The following is a guest post from JETS Israel:
What will Jewish education look like in the year 2020? No one can say for sure but if current trends hold firm more and more educational frameworks will integrate online game models into their core curriculum as well as their enrichment activities.
Teachers throughout the educational spectrum are increasingly incorporating games and other online tools into their lesson plans. The new media that is available on the web enables young learners to develop and sharpen their abilities, teach themselves and mentor their peers using any of the dozens -- even hundreds -- of online platforms and games. These activities introduce new subjects and reinforce previous learning as they encourage students to problem solve, engage in role-playing, and strengthen their knowledge.
The Jewish educational world has been slow to embrace the opportunities that multi-media, online games and other digital tools bring to the classroom. Every year however, more Jewish schools, both day schools and afternoon enrichment programs, integrate these distance learning programs into their curriculum. Online Jewish educational groups such as JETS Israel incorporate games in an online venue as a way of heightening the students' engagement with the subject material and reinforcing the learning.
One popular activity involves "twinning" kids in Israeli and North American and challenging them to collaborate with each other to complete assignments. The wikispace model is a particularly adaptive tool for this kind of instruction. Kids can play any number of games with their peers across the ocean which highlight the lesson's main points and support the learning model.
Since one of the objectives of the twinning project involves strengthening the language skills of both groups (strengthening Hebrew for the North American kids and English for the Israeli kids) many teachers use the vocabulary from the subject to create online word games such as word scrambles, crosswords and -- a particularly popular game, description detective. Each pair of students -- one from Israel and one from the North American classroom -- receives their own sub-Wikispace where they join forces to complete the assignment as they compete against the other student pairs.
iPad classes offer another opportunity to bring online games into the classroom. When studying Israel's history or geography students can time themselves while placing Israeli cities and other geographical locations correctly on prepared map and then count the number of events that occurred in each location that they can identify. A timeline game offers the same challenges.
The web-conferencing model presents a perfect forum for trivia games, whether the subject involve Torah, Talmud, history or current events. As the teacher moderates the trivia game from his or her station anywhere in the world the kids can compete in pairs, in groups or as individuals. This game works best when the kids are split into groups and each group is represented by a different student, with the role of group representatives revolving among the students. Multiple groups can compete and as groups are eliminated, the last group standing becomes the trivia winner.
Showing posts with label israel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label israel. Show all posts
Monday, September 9, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
Irena Sendler: a Holocaust Hero
The following is a guest post by the Lowell Milken Center:
Throughout the years numerous accounts have surfaced regarding the actions of Righteous Gentiles who saved Jews during the Holocaust. The Irena Sendler story, although one of the most amazing tales to emerge from the era, was almost buried in the ash heap of history until a group of amateur historians -- high school girls from Uniontown Kansas -- uncovered the events and publicized the story.
When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 Irena Sendler was a 29-year-old social worker. She was employed by the Welfare Department of the Warsaw municipality and she took care of the poor and dispossessed Jews in the city after the Germans occupied Warsaw. Historians estimate that Sendler was able to assist over 500 Jews locate hiding places during those early years of the war. The Zagota underground, of which Sendler was a member, helped the Jews survive in hiding which included paying for the Jews' upkeep and medical care.
Throughout the years numerous accounts have surfaced regarding the actions of Righteous Gentiles who saved Jews during the Holocaust. The Irena Sendler story, although one of the most amazing tales to emerge from the era, was almost buried in the ash heap of history until a group of amateur historians -- high school girls from Uniontown Kansas -- uncovered the events and publicized the story.
When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 Irena Sendler was a 29-year-old social worker. She was employed by the Welfare Department of the Warsaw municipality and she took care of the poor and dispossessed Jews in the city after the Germans occupied Warsaw. Historians estimate that Sendler was able to assist over 500 Jews locate hiding places during those early years of the war. The Zagota underground, of which Sendler was a member, helped the Jews survive in hiding which included paying for the Jews' upkeep and medical care.
When the Nazis established the Warsaw ghetto and interned over 400,000 people in the small area Irena Sendler secured identification papers that indicated that she was a nurse who specialized in infectious diseases. Using these documents she entered the ghetto to bring in food and medicines.
Sendler quickly ascertained that the needs in the ghetto far exceeded anything that she could have imagined. She realized that, while the supplies that she brought into the ghetto might result in a small easing of circumstances for a few people, she would be able to better impact more lives if she were to smuggle people out of the ghetto. Sendler began to smuggle children out of the ghetto, at first smuggling out street orphans but, over time, approaching families in the ghetto with the suggestion that they allow her to take their children out of the ghetto into hiding.
In an interview that was conducted with Sendler over 50 years after the war Sendler described the agony of those days. "I talked the mothers out of their children" Sendler said as she described the long-ago events. "Those scenes over whether to give a child away were heart-rending. Sometimes, they wouldn't give me the child. Their first question was, 'What guarantee is there that the child will live?' I said, 'None. I don't even know if I will get out of the ghetto alive today."
Sendler and her underground compatriots employed a number of schemes that allowed her to smuggle the children to safety. Young children were often sedated and hidden in toolboxes and luggage, under tram seats and even under piles of garbage in garbage cards. Older children could be walked through the sewers that criss-crossed beneath the city and through which the children could be brought to the "safe" part of Warsaw.
Once a child had been removed from the ghetto it was vital to immediately find him a secure hiding place. Sendler and her underground comrades forged documents for the children and brought them to orphanages, convents and to homes of sympathetic Polish families who were prepared to accept the risk of hiding a Jewish child. As a social worker Sendler had contacts with many institutions and she exploited those contacts to secure hiding places for the children including at the Rodzina Marii (Family of Mary) Orphanage in Warsaw and in convents in Chomotow, Lublin and Turkowice. Sendler listed the names and coded addresses of the children on tissue paper and placed these pieces of paper into glass jars which she buried in her neighbor's yard, hoping to reunite the children with the Jewish community after the war.
After the ghetto was destroyed Zagota appointed Sendler, whose underground name was Jolanta, as the director of the Department for the Care of Jewish Children. Historians estimate that Sendler, together with Zagota, saved over 2500 Jewish children.
On October 20 1943 the Nazis arrested Sendler and brought her to the infamous Pawiak prison where they tortured her. Sendler did not reveal any information about the children's whereabouts. She was sentenced to death but Zagota members managed to bribe a guard and she was released to live out the remainder of the war in hiding.
In 1999 a group of rural Kansas high school students heard a rumor about Sendler's wartime activities and began to investigate the historical episode. Their research culminated in the creation of the Lowell Milken Center along with a wide-ranging project about Sendler's activities, Life in a Jar, which has now developed into a book, a website and a staged performance.
Sendler quickly ascertained that the needs in the ghetto far exceeded anything that she could have imagined. She realized that, while the supplies that she brought into the ghetto might result in a small easing of circumstances for a few people, she would be able to better impact more lives if she were to smuggle people out of the ghetto. Sendler began to smuggle children out of the ghetto, at first smuggling out street orphans but, over time, approaching families in the ghetto with the suggestion that they allow her to take their children out of the ghetto into hiding.
In an interview that was conducted with Sendler over 50 years after the war Sendler described the agony of those days. "I talked the mothers out of their children" Sendler said as she described the long-ago events. "Those scenes over whether to give a child away were heart-rending. Sometimes, they wouldn't give me the child. Their first question was, 'What guarantee is there that the child will live?' I said, 'None. I don't even know if I will get out of the ghetto alive today."
Sendler and her underground compatriots employed a number of schemes that allowed her to smuggle the children to safety. Young children were often sedated and hidden in toolboxes and luggage, under tram seats and even under piles of garbage in garbage cards. Older children could be walked through the sewers that criss-crossed beneath the city and through which the children could be brought to the "safe" part of Warsaw.
Once a child had been removed from the ghetto it was vital to immediately find him a secure hiding place. Sendler and her underground comrades forged documents for the children and brought them to orphanages, convents and to homes of sympathetic Polish families who were prepared to accept the risk of hiding a Jewish child. As a social worker Sendler had contacts with many institutions and she exploited those contacts to secure hiding places for the children including at the Rodzina Marii (Family of Mary) Orphanage in Warsaw and in convents in Chomotow, Lublin and Turkowice. Sendler listed the names and coded addresses of the children on tissue paper and placed these pieces of paper into glass jars which she buried in her neighbor's yard, hoping to reunite the children with the Jewish community after the war.
After the ghetto was destroyed Zagota appointed Sendler, whose underground name was Jolanta, as the director of the Department for the Care of Jewish Children. Historians estimate that Sendler, together with Zagota, saved over 2500 Jewish children.
On October 20 1943 the Nazis arrested Sendler and brought her to the infamous Pawiak prison where they tortured her. Sendler did not reveal any information about the children's whereabouts. She was sentenced to death but Zagota members managed to bribe a guard and she was released to live out the remainder of the war in hiding.
In 1999 a group of rural Kansas high school students heard a rumor about Sendler's wartime activities and began to investigate the historical episode. Their research culminated in the creation of the Lowell Milken Center along with a wide-ranging project about Sendler's activities, Life in a Jar, which has now developed into a book, a website and a staged performance.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Yom Hazikaron in Raanana
The Raanana municipality ran a beautiful ceremony for Yom Hazikaron - Remembrance Day.
