Tel Aviv Gay Pride 2010

Although we've been here in Israel for four and a half years, we had never before attended the Gay Pride Festival in Tel Aviv. This year, we decided it was about time. So I arranged well in advance to take the day off from Berlitz (even though Friday is generally part of the weekend here, I am normally required to work Fridays). I got up in the morning just in time to capture this gorgeous sunrise over the Golan (taken from my study window!):

I had learned from Facebook friends that the parade would begin at גן מאיר Meir Park, a few blocks from the huge Diezengoff Center (really TWO large malls on opposite sides of the street connected by two indoor bridges across the street!). They told me I could park in the large parking lot at the central railway station and take the #18 bus from there, which is what we did. As soon as we got on the bus and I told the driver we were together (since I was paying for both of us), he asked if we were going to the מצעד "mitzad" (parade or march) and gave us a big grin!

We had to walk a few block to Meir Park, but we had no trouble, thanks to the trusty GPS on my iPhone! When we got there, we discovered that the Festival was happening there, at the beginning of the parade route, rather than at the end (although I think there was probably also a big party after the parade, too). So, we proceeded to explore the Festival. Here are some pictures that I took there. First, a broad view to give you a feel of the atmosphere:

This guy all in green was doing various poses. I couldn't resist taking some pictures. Here's one of them:
There were several people on stilts. Here's a picture of a couple of them:
And here's another one, in a beautiful gown that went nearly all the way to the ground. Although it's not so easy to see in this view, this is actually a man!

I love this guy's shirt (it says: The IDF is defending OUR values) because it's so TRUE. The IDF (the Israel Defense Force) really IS defending OUR values. Gays and lesbians have always served openly in the Israeli military. We've even had at least one openly gay general. More importantly, our rights is this country are VASTLY better than among ANY of our enemies, where GLBT people are seriously persecuted and even in mortal danger.

When we asked for more details, we learned that the parade was not scheduled to begin until 1:30 (and we had gotten there about 11:30). After exploring the Festival and sitting on a park bench there to watch people go by, we were both a rather tired, especially since it was quite hot, even in the shade. So, we decided NOT to march in the parade (we had planned to march with the bears' group) and to call it a day. We walked a few blocks to Diezengoff Center, a HUGE mall (really, TWO malls, one on either side of the street, connected by 2 enclosed pedestrian bridges over the street). We found a Greg's Cafe there, managed to get a table, and enjoyed a nice lunch in the coolness.

After eating, we took a bus back to where our car was parked and headed home. I guess we're getting old! LOL Anyway, although we wore ourselves out, we had a good time and were both glad that we had gone.

Construction update

The construction project across the street (and down a little) is proceeding rapidly. Here are a couple of pictures. This first one shows the entire upper row (along the street -- there's another row of lots behind that they're also building on):

This second picture shows just the first building (2 apartments upstairs, visible in the picture, and 2 downstairs, underneath these, facing the other way):

Newly re-opened now one-way street

Here's an update on the connection road to our neighborhood that was closed. It has been re-opened now, but, as they told us, as a one-way street (uphill ONLY!). Before re-opening it, they put in a curb and a paved side walk on the right side, and repaved the street. Here's a picture:

A perfect celebration -- the culmination of years of education

Last night, David and I celebrated our 14th anniversary (which was actually June 1). The fact that this may seem quite unremarkable to many readers is, in itself, a small miracle.

Let me unpeel the layers a bit. We'll start in the early 1970's, when gay people were generally considered depraved, sick, immoral, and undesirable people by all religious groups. The best one could hope for might be condescending pity. Gay and lesbian people at that time were usually deep in the closet, for obvious reasons. Those that weren't were hardly inclined to attend the religious institutions of any religion. In a way, David and I represent these 2 groups. He was very out at that time, and I was very deep in the closet.

A few from Christian backgrounds who did not want to abandon faith completely had formed their own denomination, the Metropolitan Community Churches. In 1972, with some help from MCC, the world's first GLBT synagogue, Beth Chayim Chadashim, was formed in Los Angeles. After some controversy, BCC was accepted as a member congregation in the Reform movement of Judaism. More GLBT synagogues followed. Much hard work was done by these pioneers, gradually opening the Reform movement to greater acceptance of queer people in all aspects of community life. We're proud to say that we were members of BCC until we moved to Israel!

Fast forward to 2010, in Nahariya, a lovely but hardly central and perhaps somewhat provincial city on the Mediterranean Sea, in northwestern Israel. David and I had talked to our rabbi, Israel Horovitz, some weeks before, letting him know that we wanted to celebrate our 14th anniversary with our congregation, and showing him our wedding pictures.

