Haifa Cartoon Contest

Here’s a cartoon contest we heartily support…

Desert Beauty, Bedouin Style

Beauty products are a lucrative market the world over. It doesn’t matter what nationality of woman you are, nobody wants wrinkles, skin sagging or dryness. And if we’re talking about skin dryness, who could be better equipped to combat it than a group of women who live in the desert?

For two years now, the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development (a non-profit organization founded in 1988 to promote economic cooperation between Israel’s Jews and Arabs) has been working with a group of Bedouin women in the Negev, to develop a line of skin-care products called Asala Desert Nature.

The Bedouin women turn native plants and flowers into remedies for the skin, using the traditional wisdom gathered from their mothers, grandmothers, and other elderly female relatives.

The products will be manufactured at the laboratories of Hlavin, an international cosmetics manufacturer and exporter in Ra’anana. Asala’s Israeli commercial launch is set to take place in the next four to six months. The women are hoping that sales to Europe will follow in the next year, or so.

Read the full story at Israel21c.com

Israel’s Bedouin women turn desert plants into skin remedies

By Nicky Blackburn February 25, 2007

There’s nothing particularly appealing about the Bedouin town of Tel Sheva in the Negev desert. Founded in 1968 as part of a government project to settle Bedouins in permanent communities, the town is poor, run-down and neglected. Unemployment among the town’s 30,000 inhabitants is running high, crime is widespread, and there is little urban or industrial infrastructure. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, only 43% of grade twelve students are eligible to graduate from high school.

So why has this dusty underprivileged settlement been attracting so many visitors? The reason is a new project to help Bedouin women turn native plants and flowers into remedies for the skin.

Continue reading Desert Beauty, Bedouin Style…

Israel Helps Congolese In Need

Sometimes, the media spotlight shines in the wrong place. Humanitarian issues, or the long running internal conflicts in Africa are all too often ignored, at the expense of ‘sexier’ stories that are more likely to sell papers.

Rather than dwell on that however, let’s move straight to the important aspects of this story: between 1998 and 2004 some four million people have been killed in East Congo. According to the UN, some 1,200 people die in the area every day. A story in today’s Ynet reveals what aid Israel, and Congolese refugees now living in Israel, are offering to those in dire need in the region.

Here’s the story from YNET:

Israeli aid delegation in East Congo

Brit Olam’s emergency unit gathers aid efforts for refugees in East Congo with support of Congo refugees living in Israel

“East Congo is hell on earth,” says Uri Amit, the emergency division manager of Brit Olam , the international Israeli-Jewish volunteer movement, when asked why the humanitarian aid organization is dispatching medical equipment to the area.

Continue reading Israel Helps Congolese In Need…

All That Jazz

I guess Jazz is the universal music. Smalls is one my favorites, and so’s Caspi- so this is a twofor…

From HAARETZ:

Playing Matti Caspi in New York

By Ben Shalev

Matti Caspi does not know this, but many of his songs are being played at New York Jazz clubs. There are three reasons for this: First, several dozen young Israeli jazz musicians have become active in New York, growing in number and status. Second, an Israeli jazz musician aged 20 to 40 who hasn’t grown up on Caspi’s music and doesn’t admire the singer-songwriter is yet to be found. Third, there is something about the New York experience that makes recently arrived artists want to connect to their roots more deeply than ever.

And the result: “Binyamina Days,” “Eternal Covenant” and “Shalom Aleichem” are being heard at clubs like Fat Cat, the Jazz Gallery and Smalls.

“Only in New York did I realize how much I love Caspi and how much playing his songs, which I listened to as a child, makes me happy,” says guitarist Gilad Hekselman, 24, who has been in New York for two and half years. “When you are in a place where they don’t play those songs on the radio, you are hit by how beautiful they are, by how much they are a part of your roots. And when I play them at a club in New York, I feel it interests American jazz fans,” he says. Caspi’s “My Second Childhood” is the final number on Hekselman’s debut disc “SplitLife,” which was recently released by the New York-based Smalls Records.

To read the rest, you know what to do here

Michelin Catching Up

According to HAARETZ, Michelin is thinking of finally doing a guide on Israel. Well it’s definitely about time. Last year Star Chefs, the largest culinary website, did a huge feature on where to go and what to eat in the Jewish State, and as they put it:

“Despite being a predominantly Jewish nation, Israel is diverse and multicultural. Jews both Ashkenazi and Sephardic, Arabs both Christian and Muslim, the Druze, North Africans, Russian and Ethiopian immigrants, Bedouins and Palestinians – all provide for a varying landscape of ethnicities, cultural traditions, and not surprisingly, cuisines.

The chefs of Israel reflect this diversity, establishing Israel as one of the world’s most interesting destinations for the food-savvy individual or the curious culinary professional. Even France’s highly influential Gault-Millau restaurant guide, which features very few countries outside of France, published its first Israeli edition in the late ‘90s.”

So Ya’lla already Michelin!!

To read the rest of the Star Chefs review click here. After the jump is a clip from the HAARETZ article.

Continue reading Michelin Catching Up…

Mamma Mia in Israel

When in New York or London, a visit to the theatre district, Broadway or West End, is a must-even if the tickets cost more than flight.

