Sunday, July 29, 2007

Outdoor Friday Evening Musical Kabbalat Shabbat Services at the Tel-Aviv Seafront

Beit-Tefila, is a diverse, pluralistic, non denominational Tel-Aviv congregation, in the spirit and format of Bnei Jeshurun in NYC. The congregation celebrates together musical Friday night Kabbalat Shabbats, holidays and Jewish Lifecycle events. Beit-Tefila is home to secular and traditional Israelis in greater metropolitan Tel-Aviv. Its member are from all walks of Israeli life.

Services are based on the traditional text, accompanied to melodically arranged tunes, both traditional and more modern ones. In addition a few modern inserts are interjected into the abridged traditional liturgy including Modern Hebrew poetry, modern classic Israeli song standards, and even an occasional universal one like Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World, sung in its Hebrew translation.

This summer as part of its outreach to Tel-Aviv, Beit-Tefilah has teamed up with the management of the Tel-Aviv Port, which runs the beautifully renovated old Port district now home to an expansive wood boardwalk lined by restaurants and cafes. In a quieter section of the boardwalk, at its southern edge where the Port runs into Metzitzim Beach, Beit-Tefila in the spirit of outdoor summer homes and events is conducting outdoor public Kabbalat Shabbat services every other week during the months of July and August (details regarding dates can be found at their site: http://www.btfila.org/)

An article about Beit-Tefilah from the local Hebrew edition of Timeout can be found here: http://www.btfila.org/5767/newslet/timeout.htm

Short video clip of highlights from the service


Friday, July 27, 2007

70% of Palestinians justify suicide bombings; Most American Moslems Doubt Arabs were responsible for the 9/11 attacks

Yediot reports today from an earlier Pew research report that 70% of Palestinians believe that suicide bombings against civilians can be often or sometimes justified.

In a related item another Pew research report released this past May, on attitudes of American Moslems, found that many doubt that Arabs were responsible for the 9/11 attacks and just 40% of Muslim Americans say groups of Arabs carried out those attacks.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Sudanese Mother and Child Reunion

A story of Israelis who held no bars to reunite Sudanese refugees with their child who got stuck on the other side of the border when they smuggled across the Israeli--Egyptian border.

The refugees retell how Egyptian border patrol used live ammunition with shoot-to-kill intent on the unarmed refugees as they attempted to flee from Egypt into Israel.



Editorial Commentary
Imagine how left-liberals in the west (Israel included) would have reacted if it were Israelis doing the shooting. But they (i.e. left-liberals), together with the UN and the rest of a so called enlightened-world is for the most part silent to Egypt’s dictatorship, brutality and litany of human rights abuses.

Even though the status of these refugees in Israel remains unclear, the story of Israelis providing shelter for African Moslems, fleeing Arab atrocities, for the most part goes untold and unnoticed.

And in a related item from Ha'aretz:
Sudanese refugees find home with Jerusalem family
By Amiram Barkat
20/07/2007
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/884086.html



The Gal family of Jerusalem has been hosting a family of refugees from Darfur for the past week...The Sudanese, two parents and four children, have settled into the two bedrooms of the Gals' children. Amir, the son, is in summer camp and Lior has moved to her parents' bedroom.

The apartment was filled with the smell of the Egyptian broad beans the guests were cooking in the kitchen yesterday.

Helen Gal says the two families had started sharing their meals and tasting each other's cooking. "They asked me why we don't like spicy food," she says.

...

Helen admits she had fears before the guests arrived. She even advised her daughters what to do if any inappropriate action was taken against them. "I heard they had a boy of 15 and it made me nervous," she explains. But the fears soon dissipated. The guests turned out to be quiet, polite and pleasant people. The 15-year-old boy turned out to be a girl, Amal, who made friends with the Gal's elder daughter Mia, who is a few months older.

Amal was surprised to learn that Mia is still going to school and asked if she could go too if she stayed in Israel. Mia was surprised to discover what had caused the small scar on Amal's forehead. "She told me she had been shot in the head. I asked her how she survived and she said she was in the hospital for months," Mia says.

