Volume 29, Number 43
Volume 29, Number 43 Read More »
January 6, 2015
Drake to headline Coachella
Coachella, one of the summer's largest and most prolific music festivals, confirmed Drake as a headliner of this year's installment.
The Jewish rapper performs on April 12 and April 19.
Every year, music fans anxiously await the announcement of which bands and artists will appear at Coachella, which takes place from April 10-12 and April 17-19 this year.
The setting of the multi-day festival, which unfolds over three days and over two consecutive weekends, with duplicate lineups appearing each weekend, is the picturesque Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. It's like the coolest thing to do all summer-long, with droves of Los Angelenos heading out to the desert to take part in the festivities.
Surprise, unannounced guests are a thing at Coachella, which means there's a chance Drake's friend and frequent collabator, Nicki Minaj, will come out onstage with him. Let's just hope that Minaj leaves the Nazi-inspired symbolism behind.
Tickets for Coachella–full name: Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival–go on sale tomorrow, Jan. 7, at noon.
For more information, visit coachella.com. Full lineup below.
Drake to headline Coachella Read More »
Streit’s closing Lower East Side matzo factory after 90 years
Streit’s said it will close the company’s 90-year-old matzo factory on New York’s Lower East Side.
Aron Streit, Inc., a family-owned business, said it will leave the facility at 148-154 Rivington St. following the Passover baking season in April.
“The economics just finally caught up with us,” said Alan Adler, the owner of the factory and the Streit’s matzo store. “It was very sad, a very hard decision to make.”
Adler is the great-grandson of Aron Streit, who started a bakery at a different Lower East Side location before opening the Rivingston Street factory nearby in 1925. Streit’s now produces approximately 40 percent of the matzo consumed in the United States, according to The Associated Press.
The company will move its offices to its other facility in New Jersey that bakes macaroons and other products, Adler said. It hopes to fetch $25 million for the six-story building, AP reported.
“Right now everything is on the table, we’re looking at all our options,” Adler said.
Adler told DNAinfo that the company cannot find anyone to repair its equipment, which was built in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.
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Jump In The Water is Warm- Israel Is Not So Bad!
As we usher in the first few days of 2015, Israel is a buzz over the news that over 26,500 people (including me) made aliyah in 2014 making it one of the biggest years for immigration to Israel in over a decade. Led by a record 7,000 “olim chadashim” (new immigrants) from France it was the first time in Israel’s history that the biggest source of aliyah came from the West. With anti-Semitism driving many Jews to leave, more than 1% of the French Jewish community of over 600,000 made aliyah. Tens of thousands more have begun the immigration process.
Despite the latest corruption scandal involving more politicians, despite the threat of continued war with Hamas, despite the economy and more than 1.8 million Israelis living under the poverty level and despite the yelling and screaming and lack of manners here, life in Israel “ain’t so bad”.
What did he say? Is this Jew crazy? Jew please!
For better or for worse, through the good, the bad and the ugly, Israel is our home. Israel is our fish tank. The “chara” (crap) that we see floating by and trust me there is a lot of it- is ours-it belongs to us!
Israel is growing by leaps and bounds. We are now 8.3 million Israelis and growing. Israel’s population has doubled since the 1980’s. Construction is booming with cranes dotting the landscape everywhere. Maybe Harper-Collins-(the map company) can erase Israel from their maps, but in reality we are here thriving. Israel is a strong modern hi-tech country.
For all the talk of young Israelis running away to Berlin, the truth is quite the opposite. Less Israelis have left the country in the last few years than ever before. Thousands of Israelis abroad have been returning in the last few years, including many of my friends from Los Angeles. Moreover, even the leader of the economic protest movement against the high prices of food in Israeli supermarkets, has himself left Berlin for Israel.
So my message for the New Year is a very direct one. It’s time to come home. That’s right I done said it. It’s time for Jews abroad to stop sending us money and instead send us your butts. The Bible says that when the messiah comes all the Jews will come home to Israel. Now some of you will probably go kicking and screaming saying “please G-d don’t let the messiah come in our lifetime, I have a good life here, I don’t want to go to Israel” but I digress.
