Jews and Arabs Kissing

(source: abcnews)
no copyright infringement intended

TimeOut Tel Aviv created this video in response to Israeli's Education Minister banning a book about an affair between an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Muslim

(source: Washington Post)

(Lilly Rivlin)

Portrait of a Filmmaker and Activist at Her Happy B-Day

(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=978986472118729)
no copyright infringement intended

You are the best, Lilly! Happy B-Day to You!


(Lilly Rivlin)

Lilly Rivlin: Women of the Meretz

(published on Facebook by Lilly Rivlin)
no copyright infringement intended

They are commemorating a dear friend, Esther Broner, who has has done so much for the cause of Jewish feminism. When Esther passed away, Lilly Rivlin decided to make a movie about her: Esther Broner, A Weave of Women. Now the movie is released.

Thanks Lilly for sharing this image with us. So expressive, a picture speaking by itself.


(Lilly Rivlin)

Esther Broner - A Weave Of Women

Esther Broner
(http://www.brandeis.edu/now/2011/july/broner.html)
no copyright infringement intended

When Esther Broner (co-author of Women's Haggadah and creator of Feminist Seder) passed away, her friend (and Seder Sister) Lilly Rivlin decided to make a movie about the evolution of Feminist Seder across thirty-seven years: to speak about this movement and about Esther, who had been intensely concerned with Jewish spirituality, and with carving out a place for women in a faith tradition that had long seemed not to want them.

Esther Broner - A Weave Of Women, Trailer
from Lilly Rivlin on Vimeo.

Esther is still teaching from the Great Beyond. Great work Lilly! Geela Rayzel

(Rabbi Rayzel Raphael)

(Lilly Rivlin)

Writer E.M.Broner Passed Away

E.M.Broner, center, leading a womens seder, which she recast from a feminist vantage point
(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/books/e-m-broner-jewish-feminist-writer-dies-at-83.html?_r=1&ref=books)

Lilly Rivlin announced right now the death of E.M.Broner, a Jewish feminist who explored in her books (both fiction and non-fiction) the double marginalization of being Jewish and female. Ms. Broner was intensely concerned with Jewish spirituality, and with carving out a place for women in a faith tradition that had long seemed not to want them. Her most influential book was The Women's Haggadah, in which the Passover seder was recast from a feminist vantage point.

Ms. Broner died in Manhattan. She was 83.

There is an article in NY Times devoted to the personality of E. M. Broner:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/books/e-m-broner-jewish-feminist-writer-dies-at-83.html?_r=1&ref=books

(Lilly Rivlin)

An Article by Michael Omer-Man

image from Hebron

Lilly Rivlin sent me an article by Michael Omer-Man. This article was published in Common Ground News. Michael Omer-Man is a writer living in Jaffa and has a degree in Conflict Resolution and Middle East Studies from the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya. Here is the content of the article:

West Bank/Jaffa - On an otherwise serene Saturday morning in late March, in the southern Hebron Hills, over 30 activists – mostly Jews – non-violently confronted a platoon of Israeli soldiers guarding the hilltop settlement of Ma'on. In an act of solidarity and civil disobedience protesting discriminatory policies often used to deny Palestinians access to their lands, 16 members of the group were arrested by the army.

Calmly speaking through a megaphone as the activists were being led away, one young member of the group, a former soldier herself, challenged the soldiers to "think about the different sets of laws that Palestinians and settlers live under the next time they swear [their oath] to protect Israeli democracy."

Many Israelis – 62 per cent – think that Israel should do more to achieve peace, according to a Brookings Institute poll from late last year, and a majority back a two-state solution. Yet, very few Jewish Israelis have witnessed first-hand the day-to-day realities of Palestinian life in the West Bank. While masses are disturbed by scenes on television and newspaper reports of Palestinian suffering under military occupation, only a small number interact and form relationships with Palestinians, a necessary element for achieving lasting peaceful coexistence.

Several small groups of Jewish Israelis take time from their lives to forge relationships with Palestinians and join them in struggling to end the more tangible aspects of their day-to-day hardship. These groups do not seek to advance a political solution but simply work to improve individual lives and protest against injustice. In doing so, they simultaneously break down artificial national and racial barriers.

Ta’ayush (Arabic for living together) is one such group carrying out grassroots actions in the West Bank. Its members – Jewish Israelis and Arabs – have worked fields, helped dig wells and repair damage caused by the army and extremist settlers, and subjected themselves to violence and arrest alongside the Palestinian residents of the southern Hebron Hills for over a decade.

