Cleantech and the Battle Against Climate Change

When I received this email, I was wondering what is the connection between Tel Aviv University and the City of Beverly Hills?

I received an email from the office of Friends of Tel Aviv University inviting me to a symposium at Beverly Hills City Hall.  The topic was:

“Cleantech and the Battle Against Climate Change”.

The email stated: We have three amazing panelists, and a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist to moderate.  The symposium will be an in-depth exploration of the many challenges of climate change and the technologies and innovations being developed to tackle this planetary crisis.

A woman was welcoming me as I made my way to the hall and I asked her about this connection.  She told that the City of Beverly Hills has an agreement with the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles to cooperate on environmental and business issues.

Julian Gold, the mayor of Beverly Hills opened the meeting.

The moderator Julie Cart was an environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times. In 2009, Cart and colleague Bettina Boxall won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting.

Tel Aviv University was represented by Prof. Colin Price, head of TAU Porter School of Environmental Studies.  Colin lead a recent TAU study that suggests that weather patterns lead to flash floods may one day be tracked and anticipated by smart phones.

David Nahai was the CEO and Commission President of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, former Chairman of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control.  Today he is President of David Nahai Consulting Services.

Aaron Tartakovsky is the co-founder and CEO of Epic CleanTec, a green technology startup redefining urban sanitation by converting building waste water into clean water and high-quality soil.

The panelists each introduced themselves and talked about their contributions from the academic, government and private sector point of view.  They mentioned EJ:  Environmental Justice. They talked about the crumbling infrastructure of utilities and the best way to repair them.  Is it possible to decentralize entrenched utilities?  We need to build small scale individual power supplies rather than repairing the crumbling infrastructure. 

Solar energy:  solar panels can provide extra power that could flow back to a grid. Part of the solution would be: Energy storage

Nahai predicts that we will have wireless charging soon. 

In the Q&A there was a discussion about the private sector and government regulations.  Clearly the solution is in the correct balance of necessary regulations and incentives for the private sector.

Seth M. Siegel was in the audience and he noted: In California we first need: Waste water and storm water capturing. He wrote the book on the subject: Let there be Water!  Israel’s Solution for a Water Starved World.

I highly recommend this book.  It starts with a time-line of all the innovations in Israel ensuring that the water resources in the region will be plentiful for the growing population.  It goes on to detail the stories of Netafim- drip irrigation, and the large desalination plants.

Israel and Water with Booky Oren

 I am reposting this from March 2015, after I found out about the new book written on the subject: "Let There Be Water, Israel's Solution for a Water Starved World." by Seth M Siegel.

In February 2015 attended a lecture about Israel and water and learned much about the business side of water:

Israel and Water: Collaboration, Innovation, and Global Leadership”

Booky Oren, Chairman and CEO, Booky Oren Global Water Technologies

 

Water shortages persist as a major issue all over the world. In 2013 however, Israel overcame its water challenges through implementing a variety of technological solutions, making 2013 Israel’s “Water Independence Year.” In this talk, Booky Oren will discuss Israel’s innovative water solutions and how they can be leveraged in a global context to create economic growth while also assisting billions of people worldwide.

Booky Oren is not an engineer but an MBA.

He started the talk with two maps of the Middle East.  One from space.  The second one the underground water flows.  In both maps there were no borders.

(Ahhh how many of us would like a world without borders...)

In 1912 the British calculated that the water resources in the area of the Palestine mandate can support a population of 2.5 million.  Today there are 14 million people living in the area.  I would like to stress our human ingenuity, the advances we made in science and technology.  I do not prescribe to any idea of shortages and lack of this or that.  It is in our power to bring abundance into our lives and that of our fellow humans.

Water has been used in war and in peace.  In 1967 Syria tried to block the water resources to Israel as part of their goals in the six day war.  In 1994 Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan where they promise to provide Jordan with all their water needs.  2013 was marked as the year of water independence for Israel.

Booky Oren is interested in the commercial aspects of water.  He was CFO of Israeli companies such as Mekorot and Netafim.  He is now involved in i2i “Innovation to Implementation.”

