Pics of Artists in Tucson

Here are some photos that Ken Brandis took of the artists at Hanmaker Retirement Home in Tucson.   Here is information on the place, BTW:  http://www.handmaker.org/

And also some of Saraleh and Vered at Temple Emanuel TuBShvat Seder Feb. 3, 2012

Four Israeli Artists from Hof Ashkelon to Visit Partnership Cities in US: Tucson, Phoenix, and Seattle

Yehudit (Judith) Ogorinsky, Vered Otmy, Ada Bouganim, and Saraleh Haitman  will travel to the US on January 31st, first visiting Phoenix from February 1st to 5th, Tucson from February 1st to 12th, and Seattle from February 10th to 15th.  TTheir visit is part of the People-to-People program of the partnership, a way for Jews in these 3 American cities to interact personally with Israelis in our Partnership region.  They will teach art at Jewish schools and synagogues, in synagues with adults, and talk about their life experiences, art in Israel and the partnership in their region as they visit these three cities.  They also will see art in these three communities and interact with local Jewish artists there.

Yehudit,from Moshav Kochav  Michael, is a well-known artist specializing in mosaics. She made aliya from Minneapolis 40 years ago.   Her work can be seen at www.mosaico.co.il .

Vered, from Moshav Geha, specializes in paper mache.  Her work can be seen at www.veredotmy.com.  A

Ada , from Nitzan, studied to be an art teacher and now designs sets for special events including B'nai Mitva, weddings, etc. 

Sarale, also from Moshav Geha,  was an art teacher for many years in south-central Israel, taught teachers how to teach art, and also taught film and communication at Sapir College in Sderot.

Arizona Birthright Comes to Hof Ashkelon

Birthright Arizona Visits TIPS Region, January 2011

Thirty eight students from the University of Arizona and Arizona State University visited Hof Ashkelon as part of their birthright/israel trip sponsored by the Jewish Federations. The students visited Nitzan Bet, the temporary home for more than 1,400 former residents of Gaza who were evicted by the Israeli Government in 2005. The students took up 12 stations for a sports day planned by the local community center. Over 60 elementary school aged children came after school to play hockey, basketball, ring toss, boffle, catch with a variety of instruments, and to have their faces made up and engage in crafts. The children had a great time, almost as great as the Arizona students who were able to take a break from constant touring and enjoy time playing with children. Thanks to the staff of the community center and the Hof Ashkelon staff that helped make this happen.

Labels: Arizona birthright

Kiryat Malachi Celebrates 60 Years: TIPS Makes Its Mark

Kiryat Malachi is celebrating the 60^th anniversary of its founding with a full year of special programs and activities. The celebratory year was kicked off by a gala program on June 16, 2010 attended by thousands of residents and guests who gathered in the park in front of a large and creatively lit outside stage.

The program included official speeches from a representative of the government, Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz, who spoke and who was given honorary citizenship to the town of Kiryat Malachi; a speech by a member of the opposition, MK Shaul Mofaz who is the past Minister of Defense, a speech by the mayor, local entertainment, historic and contemporary films of the town, and a well known Israeli entertainer, Miki Geva.

All of these elements and more including a spectacular stage, lighting, and personal stories presented in the most creative and entertaining way were in the program.

A closer examination of the evening event reveals just how integrated the TIPS (Tucson, Israel, Phoenix, Seattle) presence is in the life of Kiryat Malachi, the partnership town along with the Hof Ashkelon region that is linked to the American Jewish communities.

The Tzuza dancers, an integral part of Art City and not long back from a successful performance tour of Phoenix, Tucson, and Seattle, were on stage five times dancing with their usual energy and skill.

The master of ceremonies was a comedian named Miki Geva. Miki grew up in Kiryat Malachi and got his start by singing in the Dor Sheni musical group of Kiryat Malachi, which was supported for many years by our partnership. The group was brought over to perform in the American communities twice in the last 10 years. He is a masterful MC and told a funny story: "When I was younger I performed in Dor Sheni during the Yom Ha'atzmaut celebrations in the town. Of course, the town had no money and at the end of the program when it was time for the fireworks, the mayor told everyone to stand up and pointed to the northwest and the audience to look at the fireworks display

from Ashdod in the distance.