Using their hands as well as their privileged status, which among other things allows them freedom of movement in the West Bank, the Jewish members of the group persistently attempt to prevent, mitigate and reverse the harm caused by land theft, violence and the military presence that enables it.

Embracing ideals of equality, empathy, friendship, cooperation and coexistence, these small numbers of Israeli activists – together with the Palestinians that they work closely and form relationships with – break down barriers that not only prevent the two groups from reaching peace but also prevent individual members of their societies from living their daily lives in peace.

The actions undertaken by Ta’ayush and similar direct action cooperation-based groups, like Rabbis for Human Rights, are not a substitute for a peace process or a political solution to the conflict that for decades has caused both Israelis and Palestinians enormous suffering. They do, however, serve as an important foundation for building coexistence and a spirit of cooperation in two societies that all too often see their fates through a zero-sum lens.

In close coordination with Palestinians, with whom meaningful relationships have been forged over the years, Ta’ayush activists go wherever their assistance is needed in different parts of the West Bank several times a week.

On a recent Saturday, a Ta’ayush contingent hiked through the rocky arid hills of the southern West Bank to evade military checkpoints. The day's mission was to sit in solidarity with a Palestinian family, offering them whatever protection their presence could provide. Two weeks before, a member of the family had been stabbed. On another occasion when this reporter accompanied Ta’ayush, its activists escorted Palestinian shepherds to protect them from the violent attacks they regularly endure. Other times, the group joins local Palestinian farmers in preparing fields for planting and helping restore water cisterns that have been destroyed by extremist settlers.

Groups like Ta’ayush and their members provide a glimmer of hope for coexistence in a place where the majority’s desire to live in peace with one’s neighbors rarely exhibits itself beyond political discussions in cafes or the occasional political rally. They also exhibit the need for coexistence and to work for the common good irrespective of the need to achieve political peace.


(Lilly Rivlin)

Lilly Rivlin: The Murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis, a Sad Day for Israel and Palestine

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Juliano_mer_khamis.jpg)

Lilly Rivlin: Juliano Mer-Khamis, an Israeli Arab, was a complicated and talented actor/director; he represented a face of Israel that is seldom conveyed to people on the outside, the complexity of the people, and the country; he made a documentary about Freedom Theater, the theatre that his mother created in Jenin, it is one of the best documentaries I have every seen; his murder is part of the senselessness taking place right now when many of us understand that time is running out for both Israelis and Palestinians to live in co-existence.

(Lilly Rivlin)

Lilly Rivlin: Jonah Recommending Columns from Haaretz and Huffington Post

I found in Jewish Women Encyclopedia a very good presentation of the life and activity of Lilly Rivlin. I have the great privilege to know her in person. She is an admirable fighter for the values she deeply believes in. As one of the respected activists of Meretz USA she is dedicating her energy for finding a Two-State solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, also she is extremely active in all issues regarding women emancipation.

No wonder Lilly is very present these days in the discussions related to the situation in Egypt. As always, she is updating her friends on a daily basis. In her eMail from today she is again forwarding a message she got from Jonah, who says, as for Egypt, I just don't see any way forward for Mubarak but out, although so far he seems to disagree; I think he's banking on the protestors giving up if he just hangs on and refuses to go long enough; still, the army is refusing to back up his thugs, and Obama seems to be trying to work out a way for him to exit gracefully, so there are a lot of signs pointing to his imminent departure from office.

Also Jonah is very critical on the position of the government and media in his own country, Israel: politicians and journalists, who have by and large performed execrably in overblowing the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in all this and being very choosy with their facts to make it look like democracy in Egypt is an existential threat to Israel; it seems as though some Israelis are so committed to their self-perception as living in the only democracy in the Middle East, they'd prefer to keep it that way at any cost.

In the end of his message Jonah recommends two articles: from Haaretz, and from Huffington Post.

I think Jonah appreciations (as well as the ones of the columnists from Haaretz, Yitzhak Laor, and Huffington Post, M.J. Rosenberg) are very radical. I would welcome a more balanced approach, leading to a more constructive dialog. On the other hand, the very fact that people in Israel, like Jonah or Yitzak Laor, can be so critical towards the political course in their own country, speaks a lot about freedom and democracy.

