The Consulate General of Israel in New York, in cooperation with the Salute to Israel Parade, has initiated a banner campaign entitled, “Faces of Israel.” Beginning May 4th, in honor of Israel’s 60th birthday, banners will line New York’s Fifth Avenue from 46th to 97th Streets. Each banner will feature the face of an Israeli citizen and be topped with a display of Israeli and American flags.

To view the current Faces of Israel, visit www.60israelis.com.

Want to be one of the 60 Faces of Israel?

Send us a brief biography of yourself, telling us where you were born, what makes you Israeli, and why you should be part of the 60 Faces of Israel.

Please include a photo or a short video of yourself. If you are selected, your bio and photo/video will be featured on our website.

Our special “60 Faces of Israel” committee will choose from the best applicants based on creativity and representation of Israel.

Click here to get started!

As the world gears up to celebrate Israel’s 60th Anniversary, writer David Kaufman takes a closer look at Israel’s re-branding campaign across North America, including mention of some of our own efforts to help shape Israel’s image. From bikini-clad babes in Maxim magazine to fashion spreads in French Vogue, Israel is becoming a hot cultural destination. But is it all good news?

Read the full story in Adweek.

We’ve been on a little Yael Naim kick lately, but we’re cool with that.

From the Daily News:

Apple ad creates recognition for Yael Naim

Yael Naim hopes her Hebrew lyrics will cross musical borders.

Score another sonic bull’s-eye for Apple.

First, the company shot the career of the singer Feist into the stratosphere by featuring her song “1 2 3 4″ in an ad campaign.

Now another artist has found an instant audience by getting a smidgen of her music into a Mac spot.

“New Soul,” the debut single from Yael Naim, has shot to the top of the download charts and sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the last few weeks, all based on a 30-second snippet of her song in the Apple campaign for its groovy new superthin notebook.

Admittedly, it’s an arresting snippet.

“New Soul” sounds very much like its title: something freshly born. Given Naim’s sprightly voice, and the airy instrumentation around it, the recording sounds carbonated. It’s a fizzy splash of a thing.

Hasbro, the toy company, is currently developing World Monopoly. To select which cities will on the game board, the company has asked the public to vote on its website from a list of 68 cities. The top 20 cities will appear in the game, with the decision to be made at the end of February—in another 16 days!

Presently, “Jerusalem, Israel” is in seventh place (!). The Israeli Consulate in New York and the Foreign Ministry are promoting a campaign among supporters of Israel in the United States and around the world to visit Hasbro’s website, register, and vote every day. As more people vote for Jerusalem, Israel’s place on the World Monopoly will be ensured.

After the current contest ends, a second contest will begin on March 1 to select two cities to appear as “Wild Cards” in the game. The Consulate hopes to add Tel Aviv to this list and promote her selection as well.

The song featured in this popular Apple commercial is by a French-Israeli singer named Yael Naim. Enjoy!

From today’s NY Post’s travel blog:

Tel Aviv may be Israel’s city that doesn¹t sleep, but if the coffee culture in Jerusalem continues its fashionable rise, there won¹t be much shuteye in the Old City, either.

Three new ultra-trendy cafes have opened inside the old-meets-new Mamilla Quarter Complex, a $400 million, open-air shopping, residential, and hotel development taking shape under the nose of Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City.

The 25,000-meter pedestrian mall features Israel’s trendiest brands. Teva Naot shoes, Ahava for cosmetics from Dead Sea materials. Some of the shops are carved out of meticulously restored 19th Century homes. The project is a brick-by-brick affair headed up by Alrov, which owns the David Citadel Hotel nearby.

But the masterstroke of the ongoing project is a trio of outdoor cafes, where tourists can blend seamlessly into a local crowd of the bold and beautiful. Everyone sips some of the best coffee in the city while pondering majestic views of the Old City and The Citadel (Tower of David).

Most popular is Aroma, which will be familiar to New Yorkers as that-cafe-on-Houston-that-looks-like-a-chain-but-you’re-not-sure. (It is.) Also check out Roladin for high-end pastry and a gorgeous wait staff) and Rimon, the veteran of the group).

– Kevin Raub

The most talked about Israeli drama got snatched up by HBO recently and will be airing next week on the pay for cable channel. According to Ms. Stanley, it seems the show should make quite a splash State side as well.

From the NYT:

Four Days, a Therapist; Fifth Day, a Patient
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Some things sound simply awful: a family reunion holiday cruise, an all-you-can-eat haggis buffet, a television series set entirely in a psychotherapist’s office.

And that is the premise of “In Treatment,” a series that begins Monday on HBO. For nine weeks, five nights a week, viewers are invited to sit in on the therapy sessions of Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne). He treats four patients (five, actually, since one session is with a married couple), and then on the fifth day he discusses his demons with his own therapist, Gina (Dianne Wiest).

Electroshock therapy might seem more welcome.

“In Treatment,” however, is hypnotic, mostly because it withholds information as intelligently as it reveals it. Each night a new half-hour episode follows a different patient’s session. In every session the patients’ words are veined with allusions and elusions, clues to problems or patterns that are invisible to them but absorbing for the viewer.

Yee-hah!

A group of six Israeli cowboys will soon depart on a unique journey across the United States aimed at marking Israel’s 60th anniversary and raising awareness to the historic date in the American media.

The six travelers will be riding on Israeli born-and-raised horses and carry Israeli flags with them. They plan to cross the country from north to south, possibly taking the Continental Divide National Trail, leading from the Canadian border to the Mexican one through the Rocky Mountains.

Continue reading about Israeli cowboys in America

Yesssss, the English think we’ve got the smarts.

Release from HU:

Jerusalem, Dec, 16, 2007 – As it has in past years, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has again been ranked among the world’s leading universities by the Times Higher Education Supplement of London.

In its latest listings, for 2007, the Hebrew University was ranked overall by The Time survey in 128th place among the top 200 universities in the world. In the arts and humanities, the university was ranked at 39th in the world.