In order to enjoy one of the most important American traditions, Oscar Night – my equivalent of the Super Bowl – a lot of planning needed to occur.
Meredith has a slingbox; basically a box that’s attached to her fiancée’s cable box in Ohio that she can, through this amazing invention called the internet – interweb – tap into the cable box in Ohio and watch, on her computer, anything on American cable. She can use DVR, OnDemand, you name it. It’s pretty miraculous. So, Meredith recorded The Oscars, which aired Sunday night American time; very, very early Monday morning in Israel. And so Monday night, I assembled a small group of classmates (along with Ari’s twin sister who was in town visiting) to watch the Oscars.
There’s an episode of How I Met Your Mother where the gang can’t watch the Super Bowl on super Bowl Sunday because of a very long funeral. They plan to watch it Monday night as if it were Sunday, and in order to make the experience as “real” as possible, they (try to) go the entire day without hearing anything about the game – the stats, who won, MVP, etc. With very humorous results. My Monday was very similar. I sent an e-mail to our class asking them NOT to spill any details. And while there were some very close calls, no one spilled. But it was tumultuous and nerve-wracking to get to Monday night, sushi dinner, and Oscar Time. But it was well worth it.
I thought the ceremony itself was good; Hugh Jackman did a fine job. I was mostly pleased with the winners – I’ve only seen very few of the nominated films; Slumdog was the only Best Picture nominee I’ve seen so far; I enjoyed it but thought it was overhyped. I was a little upset and surprised at the loss of Waltz With Bashir, but the Foreign Language film award is always a bit of an oddball. But again, it was really nice to do something reminding me of home, but with an Israeli twist.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Weather
So, the last few weeks in Jerusalem have been beautiful. It's been in the 60's durin g the day (I think one or two days we broke the 70's mark) and in the 50's at night. Last Friday, during the day, I wore sandals and shorts. Shorts! It was awesome.
This past week, though, things have been altered. Thursday, I walked out of class and there was dust. Everywhere. A huge dust cloud had settled over the city. I kind of freaked out, because iot seemed like one of the harbingers of the apocalypse. It was hard to breathe and the sun shone, but through a cloud of dust. Like post-nuclear holocaust weather.
And now today, Saturday, it's storming. Truly storming. Last night there was monstrous, heavy thunder, and intense lighting, and hail and pounding rain- my street, for a brief moment, resembled a river. I don't know quite what to make of all of these quick weather changes, except to say that it seems an awful lot like Southern California weather...
This past week, though, things have been altered. Thursday, I walked out of class and there was dust. Everywhere. A huge dust cloud had settled over the city. I kind of freaked out, because iot seemed like one of the harbingers of the apocalypse. It was hard to breathe and the sun shone, but through a cloud of dust. Like post-nuclear holocaust weather.
And now today, Saturday, it's storming. Truly storming. Last night there was monstrous, heavy thunder, and intense lighting, and hail and pounding rain- my street, for a brief moment, resembled a river. I don't know quite what to make of all of these quick weather changes, except to say that it seems an awful lot like Southern California weather...
Thursday, February 19, 2009
LOST
There’s something really comforting about being in Israel and relying on the small comforts from home to make it through the week. I don’t want to make life here seem all doom-and-gloom; it isn’t. But after almost 8 months here (yeah, I know. Seriously!), everybody seeks out the small stuff to make everything a little homier.
One of those comforts is Lost. One. Of. The. Greatest. TV. Shows. Of. All. Time. Period.
There’s a group of us, about 10 students and an SO or two, who gather together Thursdays around 5:30 (the show airs in the states Wednesday night, so the earliest we can watch it, without cutting class is Thursday afternoon; believe me, it's an excruciating few hours to not read about it online), have snacks and watch the show. We rotate hosting and snack-providing, kind of like poker night. It’s a great weekly ritual.
