Yom Kippur 2007 / 5768 - Images

Tel Aviv 2007

Top: Sunset in Tel Aviv

Middle: The port of Yafo (Jaffa)

Bottom: Just before the sun touches the horizon on Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur 2006 / 5767

As mentioned in an earlier post, Yom Kippur is the most solemn and serious of all Jewish holidays whose themes centre on atonement and repentance. The idea is to fast and centre yourself and think about the sins you committed over the past year. Unlike Christian confession, it is not about confessing your sins, going out and doing them again and then confessing. Yom Kippur is about repenting for your sins and trying not to repeat them while making yourself a better person. Yom Kippur goes by the Jewish calendar of the 10th day of Tishrei (the seventh month).

Ideally total absence from food and drink begins half an hour before the sun touches the horizon and end the next day when the set has completely set behind the horizon . Thus, Yom Kippur last for 25 hours if you discount the half an hour no-eating rule prior to sundown.
2008 or the year 5769 in the Jewish calendar will be my third Yom Kippur. Below I explain the difference experiences of Yom Kippur for 2006 followed by posts of 2007 and this year’s 2008.

Yom Kippur 2006/ 5767
I was living in Manchester at the time and had made some friends through my Hebrew lessons who invited me to spend Yom Kippur with them at their halls of residence. We had to dress smartly and bring our own services (knives and forks). Now at the time, I had only decided to become a Jew in May/June of 2006 and so was not clued up on all the Jewish holidays. I bought myself an amazing purple and grey pringle (argyle) jumper for the event and my friend gave me a Kippa (men’s skullcap) for the event. So I turn up at the Yom Kippur dinner with a bottle of wine, thinking it will be a party. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The kids arranged a wonderful table filled with Jewish food like matzo balls and one girl made Iranian rice which was potatoes at the bottom of a pan and rice above it. Today I think it still is my favourite food. When I asked her why she made Iranian food at a Jewish holiday she explained that her father was an Iranian Jew. Looking around the room, I realised how diverse Jews are; there were as mentioned, Iranian Jews, British blonde Jews, South African, Israelis and now, a new addition to the family; me. At the time they thought I was Israeli and didn’t explain to me the traditions. I on the other hadn’t assumed they knew that I was new to Jewish culture or that we had to fast. So I didn’t eat much – I never feel comfortable eating in public. It wasn’t until later than I knew about the 25 hour fast.

After dinner we made our way to the Synagogue. It was an Orthodox Temple, the strictest form, and I was converting to Conservative Judaism, a little more liberal than Orthodox Judaism but more traditional than Reform Judaism. The Temple was divided into male sections (at the front) and female sections (at the back). All men, as in all Jewish places of worship were obliged to wear a Kippa. The services I think lasted between 2-4 hours and we read from a Torah in Hebrew. As it had only been reading Hebrew for about a month I could make out the first word and then nothing – so I listened to the Rabbi pray and tried to soak in the experience, focusing on my sins and how I could improve myself. The kind man next to me kept showing me the page we should be on and somehow I kept track. Half way through the service we had a speech about redemption (in English) from a man who studied in Bnei Brak, a religious centre just outside Tel Aviv (which made all the old ladies nod with approval).

After the service we returned home to begin our fast. Now Yom Kppur fell on a Sunday and many of the kids didn’t have lectures the next day or were planning to sleep in and miss them order to make the fast more bearable. I on the other hand was already starving by 11pm and had eight hours of lectures on Monday. As I didn’t eat properly I allowed myself to have a cup of tea in the morning and set out for my day. During lectures not eating was okay – but by 4pm I was feeling faint and Yom Kippur, if I remember correctly was meant to end at 7.37pm. By 6.30pm I made my way home and bought a bunch of chocolates for the end of the fast. Most other kids were going to eat dinner again together but my Jewish friend wasn’t a strict observer and so I was to dine alone. You know when you get so hungry that after a point you don’t feel the hunger – well it was like that. By 7pm I was checking the clock every two minutes but by 7.37pm I had actually forgotten then Yom Kippur was over than I didn’t break open the box of chocolates until around 8pm. Then I made dinner and ate with Laverne who at the time lived above me.

