Crafting Israel’s Image

David Saranga: Branding’s a beach.

by Sharon Udasin

With the appointment of a new Israeli tourism minister, a debate is taking shape about how best to market the Jewish state. Stas Misezhnikov, of the Israel Beiteinu party, wants to revamp the previous administration’s strategy of promoting Israel as primarily “sunshine, beach and beautiful girls” and instead focus more on “history, religion and culture.” Here in New York, however, the man most responsible for changing Israel’s image is David Saranga, who is completing his four-year tenure next month as consul for media and public affairs at the Israeli Consulate. As his term winds down, Saranga, a Foreign Ministry diplomat, sits down with The Jewish Week to discuss Israel’s branding progress.

Q: Misezhnikov says that Israel should concentrate on acquainting visitors with culture rather than beaches. Some of your rebranding tactics have involved Tel Aviv beaches and beautiful Israeli models. How do you react to Misezhnikov’s ideas? Continue reading…
A:One doesn’t contradict the other. Our branding efforts of making people understand what Israel is all about are not only for tourist purposes.

Central Park On The Mediterranean

photo by: Shahar Azran

by Sharon Udasin

Several thousand people crowded into Central Park’s Naumburg Band Shell Sunday to celebrate Tel Aviv’s 100th birthday on a makeshift beach, dancing to Israeli reggae music and enjoying the four hours of sunshine that managed to brighten an otherwise rainy day. 

While DJ Hadar Marks hosted performances by Israeli groups Hatikvah Six and FLOW, children shoveled sand with their parents as bikini-clad women played volleyball with shirtless young men.

“Today we gave to the city that has it all the one thing it doesn’t have — an authentic, sweaty afternoon on Frishman Beach,” said Eytan Schwartz, spokesman for the Tel Aviv-Jaffa centennial celebrations and also winner of a 2004 Israeli reality show.” Continue reading...

Tel Aviv Beach

In The Park

  

Surf and turf: Faux Tel Aviv beachfront will appear at Central Park bandshell.

by Sharon Udasin

In the throes of economic recession, New Yorkers might find it difficult to get to the beaches of Tel Aviv this summer — so Israel has decided to bring its sunny seaside to New York.

The Mediterranean beachfront will spring up in Central Park on June 19 in a celebration marking Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s centennial anniversary, one of 40 such events occurring in Israel and worldwide between April and December. Transplanted in the mid-park Naumburg Bandshell will be a 1,300-square-foot sandy beach, complete with a life-size panoramic Tel Aviv skyline, colorful parasols and complimentary lounge chairs — and unlike in Tel Aviv, sitting on these chairs will require no six-shekel ($1.50) fee. Beachgoers will be able to compete in shesh besh (backgammon), visit tattoo artists and play matkot — a popular sort of beach tennis — while enjoying live Israeli performances from reggae group Hatkvah Six, rock band FLOW and DJ Hadar Marks.

“Tel Aviv is very similar to New York, but one component that New York doesn’t have is the beach,” said David Saranga, the media consul for the Israel Consulate in New York. “We are bringing Tel Aviv to you.”

Still struggling to boost Israel’s image months after the Gaza war, the Consulate is striving to project Israel as a place of vivid culture, cosmopolitan people and travel opportunity. 

“The anniversary is a great opportunity for us to reflect this image,” Saranga said. “Tel Aviv is one of the strongest engines of Israel’s brand.”

The beach party will take place on Sunday, June 21, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. Enter at 69th Street and 5th Avenue or at 72nd Street and Central Park West. For more information, visit www.tlv100.co.il.

by Stewart Ain And Sharon Udasin
Staff Writers

Stung by the delays that plagued last year’s Salute to Israel Parade — many groups were more than two hours late in marching — organizers this year hired a professional production company that kept the parade in proper step.

“It made a difference — there were a lot more happy people and the weather was idyllic,” said Rabbi Susie Moskowitz, associate rabbi of Temple Beth Torah in Melville, L.I., as she marched under sunny skies up Fifth Avenue from 57th Street to 79th Street. 

“We were told we would start marching between 12:15 and 1 o’clock and we started promptly at 12:15,” she said. “There were some congregants who didn’t come this year because of what happened last year.”

She was among 320 marchers from 10 Long Island synagogues organized by SAJES, the area’s central agency for Jewish education. Sherry Gutas, a SAJES spokesperson, said there had been twice as many marchers last year, blaming the difference largely on the economy.

“Some synagogues could not budget for the cost of the bus and the parade fee,” she said. “But about one-third of the group never marched before and we had more families marching than ever.”

Mardi Gras Productions, which handles many of the large parades in the city, helped run this year’s Salute to Israel parade.

Michal Brickman, executive producer of the parade, said there were 31 floats instead of the 40 that participated last year, in part because of the economy. But she said there were a “similar number of groups and participants” as last year, which numbered 100,000.

But many marchers were caught up in the excitement of the day.

“It’s exploding — there are so many more people marching,” said Etana Staiman, 15, of Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls in Teaneck, N.J. Continue reading…

Even as Tel Aviv turns 100 this year, there are quite a few people born before the city and who have seen Tel Aviv grow into the metropolis it has become today. In fact, municipal records list 350 centenarians who live in Tel Aviv. While the couple Sharon Udasin interviewed for her article in the Jewish Week have not reached that milestone themselves, they do have many fond memories of the city. Continue reading…

Also read about my articles on Isrealli, the State of Israel’s official blog!!