(Lilly Rivlin)

Lilly Rivlin: From Dalia Basiouny (Cairo Feb 3)

Spanning the Cosmos (Hadeeqat al-Azhar)
(image credits: Dalia Basiouny)

This photo was made in 2010 by Dalia Basiouny. I got today from Lilly Rivlin an account of the same Dalia Basiouny on the situation in Tahrir Square:

After a very turbulent night in Egypt, the morning finally came. The attack on the demonstrators in Tahrir Square seems to stop, leaving so many casualties. I got a couple of phone calls from friends saying they are heading to the square with supplies. I called the friends who live by the square to see what the injured needs are, and to find out if I can get into the square. The images of Tahrir on TV are showing the aftermath of the battle that took place there overnight. It looks like a war zone. No news if they are allowing people to enter. Rumors about thugs blocking the entrances.

After a couple of phone calls, I got a list of medical supplies needed. I called a medical student I know he gave me some suggestions on the kind of medicines, etc. I headed to the pharmacy and got all the anti-biotech they have (thankfully in Egypt it’s over the counter), and passed by a number of other pharmacies to get neck support. I drove to downtown.

I usually park a mile away, and walk across the bridge. Today, I was carrying medicine and water (even a few bottles are rather heavy) I parked as close as possible to the check point at the entrance of Kasr El Nil bridge.. Signs of destruction. Piles of Garbage.. People were gathered. It’s not clear who is who. I saw a familiar face; a journalist who came from New York to cover the uprising. We walked to the entrance together, but we were separated as men and women enter from different places for inspection.

The inspection of bags and ID by the people committees was more vigilant. They were very polite. They apologized profusely before checking us to make sure we are not carrying sharp objects. I was carrying sharp objects. My medical student friend said take medical scissors. I bought two small ones that I fit into a side pocket in my bag. I know they will not find them. They didn’t. I passed the first check point operated by the people, guarded by the military tanks. There was another inspection. I saw Samah, one of the graduates of the theatre department. She was very happy to see one of her teachers there. She said she’s been coming everyday since Jan 25th. She was entering the square with other friends who were also bringing medical supplies. When we passed the check point area we were taken aback seeing the broken parts of the pavement and the garbage. Samah was especially disturbed by the sight. She was one of many who created daily patrols to clean the square. It’s really the cleanest demonstration I have ever been to. People are careful not to litter, and there are so many people who volunteer to clean and sweep the square, throughout the day. Some use the activity to express their political views. Walking with large garbage bags, instead of saying drop your garbage here, they call out Donate to the National Party (Mubarak’s party which abused Egyptians for decades.)

We make our way across the square to the make-shift hospital. I am surprised that there are many people there. A whole night of violent attacks did not stop so many of the demonstrators from continuing to demonstrate, peacefully. And many people were flocking to the square in support.

The hospital is a tiny corner street mosque, in a back alley. A few square meters. There are a few injured people, resting on blankets on the floor, under cardboard signs designating areas for the different departments. Bone injuries are the most obvious as they have casts. A number of other head injuries with bandages over their eyes, or foreheads, possibly from all the rocks thrown at them by government thugs.

The volunteers in the hospital are very grateful. They are sorting out the supplies. There are many plastic bags with supplies. I apologized for not finding any surgical thread at the pharmacy. The doctors said they don’t need any more. Good! That means they sewed up the big wounds. As I drop the few supplies I got, I look around the small busy space. The pigeon holes, where people leave their shoes as they enter the mosque, are filled with different medicines, and supplies. Piles more are gathering in front of the volunteers to sort. It’s so heartwarming to see that so many people came throughout the night and the morning to donate, and to help, and many more were flocking in. While I was there, one of the doctors climbed on a plastic stool and said. What we currently need is two laptops and two people to enter data about the injured. I call a friend to inform her about what’s needed. She finds people who can donate a laptop, but needs more information. I go back to the hospital and ask for details. One of the young doctors explain that they don’t want a donation of a laptop, just one they can use to enter data about the people they are treating, and other patients that were taken to other locations in case people are looking for them. They also wanted someone to start a facebook page for the hospital, so that they can share the info of the people they have been treating since the beginning of the uprising. I want to volunteer for the job. I can type fast, but I am not an expert with Excel program. A few minutes after I get back on the square I hear on the microphone that they found two volunteers to do the data entry, and they are still waiting for the laptops.

The guy on the microphone, I couldn’t see his face because of the thick crowds, repeated a few times that under no circumstance people should collect money. Whatever they need, they announce and people provide it. No money collection. The crowd cheered and clapped.

