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."
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."
Friday, December 29, 2006
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
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
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
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
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
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."
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."
Thursday, December 21, 2006
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.'
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.'
Friday, December 15, 2006
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
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
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
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.'
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.'
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