Now some of you are saying “what am I gonna do in Israel and how will I make a living there?” “Why should I give up your good life abroad to struggle in Israel”?
Yes many days here are struggles. This is the Middle East. Israelis are brash and lacking manners although they have improved somewhat over the last few years. Yes sometimes Israelis hear your American accented Hebrew and see $$$ signs. There is a price for everyone and then my friend, there is a special price for you. But then these people become your friend and invite you to Shabbat dinner. This is Israel. The point is and there is a point to this, “Israel is ours”. Through all the “chara” that is here, there is a certain pride that one has of living here, because it is ours and we “Am Yisrael” have a beautiful place to call home despite it being “ugly” at times.
And while the Jews of France and Western Europe are leaving Europe in droves, the overwhelming majority of these people are choosing Israel over Canada and the US. And this simple fact says it all. These people are choosing to come home to Israel, to swim in our fish tank. So where are you? Jump in, the water is warm.!
Jump In The Water is Warm- Israel Is Not So Bad! Read More »
Moshe Feiglin leaving Likud
Moshe Feiglin said he is quitting the Likud Party after failing to secure a realistic spot on the candidates’ list for the March elections.
Feiglin, a Likud member since 2005 and a Knesset lawmaker since 2013, finished 36th on the Likud list in voting held by party members last week. The latest polls show the party earning some 25 slots in the revamped Knesset. Likud now has 18 spots in a combined list with Yisrael Beiteinu.
He reportedly was pushed out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads Likud, and his supporters.
“Netanyahu targeted me, but I do not harbor any resentment towards the prime minister,” Feiglin said Monday evening at a meeting of his Jewish Leadership faction.
Feiglin, a major supporter of building in Jewish settlements and Jews praying on the Temple Mount, said he will form a political movement that “aligns itself with Jewish ideals, and hopefully lead.” The new party likely will not run in the March national elections.
Several other political parties have offered spots, he told his supporters, which would enable him to run for the new Knesset. Feiglin said he was “considering all options.”
Also on Monday night at a meeting to present the Likud slate, Netanyahu said that if he is reelected as prime minister, he will propose legislation within the first 100 days of his new term that would require the head of the largest party to form the new government. Under the current system, the party head who has the most recommendations from other party chiefs to form the government gets the nod.
Observers say the proposal could lead to more stable governments that would serve out their full terms.
Moshe Feiglin leaving Likud Read More »
The Ambassador exchange, part 1: Behind the scenes with a candid Israeli diplomat
Tova Herzl, a retired Israeli diplomat, was her country's first single, female, sabbath observant ambassador. Her twenty-one year career began in 1983 and included two stints as congressional liaison in Israel's embassy in Washington DC. She was Israel's first ambassador to the newly independent states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and took early retirement after a tumultuous ambassadorship in South Africa, which included the infamous UN anti-racism conference in Durban in 2001. In Israel she worked, inter alia, in the bureaus of foreign minister Arens and president Herzog. She lives in Jerusalem and is a first year law student.
The following exchange will focus on her new book, Madame Ambassador, Behind the Scenes with a Candid Israeli Diplomat (Rowman & Littlefield, November 2014), an intimate description of diplomatic life and work.
***
Dear Ambassador Herzl,
Reading your surprisingly entertaining book (apparently the lives of ambassadors can be quite quirky) I kept thinking about the following questions:
Why should anyone but – maybe – Israelis care about the work and the lives of an ambassador of a little country in the Middle East? Why would this be of interest to the American reader? Don't they have their own ambassadors? Aren't you drawing too much attention to Israel?
Another way of asking my question would be as follows (and this is, admittedly, a question that I often ask my authors in my role as a non-fiction books editor): describe your reader please. Is he someone trying to figure out Israel, is he necessarily Jewish, does he need to be someone that cares about Israel (in a positive or a negative way)?
