Nina's Books 4 Israel Project

Israel's New Consul-General in San Francisco

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:49:00 +0000

These stories never grow old for me. Here's a profile of Ishmael Khaldi, Israel's new Consul-General in San Francisco, a (rather attractive) 36-year-old Bedouin from the Chico Enterprise-Record:

Working as a shepherd as a child, Khaldi seemed an unlikely candidate to become a diplomat. But he was a talented, ambitious student who succeeded in school and went on to earn a master's degree in political science from Tel Aviv University.

...

Khaldi said he is dedicated to working for a prosperous future for Israel.

The nation is not perfect, he said, but in such things as its support of religious diversity and its treatment of minorities, it's a shining democratic example for the world.

Bedouin women are going to university

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:06:00 +0000

There are hundreds of Bedouin women enrolled in universities in Israel this year, up from single digits two decades ago, according to The Guardian. Having a university degree raises a woman's position in society, a wonderful antidote to other recently published stories.

Positive gains for the Bedouin

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:05:00 +0000

A first in the Israeli Foreign Service: Hassan Ka'bia, a Muslim-Bedouin, was named consul general of the Israeli consulate in Alexandria, Egypt, YnetNews.com reports. As the article reports, while this is an individual accomplishment for Mr. Ka'bia, this is also part of a Foreign Ministry initiative to increase the participation of various minorities in the Israeli Foreign Service.

This is especially interesting news because of the ongoing conflicts between the Egyptian Bedouin and the Egyptian police and border guards.

About Shahadeh Abu Arrar's kids

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:05:00 +0000

The same little AP article has been popping up in various news outlets for the past week, "Israeli Bedouin father of 67 wants to get married again - for 9th time". Apparently, Mr Abu Arrar lives mostly on government handouts, "claims to remember all his children's names," and is "still going strong."

Appallingly, this story keeps popping up under the Odd News section of Yahoo! News or under Diversions on the CBC web site. The lives of this man's children and wives are ignored in the nudging and winking, mixed in with the world Sudoku championship and pumpkin throwing competitions. Most dead-tree newspapers don't even include one of the last paragraphs, the only one worth reading:

Activists said Abu Arrar's story showed the urgency of raising literacy and education among women in the impoverished Bedouin community. Many are pressured into marriage or feel they have no other options beside raising children, said Khadra al-Sani, director of Sidra, a Bedouin women's rights group.

Third package has landed!

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:05:00 +0000

The English coordinator for the Bedouin schools in the Negev area writes:

What a lovely end-of-year present to receive the carton of books you sent in February. ... Guess it was "Camel Express"... and I'm not sure camels know how to swim. But the package arrived safe and sound and last night I "tiled" my living room floor sorting the lovely books which are now piled up in my friendly wagon near the front door and will be delivered this morning in my "bookmobile". It was exciting going through the titles and enjoying a few stories on the way. I'll be taking the books to Abu Krinat elementary and high schools.This is a Bedouin community about 45 minutes from here.

Thank you so much for your hard work and help. These books will go a long way, I'm sure, in helping young English pupils learn the language. Know that English for Bedouins is a 4th language. They learn Hebrew and English and also classical or literary Arabic. The Bedouin spoken dialect is very different from the formal language. I'll be working with the English teachers next year and showing them how to use these fantastic books in their classes.

Any thanks from Laurie go directly to our generous donors. I am just the person who passes them on.

We have pictures!

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 21:38:00 +0000

All together now: Kids + Books = Awww.

Relevant recent news items

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:02:00 +0000

An initially depressing, but eventually hopeful analysis of Bedouin issues in the Jewish Exponent. The obvious solution is recognizing the unrecognized villages: No Room Left for Nomadism.
Bedouin women can fall between the legal cracks in Israel, because of intersecting societal and cultural pressures. Ha'aretz describes a new center opened in Be'er Sheva that provides them with legal help: New center helps Bedouin women fight for their rights.
Short but interesting story from American Public Media about changing gender roles and expectations in Israeli Bedouin society: Bedouin women settle into worklife.
A small silver lining in a Ha'aretz report about Israeli matriculation scores. While Bedouin students have the lowest matriculation percentage reported for different groups, the percentage has gone up significantly in the last few years: New calculations raise matriculation eligibility results.

We love our donors!

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Sun, 13 May 2007 18:59:00 +0000

Molly puts her drool of approval on another Basil, which is going to a donor this week.

