Emma Slipp and Graham Percy in Arts Club’s Farewell, My Lovely. (photo by Benjamin Laird Arts & Photo)
Shadowy figures, damsels in distress, fedoras tilted just below one eye, ex-cons and gunshots galore fill the stage at the Art Club Theatre this month.
Raymond Chandler’s 1940s work Farewell, My Lovely is brought to life with enough campy villainy and “careful, shweetheart” to fill size 11 cement galoshes. And I loved every minute.
A warning though: if you’re used to minimal plotlines, you might want to bring a notepad to keep track of the twists and turns and numerous characters.
Graham Percy brings tough-nut detective Philip Marlowe to life as he investigates the case of a murdered nightclub manager and the missing girlfriend of an ex-con. Hired by the ex-con and pushed into the case by a lazy detective, Marlowe first tracks down Jessie Florian, the nightclub owner’s widow. A sad case, in a scotch-induced stupor, she throws herself at him, then reacts in disdain, then seems to genuinely want to help him.
On what seems to be a different track, but soon turns out to be connected to the original case, Marlowe takes a job for Lindsay Marriott (Anthony Ingram). Marriott wants Marlowe to act as a bodyguard in an exchange of a cash ransom for a rare jade necklace. That ends with Marlowe knocked unconscious, Marriott dead and a new character – Anne Riordan (Emma Slipp), who turns out to be the daughter of a policeman known to Marlowe.
Riordan knows who the owner of the necklace is – a wealthy woman by the name of Helen Grayle (Jamie Konchak). Riordan wants to join Marlowe on the case, and also demonstrates affection for him. At first, he returns her affection but is reluctant to have her involved. He continues his quest, eventually meeting with a psychic named Jules Amthor (also played by Ingram), who is somehow linked to the necklace and is also involved with drugs.
Marlowe visits with Grayle, then reconnects with Florian after she leads him down a dead-end, and then finally ends up looking for clues on an offshore gambling boat. Here is where all the loose ends are tied up, the answer to the case is found and more people are shot.
Aside from the theme of the gruff-but-good detective versus the bad guys, the thread of Marlowe’s love life keeps popping up. Each of the female characters – Florian, Riordan and Grayle – tries to seduce Marlowe. He sympathetically rejects Florian’s drunken flirtations, seems to have something serious for Riordan, but risks it for the flattering attention of the beautiful and seductive Grayle. After the case is done, he ends up with … well, you’ll have to see it for yourself.
While Percy does an admirable job of reprising the well-known hard-boiled detective role, there’s something about his character I didn’t find believable. While he had the lines and the tone right, he came across as having more of the sloppiness of Peter Falk’s Columbo than the alluring and mysterious attractiveness of Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade. Perhaps it’s unfair to make the comparison, but I just couldn’t see Percy’s character taking the place of Bogart’s Marlowe opposite Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep.
One thing that did impress me in the Arts Club production was the creative use of the actors rearranging the stage set as needed between scenes, while still staying in character. I also admired the choice to use film sequences projected over the set to add context to the action on stage. Dramaturg Rachel Ditor and stage manager Jan Hodgson deserve kudos for the adaptation and presentation of the performance. Well done, shweethearts.
Farewell, My Lovely runs at the Arts Club Granville Island stage until May 2.
Baila Lazarusis a freelance writer and media trainer in Vancouver. Her consulting work be seen at phase2coaching.com.
New Home, New Hope edutains on aliya and the Soviet Union.
With the themes of Passover still reverberating, I read Aliza Ziv’s book New Home, New Hope (Contento de Semrik, 2014). About a single mother making aliya from the Soviet Union with her two young children, the book is about freedom, being strangers in a new land, becoming part of a community, respecting the past while trying to create a more promising future.
The story centres on Marina, Boris, 9, and Tanya, 4, and their experiences integrating into Israel from 1985 through 1995. It is both a specific and universal tale about immigration, and the challenges and opportunities new immigrants face anywhere in the world. However, the specificity is what most intrigued me. Ziv writes with authority and in detail about both the absorption process in Israel at the time and the political situation there and in Russia during that decade.
