Purim Smarts

by  Deborah Rubin Fields

(This is an edited version of the article previously published in AACI’s April-May 2011 edition of the VOICE)

Purim:  a holiday that Jerusalemites love, but the environment hates. Why? Because of the wastefulness that goes with the holiday. This Purim, let’s try to “go easy” on the excessive plastic gift packaging and disposable table service. Below are some suggestions for making Purim into more of an eco-holiday.

• Send e-blessings, rather than (cutting down trees to make into) paper cards.
• Choose healthy mishloach manot items which can be used as part of your friends’ seudah (think whole grain crackers or containers of hummus, for example).  Many health-conscious recipients end up tossing sugary junk food into the trash.
  

• Wrap your mishloach manot in a reusable cloth towel rather than cellophane or other plastic wrap, which would sit in a landfill for more years than you can imagine! Package in reusable containers, such as attractive mugs or netillat yadaim cups, rather than  disposables — your friends, and the earth, will be grateful to you all year round.
• Borrow costumes from a neighbor or a gemach, rather than buying (and discarding) flimsy new ones each year.  If you are handy with a sewing machine, make your own costumes, which will be unique and creative, as well as sturdy enough to outfit little pirates or princesses for years to come.
• “Green” your seudah table in a number of ways:

Napkins and tablecloths: Consider using a cloth tablecloth. If you use cloth napkins and tablecloths, they ideally should be made of organic cotton. If you use paper products, make sure they are unbleached products. The point here is to reduce the reliance on environmentally harmful petroleum-based pesticides and chlorine.
Cups and Plates: If you do not have a permanent, reusable set of cups and plates in your home or congregation, or the means to acquire them, then purchase only paper or compostable products. Read the label on the paper dish package to ensure that they do not have a plastic coating. Currently, disposable dishes that are acceptable for composting are composed of sugar cane, maize or potato products. In Jerusalem, for example, you can find compostable tableware at Gindhi’s paper supply store on Agrippas Street and Party Time in the Achim Yisrael Mall in Talpiot.
Cutlery: Instead of using plastic forks, knives and spoons, put out wooden toothpicks. Needless to say, using wooden toothpicks will require you to carefully consider what holiday refreshments may be served with such utensils. Leave out a small container (marked “Toothpicks for Composting”) so that congregants can dispose of their used pieces.  Alternatively, use a permanent, reusable set of cutlery or arrange a refreshment table of just “finger foods.”  Finally, you may also purchase compostable cutlery at the above mentioned stores.
Beverage Bottles: Recycle glass wine/grape juice bottles and plastic water/soft drink bottles. Teach your guests to turn over the empty plastic bottles to check that the bottom has the triangular recycling symbol. Point out the recycling triangle, as well as the code name PET or the number 1.  Take your glass bottles back to your grocery. Redeem the deposit. Donate the returned change to your favorite charity.
Leftovers: If your neighborhood has a compost container, collect non-dairy and non-meat based food leftovers to throw into the compost box. Do not, however, put in oily foods or foods that have seeds. Alternatively, you can take your organic waste to the City’s Recycling Center in Givat Shaul across from Herzog Hospital. This center is open daily, throughout the day.
Clean-up: After everyone leaves, tidy up using environmentally friendly cleaners. These products generally have a plant base. They contain no phosphates, no animal ingredients, no chlorine, and no petroleum. Furthermore, they have not been tested on animals. After the floors have been scrubbed, nourish your garden with the gray water.

Deborah Rubin Fields is a Jerusalem based educational writer and copywriter. She is the ebook author of Take a Peek Inside: A Child’s Guide to Radiology Exams.

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AACI will  be hosting 2 Purim events this year.

1.     Songs, Stories & Snack for Purim! (Children’s Programs with Mimi)
When: Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 from 15:30 – 16:30 PM
Who: For children ages 3 and up
Where:AACI Jerusalem – Dr. Max & Gianna Glassman Family Center, Pierre Koenig 37, corner of Poalei Tzedek 2, Talpiot   MAP
Cost per child: AACI members NIS 25/non-members NIS 30. Family price (3 siblings or more): AACI members NIS 60/non-members NIS 75

Please pre-register so we know how much snack is needed. To receive more information, to register or to volunteer with the children’s programs, call 02-566-1181 or 052-754-7111 or email AACIKidslibrary@gmail.com.