Thank you,
Shmuel.
***
Dear Shmuel,
Bottom line – why did I bother to write it, and why would anyone bother to read it, right?
Well, you kindly describe Madame Ambassador as 'surprsingly entertaining'. To me, that would be a perfect recommendation to read a book, any book.
My secondary expectation of a book is that it should broaden my horizons. You go on to write that 'apparently the lives of ambassadors can be quite quirky'. Presumably that was a minor revelation of sorts; obtaining such insights would be another good reason for me to read a particular book.
Yes, America has its ambassadors and some write memoirs. To the best of my knowledge, they inevitably focus on the envoy's role in making policy, and not on what diplomats actually do all day and on how and why they do it.
In showcasing the person behind the persona, my book draws on my twenty-one year career in an attempt to demystify the profession. It does so by responding to questions and comments I heard during my working years, and still do, eleven years after taking early retirement:
A diplomat? Lucky you! It sounds fascinating (most of the time). Did you choose your posts (two out of four) or does someone decide for you? How do you cope if you don't know the local language (it is challenging, but possible) or must you learn a new one every time? Were you lonely (sometimes) and can you make real friends? It must be fun, going to all those receptions! What are credentials and how does immunity actually work? Can you separate your personal agenda from your professional responsibilities? Must you?
Let me therefore presumptuously suggest that anyone who is interested in this oft-mentioned but little-understood profession will enjoy my humble tome.
Readers interested in Israel will have the added bonus of those chapters which are more specific to us. They share my memories of the hostility we encountered at the Durban anti-racism conference in 2001 and also of the incompetence with which we faced it, recount how this child of holocaust survivors functioned where it happened, and address the challenge of keeping kosher in a trade where communal eating is an important way of doing business.
By the way, I was amazed at the response of a Latvian friend to the chapter I had considered to be of least general interest. Reading of my dilemmas concerning Jewish identity and its interface with Israeli diplomacy, she exclaimed: That is just like Latvia! Seems that questions like 'who is a (name the nationality)' and relations between the diaspora and the home country are not unique to representatives of the Jewish state.
As for your question on drawing too much attention to Israel (as though it is otherwise not the limelight….) – if my first book were to gain that kind of prominence, that would indeed be a miracle.
Regards,
Tova.
The Ambassador exchange, part 1: Behind the scenes with a candid Israeli diplomat Read More »
Israel’s new rules on natural resources putting off investors
New regulation of Israel's natural gas and mining industries aimed at increasing competition to bring down prices is scaring off investors, putting billions of dollars at risk.
The rules, introduced over five years for many sectors but hitting natural resource companies particularly hard, allow the break up powerful conglomerates that dominate Israel's economy, with the goal of reducing high living costs, a major voter complaint ahead of the March 17 national election.
But investor concern intensified in late December when the antitrust authority declared that stakeholders in two large natural gas fields — Israel's Delek Group and Texas-based Noble Energy — might be running a monopoly under the new rules and could be forced to sell assets.
“As long as there is no certainty regarding the regulatory environment it will be almost mission impossible for international quality investors to invest here because so many parameters can change,” said Edouard Cukierman, chairman of Cukierman Investment House, who has raised $5 billion in investments in Israeli companies.
Noble and Delek are the largest stakeholders in Israel's two main gas fields – Tamar, which began production in 2013, and Leviathan, the world's largest offshore gas discovery of the past decade, which they hoped to bring online in 2018.
Together the companies say they have invested about $6 billion in Israel and they had planned to spend another $6.5 billion to develop Leviathan.
“Final resolution of this item, as well as a number of other regulatory matters, is required before we proceed with additional exploration or development investments in our Israel business,” David Stover, Noble chief executive said on Dec. 23.
The Leviathan partners are also in advanced talks with Britain's BG Group about purchasing gas for a liquefied natural gas export plant in Egypt, and with Jordan's national electricity company.
Any delay in developing the field could jeopardize those deals and also threatens a major domestic source of fuel, potentially sending prices higher.
