Purim Bat Mitzvah, part 1

City of Gold Series

Just this once, I'm going to bend what I consider to be a very important rule that artists should never try to tell people what their art is about. So here is what this series is about:

Also shot in the old Jerusalem train station with Beth, this series explores the relationship of femininity with religion and cultural identity. By shooting this series in a rundown building with the golden late afternoon light, I was also seeking to contrast the two major stereotypes of Jerusalem - City of Gold and war zone - neither of which is really accurate and neither of which can be understood without the other.

Fashion in the Abandoned Jerusalem Train Station

The Dead Sea

Yummy, mud! 

Visit to the Negev

Last weekend, I went with my husband and his rabbinical school class on a tour of the Negev, Israel's desert southern region. We saw a solar power plant, climbed a mountain, and spent the night on a Kibbutz. All in all, a fabulous trip.

The largest solar-whatsit generator in the world:

A lesson from our guide about Machtesh Ramon, the one of a kind giant crater in the Negev.

While climbing Mount Solomon, some of the guys take a leak into the crater.

Our guides taught us this crazy hiking game involving eating M&Ms off of stacked rocks while holding your foot in one hand and your ear in the other. Israelis are nuts!

Picking Pomellos (a strange hybrid fruit developed in Israel) in the orchard at Kibbutz Yahel.

And yes, cows can be cool.

This one's a baby! Its name, gender, and birthday are written on the little card on its "crib." Awww!

Photo Published in Haaretz!

One of my photos of the Women of the Wall service was on the front page of this morning's English edition of Haaretz, Israel's largest newspaper!

Woman of the Wall

Women of the Wall is a group that has been trying for years to get women the right to pray at the Western Wall. This morning, I went to one of their monthly services, along with a large chunk of the CCAR delegation.

And here's the opposition, trying to get the WOW women to stop singing. One of them kept pushing me and tried to take my camera, but I took her picture and threatened to show it to the police. Ha!