Updates: The Friday Ark boarded this Friday at The Modulator. Weekend Cat Blogging will be up at What Did You Eat? soon. Meanwhile, you can drool at the pretty food pictures. Carnival of the Cats is home at TBIFOC.

Food for thought: Obviously, my cause is the best cause in the blogosphere. Gimme money! But if you want to see (and contribute to) generosity in action, you could do worse than visiting Cat Blogosphere to see virtual strangers in cat guise cheerfully helping each other out of tough spots. When I try to explain the blogging cat phenomenon to people ("yeah, they are people, see, but they pretend to be cats, see, and put their diaries online for other cat-people to read, see?"), it sounds daft. But when you look at the actual cats who blog, they make some human people seem inadequate.

Deal ends Israel border sit-in by Egypt Bedouin

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Sat, 05 May 2007 13:47:00 +0000

An interesting article about the Sinai Bedouin's difficulties dealing with Egyptian authorities: Deal ends Israel border sit-in by Egypt Bedouin.

This is not to claim that the Israeli treatment of their Bedouin population is invariably fair or just. Rather, it's a reminder that the interaction between the nomadic and tribal Bedouin civilization with the settled modern governments is inevitably complicated.

Update:
And here is an example of Israel not acquitting herself honourably when dealing with the Palestinian Bedouin in the West Bank. Obviously, some problems are not caused by Israel, such as the drought or Palestinian tribal politics. But some Israeli security policies definitely do not help: Security restrictions, drought slam Bedouin shepherds in West Bank.

Happy Passover!

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 14:18:00 +0000

I spent the second Seder dishing out food for the hungry. I always feel like I get a lot more out of these events than the people I "help".

According to the Jewish faith, God gave us 613 commandments to honour. The sages have piled on a few hundred more. That's a lot of commandments, frankly, and most people find it hard to follow all of them. A lot of the commandments get very specific on the subject of sacrifices in the Temple or the treatment of lepers, both of which don't have a lot of practical use these days.

Many commandments are between you and God, such as the prohibition on the wearing of wool and linen together and on the eating of insects. These seem to be the commandments many people focus on. For some reason, the obsessive attention to minute details of food preparation strikes me as almost selfish. Following Halakha is usually a joy to the person doing it, for all the inconvenience it might cause. There is a school of thought that suggests that this is also pleasing to God. (My God is a bit too omnipotent for that.) I don't begrudge the people their joy, but I also don't get it.

Other commandments are between you, God, and another person. For some reason, I find these commandments a lot easier to follow. Maybe honouring the old and the wise comes naturally to me, while not eating shrimp is quite an effort. (And avoiding intermarriage has proved impossible.) The commandments that help you deal with your fellow man in an honourable way are as practical as traffic laws or public health bylaws. And they are the ones I get.

That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.

The saga of the third shipment...

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 03:38:00 +0000

... is coming to a close!

I put the package into the steady hands of Canada Post today (together with $130 of my hard-earned cash and your generous donations). Now we just wait for the package to arrive in the Negev. The last Negev-bound package took almost three months, but the wait is definitely worth it.

I had put in a few hours knitting a green cat cozy for one of the donors. But the more I knit it, the more mutant it became. Yesterday, I had to frog the whole thing and start from scratch. It was not my ideal solution, but the only practical one. Sometimes, working hard on something is worse than just trying something new. A worthy lesson from the needles of life?

It's St Patrick's day..

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 23:10:00 +0000

... plus we've had another donation, so Connor is working hard on a new cozy in shades of green:

This cozy is in a log cabin pattern, inspired by the geniuses of Mason-Dixon Knitting.

Sadly, Connor is having to pick up some new skills for the occasion, mainly around joining yarns. A lot of the joins are not as smooth as one would have liked. Sometimes I suspect he'd rather chew the yarn than join it:

(That precious expression says, "Mom, another minute of your silly attempts at a photo essay and I bite!")

Here's hoping we all celebrate the day with a maximum of genuine craic and a minimum of green beer, plastic shamrocks, and miscellaneous Irish cheese.

Update:
We are included in this week's Friday Ark at the Modulator's.

Upperdate:
We are in the WCB, too, at I Got Two Shoes. The local cat there is gorgeous, black, and HUGE. He may be huger than Connor, amazingly enough.

Uppestdate:
And there's the Carnival of the Cats, over at Pet's Garden Blog. We are hosting the Carnival on April 15, and we are looking forward to it.