He claims water technology can solve many problems around the world.  Like me he is convinced that there is plenty of water, there is abundance!  He has a global perspective and he pointed out that politicians are still using water for political gains.  They will keep the same old infrastructure and red tape in any possible way they can to slow down implementations of new technology.  If there is a drought in one place there is flood in other places so this is where we should allow our ingenuity to take over.  He brought the example of desalinations plants in Israel.  For years the budget did not include operation of these plants.  The year there was a drought the operation of the desalination plants was instantly funded.

Israel needs to leverage its technology for partnerships with water utility companies.

In closing the speaker pointed out a list of proven innovative global water technologies that can improve the sector:

Israel: ELTAV www.eltav.com, OUTLOCKS.

Switzerland: Gutermann. 

Canada: viva modeling

Spain: Aqualogy

Germany: HSTsystem

USA: FATHOM http://www.gwfathom.com/

UCLA: NORIA

Opera and the Bible

I have been observing my family and friends attending religious services every week.  It is an important ritual in their life.  Reading the weekly story from the bible, going over the various interpretations of biblical scholars year after year and delighting in the study is something important, they all cherish.  

In the same way I have many friends who are music lovers and they cherish their weekly visit to Disney Hall or Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to listen to LA Phil or watch a grand opera. It makes me wonder if this is the same need for continuity of the weekly ritual.  I stumbled upon a few “opera clubs” in out city.  It does seem like a ritual: You watch the Nutcracker before Christmas and other specific operas around the same time of year.  Opera lovers can watch the same operas again and again and delight on the voice of each new soprano or tenor.

It could be that sporting events are also filling the need for rituals.  Fans get to know the players and their life stories, they record all their great moves and get enchanted.

I just watched the opera “La Fanciulla Del West” by Puccini at the movies: Met Live in HD is showing Saturdays and Wednesdays at the AMC in the Century Mall.  It is a wonderful way to learn about the composer, the singers, the conductor and more.

Jiacomo Puccini was in NY 1907 and he watched the play “The Girl of The Golden West” by David Belasco on Broadway. He decided this story will be his next opera. It premiered at the Met in 1910.

The male role was played by Jonas Kaufman who revealed that he prepared for the poker scene by playing “Five Card Draw” and making whiskey sour. 

The dialogue that struck me was when Minnie says all three of them: bandit, sheriff and a saloon keeper are in the same business of gold and whiskey.

There was one scene that made the connection for me: The lady who keeps the saloon really likes the miners and cares for them.  She even runs an academy and serves as their teacher.  What is the lesson she teaches?  Nothing else but the biblical story of David and Goliath!  This young brave boy who kills the giant with a stone throw!  

Come to think of it, the previous opera I watched at the Met Live was: Samson and Dalila!

Additional notes from my friend Zvi:

As you probably know, the Bible together with the New Testament were, and still are, a major inspiration to infinite number of creations, musical, literature, painting, sculptures and any other art.

As to music, the basis were the monumental pieces written by the church and for the religious ceremonies.

Great works were composed by the Renaissance and Baroque composers - Bach, with hundreds of Oratories, Cantatas and Hymns. These referred mainly to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Immortal Oratories are the "Mateus Passion" the "Johannes passion" and more.

Another great contemporary composer was George Friedrich Handel, that focused on Biblical heroes and events. To mention that Handel wrote in English, tens of Oratories of his are pearls in the music crown.

These pieces I mentioned, and dozens more, consist of Vocal, Orchestra, Solo singing and even stage elements. Thus, these are close to the multi-elements of Operas, adding play to the dramatic content.

My Birth Date

I was born in the year 1947 in Tehran on the second night of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.  My given name was Janet, in the French accent.  It was the custom in the Jewish community from Mashhad to give French names to their children.  This was most likely because the Muslim authorities required the giving of Arab names.  (All my aunts and uncles had Arab names.)

My family moved to Israel in the year 1951, and then I was given a Hebrew name, Sara.  All these years my family was celebrating my birthday at the festive dinner for the second night of Rosh Hashana.  My younger brother was named Mordechai, after the Jewish hero in the book of Esther.  My sister came next, she was born in early spring when the Jews celebrate Tu Bishvat, the birthday of trees.  She was named Elana, from Ilan which means tree.

At the age of 16 I was given an Israeli I.D. booklet.  My birthdate was written as bet Tishre, the Jewish date.

