Filed under: arts/culture, movies/television, opinion | Tags: animation, gaza, Israel, posted by mel, video
Gisha, The Legal Center for Freedom of Movement has just put out this video about the Israeli blockade of Gaza. I’m not sure what to think about a piece like this, and would love to hear your opinions.
Filed under: arts/culture
Israeli-Arab singer Awad and Jewish-Israeli singer Noa have released four songs together in preparation for this years Eurovision contest. Only one of the songs will have the “honor” of going all the way to the competition. Have a listen here.
Filed under: arts/culture, opinion, politics | Tags: editorials, Israel, mfa, posted by The Oznia Staff
Ever want to read every single Israeli editorial, but just don’t have time? The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has the solution. They’ve rolled out a nice little feature on their website: paragraph long English summaries of the major Israeli editorials…every day! You can check it out here. Enjoy!
Filed under: arts/culture, opinion, politics | Tags: advocacy, AIPAC, bias, CAMERA, Facebook, Federation, Honest Reporting, posted by a, posted by aklionsky, rally, Stand With Us, UPenn
My email has been flooded every time I check it.
Which is a good thing, considering the situation in Israel and the nature of the emails.
Earlier this year I put myself on the listerv for the Penn Israel Coalition (UPenn’s pro-Israel organization.) While they get a lot of their information–especially now–from Stand With Us, the organization is a great resource for updates on what’s going on in Israel, policies, and also pro-Israel events.
I get similar emails from the Jewish Federation, although those are more specifically related to Chicago and Chicago area events.
But perhaps the best tool since the most recent und of fighting began is facebook. Facebook has a plethora of pro-Israel groups (and, unfortunately, many groups that are full of hate against Israel). Facebook’s ability to communicate quickly with people around your school and around the country makes it the ideal location for sharing information about the situation, news updates, and announcements about pro-Israel rallies and events going together. Especially since many of the rallies have been put together very quickly, the high turnout is astonishingly impressive, and much of it is due to Facebook.
Other organizations to check out are AIPAC, The Israel Project.
If you encounter bias in the media (which there’s a lot of), please DO NOT hesitate to report it to CAMERA and/or HonestReporting.
Please feel free to check out my two blog posts relating to Israel for a class I’m taking.
B’hatzlacha, good luck, in your advocacy!
Filed under: arts/culture, music, politics, religion, science/nature | Tags: college, gap-year, high school, Israel, Kivunim, Masa, Nativ, posted by ak, program, Siach, Year Course
As December 31st approaches and the first of my college applications is officially due, I’m beginning to browse through another set of applications and supplements: the ones for Israel gap-year programs.
I’ve been told over and over again that “You’re never as free as you are before college. During college there are classes, then there’s internships and jobs, and then maybe grad school, and then jobs, and a family, and kids… and it becomes harder and harder to pick up and travel.”
So I’m going to Israel next year. I haven’t decided yet which program/s to apply for. There are a lot of great ones out there, some affiliated with each movement of Judaism, others pluralistic, some specifically designed with social justice in mind, others for nature lovers, some for studying, others for volunteering, some for musicians, others for dancers, some for five months, some for ten, some for just Americans, some for people from all over the world.
The internet is probably the most fantastic resource for finding a program that’s good for you, and the Masa organization offers scholarships for many of the programs it advertises.
I want a program that allows me to live like Israelis: speaking Hebrew, making friends, meeting kids, going to museums. But I also want to learn. I want to travel. I want to gain a firsthand experience of what it would be like to be seventeen-going-on-eighteen year old living in Israel.
Check it out some programs, but do it soon. Bring up the idea with your parents (you can even play the maturity card: You’ll be living on your own thousands of miles away for a while year, making decisions and friends… it will give you a step ahead of your classmates freshman year of college, when they’re just starting to hold those responsibilities).
Filed under: arts/culture, movies/television | Tags: animation, bashir, movie, posted by beanieman12, waltz
The strikingly beautiful and tragic Israeli animated film “Waltz With Bashir” has been selected as the Israeli film to compete in the Foreign Film category at the Oscars. Set in the present, the film composed of a series of flash backs to Avi Folman’s the director, experiences during the First Lebanon War in 1982.
Though Israelis and Palestinians might have differing views, when it boils down to it, the majority of each side is rooting for peace. Centuries of history have proven that the more conventional means for reaching a harmony (such as attempted negotiations and conferences) do not always have the desired outcome, or even a strong effect on the general public. Fortunately, many projects in recent years have focused on bringing the effort of reaching peace down from a national level to a personal one; in other words, rather than make this endeavor a heavy diplomatic one, it is being made more relatable to the people, who ultimately control the result.
One of these projects, called “Cartooning fore Peace,” took place this past June in Israel. The workshop included a diverse group of cartoonists, among them Israelis, Turks, Palestinians, Americans, French, Algerians and Egyptians. These artists had the opportunity to present their work to one another, and take part in educational sessions (whose audiences included diplomats). Israeli political cartoonist Michel Kichka, who helped to found “Cartooning for Peace” explains that the event was important because it gave these people an opportunity to talk. He says that this allows us to discover “how much we have in common and how similar is our fight.”
He also emphasizes the relevance of peace to cartooning; while it is an art, it is too often used to ridicule certain ethnicities and religious groups. He explains that the beauty of the workshop is that it teaches to not take democracy for granted. Freedom of speech is a powerful right; it can either be used forcefully for the worse, or tremendously for the better.
By appealing to the hobbies of individuals, these projects help the more unlikely of people to connect by highlighting their shared interests, and perhaps even achieving peace along the way.
When hearing the term “Israeli music,” the first thing that probably comes to the minds of our parents and grandparents are hopeful chalutzim marches and folk singers like Naomi Shemer. While the poignant pitches of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav and Al Kol Eleh are undoubtedly timeless classics, it is important to recognize the revolution that is taking place on the Israeli music scene. It is no secret that Israel is a cultural melting pot; the unique sense of Middle-Eastern diversity is palpable in everything from the sounds to the signs on the streets. The greatest musical breakthrough in the past decade, combining the likes of ethnic beats and western pop, is arguably the strong surge of hip hop.
In 1996, the radio program Esek Shachor (Black Business) got started on the popular station Galgalatz to promote the American beat throughout Israel. Many Israeli artists were guests on Esek Shachor to show off their English rapping skills – many more, though, recognized that English rap should be left to native English speakers and they therefore attempted Hebrew rap. By 2000, the program was the most popular nationwide, granting big breaks to many artists, and nurturing the rise of Israeli hip hop.
Both within the state itself and throughout the international community, HaDag Nachash has become one of the most renowned Israeli hip hop groups. A mixture of jazz, funk and world music, the group continues to pick up speed as it discovers the excitement of new fans.
In a unique interview opportunity, Shaanan Street, lead singer of the band, explained to me how the band got started in 1996: “I had written, recorded and printed a rap song in Jerusalem early that year. After a month or two, an acquaintance of mine [David Klemes] heard the song and told me he loved it,” explains Shaanan. Klemes invited Shaanan to “jam with this funky instrumental band he was part of.” Shaanan did just that and, with Atraf Moshe Asraf on drums and Yaya Cohen Harounoff on bass, “HaDag Nachash came to be.”
On Friday, Israeli director Elad Keidan’s was awarded First Prize “Cinéfondation”, the first place in the students competition for his film Anthem . He was the first Israeli to win the prize at Cannes!
The 36 minute movie is about a young boy who, while preparing for Shabbat, meets an “eccentric group of people along the way”.
For more info check out the articles at the Jerusalem Post and Israel21c
