Jack discovers a solar-powered trash compactor in Jerusalem. I stepped off the bus this evening and standing on the sidewalk before me was this great alien looking device. It was about two-thirds my height, a bit wider, but square, with flashing lights emitting from the top. This device, while it appeared to come from another planet […]
While most Israelis take pride in having made the desert bloom, some of the imported “blooms” have been contested over the years as threats to the ecosystem. In a land where Biblical passages echo everywhere, it’s sometimes disconcerting to realize just how dramatically the face of the landscape has been changed in recent years, and […]
Rocking chairs seem to be making a comeback these days. They are great for breastfeeding, great for reading. Great for hanging around in a forest. We featured Yael Mer’s simple and stylin’ Slipper Rocker, slippers and a rocking chair rolled into one. Today we bring you the recycled creations of Guy Arzi and his Rocky […]
Our readers have also been asking about organic gardening during the shmita (or Sabbatical) year in the land of Israel. Are there any loopholes around the halacha? What does shmitta mean? We love the idea of shmitta. The biblically ordained one year out of seven when the land is left to lie fallow (this applies […]
Environmental entrepreneur, Eyal Biger (right), the founder of Israel’s Good Energy Initiative. For every car that drives, every plane that flies and every appliance that gets plugged into the wall, a price is paid by the environment. The burning of fossil fuels for use in transport, industry and our day-to-day lives, emits carbon dioxide and […]
Bring out the tissues. When we heard the news that a 15 metre fin whale had made it to Ashkelon, in Israel, our hearts filled with joy. We know whales have come to these shores before. Take Jona and the Whale story, for example. Our hearts sunk. The young female calf found swimming off the […]
You’ve already read about mulch, rot and the need to invigorate when composting, now that the snow has cleared, it’s time to give the garden and plants and trees some energy and care again. My compost bin is made from two old wooden pallets, found abandoned on the streets. There are three fixed sides, screwed […]
It’s hardly surprising that “Survivor” is a hit: who doesn’t come home from work and immediately hunger to watch white trash in bikini tops hurling bleeped insults at each other over a picturesque campfire? Is it just us? Anyway, it turns out that “Survivor” is not just the last refuge of the dregs of every […]
We’ve been to visit the straw bale legends Bill and Athena Stein in Arizona. Israelis are getting into their own groove building with strawbale. Watch the time-lapsed video and the creation of a straw bale geodesic dome, at Kibbutz Lotan in the Arava Valley. Lately, we are of the notion that it’s more green […]
Israelis, as the saying goes, are like a cactus fruit, because they are prickly on the outside but sweet in the middle. We kind of think Israelis are like bamboo too: strong as steel but soft and smooth. (If you are into eco-chic, you’ll know why we are talking about bamboo.) Thanks to Designist Dream, […]
In 1994, Jerusalem chef Johnny Goric cooked a lunch and dinner for Yassar Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, during their peacemaking talks. He was also, more recently, the chef to King Abdullah II of Jordan. But besides feeding kings and some of the world’s most influential leaders, he is also cooking in the name […]
For years it has seemed that Israel and Thailand were enjoying a trade agreement that should keep both sides happy: we send Thailand our pushy and notoriously litterbug tourists, and they send us their illegal workers to scrub floors for half price. But it seems that Israel has something else to offer Thailand in addition […]
Jerusalem, the Holy City for three religions, is often known as Jerusalem of Gold due to the yellowy-pink stones from which the buildings are cut. Until the winter that is. We’ve had heavy snowfall in the city this past 24 hours covering it in white and leaving schools, businesses and buses at a standstill (check […]
Kids in Beit Shemesh schools–religious and secular alike–will soon be learning about environmental issues. A new initiative on the part of Sviva Israel, a religious environmental NGO, is bringing discussion of ecological topics into the classroom. In particular, kids will learn how to recognize their “ecological footprint” and be encouraged to tread lightly with some […]
This recently published book’s full title is ‘A Crack in the Earth: A Journey up Israel’s Rift Valley,’ and it is just that; in 2004 Jerusalem-based writer and translator Haim Watzman took 2 weeks to travel up the Jordan Valley from Eilat in the south to Kiryat Shmonah in the far north, meeting a wide […]