Now, although theater in Israel is very well established and flourishes with internationally acclaimed performances by the Cameri or the Habima, big and expensive productions have yet to find a place. Not for long. One of the most successful musicals of the last few years on both ends of the Atlantic, “Mama Mia”, based on the songs of ABBA, is hitting Tel Aviv in June. This is expected to be the biggest entertainment production of the year and perhaps the largest international musical Israel has ever played host.

According to the Jerusalem Post, tickets are already on sale for only fifteen performances starting June 12 at the Tel Aviv Nokia arena which will be transformed into a theater to accommodate the needs of the musical.

Continue reading Mamma Mia in Israel…

Art, Straight From the Heart

Some people are always complaining. It’s like life dealt them a bum hand. But then there are others who seem to rise above their circumstances with grace and talent, no matter how tough a hand they have been dealt.

Imagine pursuing the art of photography, but without the benefit of sight. You might say it would be impossible, but a group of blind Israelis are proving that the beauty of art can transcend certain challenges.

An article published on Forbes.com describes the work of nine blind Israeli photographers, now on display at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

One of the artists, Riki Fritsh achieves her art by strapping a compact camera to her forehead. The results are both beautiful and also illuminating. The exhibition helps visitors understand, in some small way, what it is like to be blind.

And although some people might doubt whether a blind person can create visual art, the article includes a quote from New York University’s professor Gerald Pryor, who is head head of the photography department.

“They see the world with their bodies,” Pryor said. “They sense the world in a different way, and they can manifest that world in a photograph.”

And if it’s good enough for him…

Read the article after the jump or online.

Continue reading Art, Straight From the Heart…

Friends with Benefits?

Israeli sex columnist Abigail Kasner gets this quandary mostly right, but what about those relationships that slowly and perhaps inevitably become too friendly? You know, when you realize your girl/boyfriend is more like the best roommate you’ve ever had than the lover you can’t live without.

Maybe the ‘friends with benefits’ crowd are wiser in skipping the interim stages that give nostalgia deeper meaning? Naw, that’s a bit too cynical, but definitely contains a kernel of truth.

I don’t know about you, but I hardly have any friends of the opposite sex. Sure I am acquainted with many people of a different gender, and sure we pretend to be very friendly, but lets face it, without that tension, I doubt we would waste so much time on banter.

In the end I suppose Abigail is right, it is easier to ‘fornicate’ (I really can’t believe she used that word, it makes me feel like a gerbil) with your friends because, well… it’s easy. And, yes, you’ll probably miss a good opportunity to meet someone special as a result, but if I’m right about the whole becoming friends thing anyway, than what are we to do?

From YNET:

Looks like a relationship, feels like a relationship, tastes like a relationship but by golly you’re just friends

Abigail Kasner

‘A friend with benefits’ is a popular expression. But dear Lord, what does it mean?

Continue reading Friends with Benefits?…

The ‘Saw Lady’

We received an email this weekend about an Israeli inspiration named Natalia the ‘Saw Lady’, who despite her horror flick nick name, is probably the coolest busker out there - besides the Naked Cowboy of course…

Above is clip of her time in NYC, and here’s a little info from her website:

NATALIA…..
affectionately known as the ‘Saw Lady’, has spent over a decade bringing the rare art form of playing the musical saw (also known as the singing saw) to audiences around the world.

She played the musical saw with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta, with the Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Air Moroccan Symphony Orchestra and at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall with PDQ Bach composer Peter Schickele and with the Little Orchestra Society.

Television appearances include FOX (Good Day New York), ABC (Good Morning America), MTV (Andy Milonakis Show), VH1 (Behind the Music), History Channel (Tool Box).
Film appearances include ‘Dummy’ with Adrian Brody. Natalia’s musical saw playing can be heard on the soundtracks of films such as El Carnaval Sodoma/Arthuro Ripstein and American Carny. Radio performances include NPR (A Prairie Home Companion), XM Satelite Radio & WBAI.

Continue reading The ‘Saw Lady’…

FREE TICKETS!!! Enter Isrealli Contest Here

With A Show Like This, Everyone’s A Winner

If a theatre show (or anything, for that matter) is labeled a “phenomenon”, I am automatically skeptical.

Either this show is truly spectacular and so innovative that it transcends the ordinary categories of “theatre production” or “off-Broadway show”, or somewhere out there sits an over-excited publicist with an itch for exaggeration.

But “a phenomenon” is exactly what critics are calling the newest dance show to hit New York: “Be”, by the Israeli dance troupe Mayumana.

Created and directed by Eylon Nuphar and Boaz Berman, Mayumana’s “Be” is a vibrant and energetic performance with highly original content. Established 10 years ago, with “creativity” and “energy” as its driving themes, Mayumana (meaning “skill”) employs a style that is part music, movement, percussion and rhythm work.

It’s sure to be one hell of a show, if their promotional video is anything to go by. And it’s set to make its American premiere on March 13 at the Union Square Theatre.

Personally, I can’t wait to see it. And thanks to Mayumana’s generous promoters a few lucky isrealli.org readers will get their chance to see it too! We are proud to offer five double passes to see the show, during previews which begin on February 23.

Here’s how to enter:

Write a 250-word isrealli.org blog post about Israel. You can choose to write on any subject included on the right hand side of the isrealli.org homepage screen under the heading “topics”.

Hint: It doesn’t matter if you haven’t been to Israel. There are plenty of facts and information available on the internet, so get searching!

Send your post here