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The Jewish Grapevine

 
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As I had returned recently from a 4-month stay in Safed, naturally my interest immediately traveled upward to the photo,  Safed 2000.  The white grave stone is stained with a rich sea blue and hints of violet. The details in the grave stone as well as the small rocks placed on the grave are crisp.  The photo captures the essence of the city's mystical core with a view of the cloudy mountains overlooking the grave.  I imagine the grave could be of some mystical sage, as Safed is the center of the kabalistic movement.  It's hard to say, but that added to my intrigue.

Next, Jerusalem, 1997, which I think of as Loulou's yellow subject, is a close up of tombstone with details of Hebrew letters and a swirl of rocks.  In Jewish tradition it is customary to place rocks as opposed to flowers  upon a grave stone because the rocks don’t wilt so they remind us that the spirit of the person lives on.  The yellow, a moss that has grown on the grave, is pleasing to the eye. The diagonal angle that Loulou uses from above provides an interesting perspective.  See if your eye doesn’t begin at the bottom of the photo, and then follows the rocks in a spiral upwards.  Finally, it rests on the Hebrew letters on the grave.  It appears that the stone is slanted on a cliff.  Technically we are viewing the grave stone technically upside down.

Then, Jerusalem 2000, which I call the white subject, is hung in the center of the 5 photos.  The photo itself has three subjects, the letters on the grave, a white dove and a hand.  The viewer can come up with his own story of what the images symbolize, but to me it was someone visiting a loved one.  As they reach out their hand trying to be closer a dove lands; a sign of peace.

Jerusalem 2005, the orange or burnt umber image, is a gravestone in a field.  A tree’s branches crawl over the grave. Lying on top of the grave is a smaller stone with a single Hebrew letter "shin" carved into the stone.  Again, to me it's a symbol of peace to the soul and the visitor.

The last photo, #67 Jerusalem, is a silhouette of a man walking down a set of stairs next to that famous Jerusalem stone.  This is a quiet and eerie shot that leaves the viewer asking for more of the underlying story. 

After doing some research on Loulou's work, I have found that it is not uncommon for Loulou to take close-ups of his subjects, so that the viewer is forced to become more intimate with them. Loulou's photos can be appreciated as stand alone works, but it is also apparent that they are metaphors to a larger story and collection of work.

I recommend a visit to San Diego's MOPA to see Didier Ben Loulou's work.  Those who are just as eager as I for new original work, and with an interest in contemporary Israeli photography will thoroughly enjoy the exhibit which continues through September 8. 

Cinnamon Extract...
(Continued from above)

Now before people start dropping cinnamon sticks in their hot chocolate and sprinkling it all over their lattes - take note that the cinnamon extract developed by Ovadia has special properties that won't be found at coffee shops or in the kitchen cupboard. First of all, it comes from a special variety of cinnamon; coumarin and cinnamon aldehyde, which are by-products of cinnamon 'juice'. These are actually damaging to the liver in high quantities, and must be removed.

"You cannot take high doses from the natural form of cinnamon," Ovadia told ISRAEL21c. "If you used it several times a day to protect you from the flu, it would be toxic."

During seasonal epidemics, around 10-20% of the world is infected with the influenza virus and the elderly and young are particularly at risk. In America alone, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 35-50 million Americans are infected with the flu every season. Despite the use of vaccines, the influenza virus is still associated with significant mortality worldwide - especially now that people travel regularly and work together in offices and closed spaces.

Moreover, the global circulation of the deadly Bird Flu H5 (with more than 50% mortality in infected humans) may cause a sudden worldwide pandemic within two to three months. Until a vaccine is invented, antivirals will be the only medical intervention for use in such a pandemic, says Ovadia.

"What we know is that this technology is capable of neutralizing viruses very fast and that it is applicable to various applications," said Dr. Nissim Chen, the business development manager of Ramot who managed the commercialization process which ending up with the licensing to Frutarom. "For example, it can be used in air conditioning systems in hospitals and prevent infections spreading from one person to the other in closed spaces."

There is a growing tendency for researchers and clinicians to explore natural compounds against disease, agrees Chen, adding that Ovadia is well-known for his work in natural inhibitors of snake venom.

"This work with cinnamon is really an extension of his research. And at Tel Aviv University in general, there are several groups working on biological and chemicals structure of natural inhibitors," he said.

Besides the human application, Ovadia sees that cinnamon fills an important niche in the agriculture industry where chicks need to be immunized by hand against the deadly Newcastle disease virus.

