Scraps 1

Beach: The beach in Tel Aviv is of course a big deal; I guess it’s a big deal everywhere except maybe Gaza. Someone joked to me about how much the Israelis could do with Gaza’s beachfront property. There is nothing that bugs real estate people more than underutilized property. It’s amazing how brown all the young people are; half from genetics and have from sunbathing. You would think that was a skin cancer concern, but it doesn’t seem to deter people. The first thing that strikes you is the lack of litter, I’ve seem beaches with tens of thousands of people and almost no litter. Another observation is cigarette smoking sunbathers. A beautiful woman in a skimpy bikini rushes into the ocean, comes out refreshed, sprawls out on her blanket in the blazing sun and lights up a cigarette. Incredible. Still, always lurking in my mind is that these beaches are only for Jews, within miles of the sea are millions of people who can smell the sea (well probably not) and yet swelter without access.

Sunset on the beach, an hour earlier there were thousands of people sunbathing and notice that now the beach is absolutely clean, I think that shows a high level of social responsibility.

Teenagers using showers to wash off the sand, if there are water shortages here (it hasn't rains since I've arrived), these kids didn’t seem to be affected.

Weddings: Here is an area where the religious meets and defeats the secular; it is yet another area that is incomprehensible to me. For reasons which people I’ve talked to don’t know, or if they did know, they no longer remember, Lag Bahomer is a time when there can be no marriages under Jewish biblical law. Recently that waiting period has ended and I see women in wedding dresses everywhere, just walking down the street. Along the Old Port section which at midnight turns into a dance frenzy, there are $40,000 weddings with lavish receptions. The cost of the wedding is supposedly financed by the gifts given by the guests. I was told every guest is expected to give a present equal to or larger than their share of the food/entertainment they received at the reception. This ability to quantify everything, feels Jewish to me. But the really interesting part is that if you don’ want to get married in a Jewish ceremony, ie both parties aren’t Jewish, or aren’t religious, the only alternative is to leave the country! Fortunately, a whole industry has developed on Cyprus to address exactly this problem. Thus, when the Rabbis make unconventional marriage extremely difficult (and don’t even think about same-sex marriage), there are numerous and expensive ways around the prohibition, as long as they don’t happen on Israeli soil.

A bridal party at the Bahia Gardens, I assume these are Bahians and wonder if non-Jews come under Rabbinical Law, this is so complicated I don’t know how people keep up.

Film Festival: I went to what was call the largest international student film festival in the world with 50 countries and over 200 films and thousands of participants. I bought all day tickets and just sat and watch student films from noon to late at night; it was glorious. Conspicuous by their absence were Iranian and Palestinian movies both of which have an excellent reputation; I don’t know if they refused to participate or were barred by the Israeli government. The themes were much less political and much more about human and young people angst and all the screenings ended with lively discussions. These kinds of events raise a really interesting question, can a country which supposedly is on a permanent war footing and pursuing extremely controversial policies against Palestinians still have freedom of expression. You would think the answer is no, and cite to some place like China/Tibet, but Israel seems to feel comfortable with freedom of expression and doing terrible things at the same time. One would have to believe at some point these two activities would clash and only one of them survive.

Tables and tables of current and classic DVD’s with Hebrew packaging and subtitles on sale at the festival. .

Book Faire: I stumbled across the most incredible book faire the other day. Rabin Square which is in the center of town and about a quarter of a mile square was for 10 days turned into a colossal book faire. There must have been at least 100 booths and thousands of people going late into the night. There were no or very few English books, but every imaginable book in Hebrew. Most of the titles I couldn’t recognize, but I certainly saw all the popular sci fi, mystery, non-fiction and best sellers from the United States. Who translates all this stuff? I saw books that had just come out in the states which already had a Hebrew edition. Hebrew might be easy to learn to speak, but it is a bear to read and write, yet there must be rooms full of translators who are cranking out English to Hebrew books by the thousands. Equally impressive was that people were definitely buying books in large quantities, unlike at the Barnes and Nobles where I worked where there are many more lookers than buyers.

A night-time view of the Book Faire packed with lookers and buyers.

Along these lines it is interesting to see that on many public TV broadcasts there is a small box in the corner of the screen where a person is doing sign language for deaf listeners of the program. So what you have is a very boring political speech which people who can hear don’t even listen to and then you have a person who converts Hebrew, a fast-spoken language that relies heavily on intonation and hand gestures, into sign language. Does that mean that every major language in the world has an equivalent sign language for the deaf? Incredible!!