Today, while strolling on my bicycle through Rothschild avenue in Tel Aviv, I discovered that a new art exhibition had just started: large white banners with the copy of three different pictures on each side are hanging from the trees above the alley: most of them are paintings, by Israeli artists, old and young, some from before the state foundation, such as Nachum Gutman. The pictures all have one common theme: Tel Aviv (for more information, see Tel Aviv's municipality website at: http://www.tlv100.co.il/HE/News/Pages/omanut_bashderot.aspx, in Hebrew, or: http://www.tlv100.co.il/EN/Pages/EngHome.aspx, in English; for more about contemporary art in Israel, see: http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/7070).
The sight of the the various pictures, which depict various places in Tel Aviv, filled me with joy. I asked myself why and here is the answer I found: because I recognized almost every place depicted and I saw pictures by artists whom I have known or do know personally.
If you happen to be in Tel Aviv in September, then by all means do stroll down Rothschild avenue, as well as Ben Gurion ave. Although life in Tel Aviv is not always easy and pleasant, it is a pleasure to see that we have so many fine artists and also so many beautiful places here in Tel Aviv.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
About schools and education in Israel
In Israel schools traditionally start on the 1st September. This is about the time when various newspaper articles are published about the catastrophic state of Israel's educational system. Public schools in Israel are indeed in deep trouble: classrooms are notoriously overcrowded, with an average of 32 pupils per classroom in high schools; school teachers are underpaid and too often they take advantage of their sick days; both my children, Ben and Elinor, have experienced repeatedly their teachers leaving in the middle of the school year, with temporary replacement teachers in between, which means constant readjustment. Nearly every year, the ministry of education makes new cuts in the number of teaching hours; last year, my daughter Elinor had a free day on Thursdays, due to the accumulation of such cuts. Parents feel helpless. This is also the reason why so many parents decide to take their child's education in their own hands and to found a private schools, such as the Kesem school, an environmental open school in the Jerusalem area, just to name one of them.
Although Israel spends more than most other countries on education, Israeli school children obtain very little personal attention from their classroom teachers. In secular schools, problem number one is the low discipline. Eventually, the pupils who do well at school do so mostly thanks to their parents' involvement and their financial investment in private teachers. As a result, the gap between school kids who are children of well educated or well off parents and those whose parents have little education and cannot afford providing their kids private lessons keeps growing.
The educational crisis has been going for years already. A retired school principle from the Afula area once explained me, while we were discussing the issue at a family dinner, that back in the 60s, when he was a high-school pupil, only about 30% of the children were aspiring to graduate and study at university, all the others would leave earlier to acquire a technical education or just started working; back then high schools were able to provide quality, since they were meant for the intellectual elite. Nowadays, high schools have been imposed the role of baby sitters; on top of it, they must provide equal chances for all. Since Israel basically is a state of immigrants from all over the world, this means supplying public school education not only to the children of well educated Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Haifa citizens, but also to children of Russian immigrants from Moscow, Kiev or Riga, to newly immigrated religious Yemenite Jews who know only biblical Hebrew; to the children of Ethiopian immigrants who have been living for years in impoverished communities and neglected by the authorities for various reasons and speak mostly Amharic; to the children of Arab Israeli citizens, either Muslim and Christians, to the Bedouins of the Negev desert and of Galilee; to children from poor peripheral settlements, such as Dimona or Beer Sheba. The Arab citizens in Israel have a school program of their own in Arabic. But there is more to this complex mosaic: the religious population - they also have public schools, the "khinukh mamlakhti dati".
Many in Israel are dissatisfied with the public school system. Over the last 10 years, more and more private schools have been created by various communities, both religious and secular, in order to provide a better education for their children according to their own beliefs: almost 30% of Israel's schoolchildren study in a private school; many of them are officially acknowledged by the Ministry of Education, although the ministry is far from encouraging this tendency. With more and more young Israeli citizens receiving education in a private institution, some people here are deeply concerned about the cohesion of the Israeli society in the future.
