Dear Friends, shalom,
After fetching the keys for the Volkswagen Caravel from GUY Tours to take tourists the next day from their cruise ship The Ocean Equinox, in Haifa harbor for a two day tour of the Galilee and Jerusalem, I decided to check if Nizan Bicycles in Jaffa Rd. had information about folding bikes.
I’d been thinking about a folding bicycle since my brother Bernard told me he was importing electric bicycle motors from China that were easily attached to the hub of the front wheel of any bicycle.
I was so amazed that Nizan had folding bikes in stock that, in a daze of foolishness I forked out a IS2800 loan from my credit card company for the bike, carrier and bicycle bag and happily rode off into the sunset, dreaming as I rode of loading my folding bike into the bus to Tel Aviv without paying the half price ticket Egged charges for taking a bike on the bus.
I fondly remember my first journey; it wasn’t only the delicious feeling of relief at forking out only 9 1/2 shekels (pensioners price) for my bus fare and not hearing the dreaded words “and what about the bike”, I was also about the only man in a cinema with an all women audience to attend a Women’s Film festival in Rehovot, which had opened there on the same day I bought my bicycle, the 7th Sept 09.
As an owner of a folding bike I enjoy many pleasures such as the gasps of admiring fellow bus travelers as I fold and unfold my bike in the blink of an eye into a small package and calmly wheel it in to cinemas and shopping malls where usually bikes are forbidden.
I struck gold at the women’s film festival; this festival gave women a chance to show their “stuff”. I went there because I knew I’d see some good movies that hadn’t reached the regular circuit just because they were made by women.
The presentation of a women’s film festival is a criticism that our society still uses gender as a measure of the quality of an artistic creation and many really good creations aren’t presented because someone has prevented their presentation because it was produced by a woman.
The three films I saw confirmed my conviction that women share the same issues as men; identity and acceptance and approval by society.
The first movie “Living with myself”, a Dutch movie for educating girls who feel different from their companions because of certain tendencies like being artistic or coming from a broken home or coming from a different environment than the other girls in the school or having all these problems together to adjust and accept themselves.
The second movie I saw “You will know” brings us into a dilemma between honesty and career:
The teacher accuses a student of cheating in a test when in fact she was only being a good student who used a trick of mirror writing, which the teacher had taught of finding a solution to a problem.
An examining board is set up to prove that either the pupil was cheating or the teaching had made a false accusation.
If the student doesn’t falsely admit to cheating the teacher will lose her job. Eventually the student confesses even though she and the audience are sure she didn’t cheat.
The third movie, a German movie “The teacher” also entitled the trees for the forest is about a very insecure young woman who can’t adapt to the reality which clashes with her idealistic ideas about the world and human relationships; her friend lies to her, her pupils don’t even notice her and her colleagues try to exploit her.
In her disappointment she chooses to leave this world rather than adapt to it.
In the last scene she drives in her car on a road through a forest, looks out the window at the trees with nostalgia then calmly leaves the driver’s seat while the car is still moving into the forest.
She sits in the passenger seat leaving the car driverless. The car calmly continues into the forest while she looks at the trees. She’s become a spectator instead of being a participant.
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During the few hours before the first movie I had a delicious salad lunch in the restaurant adjoining the Chen cinema, where the festival films were to be screened and rode my bicycle on a journey of exploration around the town.
Rehovot is a pioneering town which began on a little hill which at first I didn’t notice because now it’s covered by a street with two rows of big, old Sycamore trees in the center with a bicycle path running between them.
This hill, known as Duran was originally inhabited by Beduins until it was purchased by Elijah Eisenberg in 1889 from Rock, a Catholic citizen of Jaffa
The only part of Rehovot I’d been to until this day was the main street Herzl Street , where I’ve often driven taking tourists to the Weizman Institute of Science and the Ayalon Institute (Clandestine ammunitions factory of the War of Independence days).
Now riding happily down this short but beautiful avenue, perfect for cycling I came back to the city hall, shopping mall, central bus station area.
By this time I was well stuffed, sweaty and tired so I lay down on a park bench but didn’t sleep, I just rested then carried on riding until I came to another beautiful street, Chen Street, named after C.N. (Chaim Nahman) Bialik our national poet of Israel’s pioneering period, with aisles of sycamore trees down the centre in addition to statues of characters from fairy tails where kids and their parents were playing. What an idyllic scene, one could think that this was a perfect world of peace and happiness.
Wishing you a great no news day
Yours truly
Leon Gork
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Come for a Jerusalem Walk with Leon Gork
Jerusalemwalks.com legork@netvision.net.il Tel: 052 3801867