Other companies have also been put off by the new approach.
Israel Chemicals which has a monopoly on Dead Sea mining said it would cancel investments after a Finance Ministry panel in October proposed reversing a previous understanding and increasing taxes on minerals.
The canceled investments are worth 2.5 billion shekels ($630 million) and the company said it would reevaluate another 3.5 billion shekels, divert investment to other parts of the world, close its magnesium plant and accelerate efficiency plans at plants in Israel.
Australia's Woodside Petroleum in March backed out at the last minute of a $2 billion deal to buy into the Leviathan field over a disagreement with Israel's tax authority.
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The wave of regulatory changes began in 2010, shortly after Tamar and Leviathan were discovered, and has been extended into mined resources. Other sectors, such as telecoms and food production, have also been affected.
Israeli authorities estimate 10 large groups control 40 percent of the market value of all listed companies and want to introduce more competition to bring down the cost of goods.
“It was the main campaign banner in the 2012 general election. Regulators and politicians on all sides have jumped on the bandwagon,” said Citi analyst Michael Klahr.
The eastern Mediterranean natural gas discoveries caught Israel by surprise in 2009 and 2010. To ensure the public got a share of the windfall, it changed its tax and royalty policy, raising it to a level similar to one in developed countries.
It plans to raise taxes for mining as well.
The government then capped how much gas could be sold abroad, further upsetting exploration companies who argue that exports are needed to justify big investments since Israel is such a small market.
“It kills any desire to come here,” Yaniv Pagot, chief strategist at the Ayalon insurance and investment group, said of the changes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed his top economic adviser to look into the natural gas dispute. The antitrust commissioner, however, has final say on whether the group is a monopoly and summoned the companies for hearings on Jan. 28 and 29, after which a decision will be made.
Should the group be forced to sell its stake in either the Tamar or Leviathan fields, finding a buyer might be difficult given the current environment of uncertainty, said one senior energy executive in Israel.
A compromise might enable the companies to hold on to those fields but sell two smaller fields under their ownership, the executive said. The companies could then sell gas separately, adding an element of competition, or a government company could be formed to buy domestic gas, keeping costs down.
($1 = 3.9606 shekels)
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German neo-Nazis go hipster
Most people don’t picture the typical neo-Nazi cooking vegan food or wearing skinny jeans. But as the neo-Nazi movement in Germany continues to decline in numbers and influence, some Germans are trying to shed their intimidating skinhead image to appeal to a younger generation. That means trading black combat boots for Converse sneakers and Tumblr blogs.
Rolling Stone and NBC News have reported on the neo-Nazi movement’s embrace of digital culture, from its ubiquitous social media presence to its “nipster” (yes, a real slang term used in German media for Nazi hipster) tastes in clothing and music. Nipsters have made their own Harlem Shake video (complete with a sign holder urging viewers to have unprotected sex with Nazis), run a YouTube channel featuring young Nazis demonstrated vegan kitchen techniques, and are even championing environmental issues and women’s rights to court a wider base of followers.
Rolling Stone noted that experts first noted the nipster trend last winter, when people dressed “like Brooklyn hipsters” began showing up at Nazi events:
Experts have noted that the German neo-Nazi presence on Tumblr and other social networking sites has become sleeker and more sophisticated. Neo-Nazi clothing has become more stylish and difficult to recognize. There’s even a vegan Nazi cooking show.
These are not the clever Brooklynites of the Hipster Hitler website, with their Death Camp for Cutie T-shirts and ironic Hitler mustaches. Hipster Hitler makes makes clear they are not in the business of offending people (though it’s hard to believe they’ve succeeded on that front).
The Germans, on the other hand, are all about offending. Patrick Schroeder, the host of a popular neo-Nazi web series and Exhibit A in the Rolling Stone piece, wears a bandana that reads “H8” across his face to go with his tee shirt and jeans.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency estimates there are only 22,000 far-right sympathizers left in the country, far less than the 1990s. The National Democratic Party of Germany, the country’s largest and oldest far-right political party, is running out of money and its public demonstrations have been blocked in recent months by protestors.