Abdullah says Amal was shot in 2002 during an attack by the Janjaweed militias on their village. He says the militias set fire to the village and his old father, who could not run away, was burned to death. Abdullah journeyed with the injured Amal to a hospital in Khartoum and stayed with her until she recovered. But then he was warned not to return home and fled with his daughter to Egypt. The rest of the family joined them a year later.

They waited with tens of thousands of other Sudanese refugees in Cairo for an immigration visa to a Western country. Life became quite comfortable once Abdullah, who speaks fluent English, found work in a computer store. But things changed drastically in December 2005 after a demonstration the refugees held outside the offices of the UN's refugee commission.

The Egyptian security forces dispersed the protest violently, killing some 30 refugees in the process, according to Amnesty International. Abdullah said that life in Cairo became intolerable. "There was a terrible fear, at any moment the police could come and put you in jail," he said.

About a month ago Abdullah contacted Bedouin smugglers who agreed to take the family to Israel for $700. Beyond the border they were caught by troops of the Israel Defense Forces who gave them water and blankets. After a short stay in a military camp they were sent to a hotel in Be'er Sheva, and from there arrived at the Wohl Rose Garden in Jerusalem.

The Gal family's full name has been withheld at the family's request. David and Abdullah are fictitious names, used on the instruction of the UN's refugee agency.

For more information, see the Web site of the Israeli Coalition for Darfur and Sudan
Refugees, www.israel-for-darfur.org

Tel Aviv Chosen The Best Weekend Getaway by New York Magazine

Back in April New York Magazine chose Tel Aviv as the best weekend Getaway. Here's another great video presentation by the YouTube vlogger Hollyyyyyyy, who puts together some wonderful and affective Israel PR presentations

Sunday, July 22, 2007

EL AL Flies high-school students from Sderot to New York

El-Al is flying today 10 high-school students from Sderot, to New York City to pick up its new Boeing 777 named "Sderot", after the Negev town that has been rocketed on by Palestinian terrorist militia from Gaza for the past 6 years.

The students will spend 4 days in New York City. Their itinerary includes sightseeing, the latest Harry Potter movie and attending Tisha B'Av services at a local New York synagogue.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Tel-Aviv Friday Beach Scenes before Shabbat 20-07-2007



Summer Heat Wave: US Presidential Campaign Heats Up...with Babe Videos

Talk about a hot campaign season, it's hard not to smile and have some summer fun with the latest American Political banter to hit YouTube with “Hott4Hill”, “I Got a Crush on Obama” and “Obama Girl vs Giuliani Girl”, the latter 2 courtesy of BarelyPolitical.com (http://www.barelypolitical.com/)

Hott4Hill, self produced by 21-year-old Taryn Southern for fun (and fame), is the cuter and more intelligent of the two in my view. Her brightness clearly shines in this interview with Chris Matthews (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxemPw2mEwg).



I Got a Crush on Obama


Obama Girl vs Giuliani Girl

Sexy Tongue-in-Cheek Ad for Israel

Created by a small local media production house. (Please note this video clips is rated R and includes strong language and sexual situations)

Why they call it the Holy Land--explained

Muslim, Italian and Zionist

By Saviona Mana
Originally published in Ha'aretz on Fri., July 13, 2007
Read the entire English Ha'aretz article here
and the Hebrew version here: מוסלמי. איטלקי. ציוני


It's not every day that a Muslim intellectual puts his own head on the line to defend Israel's right to exist. But that is exactly what Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born Italian writer and journalist, has been doing for years. He recently published a book whose name alone is enough to endanger his life: "Long Live Israel - From the Ideology of Death to the Civilization of Life: My Story."
...

In "Long Live Israel" ("Viva Israele" in Italian), Allam directly links the denial of Israel's right to exist to the death cult being nurtured in fundamentalist Islamic circles, and refers to "the ethical erosion that has led to even the denial of the supreme value of the sanctity of life." Allam sees Israel as "an ethical parameter that separates between lovers of civilization and those who preach the ideology of death." The sanctity of life, he writes, "applies to everyone, or to no one."
...