The event was held (as it is every year) in front of the Yad L'Banim [1] building, whose courtyard also functions as the city square. The square was also used for Holocaust Memorial Day and is used for other events like concerts and the annual sukkot market.
There were few people there when I showed up at 7:00. By 8:00, I estimated the crowd to be over 6,000 people. It eventually swelled to around 8,000 or so. The people spilled over into and across the streets beside the square. Police kept the streets closed down for the ceremony, which included Ahuza street, Raanana's main artery.
There was complete unity of religious and secular, old and young, left and right, native and immigrant. Everyone stood for the siren at 8:00. The speeches and sad, poignant songs had biblical or ritual references. Everyone, secular or religious, stood up as the haredi chief Rabbi of Raanana walked up to the podium; he spoke about connection of between today's soldiers and the armies who fought the Pelishtim during the time of King Saul.
The ceremony included recitations of the names of all soldiers and terror victims from Raanana, from the early 1920s until just last year. Along with the names were pictures and personal details. Some of the relatives, together with young soldiers, laid wreaths. The square was draped with projections of faces and/or rolling clouds or fire at different times, and there was live music, a singer, a clarinetist, and a hazan to read El Malei Rachamim.
I felt that this, or something like it, must be happening in each town around Israel: whole populations stopped to pay tribute to their fallen soldiers, every name read out and remembered, year after year. I never went to a ceremony like this in Jerusalem (usually I went to something small in the local synagogue), but it felt right to go to this one. Maybe it's Raanana, which seems to have a kind of unity that I hadn't noticed and I haven't seen elsewhere. Or maybe it's because my own son is now in the army.
[1] Yad L'Banim is an organization dedicated to fallen Israeli soldiers.
The event was held (as it is every year) in front of the Yad L'Banim [1] building, whose courtyard also functions as the city square. The square was also used for Holocaust Memorial Day and is used for other events like concerts and the annual sukkot market.
There were few people there when I showed up at 7:00. By 8:00, I estimated the crowd to be over 6,000 people. It eventually swelled to around 8,000 or so. The people spilled over into and across the streets beside the square. Police kept the streets closed down for the ceremony, which included Ahuza street, Raanana's main artery.
There was complete unity of religious and secular, old and young, left and right, native and immigrant. Everyone stood for the siren at 8:00. The speeches and sad, poignant songs had biblical or ritual references. Everyone, secular or religious, stood up as the haredi chief Rabbi of Raanana walked up to the podium; he spoke about connection of between today's soldiers and the armies who fought the Pelishtim during the time of King Saul.
The ceremony included recitations of the names of all soldiers and terror victims from Raanana, from the early 1920s until just last year. Along with the names were pictures and personal details. Some of the relatives, together with young soldiers, laid wreaths. The square was draped with projections of faces and/or rolling clouds or fire at different times, and there was live music, a singer, a clarinetist, and a hazan to read El Malei Rachamim.
I felt that this, or something like it, must be happening in each town around Israel: whole populations stopped to pay tribute to their fallen soldiers, every name read out and remembered, year after year. I never went to a ceremony like this in Jerusalem (usually I went to something small in the local synagogue), but it felt right to go to this one. Maybe it's Raanana, which seems to have a kind of unity that I hadn't noticed and I haven't seen elsewhere. Or maybe it's because my own son is now in the army.
[1] Yad L'Banim is an organization dedicated to fallen Israeli soldiers.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Ticket to Ride
Tal, Saarya, and I took our annual pre-Passover mini family vacation last weekend. We vacation before Passover because the rest of Israel vacations during Passover and everything is too crowded. Also, during Hol Hamoed there js Games Day, and I usually work the rest of the time.
We stayed at Nuriel Fruit and Guest Rooms in She'ar Yashuv. The place is run by Miriam, a friendly and helpful woman who tries hard to accommodate your every need. She doesn't serve any meals (no breakfast), but she will give you milk, the rooms come with tea and coffee, and you can pick fruit from her trees. We picked a dozen grapefruit, and Tal squeezed them into juice for us to drink over the weekend.
She'ar Yashuv is a small moshav a few meters from the Banias spring. You can walk from the moshav upstream past Snir and to the falls, which is one of the prettiest in Israel. I'm pretty sure you used to be able to swim in and around the falls, but there are no swimming signs everywhere now. You can walk out the front gate of the moshav to Tel Dan, which is nearly across the street. It's a short drive to Kiryat Shemonah.
The moshav's synagogue is small, and there was only barely a minyan on Sat morning. One interesting thing about the synagogue is that the parochet has the usual gold and silver threaded stitching, but in addition to depicting symbols of the tribes of Israel they show two helicopters, in commemoration for the 1997 helicopter crash that occurred right above the moshav.
On Thursday we stopped for dinner at El Rancho, a nice restaurant that was way overpriced (but we used a groupon for half off). Friday we bought groceries and ready made food in Kiryat Shemonah for the rest of the trip. Then we visited the Banias springs and falls.
Friday night we played Ticket to Ride, our first time playing the game together. I think Tal and Saarya had both played the game at friends' houses. Tal nearly didn't complete any tickets, but she finally managed to sneak a route through the center of the map. I picked what I thought would be a series of tickets that, after completion, would lend themselves to matching at least one new ticket when I came around to drawing new ones. Alas, only one of the new tickets came even close, and I still have to build two routes (4 and 5) to get it.
Saarya fared better in his new ticket draw and even drew new tickets a second time. He ended up not completing one of the final tickets he drew, but he still won the game. We were all within 15 points of each other with Saarya leading with 125 points or so.
The next day we mostly slept. Tal beat me in a game of Gin Rummy. I think I called Gin once.
Sat night we drove Saarya back to his base (he had to be back on Sat night, for some reason) and headed home, taking home three soldiers from Saarya's base who were headed our way.
We stayed at Nuriel Fruit and Guest Rooms in She'ar Yashuv. The place is run by Miriam, a friendly and helpful woman who tries hard to accommodate your every need. She doesn't serve any meals (no breakfast), but she will give you milk, the rooms come with tea and coffee, and you can pick fruit from her trees. We picked a dozen grapefruit, and Tal squeezed them into juice for us to drink over the weekend.
She'ar Yashuv is a small moshav a few meters from the Banias spring. You can walk from the moshav upstream past Snir and to the falls, which is one of the prettiest in Israel. I'm pretty sure you used to be able to swim in and around the falls, but there are no swimming signs everywhere now. You can walk out the front gate of the moshav to Tel Dan, which is nearly across the street. It's a short drive to Kiryat Shemonah.
The moshav's synagogue is small, and there was only barely a minyan on Sat morning. One interesting thing about the synagogue is that the parochet has the usual gold and silver threaded stitching, but in addition to depicting symbols of the tribes of Israel they show two helicopters, in commemoration for the 1997 helicopter crash that occurred right above the moshav.
On Thursday we stopped for dinner at El Rancho, a nice restaurant that was way overpriced (but we used a groupon for half off). Friday we bought groceries and ready made food in Kiryat Shemonah for the rest of the trip. Then we visited the Banias springs and falls.
Friday night we played Ticket to Ride, our first time playing the game together. I think Tal and Saarya had both played the game at friends' houses. Tal nearly didn't complete any tickets, but she finally managed to sneak a route through the center of the map. I picked what I thought would be a series of tickets that, after completion, would lend themselves to matching at least one new ticket when I came around to drawing new ones. Alas, only one of the new tickets came even close, and I still have to build two routes (4 and 5) to get it.
Saarya fared better in his new ticket draw and even drew new tickets a second time. He ended up not completing one of the final tickets he drew, but he still won the game. We were all within 15 points of each other with Saarya leading with 125 points or so.
The next day we mostly slept. Tal beat me in a game of Gin Rummy. I think I called Gin once.
Sat night we drove Saarya back to his base (he had to be back on Sat night, for some reason) and headed home, taking home three soldiers from Saarya's base who were headed our way.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Alanis in Israel 2012
Alanis Morissette wrapped up her global Guardian Angel tour at the sold-out Nokia Stadium (Yad Eliyahu) in Tel Aviv last night, and she was awesome, even if her performance wasn't ... exactly.
The hall was supposed to open at 7:00 for the 9:00 concert, with two opening acts: the local Israeli artist Natan Goshen at 7:30 for 1/2 hour and Alanis' husband Mario ("MC Souleye") Treadway at 8:00 for an hour.
Natan didn't come on until after 8:00, but he was AMAZING. I've heard some Israeli music here and there in the twenty odd years I've lived here, and I've been to a few concerts. Natan was among the best I've heard, both in terms of songs and live performance. There should have been more than a half empty stadium during his performance, and it should have been longer.
There was a short break and then Mario came out with a DJ backer. Unfortunately for him, since no one announced him, pretty much no one in the audience knew who he was. It must be a tough job to be on stage performing to people who don't know who you are, are waiting for the main act, and are unimpressed with your act. The audience wasn't rude - they applauded after each song - but they were confused and didn't respond to the music. Part of the problem was that his genre (white rap) was not Alanis' genre, and so really intended for a different audience.
