Diversity, good vibes bloom at Israel in the Gardens

The j. recently published a story on this month’s Israel in the Gardens celebration, which attracted over 20,000 attendees! Below is a reprint of the article, courtesy of the j. The story was written by correspondent Jennifer Wadsworth. All photos posted below were taken by yours truly, Joy Powers.

The term “melting pot” is usually used to describe the diversity of the United States, but on June 1, it also applied to the annual Israel in the Gardens festival in San Francisco.

People of many different nationalities and backgrounds — along with a wide cross-section of Jews speaking various languages — came together at Yerba Buena Gardens to celebrate Israel’s 60th year as a sovereign nation.

The annual festival, according to organizers, attracted upward of 20,000 attendees, vendors and performers — and protesters.

Performances, exhibits and a vendor marketplace demonstrated the unity and strength of the Jewish community, both locally and worldwide, said

organizer Ronit Jacobs of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, the event’s host organization.

“This is the Israel we all know about but is so rarely portrayed,” Jacobs noted. “On its 60th birthday, we have so much pride in what this little nation has done.”

Celebrations in other cities were taking place as Israel in the Gardens kicked off at the verdant spot off Mission Street.

Like the celebrations across the globe, those gathered at Yerba Buena Gardens witnessed the ceremonial release of 60 doves — one for every year of the state’s existence — in a show of good will and visual prayer for peace.

Comedienne Kira Soltanovich, born in the Soviet Union and raised by immigrant parents in San Francisco, emceed the event and kept the crowd entertained with her wisecracks and self-deprecating humor.

A fashion show featuring the work of student designers elicited applause and cheers from thousands of onlookers on the lawn.

Music headliners included Israeli rock and folk, and there were even reggae dancers. And, no, the music did not stop when the fair ended; people simply continued dancing in the park.

“The energy is just incredible,” Jonaya Black, 13, said of the entertainment. “It really just shows the bond people can have over art, food, culture and family. We’re all family here.”

Susan and David Buki drove from Sacramento to attend. “I love the music, the booths, everything,” Susan said. “I just enjoy the environment.”

For her husband, an Israeli immigrant who has lived in the United States for 40 years, the diversity of the event was not only profound, but it also made for some interesting conversations.

“We find people to disagree with here,” he said.

Which is not such a bad thing, Susan countered.

“It makes for some stimulating exchanges,” she said with a laugh.

On the opposite side of Mission Street, police barricades cordoned off vocal protesters, who held up Palestinian flags and shouted disparaging remarks to the celebratory crowd across the boulevard.

“It’s a calm crowd,” said officer David Kenner of the San Francisco Police Department, who was assigned to the event. “We haven’t had any trouble this year.”

Some protesters came early to Yerba Buena Gardens and stamped “Zionism is racism” on the surrounding sidewalks.

The Bukis, meanwhile, were put off by a group stationed near the Gardens’ entrances, proffering “Jews for Jesus” pamphlets to the visitors.

“It makes me upset,” Susan said. “But it’s to be expected.”

For most of the people who gathered, the day was a way to reflect on the decades of accomplishment Israel.

Overwhelmingly, the pride of nationhood of heritage and shared struggles was expressed in conversation, art and familial camaraderie, several attendees noted.

“The protests don’t faze me,” said Jeremy Solly, a San Francisco native and Orthodox Jew who attended with his 5-year-old daughter, Sylvie. “I’m just here to celebrate my religion, my heritage and my culture. It means a lot to me to be here today.”

Organizer Jacobs agreed.

“The event was amazing,” she said the following day. “There was an emotional high during the entire day. [We were] all feeling as one around the beauty and life of our community. It was just amazing.”

All the photos above and more are available for viewing and purchase at the JCF’s photo gallery. Click here to see them.

Come celebrate at Israel in the Gardens

For 60, Israel is looking quite spry these days. The economy is booming. Tourism is way up. And though security threats and internal divisions remain, Israel deserves all the plaudits pouring in on this milestone anniversary.

Now it’s the Bay Area’s turn to throw a birthday party for Israel.

The annual Israel in the Gardens daylong bash is coming up on Sunday, June 1. All we can say is: Run, don’t walk, to Yerba Buena Gardens this Sunday.