At the age of 25 I met my future husband Moshe who came from California.  We decided to start our lives in Los Angeles and I had to apply for a green card.  I needed to have a Christian birth date and it was possible then to check the 1947 calendar and find out that the second of Tishre was September 16.  I still needed a birth certificate, and since I did not have one, I was told by the American embassy that my mother has to sign an affidavit that she indeed delivered me in Iran on September 16, 1947.  In addition I needed a letter from the police that I have no criminal record. 

That is how I became Sara Janet Bassilian.  Since then I celebrate my birthday for a few days between the second of Tishre and September 16, which happens to be different every year.   In my close family I am still known as Janet.

The Bedouin Professor: I want to be in the Big Wide World

Muhammad Hugirat in Dialogue

I find it amazing to feel a strong connection with a man that I hear on a radio interview for the first time.  I have never heard of this man before, but what I found out in this one hour conversation with Muhammad Hugirat confirmed my gut feeling that there is a very common humanity in all of us.
Professor Hugirat is the deputy head of the Arab Academic College for Science Education in Haifa, Israel. He is a Bedouin Israeli from the Village of Bir al-Maksur.
The interviewer is Kobi Barkai on a late night radio program named "Hidabrut" a Dialogue. 

Professor Hugirat's message is: "Keep the framework of old traditions but build a new world where we are all together contributing.  We cannot live in our imagination.  We have to be part of the wide world and go forward."

There are 9,000 citizens in Bir al-Maksur village.  All are Bedouins from the Hugirat tribe.

Muhammad started his life in a family of shepherds with 14 siblings.  His parents were illiterate but they taught him the morality of being a shepherd.  Unlike his poor father, his mother was the daughter of the Muchtar, the head of the tribe.  They fell in love and despite the difficulties they got married.  They were known as the great love story of the village.  He has 5 brothers older than him and 6 younger brothers.  They all built good lives for themselves.

Muhammad thanks Kobi for the interview.  This is the first time he is speaking on the Israeli Hebrew media.

Kobi comments that it is known that good leaders start their lives as shepherds.  He asks: What does a shepherd learn from his flock?

Muhamad answers that he often ponders about his life as a shepherd in a two hour meditation in a dark room: A flock of sheep is a responsibility.  If a sheep gets lost it is a great financial burden.  Dealing with animals teaches you about humanity: you have to treat a sick sheep or one bitten by a snake.  You need to take care of them.  In emergencies like that your personality erupts!  You are never a lone shepherd.  There are other flocks all around and you need to respect the boundaries of each one.  "If you ask me today am I a leader?  I say yes, not necessarily politically.  I tell the people in my village: We need to contribute to the society.  I say in the Arab media: We should have a speech about needs.  We shouldn't have the National speech.”

(When he is using the word speech he really means dialogue, or conversation.  I translated literally, however he means to say: This is the issue, this is what we need to talk about:  What are our needs?  If we talk about the Nationality then we are missing the point.  This issue is very essential and universal:  What is the point of borders?  We are all one humanity with the same needs.  We should put our minds and creativity to solve common problems, rather than focus on history and old traditions.) 

Muhammad tells Kobi about the early members of his tribe, a charismatic father and his two sons, who arrived in Israel from Syria via Jordan.  They saw this beautiful place and in the summer they took their flock to the well.  The sheep ran through the fence and broke it, so they called the place broken well, and that is the origin of the name Bir al-Maksur.
Kobi asks: How does a shepherd get educated in Bir al-Maksur?
Muhamad says his is an interesting story.  As a curious boy he was attracted to listen to the elders in the tribe.  The old men used to meet in a place called Divan.  He used to sit outside by the door and follow their conversations.  He watched TV for the first time in 1976 when electricity was installed in the village.  He did not see the sea until the end of his freshman year in University.  There were no books in their home.  The school teacher was their only source of information.  When he saw the school library he was amazed at the amount of knowledge those books contained.  When he finished elementary school his father said "You have studied enough.  Time for you to watch the sheep." His math teacher came to the house and talked to his father.  It was difficult but she convinced him that Muhammad should go on with his studies.  He loves her dearly to this day.  She lectures at his college.  He stands up every time she enters the room and he waits until she is seated.  He finished high school at the top of his class.
His father expected him to marry and have 12 children.  It was his mother who gave him money and encouraged him to run away from home and go to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  At first he had a difficult time.  He had a professor of Physical Chemistry who encouraged and supported him: Haim Lebanon.  He loves him as a human being.  He trained in the field of ESR Electron Spin Resonance. He was sent to Fry University in Berlin where he developed the method and excelled at it.  He has many articles and books about it.  But he realized that he is really an educator and a writer  and he preferred to practice Science Education and deal with human beings rather than with electrons.  He also wished to write of his experiences and he wrote a series of 4 short stories.  He received an award for these stories from the Education Department.  He also wrote 20 children's stories.  He writes in Arabic and only one story was translated to Hebrew.  Kobi tells him to hurry and get the other stories translated.