"If someone needs to immunize 1,000 chicks through drops in the chick's eye, then we know they are not doing this accurately - it is also an issue of animal welfare," says Ovadia.

Instead, he believes, "we will be able to administer this cinnamon extract through a tiny pin prick in the shell before the chick hatches." Such an immunization gives the chickens protection against the Newcastle virus, Ovadia assures.

Applying this research to the global scale could only be done with the help of a large company - which is where Frutarom comes in. The Israeli-based flavor and food additive company has grown in the last 10-15 years from $10 million a year to a projected $350 million by the end of 2007.

"We're going to take this know how from a food supplement to protect people from illness to neutraceuticals in drugs; it can also be used in agriculture against Bird flu - certainly it represents a very diversified product line," said Frutarom's CEO Ori Yehudai.

According to the company, Ovadia will continue to lead research into the development of the extract, and Frutarom estimates that the new cinnamon product will be launched in about a year. Hopefully just before flu season.

Article courtesy: http://www.israel21c.org distributed by Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

(Return to top)

ZOA on Arab education...
(Continued from above)

Reactions to the new curriculum decision

MK Zevulun Orlev (NRP), a former Director-General of the Education Ministry, called upon Prime Minister Olmert to fire Tamir for making an "anti-Zionist decision that erases Jewish history and denies the State of Israel as a Jewish state.  The Education Minister gives Arabs the legitimacy not to recognize Israel as the State of the Jewish people.  This decision marks the 'Naqba' of Israel's education network."

Former Education Minister Limor Livnat (Likud) declared that teaching Arab children the "Nakba" version of Israel's creation will encourage them to later work against the nation.

Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman slammed Tamir as "expressing not only post-Zionism but also political masochism... The Israel left always complicates itself trying to justify the other side without understanding that there is nothing to justify."

MK Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) said Porush said that Tamir's decision was shameful and should be retracted and that Prime Minister Olmert, as part of his gestures to PA chairman Abu Mazen, might as well propose that PA officials run Israel's Education Ministry. 

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, "The ZOA believes that this a highly significant event, not merely another one of many bad decisions made by the Israeli government. Tamir justifies her decision by saying that ' The Arab narrative deserves to be told in Israel,' but this ignores the key question – is that narrative truthful? Schools are for teaching truth, not what some people choose to regard as the truth.

“Schoolchildren must never be targets for indoctrination of national myths and propaganda versions that the historical record does not bear out. This decision to teach the 'Palestinian narrative' as though it were fact will serve to legitimize the rejection of Israel by Israeli Arabs by teaching their children that Palestinian suffering – the 'Naqba' – was produced by Israel.

"The idea that Israel's establishment produced Palestinian suffering is nonsense. There would have been no 'disaster' if Arabs had not violently rejected the idea that the Jewish people are also entitled to a state, no matter how small; if Arabs had not rejected the UN partition plan; if Arab armies from five countries had not invaded Israel on its first day of independence; if Palestinian Arabs had not chosen to follow their leaders out of the country to make way for the invading Arab forces in the belief that Israel would be crushed and that they would return safely.

“If they had not done these things, then all their losses and suffering would never have occurred. This is a self-inflicted wound, not an injury for which Israel, in fighting for its survival, is responsible. It needs to be said, again and again, that Israel did not have the choice to fight or not fight – only the Arabs exercised that choice and if they had chosen to accept a peaceful outcome instead of resorting to war, all the war consequences that actually followed need never have occurred."

"If Israel's founding was truly a disaster for Arabs, if Israel was such a horrible place for Israeli Arabs to live, why did so many stay in Israel and why have so many Arabs settled in Israel over the years?  Why is it that when there is talk of the Palestinian Authority taking control over eastern Jerusalem, more Jerusalemite Arabs seek Israeli citizenship? It is also a fact that Israeli Arabs enjoy freedom of speech and press in Israel that their brethren in Arab countries can only dream of.

The Director of the ZOA's Center for Middle East Policy, Dr. Daniel Mandel, a historian and author of a book on the UN decision to partition Palestine, said, "The history of the Arab-Israeli wars has been lately the victim of relativist ideas, of which the most durable has been that there exists competing, equally valid narratives that in the interest of truth and justice need to be known. In fact, that has been the way propagandist claims dear to one or another party come to be treated as fact and as such is a disservice to the teaching of history. Popular feelings do not determine what happened. The facts do.