Although Israel spends more than most other countries on education, Israeli school children obtain very little personal attention from their classroom teachers. In secular schools, problem number one is the low discipline. Eventually, the pupils who do well at school do so mostly thanks to their parents' involvement and their financial investment in private teachers. As a result, the gap between school kids who are children of well educated or well off parents and those whose parents have little education and cannot afford providing their kids private lessons keeps growing.
The educational crisis has been going for years already. A retired school principle from the Afula area once explained me, while we were discussing the issue at a family dinner, that back in the 60s, when he was a high-school pupil, only about 30% of the children were aspiring to graduate and study at university, all the others would leave earlier to acquire a technical education or just started working; back then high schools were able to provide quality, since they were meant for the intellectual elite. Nowadays, high schools have been imposed the role of baby sitters; on top of it, they must provide equal chances for all. Since Israel basically is a state of immigrants from all over the world, this means supplying public school education not only to the children of well educated Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Haifa citizens, but also to children of Russian immigrants from Moscow, Kiev or Riga, to newly immigrated religious Yemenite Jews who know only biblical Hebrew; to the children of Ethiopian immigrants who have been living for years in impoverished communities and neglected by the authorities for various reasons and speak mostly Amharic; to the children of Arab Israeli citizens, either Muslim and Christians, to the Bedouins of the Negev desert and of Galilee; to children from poor peripheral settlements, such as Dimona or Beer Sheba. The Arab citizens in Israel have a school program of their own in Arabic. But there is more to this complex mosaic: the religious population - they also have public schools, the "khinukh mamlakhti dati".
Many in Israel are dissatisfied with the public school system. Over the last 10 years, more and more private schools have been created by various communities, both religious and secular, in order to provide a better education for their children according to their own beliefs: almost 30% of Israel's schoolchildren study in a private school; many of them are officially acknowledged by the Ministry of Education, although the ministry is far from encouraging this tendency. With more and more young Israeli citizens receiving education in a private institution, some people here are deeply concerned about the cohesion of the Israeli society in the future.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Another popular food: sabich
Sabich is a kind of oriental food that has become pretty much popular over the last 10 years. I must admit that I have never tried it. I just noticed more and more small oriental fast-food buffets popping up in the area, so that it could not be ignored. When i once witnessed my friend Donna, a sophisticated down-town Tel Aviv dweller, send her three young daughters to go and buy themselves a sabich for lunch, this was a sure sign in my eyes that sabich is something, not just an ephemeral trend. But I still didn't know what it really was and all my friend Donna could tell me about it was that it consists of pitta bread with lots of goodies stuffed inside.
Then I happened to hear my friend Yossi mention that sabich is a real calories bomb; so I asked him: "What exactly is sabich?". His eyes sparkled and he cried out: "Ah, sabich! How come you don't know what sabich is? I don't believe it!". "Well, believe it, I don't know what it is, so please tell me!". Then Yossi the physician became the boy whose parents immigrated from Iraq in the fifties; he told me that sabich is something Iraqi Jews would eat religiously every Saturday morning after coming back from synagogue. His mother would take an Iraqi pitta bread (http://www.mideastweb.org/recipes.htm) and fill it with hummus, chopped tomato salad, a hard-boiled egg, a slice of fried eggplant, potatoes and some tahina on top. So now I knew why I never ate it: it's just too much for my delicate stomach - but Yossi said that it is so tasty that it's really hard for him to refrain from eating it now.
So much about sabich. For those who are planning to come to Israel, here is an article about the first sabich buffet in Israel - and more:
http://www.gemsinisrael.com/e_article000039492.htm
For those who'd like to make their own sabich, here is a recipe:
http://everything2.com/title/sabich.
Enjoy!