Another problem was the voluminous sound, which made it impossible to understand more than a word or two here or there, which is death for an hour long rap song set list where all the songs otherwise sound the same. "What did he say? Something something tragic, something something automatic, something something plastic, something something uh glass bit?" Another problem was that he's white and a rapper, which is not entirely impossible but difficult for someone who looks handsome, clean, married, and comfortably well off. I'm guessing that he would make a not bad pop singer, but as a rapper, while he tried valiantly to connect to the audience, moving back and forth on the stage, and signing with his hands in sync with his words, he lacked real emotion or street cred, as the kids are saying nowadays.
Alanis came on during his set for one song (Jekyll and Hyde, I'm guessing) to thunderous applause, sang a little, kissed him, and then promised the audience to come back a little later. It took a long time between sets until she finally reappeared at 10:10, over an hour late.
Set list (JLP=Jagged Little Pill, SFIJ=Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, URS=Under Rug Swept, HaBL=Havoc and Bright Lights):
Anyhoo ...
Alanis is one of the finest songwriters and music arrangers, and her raw singing passion is surpassed by no one, so being present at her concert was a privilege. Alanis and the band played with smiles and positive energy and the fan was appreciative. She still packs an emotional punch. She's no longer a frustrated jagged pill, so she doesn't sing the old songs with quite the pain they deserve, but so much of the angst is already packed into the lyrics and the music that it doesn't matter so much.
When Alanis picks up a guitar she rocks, and when she dances uninhibitedly like she did on Uninvited you can tell she's enjoying herself. It's fair to say that the night was awesome and the crowd loved it. Despite. Despite that the bass and voice mic being so loud that you couldn't really make out the words on some songs and they caused earache (I guess she had to sing above the screaming of the crowd) and the notes tended to dissolve at that high a volume, and despite that Alanis had some trouble singing all of the words in some of the more frenetic songs here and there. She looked a little out of breath at the beginning.
One lovely thing about Alanis is that she is a musician, not a celebrity pop star: there was no dance routine, no cleavage or thigh on display, no flash--in-the-pan style trying oh so hard to be a hit; just a conservatively dressed, kind of awkward powerhouse of a woman singing words she needs to sing. I say awkward, and really, during the first two songs she just marched from left to right on the stage and back again, over and over, as if she just learned how to take big steps. When she held the guitar she didn't look so awkward, and when she was jumping up and down and rocking (like on Uninvited) she looked like a typical clubber. The pacing was kind of funny.
My daughter also says that she does odd things with the mic, moving and contorting her head to control the sound volume rather than just moving the mic back and forth. However, she was holding a guitar, so I think that this was unavoidable.
On Mary Jane she proved she could still sing while belting it out. On So Pure, she changed the location from New York to Tel Aviv, but she changes the location at every concert to the local city. For Ironic, the audience sang so loudly that Alanis just held the mic out to us for most of the song. She also changed the verse from "and meeting his beautiful wife" to "and meeting my beautiful husband", which kind of robs the song of its point, but the song always was, ironically, never about irony anyway. Lens, with its lyrics about competing religions (used metaphorically) was particularly appropriate for the venue.
After Lens the pianist played a short riff through the classic Hebrew round about brotherly love Henei Ma Tov U'ma Na'im, which I'm pretty sure was not done anywhere else on the tour. It was something to hear 10,000 people scream her most gritty and powerful song You Oughta Know, including the infamous "and are you thinking of me when you f*** her" all together. I was at the concert with my daughter, as I may have mentioned.
She finished around midnight, and 12 hours later my ears are still ringing. We've had some other world class musicians here in Israel recently: Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Red Hot Chile Peppers, etc. This was my first large concert in Israel, actually my first large concert since my first ever large concert Pink Floyd in 1987 at Nassau Coliseum. That one was a blast, and so was this one.
The hall was supposed to open at 7:00 for the 9:00 concert, with two opening acts: the local Israeli artist Natan Goshen at 7:30 for 1/2 hour and Alanis' husband Mario ("MC Souleye") Treadway at 8:00 for an hour.
Natan didn't come on until after 8:00, but he was AMAZING. I've heard some Israeli music here and there in the twenty odd years I've lived here, and I've been to a few concerts. Natan was among the best I've heard, both in terms of songs and live performance. There should have been more than a half empty stadium during his performance, and it should have been longer.
There was a short break and then Mario came out with a DJ backer. Unfortunately for him, since no one announced him, pretty much no one in the audience knew who he was. It must be a tough job to be on stage performing to people who don't know who you are, are waiting for the main act, and are unimpressed with your act. The audience wasn't rude - they applauded after each song - but they were confused and didn't respond to the music. Part of the problem was that his genre (white rap) was not Alanis' genre, and so really intended for a different audience.
Another problem was the voluminous sound, which made it impossible to understand more than a word or two here or there, which is death for an hour long rap song set list where all the songs otherwise sound the same. "What did he say? Something something tragic, something something automatic, something something plastic, something something uh glass bit?" Another problem was that he's white and a rapper, which is not entirely impossible but difficult for someone who looks handsome, clean, married, and comfortably well off. I'm guessing that he would make a not bad pop singer, but as a rapper, while he tried valiantly to connect to the audience, moving back and forth on the stage, and signing with his hands in sync with his words, he lacked real emotion or street cred, as the kids are saying nowadays.
Alanis came on during his set for one song (Jekyll and Hyde, I'm guessing) to thunderous applause, sang a little, kissed him, and then promised the audience to come back a little later. It took a long time between sets until she finally reappeared at 10:10, over an hour late.
Set list (JLP=Jagged Little Pill, SFIJ=Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, URS=Under Rug Swept, HaBL=Havoc and Bright Lights):
- I Remain (Prince of Persia soundtrack)
- Woman Down (HaBL)
- All I Really Want (JLP)
- You Learn (JLP)
- Guardian (HaBL)
- Mary Jane (JLP)
- Receive (HaBL)
- Right Through You (JLP)
- So Pure (SFIJ)
- Ironic (JLP)
- Havoc (HaBL)
- Head Over Feet (JLP)
- Lens (HaBL)
- Henei Mah Tov (instrumental)
- 21 Things (URS)
- Uninvited (City of Angels soundtrack)
- You Oughta Know (JLP)
- Numb (HaBL)
- Hand in My Pocket (acoustic) (JLP)
- Your Room (JLP)
- Thank U (SFIJ)
Anyhoo ...
Alanis is one of the finest songwriters and music arrangers, and her raw singing passion is surpassed by no one, so being present at her concert was a privilege. Alanis and the band played with smiles and positive energy and the fan was appreciative. She still packs an emotional punch. She's no longer a frustrated jagged pill, so she doesn't sing the old songs with quite the pain they deserve, but so much of the angst is already packed into the lyrics and the music that it doesn't matter so much.
When Alanis picks up a guitar she rocks, and when she dances uninhibitedly like she did on Uninvited you can tell she's enjoying herself. It's fair to say that the night was awesome and the crowd loved it. Despite. Despite that the bass and voice mic being so loud that you couldn't really make out the words on some songs and they caused earache (I guess she had to sing above the screaming of the crowd) and the notes tended to dissolve at that high a volume, and despite that Alanis had some trouble singing all of the words in some of the more frenetic songs here and there. She looked a little out of breath at the beginning.
One lovely thing about Alanis is that she is a musician, not a celebrity pop star: there was no dance routine, no cleavage or thigh on display, no flash--in-the-pan style trying oh so hard to be a hit; just a conservatively dressed, kind of awkward powerhouse of a woman singing words she needs to sing. I say awkward, and really, during the first two songs she just marched from left to right on the stage and back again, over and over, as if she just learned how to take big steps. When she held the guitar she didn't look so awkward, and when she was jumping up and down and rocking (like on Uninvited) she looked like a typical clubber. The pacing was kind of funny.
My daughter also says that she does odd things with the mic, moving and contorting her head to control the sound volume rather than just moving the mic back and forth. However, she was holding a guitar, so I think that this was unavoidable.
On Mary Jane she proved she could still sing while belting it out. On So Pure, she changed the location from New York to Tel Aviv, but she changes the location at every concert to the local city. For Ironic, the audience sang so loudly that Alanis just held the mic out to us for most of the song. She also changed the verse from "and meeting his beautiful wife" to "and meeting my beautiful husband", which kind of robs the song of its point, but the song always was, ironically, never about irony anyway. Lens, with its lyrics about competing religions (used metaphorically) was particularly appropriate for the venue.
After Lens the pianist played a short riff through the classic Hebrew round about brotherly love Henei Ma Tov U'ma Na'im, which I'm pretty sure was not done anywhere else on the tour. It was something to hear 10,000 people scream her most gritty and powerful song You Oughta Know, including the infamous "and are you thinking of me when you f*** her" all together. I was at the concert with my daughter, as I may have mentioned.
She finished around midnight, and 12 hours later my ears are still ringing. We've had some other world class musicians here in Israel recently: Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Red Hot Chile Peppers, etc. This was my first large concert in Israel, actually my first large concert since my first ever large concert Pink Floyd in 1987 at Nassau Coliseum. That one was a blast, and so was this one.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
My Son Joined the IDF Today
 |
| Getting on the bus |
This morning Saarya hugged his mother and father, handed in his induction card and boarded the bus to begin his service in the IDF.
I've experienced both of my step-children's (Ariella and Eitan) IDF service - they joined, they worked hard, they completed their service (Eitan is on yearly active reserves) - so I'm not totally unprepared. But still.
