extent that Dada can easily turn into a surreal fantasyland of sensation.
But as I leave, it becomes clear that either I came on a bad night or Dada's goal to attract the beautiful bohemia of Tel Aviv has backfired. Waiting in line to be selected were dozens of freaky- looking guys (and hardly any women) with frightening hairdos, pimply skin, bad tattoos, and gruff manners. The crazy thing was that most of them waltzed right in. Surreal, indeed.
Harakevet 6. Open Thursday, Friday from 1 a.m. Music: Electro, progressive house, techno. Cover: NIS 30-50
Thursday, January 11, 2007
The beer pioneers
Jerusalem Post, Weekend Magazine; January 11, 2007
Click here for original
The average Israeli drinks approximately one liter of beer for every 10 in Europe or America, but thanks to new microbreweries such as The Golan Brewery, things are changing
A wise man named Frank Zappa once said: "You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."
Depending on whom you ask, Israel meets most of the criteria: Regarding nuclear weapons, you'd have to ask Prime Minister Olmert for a more definitive answer. As for football, if soccer and football are interchangeable, then Israel is making the grade. And Israel now boasts more than one airline. But when it comes to beer, while Maccabee and Goldstar have been around for a while, Israel's latest crop of brewmasters would probably say that mass-produced commercial beers don't make the grade.
Beer actually traces its history to the Middle East, where the drink was first made in the grain-rich lands of Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BCE. While barley and wheat, two main beer ingredients, are two of the Land of Israel's "shiv'at Haminim" (seven indigenous species), modern Israel has never been known as a beer-brewing, beer-chugging country. Statistics show the average Israeli drinks approximately one liter of beer for every 10 liters in Europe or America.
Beer aficionados, however, are now saying that Israeli beer culture is burgeoning, with the growth of boutique breweries in Israel mimicking the rise of boutique wineries 10 years ago.
"Historically, Israelis are not big beer drinkers," says David Cohen, CEO of Dancing Camel, one of the first commercial microbreweries in Israel. "There are certain things that are happening [a growth in home brewing culture, more microbreweries, and a greater variety of imported beers] that seem to indicate that Israelis are open to drinking more beer and experimenting with different types of beer."
Cohen made aliya with his wife and three children from Teaneck, New Jersey in 2003, equipped with his home brewing equipment and a dream of giving the Jewish homeland a boutique beer of its own. He started production in August 2006 and these days he can be found wearing his signature bandana (which doubles as a kippa), "doughing in" hot water and barley in huge vats at his microbrewery in Tel Aviv.
According to Cohen, who left his job as a CPA in Manhattan to realize his Zionist longings, creating a new Israeli boutique beer was far from simple. Unlike the wine industry, there was no infrastructure for brewing beer in Israel, on either a large or small scale.
"It was hard to get malt, hops and wheat," explains Cohen of his initial attempts to expand his hobby into a commercial enterprise. "When we got here, there was nothing in terms of home brewing supplies. I had to order supplies from the States. It was very expensive."
After searching tirelessly for a suitable location, cutting through sticky municipal red tape and establishing contacts with suppliers and customers, Cohen finally set up his microbrewery in a Tel Aviv industrial zone, to which he commutes from his home in Modi'in. His beer start-up is now beginning to pick up steam, currently serving about 15 bars and restaurants in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with more expressing interest.
Together with two staffers, Cohen closely follows the brewing process from start to finish: grinding the grains, mashing the barley, boiling the wort (liquid extracted from barley), adding hops, cooling the wort and fermenting and conditioning the beer. He imports the malts (enzyme-activated barley) from Germany, but Cohen, a loyal Zionist, is adamant about giving Dancing Camel an indigenous flavor.
"Part of the point is not just to come over here to brew an English ale. My intentions were to use Israeli spices and ingredients - if not for the barley and wheat, then at least for the spices of the beer to give it something completely Israeli."
Silan (date syrup), cilantro, oranges, and cloves make up some of the added flavors. Every year after Succot, Cohen collects etrogim (citrons) from across the country and makes a special post- High Holy Day blend. He also has plans to bottle the Dancing Camel for export.
Leave it to the immigrants to give Israeli culture a beer boost.
Vitaly Chen made aliya from Russia in 1996 with the dream of carrying on a family tradition: Both his father and grandfather were brewmasters in the city of Ufa.
After he completed his MBA and worked as a customer service and advertising rep, the hops were finally ripe for Chen to open the Haifa-based Eldorado microbrewery exactly one year ago.
Eldorado was officially launched last September at Jerusalem's beer festival. Made according to family recipes, Eldorado is served at a few pubs and bars in Haifa, as well as a brew-pub restaurant Chen recently opened called Knight Cellar.
According to Chen, people are increasingly well-informed about beer and "demand" boutique beers. "People are sick of the industrial beers," says Chen. "Everywhere you go you see the same brands."