A key element of the 60^th celebration gala evening was a version of the TV program Amazing Race."

Here it was called the "Race to 60" and four teams of two individuals were featured as they tried to complete assignments as fast and as well as possible. Most of this was off stage and film clips showed how they participated in "building" the first refugee camp that became the town; how they chose specific objects that revealed something of the early that history of Kiryat Malachi; or how they put together puzzles and answered questions on stage. What was truly amazing is that 7 of the 8 individuals had a connection to TIPS. One team was composed of Hila Kordana and Ariel Kasis. Hila is the coordinator of the production group of Art City and has spoken and performed in Tucson and Phoenix three years ago. Hila also answered correctly the question, " What is the name of the youth project that has changed the image of youth and of the town? Of course, the answer is Art City, the program that TIPS supports and helped create. Ariel is a drummer who was groomed in the Music Club which is also part of Art City. He is now in the army and still plays whenever he can in the club. Three years ago when Hila was the coordinator of the TIPS Kefiada English Day Camp with counselors from America, Ariel was the head counselor. He composed a percussion piece that was played by about 20 people during the celebration.

Mazal Caravani and Sara Kadori were another pair. Both Mazal and Sara are part of "Taamei Ami" (Tastes of My People), the ethnic food group that TIPS started last year.

Mazal was part of the delegation that came to America in the fall of 2009, where she led the singing and dancing. Sara is one of the most active volunteers in town. She heads one of the major volunteer groups which meets on the second floor of the Yedid Center building. This building, since earlier this year is used as the volunteer center and young adult center (another program of TIPS) thanks to the generosity of supplemental gifts from Tucson and Portland. She travelled twice to visit American communities over the past decade. Both of them along with Hila sang in one of the choral groups – one project of the town that we are not directly involved in.

Another pair was Yarden Golan, a high school student who was one of eight teen counselors sent to America to work in JCC camps. He spent the summer of 2009 in the Seattle JCC day camp organizing Israel programs and serving as a counselor as part of the TIPS people-to-people programming. With him on stage as a partner was Shlomo Gedamo who was selected to be a counselor but could not participate.

 

The seventh person with a contact, more peripheral than central, to TIPS was Rima Popov. She is the chair of the town's deaf group which is very active and meets weekly in the Yedid Citizen's Empowerment Center. Yedid is supported by supplemental funds from Tucson and Seattle.

Moti Malka, the Kiryat Malachi mayor, mentioned TIPS in his speech, thanking the communities for their valuable and consistent support of key programs, enabling youth and young adults to be more integrated and strengthened in the town. The program ended with a powerful performance by Sarit Hadad, one of Israel's best known singers. It was the only act on the stage with which TIPS had absolutely no connection.

 

Adam Schwartz, the Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, who visited and volunteered in Kiryat Malachi during the last two weeks of June, was amazed at the strong connection between the American communities and everything happening on the stage. "I knew that the federations were doing good things here but I had no idea how much good we were doing and how we were impacting on so many people." Kiryat Malachi would welcome many more TIPS members to come to the 70^th anniversary celebrations and to witness for themselves the progress that is being made with the support of the American TIPS communities.

 

Ira Kerem

TIPS community representative in Israel

 

 

 

Two Schools Rebuilt at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai

Kibbutz Yad Mordechai is the home of two Hof Ashkelon regional schools:

Hofim, one of three elementary schools in the Hof Ashkelon region
     and
Shikma, the regional secondary school (7th to 12th grade).

Since the kibbutz is less than two miles from the Gaza Strip, the school needs to be fortified to protect the children in case of any missile attack.  The new Iron Dome system is supposed to work, but it will only be affective four miles or more from the Gaza Strip. 

Therefore, the school needs buildings that are built to withstand a direct missile hit, from a Qassam, Grad, or whatever. 