Saarya spent the last two years in yeshiva as part of the Hesder program, which combines study and army service over a five year period. The bulk of the student body of the second year of his yeshiva entered the army today or will soon. Saarya will serve in the Golani together with around 16 of his friends.
He feels great and he's looking forward to it. I don't want to put any pressure on him, but if he performs as well as he did in yeshiva, and as he does in so many other areas of life, I expect him to not only serve successfully but to have helped his entire platoon along the way.
God willing, all of our residents and neighbors will lay down their weapons, justice, compromise, and peace will prevail, and there will be no need for him to complete his service. Barring that, may God keep him, all of our soldiers, and all of our country safe from harm.
 |
| Saarya and his parents |
Yehuda
Friday, April 27, 2012
Homies
It's tempting to leave the "lesbian" post up as the last post a little while longer, but I have to keep my hand in, after all.
My country is 64. I went to a bar mitzvah at the hall in Mitzpeh Yericho, a yishuv on the edge of a cliff overlooking the steep rolling hills and valleys that lead down to the Dead Sea. The view is bare but beautiful. With friends around, good food, health, a beautiful land, and the freedom to be Jewish, I felt lucky with the time I live in. It's not always perfect, but it's better more often than it's worse when I think about it.
I did a lot of dancing at the bar mitzvah, which reminded me how much I love to dance and how much I miss it. I need to crank up my music at home and dance more.
I am spending shabbat with my old community in Talpiot (Jerusalem), after spending Independence Day (yesterday) with them hiking, bbqing, and at the bat mitzvah. I do love them, and I feel so much at home with them; I don't have that feeling in Raanana yet.
Obgames: I played 1.5 games of Scrabble on the hike/BBQ. I played both Troyes and El Capitain last shabbat when Nadine was around. I've also learned to play Vikings, Hanging Garden, Thunderstone, and Luca online at yucata.de . Vikings is a good mid-weight filler when played with the basic tiles. The expansion tiles might make it better. Hanging Gardens is pretty flat for me without much in the way of strategy. Luna is fiercely difficult to understand from the rulebook; we're in round 5 out of 6 and I'm starting to understand some of it. Thunderstone took me a few games but I feel like I have the hang of it now. It's a fun game, as good as Dominion. The monster queue is problematic in some respects; otherwise no complaints.
Maybe I'll give them longer reviews in the future.
My country is 64. I went to a bar mitzvah at the hall in Mitzpeh Yericho, a yishuv on the edge of a cliff overlooking the steep rolling hills and valleys that lead down to the Dead Sea. The view is bare but beautiful. With friends around, good food, health, a beautiful land, and the freedom to be Jewish, I felt lucky with the time I live in. It's not always perfect, but it's better more often than it's worse when I think about it.
I did a lot of dancing at the bar mitzvah, which reminded me how much I love to dance and how much I miss it. I need to crank up my music at home and dance more.
I am spending shabbat with my old community in Talpiot (Jerusalem), after spending Independence Day (yesterday) with them hiking, bbqing, and at the bat mitzvah. I do love them, and I feel so much at home with them; I don't have that feeling in Raanana yet.
Obgames: I played 1.5 games of Scrabble on the hike/BBQ. I played both Troyes and El Capitain last shabbat when Nadine was around. I've also learned to play Vikings, Hanging Garden, Thunderstone, and Luca online at yucata.de . Vikings is a good mid-weight filler when played with the basic tiles. The expansion tiles might make it better. Hanging Gardens is pretty flat for me without much in the way of strategy. Luna is fiercely difficult to understand from the rulebook; we're in round 5 out of 6 and I'm starting to understand some of it. Thunderstone took me a few games but I feel like I have the hang of it now. It's a fun game, as good as Dominion. The monster queue is problematic in some respects; otherwise no complaints.
Maybe I'll give them longer reviews in the future.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Flowers of Haifa
Tal, Saarya, and I took a mini-vacation to Haifa last weekend. We vacation before Pesach, rather than on Pesach, because a) places are more crowded on Pesach, and b) it's harder to get kosher l'Pesach food (not hard, but harder).
Why Haifa? Because neither of my kids had ever been there and the price was ok.We've already vacationed in the Golan and Galil, Tiberias, Tzfat, Tel Aviv, the center, the Dead Sea, the Negev, and Eilat.
Saarya and I started out on Thursday afternoon with a few divrei torah at an annual Pesach yom iyun in Raanana. My Hebrew isn't that good, but the speakers were good and you can't beat the price (free).
The Hotel
We picked up Tal from work and make it to the Theodore Hotel without much difficulty. I made the booking using Agoda.com. The Hotel is named after Theodore Herzl and is located on Herzl St. It's smack in the middle of a lowbrow consumer area and right next to a haredi area. The road is under construction and the only parking was in a parking garage located in the bottom of the hotel but run by some other company (20 NIS a pop to park for any length of time). It's nowhere near the coast, but it's a 5 minute walk to the science museum and a fifteen minute walk to the German colony and the bottom of the Baha'i Gardens - you can't do much at the bottom of the Baha'i Gardens. You have to walk up about 600 steps and around the outside of the Baha'i Gardens to get to the inner gardens and the shrine.
The hotel towers over the neighborhood and the view from the top is expansive. It's pretty at night with the lights of the city around, but in the day you get to see Haifa, which is a port for container ships and not that pretty.
The room was clean and small, with basic amenities: a TV with 21 channels, a safe, free WiFi, one tea bag, instant coffee bag, and sugar packet per person. Tal had a less-comfortable looking fold out bed, while Saarya and I took the double. Each floor has a small bookshelf in the corridor outside the elevators. I looked in all of them and found one book that seemed like it might be readable and a copy of Angela's Ashes, which I read all but 100 pages of over shabbat (it's depressing).
Breakfast came with the reservation and it was neither lavish nor pitiful, but ok. Cheeses, vegetables, an egg/vegetable thingie, burekas, cereals, fruit fresh and canned, instant coffee and plain tea (like in our room). Dinner and lunch on shabbat were actually very good and we paid very little for them because they slipped us into the group rate for the group that was staying in the hotel over shabbat. Unfortunately, the hotel was ill-prepared for the group. There were not enough tables for dinner so we had to stand around waiting, and it was incredibly loud the whole time. The hotel lobby and dining area rapidly turned into a disaster area by the middle of Friday evening and stayed that way the rest of shabbat.
The service for the room was quick and helpful: once to bring more towels and once to help with the room safe. The desk service was also helpful. The management service was not. The manager was suspicious of us when we came for meals on shabbat, couldn't find out names on the list (even though we had their coupons which they had given us before shabbat) and looked like he was going to try to charge us twice for the meals. This was eventually straightened out.
The Tea Incident
Worse was the tea incident. They served tea during dinner and I had three teabags in my room. I skipped tea during dinner because I wanted to clear out quickly to give other people a chance to eat. After dinner, the dining room still had a shabbat water urn running, and my room didn't. I was on floor 15 and didn't really want to go get a teabag from my room, so I asked them for tea and they wanted to charge me for the teabag. It took ten minutes of arguing with them that I could simply get the plain teabag from my room but I would rather not have to take the shabbat elevator up 15 flights to do it and it's just a stupid plain teabag. They eventually relented and gave me hot water and a teabag, but when I asked for a packet of sugar they said they would have to charge me for the sugar, at which point I gave up and drank it without sugar.
German Colony
Thursday night we walked to and then down the German Colony, eventually reaching the port. The German Colony is a pretty row of restaurants right below the Baha'i Gardens. None of them are kosher, but it was nice to look. We were there late on Thursday night and there were very few people around, which seemed to me to be very odd; a similar stretch of restaurants on Emek Refaim in Jerusalem is generally packed with people on a Thursday night. maybe there were better places in Haifa to hang. We walked back a different direction, reading some of the ubiquitous historical plaques about the War of Independence on the way.
Movies
We watched two movies: My West is a silly Western with Harvey Keitel and David Bowie. Bowie is the leader of a gang that looked like the Harry Potter villains. It was cute. Raise Your Voice is a Hillary Duff puff piece, very predictable cross between Fame and Dirty Dancing, but nowhere near as rich as either of those (more like a TV episode). It had its moment.
Madatech
Friday morning we walked to the National Museum of Science, Technology, and Space (aka Madatech). Other than the hotel it was the most expensive part of the trip, and that was even after the 50% soldier discounts Tal and Saarya received. It was a fairly interesting hands on museum with things to push, pull, and wave. But the descriptions of each exhibit required some revisions; they often forgot to relate exactly to what the exhibit was doing, which sometimes made it difficult to understand. We saw a nifty basic 3D movie about the universe. We skipped out on the sports science exhibit because Saarya was getting restless.
Hiking
After some false starts we found a beautiful place to hike just past Haifa University. It is the right season to hike, with flowers blooming all around and lovely views of the valleys. I got the kids to sing me some Hebrew songs during the hike, which was cut short because Tal was getting restless.
Baha'i Gardens
Shabbat morning we hiked ths many stairs to see the inner gardens of the Baha'i Gardens of Haifa and the shrine of the Báb. The Báb is the messenger who came before the Bahá’u’lláh, and you can read all about it on their site. It was all very Reb Nachman. Pretty gardens and trees. It's supposed to be peaceful, but there are way too many tourists (like us) marching through it to achieve any peace. No wonder they kick everyone out by noon every day.