“This book was written on the basis of my vast experience teaching new immigrants who came to Israel (olim hadashim),” wrote Ziv in an email to the Independent. “These immigrants had to face a new culture, language, values, and had to adapt themselves to their new homeland.”
Ziv explained that she first published the novel in Hebrew in 2002 with the title Difficulty Beyond Words. “Later on, my husband Joe and I decided to translate it into English. It was published in October 2014, with a new name, New Home, New Hope.”
“The book is also based on what we had to face when we and our three children made our aliya in 1967,” added her husband in a separate email. “Aliza was a shlicha, sent to teach modern Hebrew using the ulpan method. She taught in Halifax, Toronto and, finally, in Vancouver at the Talmud Torah.”
While Aliza was born in Jerusalem, Joe grew up in Vancouver, went to VTT and King Edward High School, and graduated from the University of Alberta. “I was active in Young Judaea, one of the first organizers of Habonim, and one of the founders of Camp Miriam,” he said of his local connections.
The Zivs’ personal experience with immigration comes through in Aliza’s writing. She doesn’t sugarcoat the difficulties of leaving an established life, family and longtime friends and integrating into a new country, having to learn another language, find a home, (re)start a career, build relationships, etc., etc., all the while worrying about those you’ve left behind. And your new fellow citizens must also get used to your presence in their country – immigrants seem threatening to some people, to their job security, their traditional way of life, and Ziv also tackles these issues in her novel.
One particularly interesting scene is a party on a moshav at which the more established Israelis are playing old Russian songs, wondering why the new immigrants aren’t joining in. One of the Israelis explains how the chalutzim (pioneers) “came to build the Jewish homeland, and within them was an integration of socialist and even communist values and concepts. And so they established cooperatives, kibbutzim and moshavim…. We grew up with lots of love of the Russian culture, its music and especially its songs. It is really in our blood.” The new immigrants are not convinced, and one points out that many of these songs “not only have a romantic base but also have an antisemitic and militaristic, murderous one. About Bogdan Khmelnsiky, Simon Petliura, have you heard of them?” The debate continues, and it is these parts of New Home, New Hope that I found the most compelling. (I have since looked up both of these men online.)
From a literary perspective, New Home, New Hope is not one of the best books I’ve ever read, and the formatting and editing is not as clean as it would be if it had been put out by a conventional publishing house, but it is one of the more interesting books I have ever read. Ziv is a good writer and she is a fount of knowledge on topics that many readers would profit from – and enjoy – learning about.
New Home, New Hope is available in both digital (Kindle) and printed formats through Amazon.
An inscription on a water fountain built by Suleiman the Magnificent. (photo by Ariel Fields)
When it comes to Jerusalem, the writing really is on the wall. The problem is, some people (easily recognized, as they go around saying “it’s like talking to a brick wall”) will try to convince you walls can’t tell you anything. Don’t listen. If you ignore Jerusalem’s walls, you’ll miss out. The following matryoshka/babushka story (or story within stories) shows that “walls are the skin of the residents,” as the muralist cooperative CitéCréation is fond of saying.
Admittedly, you might initially doubt whether writing on the wall matters. To quell your uncertainty, here is what Tel Aviv University’s Prof. Jonathan Price has to say: “Inscriptions are an important and unique historical source. They provide information in many areas no other source can provide.”
Thus, while there’s no CD of the trumpet/shofar playing, we know that trumpet blasts from the southwest end of the Temple Mount indicated the beginning and end of the Sabbath. How? In his extensive history, The Wars of the Jews, Flavius Josephus writes about this practice.
The truly astounding physical evidence, however, is a stone carved sign now located in the Roman/ Byzantine section of Jerusalem’s Israel Museum. The inscription on this first century CE stone reads, “‘To the place of the trumpeting.” The stone directed the Temple kohain “trumpeter to the high point on the Temple Mount, where he would announce the beginning and end of the Sabbath.”
An archeologist described its discovery. It was found in the “debris from the dismantled walls, engraved on an eight-foot-long piece of limestone. The stone has a rounded top indicating it was a kind of parapet situated on top of the wall or the tower at the southwest corner of Herod’s giant Temple Mount. Unfortunately, the clearly readable inscription is broken off, so we only have the beginning of it.”