Even so, he believes that it will take a while for gourmet beers to challenge the industrial beer market, especially since the latter are aggressively pushing their beers to maintain their monopoly.
WHILE MOST Israelis associate the Golan with wineries and vineyards, archeological digs from ancient times have shown that other kinds of alcohol were produced in the region as well. The month-old Golan Brewery is aiming to renew this age-old tradition with the first large-scale Golan-made beer since the state's founding.
Unlike the Dancing Camel and Eldorado, the Golan Brewery adheres to strict German beer standards which stipulate that beer must be made using only water, barley, hops and yeast, in accordance with the German beer purity law of 1516. Moti Bar, manager of this Golan Heights based brewery, seeks to lead the transformation of Israeli beer culture.
"Just as the Golan Heights was the starting point for the revolution in the field of wine, the idea was to start a revolution in the field of beer," Bar says.
In this case, different beer flavors are based on the creative combination of these four ingredients. The Golan Brewery's claim to "Israeli-ness" is the water it uses. The Golan is Israel's main source of water. The brewery's water flows straight from a Golan stream into the tap.
"Ninety-eight percent of beer is mineral water. Using quality water is very important to create a quality beer," Bar adds.
Currently the beer is served on tap at the brewery's accompanying restaurant, but plans are in the works to bottle its three types of beers: Golan, Emek, and Galil.
While 2007 is likely to mark a turning point in the local beer industry, the trend actually began about 10 years ago with the Tel Aviv Brewhouse, a restaurant within a microbrewery. The Tel Aviv Brewhouse was the first to import a sophisticated beer brewing system. Unlike other microbreweries, the beer is made for consumption straight from the tap to which the beer flows through an elaborate system of pipes. Both the vats and the pipes are on premises.
The advantage of such a set-up, says Itamar Hatsor, co-owner of the Tel Aviv Brewhouse, is that the beer is fresh and has no shelf- life: "You can't compare it to Heineken or Carlsberg," he explains. "Our beer doesn't go through a filtering process. All the goodies remain inside. This is why when you look at our beer through light, it's opaque."
This is one reason why the Tel Aviv Brewhouse refuses to bottle its beer, unless by individual customer request. Bottling, he explains, affects temperature, which is why beer bottles are usually dark brown or dark green - to protect it from damaging UV rays.
Amir Neuman, manager of Norman Premium which distributes and imports local and imported beer, thinks this is only the beginning. "It's a hot topic and a very interesting one. People are asking a lot of questions," he says.
"In the past few years there has been a serious growth in Irish pubs, which serve a more sophisticated and greater selection of beers. There is demand and room in Israel for more kinds of beers of higher quality."
"Israelis are not necessarily drinking more beer," concludes David Cohen of Dancing Camel, "but better beers."
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The average Israeli drinks approximately one liter of beer for every 10 in Europe or America, but thanks to new microbreweries such as The Golan Brewery, things are changing
A wise man named Frank Zappa once said: "You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."
Depending on whom you ask, Israel meets most of the criteria: Regarding nuclear weapons, you'd have to ask Prime Minister Olmert for a more definitive answer. As for football, if soccer and football are interchangeable, then Israel is making the grade. And Israel now boasts more than one airline. But when it comes to beer, while Maccabee and Goldstar have been around for a while, Israel's latest crop of brewmasters would probably say that mass-produced commercial beers don't make the grade.
Beer actually traces its history to the Middle East, where the drink was first made in the grain-rich lands of Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BCE. While barley and wheat, two main beer ingredients, are two of the Land of Israel's "shiv'at Haminim" (seven indigenous species), modern Israel has never been known as a beer-brewing, beer-chugging country. Statistics show the average Israeli drinks approximately one liter of beer for every 10 liters in Europe or America.
Beer aficionados, however, are now saying that Israeli beer culture is burgeoning, with the growth of boutique breweries in Israel mimicking the rise of boutique wineries 10 years ago.
"Historically, Israelis are not big beer drinkers," says David Cohen, CEO of Dancing Camel, one of the first commercial microbreweries in Israel. "There are certain things that are happening [a growth in home brewing culture, more microbreweries, and a greater variety of imported beers] that seem to indicate that Israelis are open to drinking more beer and experimenting with different types of beer."
Cohen made aliya with his wife and three children from Teaneck, New Jersey in 2003, equipped with his home brewing equipment and a dream of giving the Jewish homeland a boutique beer of its own. He started production in August 2006 and these days he can be found wearing his signature bandana (which doubles as a kippa), "doughing in" hot water and barley in huge vats at his microbrewery in Tel Aviv.
According to Cohen, who left his job as a CPA in Manhattan to realize his Zionist longings, creating a new Israeli boutique beer was far from simple. Unlike the wine industry, there was no infrastructure for brewing beer in Israel, on either a large or small scale.