It’s close to noon, and the square is filling up with people. Definitely more than the number present at the same hour the day before.

I walk around the square many of the pavements on the far side, where the major attacks happened, are gone. The street tiles were pulled out and used by the demonstrator to defend themselves in their night fight.

While I stand near the Egyptian National Museum that the demonstrators protected from the petroleum bombs of the thugs last night, I hear a loud banging sound. A young man is using a stick to bang on the metal street fence. Another man picks up a metal bar and starts to bang. It takes me a moment to realize what’s going on. The watchmen on the rooftops of the surrounding buildings saw pro-government crowds trying to enter the square. They warn the watchmen on the ground, who bang the fence to alert the demonstrators. Flocks of men come to that area, to stop the thugs from infiltrating the square. Impressive! The young demonstrators are protecting the National Museum, the square and our future.

Seeing these enduring, well-organized demonstrators, still hanging in there with faith in change, even after a horrific night of defending themselves gives me so much hope for Egypt and the Egyptians.

This is dampened by the news about the thugs circling the square, intimidating people and preventing them from getting in, and confiscating the food and medical supplies. I was waiting to hear from a friend who was driving in with a car full of food and supplies, so I can gather people and go pick it up from him. He called to say the thugs took everything from them!

One of my students called to say that they weren’t letting her into the square and were telling her that there are gunshots and people are being arrested inside. Another had to walk three miles to find an easier place to enter. He was intimidated by a guy who is carrying a sword. Yes, as sword. Yesterday they attacked on horseback and camelback, today swords. Which century do they belong to?

Another friend who lives nearby comes to the square in the morning and in the evening. Today he couldn’t enter in the evening. The thugs stopped him and accused him of being Israeli. They took him to an Army officer, who advised him to go back home.

I made it home safely. Tired. More hopeful than in the morning, but worried about tomorrow. The eleventh day. The Friday of Departure. It’s going to be a turning point. Please direct your prayers to Egypt and to Peace on Friday. I know the people defending their rights in a decent life will be triumphant. I deeply hope their path to change will be peaceful.

(Sorry if my sentences are incoherent or unclear. It’s been a very long week, with little sleep)



(Lilly Rivlin)

Lilly Rivlin: From Jonah in Jordan

(Cairo: many of the wounded have head injuries, says CNN reporter Arwa Damon)

I got from Lilly Rivlin this analysis on the situation in Jordan and Egypt (it was published today in the Meretz USA blog; the author is Lilly's correspondent in Jordan, Jonah):

First of all, forget anything you may have heard about Jordan going the way of Egypt. The sudden replacement of the prime minister in times of popular grumbling is pretty routine here and the new government will probably quell the protests, which were pretty small to begin with. Notice that the protests have been against the government (i.e. ministers), not the king, who many people dislike but tolerate because the alternative is too frightening. So no, the internet has not been shut off here and won't be anytime soon. There is nothing going on here that even approaches a reason for that to happen. Jordan is not Egypt.

As for Egypt, I haven't written you about it because I don't like to speculate too much about situations that could go in any number of very different directions. I've been watching and waiting. My impressions so far are that Mubarak's speech last night was pretty lame, but the promises he made to step down and reform the constitution to set term limits for the presidency--at least one of which I definitely don't believe--may frankly be enough to convince the periphery of the protest movement to give up and go home. He's clearly biding his time and banking on the protests losing momentum. But now he's also sent in his supporters to crack down, so who knows? We can't be sure what will happen in an hour or a day, much less how this will end, but what is clear is that he has no future as the leader of that country and that something has changed irreversibly there.

Just what that is will become clear in time. Obviously, a system of institutionalized corruption will not correct itself overnight, so even if Mubarak left this evening, it would take years for Egypt to develop a fully functional democracy under the best of conditions. That political development there has been so stagnant for so long is not encouraging in this regard, but on the other hand, nobody saw the Egyptians getting as upset about that stagnation as they apparently have.

What I think is important for people in the US and especially in Israel to understand is that this is not an Islamic revolution, the Muslim Brotherhood is not orchestrating the whole thing, and there's no real chance of an Iran-style theocracy or even an Islamist-dominated multiparty system emerging from it. The movement is clearly broad-based and at least as secular as it is religious, and while it's not at all clear what will come of this, Egypt is not about to cancel the peace treaty with Israel or start beheading people for stealing camels. That Israel's political leaders and much of its press have said pretty bluntly that only an authoritarian regime in Egypt is acceptable to them is pretty chilling and gives the lie to Israel's self-proclaimed role as a champion of democracy. But what they and many others don't seem to see is that ultimately, these protests are not about Israel or about America; they're about Egypt and its people, and their right to self-determination. It's telling that it's become so hard for us to imagine that.