Third shipment update

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 16:23:00 +0000

Dealing with Adath Israel is turning out to be a lot more complicated than I had expected. The books still haven't been mailed, because apparently everything hinges on my $91.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, with my other volunteering, work, getting more books, and an illness, so it took me a whole 16 days to put my cheque in the mail. I've certainly been that late sending off cheques before, and I've never had anyone refuse to deal with me based on that, but then we are talking about dentists and other well-known founts of generosity. I should have known that a charitable endeavour cannot afford to show any lenience.

I guess I had innocently assumed that Adath Israel would not crumple to the ground if they waited a couple of weeks for $91, but that's because I haven't been dealing with the organized Jewish community lately.

It would have been great to be able to involve the organized Jewish community in my project, and to reduce my mailing costs, but it is just not worth it. My sanity, which supports my ability to live a generous life of tikkun olam, is worth a whole lot more than that.

I am picking up the books from Adath Israel on Sunday, and am shipping them to the Negev by Canada Post. It will probably cost almost twice as much (and for me, these amounts can actually make a difference between paying the rent on time or not). However, I have learned a valuable lesson about dealing with the organized Jewish community in this city, and who can put a price on that?

Update:
I want to belong to a community. I believe this is a natural human impulse, and it would make it easier for me to do the good things I want to do -- like, say, sending more books to more needy schools in Israel. I was so thrilled to find Ve'ahavta, a place where I can provide practical help to those who need it, without supporting causes I find appalling. But the rest of the organized Jewish community is so insular, so unwelcoming, so judgemental, that it's difficult for me -- a Jew; a supporter of Israel; someone knowledgeable about Judaism, Israel, Zionism, etc. -- to look at them in a positive light. If I wasn't Jewish or knowledgeable about the issues, how would I see the Jews? Not very positively, based on my most recent experiences.

Upperdate:
This post was linked from this week's Haveil Havalim at Soccer Dad's. I am very curious to see if anyone has anything to say on the subject. I cannot be the only person experiencing these frustrations.

The second shipment has landed

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 17:42:00 +0000

The Bedouin teacher writes:

I received the books. Thanks a lot. They are wonderful and suit seventh graders. Some suit older students. The crayons will be very helpful since we started a project of decorating the school walls by drawing. And classes are competing with each other to be the most beautiful class and get the prize. I will tell them about the source of these crayons, I am sure they will be happy. The other pens will be given to needed students.

Thanks a lot for making some of my students happy and eager to read stories.

Doesn't that make you want to smile? (And to donate?)

Knitting is...

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 16:22:00 +0000

Knitting is love.

Which is why this hand-made pair of mittens in off to Calgary to warm the hands of someone I love very very much indeed.

Knitting is fun.

Which is why I am not a certified member of the Knit, Drink, Tink blog -- a bunch of drinking knitters who get together to, um, knit and drink.

Lisa's pink fluffy scarf

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 02:21:00 +0000

Two balls of Karabella Aurora Bulky in Pastel Pink, one ball of Lion Brand Fun Fur in Confetti, and half a ball of Estelle Designs Shimmer in Pastel Pink. 16 stitches wide and as long as two balls of the Aurora Bulky hold out. There is a keyhole created by knitting only 8 stitches for a couple of inches, cutting the yarn, knitting the other 8 stitches and then joining the two halves together. Easy and fun, and Karabella Aurora may be the nicest yarn I've ever touched.

Another shipment is on its way!

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 21:43:00 +0000

A big box full of books is off to the EFL consultant for the Bedouin schools. She will decide how to distribute the books to the schools that need them. (There are 80 titles in the box, and I have duplicate copies of a few of them.)

This time, I am not using Canada Post. I am piggy-backing onto the Adath Israel book drive, organized by Linda Kirshblum. I am hoping that this will turn out to be a more affordable way of getting the books from here to there. Postage is still the biggest obstacle we face.

Another satisfied customer

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 13:35:00 +0000

Amber at Scribblings models her cozy. Note the ladylike pose and the gorgeous fluffy fur (kind of "calico minus white"). What a cutie!

Baby, it's cold outside!

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 15:45:00 +0000

My virtual friend Ryan Kamstra writes, about a great project I've been trying to help out:

Have you been ever implicated in knitting? Know anyone who has?