Sorry no pictures, since we visited on shabbat.
Nof Hotel Chinese Restaurant
Saturday night we stopped for only bowls of soup at this restaurant before heading back home. Judging from the soups, the restaurant is worth a visit next time we're in the area.
Why Haifa? Because neither of my kids had ever been there and the price was ok.We've already vacationed in the Golan and Galil, Tiberias, Tzfat, Tel Aviv, the center, the Dead Sea, the Negev, and Eilat.
Saarya and I started out on Thursday afternoon with a few divrei torah at an annual Pesach yom iyun in Raanana. My Hebrew isn't that good, but the speakers were good and you can't beat the price (free).
The Hotel
We picked up Tal from work and make it to the Theodore Hotel without much difficulty. I made the booking using Agoda.com. The Hotel is named after Theodore Herzl and is located on Herzl St. It's smack in the middle of a lowbrow consumer area and right next to a haredi area. The road is under construction and the only parking was in a parking garage located in the bottom of the hotel but run by some other company (20 NIS a pop to park for any length of time). It's nowhere near the coast, but it's a 5 minute walk to the science museum and a fifteen minute walk to the German colony and the bottom of the Baha'i Gardens - you can't do much at the bottom of the Baha'i Gardens. You have to walk up about 600 steps and around the outside of the Baha'i Gardens to get to the inner gardens and the shrine.
The hotel towers over the neighborhood and the view from the top is expansive. It's pretty at night with the lights of the city around, but in the day you get to see Haifa, which is a port for container ships and not that pretty.
The room was clean and small, with basic amenities: a TV with 21 channels, a safe, free WiFi, one tea bag, instant coffee bag, and sugar packet per person. Tal had a less-comfortable looking fold out bed, while Saarya and I took the double. Each floor has a small bookshelf in the corridor outside the elevators. I looked in all of them and found one book that seemed like it might be readable and a copy of Angela's Ashes, which I read all but 100 pages of over shabbat (it's depressing).
Breakfast came with the reservation and it was neither lavish nor pitiful, but ok. Cheeses, vegetables, an egg/vegetable thingie, burekas, cereals, fruit fresh and canned, instant coffee and plain tea (like in our room). Dinner and lunch on shabbat were actually very good and we paid very little for them because they slipped us into the group rate for the group that was staying in the hotel over shabbat. Unfortunately, the hotel was ill-prepared for the group. There were not enough tables for dinner so we had to stand around waiting, and it was incredibly loud the whole time. The hotel lobby and dining area rapidly turned into a disaster area by the middle of Friday evening and stayed that way the rest of shabbat.
The service for the room was quick and helpful: once to bring more towels and once to help with the room safe. The desk service was also helpful. The management service was not. The manager was suspicious of us when we came for meals on shabbat, couldn't find out names on the list (even though we had their coupons which they had given us before shabbat) and looked like he was going to try to charge us twice for the meals. This was eventually straightened out.
The Tea Incident
Worse was the tea incident. They served tea during dinner and I had three teabags in my room. I skipped tea during dinner because I wanted to clear out quickly to give other people a chance to eat. After dinner, the dining room still had a shabbat water urn running, and my room didn't. I was on floor 15 and didn't really want to go get a teabag from my room, so I asked them for tea and they wanted to charge me for the teabag. It took ten minutes of arguing with them that I could simply get the plain teabag from my room but I would rather not have to take the shabbat elevator up 15 flights to do it and it's just a stupid plain teabag. They eventually relented and gave me hot water and a teabag, but when I asked for a packet of sugar they said they would have to charge me for the sugar, at which point I gave up and drank it without sugar.
German Colony
Thursday night we walked to and then down the German Colony, eventually reaching the port. The German Colony is a pretty row of restaurants right below the Baha'i Gardens. None of them are kosher, but it was nice to look. We were there late on Thursday night and there were very few people around, which seemed to me to be very odd; a similar stretch of restaurants on Emek Refaim in Jerusalem is generally packed with people on a Thursday night. maybe there were better places in Haifa to hang. We walked back a different direction, reading some of the ubiquitous historical plaques about the War of Independence on the way.
Movies
We watched two movies: My West is a silly Western with Harvey Keitel and David Bowie. Bowie is the leader of a gang that looked like the Harry Potter villains. It was cute. Raise Your Voice is a Hillary Duff puff piece, very predictable cross between Fame and Dirty Dancing, but nowhere near as rich as either of those (more like a TV episode). It had its moment.
Madatech
Friday morning we walked to the National Museum of Science, Technology, and Space (aka Madatech). Other than the hotel it was the most expensive part of the trip, and that was even after the 50% soldier discounts Tal and Saarya received. It was a fairly interesting hands on museum with things to push, pull, and wave. But the descriptions of each exhibit required some revisions; they often forgot to relate exactly to what the exhibit was doing, which sometimes made it difficult to understand. We saw a nifty basic 3D movie about the universe. We skipped out on the sports science exhibit because Saarya was getting restless.
Hiking
After some false starts we found a beautiful place to hike just past Haifa University. It is the right season to hike, with flowers blooming all around and lovely views of the valleys. I got the kids to sing me some Hebrew songs during the hike, which was cut short because Tal was getting restless.
Baha'i Gardens
Shabbat morning we hiked ths many stairs to see the inner gardens of the Baha'i Gardens of Haifa and the shrine of the Báb. The Báb is the messenger who came before the Bahá’u’lláh, and you can read all about it on their site. It was all very Reb Nachman. Pretty gardens and trees. It's supposed to be peaceful, but there are way too many tourists (like us) marching through it to achieve any peace. No wonder they kick everyone out by noon every day.
Sorry no pictures, since we visited on shabbat.
Nof Hotel Chinese Restaurant
Saturday night we stopped for only bowls of soup at this restaurant before heading back home. Judging from the soups, the restaurant is worth a visit next time we're in the area.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Segways and Sakharof
Yesterday I rode up and down the beautiful Tel Aviv coast on a Segway. Now that I've been on one, it has given me new sensitivity to the plight of the less fortunate non-Segway riding population in our midst. I feel for you poor unfortunate souls, and I encourage you to remember that there are still valuable roles in society that your kind of people can fill. Fixing Segways, for example, or leveling roads and clearing away the debris from in front of my Segway.
If you want to know what it's like to ride a Segway, just imagine it: it's pretty much just like that, except less bikini-babes (what's wrong with you?) and you can't do jumping tricks with it like you can on a bicycle. You get to high-five random strangers as you float above them, however. After a minute with my robotic extension, I knew that returning to my previous human powered ambulatory legged-life was going to be a letdown, a momentum remundanity. Sheesh, I have to walk? This sucks.
We didn't do much other than ride up and down Tel Aviv's main coast, but the sun was shining, the waves were high, and the rocky promenade was gorgeous. It got chilly.
Sunday evening I had food and drink at Jem's beer factory, one of a number of new Israeli micro-breweries. This one was co-founded by a guy in my synagogue, but he wasn't around for me to greet. The evening's entertainment was an intimate performance by Berry Sakharof, whose name I was not familiar with but whose songs I knew from the radio. There's nothing like a professional performer closeup. Unfortunately, it's not my usual musical style; I would have enjoyed it more with either my daughter or step-daughter, who are familiar with him and Israeli music in general, to enjoy it with me.
That's two work-related outings in a week, which is two more than typical.
 |
| Me (trenchcoat) and coworkers at Shlomo Lahat Promenade in Tel Aviv |
If you want to know what it's like to ride a Segway, just imagine it: it's pretty much just like that, except less bikini-babes (what's wrong with you?) and you can't do jumping tricks with it like you can on a bicycle. You get to high-five random strangers as you float above them, however. After a minute with my robotic extension, I knew that returning to my previous human powered ambulatory legged-life was going to be a letdown, a momentum remundanity. Sheesh, I have to walk? This sucks.
We didn't do much other than ride up and down Tel Aviv's main coast, but the sun was shining, the waves were high, and the rocky promenade was gorgeous. It got chilly.
Sunday evening I had food and drink at Jem's beer factory, one of a number of new Israeli micro-breweries. This one was co-founded by a guy in my synagogue, but he wasn't around for me to greet. The evening's entertainment was an intimate performance by Berry Sakharof, whose name I was not familiar with but whose songs I knew from the radio. There's nothing like a professional performer closeup. Unfortunately, it's not my usual musical style; I would have enjoyed it more with either my daughter or step-daughter, who are familiar with him and Israeli music in general, to enjoy it with me.
 |
| Berry Sakharof at Jem's microbrewery in Petach Tikveh |
Thursday, March 1, 2012
I Recommend Handyman Tzvi Lefkowitz
If you live in the Jerusalem or Beit Shemesh area, I've used Tzvi Lefkowitz (aka Handyman Tzvi) a few times now and I highly recommend him. He is that rare combination of honest and competent who goes above and beyond what is asked for and yet still charges reasonably. He has come in especially from Beit Shemesh to Jerusalem to fix various electric issues in my apt (a/c, dud chasmal) and he always knows exactly what to fix and how. He is also such a sweet guy!
