Our matriarch Sarah's laughter, then and now

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And Sarah said: 'God hath made laughter for me; every one that heareth will laugh on account of me.'

 וַתֹּאמֶר שָׂרָה--צְחֹק, עָשָׂה לִי אֱלֹהִים:  כָּל-הַשֹּׁמֵעַ, יִצְחַק-לִי

-- Genesis 21:6 --

This was said after God had promised the barren Sarah that she and husband Abraham would bear a son in their advanced old age. 
I am thinking of this statue, called "Sarah," by Rita Paran, based on that Bible verse, because today our City Daily Photo bloggers group is sharing a Theme Day about LAUGHTER. 

Back in 2011 I was walking very early through the still-closed Mamilla Mall in Jerusalem. 
I was shocked to see the cleaning man throw a bucket of water on one of the Bible Stories statues! 
But our matriarch Sarah just laughed.
She seemed quite tickled when the cleaner scrubbed her with his broom. 
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(Linking to City Daily Photo,  Our World Tuesday, and Weekend Reflections.)
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A lonely blue flute player

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A lonely flute player on the big open lawn of the Open Museum in Omer Industrial Park.

We saw another very blue work by the late Ofra Zimbalista at Beilinson Medical Center.
Remember the bombastic interpretation of the symbolism of her colors that I quoted?

Behind her is one of many hi-tech companies on the campus and the sculpture by Ilan Averbuch called "Wheat in Berlin."

You'll be seeing other creations from the Open Museum collection in future posts.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
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Australia's first saint lived with a Jewish family

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 A new statue has come into being since last I was in Australia, and a new saint too.

The larger-than-life statues were installed next to Sydney's St. Mary's Cathedral in October 2010, just a few days before the canonization of St. Mary MacKillop.
You can enlarge the photos with a few clicks to see the detail better. 

 

The artwork was commissioned by Cardinal George Pell.

 The sculptor, Louis Laumen, said (here) that the Cardinal wanted the sculpture of Mary MacKillop to include children in recognition not only of her love of young people but of the many schools she founded throughout New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Victoria so that all children no matter how poor could receive an education.

Mary Helen MacKillop (1842-1909) founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites), a congregation of religious sisters that established a number of schools and welfare institutions throughout Australasia, with an emphasis on education for the rural poor.

I once visited her tomb and little museum in North Sydney years ago and was impressed how brave she was.
Her story even includes a time that she was unjustly excommunicated and interestingly, Wikipedia adds that "Forbidden to have contact with anyone in the church, MacKillop lived with a Jewish family and was also sheltered by Jesuit priests."

She is Australia's first (and so far only) saint. 
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(Linking to inSPIRED Sunday.)
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Not much protection

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In the sculpture garden of Rabin (Beilinson) Medical Center, Petah Tikva.
Please enlarge the photo to enjoy the nice details.

Here are some (big) words of interpretation by Tami Katz-Freiman which appear at the late Ofra Zimbalista's website:

. . . a woman in drapings hovers in the air holding an umbrella with holes . . .

Existential anguish, shame, and misery sometimes dress up as pride and bravura (like the woman holding the umbrella with holes in it), and as in Hanoch Levin’s plays they are depicted with humor and a sense of acceptance of fate. The silent figures portray their tragic situation with a sarcastic muteness.

The sense of muteness and almost religious submission are augmented by the deep ultramarine blue and the gold that glints out here and there in various places. The reduction to blue and gold, colors which have a distinctively metaphysical, spiritual (Christian) context, with a cultural meaning that is rich in symbolism (Virgin Mary, the Evil Eye, New Age), abstracts the realism of the figures, unifies them into a kind of fantastic realism, and distances them from prosaic everyday existence, to a poetic-allegoric-symbolic existence.

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Independence Hall, Tel Aviv

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Dizengoff,  Tel Aviv's first mayor,  loved to ride his horse down the local streets in the 1920s and 30s.

Next to the new (2009) statue on Rothschild Boulevard is the former house of Meir and Zina Dizengoff.
Today it is a museum commemorating the place where David Ben-Gurion signed the Declaration of Independence and declared Israel a State on May 14, 1948.
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Ben-Gurion stands on his head

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This morning the usual group went down south to the Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute at Sde Boker for this season's last Shishi Zioni session.
We saw two presentations on the subject "Movies and Internet social media as instruments of social change."

This little statue by Dina Babay is part of an exhibition there. 

On the Institute's brochure is the iconic photo of David Ben-Gurion standing on his head at Herzlia beach in 1957.
It is juxtaposed with the equally famous photograph of "The Old Man" proclaiming the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
The caption above says something like "The man who turned worlds upside down in order to stand a nation on its feet."

