news items from the Jewish World and Israel
We see them every day working tirelessly in the Israeli Parliament, but for a special project by photographer Baruch Greenberg they decided to open up their private lives and show the world how they behave when their grand-kids come to visit.
The Ministry for Senior Citizens hopes that the “Grandpa Knesset” project will bring greater awareness to the growing number of Elderly people, which today stands at around 15% of the population of Israel.
If you thought the Yiddish language is gone just come and see the new play by the Yiddish Spiel Theater in Tel-Aviv which created a new comedic play in the spirit of Dzigan and Shumacher which features amongst others iPhone’s, Big Brother and even McDonald’s.
And for a country that used to ban the Yiddish language, Israel of the 21st century is falling in love with language and culture that everyone used to mourn.
El-Al, the national carrier of Israel is renewing its fleet by adding 8 new Boeing 737-900ER planes, which are considered to date to be the most advanced planes in the world, for short to medium destinations. So among the in-flight perks the new planes will offer will be an espresso and wine bar, Wi-Fi and every seat will be equipped with an electrical and USB outlet. The maiden voyage of the plane will be this week on-route to Paris.
There is no doubt that we have come a long way in the last 60-years between the Germans and the Jews. And so, maybe, it should not come as a big surprise that Tel-Aviv is hosting in the next few weeks the “Berlin Dayz”, a cultural exchange between the two metropolitans, Tel-Aviv and Berlin.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
There is no doubt that we have come a long way in the last 60-years between the Germans and the Jews. And so, maybe, it should not come as a big surprise that Tel-Aviv is hosting in the next few weeks the “Berlin Dayz”, a cultural exchange between the two metropolitan whereas Berlin has sent its finest artists to come perform in Israel to tighten the already warm relationship between the two people.
Andreas Michaelis, the German Ambassador to Israel, says the Berlin Dayz are the perfect opportunity to show how close Tel-Aviv actually is to Berlin.
Andreas Michaelis, German Ambassador to Israel:
It’s a wonderful opportunity to present Berlin to Tel-Aviv because there is a tremendous interest in the city of Berlin, we now estimate we have about 17,000 Israelis living in Berlin and the idea of the “Berlin Dayz” is to bring culture from Berlin to Tel Aviv, but also to re-import culture that was produced by Israelis in Berlin back to Israel. That’s the idea.
Amos Dolev, the Head of the Cultural Department at the Goethe Institute in Israel, who organized the event claims that the moment Berlin is mentioned in Israel there immediately a lot of interest in the room.
Amos Dolev, Head of Cultural Dept., Goethe Institute Tel-Aviv:
The minute you mention Berlin it is a big hype in Tel-Aviv, at all in Israel and we’re taking this wave. Many, many Israelis are moving in and out of Berlin, a lot stay also, but there’s a lot movement going on. As a result of that a lot of co-productions and cooperations between German and Israeli artists have occurred over the years and that’s why we decided to bring a part of Berlin to Tel-Aviv.
We wanted to find out from some of the participants what they thought of the concept of the Berlin Dayz.
Idan Mansano. Tel-Aviv Resident:
Now we are here with plenty of people, part of them are German and a lot of Israelis and I don’t know, I feel like I’m in a bar in Berlin now.
Katja Michaelson, Tel-Aviv Resident:
I was very excited because I have friends in Berlin and I visit Berlin three years ago and it was very amazing, such a city, such a beautiful people and I said: ok I’m going and I will enjoy here and I will meet new nice people.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
It looks like the Tel-Avivians are very happy to embrace the Berliners and give them a very warm Israeli welcome.
For JN1 I am on Ron Jacobsohn from the Berlin Dayz launch party in the Port of Jaffa.
IDC in Herzliya decided they wanted to organize a TEDx event for their collage and so for one whole year they worked tirelessly and today finally the day has come to unveil their labor of love at TEDx IDC.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
IDC in Herzliya decided they wanted to organize a TEDx event for their collage and so for one whole year they worked tirelessly and today finally the day has come to unveil their labor of love at TEDx IDC.
Israeli Olympic medalist, Arik Zeevi, felt challenged for his first ever speech in English and the fact that he had only 12-minutes to convey his ideas on-stage.
Arik Zeevi, Olympic Medalist:
I’m trying to grow in this field so I’m listening to some lectures in TED and I really like that. The main problem for me with TED is that it’s too short, you know, that you have to develop your idea very quickly and I’m used to, you know, like talk freely without having a structure of a lecture but I can learn from everything.
Tom Peled, who created Bike for the Fight, after he lost his dad to cancer, feels that the platform of TED is the best way today to spread your message.
Tom Peled, Bike for the Fight:
It’s really a special event because it gives us, students the opportunity to share our stories and projects that we do with people all over the world, and I think the best platform today is the platform of TED, to spread your message.
Merav Turel and Ilan Hazam of the Interdisciplinary Centre, in Herzliya, revile how the whole idea for the TEDx started.
Merav Turel & Ilan Hazam, TEDx IDC Organizers:
During many cafeteria, talks we just realized that we have a lot of students here, doing amazing social initiatives and we thought about what would be the biggest and the most beneficial platform that we can give them, so TEDx IDC is something both local and global, so for us it’s the perfect megaphone for this purpose.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
Eleven students at the And with an audience of close to a thousand people the inaugural event of TEDx IDC was heralded as a huge success as the organizers already are talking about next years event. For JN1 I am Ron Jacobsohn at the Port of Tel-Aviv.