Phone: 0544985298
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated or related to him in any way. Just a happy customer.
Phone: 0544985298
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated or related to him in any way. Just a happy customer.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Raanana and Jerusalem Session Reports
Raanana by Ellis: Power Grid.
Jerusalem by Nadine: El Grande.
I lost at both. I also lost a two-player game of Ticket To Ride + 1910 Expansion I played on shabbat with my host in Beit Shemesh. I did well on the board, but he had more filled delivery orders, which also gave him a 15 point bonus.
I attended the 6th annual Techshoret technical writing/markcom conference in Jerusalem on Thursday. I promised Paula that I wouldn't blog about it (or, at least about the bad parts), so I will just say that it was good to see and be seen by others in the technical writing field and I enjoyed two of the lectures I went to (Revuven Lerner on HTML5 and Katriel Reichman on using Markov chains as cost/benefit analysis for new technologies).
Jerusalem by Nadine: El Grande.
I lost at both. I also lost a two-player game of Ticket To Ride + 1910 Expansion I played on shabbat with my host in Beit Shemesh. I did well on the board, but he had more filled delivery orders, which also gave him a 15 point bonus.
I attended the 6th annual Techshoret technical writing/markcom conference in Jerusalem on Thursday. I promised Paula that I wouldn't blog about it (or, at least about the bad parts), so I will just say that it was good to see and be seen by others in the technical writing field and I enjoyed two of the lectures I went to (Revuven Lerner on HTML5 and Katriel Reichman on using Markov chains as cost/benefit analysis for new technologies).
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Last Night's World Have Your Say
A partial transcript, starting about 43:20 :
BBC Moderator: Some of your comments coming in. Actually this is one for, if we can get back through to the the guys in Homs, but maybe Zakar you can respond to this. Yehuda in Israel is listening on line. He says he's moved by the suffering in Syria, wishes he could help, but wondered if Syrians would accept it.
Zakar [some analyst or somthing]: (surprised) From Israel? Uh from the Israeli government? No. Of course not. After you know what they've done to the Palestinians for sixty years and the occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, so no. I don't think any help from Israel is wanted or required.
Moderator: Abu Amar you're back. Were you trying to come in now I think?
Abu Amar [hiding in a basement in Homs, currently under bombardment; trapped with many wounded people and no medicine]: Uh No I'm here right here.
Moderator: Maybe you just missed that uh those comments. A listener from Israel was just asking whether if Syrians would accept the Israeli government's help in this situation.
Abu Amar: N-Never at all. No no not even a single one in the whole Syrian people would agree to to the Israel to intervent in the Syrian uh problem. We we don't agree at all.
... [less than five minutes later, when asked if he would like intervention from the outside in Syria] ...
Abu Amar: [Desperately] The Syrian people is asking for intervention from outside, for example Turkey or Jordan. Anyone can help us now is useful.
BBC Moderator: Some of your comments coming in. Actually this is one for, if we can get back through to the the guys in Homs, but maybe Zakar you can respond to this. Yehuda in Israel is listening on line. He says he's moved by the suffering in Syria, wishes he could help, but wondered if Syrians would accept it.
Zakar [some analyst or somthing]: (surprised) From Israel? Uh from the Israeli government? No. Of course not. After you know what they've done to the Palestinians for sixty years and the occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, so no. I don't think any help from Israel is wanted or required.
Moderator: Abu Amar you're back. Were you trying to come in now I think?
Abu Amar [hiding in a basement in Homs, currently under bombardment; trapped with many wounded people and no medicine]: Uh No I'm here right here.
Moderator: Maybe you just missed that uh those comments. A listener from Israel was just asking whether if Syrians would accept the Israeli government's help in this situation.
Abu Amar: N-Never at all. No no not even a single one in the whole Syrian people would agree to to the Israel to intervent in the Syrian uh problem. We we don't agree at all.
... [less than five minutes later, when asked if he would like intervention from the outside in Syria] ...
Abu Amar: [Desperately] The Syrian people is asking for intervention from outside, for example Turkey or Jordan. Anyone can help us now is useful.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Session Report, in which we teach a visiting player Homesteaders
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: San Juan, Odin's Ravens, Homesteaders, Tribune, Tichu.
We entertain a visitor to Israel, an experienced gamer from Germany.
Actually, the session report is pretty boring. So anyway:
Israeli Tournament: Dragonicon
There will be a game convention at Bar Ilan University on Thursday August 18th, from 8:30 am until 9:30 pm (or so). Games will be RPG, mini, board and card games. Entrance is 60 (or maybe 65) NIS for the day. More info (in Hebrew).
We entertain a visitor to Israel, an experienced gamer from Germany.
Actually, the session report is pretty boring. So anyway:
Israeli Tournament: Dragonicon
There will be a game convention at Bar Ilan University on Thursday August 18th, from 8:30 am until 9:30 pm (or so). Games will be RPG, mini, board and card games. Entrance is 60 (or maybe 65) NIS for the day. More info (in Hebrew).
Monday, July 4, 2011
Real Estate Agents Think I'm an Idiot
"Here's the bathroom. That's the shower. There are tiles on the floor. And over here is a kitchen. See that six foot tall, three foot wide large box like object with two handles with the word 'Amana' written on in? That's the refrigerator. It's a big refrigerator. You can put food in it for shabbat. Or if you're having a party, you can also put food in it. Here is a sink. You could put a table here. Or you could put it here."
Shut. Up.
I've seen a lot of acceptable, some nice, and some very nice apartments in Raanana. I nearly took one that was stunning, but I would have ended up paying more than I wanted to pay, and he appeared to be taking less than he wanted to accept, and we were still haggling over terms (not the price). I decided to pass, after all.
The agent who showed me today's apartments takes a month rent from BOTH seller and buyer, which is simply ridiculous; I thought agents only took from one or the other. He didn't provide much in the way of service, other than to show up late, get in my way, make promises I know he won't keep ("I'll tell the owner to put in central a/c for you!"), and annoy me.
Which is a pity, because the first apt he showed me I would take at the listed price, but after paying his fee, the price bumps up to 10% more (a month plus VAT divided over a year's rental), and that's above my price range. There are so many apts listed for rent, with dozens as nice and equivalent in price to the ones he showed me, that I can afford to be picky.
More days of uncertainty. Wish I didn't have to move at all.
Shut. Up.
I've seen a lot of acceptable, some nice, and some very nice apartments in Raanana. I nearly took one that was stunning, but I would have ended up paying more than I wanted to pay, and he appeared to be taking less than he wanted to accept, and we were still haggling over terms (not the price). I decided to pass, after all.
The agent who showed me today's apartments takes a month rent from BOTH seller and buyer, which is simply ridiculous; I thought agents only took from one or the other. He didn't provide much in the way of service, other than to show up late, get in my way, make promises I know he won't keep ("I'll tell the owner to put in central a/c for you!"), and annoy me.
Which is a pity, because the first apt he showed me I would take at the listed price, but after paying his fee, the price bumps up to 10% more (a month plus VAT divided over a year's rental), and that's above my price range. There are so many apts listed for rent, with dozens as nice and equivalent in price to the ones he showed me, that I can afford to be picky.
More days of uncertainty. Wish I didn't have to move at all.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Tekoa: There and Back Again
Last week I experienced the second most surreal experience of my life when I returned, after a 14 year absence, to Tekoa, a small settlement on which I lived from 1992 to 1997.
Tekoa is a mixed community of secular and religious Jews out in the boondocks of the West Bank; at least, it felt like it was out in the boondocks when I lived there. One had to drive through parts of Bethlehem and Beit Sahour to get there. The first noticeable change is a new road that connects Tekoa to the recent Jerusalem expansion of Har Homa; it's now a 12 minute straight drive from Jersualem without passing through an Arab village.
On approaching and entering Tekoa, I experienced alternate waves of deja vu for things that I remembered to be in their "right" location - a house, a parking lot, a tree, etc. - and anti-deja vu for things that were out of place - a house erected outside of the security gate that did not belong there, i.e. I remember there being an empty space there, and it seemed wrong for there to be a house there instead.
The waves continued upon seeing the people over 40 and the interiors of the houses of my friends' and of my own former house (it was so much smaller than I remembered). I didn't know anyone under 20, of course, and could only vaguely identify a few people ages 20 to 40.
Other than the few families that had left the yishuv, and that former children were now parents with their own children, the people I remember from 14 years ago appeared to be nearly the same as I remembered them. They looked a little greyer or rounder, but they had the same spouses, the same jobs, lived in the same houses, moved, acted, and talked the same, etc. I sat among a large group of these people and would not have been able to point out a difference between now and a gathering held 15 years ago, were it not for the grandchildren wandering around.
I think my sense of surreal came from the contrast between my own life and theirs. They live in a community situated in a supposed political maelstrom, a community that had grown from 200 families to 500 with more on the way, yet I felt surrounded by stability. I asked one of my friends what he done in the 14 years since I'd been gone, and he said, "I read the newspaper". In the meantime, I had moved to the "stable" area of the country and had since moved twice, remarried and divorced, and am about to move again.
They must be doing something right.
