Wednesday 17 November 2010

Mazal Tov to Kippot for Hope

I would like to wish my friend Adam Williams a HUGE Mazal Tov for winning a Norwood Helping Hands award at the recent Norwood Awards Evening. He has worked tirelessly and selflessly to help a Jewish community in Uganda improvetheir standard of living through creating a market and selling their handmade kippot worldwide.

Please watch this video and pass it on to your friends. It just goes to show what a difference one person can make. Well done Adam, you really deserve the recognition.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Recommended read...

I just finished reading Sayed Kashua's Dancing Arabs. This was an impulse buy at Ben Gurion Airport and I'm so glad I bought it. It's a beautifully written portrayal of a young Arab Israeli growing up in Tira and the issues of identity that he faces as he grows up.

A difficult yet rewarding read

The nameless protagonist, apparently based on Kashua's own youth, walks the tightrope between Israeli and Arab identities and the result is a heart rendingly honest picture of the conflict that lies within the hearts and minds of Israeli Arabs as they endeavour to make their way in the society in which they live. Neither side is shown in a particularly positive light: the Arabs are somewhat backward in their traditions and the Jews either racist or hypocritical. Nonetheless, I found it a valuable insight into an element of Israeli society that I admit I know little about and I intend to pursue this topic further.

To this end I have managed to persuade Mark to come with me to see Kashua's 'Arab Labour' which is being screened in London as part of the UK Jewish Film Festival. We also (finally!) got a copy of Ajami with English subtitles so I'm looking forward to seeing that at last - although I've been warned it's a heavy one.