The trumpeter’s corner had a distinct vantage point. From his post, the trumpeter looked out over ancient Jerusalem, from the City of David to the Upper City in the West. When he gave a blast, even the merchants and shoppers in the markets heard.
Moving slightly away from the Old City, we come to an ornate Ottoman inscription just above the southern end of Sultan’s Pool. It reads: “[There] has ordered the construction of this blessed sabil, our master the Sultan the greatest prince and the honorable Khaqan, who rules the necks of the nations, the sultan of the [land of] Rum, the Arabs and the non-Arab [’ajam], the Sultan Suleiman, son of Sultan Selim Khan, may God perpetuate his reign and his sultanate. On the date of the tenth of the month of Muharram the sacred, in the year of 943 [29 June 1536].” (Ottoman Jerusalem, Auld and Hillenbrand, eds., 2000)
This sabil (drinking fountain) served the many passing pilgrims. The Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent built five more sabils inside the walls of the older city. Moreover, several other sabils (the earliest dating back to the Byzantine period of the sixth/seventh century) have been excavated at this same location.
The drinking fountain’s water came from an aqueduct originating at Solomon’s Pools, near Bethlehem. Importantly, this aqueduct primarily serviced the Temple Mount area. To insure an adequate water supply, Sultan’s Pool (today an outdoor concert venue) was a floodwater reservoir. Just a few years ago, archeologists uncovered a Second Temple period bridge that stood over the adjacent ravine of Ben Hinom Valley. The original bridge maintained the elevation of the path along which the water coursed. In 1320 CE, the Mamluks rebuilt the bridge. Two of the original nine arches supporting the bridge were excavated to their full three-metre height.
A relatively short walk from the fountain, but with a significant leap in time, we arrive at the Hebrew year 5694 (corresponding to 1933-1934). At that time, builders completed work on a structure at 6 King David St. As the country was still controlled by the British (the Mandatory period lasted from Sept. 29, 1923-May 14, 1948), the Hebrew stone dedication might be termed both prophetic and Zionist. The inscription from Psalms 102:15 reads: “Your servants take delight in its stones and cherish its dust.” Heads up, however, to view this stone, as it is high on the right side of the entranceway.
In 2001, the French art group CitéCréation painted a mural depicting the Jerusalem Light Rail system, which didn’t start running until 2011. (photo by Ariel Fields)
No matter what you think of the Mandatory period, most people will agree that the British constructed attractive and made-to-last Jerusalem streets and boulevards. Although King George Street has changed tremendously since Israel gained independence, the stateliness of the road’s 1924 commemoration is visible in the dedication stone on the side of what is now a woman’s clothing store. The esthetically pleasing inscription is carved in the languages of the time: English, the official language of the British Crown has a central spot on the stone. It is flanked by slightly smaller Hebrew and Arabic translations.
They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so here goes: Across from the above inscription, where King George, Strauss and Jaffa Road intersect, look up to see what was for 10 years regarded as a “time-warp” fresco. In 2001, the French art group CitéCréation painted a long exterior building wall depicting the Jerusalem Light Rail system. Since the light rail only began running at the end of 2011, for years Jerusalemites considered this painting a bad joke. Like many other Jerusalem projects, this one finally came into being years after its original promised inauguration.
Despite a violent summer and fall, the Jerusalem Light Rail demonstrates that the city’s ethnic and religious groups can – and do, literally – come into close contact. Jerusalem’s train is an example, albeit a fragile coexistence.
Gavriel Cohen’s 1976 mural on the Gerard Behar building. (photo by Orli Fields)
In sharp contrast to the slow development of the light rail, the wall project on the Gerard Behar Theatre (its address is 11 Bezalel St.) shows how quickly things can get done, if one really works at it. In 1976, Gavriel Cohen painted a huge building mural in just 92 days. Humorously, this 18-metre-wide painting is entitled “Around the World in 92 Days.” When you see the painting, you will understand its “play” on the title of Jules Verne’s famous adventure story.