Tekoa is a mixed community of secular and religious Jews out in the boondocks of the West Bank; at least, it felt like it was out in the boondocks when I lived there. One had to drive through parts of Bethlehem and Beit Sahour to get there. The first noticeable change is a new road that connects Tekoa to the recent Jerusalem expansion of Har Homa; it's now a 12 minute straight drive from Jersualem without passing through an Arab village.
On approaching and entering Tekoa, I experienced alternate waves of deja vu for things that I remembered to be in their "right" location - a house, a parking lot, a tree, etc. - and anti-deja vu for things that were out of place - a house erected outside of the security gate that did not belong there, i.e. I remember there being an empty space there, and it seemed wrong for there to be a house there instead.
The waves continued upon seeing the people over 40 and the interiors of the houses of my friends' and of my own former house (it was so much smaller than I remembered). I didn't know anyone under 20, of course, and could only vaguely identify a few people ages 20 to 40.
Other than the few families that had left the yishuv, and that former children were now parents with their own children, the people I remember from 14 years ago appeared to be nearly the same as I remembered them. They looked a little greyer or rounder, but they had the same spouses, the same jobs, lived in the same houses, moved, acted, and talked the same, etc. I sat among a large group of these people and would not have been able to point out a difference between now and a gathering held 15 years ago, were it not for the grandchildren wandering around.
I think my sense of surreal came from the contrast between my own life and theirs. They live in a community situated in a supposed political maelstrom, a community that had grown from 200 families to 500 with more on the way, yet I felt surrounded by stability. I asked one of my friends what he done in the 14 years since I'd been gone, and he said, "I read the newspaper". In the meantime, I had moved to the "stable" area of the country and had since moved twice, remarried and divorced, and am about to move again.
They must be doing something right.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Twitter Moves Me to Palestinian Territories; Doesn't Recognize Israel
My Twitter phone code (for posting tweets via mobile) stopped working a while ago, and I only just now got around to checking my settings on Twitter to see why. Turns out that, according to Twitter, I don't live in Israel.
Which would be news to Orange Israel (Partner Communications), my mobile carrier. Actually, according to Twitter, turns out that Israel doesn't exist. Here are the countries that they recognize and the short "tweet" codes that they provide for each country.
Letter to Twitter customer support sent, but they sure take pains to hide their contact form.
Yehuda
Which would be news to Orange Israel (Partner Communications), my mobile carrier. Actually, according to Twitter, turns out that Israel doesn't exist. Here are the countries that they recognize and the short "tweet" codes that they provide for each country.
Letter to Twitter customer support sent, but they sure take pains to hide their contact form.
Yehuda
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
U.S. Toys & Games Catalog Exhibition in Israel, May 10, 2011
The U.S. Commercial Service will be hosting a meeting between U.S. toy and game companies and Israeli importers and distributors in Israel on May 10. This is the first event of its kind in Israel, to my knowledge.
I've applied for a press pass.
(source)
I've applied for a press pass.
(source)
Sunday, January 9, 2011
25 Meters from Death
Gaza residents have fired mortal shells into Israel and planted bombs all week, as they have for several weeks prior; some Thai agricultural workers were injured this week from some of their shells.
My step-son Eitan returned from patrol on Friday evening and went to sleep. He was awakened shortly after and told that militants were in the area. A sharpshooter team was dispatched, and simultaneously a group of soldiers in control of a Keshet mortar system was told to target the militants.
It's still unclear as to what caused the error: a software problem, or an input problem. I'm not sure why both a sharpshooter team and a mortar team were assigned the task. Whatever the reason, at least one shell from the Keshet fell on the sharpshooter team. Nadav Rotenberg lost his arm and leg and died a few hours later. A commander had his face blown off ("moderately wounded"), and three other Israeli soldiers were injured.
Eitan was 25 meters away from the explosion. He was among those who tried to give first aid.
I remember Eitan telling me about one of his paratrooper jumps a few months ago; he told us that one of the soldiers broke his leg when he landed but still walked to the target location; it was his job to serve as a beacon for the other jumpers. Apparently, that was Nadav. Returning after a ten week recuperation, Nadav was told to stay out of combat, but he refused.
He was one of Eitan's friends. The funeral is today.
My step-son Eitan returned from patrol on Friday evening and went to sleep. He was awakened shortly after and told that militants were in the area. A sharpshooter team was dispatched, and simultaneously a group of soldiers in control of a Keshet mortar system was told to target the militants.
It's still unclear as to what caused the error: a software problem, or an input problem. I'm not sure why both a sharpshooter team and a mortar team were assigned the task. Whatever the reason, at least one shell from the Keshet fell on the sharpshooter team. Nadav Rotenberg lost his arm and leg and died a few hours later. A commander had his face blown off ("moderately wounded"), and three other Israeli soldiers were injured.
Eitan was 25 meters away from the explosion. He was among those who tried to give first aid.
I remember Eitan telling me about one of his paratrooper jumps a few months ago; he told us that one of the soldiers broke his leg when he landed but still walked to the target location; it was his job to serve as a beacon for the other jumpers. Apparently, that was Nadav. Returning after a ten week recuperation, Nadav was told to stay out of combat, but he refused.
He was one of Eitan's friends. The funeral is today.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Two calls to customer support
The phone and internet services in Israel will give you special plans that last a year, and they won't call you to tell you that the plan is about to run out. Instead they will bump you to the new unfavorable plan automatically, hoping that they can screw their customers.
So I make these calls every year to review my service and find a better service, if they have one, or move to a new company if they don't.
Call with HOT
ME: What plan do I have?
HOT: You have 1000 minutes free to landlines for 39 NIS, and 20 AG/min to cellphones.
ME: So I pay 3.9 AG per minute for 1000 minutes of landline service, paid up front.
HOT: No, you get those minutes free.
ME: I pay 39 NIS for those minutes.
HOT: You pay 39 NIS for the plan, which includes those minutes free.
ME: Right, whatever. What are my other options?
HOT: We have a plan for 500 minutes to both landlines and cellphones for 69 NIS.
ME: So given that that is 30 NIS more than what I pay now, and cell phone calls are 20 AG/min, I would have to talk at least 150 minutes to cell phones for the plan to be worth it, right? Is that worth it for me, given my calling history?
HOT: That's us to you.
ME: What do you mean it's up to me?
HOT: It depends on what you want.
ME: ... Do you know my calling history?
HOT: Yes.
ME: How much do I call?
HOT: XXX minutes.
ME: So it's not worth it to me.
HOT: It depends on how many minutes you call.
ME: Yes, but you know how many minutes I call. You just told me how many minutes I call. Given how many minutes I call, you can tell me which plan is right for me, can't you?
HOT: No, it's your preference.
ME: It's not a matter of preference. It's a matter of mathematics. You have no way of telling if I would be better off in another plan?
HOT: It depends on how many minutes you call.
ME: ... (carry the 1, ...) no, it's not worth it for me. How much have I been paying each month until now on my current plan?
HOT: Between 45 and 62 NIS.
ME: So, obviously, it won't be worth it for me to switch to a plan that charges, minimally, 69 NIS, right? You could have just said that, right?
HOT: It depends on how many minutes you call.
ME: Sigh. Is that it? Do you have any other plans?
HOT: We have a plan for 24 NIS, but you pay 12 AG for every landline call and 20 AG for every cell phone call.
ME: Why didn't you tell me about this plan? Do I have to ask to know about each of your plans one by one? Are there any magic words I need to speak to hear about a fourth super-secret plan?
HOT: I don't understand. Do you want this plan?
ME: Given my calling history, which you have right in front of you, would it be worth it for me to switch to this 24 NIS plan, assuming that I call the same number of minutes each month as I already do right now, as you can see right in front of you.
HOT: It depends on how many minutes you call.
Call with Netvision
Press 1 for customer service, press 2 for technical support.
-1-
45 seconds of music
Press your customer number and then star, or just press star.
-*-
50 seconds of music
NV: Keyn?
ME: Can I speak to English customer support?
NV: Rak regah. [Transfer number 1]
90 seconds of music
NV: Keyn?
ME: Is this English customer support?
NV: Rak regah. [Transfer number 2]
45 seconds of music
NV: Keyn?
ME: Is this English customer support?
NV: Rak regah. [Transfer number 3]
180 seconds of music
Press 1 for English, press 2 for ...
-1-
30 seconds of music
NV: Keyn.
ME: I'd like to speak to someone who speaks English in customer support.
NV: Rak regah. [Transfer number 4]
90 seconds of music
Press your customer number and then star, or just press star.
...
Yes, boys and girls, this went on all the way to Transfer number 13, going through the same menus and the same people several times on the way. I finally said:
ME: I would like someone in customer service who speaks English to call me back.
At which point they took my name and said that someone who speaks English from customer support would call me back. And asked me if I would like to be transferred, instead of having to wait for a callback.
So I make these calls every year to review my service and find a better service, if they have one, or move to a new company if they don't.
Call with HOT
ME: What plan do I have?
HOT: You have 1000 minutes free to landlines for 39 NIS, and 20 AG/min to cellphones.
ME: So I pay 3.9 AG per minute for 1000 minutes of landline service, paid up front.
HOT: No, you get those minutes free.
ME: I pay 39 NIS for those minutes.
HOT: You pay 39 NIS for the plan, which includes those minutes free.
ME: Right, whatever. What are my other options?