Muhammad supports equality and liberty for women.  His wife had no college education when they got married.  He supported her going to school and completing her education.  She now runs a nursery school.  He brags about their 4 children and their accomplishments.

Kobi asks if their tradition is tribal.  What is the tribal tradition, the music, literature, food?
(What is tradition?  In the past each tribe was uniform in their way of life, meaning they spoke the same language, ate the same foods, prayed in the same manner, and played the same music.  According to Muhammad in this tribe the previous generation was illiterate, but the current generation all had the opportunity to go to school.  So the point here is that with more people getting higher education, with the new technologies of smart phones and information available to all, more of the old traditions merge.  This is really a major development as many people (everywhere in the world) prefer to stick to their old traditions.)
Muhammad's answer is that now all Bedouins have the same tradition.  But his message is that today the whole tribe structure is disintegrating and shattering.  Muhammad himself does not believe in the idea of the tribe any more. "I am a man of the large world!  I cannot exist within boundaries.   My contribution is to the Israeli society first and then to the wide world."
He says what happens in the whole Arab world also affects the Bedouins.  He believes they should keep the beautiful sides of nostalgia and tradition but should be in the large world contribute to it and receive from it.  He repeats this again and again "Keep the framework but build a new world where we are all together contributing.  Sometimes I sit with my children and tell them stories but they go to their computers and smart phones."  We have to go forward.
I can see myself saying the same words, expressing the same ideas if anyone cared to interview me!

Musings on Scenes from Westwood

A few days ago I was stopped at a red light in the corner of Sepulveda and Santa Monica Blvd in West Los Angeles. I noticed on my left across the four lanes of the boulevard an interesting man standing at the street corner. A tall upright man, dark skinned, dressed in a long black winter coat going down to his bare ankles. I seem to remember he was wearing black shoes.  A sleeping bag was spread in front of him on the pavement and nothing else. For a moment I thought he is one of the homeless people you see in this part of town. But as I was waiting for the red light to change I observed his rhythmic movements from side to side. And it looked like a beautiful dance. Was it a dance or was it a reaction to some drugs he injected?  I will not know the answer as the light changed and I was on my way to my writing group.
My hair dresser works in a Salon near the supermarket on Westwood Blvd. She is one of the Jewish immigrants who came to California from Iran in the eighties. She is an intelligent woman who used to work as a nurse. She is very warm and friendly and often wants to talk about what is going on in my life. I told her about my last visit in Amsterdam and my tour of the Portuguese Synagogue there. The synagogue was built in 1675 and still stands in the original architecture with no electricity. People continue to pray there until today. At nights they use candle light. It was built by Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal by the inquisition in the 15th century. I asked if she heard about this expulsion. She had No recollection.

Amsterdam's Portuguese Synagogue

At the Landmark Theater in Westwood they are now showing the movie RBG about the Supreme Court judge. She is the second woman in history that was nominated for the Supreme Court. I loved this movie and recommended it to my friends. You will be surprised to hear how many people in Westwood never heard of her. So I continue to ask them in the same line: Do you remember the French Revolution?  Liberty, Equality, brotherhood?
They remember nothing!
There was a homeless woman who sat at a street corner a few days. She was covered with old blankets and her dirty clothes were piled in a supermarket cart. I saw her once in the supermarket restrooms washing her long hair in the sink. What does she know of freedom and democracy? Maybe she once learned to dance in her youth?

About Change

How many years does it take to change from the patriarchal societies of biblical times to gender equality in the modern age? 

The short answer is thousands of years.  Exactly why it is not clear, but in many societies today women are still considered second class citizens.  They are not allowed to vote or to drive.  In some places girls get killed if they attend school!