In this 2009 colored ink print by Moshik Lin the tables are turned: here it is the map of Israel that is upside down.
I think B-G would appreciate the humor because he always stressed that our southern desert, the Negev, should have top priority; and indeed he himself retired to Kibbutz Sde Boker and is buried there.

You can read here all about the exhibition “David Ben-Gurion and his Legacy in the Mirror of Israeli Art."

Ben-Gurion's "personal trainer"  who slowly slowly got him ready to do the headstands was none other than Moshe Feldenkrais (the famous founder of the Feldenkrais Method for mind-body improvement). 
What I didn't know was that Feldenkrais was recruited in London in the early 1950s and brought to Israel to work as a rocket scientist!
Read the fascinating story in Haaretz.
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Shabbat shalom.
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A statue

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There is more to show from our visit to Elma Arts Complex Luxury Hotel in Zichron Ya'akov.

Like this work of art outside in the rain.

With water shpritzing from her pupik  (belly button in Yiddish!).

(Photos can be enlarged a lot with two separate clicks.)
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
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The Zionist Journey inspired by The Burghers of Calais

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Exiting the train station at Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv, I was literally overwhelmed to find this new art work.
Overwhelmed because these figures are  A LOT  taller than me! 

At the Facebook page "Bronze Sculptures in front of Azrieli Towers" you can see photos which include people, to get the scale of it all.

Inspired by The Burghers of Calias!?

But I'll let you read the Programa 1 Design Studio's description, in their own quaint translationese:

The Zionist Journey - Environmental Statue
Inspired by the statue of Auguste Rodin: "The Burghers of Calais," the initiator David Azrieli asked us to create a statue that expresses milestones in the Zionist Journey.
We chose seven figures, each one depicts and represents a period and a discipline in the history of the nation's building, since the 1920's and until these days:
The period of settlement and Aliyah is represented by the Halotz,
The Independence War- by a Palmach fighter,
the development of the public health sector – a nurse,
the evolution of science and research – the scientist,
the building drive- an architect,
the develop of the Hi-Tech industry- a computer specialist,
The financial evolution – a nowadays businesswoman.
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The sculpture work was created by a staff of talented artists led by Henry Betzalel and made in the A.A. Tavnit Vetezuga workshops.

Its name in Hebrew: HaMasa HaZioni
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From one extreme to another in 70 minutes

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So my train pulled out of the sleepy Beer Sheva station and traveled northward through the flat, brown, dusty Negev.
It stopped at Kiryat Gat, Ramle, Lod, and a few other stations.

 

In just one hour and ten minutes we were transported into a totally different world--the metropolis of modern Tel Aviv.

 

More traffic lanes than I could count on the busy Ayalon freeway!

The railroad tracks are in the middle, and next to them runs the channel built to contain the Ayalon river when it starts flowing during winter rains.
Some parts of the highway still flood after very heavy downpours.

From the train station I could see (for the first time) the 2009 Azrieli Towers fountain.
A local joke is that the sculpted musicians atop the fountain are the quietest band of all on this very noisy, busy  street.

Tomorrow I'll show you the nearby brand new environmental sculpture which some hate and some love.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)

Viscount Allenby

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V is for viscount, which is a nobleman ranking below an earl or count and above a baron.
As in  Viscount Allenby, of Megiddo and of Felixstowe.
Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby (1861–1936)

The only thing left in Allenby Park in Beer Sheva is the bust of the Field Marshal who conquered the city from the Turks in 1917.

The bust is behind locked gates and hoarding now.
It says that the park will be developed and renewed as part of the "new Old City."
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By December 11 (today!), 1917, Allenby was already way north of Beer Sheva, accepting the Ottoman surrender of Jerusalem.
See a funny story about that in my post
http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.co.il/2008/12/keys-to-city-take-them-already.html
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UPDATE, 2017: More about the Allenby statue:

"In the year 1923, the British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel unveiled a monument in Allenby's honor in Beersheba, with a sculpted bust of Allenby by sculptor Abraham Melnikov, set on a 15-meter high Turkish column. During the 1936-38 Arab Revolt, the monument was destroyed by rioting nationalists and the British Mandate government replaced it with a simple stone monument, without the figure of Allenby, and the inscription: "Allenby 1917-1918" in English and in Arabic (without Hebrew, as a gesture to the town's Arab residents). In 2005, the modern monument was unveiled with its restored bust of Allenby."
  -- Source: a good article about the ANZAC Trail in the Negev.
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Greening the desert

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See the bust down on the ground floor of this unusual building?

It is David Ben-Gurion,  Israel's first prime minister.