Every year people in Toronto freeze to death because they have nowhere to come in from the cold. We can't knit shelter, but StreetKnit can do the next best thing . . .

So it's like the first week of winter out there, and we're asking you to put your needles together and spend some time knitting some warmth into an extra scarf, maybe some toques with affectionate or somber colours, mitts, blankets, socks, even a sweater and see it reach those (still!) without home despite being in our (still!) very home-filled Toronto. You can drop it off at local yarn-knit shops Knit-O-Matic (1378 Bathurst St.), The Naked Sheep (2144 A Queen St. E.) and The Knit Cafe (1050 Queen W.). Sadie Lewis, whose brainchild this project is and I [Ryan], your voluntary knitter-in-spirit outreach-person, will then make sure it gets distributed to those who need it.

Let this year be the year Toronto started knitting herself up a terrible storm, wrapping up our communities fair and beleaguered in one big loving scarf with matching mitts and a toque.

Depending on how many fresh woolly goods our winter drive sees, we will be distributing to homeless outreach programs all over the city, including Windfall Clothing and Ve'ahavta so far, as well as need expressed by future friends The Scott Mission, St. Francis Table and Out of the Cold. If you are a homelessness service-provider interested in this project, please contact streetknit@gmail.com.

Want to help? Please post this request to your own blog, list-serve, events group, and forward to all your woolly-minded friends. How about organizing your own knitting party for StreetKnit's winter drive? That would be really very swell. Need help publicising it or representation on our site? Any questions? Don't hesitate to contact us at streetknit@gmail.com.

Thank you in advance for your kind woolliness and effort.

First package has arrived!

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:06:00 +0000

The teacher in Tel Mond has written:

I just wanted to let you know the box of books arrived today.

I will take them to the library on Sunday.

Thank you sooooo much

I will get the teachers to notify their students to begin taking them out and read.
The books seem great. They are for the older kids.

I could use some for junior high as well.
Thank you again.

Isn't it wonderful to see results?

Every Good Cat Deserves Favour

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 03:00:00 +0000

Here, Molly and Tobias say hello to Basil the rat, based on Lucia's brilliant pattern. His filling has been sprayed with catnip spray, and he has a jingly bell inside (from a jingle toy too well-loved to survive). He does not have any ears, because... frankly, because I completely forgot about the ears. Molly and Toby don't seem to mind.

I enjoy knitting for people I love, which includes the cat "people" in my life. And I believe that hand-knit items, like home-cooked food, have a way of transferring the goodwill from the maker to the user. But there is something else that makes Basil special. Because I made Basil, I know that my cats are not playing with something made in China by a political prisoner or a child.

As usual, if you'd like a Basil of your very own (ears included), just make a small donation to the excellent cause of this blog. I've recently heard from a school in Acre that could use a book shipment, but I just cannot make it on my own.

Cat-lover's update:
Check out this week's Friday Ark. And the Weekend Cat Blogging at What Did You Eat? And, of course, the Carnival of the Cats at Pet's Garden Blog.

A project for the new year

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 23:09:00 +0000

I've been in touch with the Soldiers' Angels co-ordinator at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. As well as treating American troops, they also treat coalition troops, including 100 Canadians over the last year.

One of the Soldiers' Angels projects there is providing "Blankets of Hope" to injured soldiers. I've decided to make an afghan for a Canadian soldier at Landstuhl, but I could use all the help I can get.

The afghan will be made of 8 inch squares that will be combined into a 4 square by 6 square afghans. I'll be using the Family Affair afghan pattern from the DIY Network and Betsy McCall.

To start with, I'll be using Paton's Shetland Chunky in shade 03532 "Deep Red".
It's affordable, available in all sorts of matching shades, easy to find, easy to care for, and it has a bit of wool in it (so it doesn't feel too acrylic-y). I'd like to avoid the red-white-and-blue colour scheme that American soldiers get, so I am thinking of maple leaf-like shades: reds, oranges, rusts, etc. But the main purpose is warmth and care from home -- a square will help with that, regardless of colour or design.

New York yarn shops

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 18:45:00 +0000

Spent a few days in New York over Christmas and had a chance to check out a couple of the local yarn shops. Because I hadn't seen this helpful list, I only found four in Manhattan.