Last night was the big night, and it could hardly have been better. At the point during (or really mostly AFTER) the prayers, at which celebrations and announcements are done. Rabbi asked us to stand. He then gave a short speech in Hebrew and Spanish (the majority of the congregants, including rabbi himself, are from South America). I think I picked up most of the Hebrew. These were his main points. He told the people that David and I had decided to form a family (a powerful concept here in Israel!) 14 years ago. He said that we were an example for the congregation. And he urged us to continue our path.

Everyone congratulated us afterwards, including visitors (who were dear friends of the rabbi and his wife). I detected not one iota of animosity or avoidance whatsoever. People there were truly happy for us, and expressed their love and affection for us openly. We could not have felt more supported!

After the kiddush (wine, bread, and refreshments following the prayers), our friends Egonne and Yehudit (a couple, and the only other non-straight people in the congregation) had invited us to their house and told us that we could invite several others among our closest friends. In all, there were 9 of us, ranging from a straight couple in their late 30's or early 40's to a survivor of Auschwitz who is in her mid-80's. It was one of the best parties I've ever been to, with delicious food and lively and fun conversation! Thanks, Egonne and Yehudit!

Now, take a deep breath, and try to tie this all together. Could the people nearly 40 years ago have ever imagined such a possibility: a gay couple being honored by a mainline congregation in a small city on the fringes of Israel?

They say that the personal is political, and this story could hardly illustrate it better. And there's yet one more point that must be made. Many on the left of the political spectrum have expressed solidarity with the enemies of Israel and have been very quick to villify the world's only Jewish country. I'd like to remind all of you about the state of our GLBT sisters and brothers in the rest of the Middle East, including all of the countries that our trying to destroy Israel and, especially, in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. These unfortunate folks are in an even worse situation than the gays in the U.S. were in in the 1970's. These people are in constant and real danger of being murdered, not only by their governments, but even by their own families. Many have actually fled (or attempted to flee) to Israel, the great enemy according to all that they have been taught, rather than face death in their own communities.

The same governments and other entities (such as the PA and Hamas) who are trying to destroy Israel are the very ones who also actively promote this extreme persecution of gays and lesbians. They are NOT friends of the queer community in any sense and certainly deserve no support whatsoever from the GLBT community. Please remember this!

For more information, check out this link:

http://www.gaymiddleeast.com/

Jordan River canyon

Today we took a drive on a gravel road that we'd never been on before. I knew from my map that it existed, but previous times the weather had recently been rainy, so I figured it would be too muddy to go on. But now the weather has been dry for some time, so it was a good time.

The road begins at the switchback on highway 91 just before it crosses the Jordan River and heads up to the Golan. So, instead of crossing the river, we followed it south on the west side. This is the area where the Jordan River flows from the broad, flat, fertile Hula Valley through a rather narrow canyon and on down to the Kinneret (the "Sea of Galilee"). This gravel road is quite high above the river all the way, but at at least one point there is a cross road (also gravel) that goes right down to the river, to a bridge across the river, known as גשר כפר הנשיא Gesher Kfar HaNasi. The name comes from Kfar HaNasi ("President Town"), which is where the same road goes in the other direction (I only know this from my map, and from Google Earth!). We can see Kfar HaNasi from our house. Here's a picture of the bridge:

However, in the above picture, you can't quite see the west end of the bridge. In the next picture, you can see why it's not possible to drive across this bridge:
The west approach has been washed out by the river. Nevertheless, it was easy for me to WALK onto the bridge. Here's the view from about the middle of the bridge, looking downstream (south):
And here's the view from the same spot, looking upstream (north):
Though it may now be so clear from these pictures, there's really quite a lot of water flowing in the river, especially for nearly the end of May.

This point on the Jordan is about the closest point to our house, but of course we can't see it because it's down in the narrow canyon.

Closure of the main access road to our neighborhood

As I've mentioned before, a lot of construction has been happening in our neighborhood in the last several years. Most of this has been generally positive, including the elimination of a couple of ugly, never-completed structures. However, a few weeks ago, the construction caused a serious problem.

The main access road to our part of the neighborhood was always too narrow, but one of the construction projects has now made it so dangerous that the city has closed it completely! On the satellite image below, I have shown the problem. The marker shows where our house is (although the picture was taken before it was built). I have drawn a yellow line to show our former route out of the neighborhood. Then I drew 2 short blue lines to indicate the ends of the road they closed (putting big rocks to be sure that no one can drive there!). The magenta line shows our new route, which is now the only paved road connecting us with the rest of the world!