2.     Rabbi Ada Zavidov: A Feminist Perspective on Purim (AACI Jerusalem Retired Active Persons )
When: Wednesday, March 7th, 2012, at 11:00 AM
Where: AACI Jerusalem – Dr. Max & Gianna Glassman Family Center, Pierre Koenig 37, corner of Poalei Tzedek 2, Talpiot   MAP
Cost:NIS 10A weekly update of RAPS programs is sent by email. To receive these, please e-mail
warner2@zahav.net.il

Chanan Mazal – Art Studio Update, February 2012

UPDATE: An Inside Look at the Exhibit

Opening night was an exciting event. Meeting the artists and hearing them speak about their inspiration and techniques helped me to look at the paintings more thoughtfully. Both Chanan and Ron use layering, for example, which creates texture and depth. I also appreciated the Israeli feeling evident in their art – Ron depicts the landscapes surrounding his home in Kibbutz Urim, while pomegranates, figs and other types of Israel’s Seven Species frequently appear in Chanan’s work.
All in all, a very enjoyable evening and an interesting exhibit.
The exhibit will continue through April 5 at AACI Jerusalem.

Thanks go to KJ Hannah Greenberg for her blog post at the jpost.com. Click here to read it.

Dear friends,

Please come to the opening of the new show in the AACI Gallery on Tuesday evening, February 21 at 6 pm and bring your family and friends.  The artists are Chanan Mazal and Ron Gang – the work looks great and it should be a wonderful show. 

 Instead of having a Gallery Talk on a different evening, both Chanan and Ron preferred to talk in depth about their work at the opening.  Chanan sent me the following blog – it is food for thought and gives us a taste (if you will pardon the pun) of what is in store for us on Tuesday.

 See you there!

Donna Grushka 

map to AACI

Chanan Mazal – Art Studio Update

February 2012

 

Dear Friends,

I would like to share some of my recent artwork with you.

Last May, at the opening of my show at the Jerusalem Theater, I spoke about the border between ornament and art, and about my exploration of ornament’s potential as a vehicle for emotional and artistic expression. I have found this subject to be even deeper and more gratifying than I had imagined. While applying more and more layers to each painting, I alternatively create denser layers of pattern, or masks to hide or mutate them. Like a toddler building a tower of blocks, building, knocking down, and building again. At the same time, my own levels of raw emotions vacillate with a desire to return to a well behaved and pretty aesthetic. Like the naughty child in Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are”.

My goal is to stop working at that enigmatic point in time when I feel that this tug of war has reached a perfect tie. The war is between impulsive, yet engaging, “bad taste” and refined, pleasing “good taste.” The moment when our tense concentration breaks into a humorous, joyous smile.

I use the power or delicacy of pattern, to counterbalance my deliberately coarse execution of earlier layers; to correct my deliberately imperfect compositions, and to make peace with warring colors. I prefer to initially attack the canvas as quickly as possible, from my gut. Then I patiently, thoughtfully and joyfully build up the painting to that moment of equilibrium. Perhaps we all get gratification from fixing broken things.

When artists paint portraits of others, in a sense they are always painting themselves. Likewise, I feel that even when I paint the most neutral of objects, these works reflect my own search for self identity. Our teenage self definitions get redefined over time, as we mature, change our family and work roles, and re clarify our values.

I find that self humor is a great tool. Perhaps that is why so many of my works contain either a well balanced, symmetrically placed object, over a joyfully chaotic undercoat, or impossibly off balanced bowls, about to roll off of the canvas.

If any of you folks are here in Jerusalem, please join me next Tuesday, Feb. 21, at the opening of my newest exhibition at the AACI. Details below.

Best regards,

Chanan

Chanan Mazal

C. Mazal Art Ltd.

11 Rivka St.

Jerusalem 93461

Israel

www.mazalart.com

www.mazalart.blogspot.com

Tel (972)2-6719715

Fax (972)2-6719779

Mobile 054-6374751

Going Once … Going Twice …

Going once … going twice … are you going to AACI’s 60th Anniversary Gala Auction? Here is your personal invitation!

On Thursday, February 23, 2012, AACI will be presenting this entertaining fund-raising evening.  A conventional “sold to the highest bidder” auction will partner with a Chinese auction, which is more like a raffle.* The net result – fun for everyone and items for every budget!

A wine and cheese reception at 6:30 PM will kick off the activities and give you the opportunity to inspect the auction items and enter tickets for the Chinese Auction. The main event starts at 7:00 PM.

Come and bid on a wonderful array of goods and services! The eye-catching offerings (a few of which are pictured in this post) include:

• original artwork
• exciting tours
• Israel Opera tickets
• fine dining experiences
• exquisite Judaica items
• beauty packages
• an invitation to a Maccabi Electra basketball game as the guest of the great Tal Brody
• and the grand prize – one airline ticket to the US!

Online bids are being accepted for items in the conventional auction until midnight (Israel time) on February 15. See the catalog and/or submit your bid.