However, the dwindling group is still considered dangerous and unapologetically racist. In response to Germany’s high intake of Muslim immigrants in 2014 (the country’s largest influx of immigrants in 17 years, with many coming from Syria and other perilous areas), neo-Nazis have teamed up with anti-Islamic groups like PEGIDA, or the “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamizations of the West.” In October, 5,000 far-right extremists clashed with police to protest what they called the “Islamization” of Germany.
“The right-wing scene in Germany is militant, radical and dangerous,” Felix Benneckenstein, a former neo-Nazi, told NBC News. “And it is now experiencing an upsurge.”
German neo-Nazis go hipster Read More »
Stacy Dylan: This mom is rockin’ the cause for Crohn’s Disease
A couple of years after her son Lowell was born, he was having severe stomach pains, and Stacy Dylan knew it might be serious.
She found out Lowell has Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract that’s especially likely to affect Ashkenazi Jews.
Lowell is now 14, and taking care of him, her younger of her two children, is “a full-time job and more,” Dylan said. His care requires special diets and monitoring, along with “dealing with tutors, doctors, specialists, massage therapists, hypnotherapists. I’m basically a case manager, mom and a cook.”
Dylan, now 47, has immersed herself not only in caring for Lowell, but also in helping others with the condition. In 2010, she entered her first half-marathon to help raise money for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. While training, she met Dana Zatulove, whose son Brian had been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis — a condition that causes swelling in the lining of the large intestine — when he was 8. Together, in 2012, the two mothers co-founded the nonprofit Connecting to Cure Crohn’s and Colitis.
About 1.6 million Americans suffer from Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. Current research is looking at how genes may influence the intestinal bacteria that triggers inflammatory bowel diseases. Although they’re not considered fatal, some people do die from the diseases.
“The two main reasons we started the charity were to promote awareness and reach a different demographic than other organizations related to Crohn’s and colitis do, and to raise money for research,” Dylan said.
In February 2013, Lowell underwent a surgical procedure that led to a perforated bowel and emergency surgery. Because of complications, he needed a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter — a catheter inserted in a peripheral vein in the arm) for a year to feed him intravenously.
That led to dramatic weight loss and time away from school, his mother said. “There’s a lot of medication to treat Crohn’s and colitis. We started with the one with the least side effects. We’ve been on every single medication, and either they don’t work, or work for a little while, or have too many side effects,” she said.
Lowell is currently trying a new medication, and the family is waiting to see whether it’s effective. There’s an emotional toll from all this, which is why Dylan is so committed to raising money for research.
Dylan and Zatulove also have distinguished themselves with fundraisers different from typical ones — their next rock benefit show will be in April at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, and, for the fourth year in a row, the headliner will be Jakob Dylan, lead singer and songwriter for The Wallflowers. Jakob’s brother is Stacy’s husband (and Lowell’s dad), Samuel Dylan, and both are the sons of Stacy’s father-in-law, Bob Dylan.
“When she talks about Crohn’s and colitis, or her nonprofit, her passion comes out,” said Lesley Bloom, admission director at Pressman Academy at Temple Beth Am, and a board member of Connecting to Cure Crohn’s and Colitis. “Her face lights up. I don’t know how she does it, but she absorbs all this information regarding the diseases, and puts it together and makes you believe that every penny you give helps the cause.”
All three of Bloom’s children have been diagnosed with Crohn’s, and the two families’ boys play baseball together at Cheviot Hills Park. “We’re friends, but we have a bond because our children suffer from chronic illness,” Bloom said. “And you’ll do anything to help them. You can’t take it away from your children or child, so raising money makes you feel like you’re doing something to help.”
Dylan’s nonprofit is looking to build a peer-to-peer network, to connect parents who’ve been dealing with inflammatory bowel diseases for years to those whose kids are newly diagnosed. The plan is to expand her small, informal support group of Los Angeles-area parents.