My first Yom Kippur. And what did I learn? I research beforehand and that food should not be taken for granted. I was thankful for my Jewish posse for inviting me to dinner and for showing me my friend steps into Judaism. And my sins? Too many to think of. Id need a week of fasting to redeem them

Black and White Jerusalem

A-hole Bouncer

A few weeks ago I had some friends come over from Israel. They were staying in Limassol and one night we arranged to go out. After going to some bars we wound up outside Replay in the tourist area, opposite the now defunct Galatex. A couple of my female friends went up to ask how much entrance fee was to the two bouncers who were flanked by their harem of women (who I can only assume where their assortment of fun for the night). One of the bouncers told them ‘this club is for Cypriots only’ and with the water bottle he was holding flicked my friends with water, spraying them from head to toe.

I was tempted show them the error of their ways, by they are uneducated buffoons. They came down towards us ready for a fight but as I am on parole and my gang was causing havoc elsewhere I was outnumbered and had to find the next best thing: the police. As predicted the police did nothing; perhaps because they felt overdressed for the club or were probably digesting their souvla.

Luckily my friends took it lightly. Being Israeli they are tougher and didn’t let a brain-dead bouncer ruin their night, but I was incensed. They were guests in my country and faced discrimination in the service sector (tourism) that is meant to cater for them. Instead they suffered discrimination in the tourist area! No wonder tourist numbers are dwindling if we treat our guests like this.

I realize that this post will in effect achieve nothing as the management of Replay probably doesn’t understand anything in English (or Greek for that matter; written or spoken or drawn in pictures).

It’s not like my friends suffered a huge injustice in the grand scheme of things, but that’s not what this letter page is for, is it? I am aware that there are much worse things. But this is the least I can (legally) do for them. It will show people what a dump tourist area is; hopefully we’ll start treating our guests better and maybe people will boycott Replay (wishful thinking). Now I realize you can’t paint everyone with the same brush but this is an example of the bad service and discrimination in Cyprus to the people that run its most important industry. Furthermore, my friends were respectful and sober. Unlike the bouncer and the service. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

After they left, my friends went back to Tel Aviv where they caught a connecting flight to Istanbul to continue their vacation (out of respect for me and for Cyprus they didn’t go through the airport in the occupied areas). I don’t doubt that the Turks provided better service.

The Rise of a New Financial Capital

With New York crashed, London waning and Frankfurt not strong enough a new financial world capital is set to emerge out of the ashes of the recession that we have witnessed. We all know that empires cannot last forever and New York’s financial empire has collapsed. It was generally assumed that London would carry the flame but LDN too has lost its punch. Frankfurt and Paris have also lost influence and stature and will remain powerful only because of the EU. So now we are set to see which new world city will dictate the world’s financial terms. With China emerging as the world’s newest superpower after its Olympics it is presumed that the financial capital will go eastwards to Asia. The USA may be in turmoil but communist China is rolling around in cash (I guess we were wrong thinking that communist isn’t profitable). Shanghai, China’s financial capital looks set to become the new world capital of finance and will prove this by 2010 and wants to be the main financial centre in the world by 2010. But as with every empire’s heart, there are always smaller rivals. Even from inside China we see Shanghai being contested by Hong Kong, which has for many decades now been a financial hub in Asia, alongside Singapore and Tokyo who are also perfect applicants for the seat of financial capital. According to the Washington Post: Tokyo has lifted some regulations on banks and insurance groups and has begun to do something it resisted for a long time: print securities documents in English. The Singapore government… through its massive sovereign wealth funds has increased its private equity and other financial holdings in recent years and is said to be looking to invest in more distressed assets in the United States.