Like Verne, Cohen was born in France. Moreover, the Jerusalem Foundation donor who underwrote the building’s renovation was himself a millionaire French Jew. He named the building after his son, Gerard Behar. Today, the wall has added significance, as many French Jews are making Israel their home. The Jewish Agency reported nearly 7,000 French Jews made aliya in 2014, doubling the number of the preceding year.
We now move back in time to the Hebrew year 5632 (1872). In the tiny Jerusalem neighborhood of the House of David – the fourth neighborhood built outside the walls of the Old City – there is another inscription above the doorway of what (with controversy between different religious blocs) has recently become a yeshiva. David Reiz, a Jew from Jonava, Poland (today the Republic of Lithuania) donated the money to build this area. The Hebrew stone dedication contains a description of the 1872 purchase of the lot and the subsequent building of the apartments and a study house (bet midrash). The home of Rav Kook (first chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Mandate Palestine) and the popular dairy restaurant Ticho House (currently undergoing repair) are a few steps away. The square courtyard in which the inscription is found still has the wells residents used for their household needs. Reportedly, today’s residents are a mix of doctors, artists and yeshiva students.
Even if they never took up residence in Israel, over the years people of different denominations have considered Jerusalem to be their centre of the world. Thus, in front of Jerusalem’s City Hall, there is a large reproduction of Heinrich Bünting’s 1581 map of the world. Bünting (1545-1606), a German Protestant pastor and theologian with a strong interest in cartography, created a map (included in his printed map book) featuring a three-leaf clover (which to this day is still part of his native Hanover’s coat of arms). Europe is the western leaf, Asia is the eastern leaf and Africa is the southern leaf. Jerusalem lies at the centre of the clover.
As Hebrew University’s Prof. Rehav Rubin (1987) wrote: “These maps do not teach us anything about the appearance of the city in ancient times, but from them we learn how Christian Europeans and the map-makers themselves saw sacred texts and the place of Jerusalem in the sacred texts.”
So much of Jerusalem’s history is laid out on its walls; come visit to discover it.
Deborah Rubin Fieldsis an Israel-based features writer. She is also the author of Take a Peek Inside: A Child’s Guide to Radiology Exams, published in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
Having received letters asking for copies of her 40-year-old cookbook, the author has had it reprinted, and it is available for purchase. (photo by Barry A. Kaplan)
In the 1970s, when I made aliya, I discovered that Israel was a bit behind the United States and, when renting an apartment, chances are you would not find a stove but, rather, two burners instead. Many of my friends rented apartments with the same problem, and one of them introduced me to a gadget that looked like an angel food cake pan with a lid and holes to release the heat; it had a base to place over a burner and the lidded pot went on top. It had been used in Israel for years. It was called a “wonder pot.”
I soon wrote a cookbook called The Wonders of a Wonder Pot: Cooking in Israel Without an Oven. To my surprise, it became a bestseller among students, new immigrants and people on sabbaticals, as well as those who loved the nostalgia.
In recent years, it somehow resurfaced, and I began receiving letters asking for copies of the 40-year-old cookbook. After depleting the supply my husband Barry and I brought with us, I decided to have it reprinted. Anyone in the United States or Canada who would like a copy can now have one for $25 including postage; those in Israel can have one for 100 NIS. For more details, email me at syb1023@aol.com.
Sybil Kaplanis a journalist, foreign correspondent, lecturer, food writer and book reviewer who lives in Jerusalem. She also does the restaurant features for janglo.net and leads weekly shuk walks in English in Jerusalem’s Jewish food market.
Chana Bracha Siegelbaum is founder and director of the Midreshet B’erot Bat Ayin: Holistic Torah for Women on the Land. Located 20 minutes south of Jerusalem in the Gush Etzion community since 1994, its programs include monthly seminars for English-speaking women, experiential weekends and holiday studies based on a curricula emphasizing women’s spiritual empowerment through traditional Torah values. The rebbetzin also tends an orchard of 50 fruit trees, and she has recently published The Seven Fruits of the Land of Israel (Menorah Books, 2014).