"It was hard to get malt, hops and wheat," explains Cohen of his initial attempts to expand his hobby into a commercial enterprise. "When we got here, there was nothing in terms of home brewing supplies. I had to order supplies from the States. It was very expensive."
After searching tirelessly for a suitable location, cutting through sticky municipal red tape and establishing contacts with suppliers and customers, Cohen finally set up his microbrewery in a Tel Aviv industrial zone, to which he commutes from his home in Modi'in. His beer start-up is now beginning to pick up steam, currently serving about 15 bars and restaurants in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with more expressing interest.
Together with two staffers, Cohen closely follows the brewing process from start to finish: grinding the grains, mashing the barley, boiling the wort (liquid extracted from barley), adding hops, cooling the wort and fermenting and conditioning the beer. He imports the malts (enzyme-activated barley) from Germany, but Cohen, a loyal Zionist, is adamant about giving Dancing Camel an indigenous flavor.
"Part of the point is not just to come over here to brew an English ale. My intentions were to use Israeli spices and ingredients - if not for the barley and wheat, then at least for the spices of the beer to give it something completely Israeli."
Silan (date syrup), cilantro, oranges, and cloves make up some of the added flavors. Every year after Succot, Cohen collects etrogim (citrons) from across the country and makes a special post- High Holy Day blend. He also has plans to bottle the Dancing Camel for export.
Leave it to the immigrants to give Israeli culture a beer boost.
Vitaly Chen made aliya from Russia in 1996 with the dream of carrying on a family tradition: Both his father and grandfather were brewmasters in the city of Ufa.
After he completed his MBA and worked as a customer service and advertising rep, the hops were finally ripe for Chen to open the Haifa-based Eldorado microbrewery exactly one year ago.
Eldorado was officially launched last September at Jerusalem's beer festival. Made according to family recipes, Eldorado is served at a few pubs and bars in Haifa, as well as a brew-pub restaurant Chen recently opened called Knight Cellar.
According to Chen, people are increasingly well-informed about beer and "demand" boutique beers. "People are sick of the industrial beers," says Chen. "Everywhere you go you see the same brands."
Even so, he believes that it will take a while for gourmet beers to challenge the industrial beer market, especially since the latter are aggressively pushing their beers to maintain their monopoly.
WHILE MOST Israelis associate the Golan with wineries and vineyards, archeological digs from ancient times have shown that other kinds of alcohol were produced in the region as well. The month-old Golan Brewery is aiming to renew this age-old tradition with the first large-scale Golan-made beer since the state's founding.
Unlike the Dancing Camel and Eldorado, the Golan Brewery adheres to strict German beer standards which stipulate that beer must be made using only water, barley, hops and yeast, in accordance with the German beer purity law of 1516. Moti Bar, manager of this Golan Heights based brewery, seeks to lead the transformation of Israeli beer culture.
"Just as the Golan Heights was the starting point for the revolution in the field of wine, the idea was to start a revolution in the field of beer," Bar says.
In this case, different beer flavors are based on the creative combination of these four ingredients. The Golan Brewery's claim to "Israeli-ness" is the water it uses. The Golan is Israel's main source of water. The brewery's water flows straight from a Golan stream into the tap.
"Ninety-eight percent of beer is mineral water. Using quality water is very important to create a quality beer," Bar adds.
Currently the beer is served on tap at the brewery's accompanying restaurant, but plans are in the works to bottle its three types of beers: Golan, Emek, and Galil.
While 2007 is likely to mark a turning point in the local beer industry, the trend actually began about 10 years ago with the Tel Aviv Brewhouse, a restaurant within a microbrewery. The Tel Aviv Brewhouse was the first to import a sophisticated beer brewing system. Unlike other microbreweries, the beer is made for consumption straight from the tap to which the beer flows through an elaborate system of pipes. Both the vats and the pipes are on premises.
The advantage of such a set-up, says Itamar Hatsor, co-owner of the Tel Aviv Brewhouse, is that the beer is fresh and has no shelf- life: "You can't compare it to Heineken or Carlsberg," he explains. "Our beer doesn't go through a filtering process. All the goodies remain inside. This is why when you look at our beer through light, it's opaque."
This is one reason why the Tel Aviv Brewhouse refuses to bottle its beer, unless by individual customer request. Bottling, he explains, affects temperature, which is why beer bottles are usually dark brown or dark green - to protect it from damaging UV rays.
Amir Neuman, manager of Norman Premium which distributes and imports local and imported beer, thinks this is only the beginning. "It's a hot topic and a very interesting one. People are asking a lot of questions," he says.
"In the past few years there has been a serious growth in Irish pubs, which serve a more sophisticated and greater selection of beers. There is demand and room in Israel for more kinds of beers of higher quality."
"Israelis are not necessarily drinking more beer," concludes David Cohen of Dancing Camel, "but better beers."
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