All the usual spectacle will be back: World-class entertainment, delicious food, fine Israeli goods for sale, engaging activities for all ages — young children, teens and adults.

Also, as always, representatives from key Bay Area Jewish communal agencies, synagogues and federations will be on hand, meeting and shmoozing with the people they serve.

As for the entertainment, this year organizers landed some big names, including the internationally acclaimed Idan Raichel Project and singer Neshama Carlebach.

Raichel blends Ethiopian, Arab and other ethnic strains with a solid rock base. Carlebach, daughter of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, has carried on her father’s tradition, singing sacred Jewish music in a popular idiom.

By now an Israel in the Gardens tradition, the ever-popular fashion show will feature clothing by up-and-coming Israeli designers. Nearly 60 models include leading figures in the local Jewish community strutting their stuff down the runway.

Designs by Orly Rosenbaum

Across the way at the Metreon, look for Israeli films, children’s posters and a first-ever cake auction fundraiser.

But the most important part of the line-up at Israel in the Gardens is you.

We don’t need to remind our readers that those who would harm Israel never rest. Their propaganda offensive never ceases. For them, the destruction of Israel remains an obsession, and unfortunately they have too many allies around the world.

But every year, on this day, the Bay Area Jewish community has an opportunity to turn out in huge numbers –– around 20,000 on average –– to wave the Israeli flag, to sing, dance and shout out our love of Israel.

Every year we have this chance to stand up to the Israel bashers, the doubters and naysayers, and show our unwavering support for the Jewish state.

Every year we can make this very joyous, very public stand.

But it only works if you are there to be counted. So please set aside Sunday, June 1, and come to the Gardens. The falafel tastes great, the weather is always perfect and you couldn’t have a better time anywhere else.

We’ll see you there. Please stop by the j. booth and say “Shalom.”

- Op-ed reprinted from the j.

Federation and Facebook

Did you catch the article in this week’s j. on our Diller Teen Fellowship using Facebook to communicate with each other and connect with their peers in Israel?

They aren’t the only ones at the Federation who have jumped on the Facebook bandwagon.

For this weekend’s festivities, we posted two event invites on Facebook, one for Israel in the Gardens, and one for the After Party. As of now, our Gardens event has 785+ confirmed guests! Of course, you are more than welcome to join us as well: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=16340291419

Our Young Adults Division and LGBT Alliance have also taken advantage of the Facebook groups, with 478 and 95 members respectively.

Israel in the Gardens: What’s a birthday without cake? True confections to be auctioned off

“Let them eat cake” is not a phrase that preceded a pleasant moment in history. John Dellar would like to take it a little further though. Not only does he hope the general population will eat cake, he intends to make them pay top dollar for it.

Dellar is the organizer of the Israel in the Gardens cake auction. He asked 15 Bay Area chefs to tax their imaginations and craft elaborate
— and, needless to say, delicious — birthday cakes.

This is a bit of a change for Dellar, who chairs the homeless shelter food program Hamotzi at “Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco. But the money raised from the cake silent auction also goes to a good cause: Operation Atzmaut, which aids Ethiopian Israelis living in Sderot.

During the June 1 celebration, the cakes will be available for public viewing (and bidding) at the Metreon, on the second floor near the Action Theatre. Yet what we will see remains a mystery — two participating chefs told j. they are still bandying about ideas.

“I’m thinking of a getting a Star of David raised out of the cake on an angle with a rainbow coming out of it. I might use chocolate cake just because it’s something sturdy. And for frosting, I think I’ll use butter cream and cover some of it with fondant,” a pliable sugar dough, said Mica Talmor-Gott of Savoy Catering in Oakland.

Well, at least that’s the preliminary plan for Talmor-Gott, who hails from Qiryat Bialak, between Haifa and Acco. And, one must admit, that would be an elaborate cake — but not nearly as elaborate as some of Talmor-Gott’s other confections.

For a San Francisco Museum of Modern Art soiree marking the 100th birthday of Ansel Adams, Talmor-Gott recreated one of the photographer’s signature shots of Yosemite. A creek flowed between two cake mountains, with chunks of chocolate serving as boulders and meringue standing in for the snow-capped peaks. And the plates Talmor-Gott used to serve the cake? That’s right, big slabs of redwood.