A year or two ago, "portable" classrooms were brought in that had been in the Gaza Strip and were used for many of the students at Shikma.  However, they did not have bathrooms, and students had to go outside to get to the bathrooms.  They also were small, and could not easily hold up to 30 students.  Most of the two schools, however, had not been built to sustain such attacks.  Therefore, the government is in the process of building new schools.

Portables

Shikma is 2/3rds finished with four of the six modules ready to use.

2 of the new buildings at Shikma

The empty space is where the English teachers had their own room,
a thing of the past and new module in background

The contractor for the secondary school uses construction crew mostly from China.  In the US construction work pays quite well, but not so in Israel.  However, Chinese and Romanians are delighted to work in construction.

Contruction Workers from China

The building above was the "new" Shikma library two or three years ago.  It will be torn down after it is replaced by a more secure building

Hofim is going to be adjacent to Shikma, with a wall or fence separating the students from the two schools.  It, hopefully, will be finished during the school year.  The contractor for Hofim employs mostly Israeli Arab or Palestinian workers.

Also, each home on Yad Mordechai has to have a "secure" room with extra thick walls and roofs.  Many people have been remodeling/expanding their homes to up to 130 square meters (1400 sq. feet), so in the process have added a secure room. Others have had secure rooms built on by the government.

Safe room on the right

Security room attached to a home

Right now the yards in a good part of the kibbutz are in disarray from the construction but they will soon be restored to their normal beauty.

Kohav Nolad in Hof Ashkelon--a delightful evening!

On July 27th, I (Dina Tanners) was treated to a wonderful evening at the Hof Ashkelon regional center auditorium. 

Before that night, 70 children (ages 7 to 12  from many communities in Hof Ashkelon auditioned for the Israeli version of a American Idol, Kohav Nolad  (A Star Is Born) כוכב נולד .  Ten children in 8 groups  (two duets) from ages 8 to 12 made the finals. They were from Nitzan, Kibbutz Karmia, and Moshav Talme Yafa.  Many were 9 1/2.  A small group of "supporters" who danced in the background also accompanied several of the groups.  They were children and teens from the local area. 

It had been the custom in one of the communities in Gaza for the children to have an annual Kohav Nolad competition.  When many of them moved to temporary housing in Nitzan Bet, they continued the tradition.  This year, the regional council of Hof Ashkelon decided to make it a regional competition, and with 70 auditioning, it was quite successful.  The talent was amazing!

The first to perform were twin sisters, age 9 and a half from Kibbutz Karmia.

Twin Sisters from Kibbutz Karmia

They were very very cute and fun to watch.  I was surprised to realize that they were lip sinc-ing and not singing, but I was told for this age group, it probably was the best as they were less nervous.

Before each performance, there was a short video, interviewing the participants.  They introduced themselves and told what they loved to do in addition to singing.  You can see the screen in the backgrounds.

Both the 2nd and 3rd peformers had husky voices, stronger than I would have expected for anyone that age.  They both have tremendous potential with training.

Second performer, also 9ish, from Nitzan

The theme for the song contest was songs from the army bands, so each performer had to choose an appropriate song.  There are many amazing songs that the military bands have performed.  Such groups have come to the US many times. 

The fourth performer was Shir, an 11-year-old from Nitzan.  When she began to sing, I was blown away by the maturity of her voice.   It was amazing.

Shir

The girls that danced in the background had different costumes for each performance.  The change below must have been the third set of costumes and more were to come.

Another 9 year old

End of Song--with Entourage

Pair from Nitzan

I was wondering if any boys made it to the finals when this duet came on stage.  They too were very cute, and the boy especially had a strong voice.  Revital said that he originally was quite nervous and not sure of performing but got stronger and more confident as he continued to practice.

When the seventh performer came on stage and began to sing, this twelve-year-old also blew me away.  I had been named one of the 6 judges (as an honor to me as American chair of the TIPS partnership), and I knew I would have a tough time deciding between her (Valerie) and Shir for first place. 

She too had a strong voice and also a great stage presence.