"Those who like me and more or less agree with me see it as a provocation. 'What did you need this for, don't you have enough problems?' they asked. Those who don't like me and condemn me for my opinions see this as additional proof that I am a traitor to the Arab cause and an enemy of Islam, have sold myself to Israel and work for the Mossad. But for me, 'Viva Israele' is a song of praise to Israel's life and to everyone's life. My book opens with the words: 'What you are about to read is a declaration of faith in the sanctity of life, 'the sanctity of life of every human being.'"

...

"The Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and Gaza demonstrates that the problem is not the need to withdraw from territories occupied in preemptive wars, but rather the Arabs' lack of desire to recognize Israel's right to exist. Israel erred in 1967 when it accepted the formula of territory for peace, and thus placed its very existence up for public auction. Experience teaches that the right to life cannot and should not be a subject for negotiation and bargaining. No negotiations should be held with extremists and terrorists who deny Israel's right to exist."

...

Regarding the question of the Islamization of Europe, Allam says, "Europe is already a bastion of Islamic extremism. Just look at attack on Mike's Place in Tel Aviv, which was carried out by British suicide bombers drafted by Hamas; the massacre by Islamists in Madrid and in London; the slitting of director Theo Van Gogh's throat in Amsterdam; and the dozens of Islamic terror attacks that were prevented in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Holland.

...

"This multicultural Europe, which has trampled its values and betrayed its identity, is satisfied with reacting to the obvious terror, which is only the tip of the iceberg, but is afraid to deal with terror's ideological and organizational roots."

...

Why don't we hear the voices of the moderate imams?

"Because they're afraid. They're a minority and they're afraid. Only a handful of Islamic intellectuals, journalists, women and clerics have shown courage and condemned terror and Islamic extremism, and as a result they were sentenced to death by the terrorists. But make no mistake, even those moderates who condemn Islamic terror often legitimize terrorists who massacre in Israel. They feel there is good terror, which massacres Israelis, and bad terror, which threatens their lives..."

...

Tel Aviv, Street Scene, Nahalat Binyamin

Tel Aviv, July 6th, the weekly Friday arts & crafts street fair at the Nahalat Binyamin Promenade



Palestinian abuse of Palestinian Children

Teaching Palestinian Children Martyrdom
Here’s a little piece that should send any decent child loving human being in uproar, and bring some attention to the incomprehensible levels of Arab cultural dementia.

Under any normal circumstances such an uproar should include so-called left-liberals who make hating the Jewish State a lifestyle. But it’s self evident that we don't live in a normal world, maybe there never really was one, only the semblance of one. Be that is it may, this insane indoctrination is like some mad Kafkaesque twilight zone episode meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers--where Left ideology under the pretense of liberalism, has become a supporter of religious Fascisms, in both a latent and active manner.

These clips were taken directly from Palestinian TV. The first 2 are courtesy of PMW (Palestinian Media Watch), it’s telling tagline: A self portrait of Palestinian society

Important to also note, that the first two clips while from a few years ago, are from the so-called "moderate" PLO/Fatah TV station. The last clip discusses a recent recording from the more radical Hamas movement TV.






Hamas Mickey Mouse look-alike indoctrinates Palestinian children to hatred and terrorism

Liel Kolet & Bill Clinton Sing Imagine

Liel Kolet at age 15 performed the song Imagine on Shimon Peres' 80th birthday, and invited President Bill Clinton to sing along. The clip was shown on TV shows across the globe. The young singer received invitations to perform from around the world.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

In Reaction to Britain’s University & College Union Boycott of Israeli Universities

Thomas Friedman in his Op-Ed from June 17, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/opinion/17friedman.html
called this boycott for what it is-- anti-Semitism:
...
So to single out Israeli universities alone for a punitive boycott is rank anti-Semitism. Let’s see, Syria is being investigated by the United Nations for murdering Lebanon’s former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. Syrian agents are suspected of killing the finest freedom-loving Lebanese journalists, Gibran Tueni and Samir Kassir. But none of that moves the far left to call for a boycott of Syrian universities. Why? Sudan is engaged in genocide in Darfur. Why no boycott of Sudan? Why?

