Eucalyptus Restaurant

The Eucalyptus Restaurant at the Khutsot HaYotzer artists' colony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutzot_Hayotzer is convenient to the Jaffa Gate as well as Beit haConfederatzia; the Hirsch Theater at Beit Shmuel; and the King David, Citadel, and Waldorf Astoria hotels. It is expensive and good.

The menu indicates which items include guten and which are, or can be prepared, vegan. As it is a kosher meat restaurant, no worries if you are sensitive to dairy products. A big plus, they understand food sensitivities and can tell you with assurance what is in every dish.

COpyright 2017 Jane S. Fox

Iolanthe

Encore Theatre's production of Iolanthe was one of the best I've seen and heard. Their articulation was so clear I understood almost every word, including the topical additions never heard before. Like other contemporary productions, this one gave microphones to softer-voiced singers. It worked. Unless you looked for the mic, you couldn't tell which of the principals had them.

Copyright 2016 Jane Fox

Israel and Morocco

As soon as I got the notice that the Andalusian Orchestra of Ashdod would be playing at Beit Shmuel, I ordered tickets. Wonderful concert and experience as always. The conductor asked how many people understood the lyrics. About half the hands went up -- not that he could see. And how many do not? The rest of us raised our hands. "Next time," he told us, "Those of you who don't understand should sit next to those who do and ask for explanations." At some of the other concerts, they have projected Hebrew translations on a screen.

The orchestra brought three solo singers, all of whom appear regularly in Morocco as well as Israel. Strange that. There are no direct flights.

Copyright 2015 Jane S. Fox

Archaeology and the Bar Kokhba Rebellion

Tuesday's lecture at Beit Shmuel on the contribution of archaeology to to research into the Bar Kokhba rebellion, reminded me both of the contribution of coins to our knowledge of the past and of the difficulty of interpreting the meaning of the presence of any artifact in a particular place.

For dates after the invention of coins, they can be better than pottery for dating a location. That coin showing Hadrian's likeness didn't get there before Hadrian became emperor.

But coins are easier than pottery to carry from place to place. The presence of a Bar Kokhba coin in Hungary does not make anyone think that the rebellion spread that far. I suppose you could write an article about the likelihood of a Roman soldier carrying the coin there versus the possibility that a string of itinerant traders brought it there. Or even that a refugee carried it as a reminder of the hope that faded in so few years.

This makes it difficult to interpret the four Bar Kikhba coins found in the north of Israel as a sign that the rebellion spread that far.

Here in Jerusalem, even in a popular lecture on archaeology you hear of very new findings. Tuesday we heard about a village in the north that showed the same signs of destruction at about the same date as the places the Romans definitely destroyed farther south as they put down the rebellion.

Copyright 2012 Jane S. Fox

From Baroque to Iraq

Monday's Etnachta concert was beautifully played Tellemann, Vivaldi, and Buxtehude. From that we walked briskly to Beit Shmuel for an evening of Iraqi nostalgia, anecdotes, and popular music from the 1930s through the 1950s.

An accomplished singer and six wonderful musicians started the music at 8, when the scheduled start time -- which is to say before about half the audience was seated. The evening's MC and narrator also sang tunefully, and so did the audience -- except for us to whom all those Arabic songs were new.

At least 2/3s of the audience had come from Iraq in 1950-1951. They sang along, which is always fun, and vocally remembered the scenes and experiences. "Paradise," the narrator called it. Hindsight remembers 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) but surely not the intensity of the discomfort. They'd brought children and grandchildren. The atmosphere was rather like a high school reunion.

The Jewish community lived in Iraq 2,500 years, having followed the prophet Jeremiah's admonition to build houses and plant trees in their exile, for return to the land of Israel would take many years. By many years he probably meant 70, but you know how quickly time passes when you're busy.

Copyright 2011 Jane S. Fox

Israel Flamenco

At last night's flamenco ( http://www.flamenconatural.co.il ) concert at Beit Shmuel we sat in the center of the seventh row of an auditorium with just the right slope. Nine women tapped and stamped, legs mostly hidden beneath long skirts. Their bodies said, "You don't need to see the mechanics of the artistry." Arms, and hands, and stance are always visible, and the lone male dancer provided contrast.

One barefoot for some, ballet slippers for others, so not-flamenco dance, demonstrated the dancers' wider training.

The male singer had and authentic your-voice-won't-last-if-you-go-on-like-that sound.

Beit Shmuel's Hirsch Theater is a popular, smaller venue. Last week we saw Ruddigore there.

Copyright 2011 Jane S. Fox