The show itself is rich, textured, detailed, all-consuming cinematic experience with a deep mythology and continuing narrative, so it’s very fun to watch with a big group. We can get into discussions and arguments and bring up different points for other episodes to try and make sense of the glorious 42-minute saga we just watched. Lost is in it’s 5th season, the second to the last one, and it’s a particularly wonderful season so far. It's another taste of home in Jerusalem. While I'm excited to resume my intense Lost watching with my regular LA crew (Whattup Kelsie! Whattup Tom!), I'm definitely going to miss the saucy snickers of Amy and Aviva, the questions of Jason, the popcorn of Ari, the insights of Chad, the giggles of Lisa, and so on and so forth.
One of those comforts is Lost. One. Of. The. Greatest. TV. Shows. Of. All. Time. Period.
There’s a group of us, about 10 students and an SO or two, who gather together Thursdays around 5:30 (the show airs in the states Wednesday night, so the earliest we can watch it, without cutting class is Thursday afternoon; believe me, it's an excruciating few hours to not read about it online), have snacks and watch the show. We rotate hosting and snack-providing, kind of like poker night. It’s a great weekly ritual.
The show itself is rich, textured, detailed, all-consuming cinematic experience with a deep mythology and continuing narrative, so it’s very fun to watch with a big group. We can get into discussions and arguments and bring up different points for other episodes to try and make sense of the glorious 42-minute saga we just watched. Lost is in it’s 5th season, the second to the last one, and it’s a particularly wonderful season so far. It's another taste of home in Jerusalem. While I'm excited to resume my intense Lost watching with my regular LA crew (Whattup Kelsie! Whattup Tom!), I'm definitely going to miss the saucy snickers of Amy and Aviva, the questions of Jason, the popcorn of Ari, the insights of Chad, the giggles of Lisa, and so on and so forth.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Tsippori (Sephoras)
As part of our Rabbinic literature class (a course designed for the Rabbinic and Education students as an exercise in contextualizing the whole corpus of Rabbinic literature, including Mishnah, Talmud, Midrash, written in the first millennia CE), we took a day-long tiyul, yesterday, to Tzippori, the site of an ancient, Roman and Byzantine era Jewish city in the south Galilee.
Why Tzippori, you might ask. Well I’ll tell you. Tzippori was, for about 30 years in the 2nd century CE, the seat of Jewish power in the Galilee; Rabi Judah Ha’Nasi, the compiler of the Mishnah, made Tzippori his home as well as the seat of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court system. Tzippori is also really fascinating, archeologically, because of what was uncovered there. Much of the city has been unearthed, and especially many mosaic floors depicting various types of Greco-Roman imagery, including a series of panels showing a Dionysian Baachanal, many portraits of paces, and a Zodiac.
What! A zodiac? On the floor of a synagogue? Pagan imagery in a Jewish, religious site? How is this possible?
There are many historical explanations for this, and it gets complicated and confusing (and, in my nerdy, budding Jewish professional opinion: really fascinating), but basically it runs down as follows. Tzippori was a mixed city, where Jews and pagans (and later, Christians) co-existed and lived side-by-side and all of the cultures mixed. It was a first-century CE example of Los Angeles. Rabbinic authority, where in Talmud etc it has strong polemics against idolatry etc, didn’t really exist as “authority” until close to the end of the first millennium CE, and by that point Tzippori had digressed to a historical ruin.
The tiyul itself was a lot of fun. It was a very windy day, and so everyone looks super hot with their sunswept hair, but the sun was out and we did some nice text studies and a chevruta session. For dinner, we stopped at restaurant a little south of Jerusalem (it was a bit out of the way), which was fine and tasty. But the exciting part of the restaurant is the spice store that’s annexed, which had the most amazing array of spices, teas, granolas, grains, dried fruits, rice mixes, spice blends, etc. It was like a rainbow of smells and tastes. I spent waaayyy too much money on tarragon, an onion-almond-raisin rice mix, pecan granola, dried chamomile tea, rose hip green tea, and a spice mix for hummus. Again, we travel, and I end up coming home with delicious food.