Danish-born Siegelbaum wrote this cookbook over 17 years, and it features more than recipes – it includes the mystical and medicinal properties of the seven species. For each of the species, mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:9-10, there are other biblical sources. Siegelbaum offers for each species an attribute, character trait, holiday, weekday, world, body parts, shepherd, prophetess, numerical value, how often it is mentioned in the Bible and the meaning of its Latin name. After this are nutrition facts, medical associations, kabbalah references, recipes, a story and general references.
The book is compiled and expanded from the rebbetzin’s yearly workshops, and “the Torah teachings carry the main weight of the book, as Torah is [her] passion and training.”
Siegelbaum writes that the seven fruits of Israel affirm the G-d of Israel, the people of Israel and the land of Israel. Wheat is soft and sweet; barley, tough and hard; grapes are succulent and deliciously juicy; figs are plump and fleshy; pomegranates are tangy, vibrant and crunchy; the bitterness of olives contrasts with the honeyed sweetness of the dates.
After completing the text of the book, which took more than 15 years, Siegelbaum then spent a year working with the graphic artist and fine-tuning it. Jessica Friedman Vaiselberg, who created the illustrations, is originally from Kentucky; she studied at the Memphis College of Art and graduated from the University of Louisville. She and her family live on Long Island, where she has a home studio.
Not only is The Seven Fruits of the Land of Israel a fascinating book, but there are 162 color photographs to enhance the work, a summary chapter, three appendices and essays about the author, the artist and the Midreshet, as well as numerous illustrations and paintings.
Special touches to the book include border illustrations of each species, color-coded to match the species – for example, the use of a grape color for the grape chapter, green for barley, etc. Additional illustrations are on the bottom of each page.
There are 67 recipes, many unique, including wheat burgers, wheat-germ brownies, baked barley, barley beet salad, chocolate grape leaves, Rambam’s charoset, fresh fig spread, quinoa pomegranate almond delight, anti-wrinkle pomegranate-feel facial cream, flavored olive oil, Moroccan-inspired cooked olives, dream of date balls and guilt-free chocolate mousse pie.
Even though the rebbetzin leaves out the number of servings, her styling includes the things that I always find most useful – a little comment, numbered instructions and a separation of ingredients from instructions, in this case, in a shaded box.
The Seven Fruits of the Land of Israel was awarded the 2015 Gourmand World Cookbook Award in the best Jewish cuisine category and in the best cookbook fruits category. Here are a couple of recipes from it.
TENDER POMEGRANATE TABOULI
1 cup cracked wheat (bulgur)
1 bundle finely chopped parsley (about 2/3 cup)
1 bunch finely chopped mint or 1/2 cup dry
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions or scallions
1/2 cup pomegranate arils
1 finely chopped cucumber
juice of 2 lemons
2 tbsp olive oil
sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
allspice to taste
1. Pour boiling water over cracked wheat.
2. Soak cracked wheat in water for at least one hour. Pour out extra water.
3. Soak the parsley, green onions and mint in natural soap water for three minutes. Rinse.
4. Process parsley, green onions and mint in a food processor until very fine.
5. Mix finely chopped herbs and onions with the soaked bulgur.
6. Add the pomegranate arils and chopped cucumber.
7. Pour juice of the lemons on the tabouli and add the olive oil, salt, pepper and allspice.
OLIVE WALNUT SPREAD
1 can of pitted green olives (1/4 pound)
4 garlic cloves
1/2 to 1 cup walnuts
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1. Puree olives, garlic, walnuts and olive oil in a food processor. Serve as a dip.
Sybil Kaplanis a journalist, foreign correspondent, lecturer, food writer and book reviewer who lives in Jerusalem. She also does the restaurant features for janglo.net and leads weekly shuk walks in English in Jerusalem’s Jewish food market.
Left to right: Winnipeg transplants Miriam, Ronit, Dor and Bruce Brown. (photo by Bernie Bellan)
Rehovot, Israel
Once again, Election Day has come and gone and the world continues to spin; albeit slightly more rightward for Israel.
I went to sleep the night before the recent election a bit more excited than usual – I love the hoopla of an Israeli Election Day – and a bit more apprehensive than usual – I was still not sure who to vote for.