Mary Sperber from San Francisco’s Town’s End restaurant is still brainstorming a theme that would “unite San Francisco and Israel,” but she hasn’t gotten anything down in frosting yet.

Sperber leans toward round cakes rather than rectangular — “I think they’re prettier” — and will use only natural colors and flavors. This is an obstacle when creating sweets that resemble other objects, though she has crafted a cake in the shape of an office building for a local law firm.

Sperber — who lists her most unusual cake experience as creating a multitiered wedding cake and shipping it, in parts, to Japan — will likely garnish her Israel cake with fresh fruits, greenery or herbs. An orange cake would be fitting — particularly Jaffa oranges — and Sperber has cooked with Israeli tomatoes (“There is such a thing as a tomato cake — but would that be too weird?”).

None of the chefs contacted by j. wanted to create a cake in the shape of Israel, however: “What borders would I put on?” queried Talmor-Gott. “That’s a political question.”

- Reprinted from the j.

Israel in the Gardens: Catwalk to offer glimpse of the future of Israeli fashion

Lihi Zwillinger, a third-year student at Shenkar, has designed a handmade vinyl outfit inspired by salt shakers and pepper mills.

Young Israeli designers will go from top of the class to the top of the bill at this year’s Israel in the Gardens’ fashion show.

Every year, the fashion show at Israel in the Gardens is a flurry of the hottest Israeli designs, offering a kaleidoscopic view of its vibrant fashion design scene. This year’s catwalk will feature looks by young designers, new trends for men and women, and a special teen line.

And as a departure from past shows, onlookers will get a rare glimpse of the future of Israel fashion. “This year our theme for the fashion show is ‘Israeli fashion — looking to the future,’” said the Israel in the Gardens director, Ronit Jacobs.

Organizers have collaborated with Shenkar College, a fashion design school in Ramat Gan, and invited its top four students to participate in this year’s show.

“Shenkar School of Fashion Design is where many of the hottest designers come from, and we thought it would be exciting and unique to get a peek at what these young designers are working on now that Israel is celebrating its 60th anniversary,” said Jacobs.

Outfit from designer Orly Roenbaum’s fall collection.

In addition to the students, at least other designers will be participating, including No-Name, Bagir Men’s and Women’s Suits and Orly Rosenbaum. About 60 members of the local Jewish community will be modeling their wares on the catwalk at 2 p.m. June 1 at Israel in the Gardens. Fashion show co-chairs are Rony Gertzberg, Dina Jacobs and Haya Barzilay.

- Reprinted from the j.

Israel in the Gardens AFTER PARTY

The Federation’s Young Adult and Israel Center Tzavta divisions are eager to keep the Israel in the Gardens festivities going on well past the Idan Raichel concert. To that end, they are co-hosting the Israel in the Gardens AFTER PARTY.

Israeli band Eggroll will perform a special outdoor acoustic set, and DJ Mei Lwun will bring down the house with some original mash-ups.

There will be free alcohol, light appetizers, Israeli snacks, foosball, air hockey, and pool tables. 21+

http://www.israelcentersf.org/israelinthegardens/2008/entertainment/ya.htm

Emmis - Hot off the presses

Emmis, the Federation’s monthly newsletter, hit the electronic news stands last week. The latest edition covers:

• Israel in the Gardens, a festival with 20,000 attendees, coming to us this weekend!
• The Jewish Community Endowment Fund’s Book of Life
• 2008 Annual Campaign update with the Traegers
• This blog
• Contemporary Jewish Museum’s new home - opening next month
• Upcoming events

Past editions of Emmis dating back to May 2006 are available online at http://www.sfjcf.org/aboutjcf/press/newsletters/emmis

If you would like to get Emmis or our publications in your inbox every month, sign-up for our mailing list at: http://www.sfjcf.org/aboutjcf/signupnewsletter.aspx

Israel@60 Mission: Reporter’s notebook

The following is a reprint of my article which ran in the May 16 edition of j. Hope you like it:

The first thing I noticed at Kiryat Shmona’s hillside cemetery were the spigots. Scores of them, lining row upon row of graves. I wondered what purpose they served.