We spent much of our time in the East Village, but rarely in the daytime, so we never managed to get to Downtown Yarns. Hopefully, next trip! (I should add that there are worse ways to while away your nights than at Dempsey's Pub, Swift, or Mona's.)
We went to the Upper West Side to visit The Yarn Co., but we got there 20 minutes before the store closed -- and the door was locked. We also went to the storied Murder Ink bookstore, a few blocks up Broadway, only to discover that it's closing at the end of the month. A disappointing trip, only slightly alleviated by the cheese pie and danishes at Tal Bagels.
In Greenwich Village, The Point NYC reflects the neighbourhood around it. It is definitely funky, but not necessarily friendly to strangers. There is a large book and magazine section, but the yarn selection is not that impressive for a specialty store. And it's the first yarn store I've ever been to without a discount bin of any sort. How else do you try out weird new yarn for weird new projects?
If you only go to one yarn store in New York, make it Knit New York in Grammercy Park. There are two rooms with a wide variety of yarns, friendly folks at the cash register, and a mystery bin where I picked up 4 mismatched balls of Madil Eden Print... And now I get to try knitting with 100% bamboo, as soon as I think of a weird new pattern for this.

Update:
The commentariat also suggests Purl, on Sullivan Street in Soho.

About the Kseifa village

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 17:30:00 +0000

In the words of the English teacher there:

The first thing one would see when coming through the dusty Negev to the village of Kseifa is the old remains of the original Kseifa School. This was one of the first schools in the area and was the place where the first generations of Negev Bedouins achieved their education. Many of the graduates of the old Kseifa school are working today in respectable jobs, including working as educators in the community. Yet overall achievement levels up until now have been low compared to the Israeli average. With your help, the Bedouin community could become a more prosperous one, better able to care for itself, and better able to contribute to Israel as a whole.

Although Kseifa is an old village, it lacks many basic facilities. Like most of the Bedouin villages in Israel, Kseifa has no industrial areas, public parks, community centers, or even a library. Kseifa has one of the highest rates of poverty and unemployment in Israel. Aside from agricultural and livestock work, many of our men not only volunteer in the Israeli army, but make a career out of their Israel army service. However, change has been slow to come to this area. The price of terrorism on Israel's economy has hurt the Bedouin communities in extreme ways. Not only has the handicraft and tourist related economy entirely collapsed, but the austerity measures taken by the government in all areas are particularly felt here where many people are managing on the barest of sustenance levels without much hope. Moreover, the Bedouin community sometimes comes under extreme attack from other Muslim communities that do not appreciate our participation in Israeli democracy and the military.

In a way, the Bedouins have found themselves squeezed between a rock and hard place, without enough support and know-how to overcome this condition. More than half of the Bedouin population live spread out in dozens of encampments or villages that the Israeli government has yet to formally recognize. The Bedouin are people who believe in justice and we do believe that our proven citizenship, loyalty, and army service will eventually help us overcome all sorts of bureaucratic problems. However, for the meantime, nearly half of our Negev Bedouin populations are still living without the rights to basic services such as running water, electricity, or sewage and garbage collection. Our schools in Kseifa educate children from our own village and from the surrounding very impoverished areas.

We know that knowledge of English is essential to enable our children to attain a better future. Without English mastery, higher education is out of the question for our children.

Although our students come from severely low economic backgrounds, they are proud of their Bedouin Israeli identity and of their rich cultural heritage and extensive warm family relationships. They are ambitious and enthusiastic and seek self-improvement. Books would give students in schools in our area an opportunity to widen their perspective and knowledge. Our children have no other access to the world except traveling through books and stories. The lack of electricity and other facilities also means a lack of access to radio, television, and other media. The world-view of our children is thus very small. Give these children the chance to imagine something better than the way they live their lives now.

I am on your cozy, being teh qt

noreply@blogger.com (thebookmistress) — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 08:50:00 +0000

Tobias is modelling a finished cat cozy, which is going in the mail later today:

I haven't been able to find a non-offensive online explanation of the silly meme this post title is based on, so I am providing one below, as a service to the community.

The original “I am in your base killing your d00ds” statement probably comes from a surprise attack in online gaming. If you have to let the other player know that you are in the process of killing his "dudes," the other player is probably not known for his observation skills or quickness of brain. That is all. Oh, and it's often spelled in Leet (1337) speak.

For mysterious reasons this meme has snowcloned to ludicrous proportions. Cat-related examples are here, here, and here. (Plus here, in what looks like Spanish?)

The rest of title silliness explained here, and here.

Update: There is an inoffensive explanation after all!