Those are my preliminary thoughts. We'll see what happens. I hope for the best, but I'm not betting on anything just yet.


-----

You should also read this CNN correspondence (Military steps in between Mubarak foes, supporters):

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/03/egypt.protests/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

(Lilly Rivlin)

Heather Hurlburt about the Revolution in Egypt

Lilly Rivlin signaled in an eMail today a very interesting column in The New Republic. The author is Heather Hurlburt, the Executive Director of the National Security Network. She discusses five things: revolutions often erupt with little warning; watch the Egyptian military (they will ultimately, though perhaps not today, make the decisive difference); America can’t stop this revolt; who will be in charge after Mubarak; the Islamic Menace is overblown. You can read the whole article at:

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/82416/five-things-you-should-know-about-the-riots-in-egypt

-------

And two images sent also by Lilly Rivlin. Rioters, soldiers and police will eventually fraternize and that will be the end. But, asks Lilly, how many kisses will it take to turn the Egyptian police and soldiers around?




(Lilly Rivlin)

NY Times: Believing in Peace Even After the Unthinkable

Izzeldin Abuelaish looks with his son Abdallah at a photo of Bessan, a daughter killed in 2009.
(Steve Payne for The New York Times)

Lilly Rivlin sent me this article by Joseph Berger. It was published in NY Times on January 22.

Working as the lone Palestinian gynecologist at an Israeli hospital had its fraught moments for Izzeldin Abuelaish. The husband of a Jewish patient angrily accused him of jeopardizing his wife’s pregnancy because he was an Arab. Palestinian neighbors scorned him for delivering babies who would grow into the soldiers who bomb us and shoot us. Each time Dr. Abuelaish comforted himself with the conviction that he could overcome fear by building personal bridges between two distrustful cultures. But that belief was sorely tested two years ago during the three-week Gaza war, when Israeli tank shells slammed into his apartment, killing three of his daughters and costing another her sight in one eye.

Now Dr. Abuelaish has written a memoir that reaffirms his belief that the decades-long conflict will only be transformed when individual Palestinians and Israelis recognize their shared, precarious humanity. As he often does, he turns to medical metaphors. We are like conjoined twins with one heart and one brain, Dr. Abuelaish said in a telephone interview from Canada, where he is now an associate professor in women's health at the University of Toronto. Any harm to one will affect the other. The memoir, published by Walker & Company and with a blurb by Elie Wiesel, is called I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity. A reviewer for The Globe & Mail in Toronto said the book was one of the most affecting I have read on the subject of Israel and Palestine.

The anguishing deaths of his daughters — Bessan, 20; Mayar, 15; and Aya, 14 — immunized me against any more suffering, said Dr. Abuelaish, an earnest man of 55. He came to recognize that suffering is caused not by God but by individuals, and you as a human being with your potential and your ability can challenge the human beings who are making the suffering.

Rather than questioning the legitimacy of a Palestinian nation, Dr. Abuelaish argues, Jews — because they were burned by the fires of suffering in the Holocaust — must focus on improving the wretched living conditions of many Palestinians. And Palestinians must realize that firing rockets into Israel incites retribution. The antidote for revenge is not revenge, he said. If I want to get revenge, it will not return my daughters. The innocence of those girls must not be spoiled by revenge. I can keep their memory living with good deeds. He has set up a foundation called Daughters for Life to memorialize his children and to provide scholarships for young women in the Middle East.

In an interview Mr. Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, said that he could not explain why people like Dr. Abuelaish can overcome their impulse for vengeance and others cannot, but he imagines that Dr. Abuelaish has recognized that hate hates both the victim and the hater. One must not forget, but not use memory against other innocent people, Mr. Wiesel said.

Dr. Abuelaish rejects those who dwell in the morass of historical arguments, who accuse Palestinians of inciting the conflict by rejecting the 1947 United Nations plan to partition British Palestine, or who blame Israelis for injustices as occupiers. You cannot correct history, he maintains. Being a medical doctor helped me a lot because you are focused on living people, he said. When patients are dead, it’s a waste of time.