The catalog shows just a limited selection of the offerings. Many more goods and services, donated by our generous and creative supporters, will be available for sale ONLY on the night of the auction.

All sale proceeds will go to support AACI’s programs and activities.

The charge for this exciting and fun event is NIS 30 for members/NIS 40 for non-members, including two free 10 NIS tickets for the Chinese Auction.  Additional tickets can be purchased at the event – and you’ll surely want more when you see what you can win.

We’re expecting a crowd, so please call the AACI office at (02)566-1181 to reserve your place today!

The Gala Auction will be held
at: The AACI-Dr. Max and Gianna Glassman Family Center, 37 Pierre Koenig/2 Poalei Tzedek, Talpiot, Jerusalem (see map)
on: Thursday evening, February 23, 2012, beginning at 6:30 PM.

* NOTE: The Chinese “auction” is really a type of raffle; after purchasing tickets, YOU decide which items to focus on. The more tickets you buy, the more chances you have to win.

Happy New Year to the Trees

“The almond trees are blooming!” I excitedly emailed my mother a few days ago. She lives back in Montreal, my snowy alte heim, where the traditional first sign of spring, spotting a robin, usually doesn’t take place till some time in early April.

But, after twenty years in Israel, my heart still lifts when I see gnarled almond branches sprouting delicately lovely blossoms — and in January! This charming sight, even on the coldest, bleakest day, reminds me that warmer weather is coming.

A notable characteristic of shekediot (or Prunus dulcis, to give their botanical name) is that unlike many other fruit trees, they flower before producing leaves. As a result, their five-petaled white or pale pink blooms are all the more visible. Also, almond trees do not shed their old fruit. Instead, fresh young flowers share space with the leftover almonds of yesteryear. When, as part of some New Age-y, get-to-know-your-inner-self exercise, I was asked to draw the tree I most resemble, I chose an almond. Connection to the past and growth in new directions, as well as sturdy rootedness in the Land of Israel, are qualities I try to … well … cultivate in myself. I liked my new alter ego so much that I began using “shekedia” as a nom de plume (pen name) on the Internet – or maybe on the Net they call it a nom de souris (mouse name).

Wikipedia’s article about almond trees taught me an interesting tidbit: almonds are not horticulturally nuts, but instead are members of the peach family! If you have a look at unpeeled almonds, either in the shuk or on the hoof, as it were, you will see that they are encased in two layers – a fuzzy outer covering coats a woody shell somewhat similar to a peach pit. The almond seed itself closely resembles a peach kernel. Wild (bitter) almonds contain dangerous amounts of hydrogen cyanide, as do peach kernels, and their cultivation and sale is banned in the United States. So admire our Israeli wild almond trees from afar, but don’t be tempted to sample a taste.

However, whether nutty or peachy, domesticated almonds are a delicious tree fruit and as such, are often eaten as part of celebrations of Tu B’Shvat. Tu B’Shvat, the New Year of the Trees when the age of a tree is calculated for halachic purposes, falls on February 8^th in 2012. This festive day is traditionally marked by eating fruit, especially olives, dates, grapes, figs and pomegranates, sometimes as part of a seder, or ritual meal. Many charitable organizations raise funds at this time of year by selling attractive platters of dried fruits and nuts. In addition, schoolchildren in Israel often go to the forest to plant trees. I have happy memories of joining my kids years ago on a tiyul to the woods next to Har Nof, where we proudly planted tiny saplings.

AACI Jerusalem is offering three Tu B’Shvat activities this year:

1) A talk by Tomer of Victor’s Landscape Center – Wednesday February 1, at 11 AM. “All You Ever Wanted to Know about House Plants and Did Not Know Who to Ask!” Potted kitchen herbs will be offered for sale. Hosted by AACI Jerusalem Retired Active Persons. NIS 5 admission for members, NIS 10 for non-members, plus NIS 10 per plant purchased.

2) Tu B’Shvat seder for kids — Tuesday February 7, from 4:30-5:30 PM, Cost is AACI Members NIS 25 / non members NIS 30. Please pre-register so we know how much snack is needed. Elana or Rafi, Program Coordinators. 02-5661181.
jlmprog@aaci.org.il

3) Special Tu B’Shvat seder with Rabbi Barry Schlesinger — Wednesday February 8, at 11 AM. Hosted by AACI Jerusalem Retired Active Persons (RAP). Please call for more information 02-566-1181.

All three events will be held at AACI – Dr. Max & Gianna Glassman Family Center, Jerusalem, 37 Pierre Koenig 37, corner of Poalei Tzedek 2, Talpiot. 02-5661181.

Tu B’Shvat sameach, everyone, and Happy New Year to the trees!