Today I was there  at Ben-Gurion College at  Sde Boker, Ben-Gurion's kibbutz.
One Friday a month they offer great lectures and/or guided tours.

At the entrance to the kibbutz is Ben-Gurion's famous prophecy about how we would make the desert bloom and make the Negev a blessing to the State of Israel.
The green shrubbery overtaking the writing on the wall seems to prove that it  really is happening.
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(Linking to Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors meme.)
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Australian Light Horse annual commemoration in Beer Sheva

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Yesterday I found my way through the streets of Beer Sheva  to the Park of the Australian Soldier.
My first time to see the annual commemoration and to see the new park, and both were very impressive.

The e-mail read "The Pratt Foundation and the Municipality of Be’er Sheva invite you to the commemoration of the 96th anniversary of the Battle of Be’er Sheva, marking the fall of the Ottoman controlled city of Be’er Sheva to ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) and British troops on 31 October 1917."

After morning tea the many guests took their seats and the ceremony opened with a long blast of a long and curling shofar.
The nice new Ambassador to Israel, H.E. Dave Sharma, gave a good speech about the great importance of the Battle of Beersheva.
BTW, he is Australia's youngest ambassador anywhere in the world.

Military representatives  of Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and the United Nations were there.
Many Zionist youth movements attended, as did classes of high school students.

Dr. Apple, Rabbi Emeritus of Sydney's Great Synagogue, was expected to give a memorial prayer but he spoke instead about the recent attack on five Jews at Bondi beach.

The Australian youth groups joined in singing Advance Australia Fair and Hatikva.

Please enlarge the sign to read the story of the famous battle, history's last great cavalry charge. 

The U.N. men from UNTSO and MFO  were happy to pose for anyone with a camera.
Israelis are not used to seeing fancy dress uniforms and medals.

Everyone then went across town to the Beersheba War Cemetery.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission says their cemetery contains 1,241 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 67 of them unidentified.

In the Light Horse charge on Beersheva, 31 Australians were killed.
At least 70 horses were also killed in the audacious battle. 

 Again there was the laying of wreaths.

I asked for a poppy and the digger asked  to put it by a soldier's grave.

I found a Jewish grave.
There are many more at the Jerusalem War Cemetery on Mt. Scopus.

 The morning's ceremonies concluded a block away, at Atatürk Plaza, at the obelisk.
Carved in its stone:

1914-1918

THIS MONUMENT IS DEDICATED TO 298 HONOURABLE TURKISH ARMY SOLDIERS FALLEN AT THE BE'ER SHEVA FRONT FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR COUNTRY

The distinguished representative of Turkey spoke (in English) about the martyrs who died defending the then-Ottoman town of Beer Sheva.
He was proud to see the old Turkish train station behind him, part of the famous Hijaz Railway,  being carefully restored as he spoke.

We stood for the Turkish and the Israeli national anthems. 

Wreaths were placed at the foot of the tall obelisk, which was built in 2002.

With the strained Israel-Turkey  relations in the last few years, it was very special to see the two flags flying side by side.

Let's hope Atatürk's motto, "Peace at home, peace in the world," will someday be true for all countries in the Middle East. 
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For more see Australian blogger-teacher Hels' post http://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/australian-and-new-zealand-light.html
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King David's busted nose

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It is almost Sunday already so let's do Psalm 108.

A Song. A Psalm of David.
¹ My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;
   I will sing and make melody.
   Awake, my soul!
² Awake, O harp and lyre!
   I will awake the dawn.
³ I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples,
   and I will sing praises to you among the nations.
⁴ For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens,
   and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

⁵ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
   and let your glory be over all the earth.
⁶ Give victory with your right hand, and answer me,
   so that those whom you love may be rescued.

⁷ God has promised in his sanctuary:
   ‘With exultation I will divide up Shechem,
   and portion out the Vale of Succoth.
⁸ Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;
   Ephraim is my helmet;
   Judah is my sceptre.
⁹ Moab is my wash-basin;
   on Edom I hurl my shoe;
   over Philistia I shout in triumph.’

¹⁰ Who will bring me to the fortified city?
   Who will lead me to Edom?
¹¹ Have you not rejected us, O God?
   You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
¹² O grant us help against the foe,
   for human help is worthless.
¹³ With God we shall do valiantly;
   it is he who will tread down our foes.
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Translation: RSV
Find the Hebrew and English together at Mechon Mamre.
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PHOTO:  King David next to the traditional tomb of King David on Mt. Zion.
His broken strings have been restrung and he got a coat of gold paint, but David's nose is still broken.
The recurring  vandalism is generally thought to be the way of some haredi/ultra-Orthodox Jews to show they do not approve of graven images of humans in the holy city Jerusalem.
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