"Arab MK Ahmed Tibi has claimed that, 'The majority must not be allowed to exist inside its own narrative bubble and deny the existence of other views.' Yet as soon as this decision was made, his colleague, Jamal Zehalka, could be found calling for Israeli Arabs to be able to solely determine the historical and cultural content of curricula for Israeli-Arab schools and thus create a falsified narrative bubble of their own.

“One suspects that is the whole purpose of the exercise, but the result would be propaganda, not education. Educational authorities should be concerned that students learn as best and as accurately as possible within the inevitable limitations of a school course the story and essence of a historical subject. This purpose will not be served if propagandist themes are recycled as fact."
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Tisha B'Av at camp...
(Continued from above)

“We fight,” said one.
    
“But, we'll lose,” countered another.
    
“We talk to them, and try to bargain with them.”
    
“But, they're mean.  They won't listen to us.  And, besides, we're little kids.  If they didn't listen to our parents, they won't listen to us.”
    
“We'll try to run away.  We'll escape.”
    
“That won't work.  They're probably all over Anaheim - even in Disneyland.  And in our houses.  They'll just catch us.”
    
“We could just give up.”
    
“No.  I'll never give up,” said the presumably bravest of the five-year olds.
    
“Then, we'll just cry,” said, presumably the most frightened, or the saddest, of the little ones.
    
And, she began to cry.

And so did some others.

(Educators, be careful here.  You could have mass hysteria in a group of five-year olds.)

By this time, almost two hours had passed.  The children were somber and sad, and more than a little upset.   Ellen just kept pushing them.  “What are we going to do?”
    
They sat, sniffling back the tears, and thinking, thinking, thinking.
    
Finally, one little child looked up, and said, “I know.  Let's all hold hands.”
    
And another said, “And let's sit on the ground in a circle.”
    
And another said, “We'll have to sit in the circle on hard dirt.”
    
Ellen continued asking, “And now what?  What are we going to do now?”
    
And finally, one little girl said, “I know.  Let's sing a song.”
    
Ellen asked, “What kind of song do you want to sing?”
    
“We'll sing happy songs to God.”
    
“Why should we sing happy songs to God?” Ellen asked in the most Socratic way.  “If we are so sad, why don't we sing sad songs to God?” (she said, thinking of Eicha and the kinnot being chanted at that very moment in the synagogue.)   
    
The little girl replied with conviction (and just a little bit of a tone of voice that  implied, “Hey old person, why don't you get it?  It's so clear to me.)”)  “If we sing happy songs, then, God won't be too sad.  And we won't be too sad either.”
    
So, this little one began to sing.  And, before long,  all her friends joined with her.
    
Then, they all stood up, and formed a circle, and sat down again in the circle in the dirt. 
    
They were, of course, without knowing it - but, of course, their old and deep souls knew it - sitting shiva. 
    
They held hands and sang some more. 
    
They sang every song they knew, and when they finished, they sang some of the songs over and over again.
    
Intuitively, instinctively they understood the teachings of, our great sage and mystic, Rabbi Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel, who said (or, maybe he learned from them, or little ones like them) , “There are three ways to mourn.  The first is to cry.  The second is to grow silent.  The third is to transform sorrow into song.” 
    
The vicissitudes and tragedies of this world can be - and often are -  overwhelming.        
We look for solace and comfort, and often we find none.

We could fall into despair; we could fall into the depths and never arise; we could give up.
    
Yet, the psalmist of old taught, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”
    
“Ah,” you say.  Just another cute aphorism for some old guy in the Bible.  What did he know?”
    
He knew a lot.
    
For, if, for example,  our ancestors of 586 BCE or 70 CE had succumbed to their ordeal and their gloom, we would not be here to tell the tale.
    
And, how do we not succumb?  How do we prevail?
    
The psalmist again:  “Serve the Lord with gladness.  Come before God in joy.”
    
“Come, let us sing unto the Lord.” 
    
So, the children were right (aren't they always?  Shouldn't we listen to them more often?  They carry such deep and ancient truths in their little beings.  We should pay better attention before they get old and jaded - like us.) 
    
Grief turns to hope, and, eventually, to gladness through song, through coming to God in joy.
    
We remember and we mourn the destructions on this Tisha B'Av.
    
And, we “transform sorrow into song.”
    
And, then, not through our mourning, but through our glad song will we be to tell our tale to yet another generation.
    
Then, they, too - though they will, surely, in their time, experience moments of sadness and grief - will burst forth in song, and, then, “Again will be heard incites of Judah and the byways  of Jerusalem - and all places where Jews live - the voice of the  bride and the bridegroom; the voice of joy and gladness.”