We were also asked to choose our "favorite" performer...and not base the decision on singing quality but just on gut instinct, cuteness, stage presence, whatever.  The last performer, Shon, the yougest of the group at age 8, was the winner.  He was adorable.

Shon

The audience was animated, and groups came with signs supporting their favorites.

Supporters of Liav and friend form Nitzan

After the individual performances, as the votes of the 6 judges were tabulated, the 10 performers sang together.

The award staff is at work below.  The woman on the left is from Hof Ashkelon and was on the national TV show Kohav Nolad several years ago.  She is blind.  Dina is 3rd from the left.

Handing Out Gifts to the Finalists

The Winner--Valerie from Moshav Talmeh Yaffeh

The top three places were awarded to:
First Place:      Valerie from Talmeh Yaffeh  ולרי דבורקין- תלמי יפה
Second Place:  Shir from Nitzan     שירי יפרח- ניצן
Third Place:     Sapir from Talmeh Yaffeh    ספיר קסר-- תלמי יפה

Congratuations to all the participants.  They were wonderful!!

Schwartz family celebrates KM's 60th anniversary & special Bar Mitzvah

Today was not our first visit to Kiryat Malachi during this trip. Last week we had the pleasure to attend the 60th Anniversary celebration for the city. It was exciting to see a dozen or more members of the Knesset in attendance along with the city’s Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Council members. I had the pleasure of sitting next to a gentleman who had moved to Kiryat Malachi at it’s founding. Periodically during the ceremony he would tap me on the shoulder to tell me one interesting fact or another about the early days of Kiryat Malachi. He told me how people lived in tents, the limited kinds of food they ate, and much more. He was really a very interesting source of information about the community that I had not heard previously.

The celebration was filled with speakers, a take off on "The Amazing Race", as well as song and dance. What was so gratifying was how much of a role our partnership played in the celebration. Among the entertainment were the dancers that performed at our local Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration this past April. An example of the role our Federation played was to fund the creation of "Art City" which brought together what had been separate clubs involved in song, dance and music. Our initiative brought these groups (along with dramatic arts groups) together under the auspices of one coordinated performance troupe.

During the celebration, it was fun to see a "rock band" made up of teenagers, performing with young singers and fabulous dancers, which together created an amazing spectacle for all in attendance. During the performance, I asked our Israeli staff person if I had a right to feel the kind of pride I was feeling and his response was "absolutely". It was truly a one of a kind experience that I don’t think I will ever forget.

After spending our final Shabbat (for this trip) in Jerusalem, which is always a highlight of travel to Israel, we began to pack our bags for our move to Kiryat Malachi. Upon our arrival we receive a friendly welcome by others living in the same complex. We are now looking forward to our time in Kiryat Malachi as we prepare to spend some time volunteering. Our first assignment will be at one of the local schools where we, including our children, will have an opportunity to help local youth develop their English skills. We also hope to work with some after-school programs that will enable us to interact with some of the families who live in this community. I anticipate that this opportunity will certainly add an important element to our experience here in Israel and for my children, especially my eldest, to understanding in very real terms what it means to be part of a Jewish people worldwide.

Jacob, son of Adam (president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix) and Stacey Schwartz, became a Bar Mitzvah at Yad Mordechai. This kibbutz in our TIPS Partnership Hof Ashkelon region was the site of an important battle during Israel’s War of Independence. Jacob conducted a Monday morning service, chanted the Torah portion and led a discussion on the d’var Torah. He gave his interpretation of the Torah reading, first in Hebrew and then in English, to the surprise and delight of everyone, especially the Israelis. Yair Farjun, chair of the Hof Ashkelon regional council, presented the celebrant with a copy of Pirke Avot, and a group of Ethiopian women prepared lunch afterward. These women had visited Phoenix and Tucson as part of the TIPS Women’s Ethnic Cooking Project last fall, when Jacob struck up a friendship with them, leading them to offer to cater his simcha. Also, thanks to modern technology, the celebrants were able to Skype the entire service back to family members in the United States

Shabbat in Kiryat Malachi, Schwartz Family, June 2010

June 28, 2010 at 12:57 PM


I have spent a fair amount of time in Kiryat Malachi during past missions/trips to Israel. But I have never spent a full Shabbat in this city that makes up part of our TIPS partnership.