Why Tzippori, you might ask. Well I’ll tell you. Tzippori was, for about 30 years in the 2nd century CE, the seat of Jewish power in the Galilee; Rabi Judah Ha’Nasi, the compiler of the Mishnah, made Tzippori his home as well as the seat of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court system. Tzippori is also really fascinating, archeologically, because of what was uncovered there. Much of the city has been unearthed, and especially many mosaic floors depicting various types of Greco-Roman imagery, including a series of panels showing a Dionysian Baachanal, many portraits of paces, and a Zodiac.
What! A zodiac? On the floor of a synagogue? Pagan imagery in a Jewish, religious site? How is this possible?
There are many historical explanations for this, and it gets complicated and confusing (and, in my nerdy, budding Jewish professional opinion: really fascinating), but basically it runs down as follows. Tzippori was a mixed city, where Jews and pagans (and later, Christians) co-existed and lived side-by-side and all of the cultures mixed. It was a first-century CE example of Los Angeles. Rabbinic authority, where in Talmud etc it has strong polemics against idolatry etc, didn’t really exist as “authority” until close to the end of the first millennium CE, and by that point Tzippori had digressed to a historical ruin.
The tiyul itself was a lot of fun. It was a very windy day, and so everyone looks super hot with their sunswept hair, but the sun was out and we did some nice text studies and a chevruta session. For dinner, we stopped at restaurant a little south of Jerusalem (it was a bit out of the way), which was fine and tasty. But the exciting part of the restaurant is the spice store that’s annexed, which had the most amazing array of spices, teas, granolas, grains, dried fruits, rice mixes, spice blends, etc. It was like a rainbow of smells and tastes. I spent waaayyy too much money on tarragon, an onion-almond-raisin rice mix, pecan granola, dried chamomile tea, rose hip green tea, and a spice mix for hummus. Again, we travel, and I end up coming home with delicious food.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Election results
We're now two days after Election day, and the results have come in, about 98% of the votes have been tabulated, and it's pretty clear how things are panning out. Not that anything is actually clear.
The New York Times called the winner of the election "Gridlock."
Basically, the right-wing bloc of the parliament led by Bibi Netanyahu's Likud (remember, we're working with 120 seats; a ruling coalition needs at least 61 seats to govern). has 67 seats; the left bloc, led by Tzipi Livni's Kadima, has 53 seats. However, Kadima is the largest party, with 28 seats to Likud's 27 seats. So Likud and Kadima are virtually tied, but the right bloc is substantially larger.
The next step in the process is the President, Shimon Peres, meets with all the party heads (about 12 parties are in the new Knesset) and they recommend who they think would be the most likely to form a government, and then he makes his decision (based on number of seats to each party, seats to each bloc, and recommendations made). The appointed person (it will either be Livni or Bibi) then has 45 days to form a government. The coalition building process is incredibly complex and difficult, with policy negotiations (what, exactly, does this government stand for by way of child subsidies or the peace process) and doling out of Ministry portfolios to each party.
I've made this process seem far easier than it actually is; we did a mock coalition building exercise yesterday, and we had a very difficult time, and we have no egos or history or bad blood or actual animosity. Many parties detest each other (Shas hates Yisrael Beiteinu; Labor hates Likud; everyone hates the Arab parties) and cannot or will not work together. Until it becomes evident that they'll be left out of the government and then they quickly jump on. Additionally, Israel has never experienced something like this before, when the largest party is from the smaller bloc, making the political guessing game even more exciting.
Coalition negotiations have already started, with Livni and Bibi jockeying for votes and support. They're both courting Lieberman, the head of the ultra-right, secular, fascist Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is our Home) party, mainly made up of Russians and Arab-haters. They have 15 seats, and Lieberman is basically going to be the kingmaker, which is truly a horrible situation, except he, unlike most of the religious parties, is in favor of many secular things I like and he's also very much in favor of establishing a Palestinian state, except by way of population exchange, which has dubious international legality.
In short, it's a mess. I have no idea who will be tapped to form a coalition; hopefully whatever the next government is, it will be either Bibi or Tzipi (my choice, of the two) leading a centrist-right (because the majority of the seats are right, not my choice) coalition, instead of Bibi leading a right-right-right coalition, which is also possible. My guess is Bibi's internal inclination towards pragmatism (over ideology) will lead him to the former - which, from an international relations POV is much better. But it's really anyone's guess at this point. Peres has no great personal love for Bibi (in 1996, Bibi narrowly, narrowly defeated Peres, then head of the Labor party, in a Prime Ministerial election) but I'm not sure how much a role that will play. Whatever way this thing plays out, the formation of the 18th Knesset is going to make for an interesting next few months.