Here in the US we women have been voting for one hundred years.  We came a long way, but in some progressive companies there is still a gap in pay between men and women.  As shown in 60 minutes of April 15 the CEO of Sales Force was not aware of the gender gap in his own company. When it was pointed out to him he had to spend 3 million dollars in the first year that he implemented true gender equality.  

I have been a true liberal since I was a girl. These days my main challenge to liberals is how come they are so accepting and tolerant with gender bias among Muslims?  Is tolerance more important than equal rights for women?

Why are we all so afraid to criticize Muslim practices?

Why is it so impolite to upset the Muslims?

We are talking about equality for women!!!!  Women are half the population of the world!  We know for a hundred years that genetically their minds and intelligence are equal to men.  We are still fighting for it here.  But in the Muslim world we shrug our shoulders: It is their culture. It is their problem....  Change takes a long time so it will take them a long time...

I am happy to tell you that I found an ally among Muslims!  I met her at the gala of the Museum of Tolerance.  Soraya Deen: an advocate for women's rights in Islam.  I saw this tall lady standing there wearing a beautiful golden sari.  I was immediately drawn to talk to her and we exchanged phone numbers.

Soraya Deen with her friend Raheel Raza.

Raheel Raza received the Museum of Tolerance Award that evening at the Gala.

Raheel Raza is President of The Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow, founding member of The Muslim Reform Movement, Director of Forum for Learning, award winning journalist, public speaker, advocate for human rights, gender equality and dignity in diversity. 

Soraya Deen was active in opening Northern California's first female-led mosque in Berkeley. In April 2017. This is a place where women can participate and feel empowered. 

She has written an op-Ed article in sister-hood, an award winning digital magazine spotlighting the diverse voices of women of Muslim heritage. The title of her article: "Are Women Welcome at Paris Mosque?"

Here is an introduction written about Soraya in the sister-hood magazine:

Soraya Deen is the founder of the Muslim Women Speakers Movement, and Co-founder of Peacemoms (Promoting Christian Muslim Dialogue.) She is a professional speaker, spiritual activist, lawyer, Educator and Author.  Soraya was the first Katheeba at the inaugural prayer of Qalbu Women’s Mosque in Berkeley.

I met Soraya again on a Sunday morning in Van Nuys and we have agreed to join our voices.  Here are some of her questions to me that I am often asked:

1.    Do women enjoy equality with men in Judaism?

I have multiple answers to this question: 

Everyone needs to consider these simple numbers:

Muslim population of the world is one point eight billion that is 18 plus 8 zeros.

Jewish population of the world is fourteen million that is 14 plus 6 zeros. 

The number of Muslims is over a 100 times larger than the number of Jews.  This difference should be considered every time you try to make this comparison.

My second answer is that change comes much faster in Judaism.  Just some examples: Polygamy was outlawed by rabbis back in the 11^th century.  In main stream Islam men are still allowed to marry four women.  And many Muslims are importing this practice to Western countries.  All this information is available in the palm of your hand.  

An additional answer: Jews have many forms of observance available to them: orthodox, conservative, reform.  They have choices.  I believe the extreme practices limiting women’s freedom do exist, but they are less rampant.

2.   After hearing that I was born in Iran and moved to Israel when I was 4 years old, Soraya asked me: "Why did your parents leave Iran?"

My answer to this question starts with the Jews of Mashhad as I wrote "about me" in my blog:

The Jews of Mashhad were forced to practice Islam for one hundred and fifty years. They kept their Judaic traditions in hiding.  My parents were married in Mashhad then moved to Tehran where I was born.  In 1951 the entire family immigrated to Israel. The Mashadi community kept their specific traditions for decades throughout the world: Israel, New York, London, and Milan.

When the state of Israel was created it was everyone’s dream to live where they are free to practice their Judaism.

Soraya knew about stories like this, but she said hearing it from me made the stories more real and vivid.

I told her about my aunts and uncles given Muslim names: Soraya, Moussa, and Dawood.

She asked me if there was persecution, but I thought it was mainly intolerance. 

I asked her if she heard about the pogroms against Jews, she said she never heard the word.  The pogroms who drove many Jews to wonder around and seek better lives are not known to many Muslims.  But Soraya complained that in the mosques they are always taught to hate Jews, to the point where she is tired of it.  She talked about "men with beards" who keep telling women what to do, but she is on a mission to empower women to follow their own wishes and desires.