First post appears here:

http://www.isrealli.org/pride-in-tel-aviv/

“On her recent trip to explore Israel (and particularly Tel Aviv), Sharon Udasin was able to do quite a bit of reporting on some of the city’s most fascinating features. In this article, published in this week’s New York Jewish Week, she takes in some of the latest developments in Tel Aviv’s LGBT scene. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a specific neighborhood that’s the nexus of the LGBT crowd–instead she finds that the gay scene exists comfortably everywhere in the city. Plus, the article is a great introduction to some of the institutions and people that make up Tel Aviv’s gay culture. Enjoy the read; we’ll bring you more such dispatches over the next few days.”

Friend Jay Feinberg, Save A Life

Jay Feinberg: His Gift of Life’s new Web application seeks an increase in the 2,000 transplants it has facilitated since 1991.

by Sharon Udasin

In these days of tracking Tweets and finding Facebook friends, one organization is using the social media craze to try to save lives, through the click of a mouse.

The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation is launching a new Web application this week (www.giftoflife.org)  to recruit new donors to their 130,000-member database, hoping for a rapid increase in the over 2,000 transplants already facilitated by the organization since 1991. And in the face of economic struggle — Gift of Life lost more than $2 million in the Bernard Madoff scandal — it is asking people to create accounts, to spread the word and most of all, to pay for their own $54 cheek swab tests. Continue reading…

Israel Posts Pope Status Updates

by Sharon Udasin

As Pope Benedict XVI paid his first official visit to the Jewish state, the Consulate General of Israel in New York launched a Facebook application geared particularly toward Christian audiences, which employs photographs and multiple-choice quiz questions to test users’ knowledge of Israel. Through “Holy Land Trivia: From Creation to Creativity,” the Consulate hopes to expose people to Israel’s historical gems, from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to the Bahai Gardens in Haifa and the Bauhaus architecture of Tel Aviv. At the end of the quizzes, users receive their tabulated scores and have the opportunity to share the application with their Facebook friends and view further information about the places. This project is just one of many efforts of the Consulate to bolster Israel’s public image through social networking and other online mechanisms.

“The Pope’s visit gives us the opportunity to expose people to Israel’s historic locations as well as the modern Israel and all its many important sites,” said David Saranga, consul for Media and Public Affairs.  “Many people hear about Israel and the Holy Land in an abstract sense and we want to help develop their connection to the real place.”

The application is available through the Consulate’s Facebook page at www.israelfm.org/facebook.

Strength In Numbers

Elana Silber, Sharsheret executive director, left, and the group’s founder, Rochelle Shoretz, herself battling breast cancer. “What young women need is the ability to connect with young women with the same experience,” Shoretz says.

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

When Sarah tested positive for the BRCA1 breast cancer gene five years ago, her decision to have both her breasts removed was a simple one ‹ her mother had died of the disease at the devastatingly young age of 42 and her grandmother at 49.

 Luckily, Sarah discovered a network of young Jewish women who had tested positive for the same gene, had gone through the same prophylactic double mastectomy procedure and had made it through the grueling recovery period with young children at their sides.

Through a New Jersey-based national organization called Sharsheret, she and thousands of other women have found valuable genetic counseling and personal connections, as they go through the hardest moments of their lives. Continue reading…

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Moving between the soulful sounds of “Amazing Grace” and a rendition of the traditional Hebrew melody “Avinu Malkeinu,” three local gospel choirs joined renowned Israeli singer David D’Or and the Israel Defense Force Orchestra Tuesday evening as they united to celebrate Israel’s 61st birthday at Harlem’s famed Apollo Theater.

After a standing-room-only pilot event on Israel’s birthday last year, the Israeli Consulate here decided it would again celebrate Yom Ha’Atzmaut — Israeli Independence Day — with the local African-American community in “A Night of Harmony.” The three African-American ensembles included Harlem’s own Bethel Gospel Choir, a teenage group from The Allen Cathedral of Jamaica, Queens, and Christian soul rocker Hezekiah Walker & LFC.

This year’s concert is part of a recent effort by the consulate to engage with the African-American community and improve a relationship that grew increasingly tense in the decades following the civil rights era. Part of the effort, Media Consul David Saranga said, is taking place in Israel as well, as that government looks to improve the lives of its immigrants from Africa.

“We believe in diplomacy — it’s not only relations between governments, it’s also bridges between cultures,” said Saranga, who has been using various social media outlets — like Twitter and Facebook — in an attempt to revamp Israel’s public image. “We want to get grass-roots support,” he added, noting that Israel needs to garner the support of niche populations around the world in order to bring about a mutual sense of respect for each culture. Continue reading…

From the State of Israel’s official blog:

In a bold attempt to raise money for Israel’s growing green technology infrastructure, the State of Israel has decided to sell the naming rights of the Dead Sea to the Ahava cosmetics company. While the full details of the Ahava agreement weren’t made public immediately, officials emphasized that the money from the deal would go towards strengthening Israel’s commitment to renewable energy, already among the most advanced in the world. Continue reading…

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

A simple search for “Israel” on Google Maps will give you more than just roadways and town names: photographed piles of Gazan rubble will pop out of the map, taking precedent over images of Israel’s popular landmarks and landscapes.

Google can’t control which images appear because the content is entirely user-generated — also called “open-source” — meaning that Web surfers can add or delete content as they please. And on many such open-source sites right now, including Wikipedia and Flickr, Israel’s image is far from favorable.

But David Saranga, the media consul for the Consulate General of Israel in New York, plans to fight back. After launching a pro-Israel campaign through Twitter.com during the Gaza war and by bringing Maxim magazine into Israel last year, he says he is recruiting the best in the business to revamp Israel’s online image. 

In just a few weeks, he will bring six American new media experts to photograph Israel, with funds from the Consulate and Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Rather than selecting people based on their photography expertise, Saranga said that he is choosing his team members based on their proficiency editing blogs and open-source media. Continue reading…