And then I saw.

The cemetery is a final resting place for soldiers from this northern Israeli town. Mothers fill buckets with water from the spigots and scrub clean the headstones of their dead sons.

During the seven days from Holocaust Remembrance Day to Memorial Day and Independence Day, widely considered Israel’s secular “Holy Week,” many came to wash the graves and to remember.

On Israel’s Memorial Day, a woman prepares to wash the grave of a loved one at a Kirat Shmona cemetery. Photo by Dan Pine

For all its inherent contradictions –– secular vs. religious, hawks vs. doves –– Israelis united last week, proud of their 60-year national journey, concerned about the future yet barreling ahead toward it.

And for the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation’s Israel@60 mission, this was a chance to witness a historic moment.

With six tracks and nearly 100 participants, the just-concluded eight-day mission was the federation’s most ambitious yet.

On the first full day, a Friday, the mission visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum. Coming the day after Holocaust Remembrance Day, the visit carried extra weight.

The new exhibition hall, a prism-shaped concrete structure straddling the mountaintop, has few rivals when it comes to architecture serving a message. Methodically and mercilessly recounting history’s greatest crime, Yad Vashem left mission-goers in tears — the only logical response.

Yad Vashem. Photo by Jacques Adler

That evening, we gathered for Kabbalat Shabbat on the roof of Hebrew Union College. The setting sun had Jerusalem aglow, but unfortunately a frigid breeze left most of us shivering. Luckily, a warm banquet hall awaited us a few yards away.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom arrived halfway through dinner. In his remarks, Newsom said a visit to Israel had been a personal goal for most of his life.

The same could be said for my fellow mission participants, many visiting Israel for the first time. Treated to a VIP tour of the country, we also heard from a series of speakers, some painting less than rosy pictures.

“Zionism remains a balancing act,” said Gidi Grinstein, founder of the Reut Institute. “The occupation [of Gaza and the West Bank] took Zionism out of equilibrium.”

Cabinet minister Isaac Herzog elaborated on that sentiment at a seaside cocktail party a few days later. “We have the Israeli tears and fears,” he said, “of past and present, Shoah, wars, terror, alienated immigrants in a new homeland and tension between Arabs and Jews. But we are trying to increase economic prosperity.”

Evidence of that prosperity was everywhere. High-rises and construction cranes punctuate the skyline in Tel Aviv. Towns like Rehovot and Yavne (about 13 miles south of Tel Aviv) are part of Israel’s Silicon Valley, with venture capital replacing the irrigation channels of old.

Photo byTravis Bernard.

“We can play global,” said Grinstein, who noted Israel is first in the world in terms of per capita investment in research and development.

One evening the mission dined at the Jerusalem home of biotech pioneer Martin Gerstel and his wife, Shoshanna. Built by an Arab family in the last years of the Ottoman Empire, the house’s indoor arches, vaulted ceilings and gardens evoke a long-gone era.

As a reminder that past often meets present in Israel, Shoshanna Gerstel mentioned that former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin spent the first six weeks of his life in that very home.

The next day, we toured federation projects in the Arab city of Umm el-Fahm. Afterward, mission-goers and our Arab hosts gathered at a nearby Arab restaurant, treated to a divine feast of hummus, pickled vegetables, roasted eggplant and Frisbee-sized pita bread hot from the oven.

This was the Israel CNN never shows: Arabs and Jews eating together, working together and living side by side.

That’s not to say there aren’t problems. Poverty is rampant among Arab Israelis. The S.F.-based federation is one of the only Jewish organizations sponsoring programs to improve quality of life for Israel’s Arab citizens.

For many on the trip, the highlight was Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day to commemorate the nation’s war dead. In a military cemetery on a cold evening, we stood on a small plaza. And suddenly, the siren.

For a minute, sirens wailed all over Israel. It sounded like a shofar blast, long and loud and terrible.

Kibbutz members participating in the Yom Hazikaron ceremony at Tel Fah’r. Photo by Jacques Adler.

