CD players, the World Wide Web, e-mail and UPS can bring a lot of Israel to you.
But you can’t fax a falafel.
And what’s an Israeli experience without a falafel, dripping with tahini, topped with french fries and followed with maybe a little Israeli chocolate?
The Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay has the solution to this cultural dilemma.
It’s called the Virtual Israel Festival and it’s being held in real time.
The only “virtual” part will be the setting of the Sunday, May 17 event: Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek rather than Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel.
“We’re trying to recreate the spirit of being in Israel,” says Helen Lowenstein, East Bay co-chair of “Israel at 50,” the Jewish community’s yearlong celebration of Israel’s golden anniversary.
“There will be a shuk [market] with Israeli products, an Israeli dance troupe, zimria [singing] with kids and musicians playing in different parts of the facility.”
All that and falafel, too.
Lowenstein says the festival will feature food, arts and crafts, games, storytelling by Bay Area yarnspinner Seth Castleman, shpiels by Diane Naparst and concerts by several local synagogues’ youth choirs.
Israeli crafts and fine art will be for sale, as will Judaica, books and Israeli chocolate.
For those seeking the cerebral, there will be a series of lectures ranging from the sacred to the profane — Kabbalah to Israeli politics. And Israel’s Technion as well as ORT, the East Bay federation and other local Jewish agencies will set up displays.
All visitors celebrating a golden anniversary or 50th birthday this year are eligible for special gifts.
Hedera Dance Troupe, composed of students and soldiers and touted as one of Israel’s best folk-dancing groups, will perform Yemenite, Chassidic, Moroccan, Ladino and traditional kibbutz dances.
While turning 50 is a great excuse for a party, the Virtual Israel Festival also commemorates the importance of having a Jewish state.
“Just [Israel’s] being there is significant,” says Lowenstein. Reflecting on last month’s observance of Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day, she added, “If there had been an Israel then, [6 million Jews] wouldn’t have perished.”
Virtual Israel will also trace Israel’s rise from a Third World country to a major force on the international economic and political scene.
“Fifty years is a milestone that urges people to think not only of Israel’s achievements but the energy, sweat and, unfortunately, sorrow and tears that went into the creation of the state of Israel,” says Riva Gambert of the Israel Center of the East Bay federation.
Israel’s independence “is always a time for community gathering, but this year there’s an emotional aspect to it,” Gambert adds.
The day will conclude with a “living menorah” ceremony in which human beings take the place of candles. Each of the seven branches of the menorah — which is the symbol of the state of Israel — will stand for a different aspect of Israel’s history, as embodied by a pioneer, a soldier who fought in the War of Independence, an active member of the Israeli Defense Force, an artist and others.
“We’re starting with the vision, the chalutzim [pioneers], the people who started with the vision of creating a new state,” says Zahava Dehan, the event’s co-chair. “We’re ending with the future, the young generation that keeps the dream alive.”
The Virtual Israel Festival is made possible by a grant from the East Bay federation’s Jewish Community Foundation.