The New York Times called the winner of the election "Gridlock."
Basically, the right-wing bloc of the parliament led by Bibi Netanyahu's Likud (remember, we're working with 120 seats; a ruling coalition needs at least 61 seats to govern). has 67 seats; the left bloc, led by Tzipi Livni's Kadima, has 53 seats. However, Kadima is the largest party, with 28 seats to Likud's 27 seats. So Likud and Kadima are virtually tied, but the right bloc is substantially larger.
The next step in the process is the President, Shimon Peres, meets with all the party heads (about 12 parties are in the new Knesset) and they recommend who they think would be the most likely to form a government, and then he makes his decision (based on number of seats to each party, seats to each bloc, and recommendations made). The appointed person (it will either be Livni or Bibi) then has 45 days to form a government. The coalition building process is incredibly complex and difficult, with policy negotiations (what, exactly, does this government stand for by way of child subsidies or the peace process) and doling out of Ministry portfolios to each party.
I've made this process seem far easier than it actually is; we did a mock coalition building exercise yesterday, and we had a very difficult time, and we have no egos or history or bad blood or actual animosity. Many parties detest each other (Shas hates Yisrael Beiteinu; Labor hates Likud; everyone hates the Arab parties) and cannot or will not work together. Until it becomes evident that they'll be left out of the government and then they quickly jump on. Additionally, Israel has never experienced something like this before, when the largest party is from the smaller bloc, making the political guessing game even more exciting.
Coalition negotiations have already started, with Livni and Bibi jockeying for votes and support. They're both courting Lieberman, the head of the ultra-right, secular, fascist Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is our Home) party, mainly made up of Russians and Arab-haters. They have 15 seats, and Lieberman is basically going to be the kingmaker, which is truly a horrible situation, except he, unlike most of the religious parties, is in favor of many secular things I like and he's also very much in favor of establishing a Palestinian state, except by way of population exchange, which has dubious international legality.
In short, it's a mess. I have no idea who will be tapped to form a coalition; hopefully whatever the next government is, it will be either Bibi or Tzipi (my choice, of the two) leading a centrist-right (because the majority of the seats are right, not my choice) coalition, instead of Bibi leading a right-right-right coalition, which is also possible. My guess is Bibi's internal inclination towards pragmatism (over ideology) will lead him to the former - which, from an international relations POV is much better. But it's really anyone's guess at this point. Peres has no great personal love for Bibi (in 1996, Bibi narrowly, narrowly defeated Peres, then head of the Labor party, in a Prime Ministerial election) but I'm not sure how much a role that will play. Whatever way this thing plays out, the formation of the 18th Knesset is going to make for an interesting next few months.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Election Day
Today is Yom B’chirot, or Election Day for the national Israeli Knesset. Yes, Israel has elections too. It is a democracy. For now.
So, government in Israel does not work the same way in the US. First, Israel is a parliamentary system – it works like Britain or Canada – and the ruling party, which does not have a majority of Knesset seats (total of 120 seats; 61 needed for majority), needs to form a coalition of like-minded parties to form a government. No party has ever had a majority; all governments – under Ben-Gurion, Begin, Rabin – have been coalition governments. So, whereas the US system is a two-party system, there are 33 parties standing for elections tonight.
That means, lots of arguing, lots of negotiating, lots of little voices being heard in a way that isn’t heard in the US system. But the campaign, thus far, has been dominated by four voices – three usual, expected voices, and one very unexpected voice:
Tzipi Livni, the leader of Kadima, a centrist party that is currently leading the governing coalition. She replaced Ehud Olmert, the current PM, as leader of Kadima in September after he resigned due to corruption investigation. Kadima is running neck and neck, in an unexpectedly close race with:
Benjamin Netayahu, the leader of Likud, a right of center party; Netayahu as Prime Minister in the late 1990s. He was expected to win by a large margin, but between the Gaza operation and the success of Liberman (see below) he's doing worse than expected.