Still, the book bristles with that tormented history. Dr. Abuelaish grew up the son of refugees in the Gazan city of Jabalia, but his family originated in the Negev region. He possesses that property deed, though the land is now owned by Ariel Sharon, the former prime minister of Israel. To be pushed out, Dr. Abuelaish writes, is to be marked with the scar of expulsion for the rest of your life.

He describes the squalor of the Gaza camps — fetid latrines, no running water or electricity — both under Egyptian and Israeli control. After the two intifadas, Israeli soldiers made crossing the border especially difficult, even for an infertility specialist at an Israeli hospital. Yet Israeli doctors saved the legs of his nephew Mohammed, who had been shot in the knee and ankle by Hamas gunmen in 2007.

The most excruciating crossing occurred in 2008 when his wife, Nadia, was lying in an Israeli hospital with leukemia, and he was in Europe. He had to fly to Amman rather than to Israel’s main airport; take a taxi to the Allenby Bridge, which connects Jordan to the West Bank; then endure hours of waiting at checkpoints. By the time he arrived, his wife was unconscious. She died a few days later.

Still, Dr. Abuelaish said he had worked hard not to equate a rude guard with all Israelis, just as he would not want Israelis to equate all Palestinians with suicide bombers. What helped was his friendships with Israelis: as a teenager working with a farming family and then with doctors, one of whom, Dr. Marek Glezerman, wrote the book’s introduction.

True, Dr. Abuelaish moved to Toronto in 2009. But that is because he no longer wanted the problems of crossing checkpoints to separate him from his five remaining children.

He has formed a relationship with the Israeli novelist David Grossman, who lost a son in the closing hours of the 2006 Lebanon War. When they meet, Dr. Abuelaish said, they discuss their children. And it is the future of children, he said, that should spur both sides toward peace. As he writes: If I could know that my daughters were the last sacrifice on the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis, then I would accept their loss.

(Lilly Rivlin)

Tikkun - A Review on Grace Paley: Collected Shorts

Lilly Rivlin signaled me today a wonderful review on her most recent movie (Grace Paley: Collected Shorts). The review was authored by Elizabeth Rosner and was published in Tikkun Magazine. The review is titled Intimate Struggles, Global Politics.

Viewers of Lilly Rivlin's inspiring film Grace Paley: Collected Shorts are in for much more than a portrait of the artist. Whether you are being introduced for the first time or being given the chance to become reacquainted with a much-beloved writer, this richly quilted narrative offers multiple views of a woman extraordinary and exemplary in her authenticity. Grace Paley is vastly more than a sum of her parts: poet, mother, teacher, and activist.

Read more at:

http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/jan2011rosner

Novelist, poet, and essayist Elizabeth Rosner is the author of Blue Nude and The Speed of Light. Her work has appeared in the NY Times Magazine, Elle, the Forward, and Hadassah Magazine.

(Lilly Rivlin)

Amnon Shiboleth: a Call to Assist Haifa

Bulgarian fire fighters help their Israeli colleagues in putting out a wildfire near Haifa
(Photo: Reuters)

Lilly Rivlin forwarded me this message from Amnon Shiboleth:

Haifa is experiencing the largest fire disaster Israel has ever experienced. The fire started on the southern part of the Carmel mountain at 11 AM Israel time yesterday, and until now - the fire fighters mobilized from all parts of Israel as well as aid which was advanced from different countries including; Greece, Turkey, Romania, France and Spain, have failed to contain it. Russia has promised to send specialized planes in order to overcome the disaster. 42 mostly prison guards were burned down in a bus on their way to evacuate prisoners of Damon prison on the Carmel Mountain, nearly 20,000 people have already been evacuated from their homes , some 30 million trees and 8000 acres of land have already been destroyed completely, however the catastrophe is not over. The fire is uncontained and has reached by now the boarder of Haifa University in the north and moshav Bat Shlomo, about 20 kilometers south of Haifa. At the bottom of this email you will find a link to The Haifa Foundation where you may read the letter that was written by the Mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav, as well as a link to to contributions which are exclusively designated to assist and join the effort of fighting the fire, reviving the land and purchasing fire-fighting equipment to stop this horror etc. Please help us spread the word and raise the funds and aid that are required to help the people of Haifa, the metropolitan area; the firemen, the policemen, the soldiers that are fighting the fire, and the people that will have to cope with the consequences of the great losses caused by the fire. Please join this important cause! http://www.haifa-foundation.org/

Amnon Shiboleth


(Lilly Rivlin)

The 4-th Annual Other Israel Film Festival

Lilly Rivlin speaks today in her messages about the 4-th Annual Other Israel Film Festival, taking place in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn this month, between 11th and 221th.