Then I happened to hear my friend Yossi mention that sabich is a real calories bomb; so I asked him: "What exactly is sabich?". His eyes sparkled and he cried out: "Ah, sabich! How come you don't know what sabich is? I don't believe it!". "Well, believe it, I don't know what it is, so please tell me!". Then Yossi the physician became the boy whose parents immigrated from Iraq in the fifties; he told me that sabich is something Iraqi Jews would eat religiously every Saturday morning after coming back from synagogue. His mother would take an Iraqi pitta bread (http://www.mideastweb.org/recipes.htm) and fill it with hummus, chopped tomato salad, a hard-boiled egg, a slice of fried eggplant, potatoes and some tahina on top. So now I knew why I never ate it: it's just too much for my delicate stomach - but Yossi said that it is so tasty that it's really hard for him to refrain from eating it now.
So much about sabich. For those who are planning to come to Israel, here is an article about the first sabich buffet in Israel - and more:
http://www.gemsinisrael.com/e_article000039492.htm
For those who'd like to make their own sabich, here is a recipe:
http://everything2.com/title/sabich.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
#1 food in Israel: hummus
When I first came to Israel, many years ago, I met a German young woman who was on her way back to Germany. As we met in the guesthouse, she decided to pass on to me some of the knowledge she had gathered during her stay in the country and took me out into Tel Aviv streets in the evening hours. She explained me that the Israeli specialty was called "humus" - like the gardening soil, which sounded very strange to me and not really appetizing. Much later I found out that it is an Arabic word and that it is called "hummus" or "chummus". (For more details, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummus).
Hummus is a very simple dish that is not so simple to prepare with success. Most Israelis will never even attempt to prepare it by themselves and rather go out looking for the best hummus in town, wherever that is in the country. If you live in a big city, you will fancy to find "your" best hummus in town. Freshly made, if possible, by hand (not with a food processor), by an Arab - or at least served by an Arab. If you live somewhere in the suburbs or in a small town, you will mostly find an oriental Jew named, Moshe, Chayim or Shalom, who runs a small takeaway food restaurant serving hummus in pitta bread with chips and oriental salad (diced or chopped tomatoes and cucumbers); there you can get a "chumus be-pita" at the price of 10 or 12 NIS, a complete meal, even for a laborer.
Although it is pretty basic, made of mashed chickpeas with tahina sauce, it is delicious and nourishing. Very Israeli, although the Lebanese claim that it is a Lebanese dish. But Lebanese hummus is a bit different, mostly a side dish, more delicate, with pine nuts. So there is a typically Israeli version of hummus. When you come to Israel, it is a must!
Although it is pretty basic, made of mashed chickpeas with tahina sauce, it is delicious and nourishing. Very Israeli, although the Lebanese claim that it is a Lebanese dish. But Lebanese hummus is a bit different, mostly a side dish, more delicate, with pine nuts. So there is a typically Israeli version of hummus. When you come to Israel, it is a must!
Why write about everyday life in Israel?
Israel is almost daily featuring in the news. As a European who has been living in Israel for several decades now, every time I come to visit my relatives and my friends in Europe, I realize how little they know about REAL life in Israel. So time has come for me to tell people a little about life here in Israel through my personal and humble perspective.
What do people outside Israel mostly think of at first, when talking about Israel? The middle eastern conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, of course. Well, enough has been written about the conflict and about the war. I shall not even attempt to tell you about the conflicts and their reasons.
What I want to focus on is the little things of everyday life, the casual, regular encounters, blissful moments, whatever is part of regular everyday life as I see it. I hope that this may outbalance somewhat the imbalanced and very partial pictures you see in the news spots.
The first theme I shall talk about in my coming posts is food - food as a place where cultures meet and mingle.
What do people outside Israel mostly think of at first, when talking about Israel? The middle eastern conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, of course. Well, enough has been written about the conflict and about the war. I shall not even attempt to tell you about the conflicts and their reasons.
What I want to focus on is the little things of everyday life, the casual, regular encounters, blissful moments, whatever is part of regular everyday life as I see it. I hope that this may outbalance somewhat the imbalanced and very partial pictures you see in the news spots.
The first theme I shall talk about in my coming posts is food - food as a place where cultures meet and mingle.
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