Ehud Barak, the leader of Labor, a left of center party; Barak was Prime Minister following Netayahu. Labor has historically been the dominant party in Israeli politics but it looks like they're going to relegated to the 4th largest in the Knesset, behind a relatively new party led by:
Avigdor Liberman, the leader of Yisrael Beiteynu, a far, far right (read: almost fascist) party; Lieberman is projected to win an ungodly amount of seats in a rise that’s surprising a lot of people, including myself. But I guess American elected Bush twice, so who am I to judge?
The campaign up ‘til today has been fascinating. Israeli national campaigns start really a few weeks before the election (which was a refreshing change from the recent 18-month battle for the American presidency), so they really didn’t get going in earnest until Cast Lead (the operation in Gaza) ended mid-January. And it’s been a whirlwind. Lots of ad campaigns, lots of smears, lots of putting the other person down instead of running an issue-based campaign. Actually, there really were no issues discussed; it was all about the personas, and a little about security, and a little less about the economy.
Election day itself is an odd duck. Unlike America, Israel takes her election day very seriously. For starters, everyone has the day off. All schools, national institutions (banks, post offices, government offices) are closed. The buses run (so in that respect, it’s not quite like Shabbat). Most people do not go to work. Some restaurants and things are open, but mostly it’s an off day. People vote. They spend time with their family. It was very weird.
We didn’t have official school, because everyone – from teachers to custodial staff to security staff to the people who run the cafeteria – had the day off, but we did have a special Israel Seminar day where we met, voted in our own “Israeli National Elections” (the left-wing bloc won in overwhelming, astounding numbers, totally NOT mirroring the actually Israeli mood) and then divided into small groups and dispersed into the city to engage in surveying real Israelis about their thoughts. Jerusalem is a right-of-center, predominately religious city, and the results reflected that pretty accurately, but it was still a very fascinating anthropological/sociological exercise.
Now I’m at Meredith’s awaiting election returns. Polls close here at 10PM (which is in about an hour and a half) and then we’ll see who the next leader of Israel will be. Probably not, actually. Israeli exit polls are notoriously inaccurate, and since this is going to be a very close race, we probably won’t know anything until tomorrow afternoon.
So, government in Israel does not work the same way in the US. First, Israel is a parliamentary system – it works like Britain or Canada – and the ruling party, which does not have a majority of Knesset seats (total of 120 seats; 61 needed for majority), needs to form a coalition of like-minded parties to form a government. No party has ever had a majority; all governments – under Ben-Gurion, Begin, Rabin – have been coalition governments. So, whereas the US system is a two-party system, there are 33 parties standing for elections tonight.
That means, lots of arguing, lots of negotiating, lots of little voices being heard in a way that isn’t heard in the US system. But the campaign, thus far, has been dominated by four voices – three usual, expected voices, and one very unexpected voice:
Tzipi Livni, the leader of Kadima, a centrist party that is currently leading the governing coalition. She replaced Ehud Olmert, the current PM, as leader of Kadima in September after he resigned due to corruption investigation. Kadima is running neck and neck, in an unexpectedly close race with:
Benjamin Netayahu, the leader of Likud, a right of center party; Netayahu as Prime Minister in the late 1990s. He was expected to win by a large margin, but between the Gaza operation and the success of Liberman (see below) he's doing worse than expected.
Ehud Barak, the leader of Labor, a left of center party; Barak was Prime Minister following Netayahu. Labor has historically been the dominant party in Israeli politics but it looks like they're going to relegated to the 4th largest in the Knesset, behind a relatively new party led by:
Avigdor Liberman, the leader of Yisrael Beiteynu, a far, far right (read: almost fascist) party; Lieberman is projected to win an ungodly amount of seats in a rise that’s surprising a lot of people, including myself. But I guess American elected Bush twice, so who am I to judge?