Election Day in Israel is a holiday, and we had a fun day ahead of us. My son was set to participate in our democratic process. My wife and I were set to vote – well, almost, as I was still undecided. We had a family lunch date with friends. And I was looking forward to watching the exit polls at home.
My son – still too young to vote but not too young to hold an opinion – was manning a party booth outside the local polling station. Dressed in a party hat and T-shirt and armed with colorful brochures, he was out of the house by 7 a.m., surprising, since we can barely get him out of the house on a school day, which starts an hour later!
As opposed to the sterile polling environment of Canada, Israel’s polling stations are last-minute electioneering grounds. Every party has a booth with party hacks or students for hire (such as my son) vying for last-minute votes. And multiple cars covered with party posters and carrying huge loudspeakers on their roofs compete for sound waves by blaring political jingles – a classic Israeli balagan. The scene is lots of fun and a great place to catch up with neighbors and friends to debate Iran, the religious, the economy, last summer’s war and who to vote for and who not to vote for.
I think the last time I voted in Canada was in the 1998 election when I cast my vote for Brian Mulroney. Oops – should I have written that? In Israel everyone knows not only what you earn and how large a mortgage you have, but also how well you get along with your mother-in-law and who you vote for. We are a very open and argumentative society, so voting preferences are common water cooler and Friday night dinner table talk.
Anyway, by mid-morning my wife, daughter and I – and even our dog – went to visit my son and to cast our votes. With our identity cards and a falafel in hand (a not unusual text message arrived from my son a few minutes before we left the house: “I’m hungry”), off we went to the polling station.
It was more crowded than usual and we actually had to wait in line – or what counts for a line in Israel – to reach the ballot box. My wife confidently cast her vote. And I – in a last-minute decision (no doubt influenced by a quick chat with a party faithful just outside) – cast my lot for a pure centrist party. OK, there were two of them, but being a good Canadian (!) I will keep my specific choice secret.
Afterwards, we drove to Tel Aviv where we met friends at an excellent Persian restaurant, an appropriate choice given some of the election issues. For sure the talk was about the elections but also about other things just as in any normal country. And Israel, in its own special way, is a normal country … even on Election Day.
Towards mid-evening, I popped my microwavable popcorn and relaxed in front of the TV to watch the exit polls. Since it appeared to be a virtual tie, I went to sleep around 11 p.m. believing a national unity government was inevitable. True to form for Israel – where the unexpected should be expected – I woke up the next morning to a strong right-wing lead, with the overwhelming likelihood of another four years of Netanyahu rule, with a strong tilt to the religious right.
Good? Bad? With Election Day come and gone, one thing is clear: the Israeli beat goes on.
Bruce Brownis a former Winnipegger now living in Israel. This article was originally published in the Jewish Post and News and is reprinted with permission.
Jerusalem has been known as the Eternal City of the Jewish people since the days of King David and his son Solomon. (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)
My daily routine probably doesn’t differ much from yours. This morning, I went for an early morning walk, and enjoyed the pearly dawn before the sun broke through the clouds. Then I went to a local grocery store and bought some fresh bread for breakfast, before my workday began. Trivial, mundane things. The only difference is my day took place in Jerusalem.
This fact adds an extra dimension to all of my activities. Jerusalem has been known as the Eternal City of the Jewish people since the days of King David and his son Solomon. Even today, generation after generation continues to pray, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning.” This line was sung under the chuppa at a wedding I recently attended. Jews turn towards Jerusalem as the focus of their longing three times a day in prayer – no matter in what part of the world they live.
The city’s history is long. Five thousand years ago, a group of settlers chose to make their homes on the steep ridge called the Ophel, south of the Old City. In 2000 BCE, Abraham and Isaac ascended Mount Moriah; a thousand years later, King David captured the city, bringing the Holy Ark to Jerusalem, and establishing its sanctity for the Jewish people. From the years 961-922 BCE, King Solomon constructed the First Temple. In 537 BCE, the Jews returned from their exile in Babylon and, in 517 BCE, completed the building of the Second Temple. Then the Greeks, under Alexander the Great, took the city. Antiochus ruled, desecrating the Temple until the Maccabees liberated it. In 63 BCE, Pompey the Great captured it and, for 33 years, King Herod reconstructed the Second Temple. That’s 4,000 years of Jewish history!
