Save Me Falafel Man

We all love comics, even if we all can’t admit it. Whether its X-Men, Silver Surfer, Peanuts, or Far Side, few are impervious to the humor and drama found in the drawings both crude and sophisticated of our modern day minstrels of ink.

Now there is a new edition to the pantheon of heroes and villains who excite and mystify the minds of pre-teens and middle age closet comic lovers alike: Falafel Man. I know, I know, bare with me here.

Falafel Man is the creation of Dorit Maya-Gur, an Israeli student at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in New Jersey. She was inspired to create this unlikely culinary hero when she was rescued by the NJ police and fire department while unsuccessfully cooking falafel in her college dorm.

In the book, Falafel Man, like some of his comic counterparts, became a hero during a freakish laboratory accident in an experiment with Falafel. He is a beer bellied, falafel eating, crime fighter who has an affinity for California’s governor…

Don’t ask, just read the original article here .

BTW- the new comic book was presented at the Ka-Boom 3 annual comic’s convention in Tel Aviv.

Where R U Jacob?

Here at isRealli, we receive lots of material from people all over the world, and we do our best to give them all a platform to share their work and creativity with you, our readers. We received this video last week, and well, I guess Jacob says it best:

In January 2003 I came to Israel for ten days with a Taglit-birthright israel trip. It was my first time in the country in six years. In July 2003 I came for about 2 weeks and my eyes were opened to the possibilities of a life in Israel. In September 2003, on the eve of Rosh Hashana, I walked into the Jewish Agency’s office in NY and picked up the necessary aliyah paperwork. Taking ten days to ponder my decision, I handed in the completed forms on the eve of Yom Kippur. December 22, 2003 I left my birthplace of New York City and flew to my people’s homeland of Israel. At first I had a difficult time explaining my life-changing decision but slowly came to terms with its meaning and became more and more confident merely telling people I moved for Zionism.

Now, on the eve of my three year anniversary in Israel,…

Continue reading Where R U Jacob?…

Borat, Israeli?

Most of you are probably well-acquainted by now with Borat Sagidayev’s new movie, and even if you haven’t seen it, you’ve probably heard something of his less-than-politically-correct perception of the Jews.

See what happens when he gets interviewed by an Israeli reporter…in Hebrew (with subtitles).

Below is a story about the Israeli response to Borat from www.7online.com:

Israelis Dig ‘Borat,’ Jokes In HebrewJERUSALEM

December 14, 2006 - Like moviegoing masses around the world, Israelis have crowded theaters to watch the hit spoof “Borat.” But they are laughing for another reason: They actually understand what the anti-Semitic, misogynist Kazakh journalist is saying.

Few realize that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s wacky comedic creation, Borat Sagdiyev, is not speaking Kazakh or even gibberish, but rather Hebrew, the biblical language of the Jewish people.

The 35-year-old British comedian is no stranger to Israel. He is an observant Jew, his mother was born in Israel and his grandmother still lives in Haifa. In high school, he belonged to a Zionist Jewish youth group, Habonim Dror, and upon graduation spent a year working and studying on a kibbutz, or collective farm, in northern Israel. He has since returned for several visits, his Hebrew is excellent and his understanding of Israeli culture superb.

The irony of a Hebrew-speaking anti-Semite is not lost on the admiring Israeli audience, which has made the movie a huge hit here.

Continue reading Borat, Israeli?…

One More Reason to Love Thailand

It’s the quintessential Israeli song. Never mind that it has since become a regularly featured rallying tune at Yankee Stadium. Hava Nagila will forever be associated with bar-mitzvahs at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, weddings with large satin yarmulkes, the hora, and all of that stuff.

But I don’t think you’ve ever heard it quite like this.

We have a complete explanation of the song and its origins brought to you by MyJewishLearning.com after the jump:

Continue reading One More Reason to Love Thailand…

In the Ether Report

In our daily quest to bring you funny, interesting, thought provoking, spiritually uplifting, intellectually engaging, and palpably amusing material about Israel we scan, search, subscribe, sniff, mull, and click our way through the ether. Today, while perusing UrbanIsrael, we came across this Only in Israel post and just had to share…

This story comes from Bracha Jaffe in Ra’anana:

My husband David called me up a week before my daughter Ruchama’s wedding to Moshe Stein and said: “We have a wrinkle…” .

The electric company had posted a notice on our apartment building announcing that there was going to be a power outage in our neighborhood to allow for a major repair. The problem was that it fell out exactly on the day of the wedding…

I called the electric company to ask (read: beg) them to postpone the repair work, since we really, really needed the use of the apt. to prepare for the wedding (you know – makeup, hair, etc.). I was immediately transferred to a manager named Zion. He understood the problem and explained that they absolutely couldn’t reschedule the power outage but he would see what he could do.

Continue reading In the Ether Report…

National Geographic Presents, ‘Israel Gone Wild’

Every society has its own sense of humor. Israel happens to be a bit self-critical when pinning for laughs. Naor Zion, a famous Israeli stand-up, earned his acclaim by doing just that.

So welcome fellow bloggers, fans, and surfers to the long awaited in-depth documentary on the Israeli ‘Arsawat’, brought to by our very own Naor Zion. We hope you enjoy this bit of shtick with a heavy side of salt.

If you have any questions, comments, or need a further explanation click here, and we’ll do our best.

Free Hugs

Because it’s Monday morning after a long holiday weekend here in the States, we figured everyone could use a little cheering up. We present you taltalblog who was inspired to create a Free Hugs Campaign in tel Aviv.

In their own words:

Our Free Hugs campaign was inspired by Juan Mann’s video. We had no secret agenda - we just wanted to go out there and hug some people, believing that it will make all of us feel a lot better, and make the world a little nicer.

I hope you’ll enjoy the clip, forward it , and go hug your loved ones…

Continue reading Free Hugs…

Israeli Football

When viewing this we were originally going to make some sort of sarcastic comment like, “No wonder Israel didn’t make the world cup”, but as you can see, we are masters of the obvious.

Flash Mob Pillow Fight in the TA

Check out this cool pillow fight in Tel-Aviv. Man, the last time I had a pillow fight my cousin hit me so hard I was spitting feathers for a week. Anyway, we should try and start one of these in Times Square? Let us know if you’re down.

Subway Flirt

I tried this on the subway the other day and got pelted with nickels. If you’re wondering, Israel does have a subway, albeit a very very small system,… ok it’s more like a glorified underground trolley, but that’s something, right?

If you don’t believe me check it out here:

Continue reading Subway Flirt…