Wiesenthal

It's funny the things that can show up in your life all around the same time. On Wednesday I went to the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem. At the zoo there was a 104 year old parrot.
Here is the description of the parrot.

Here is a picture of the parrot.


This leads me to my next thing. Being that Simon Wiesenthal, a Shoa survivor and dedicated individual who personally tracked down and brought to justice approximately 1,100 mass-murderering Nazis died in his sleep on Tuesday. On Friday was his funeral. I went to the funeral with my parents and Liat in order to witness and pay tribute to someone so important to the Jewish people, and yet so under-appreciated. Although he has earned many awards from goverments all over the world, everyone I mention his name to either has no idea who he was or only recognizes his name, but has no recollection of what he did that made his name famous.

To read about him you should go to the Wiesenthal Center historical biography of Simon Wiesenthal.

To just read a short description about him go to Yediot Aranot's article about him.

Favorite Pastime

What is the story behind this?
Well, the story is that there is a little Haredi boy kicking a mannequin around Nachlaot. I guess this is what happens when you don't let your kids play competitive sports.

Drum Beach

Today was fun. We went to Om beach, like I always do. But today way Friday afternooon, so it was very crowded and shamefully fun. There are these misters by the bar that shoot mist out onto people who go under them when it gets hot. They are always there and are always on, but today there were tons of people dancing under them. There were so many people dancing around them that they had to bring out tables on the side for people to dance on just to make more room. All this at 4 in the afternoon. Very nice.


Later, Jesse, Jon and I went to Drum Beach to hear the Friday drum session in the evening at around sunset. It's in Tel Aviv so there is usually a pretty eclectic crowd. I got a few pictures, but they don't explain much of what was going on.

First we walked in and saw the sign Drum Beach and could only hear a few drums. Then we saw a few people playing drums.

After, we noticed a big circle with people doing Capuera complemented by a nice sunset to the left and a beautiful view of the city and the beach on the right.

Shuk People

Today we were buying food for Shabbat in Machane Yehudah when I noticed out of the corner of my eye, an old man, in a white t-shirt, and a comb-over. I knew he looked familiar, so I looked harder and then noticed, it was Ehud Olmert, the former mayor of Jerusalem and current cabinet member in the Sharon government. I showed Liat and Jon and we took pictures. It was kind of funny seeing the him in a white t-shirt and slacks, bargaining with some guy at the shuk, and surrounded by a security team of about 10 people.

Wedding

I just thought this looked cool.

A wedding at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem.


And then half a block later - protest against the use of animals as food.