He ends off the article with these final words:
...But just singling out Israeli universities for a boycott, in the face of all the other madness in the Middle East — that’s what anti-Semites would do.
Thomas Friedman starts off the article with the following poignant anecdote while attending a doctoral graduation ceremony at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
These were Israeli Arab doctoral students — many of them women and one of whom accepted her degree wearing a tight veil over her head. Funny — she could receive her degree wearing a veil from the Hebrew University, but could not do so in France, where the veil is banned in public schools. Arab families cheered unabashedly when their sons and daughters received their Hebrew U. Ph.D. diplomas, just like the Jewish parents.

How crazy is this, I thought. Israel’s premier university is giving Ph.D.’s to Arab students, two of whom were from East Jerusalem — i.e. the occupied territories — supervised by Jewish Israeli professors, all while some far-left British academics are calling for a boycott of Israeli universities.
In a related item here's a great video presentation by the YouTube vlogger Hollyyyyyyy, who puts together some wonderful and affective Israel PR presentations

Monday, July 16, 2007

UK: Denial and willful blindness is modus operandi

In a poignant article by Boston Globe Columnist Jeff Jacoby
Avoiding the M-word, July 11, 2007.
(The article can be read in it’s entirety on the Boston Globe site by clicking on the linked title )
Jacoby writes:

...

The first three statements, disingenuous but quite politically correct, were made respectively by (1) Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, (2) London Mayor Ken Livingstone, and (3) Daud Abdullah, deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain. Just days before the second anniversary of the deadly 7/7 London transit bombings, and less than a year since 24 British Muslims were arrested for plotting to blow up passenger jets over the Atlantic, the three men spoke as if they had no inkling that Britain is a battleground in militant Islam's global jihad -- as if only a boor or a bigot could imagine that Muslims might somehow be linked to the car bombs in London and Glasgow.

And the fourth statement? Those were the blunt words of Hassan Butt, a onetime spokesman for the radical Islamist organization al-Muhajiroun, who has renounced his former life. In an essay published last week in the Daily Mail, Butt emphasized that jihadists are motivated not by opposition to British or US foreign policy but by a fundamentalist theology that seeks to subject the entire world to "Islamic justice." Radical Imams teach their followers that they must fight for Dar al-Islam (the House of Islam) against Dar al-Harb (the House of War -- i.e., infidels to be defeated). And "in Dar el-Harb, anything goes, including the treachery and cowardice of attacking civilians."

By turning a blind eye to the radical theology of the jihadists, Butt says, mainstream Muslim institutions make it easy for the extremists to recruit new followers. His words apply equally to political leaders like Brown and Livingstone: "They refuse to broach the difficult and often complex truth that Islam can be interpreted as condoning violence against the unbeliever -- and instead repeat the mantra that Islam is peace, and hope that all of this debate will go away."

Wars cannot be won through denial and willful blindness. Yet in ways large and small, Western leaders and institutions deliberately avert their gaze from the reality of the Islamist threat. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon blames global warming, not Sudan's jihadist regime, for the genocide being carried out in Darfur. A leading candidate to succeed President Bush, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, maintains a lavish campaign website, complete with detailed position papers that have nothing to say about radical Islam's aggressive war. Another candidate, former senator John Edwards, prepares a 5,200-word speech to the Council on Foreign Relations -- and devotes just 19 of them to the menace of Islamic extremism.

...

Political correctness is no strategy for victory. Islamic fascists will not hate us less if we avoid all mention of the theology that inflames them. Winning the war the jihadists have declared -- the war of Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb -- begins with moral clarity. Denial is a luxury we cannot afford.


In a reltated item: Some British schools drop Holocaust studies to appease Muslims

Friday, July 13, 2007

Libyan Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentences of Innocent Medical Staff

International Herald Tribune reported yesterday that:



The Libyan Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentences of 5 Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who are charged with intentionally infecting more than 400 Libyan children with the AIDS virus in 1998.


A 2003 investigation by two of the world's leading AIDS experts, rejected by the Libyan court, concluded that the children's HIV was caused by unsanitary medical conditions at Benghazi Children's Hospital.

Editorial Comment
Another small case in point of the real Arab and Moslem Mideast, rampant with fabrications and falsifications. Lacking any real semblance of due process and democratic justice, and yet in comparison, garners such little condemnation from the those waiving the banner of human rights.