Since its establishment in 2007, the Other Israel Film Festival has used film to foster social awareness and cultural understanding. The festival presents narrative and documentary films, as well as engaging panels about the history and culture of minority groups in Israel. The festival mainly focuses on the large Arab community in Israel but also covers other often marginalized groups including foreign workers, Samaritans, and immigrants (LMCC).


This edition kicks off with There Must Be Another Way, which follows the Jewish-Arab duo (NOA, a world-renowned Jewish-Israeli singer, and Arab singer Mira Awad) on their journey to represent Israel at the European song competition, following the military operation in Gaza and despite resistance from left and right.

The screening will be followed by Q&A with Mira Awad.


Let me give you some other highlights of this edition:

Blood Relation: On a hot summer day in 1943, 14 year old Pnina left her home in the Galilee province of Yavniel and disappeared. 24 years later she sends a letter, revealing that she now lives in the Askar al Jadid refugee camp near Nablus, married to a Muslim and mother of eight. The director, granddaughter to Pnina's sister, tracks the family secret and finds that Pnina's children, who live in a refugee camp, only half an hour away from her home in Tel Aviv, have been waiting for their Jewish relatives to call for years. Renewing the contact between the families leads to unpredictable events that take place in front of the camera over the course of three years in both Israel and Nablus.





Back and Forth: Made up of four short films, all of which are directed by Bedouin directors in their debut as film makers, this unique film is an unprecedented authentic self-portrait of current life in Bedouin society. Portraying the struggle for progress that in many ways is held back by the traditions of the nomadic past.









And another highlight, Coffee - Between Reality and Imagination: Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers embarked on a journey to create short films, fiction or documentary, inspired by Coffee, which takes part in Middle East cultural identity and social reality. Coffee creates a connection between different people, no matter who they are. Each film gives a personal and courageous point of view on the reality in which we live in.






(Lilly Rivlin)

Weimar in Jerusalem

I got this morning a message from Lilly Rivlin: she has forwarded an article by Uri Avnery. The tone is passionate and I think some heavy words should be used with much more caution. You can say that everybody knows soccer (or baseball, for that matter) and has the Mid East solution. Only Uri Avnery is not just everybody.

I think the article deserves to be read and reflected upon. Here is the link: Weimar in Jerusalem.

(Lilly Rivlin)

Grace Paley: Collected Shorts - a Film by Lilly Rivlin

Grace Paley
(1922 - 2007)

Grace Paley: Collected Shorts is a visual parallel of Grace Paley's life and writings revealed in colorful shorts and told in her own voice.

Her life was extraordinary. She was a firebrand on the front line of protest (imdb). With her Bronx rough-around-the-edges accent Grace Paley opposed for all her life war and nuclear proliferation, and fought for the rights of women. She went often to jail for her political attitude. Her work (short stories, poems, essays) was translated in 92 languages. For Enormous Changes at the Last Minute she has been compared to Chekhov. Says Lilly Rivlin, Grace was a New York icon who captured the essence of the city she loved. I would add, she captured the essence of the extraordinary times she lived.

another photo of Grace Paley

The movie will have its world premier at the Castro, July 25, 11 am, and the Roda Theatre (Berkeley Rep Theatre) at August 1, at 12 noon. I will miss the chance to be in the attendance and this is unfortunate, because I know very well the wonderful personality of the filmmaker, Lilly Rivlin. She is courageous in all her movies, and each of them is interesting and relevant.

Now, there is another fact for which I should not have missed this film: Wolfgang Held is the Director of Photography (and it would be a great experience to watch all his movies!). The film editing is done by Pola Rapaport.

(movie trailer: video by Lilly Rivlin)

(Lilly Rivlin)

(Grace Paley)

(Wolfgang Held)

(Pola Rapaport)

Lilly Rivlin Recommends Andante

(image from Andante)

Lilly Rivlin watched Andante and that's what she has to say:

I went to a leading edge Israeli film tonight, titled Andante, it was a first feature of an Israeli filmmaker about a world without dreams, a dreamless society, and two dreamers who find each other, but are caught by a security policy and are made to forget how to dream. Shot in 35 mm stylistically it reminded me of the hard clunky industrial lines of the British film Brazil. What was its message, I asked myself. A deep and disturbing film.