Jerusalem’s history continued to be a story of conquest and destruction by an endless chain of occupiers lusting for this precious jewel … the Romans, the Greeks, the Crusaders, Egyptian Mamluks, the Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate, the Jordanians, all lusting for this battle-worn city that possesses no material riches, neither gold nor precious metals, no minerals, no oil, nothing to enrich their coffers.
I don’t know why, although many have tried to come up with some reasons. Jews and non-Jews alike have felt Jerusalem’s magnetism across the ages. Midrash Tehillim 91:7 tells us, “Praying in Jerusalem is like praying before the Throne of Glory, for the gate of heaven is there.” In his 1950 book Jerusalem Has Many Faces, Judah Stampfer wrote: “I have seen a city chiseled out of moonlight, its buildings beautiful as silver foothills, while universes shimmered in its corners.”
I have had the opportunity to visit many enchanting cities, including Venice, Avignon, Bruges, Hong Kong, Paris; all have a magic that transforms the senses. Yet, I can’t define the magnetism of Jerusalem. Certainly there are cities that exceed it in beauty and dignity. Perhaps we can think of Jerusalem as more an emotion than a city. It arouses passions, it nurtures the soul, it is spiritual and inspiring.
To call it home for the past 44 years is, for me, an enormous privilege. I am always aware of the history under my feet. I never forget the nameless heroes who fought to retain it for the Jewish people. Not just in long-ago history, but also those who fought to reunite the city in 1967’s Six Day War. So many heroes who gave their lives so that I, and thousands of ordinary people just like me, could live out our lives in the Eternal City.
Aryeh Altman, inventor of the game Kujamma, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund $25,000 to manufacture an initial run of Kujamma for retail.
Kujamma inventor Aryeh Altman. (screenshot)
The game’s concept revolves around collecting and accumulating, which is exactly what kujamma means in Estonian. The game involves opponents strategically throwing different-valued magnet pieces, called slappers, onto a metallic game board. Points are awarded by overlapping or stacking the slappers and claiming them with a special magnet called a point marker. The first player to reach 30 points wins.
Altman, a Toronto native, played the game as a child with fridge magnets that he found in the house. He and his siblings created a point-based game by trying to stack as many magnets as they could on the refrigerator. He taught the game to friends while in college, as well as to his nieces and nephews. Over the years, he has refined and developed it and is ready to take it into the production phase.
Although luck has a lot to do with the indoor and outdoor game, Kujamma also incorporates elements of skill and can bring out the competitiveness in people of all ages. Kujamma can also be used as a learning tool to teach children basic arithmetic and hand-eye coordination, and keep adults’ basic math and motor skills sharp.
אמזון מבצעת ניסויים סודיים במזל”טים בקנדה. (צילום: amazon.com)
הונאת הפונזי הגדולה של קנדה: 3,000 משקיעים איבדו קרוב ל-300 מיליון דולר
פרטי פרשת הונאת הפונזי הגדולה ביותר בתולדות קנדה נחשפים בימים אלה, במהלך משפט פלילי נגד שני אזרחים מקלגרי. גרי סורנסון (71) ומילו ברוסט (61), נאשמים שהונו כ-3,000 משקיעים בסכום שנאמד בקרוב ל-400 מיליון דולר. מקורות הכספים של המשקיעים באו מחסכונותיהם, כספים שהקציבו לטובת הפנסיה ואף מהון עצמי של בתיהם.
המשפט שנחשב לאחד מהארוכים בהיסטוריה הפלילית של העיר הקלגרי, נפתח ב-2009, וכאמור הוא עדיין מתנהל בימים אלה. בבית המשפט הוצגו למעלה ממאה אלף של דפים של מסמכים וקלטות שמע. לאחרונה אחד עשר חברי המושבעים הרשיעו את סורנסון וברוסט, בשלושה סעיפי אישום. הם הואשמו בשני סעיפים אישום של זיוף וסעיף אחד של הלבנת כספים. התביעה מבקשת להטיל על השנים את העונש המירבי שנקבע בחוק, שעומד של 14 שנים בכלא. פסק דינם של שני הנוכלים צפוי להתפרסם בקרוב.