Bulgarian Music Idol Contestant Sings Naomi Shemer

Israel Radio 2 on its Friday morning weekly cultural and entertainment magazine had a cute tidbit regarding the Bulgarian Version of American (Music) Idol where contestants chose to sing songs in foreign languages from around the world, and one of them chose an old quintessential Israeli folk-classic by Naomi Shemer: The Eucalyptus Grove. Despite a few small mispronounced words here and there, this is very sweet:

חורשת האקליפטוס - כוכב נולד בולגרי - Funny blooper videos are here

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Interview with Beirut Resident on Israel Radio

In an interview on Israel radio today a Beirut resident who went by the name of “Tony” (hopefully a pseudo name to protect the innocent), bemoaned the economic downturn and lack of tourism in Beirut, one year after Hizbullah crossed the Israeli border in July 2006 killing and capturing Israeli reservists that triggered the summer of 2006 war between Israel and the rogue Shiite Islamic fundamentalist, Iranian backed, Hizbullah(*).

The same resident went on to say that he thought that the situation could have been a lot better this summer in Beirut had Israel been able to dismantle Hizbullah.

An example of one small tid-bit of a larger unheard mosaic that one is unlikely to come across today on CNN, Al Jazeera or the New York Times

(*) Hizbullah's chief stated objective is to establish Islamic rule over Lebanon according to the religious teachings of the late Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The Conference on the future of the Jewish People

The Conference on the future of the Jewish People 10-12.6 2007, conducted by The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI)

Special coverage can be found on the English Edition Ynet Site.

Highlights so far include

PM: I'm Jewish, then Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, addressing a conference on the future of the Jewish people, said he identified himself as "Jewish first, then Israeli."

'Jews face gathering storm'
Former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler: Threat to Israel and Diaspora at level unprecedented since 1938

The Jewish people are facing a "gathering storm" in the form of threats posed by a genocidal Iran, Hizbullah, al-Qaeda, Hamas, and local terror cells which target Diaspora Jews, former Canadian Justice Minister and Jewish activist Irwin Cotler told a conference on the future of Jewish people in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

...

Dennis Ross, the former US ambassador to Israel said that "Iran is led today by a regime that believes in the destruction of Israel, and they're developing the means to actually do it."

From the conference, Israel radio's international hour with Dr. Yitzhak Noy interviewed a professor from McGill University who spoke about the sophistication of the new anti-Semitism that cloaks its bias in veils of anti-Zionism and delegitimization of the state Israel through falsified populist pretenses of so called "human rights" issues.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Israeli Models

Please note videos might be preceded by a brief ad

Israeli Supermodel--Bar Refaeli: Sports Illustrated Debut


Actress Rotem Sela kisses cute reporter from leading Israeli entertainment show


Roni Superstar: teen music idol-cum-nubile model


Ana Aronov (on right)--Russian Israeli Dance instructor-cum-Celebrity on account of her performances on the local edition of “Dances with the Stars” talks with Russian Israeli reporter Natasha Mozgovaya

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

ירון לונדון לא רואה הבדל בין ברית מילה וכריתת דגדגן


צבי יחזקלי היום בתוכנית לונדון וקירשנבאום הביא כתבה על המנהג הברברי הנפוץ במצריים של כריתת הדגדגן. ירון לונדון בהערת אגב לא ראה הרבה הבדל בין ברית מילה שלא משחיטה עובדתית בכהוא זה בחיי המין של הגבר, לעומת כריתת דגדגן שנקראת לא לשווא באנגלית—Genital Mutilation דהיינו השחתת איבר מין שגוזלת לאותה ילדה שבקושי חוותה חיים מלהנות מחיי מין מספקים—איזה נורא! למי יש הזכות לעשות את זה!

לא משנה שרוב הגברים האמריקאים נימולים בלי קשר לדתם מטעמי בריאות. לא משנה שארגון הבריאות העולמית מצאה שגברים שנימולו באפריקה יש להם סיכוי הרבה יותר קטן להידבק ב-AIDS –אבל ירון בשלו—הוא כנראה לא נותן לדברים שוליים כמו עובדות ומציאות מלהפריע לו לבטא הבל כזה. צבי יחזקלי הוכיח שגם הוא לא הגאון שעושים ממנו—באומרו שזה סה"כ בסדר, אם עושים כריתת דגדגן ע"י רופא...נו באמת!