Here are a couple of pictures on the ground. This first one shows the new wall that was built, and you can see part of the duplex that it's a wall for on the right side of the picture. The road used to go right where the car is parked! There is still room for a road between the wall and the other house's wall, but it does not line up with the lower part of the road, and the high wall creates the danger, especially for pedestrians, if the road remained open.
Here's the view from the opposite direction, looking down half of the closed segment:
Clearly, the problem is one of city planning. While this construction may have been technically legal, it certainly should never have been allowed. I don't know how the law works here, but I know that, in the U.S. (whose law is based on English common law, as is Israel's!), if an owner of a property allows the public to pass over a part of his property for a certain number of years, the passage becomes a public thoroughfare and cannot be closed to the public. This is the reason you see so many "No Trespassing" signs in the States -- it's not so much that the owner cares if you go there; he just doesn't want it to legally become a public road, and I'm pretty sure that he could use the presence of the signs to prove that he did NOT actually ALLOW the public to go there.

A couple of days ago, we received a letter in our mailbox from the city that had no addressee listed on it. I suspected that this meant that it was a general letter to all residents of the area, and, indeed, that's what it was. Here's the letter, which I scanned in:
I'm not sure if this will work, but you may be able to click on it to see an enlarged version, which should then be legible -- well, at least if you read Hebrew. Since most of you probably DON'T read that much Hebrew, here's my translation (with my sometimes snide comments enclosed in square brackets):

To All Residents of the Neve Oranim Neighborhood

In the course of the last year, a period of accelerated construction has begun throughout the neighborhood, and as a result many residents have exercised their property rights [Hmmmm... apparently including the right to cause the closure of our main access road!]. On 4 April we arranged a comprehensive working tour throughout the neighborhood with all the professional municipal staff in order to join you in solving the problems that have arisen as a result:

1. The road connecting parts of the neighborhood [Well, at least they know what the NUMBER ONE problem is!]

• Close to the connecting road [well actually ACROSS most of the road itself!], construction was carried out, in accordance with the law [notice how they made sure to mention this], as a result of which the road became very dangerous, and therefore a directive was received [from whom? obviously no one wants to take responsibility for this!] to close it immediately at both ends.

• The city engineer, with approval from the Office of Transportation, is checking into the possibility of a temporary solution of making this a one-way street [NOT a good solution, and why would it be temporary, anyway?!?]. However, until a decision is received from the Office of Transportation, the street will remain closed in both directions for reasons of safety and mortal danger.

• The municipality of Tzfat has already been awarded 2.5 million shekels (about $660,000) from the Office of Transportation for planning and implementation of the main streets and sidewalks [it doesn't say WHAT they will be planning and implementing!] in the neighborhood, and we are working to proceed quickly ["quickly" is a relative term in Israel!].

2. Street lighting

• During 2010 we will be investing in the construction of a regional electrical center [this probably means a new substation, I assume], and at the appropriate time we will connect the northern part of the neighborhood to the electrical system [I think they mean only the street lights here -- all of us are ALREADY connected to the electrical system! But this is NOT good news! We really don't WANT our street lights anyway! We like seeing the stars at night. Besides, all this electrical work is probably going to cause power outrages, especially on days when I have lots of students -- this one could costs me big time!].

3. Street signage

• In the next few months, we will be preparing new signs [of course they're NEW -- we don't currently have ANY street signs at all!] with names of the streets in the neighborhood plus house numbering. [This, finally, is really GOOD news!]

4. Municipal supervision

• All contractors building throughout the neighborhood have received directions regarding cleanliness and order on building sites, and any damage to the infrastructure of the neighborhood will be repaired by the end of the work. Any contractor violating these directions will be fined in accordance with the law. [Hmmm... will this be more than a small fine that amounts to nothing but a gentle slap on the wrists?]

We in the Municipality of Tzfat understand the daily difficulties that residents of the neighborhood are currently experiencing, and we are working with maximum speed to finish the planning processes and solutions listed above.

In the near future, we will arrange a general meeting of the residents of the neighborhood in which we will give details and present the additional plans of the municipality for the neighborhood. Thank you for your patience, and we apologize for the disappointment.

With blessings,

Ilan Shochat

Mayor

So, there you have it. In exchange for really botching the planning of access to the neighborhood, they are going to make some as yet unspecified improvements and they're going to finally put up street signs. Why am I not impressed?

The Grand Canyon, in Haifa

Last Sunday, we had an appointment with David's doctor at Rambam Medical Center. Since we were already in Haifa, and we wanted to check out the new Apple Store, we decided to head up to the Grand Canyon -- no, not in Arizona and, in fact, not even a canyon, but a קניון kanyon ("mall"). As an interlinguistic play on words, this large mall in Haifa is actually called גרנד קניון Grand Canyon! I had been there once or twice before (in 2005), but this was David's first visit. The Apple Store there, however, is new. Anyway, we ate lunch there, ended up buying a couple of small items at the Apple Store, and then headed on home.