This is a very fresh movie, made right now, in 2010. It will be screened this Monday at the Jerusalem Film Festival. The director (also screenwriter and composer) is Assaf Tager, the head of Katamine musical project. A movie made by a musician with the guts to start his cinematic career with an experimental film about dreams and destruction of dreams, a parable about our society that kills its prophets and dreamers.

Here is the plot, as I found it on jff:

The men and women of Andante’s society have lost the physiological ability to dream in their sleep, and consequently, the means of achieving deep and meaningful sleep in itself. In the belly of a factory of sorts, an old man is fast asleep in his bed – he is the last person who can still dream. The factory has the technological means to extract signals produced by the old man’s brain and project his dreams onto a screen used for public screenings as a synthetic substitute for the lost ability to dream.
The plot takes place during a single night when the old man is expected to pass away, and follows Sarah – a young woman who has begun dreaming again. As a replacement for the dying old “Mr. Coma” is desperately sought, Sarah undergoes various technological and symbolic induction procedures, as she takes on the role of eternal sleep.

I did not find the movie on youTube, neither on Netflix, it's too new. What I found on youTube was only the trailer, that I copied below for you. Maybe my friend Dan will have the chance to watch it soon, and to review it on his blog. I'll let you know.

Andante: Trailer
(video by JerusalemCinematheqe)

(Lilly Rivlin)

Lilly Rivlin: The Tribe (1983)

An old photo, dated 1983: 2,500 Rivlin family members from around the world attended a reunion in Jerusalem where some of them had lived for 200 years since their arrival from Shklov in Eastern Europe. Lilly Rivlin made a touching movie: documenting the coming together of the Rivlins, exploring their lineage and meditating about their destiny and Jerusalem.

Said Matty Meged, if you study the Rivlin family you understand the genealogical reckonings of Genesis.

A new reunion of the tribe is planned to take place soon.




Here is the trailer of the movie:

(video by Lilly Rivlin)

(Lilly Rivlin)

Let's Meet Lilly Rivlin

Lilly Rivlin, a 7th generation Jerusalemite, has worked as a journalist, writer, and filmmaker for the last 35 years both internationally and in the U.S.

Most recently she consults to foundations on Middle East politics, Jewish affairs, Non-violent conflict resolution and Gender issues.

An active feminist, Lilly is one of the founders of the original Feminist Seder, a ritual maker, and serves on several Boards: International Committee of Women of the Wall, Meretz USA, The Counseling Center for Women in Israel.

Ms. Rivlin was a principle researcher on O Jerusalem, the book of Lapierre and Collins, and I would like to render here the opening page: quotations from the Holly Texts of three great religions; it is sacred place for all of them and for each of them.

4 How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?
5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning.
6 If I do not remember thee,
let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth;
if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

(Psalm 137)

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

(Mathew 23:57)

O Jerusalem, the choice of Allah of all his lands! In it are the chosen of his servants. From it the earth was stretched forth and from it shall it be rolled up like a scroll.
The dew which descends upon Jerusalem is a remedy from every sickness because it is from the gardens of Paradise.

(The Hadith)

To whom should the Holly City belong? I think the correct question should be, When Will the Fighting Stop? It is the title of one of the books co-authored by Lilly Rivlin: a photographic essay which gives us a child's view on Jerusalem.

• The Tribe (1983)
• Lilly Rivlin Recommends Andante
• Grace Paley: Collected Shorts - a Film by Lilly Rivlin
• Weimar in Jerusalem
• The 4-th Annual Other Israel Film Festival
• Amnon Shiboleth: a Call to Assist Haifa
• Tikkun - A Review on Grace Paley: Collected Shorts
• Believing in Peace Even After the Unthinkable
• Heather Hurlburt about the Revolution in Egypt
• From Jonah in Jordan
• From Dalia Basiouny (Cairo Feb 3)
• Jonah Recommending Columns from Haaretz and Huffington Post
• The Murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis, a Sad Day for Israel and Palestine
• An Article by Michael Omer-Man
• Writer E.M.Broner Passed Away
• Esther Broner - A Weave of Women
• Women of the Meretz
• Portrait of a Filmmaker and Activist at Her B-Day
• Jews and Arabs Kissing

(Filmofilia)

(A Life in Books)