In a small way I am hoping to bring a change in equality for women around the world.  Maybe the day will come that all men and women will work hand in hand for a better world.

My Childhood Stories of Passover

If you check out Google Maps for this address: 40 Chachmey Israel, Tel Aviv, Israel, (שד' חכמי ישראל 40, תל אביב) you will find the house where I grew up in in Tel Aviv.
Look at Google Earth and you will see the latest photos taken of the boulevard and the three houses at this address. Go into the long yard till the house in the back and you will see a large cement back yard in front of the house. There was a cement bench here where my grandfather used to lay a round metal tray with the washed walnuts.  He used to dry the walnuts in the sun so that they will be ready to prepare the Charosset for the approaching Passover Seder. We lived in this house until I was in eighth grade. The house had two rooms a small entry, a kitchen and a bathroom.  Eleven of us lived in this house.  My younger siblings were born
here, my brother Moti and my sister Elana.  My paternal grandmother lived with us in the room on the left. She was a small woman, so we called her small grandma (bibi katan.)  My maternal grandparents with our three teenage uncles (Moshe, Shlomo and David) lived in the second room on the right.  This grandmother was a big woman, so we called her big grandma (bibi gadol.)

I am writing this story in memory of my beloved uncle Moshe Siman Tov who passed away in January 2018.  When he served in the Israeli army I slept in his folding bed as there was no place in our room for an extra bed.  In turn I slept in Shlomo and David’s bed when they were soldiers. 

All the kids used to get an extra week off school before the Passover holiday. The whole family was busy with thorough cleaning. Every shelf and drawer in the closets were emptied and scrubbed clean.  We layered a fresh shelf paper before placing any items back. Occasionally my mother would paint a wall or a window that needed refreshing.  Springtime was the occasion to move the winter clothes away and bring in summer clothes. This was the once or twice a year when we got new clothes. That made us very happy that spring is coming as the words of a popular song.  After my family had moved to our own house, we continued coming to this house for Passover Seders and family gatherings.  There was an opening between the two rooms to allow a place for a large table where four families dined and celebrated.  My aunt Soraya came with her four kids: Aviva, Itzik, Alon and Ronit.  She had bags with the food she prepared for her family and their own dishes and utensils. We were five and we also brought with us our foods and dishes. My uncles were still singles and they used to lead the Seder. They had bottles of wine on the table. The small shot glasses were placed on a round dish covering a bowl of water. We used to rinse the glasses in the water after each glass out of four we drank as the bitter herb (maror) we used romaine lettuce which was the only kind at the time in Israel.  The Charosset was on the table and we all loved it.  We used to watch our grandpa grind the walnuts with other sweet ingredient in a mortar and pestle.  The most amusing part in the Seder was the reading of Dayenu (that would have been enough.)  Uncle Moshe was reading it while the rest of us were each holding a green onion and hitting each other.  We walked from one person to the next making sure we don’t miss anyone and laughing out loud the whole time.

The first course was a fried steak of carp fish that each mom prepared for her family.  In the meat dishes we avoided using any beans which were not kosher for Passover.  For desert we had hot tea with sugar cubes.

After the meal the mothers were in the kitchen each washing her dishes and packing her bags.  The kids and the uncles read the rest of the Hagada singing Echad mi Yodea and Had Gadya.

These days of 2018 most my cousins and specifically the younger kids born to my uncles have created a WhatsApp group including eighteen cousins.  The group name is a very good sign.  (Siman mamash Tov.)  That is how I heard of my uncle’s death and I immediately got a plane ticket to fly to Israel.  I had the privilege to see all my cousins during the mourning period and we all brought up memories of the house on Chachmey Israel. 

What Does the Word Lesbian Mean in 1923?

I attended a talk with this title at a seminar in the UCLA department of Jewish Studies.  The speaker was a historian from Tel Aviv University Ofer Nur. 

I did not expect much from the talk so I was really surprised as to how the talk progressed and especially the comments from the diverse audience. We started talking just about the word lesbian, but the discussion evolved into cultural differences and human attitudes toward unusual and misunderstood behaviors.

The actual topic was: “What Does the Word Lesbian Mean in Palestine in 1923?”