סורנסון וברוסט שיכנעו את המשקיעים שרובם מצפון אמריקה (בעיקר אמריקנים וקנדים), בשנים 1999 ועד 2008, לרכוש מניות של שלוש חברות השקעות לכריית זהב שבשליטתם. פעילות החברות התמקדה כביכול בהונדורס, ונצואלה, אקוודור, פרו, קנדה וארצות הברית.
את הכספים השקיעו השניים בחברות קש חסרות ערך עם שמות נוצצים. ובעיקר הם לקחו את הכספים ובזבזו אותם על חיי ראווה ונוחות, שכללו בין היתר: טיסות במטוסים פרטיים, מגורים בווילות מפוארות וארוחות יקרות. סורנסון וברוסט טוענים שהם נשארו חסרי כל, והמשטרה לא בדיוק מאמינה להם. בשלב זה חוקרי המשטרה מנסים לאתר לפחות חלק מהכסף שנעלם על ידי שני הנאשמים.
זה לא חלום אלה מציאות: אמזון מבצעת ניסויים סודיים במזל”טים בקנדה
ענקית המסחר האלקטרוני האמריקנית אמזון, מבצעת בימים אלה ניסויים עם מטוסים זעירים ללא טייסים (מזל”טים) להעברת חבילות, במחוז בריטיש קולומביה, קרוב לגבול עם מדינת וושינגטון בארצות הברית. מטה החברה של אמזון ממוקם בעיר סיאטל שבוושינגטון. באמזון מסרבים לחשוף את מיקומו המדויק של אתר הניסויים כדי למנוע מעקב מצד המתחרות הקשות, בהן גוגל ופדקס. גורמים שונים בקנדה ששמעו על דבר הניסויים של אמזון, הגיבו בספק וחשבו שמדובר בדבר בדיחה. אך באמזון השיבו בתגובה שמדובר בדבר אמיתי. הניסויים באתר הסודי כוללים הטסת מזל”טים בגובה של עד 150 מטר, ובמהירות של עד 80 קמ”ש. ניסויים סודיים דומים עם מזל”טים מתבצעים ע”י אמזון באחת מהמדינות של מערב אירופה.
אמזון המתינה למעלה משמונה חודשים לקבל את אישור רשות התעופה האמריקנית, לביצוע ניסויים עם מזל”טים בתוך ארה”ב. לאחר שהתייאשה מהאמריקנים החברה פנתה לרשות המקבילה הקנדית. ולהפתעה (או לא) קיבלה את אישור המיוחל בתוך שלושה שבועות, לביצוע ניסויים עם מזל”טים במשך שנה. קנדה נחשבת למדינה ידידותית להפעלת מזל”טים לשימושים מסחריים שונים. בשנה שעברה קנדה הנפיקה אישורים ל-1,672 מזל”טים מסחריים. ולעומת זאת ארה”ב הנפיקה אישורים רק 48 מזל”טים.
שרת התעופה של הממשלה הפדרלית של קנדה, ליסה רייט, אומרת שקנדה היא המובילה בעולם כיום בטכנולוגיית מזל”טים. היא מקווה שגופים דומים כמו אמזון ילכו בעיקבותיה ויפנו לקבל אישור לניסויים, בהם רשות הדואר הקנדית – קנדה פוסט.
אמזון הכריזה בסוף שנת 2013 על פרוייקט ‘פריים אייר’ להפעלת מזל”טים, שישלחו ללקוחות שלה בתוך כחצי שעה, חבילות במשקל של עד 2.3 ק”ג. אמזון מחפשת עתה בין היתר מהנדסים ישראלים שיעבדו בפרוייקט המעניין. עם מפרסום ‘פריים אייר’ לא מעט גורמים טענו שמדובר בפרויקט מסוכן, שיגרום לנזקים ברכוש ובנפש.
