Day 11: Lefty Films and Brown Cafe's

Last night I went with the roommates and their friends Ethan and Meno. We began the evening at a viewing of an artistic montage about the Lebanon war (no official name yet, but check out the cartoon if you can read Hebrew).

Although I could appreciate the artistic value of the film the messages really angered me, almost to the point of walking out. It was a consensus among us that the loss of a human life is tragic no matter what, but this film completely neglected the actual facts of the war and promoted the message that the war isn't about terrorism, but about power and THAT pissed me off.

So after our emotions were a bit riled up we headed over to what Meno called a Brown Cafe'. Meno is from the Netherlands and has been in Israel/Palestinian territories doing conflict managment training as well as teen programs between Israeli and Palestinian youth. According to him, a brown cafe' is your hole in the wall, earthy, organic, cheap, hang out. What an accurate description. We sat at this long wooden table and you half expected someone to jump up and start singing 'Lavi Bohem'. Some ate soup, others bread platters and there was plenty of wine and beer to go around. One of the nice things about long wooden tables is that there are constantly new people sitting down. Although one might see this an encrouching on one's space, we just kept engaging in new conversations with new people.

It ended up being a great night with some Rosh Chodesh singing, jazz music playing, and GOOD chocolate cake. Here are some photos from the night. If you are interested in seeing more you can check out the Brown Cafe' album on my snapfish account. Just visit snapfish. Login name: shrosin@gmail.com Password: shirah112


The Sarahs and I before the Lefty Film


At the Brown Cafe'


Bassin and Tasman

Tomorrow we are hosting a Shabbat picnic in the park. I just returned from the shuk and have stocked up on berekahs, rugalach, and pitot. Other food will be brought by the other folks: Tali Golan, David Bernay, Jay Rosen, my new friend Daniella whoes last name I do not know, Tali's friend Eric and possibly Amy Born and her mysterious boyfriend who arrive sometime during the day. The weather has been beautiful here but HOT!! perhaps we may even sneak in a game of scrabble or two...