HOT: We have a plan for 500 minutes to both landlines and cellphones for 69 NIS.
ME: So given that that is 30 NIS more than what I pay now, and cell phone calls are 20 AG/min, I would have to talk at least 150 minutes to cell phones for the plan to be worth it, right? Is that worth it for me, given my calling history?
HOT: That's us to you.
ME: What do you mean it's up to me?
HOT: It depends on what you want.
ME: ... Do you know my calling history?
HOT: Yes.
ME: How much do I call?
HOT: XXX minutes.
ME: So it's not worth it to me.
HOT: It depends on how many minutes you call.
ME: Yes, but you know how many minutes I call. You just told me how many minutes I call. Given how many minutes I call, you can tell me which plan is right for me, can't you?
HOT: No, it's your preference.
ME: It's not a matter of preference. It's a matter of mathematics. You have no way of telling if I would be better off in another plan?
HOT: It depends on how many minutes you call.
ME: ... (carry the 1, ...) no, it's not worth it for me. How much have I been paying each month until now on my current plan?
HOT: Between 45 and 62 NIS.
ME: So, obviously, it won't be worth it for me to switch to a plan that charges, minimally, 69 NIS, right? You could have just said that, right?
HOT: It depends on how many minutes you call.
ME: Sigh. Is that it? Do you have any other plans?
HOT: We have a plan for 24 NIS, but you pay 12 AG for every landline call and 20 AG for every cell phone call.
ME: Why didn't you tell me about this plan? Do I have to ask to know about each of your plans one by one? Are there any magic words I need to speak to hear about a fourth super-secret plan?
HOT: I don't understand. Do you want this plan?
ME: Given my calling history, which you have right in front of you, would it be worth it for me to switch to this 24 NIS plan, assuming that I call the same number of minutes each month as I already do right now, as you can see right in front of you.
HOT: It depends on how many minutes you call.
Call with Netvision
Press 1 for customer service, press 2 for technical support.
-1-
45 seconds of music
Press your customer number and then star, or just press star.
-*-
50 seconds of music
NV: Keyn?
ME: Can I speak to English customer support?
NV: Rak regah. [Transfer number 1]
90 seconds of music
NV: Keyn?
ME: Is this English customer support?
NV: Rak regah. [Transfer number 2]
45 seconds of music
NV: Keyn?
ME: Is this English customer support?
NV: Rak regah. [Transfer number 3]
180 seconds of music
Press 1 for English, press 2 for ...
-1-
30 seconds of music
NV: Keyn.
ME: I'd like to speak to someone who speaks English in customer support.
NV: Rak regah. [Transfer number 4]
90 seconds of music
Press your customer number and then star, or just press star.
...
Yes, boys and girls, this went on all the way to Transfer number 13, going through the same menus and the same people several times on the way. I finally said:
ME: I would like someone in customer service who speaks English to call me back.
At which point they took my name and said that someone who speaks English from customer support would call me back. And asked me if I would like to be transferred, instead of having to wait for a callback.
Friday, November 12, 2010
TEDx Talpiot
TEDx Talpiot, held yesterday evening at Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, was a successful and enjoyable event. Around 300 or so people heard six speakers and two musical interludes, all but one of which ranged from good to great. None of the speakers were as mind-blowing or jaw-dropping as the best lectures you can find on TED.com; but, after all, those are the best of the best, so that was to be expected.
The event was partially sponsored by ROI Community, which gathers Jewish innovators, and Leadel, which does the same.
Organization
The organization was good, especially considering that the event was free. I assume that the food was donated, as they had cookies, drinks, and a catered bagel meal for everyone. Sweet.
Every attendee had a personal QR code on the back of their name tag, which, when passed very carefully in front of a smart phone with the appropriate software from Mobalic.com, loaded the owner's information into the phone. These were harder to use than the software maker would have you believe; the phone and tag had to be held still and at just the right distance; not as good as RFID. But they worked.
The sound, lights, and projection had occasional snafu's. Nothing cataclysmic. Wifi didn't work inside the hall.
Everything started and finished on time, and the speakers stuck to their time frame, for the most part.
The Content
Read the abstracts
1. Eti Katz (he): Something about visual learning.
My Hebrew is not very good, so I had some trouble understanding Eti's talk, but it looked good.
Essentially, different children have different ways of understanding the world. We must teach them each according to their understanding. She presented pictures of people outlines with different, funky pictures in them, and went on to explain each case of a child and his or her relationship to it.
While interesting, I couldn't see anything remarkable about the content; then again, I may have missed it. The presentation was fine, but also unremarkable.
2. Zvia Agur (en): Virtual patients
This speech was allegedly about the development of a personalized, virtual patient, used to test the effectiveness of drugs on a patient before administrating a course. That would have been interesting on its own. However, this was covered only in the last few minutes of the speech.
What the speech was actually about was freakin' bizarre.
Zvia said that swings have frequencies, and that pushing harder doesn't make the swing go back and forth at a higher frequency, only at a faster speed and higher height. If you push at the same frequency, the swing swings higher; if you push against the frequency, the swing slows. So far, so good.
Then she dropped this one: A population's size has a frequency that can be contrasted against the frequency of disasters that befall it. If the frequencies match, the population thrives. Otherwise, the population falls. What????
From there, she went on to say that the same applies to cell growth in an organism. And that this mathematical frequency theory can be used to time the application of chemotherapy to the rhythm of healthy cell growth: the frequency matches the growth of healthy cells in the body, which means that the healthy cells will continue to grow well, but works against the frequency of cancer's cell growth, which means the cancer cells will suffer.
She said that her experiments have proved a double survival rate using this theory. But it was hard to get funding in an academic or medical institution due to skepticism. So she and some others have developed their own research company and pharmaceutical company to test and develop these.
In the process, they have developed a virtual cancer patient. They extracted information from a patient with aggressive cancer. They used their math to design the virtual patient. Used virtual treatment models to treat the virtual patient. Tripled frequency of one of the drugs. The patient improved for some time.
I had no idea where she was going, and she didn't back up what she was talking about, so disses to her confusing presentation. But the content was certainly fascinating.
3. [someone] Lipshitz
Played piano. Tchaikovsky
A fantastic piece played by a fantastic musician.
4. Prof Avshalom Elitzur (en): Beauty of Quantum Design
An introduction to quantum theory, concentrating on how the observer works.
Light = waves, but only when the photons are not observed closely. Talked about the Mach-Zehnder Interferometer. If you shoot photons one at a time, it works. But shoot the photons and observe them, it doesn't work!
An application: the Elitzur-Vaidman bomb testing experiment. Test a bomb without having to explode it.
Another weird thing: Two particles, one up and one down. Judge whether a particle is entangled with another gives you some yes and some no; but even when the particles not entangled, they are, by forcing them both to either be entangled or not.
I wasn't sure how much of this was revolutionary, but it was interesting. Presentation was ok. Most people didn't understand him, and he didn't present any compelling universal benefit for his research.
5. Dr. Oren Harman (en): Evolution of altruism
Where does kindness come from? Some animals appear to have evolved to behave to their own detriment. For instance, an antelope that jumps up and down when they see a lion, sacrificing themselves so that the rest of the herd can escape. Certain bees and amoeba. Etc.
Types of altruism:
- Nepotism: I.e. survival of the genes. W.D. Hamilton.
- Reciprocation: Which invokes game theory. Robert Trivers.
- Group selection: Group evolution sometimes trumps personal evolution. (several people)
What is the relationship between biological altruism (I lose something to give you something) vs psychological altruism (the intent matters). All still under research. Several false leads.
The story of George Price (Oren summarized the book he wrote about him). George ran away from his life and then published a seminal paper in Nature without any background in the field. Claimed that psych altruism is always selfish in nature. Then tried to argue against his own findings by being overly altruistic with his life, to prove that spirit triumphs biology. Failed and committed suicide.
An interesting but not revolutionary talk, very well presented.
6. emotiv - TED TV presentation
This was simply a video presentation of Tan Lee and her mental headset. Available on TED.
A great presentation, but I don't know why they showed it here.
7. Maurit Beeri (en): Fixing babies is more than medicine
Healthy babies today, and in the past, all develop at roughly the same pace. Modern technology doesn't make them grab or walk any faster. They don't need specialized playthings.
Kittens raised in darkness until five months never developed sight in the brain. More generally, developing children need many different stimulation, not a small set of the right ones.
Babies can survive adverse early conditions so long as they get love and stimulation eventually, but within a certain time window. Babies' early reflexes must be replaced by learned patterns to fill the same needs. Otherwise, if still young, they need pediatric rehabilitation and specialized playthings. If the window of opportunity is closed, they may never acquire the skills. A baby fed through a gastro tube may learn to eat if the tube is taken out before a certain age, but not after that.
It's not enough to fix physical problems without considering the neurological and psychological effects.
Interesting content, adequate presentation
8. Musical interlude
A dude played a Chabad melody on a saxophone. All of two or three minutes.
9. Joseph Dadoune (he): Film, architecture, desert.
A truly awful presentation by a likely talented artist who might have done some good work, but I couldn't sit still while he talked endlessly about himself. I heard from those who stayed until the end that it didn't get any better. He showed a picture of a house.
Overall, it was a great event, one that I hope will be repeated. I assume the videos of the presentations will make their way online, eventually.
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