Then 33 children, dressed in white and clutching torches, walked onto the riser. They stood shoulder to shoulder, their flames starkly bright against the blue-black sky. And as the names of Kiryat Shmona’s 33 war dead were read one at a time, the children lit with their torches an even larger flame.

It took a long time to read the names.

And for a final surreal moment, on the mission’s last night we gathered at the Herzliya home of entrepreneur Zaki Rabib. At $24 million, it is the most expensive house in Israel, and it showed. Built by an Austrian Jewish mogul, it was all glass, teak and Jerusalem stone, with a sloping lawn reaching to a cliff overlooking the beach, the Mediterranean and the sky.

Sunset. Photo by Steve Lipman.

This was our farewell dinner, and joining us was Assam Ibrahim, Egypt’s ambassador to Israel. In a week of incongruities, perhaps none topped this one: the ambassador of Egypt –– a nation once committed to Israel’s destruction –– mingling with a group of San Francisco Jews in a town named for the pioneer of modern Zionism.

With so much wining and dining, so much racing from Point A to Point B, one could argue the mission got a skewed view of this complex country.

I disagree.

The mission saw an Israel adjusting to its new national maturity. As Hebrew University political science professor Reuven Hazan told the mission: “We have grown up. Israel is more secure as a country than ever before.”

No one tried to hide Israel’s problems. We could see them everywhere, from the trash-littered alleyways of Umm el-Fahm to the ubiquitous Israeli soldiers armed with machine guns, ready to shoot.

Still, no Jew can visit Israel or meet its people without feeling a familial connection to the place.

It’s good to come home. But after this mission to Israel, it’s hard for me to say where that home is.

Business track on the Israel-Lebanon border.

Israel in the Gardens: Invitation Video

Our volunteers created a great invitation video for Israel in the Gardens!

Check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYb_VfoNpx4

The music playing in the background is that of headliner The Idan Raichel Project. If you are interested in learning more about that band and other featured entertainers at Israel in the Gardens, please visit the official Israel in the Gardens website at: http://www.israelinthegardens.org/

See you Sunday, June 1, 2008 at the Yerba Buena Gardens!

Israel@60 Mission: Reflections on arts and culture

The Arts & Culture track of the mission, which I led with lay person extraordinaire Liki Abrams, included all the elements we thought were essential for a rich, engaging and exciting program. We did so much it is nearly impossible to list. So here’s the short version: We delved into the visual arts and visited several museums; explored present day industrial design; met with Ronen Schorr, film director and head of the Sam Spiegel school of film and TV; encountered artists and Judaica artisans, met actors and watched a performance of theatre Mara in Kiryat Shmona; explored Yad Vashem through the prism of the arts; toured Jaffa, Neve Tzedek and Tel Aviv; met an art collector; and experienced dance, musical and theatrical performances. We did all that and much more. We had a unique and intellectually stimulating experience.

The Arts and Culture track enjoys a guided tour of the Ein Harod Museum of Art in the Galil. Photo by Jack Adler

Yet, judging by what was shared on the bus on the long ride from the north of Israel to Tel Aviv – much more was gained. One by one participants came up to the front of the bus – at first reluctantly and later courageously sharing impressions and emotions – speaking of transformational experiences and profound inspiration. They talked about being deeply moved during Yom Hazikaron. They shared poems they wrote. They talked about the feeling of belonging to the people and the land. They said they enjoyed each other’s company and appreciated each other’s knowledge. They planned a reunion. They said they will be back!

When you are a member of the planning team for the JCF’s Israel@60 Mission you have a vision. You fantasize, plan, coordinate, prioritize, insist, compromise, get lost, return to the original vision, finalize the itinerary and finally… embark on the mission.

You can never plan the small miraculous moments, foresee the unexpected connections between people, predict the deep understanding that emerges, or envisage the profound emotional impact on your fellow tripsters. In the end these are the outcomes that linger in our memory and leave a lasting imprint.

A personal thank you to all the participants on the Arts & Culture track, an amazing group of individuals, who explored together and opened their minds and their hearts to this fascinating and beloved place. It was an honor and a privilege to travel with you, to learn together and to fall in love again with the people and the land.

Vavi Toran