As this past week ended and we prepared to celebrate Shabbat here, I was excited to see how it compared to my experiences in other communities in which I have celebrated Shabbat.

As Friday moved along, we could definitely sense a change in the community. Stores were closing early. There was less and less traffic on the streets. A calm was beginning to settle in that would accompany us through our celebration of Shabbat.

As the time for Shabbat began, we lit candles in our apartment and headed out for Shabbat dinner at the home of the Attal family. I have known Dvora Attal for many years as she plays a critical role in our partnership on behalf of the Kiryat Malachi municipality. And I had celebrated Shabbat dinner with her family once before many years ago. I was looking forward to having an enjoyable evening celebrating the start of Shabbat. And a wonderful evening it was. The food was outstanding. The company was even better. My wife and children loved being with Dvora’s family who could not have been more hospitable. They helped get our Shabbat off to a wonderful start. My wife and I had a very nice visit with our children as we walked home on the quiet streets of the city.

For lunch Saturday, we headed out on a lovely walk to the Peretz family home. This was not a family that I had spent time with, but I knew that they had been very involved with the partnership. I also knew that the art contest that we have run through the partnership was dedicated, in part, to their son who had passed away from cystic fibrosis. Once again, we had a delicious lunch. And, again, the company was even more wonderful. We talked about a whole range of things in Hebrew and in English. And our hosts could not have been more gracious to our children. They were able to see olive trees, fig trees, pomegranate trees and more…all in the yard of an urban Israeli home…They were amazed!

We had a lovely walk home, again on quite (but hot and sunny) streets of Kiryat Malachi. We had time for a quick nap, at least our two year old and me and my wife. And then it was off to another home for seudah shlishit, the third Shabbat meal. This time it was to the home of the Azriel family. Their daughter Shir is going to be leaving this coming week to work in the day camp at the Barness Family JCC. And, not to repeat myself, we had a terrific meal and fantastic company. We could not believe that it was after 11 p.m. when we finally packed the kids up for our walk home.

In thinking about this amazing, wonderful, uplifting day, a number of things really struck home with me. The first was how hospitable the families were towards me, my wife and our children. This was especially impressive given the fact that none of them had young children at home any longer.

The second thing that struck me had to do with the type of food we ate this Shabbat. At every meal, we enjoyed traditional Sephardic dishes that my children had never seen or heard of before. It was wonderful to be able to expose them to other aspects of Jewish life.

The third, and in fact the most important, was the connection that we have through our partnership and through being Jews. It did not matter whether or not we had known each other. And the respective levels of observance were unimportant. We were celebrating Shabbat together as Jewish people who shared that bond.

I have spent many Shabbat in Israel. But I am hard pressed to find any that were more meaningful or enjoyable. And my family and I are deeply grateful to the families in Kiryat Malachi who made it such a special day (and this past week) for us. We are looking forward to our last few days this coming week with a mix of happiness and regret. We have experienced so many incredible things and have made so many wonderful friends. And we look forward to building on these experiences in the future.


I wish you all a Shavua Tov and a wonderful week ahead.

Adam Schwartz, President and CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix

Shorts from Israel, July 30, 2010, on subjects big and small

 

1)  The city of Kiryat Malachi continues to upgrade the way the city looks.  We see street sweepers at least twice a week go by our apartment. 

The roundabout at the intersection of Ben Gurion and Jabotinsky really looks lovely, with a mature olive tree in the center and a bubbling fountain too. 

There are signs of construction in town:

2)  We are amazed at the building of new roads and improving old ones.  We found out that one reason there is a huge push to improve roads in the south of the country is that the army will be moving its basic training location from the center of the country and some parts further north to the south, in the greater Beersheva area.