Another goal is to raise awareness of how such diseases affect all family members. “My brother was born with a birth defect, hydrocephalus [a buildup of fluid inside the skull that leads to brain swelling.] I was the sibling who didn’t get a lot of attention. I was fine; I didn’t need it,” Dylan said. But, she said, she’s aware of the needs of her oldest son, Jonah, who is 17. “I try to be sensitive to not having him feel left out, and I went to help other families navigate that,” she said.
Her own background includes working as a marriage and family therapist, which helps with her nonprofit work, she said. “I feel really strongly about patient advocacy, because I’ve have had a lot of experience dealing with doctors and schools and insurance companies. It’s a difficult situation when you’re trying to deal with all these people as well as with your sick child, and they don’t understand,” Dylan said. “It’s important to share your experience and tell your story.”
Rock the Night to Cure Crohn’s and Colitis will be held on April 18 at 7 p.m. at the Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. For more information, visit Stacy Dylan: This mom is rockin’ the cause for Crohn’s Disease Read More »
Fred Zaidman: Feeding others is his emotional sustenance
“Can you get any breakfast burritos?”
Fred Zaidman, who had recently added helping the homeless to his list of volunteer passions, went into action, soon securing a commitment from Bristol Farms for 75 burritos for a breakfast for the homeless that The City School, a charter middle school, was sponsoring on Thanksgiving morning. On the day itself, Zaidman chatted with the guests and distributed Target gift cards and movie tickets that he had purchased with his own money. Afterward, he drove around the Fairfax Avenue/Venice Boulevard area seeking out homeless men and women and handing them hamburgers, which he had also bought — and, when those ran out, he gave each person a couple of dollars.
Zaidman, 60, a partner in a commercial lighting business and a property manager, began volunteering in earnest around 2000. He was driving from his home to that of his parents, Holocaust survivors whom he was caring for, and he stopped off at the Robertson Recreation Center to play basketball for some much-needed exercise. But he found no program there, only a few kids in tattered clothing doing a few drills. “I decided to do something about it,” he recalled. He raised $1,000 from area businesses, and he and the newly hired recreation center director purchased some new jerseys and shorts. Coaches and referees were recruited, and soon 40 to 50 underserved kids began showing up regularly for Saturday morning basketball games, as did Zaidman, who brought snacks and assisted. The program expanded when Zaidman contacted the Los Angeles Clippers, who launched a Junior Clippers program for 5- to 15-year-olds, which they continued for five years. Zaidman also sponsored kids for gymnastics classes, which he helped initiate, and piano classes. In 2002, Zaidman was named Los Angeles Volunteer of the Year for Council District 5.
Zaidman remains active with the rec center. “It’s been the biggest blessing in my life,” he said. Over the years, he’s formed important relationships with the kids, advising them, pushing them to stay in school or pursue their talents, and even officiating at their weddings and, occasionally, funerals. “He’s always been there for them,” said Nicole Griffin, a former rec center director. “It’s genuine caring.”
For five years, ending in 2009, Zaidman mentored members of the Hamilton High School football team. Since then, he’s been a supporter of the Santa Monica College football team, attending home games and encouraging the players. Before practices, whenever possible, he brings fruit, vegetables and bagels — donated or purchased — for the players. “A lot of these kids are going to school starving,” he said.
Additionally, since 1999, Zaidman has donated platelets every two weeks at the Cedars-Sinai Blood Donor Services facility. He has bagged food at SOVA West since 2005 and is currently volunteering three days a week. He also assists his aunt, Miriam Ickowicz, a Holocaust survivor, and has adopted several other survivors who are like mishpachah, he said. He visits them regularly and takes them to doctor appointments and social activities.
Zaidman attributes his desire to help others to his survivor parents, Renate and Wolf Zaidman, who both died in 2012, and to his grandparents, aunts and uncle who perished in Auschwitz. “They are my inspiration,” he said.
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