The campaign up ‘til today has been fascinating. Israeli national campaigns start really a few weeks before the election (which was a refreshing change from the recent 18-month battle for the American presidency), so they really didn’t get going in earnest until Cast Lead (the operation in Gaza) ended mid-January. And it’s been a whirlwind. Lots of ad campaigns, lots of smears, lots of putting the other person down instead of running an issue-based campaign. Actually, there really were no issues discussed; it was all about the personas, and a little about security, and a little less about the economy.
Election day itself is an odd duck. Unlike America, Israel takes her election day very seriously. For starters, everyone has the day off. All schools, national institutions (banks, post offices, government offices) are closed. The buses run (so in that respect, it’s not quite like Shabbat). Most people do not go to work. Some restaurants and things are open, but mostly it’s an off day. People vote. They spend time with their family. It was very weird.
We didn’t have official school, because everyone – from teachers to custodial staff to security staff to the people who run the cafeteria – had the day off, but we did have a special Israel Seminar day where we met, voted in our own “Israeli National Elections” (the left-wing bloc won in overwhelming, astounding numbers, totally NOT mirroring the actually Israeli mood) and then divided into small groups and dispersed into the city to engage in surveying real Israelis about their thoughts. Jerusalem is a right-of-center, predominately religious city, and the results reflected that pretty accurately, but it was still a very fascinating anthropological/sociological exercise.
Now I’m at Meredith’s awaiting election returns. Polls close here at 10PM (which is in about an hour and a half) and then we’ll see who the next leader of Israel will be. Probably not, actually. Israeli exit polls are notoriously inaccurate, and since this is going to be a very close race, we probably won’t know anything until tomorrow afternoon.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The 15th of Shevat
Today (and by today I mean the Jewish day starting tonight and going into tomorrow day) is Tu B’shevat, the 15th day of Shevat, which, according to the Mishnah, is the New Year for the Trees. It’s kind of a bullshit holiday, actually, that existed in the Mishnah in the time when the late winter planting started, the first blooming (almond trees) happened, and tree tax was taken. But then the Kabbalists in the 16th century turned it onto a mystical holiday celebrating our natural essence and the effervescent relationship humans have to the natural and supernatural world.
In the Zionist age, the labor movement turned the holiday into a moment to reinforce the connection to the land. Modern, liberal Judaism has turned the holiday into a holiday of environmental awareness and so forth. There are a lot of tree-related songs written by Israeli and Jewish-American folk singers, and most congregations and communities have Tu B’shevat seders, which is like a Passover seder, but based on different types of frut and the seven speicies of the land of Israel and so forth and so forth.
Tonight, at school, we have a Tu B’shevat seder. It was fine. Again, it’s kind of a bullshit holiday and tonight felt like an excuse to get together, sing some songs, and eat a bunch of dried fruits and nuts.
But my ultimate point is we’re experiencing spring in Israel right now. It’s almost glorious (if part of me wasn’t so disappointed winter was over and done with so fast; Israel really is California) The whole country, in this first week of February, is entering the beginnings of springtime. The sun is out, the days reach 65 degrees, there’s a nice breeze, and the almond trees are blooming. Tu B’shevat is here: the birthday of the trees.
In the Zionist age, the labor movement turned the holiday into a moment to reinforce the connection to the land. Modern, liberal Judaism has turned the holiday into a holiday of environmental awareness and so forth. There are a lot of tree-related songs written by Israeli and Jewish-American folk singers, and most congregations and communities have Tu B’shevat seders, which is like a Passover seder, but based on different types of frut and the seven speicies of the land of Israel and so forth and so forth.
Tonight, at school, we have a Tu B’shevat seder. It was fine. Again, it’s kind of a bullshit holiday and tonight felt like an excuse to get together, sing some songs, and eat a bunch of dried fruits and nuts.
But my ultimate point is we’re experiencing spring in Israel right now. It’s almost glorious (if part of me wasn’t so disappointed winter was over and done with so fast; Israel really is California) The whole country, in this first week of February, is entering the beginnings of springtime. The sun is out, the days reach 65 degrees, there’s a nice breeze, and the almond trees are blooming. Tu B’shevat is here: the birthday of the trees.
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