Expanding road outsdide of Beersheva

 Most main roads have dividers (see left of photo above) between the two different flows of traffic for safety.  To reduce congestions, there are new and improved roads going on the outskirts of Beersheva The new highway intersections/cloverleafs are quite spectactular in that area.  We also noticed a number of speed traps with police using laser guns to catch speeders.

There is a new train line that will go to Beersheva and a lot of improvement is going into the roads there.  Highway 6, the toll road, last year opened its branch from the Ashdod/Ashkelon exit southward.  There is no toll on that part of the highway as the government built it and not private industry as the volume might not have been big enough for profit, but it was needed because of the army shift and to encourage more people to move into that area.

3)  This past week, Israelis were shocked by the deaths of 4 pilots and 3 other air force officers in helicopter training exercise in Romania. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3927326,00.html  The helicopter is huge, and could carry 50, but they only allow up to 20 in one after 50+ were killed years ago in a training exercise.  After the names of the dead were announced, the daily national newspaper Maariv dedicated one page for each of those who died in the crash.

4)  Some of the people who left Gush Katif and moved into temporary housing 5 years ago north of Ashkelon are now moving into their permanent homes.  We visited with the librarian at Nitzan, Ayala. 

Ayala on right at work

Her family should be able to move into its new home before the holidays. 

Ayala in her new kitchen

Her son Itai was a counselor in Seattle a few years ago.  We met another man, a doctor, who had rented a home in Gaza when he lived there.  As a result, he was not given a subsidy since he had not owned a home.  Others like him are in limbo.  They are trying to negotiate with the government to get something so that they can get out of the temporary housing they have been in for 5 years.

5)  Here are a few signs that we would not see in our communities in the US:

No entrance on holidays and Shabbat

                           Beware of Camel Crossing near Mamshit--also visual signs with picture of camel    

Street signs in 3 languages, Hebrew, Arabic, and English
The letter "Q" not followed by a "U"

This is one of the few signs in the area pointing toward Kiryat Malachi.  It is about 7 miles from town.

6)  Friday night we were invited to friends for dinner and we offered to bring a bottle of wine.  Suddenly at 3 p.m. I remembered to buy it and rushed to the supermarket across the street.  I was afraid that it had already closed, but I was assured by the guard on duty that the store would stay open until 3:30 p.m.  Most of the other businesses in town usually close before that on Friday afternoon and stay closed until Saturday night or Sunday morning, the start of the week.   Here is a picture I took in front of our apartment at 5:30 Friday afternoon.  The usually busy streets were empty, as you can see.

7)  Plastic  and glass bottles are the main items recycled by residents in towns.  Large plastic  bottles  (a liter or more) are collected in huge bins, while smaller plastic and glass bottles can be returned to supermarkets for 30 agorot each (approximately 8 cents US).

8)  One day I went to buy 1% milk.  When Howard took a drink, he wondered if something were wrong with the milk.  I looked carefully at the container and realized that it was a milk "drink" with sugar added....and yes, it was 1%--lower fat but added sugar.  Phoey!

                             

9)  Bread is the staple of life, so for many people it is hard to throw away.  In the US we often freeze it for stuffing or make bread crumbs from it.  Many Israelis don't like to throw it away either, so they often put it next to the community garbage can or in other conspicuous places.  Here are two of my favorite ones:

Bread on a fence post

      

A crow pecking at a bag of bread on top of the plastic bottle recycling cage

10)  Driving in Jerusalem is an experience that we don't want to do very often.  Even Dalia Burgana has told me that when she has to go to Jerusalem, she drives just inside the city and then takes a cab to where she has to go.  We drove in Jerusalem last Thursday to get to Har (Mount) Herzl and then to visit some cousins in Katamon (now called Gonen).  It was definitely harrowing.  Twice Howard made u turns where they were not allowed.  If he hadn't we might not have been able to turn around for a long time.  There is a lot of traffic, many hills, huge intersections, new one-way streets, a lack of numbers of buildings, often a lack of street signs, and crazy drivers.  What more can I add!