By Alon Raab
Two
days
before
the
world
was
to
end,
as
calculated
by
engineer
and
prophet
Harold
Camping,
seemed
as
good
a
time
as
any
to
find
answers
to
eternal
questions
about
human
life
and
meaning. Thus
I
joined
“What’s
on
your
Mind?
” an “International Philosophy Festival” in Jerusalem that ran from May 18 to May 20 as part of this year’s
Jerusalem Season of Culture. The
city
where
more
philosophers,
prophets and
messiahs
roam
than
on
any
other place
on
earth,
and
in
which
the
momentous
events
of
the
Apocalypse
will
unfold,
was
the
obvious
locale.
The festival
was
held
in
a
large
tent
erected
at
the
beautiful
cultural
center
Mishkenot
Sha’ananim,
a
stone’s
throw
from
the
walls
of
the
ancient
city
and
facing
Mount Zion.
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By Alon Raab
Bronzed workers forge a winding road through the hills leading to the Dead Sea; smiling politicians cut ribbons marking the National Water Carrier, chemical factories and a gleaming submarine; proud generals lecture an adoring audience on their latest military victories; Jewish athletes march at the Maccabiah Games — these images, known as “
Yomaney Geva” (“Geva Diaries”), were shown during the first three decades of the State of Israel to cinema-goers before every film screening, representing the ethos of an idealistic era and helping the process of cultural and ideological integration in the new country. Now, the celluloid on which they were printed has faded and soon the buildings they were created in will be demolished, replaced by luxury apartments.
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By Alon Raab
‘Chasamba! Chasamba! Chasamba!” This battle cry of the fictional patriotic youth group Chasamba (an acronym for “absolutely secret group”) — familiar to every Israeli child during the first decades of the state — is once again heard across the land. Resurrected from a series of novels to feature in the television show “Chasamba Generation 3,” which premiered this past fall, the program’s heroes arrive at a country radically different from the one in which they previously fought the good fight.
Read More
By Alon Raab
Under a full moon in Bethlehem’s Manger Square, two lovers recite poetry — the late Palestinian national bard Mahmoud Darwish’s words of affection and longing. Shadows cast on the stones of Christ’s birthplace merge. The scene shifts to an acrimonious meeting at a sports club. Debate flares over which game to watch and over politics. One club member declares, “We should live the way we believe.”
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By Alon Raab
Pollution in a Promised Land: An Environmental History of Israel
By Alon Tal
University of California, 546 pages, $34.95.
* * *‘The swiftly flowing waters of the Yarkon River enticed us to leap into them and swim, though occasionally we had to make way for a water buffalo or a camel.” Thus enthused my father, Israel Tzvi Raab, as heRead More
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