Custodia di Terra Santa Casa Nova

View of the interior courtyard of the Custodia di Terra Santa Casa Nova in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Trip Advisor

8/25/20

Following initial concerns of a suspected infiltration, the IDF announced hours later that its aircraft struck Hezbollah observational posts in response to shots being fired from Lebanon at IDF soldiers stationed along the border. No reports of casualties.

Flares light the sky along the Israel-Lebanon border. Times of Israel

Service by Night

 Vintage British Railways poster from 1955. Departing trains from King's Cross Station.

David Shepherd for British Railways

Dalston Kingsland 80s

Dalston Kingsland station pictured in 1984. This photo was taken as part of the One Day Off project in the early 1980s. A few years back in 2016 an archive of 12,000 images was discovered in the basement of Hackney's Rio Cinema. It's an absolute treasure trove of local history from the turbulent 80s that brings to life the street scenes of the area and everyday experiences of Hackney citizens.

                                

One Day Off Project. Rio Cinema archives

Gorny Monastery

The Russian Orthodox Gorny Monastery in the western Jerusalem hillside, close to picturesque Ein Kerem.

Ilan Shacham

Rave Revival

In the absence of clubs and the traditional nightlife scene, illegal outdoor raves are now popping up on the outskirts of cities throughout Europe such as in Berlin, Paris, and London.  

It was a different time and place, but I vividly remember the warehouse and parking garage raves along Kibbutz Galuyot and Derekh Ben Zvi in South Tel Aviv's those in vacant lots and buildings in the industrial areas beyond the Ayalon Freeway. This was circa 2007-2012. They were also secretly organized each weekend. Today similar outdoor raves are taking place in the forests outside Jerusalem and the fields in Gush Dan. While circumstances are certainly different, the reasons that pull young people to such social events is the same.

In the photo below French youth gather in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis for an open-air party.

Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt AFP Getty Images

Hotel Montefiore Al Fresco

The Hotel Montefiore, a Tel Aviv institution which sits on a small but busy side street off Allenby, recently revamped its dining services during the pandemic. The adjacent parking lot has now been converted into an al fresco outdoor seating area for the hotel's ground floor restaurant. Even in these crazy times, it's Tel Aviv at its atmospheric best.

Jessica Steinberg. Times of Israel.

מצעד של חיילים יהודים המשרתים בצבא הבריטי, 1942

Yishuv volunteers in the British army march on 'Jewish Soldiers Day' in Tel Aviv. 

September 27th 1942.

National Photo Collection of Israel

Kibbutz Nir David

Kibbutz members at Nir David in the Beit She'an Valley voted for the first time to open the section of the river that passes through its grounds to the general Israeli public. Given the mass number of citizens who have been flocking to Israel's nature reserves and national parks, often shattering the tranquility of many places, it will be interesting to see how the decision plays out. On an ethical level, I'm proud of this move, but hope that the overall quality of the area's natural beauty and surrounding ecosystem won't be compromised.

Flash 90

Vintage Constanța

An amazing find at Carturesti Carusel in Bucharest from a few years back. Hopefully the next trip to Romania will include an excursion out to Constanta.

Poster via Atelier Trebo.

Alexander Baron

Last December I found myself weary and tired, walking in the late afternoon from Canonbury Station towards the invisible boundary where Dalston begins. I arrived only hours earlier that morning for a short stopover in London on my way back to Israel. I wanted to retrace certain steps of my own, but I mainly set out to explore as much as possible of Hackney's hidden corners and some of the lost voices of former writers from the area. Alexander Baron is a name that keeps recurring and the deeper I dig, the more questions arise and the more intrigued I become. Before I left I had the chance to read his seminal 1963 London novel and cult classic The Lowlife. But going back further, it was Baron's heavily autobiographical trilogy of novels related to the Second World War that originally launched his literary career. 

I picked up There's No Home at a second hand bookshop along Charing Cross Road. The photo below is displayed on the inside back cover of the republished 2011 edition from Sort of Books. It's from the author's personal collection and was discovered among his papers along with Baron's letters and unpublished manuscripts. Much of which shed more light on his experiences as a soldier in the British army during the Second World and his disillusionment with the Stalinist left and his own awakening as a Jewish writer. 

Equally intriguing, the photo inside the opposite front cover is of an unnamed young Sicilian woman. She looks to be in her early-mid twenties and is wearing a striped dress. Her hair is dark and tied back and it's clear that she is a figure who has influenced Baron's work, specifically with this novel. The photo was also found after Baron's passing in 1999. 

Alexander Baron as a British army soldier during the Second World War. Personal Collection

Rafi Reiss

Yishuv parachutist Rafi Reiss, second from the right, is pictured with a fellow soldier and acquaintances before their mission to Europe. Circa 1943.

Palmach Museum