By GREER FAY CASHMANChef Assaf Granit(photo credit: TAMMY BAR SHAY)
There’s an old Yiddish saying, “Az men ken nisht ariber geit men arinter,” which translates roughly as “If you can’t climb over it, get in under it.” In modern universal parlance this means that when a door closes, a window opens. That’s what happened with the Arava Australian Partnership (AAP), which works in collaboration with the Zionist Federation of Australia.For the past three years, AAP has selected Zionist youth group leaders to go from Australia to Israel for summer camps in the Arava. This year, such people could not be sent due to coronavirus lockdowns in both countries. But organizers, thinking out of the box, saw no reason why Australians who were temporarily in Israel on study courses and other gap-year programs, could not be recruited for the summer camps, so that there would not be a year in the AAP relationship in which Australians did not attend the summer camp. AAP reached out on social media and received a heartwarming response.In the final analysis, the new cohort of summer camp leaders comprised Tari Sztokman from Melbourne, Mia Parry from Perth, Noa Mayshar from Brisbane and Sagi Maor, who lives permanently in Israel.AAP coordinator Stacy Hayman was thrilled not only by the success of the endeavor, but also by the fact that the east, west and north of Australia were represented in this concerted effort.Sztokman and Parry were on a break from their gap-year program at Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem and jumped at the opportunity to spend time doing community work in the Arava in addition to exploring a part of Israel with which they were not familiar.During the first week of camp the Aussie leaders quickly settled in and actively engaged with more than 100 Arava campers in a safe setting while simultaneously teaching them about Australia and bringing the Aussie spirit to camp. Mayshar, a recent graduate of a kibbutz ulpan program and a future lone soldier, commented that she had applied to be a camp leader because she wanted to get a more in-depth look at the life and communities in the South. She found it amazing how quickly she and her fellow Aussies had become an integral part of the camp.■ APROPOS AUSTRALIAN Jewry in general, COVID-19 has been instrumental in getting many of them to know more about Israel and leading Israeli personalities than they would under regular circumstances. Every Sunday, at 1 p.m. Israel time, there is a social media program that can be accessed on Zoom or on the Facebook page of the Zionist Federation of Australia. Nearly all the interviews, speeches and conversations have been recorded and are available on YouTube on the ZFA channel. Many Australian personalities, both Jewish and non-Jewish also appear on the Lockdown Learning programs, but it seems that the majority are from Israel.Coming up this Sunday is former Jerusalem mayor and current Likud MK Nir Barkat. It’s just as well that he wasn’t scheduled to be Down Under in person, because right now, even though he’s feeling well, he happens to be in isolation – a factor that doesn’t prevent him from appearing on a social media platform. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been impossible to bring all these Israelis to Australia within such a short time frame. And the cost of travel and accommodation, let alone fees for those who demand them, would have been prohibitive. Some of the other Israelis who have appeared in recent weeks include Natan Sharansky, Gil Hovav, Isaac Herzog, Rachel Azaria, Moshe Ya’alon, Naftali Bennett and Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Yaakov Katz.■ THIS WEEK Katz appeared on Zoom in another part of the world – this time the United States. He was a finalist in the non-fiction category in the annual Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature awards.Ordinarily the awards ceremony is a gala event held in alternate years in Jerusalem and New York. Due to the pandemic it was held online and moderated by Rabbi David Wolpe.
Sami Rohr was a well-known philanthropist, who also had a great love for Jewish literature. He believed that writers on Jewish subjects should be encouraged and their work promoted.Even though he gave generously to a variety of causes, after he died, his children decided that the most appropriate memorial for him would be a Jewish literature prize that would immortalize his name and help Jewish writers to become more widely known.And so, the prestigious Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature was inaugurated in 2007, with the $100,000 prize awarded for fiction one year, and non-fiction the next.Following introductory remarks by George Rohr, an excerpt from the winning book Kafka’s Last Trial: The Case of a Literary Legacy by Benjamin Balint was read by Sami Rohr’s granddaughter Daniella Rohr Adelsberg. In accepting the award, Balint said: “Literature holds the power to tap into great energies of our heritage, to offer a more coherent vision of who we are, and to carry forward the long procession of Jewish experiences and ideas.”The finalists Mikhal Dekel, author of Tehran Children: A Holocaust Refugee Odyssey on the escape of Jewish children of the Holocaust era from Poland to Tehran; Sarah Hurwitz, author of Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life – in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There), which shares the rediscovery of the beauty and timeless lessons of Judaism; and Katz, who wrote Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power, all spoke about their works and what motivated them. Katz has written two previous books, the first Israel Vs. Iran: The Shadow War with Yoaz Hendel, who is currently communications minister, and the second The Weapons Wizards with veteran military correspondent Amir Bohbot. His books have been translated into several languages. These days a common question put to him by friends and acquaintances is: “So what’s your next book going to be about?”■ IF IT wasn’t so tragic, it would be supremely entertaining. The repartee between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid is so well synchronized, that if one didn’t know differently, one could easily assume that it was rehearsed. Both are charismatic, eloquent and intelligent and both are adept at hurling brickbats with aplomb. They also look as if they’re enjoying it, not only when flinging the insult, but also when being on the receiving end. The television cameras capture every smirk and triumphant smile, and though each of them occasionally looks angry, for the most part they are radiating pleasure from each other’s gift for language.■ HAIFA READER Tova Teitelbaum, a teacher and short story writer, enjoyed a recent Grapevine item about an elderly lady who got the better off a rude and uncooperative bank clerk. Like many people Teitelbaum is frustrated by the recorded voice on the phone that tells her to press this button and that button when she’s trying to make an appointment, pay a bill or access information. When she finally gets a human voice, she discloses, she often says “I’m almost 100 years old, please help me get things done.” It usually works!!■ AMONG THE donors of medical equipment to Israel is the government of Taiwan, which this week donated 8,000 disposable hospital gowns, 2,000 items of disposable protective clothing and 10,000 N95 face masks to the Shamir Medical Center in Be’er Yaakov. In making the donation the Taiwan government was represented by Kuo-Boug Chang, the representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Tel Aviv. The hospital was represented by Dr. Osnat Levtzion-Korach, director-general of Shamir Medical Center. The two then participated in a webinar on the prevention and control of COVID-19 in which Shamir physicians and those of the Yunlin Branch of the National Taiwan University Hospital shared information and opinions.■ ROUNDING Off the summer celebrity chefs project in the various hotels in the Dan chain is internationally renowned Jerusalem-born Assaf Granit, whose original extremely popular Machneyuda restaurant in the capital’s Mahaneh Yehuda market mushroomed into a chain of restaurants in Israel and Europe. Granit will join Oved Alfia, the executive chef at the Dan Tel Aviv on Wednesday, August 26, in putting together a menu to delight the palate. Granit has become not only a highly respected chef, but also a television personality, author and lecturer. His love for creative cuisine mixed with a liberal dose of tradition, was gleaned from his Polish-born grandmother, who developed her love for cooking by helping her own grandmother in the kitchen.Granit has come a long way from his grandmother’s kitchen, and today is welcome in the world’s most exclusive kitchens.Cooking in pairs or groups is always a learning experience because every chef – in fact everyone who cooks on a regular basis has some trick, technique, special ingredient or unique recipe that is not generally known to other people. Therefore, it will be interesting to find out what Granit and Alfia will learn from each other.greerfc@gmail.com