הייתי רוצה לראות אותם גיבורים גדולים אם היו משחיתים להם את איבר המין ולא יוכלו עוד מלפני גיל התבגרות מלהנות אי פעם מחיי מין מספקים. נראה אותם...תסלחו לי--פלצנים--כולכם. לו היו הומניסטים באמת (ולא פסבדו) קודם כל הם צריכים לבקש סליחה ממיליוני הנשים בעיקר מצפון מזרח אפריקה ובעיקר מוסלמיות שנגזר עליהן לוותר על חלק מגופם, נפשם, ונשיותם לתרבות פאטריארכאלית פרימיטיבית (להזכיר ש- Tel-Aviv Vistas שמה על דגלה לתאר את המציאות כפי שהיא, ללא מסננים של תקינות פוליטית).

בסופו של דבר יש כאן עוד דוגמא מצערת של האליטה הלא באמת עמוקה שיש במדינה הזאת, הנגועה בהטיות, עוורת מתקינות פוליטית, ובלתי מעורערת, כי קול חד, בהיר, אינטלקטואלי ומלומד כפי שמוצאים ב-Wall Street Journal לא נמצא בארץ הזאת ואם לא נקרא לסדר ביטויים כאלה אז גם לעולם לא יהיה...

Sunday, July 1, 2007

At least 116 killed in Hamas takeover of Gaza

A new wikipedia entry titled The Battle of Gaza (2007) -- sources figures provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that estimates that over 550 people were wounded and at least 116 killed during the fighting in the week up to 15 June.

'Executing one by one'

MSNBC filed a ghastly report (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/19219238/) with sub-section titled 'Executing one by one'

Fatah officials said Hamas shot and killed seven of its fighters outside the Preventive Security building. A doctor at Shifa Hospital said he examined two bodies that had been shot in the head at close range. The officials and the doctor spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
A witness, who identified himself only as Amjad, said men were killed as their wives and children watched.

“They are executing them one by one,” Amjad, who lives in a building overlooking the Preventive Security complex, said by telephone. “They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting.”

The killers ignored appeals from residents to spare the men’s lives, said Amjad, who declined to give his full name, fearing reprisal.

Scott Olson of The Trading Post in his blog post:
The Trading Post: Fatah vs. Hamas. The two state solution?
put it best:

It's hard to make any sense out of what is going on in the Palestinian Territories. When a small and heavily armed faction of your religion has essentially turned itself in to a death cult there really doesn't seem to be any need for civilized people to try and negotiate with them. They have one thing on their minds: the destruction of Israel, no matter what the cost, including their wives and children's lives

Editorial
The Palestinian Arab terrorist militias that rule the Palestinian Authority ultimately bear the seeds of their own destruction. Violence and hatred beget violence and hatred. Fascists governments and societies that indoctrinate virulent hatred as is the case in many Arab countries and regimes, will inevitably suffer from their own medicine.

The mass killings of Arabs by Arabs in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Algeria, and now the Palestinian Authority are all cases in point and possibly portents to places like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia where radical Jihad movements are on the move.

Tel Aviv Vistas: Sights & Sound from YouTube vloggers

Ode to "urban Tel Aviv: beach life, nightlife, architecture, people, places, pubs and clubs--a collage of the city that never sleeps" as compiled in this slide presentation by a 27 year old YouTube vLogger (includes a few cute guys and babes that make up the Israeli mosaic)



Tel Aviv: "The Real Story" as compiled by this 26 year old Israeli YouTube vlogger (http://www.youtube.com/snowstorm81)


Free Hugs Campaign, Tel Aviv, October 2006

Israeli Television Commercials

Pesek Zman (“Timeout”) Candy Bar: playing on ideas of creation, ceativity, and a divineness of a timeout from creation and ceativity



Actimel Probiotic Drink: “You’ve got a friend in me”: When you love someone you want to protect them



Mei Eden (Eden Water), mineral water: 70% of you body is water. What water do you fill your body with?