This was how the seminar was advertised:

“This seminar is based on an unpublished manuscript of a novel, written in 1923 by Sara Rappeport (1890-1980) member of kibbutz Beit Alpha, entitled: “The Wives of Sheikh Husseini.” This exceptional novel describes a love affair between a kibbutz member and an Arab Sheikh that ends in marriage, a baby boy named Ishmael, and membership in the Haifa branch of the Palestine communist party. The word Lesbian appears in the novel and Nur explores its meaning and context. The use of the word “Lesbian” in Hebrew in Israel begins in the late 1950's. Going back to an isolated use of the word in 1923 can teach us something new about same-sex relations in the imagination of those who lived in Mandatory Palestine and in Israel. Dr. Nur will reconstruct the context in which this exceptional novel was written and the relationship of the writer with her literary mentor at the University of Gottingen during WWI: the German thinker Lou Andreas Salomé (1861-1937). Rappeport’s novel realizes the particular variety of feminism that Salomé espoused.”

Sara Rappeport, the writer of this novel is described as progressive/radical Bohemian, German feminist asking the question: “How do women live in Patriarchy?”

While at the university Sara studied chemistry and her husband studied mathematics/philosophy.  They also belonged to a literary club named “Salome,” lead by Lou Andreas Salome.  The book “The Wives of Sheikh Husseini” was written as a poly-amoric fantasy. We saw the quote from this 1923 fantasy including the word Lesbian: Women used to pick wives for their sons and nephews by talking to the girls and even touching and fondling them with “almost lesbian thoroughness.”

The discussion was around the history of the word homosexuality, which was coined in 1860 in medical and literary publications.  Any previous references in the bible and other sources refer to specific unusual behaviors that were not referred to as homosexuality.

One of the questions asked referred to sheikhs and their harems: “How common was it among their “wives” to be lesbian?”  Dr. Nur stressed that this is a “loaded” question and it is certainly “politically incorrect” to ask.  However he himself did ask this question at Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva.  A female Muslim professor answered yes, it is common after much hand wringing.

The following discussion was about East/West differences in the attitudes toward touching, hand holding, fondling among friends and relatives.  One guest commented that American Indians refer to trans-genders as “Two Spirits” and they are considered higher spirits and are given male/female names simultaneously.  Another comment: In French the word lesbian could be “Les Bien” meaning The Good!

This was a surprising seminar as one narrow topic in Jewish history turned into a survey of humanity, east west attitudes toward touching and public displays of affection, and global progress of understanding behaviors such as homosexuality or mental illness.  

About the speaker:

Ofer Nordheimer Nur teaches at the Multidisciplinary Program in the Humanities and the NCJW Gender and Women’s Studies Program at Tel Aviv University. Primarily a historian, he received his PhD in 2004 at the department of history at UCLA. He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre d’Études Juives at the EHESS in Paris from 2003-2005 and at the Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 2005-2007. He’s the author of Eros and Tragedy: Jewish Male Fantasies and the Masculine Revolution of Zionism (Academic Studies Press, 2014).

The Ego-Self and the Higher-Self

We learned a mantra at my Naam yoga class that has to do with the ego.  It is one of my favorite mantras as it is meaningful, it has a great melody and personally it is powerful. The purpose of the mantra is to balance the chatter and voices in your head.  On one hand, our ego has a loud voicd that keeps on chattering and directing our thoughts.  On the other hand we all have a "higher self."  Many cynics laugh at this concept of a "higher self," simply because it is very quiet.  It is no more than a whisper.  This is why this mantra is so important.  For a minute or two we sing the mantra and try to quiet our thoughts and carefully listen to that whisper of our higher self.  It is not always rewarding, but once in a while we do get a new insight, a new idea or a thought that enlightens us: Aaahhh...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25YCfRo2b3E

At the religious school where I teach the Rabbi was teaching the kids about the Ego-self, the Higher-self, the soul and experiencing the love of God. 

My colleague who attended this teaching wrote to me: “It was fascinating and I personally came out of it as a better person.”

I am asking myself: What is a better person?  What makes you a better person?

Personally I am happy to be aware that there is a higher-self somewhere in my identity.  I am happy to know that it is possible for me to listen to it’s quiet whisper. Little by little I may get a glimpse at the higher qualities within me that I can utilize in my life.

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Preview YouTube video Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu - Guru Mantra With Lyrics - Sanjeevani Bhelande - Devotional