And there is a newcomer on the stage. Ten years ago Dubai was merely a port in the desert, now it looks like it will take on urban monoliths like Tokyo and New York. Dubai succeeding New York? It’s a travesty – but then again many things in finance can be. It certainly has become the Islamic New York and has stated that it wants to develop the same world-wide stature as the Big Apple. Researchers looked at infrastructure, foreign direct investment, cost of living and the presence and a fair business environment. The four frontrunners are: Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai and Mumbai. All new cities in rising economies. Cities like Tokyo and Hong Kong are not perceived to be as powerful – despite not collapsing the way NYC did. And although Moscow has the most billionaires in the world (I believe with over 38) it will gain influence in the future – although it won’t replace New York as the world financial centre… yet. But I believe it will become the most powerful European financial hub after Frankfurt and certainly the main one in Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia.

Who would you choose? Personally I’d choose Paris; but the West’s heyday is over. It will inevitably have to be an Eastern city. I feel China has earned it – but China seems to be taking over everything nowadays – plus a communist country managing the world’s finances? Doesn’t that strike you as odd? Hong Kong perhaps? But like Tokyo it has lost its influence. Talking of Tokyo – its sushi definitely puts it into second place, for me anyway. I wish it could be Sao Paolo which is Latin America’s Wall Street – who wouldn’t like a little Samba with stocks? But it is too early yet for Brazil. Moscow would be my first choice, but Russia is not financially powerful just yet. So I guess my choice would be Mumbai. It’s different, it’s friendly! It’s India! And you gotta love those Bollywood movies!

(Plus they have just banned smoking – read below – and are in my good books).

Pics top to bottom: New York, Tokyo, Mumbai.

India: a Smoke-free Subcontinent

A few days ago India has become the latest country to ban smoking. However, the Indians have met the smoking ban with dejection saying that now they cannot socialize as easily at work and that coming and going to smoke takes a long time. One man said smoking took him 5 minutes now it takes him up to 20 minutes when trying to find access to smoke at work. But the authorities hope that people will turn their annoyance at not being able to smoke into an effort to stop the habit completely. According to the BBC ‘smoking kills 900,000 people in India every year, 2,500 people in a day and 102 people every hour…40% of all cancer cases in India are due to smoking’ so it is obviously in their interest to ban smoking in public places.

It is said that people smoke less when they are unable to smoke in the workplace or anywhere else. This fact in my opinion is true. In the UK 400,000 people have quit smoking within the year of the ban being introduced and I myself have stopped smoking completely this year (despite there being no ban in Cyprus). Although, we are still permitted to smoke outdoors while at work (as there is no Cypriot legislation against it) my flippant smoking habit stopped on the 8th July 2008 and on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, it would be three months since I’ve stopped smoking. So I am behind the ban.

In India, the fear is that people will now smoke more at home and that people will now chew tobacco instead of smoke it. The anti-smokers say that this legislation is overdue and are please it has become law, however they worry about it being implemented. With a country of over one billion it will be difficult to do so – especially as India has more pressing issues, such as poverty, healthcare and corruption. Still the ban on smoking won’t do any harm.

Greek law states that smoking is forbidden in all public and private workplaces and all areas related to health care and education and public transport; but in typical Greek fashion the law provides a loophole which makes it voluntary. A stricter smoking ban is said to be passed in 2010. If that happens, I assume Cyprus will follow. Until now Cyprus has practically zero legislation against smoking.

One Week until Yom Kippur

In a week's time Israel and the Jewish world will be praying and fasting for the holy day of Yom Kippur; the Day of Atonement. It is the most serious and pious of the Jewish holidays. I will blog some things about this day as the time approaches - as it is a sad and yet beautiful day - filled with reflection and ideas about how we can better ourselves - and includes the 25 hour fast. No bathing - no water - no food... and if you don't live in Israel, you still must get up and go to work. More on this shortly.