Orange Cell Phone Carrier: Tagline: When someone is special to you, you go to lengths to surprise them



Local Cable Provider "Hot": provides a "Hot Babe" to promote it's VOD (Video on Demand) Service, which also includes TV series. Playing on a divorce scene the Tagline is: "It's so simple to finish chapter 1 when chapter 2 is already awaiting you...



Local cellular carrier "Pelephone": Tagline: "we wanted to remind you that during Hannukah miracles do happen..." as part of the thier sales promotion for free SMS messages during the Festival of Lights :)

Voices For Israel

Voices For Israel




From the Voices For Israel Website:

About Voices For Israel

Voices For Israel is an independent, non-profit organization that uses music to promote Jewish unity and solidarity with Israel and to raise much-needed funds to benefit charities in Israel.

Voices For Israel is not affiliated with any political movement or ideology in Israel. The artists who participate in our projects come together from all corners of the Jewish world because they agree with Voices For Israel's overriding central principle: to assist fellow Jews in need.


History
Voices For Israel was conceived on a blustery Motzei Shabbat (Saturday night) in the winter of 2001. Jordan B. Gorfinkel and Beat’achon were set to perform in Cleveland, but right after Shabbat ended, the community learned of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem that had occurred that day, with many casualties. Beat’achon approached the rabbi of the shul where the concert was to take place, to ask if the show should still go on. The rabbi answered, absolutely it is particularly at a time of tragedy that the community needs to come together.

The show went on and became an event of solidarity with Israel. The group concluded the evening with an impromptu vocal rendition of Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem. As Gorfinkel recalls, "A community member approached us after the show and urged us to record our Hatikva, saying that it is ‘exactly what the Jewish people need at this time."

Partnering with Jewish Music star performer and recording artist Yehuda!, Gorfinkel expanded the idea to encompass the broader Jewish music world. “Israel is hurting and I wanted to help,” he said, “but what could I do, an artist, living in America?” The answer was to use his creativity and contacts to rally what would become the largest gathering ever of Jewish Music stars, to benefit victims of terror in Israel.

The Idan Raichel Project: "If You Go ..."

This song from Idan Raichel's landmark 2002 album offers a haunting fusion of Israeli Popular and ethnic Ethiopian folk music.

If you Go
Free translation by Noam Rotem


If you go, who will hug me like this,
who will listen to me at the end of a day,
who will calm and comfort me,
only you know how

And if you go, who will I wait for from the windowsill, in a holiday skirt, so that when he arrives, he'll hug me like you do when you arrive


When you go, I will go out unto the sun, to the gilded field, morning and night, a moon will illuminate my face, that dreams, all day, only of you

And when you arrive, you'll lift me up and carry me in both your hands, from the field to the river, you'll wash my face and speak words unto me, that only you know how




About Idan Raichel Project
From the Idan Raichel Project on MySpace

While recent headlines are dominated by news of conflict and war in the Middle East, an Israeli musical collaborative has achieved success by looking beyond intercultural differences and celebrating the value of diversity. Infusing a blend of traditional Ethiopian folk music, Arabic poetry, Yemenite chants, Biblical psalms and Caribbean rhythms, ...

NPR worte in 2005: Israeli Musicians Find Unity in Cultural Fusion
by Derek Rath
"Day to Day, December 6, 2006 · The Israeli group, the Idan Raichel Project, blends the music of the country's rich immigrant community with the traditional sounds of the nation. The unique mixture of Ethiopian, Arab and native Israeli music has made them stars in Israel, and paved the way for their American debut. "




אם תלך

מילים: עידן רייכל
לחן: עידן רייכל

אם תלך מי יחבק אותי ככה
מי ישמע אותי בסוף היום
מי ינחם וירגיע
רק אתה יודע

ואם תלך למי אחכה בחלון בשמלה של חג
שיגיע, יחבק אותי ככה, כמו שאתה מגיע

כשתלך לשמש אצא, בשדה המוזהב, בוקר וערב,
ירח יאיר את פני שחולמות כל היום רק עליך

וכשתבוא תישא אותי בשתי ידיך, משדה לנהר,
תרחוץ את פני ותגיד לי מילים
כמו שרק אתה יודע