This could be the beginning of a joke or, in worst case, a war declaration… Well, thank God, it neither. It is a beginning of a magical musical journey of three friends who first met in Norway and then in Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to fulfill a dream. A dream of music.Ya’akov Rubinstein – a violinist, Thomas Yehuda Martincevic Kolonomos – a pianist and Almir Meskovic – an accordionist were photographed during a private concert in Oslo  July 16th 2011.

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Info about pictures: all images were photographed during 1 May demonstration 2011 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Please read the full story written by A. Dershowitz.  Source: Wall Street journal. Additional responds could be found in Norwegian  Aftenposten, Aftenposten and Dagbaldet + Israeli ynet, and Newsru.

I recently completed a tour of Norwegian universities, where I spoke about international law as applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the tour nearly never happened.

Its sponsor, a Norwegian pro-Israel group, offered to have me lecture without any charge to the three major universities. Norwegian universities generally jump at any opportunity to invite lecturers from elsewhere. When my Harvard colleague Stephen Walt, co-author of “The Israel Lobby,” came to Norway, he was immediately invited to present a lecture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Likewise with Ilan Pappe, a demonizer of Israel who teaches at Oxford.

My hosts expected, therefore, that their offer to have me present a different academic perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be eagerly accepted. I have written half a dozen books on the subject presenting a centrist view in support of the two-state solution. But the universities refused.

The dean of the law faculty at Bergen University said he would be “honored” to have me present a lecture “on the O.J. Simpson case,” as long as I was willing to promise not to mention Israel. An administrator at the Trondheim school said that Israel was too “controversial.”

The University of Oslo simply said “no” without offering an excuse. That led one journalist to wonder whether the Norwegian universities believe that I am “not entirely house-trained.”

Only once before have I been prevented from lecturing at universities in a country. The other country was Apartheid South Africa.

Despite the faculties’ refusals to invite me, I delivered three lectures to packed auditoriums at the invitation of student groups. I received sustained applause both before and after the talks.

It was then that I realized why all this happened. At all of the Norwegian universities, there have been efforts to enact academic and cultural boycotts of Jewish Israeli academics. This boycott is directed against Israel’s “occupation” of Palestinian land—but the occupation that the boycott supporters have in mind is not of the West Bank but rather of Israel itself. Here is the first line of their petition: “Since 1948 the state of Israel has occupied Palestinian land . . .”

The administrations of the universities have refused to go along with this form of collective punishment of all Israeli academics, so the formal demand for a boycott failed. But in practice it exists. Jewish pro-Israel speakers are subject to a de facto boycott.

The first boycott signatory was Trond Adresen, a professor at Trondheim. About Jews, he has written: “There is something immensely self-satisfied and self-centered at the tribal mentality that is so prevalent among Jews. . . . [They] as a whole, are characterized by this mentality. . . . It is no less legitimate to say such a thing about Jews in 2008-2009 than it was to make the same point about the Germans around 1938.”

This line of talk—directed at Jews, not Israel—is apparently acceptable among many in Norway’s elite. Consider former Prime Minister Kare Willock’s reaction to President Obama’s selection of Rahm Emanuel as his first chief of staff: “It does not look too promising, he has chosen a chief of staff who is Jewish.” Mr. Willock didn’t know anything about Mr. Emanuel’s views—he based his criticism on the sole fact that Mr. Emanuel is a Jew. Perhaps unsurprisingly, fewer than 1,000 Jews live in Norway today.

The country’s foreign minister recently wrote an article justifying his contacts with Hamas. He said that the essential philosophy of Norway is “dialogue.” That dialogue, it turns out, is one-sided. Hamas and its supporters are invited into the dialogue, but supporters of Israel are excluded by an implicit, yet very real, boycott against pro-Israel views.

Mr. Dershowitz is a law professor at Harvard. His latest novel is “The Trials of Zion” (Grand Central Publishing, 2010).

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Norwegian SV leader and finance minister Kristin Halvorsen is visiting Jewish museum in Oslo, May 2010.

Beauty is never out of fashion and it is doesn’t matter whether 20^s or 80^s. Fashion Never Dies is an art project developed by Rami Kafarov – prof photographer and Julia Høgevold- make up designer, who actually came up with the initial idea. Rami was studying photography at Hadassah college in Jerusalem and a guest student at Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Pictures from “Fashion never Dies” show life and events of the last century in the range 20 – 80^s. Both artists created image of the decade based on events of that time and common fashion trends. For example, one of the most powerful images of a woman from 40th with a single suitcase in front of her bombed house. It was a war time, time of endless number of people loosing their lives, relatives and houses. Actually, it was most challenging to present a war atmosphere without showing military uniform or fighting. Another point of the story telling is that actually fashion is never out of fashion. It was proved by installing a model from 40^s or 50^s in nowadays. There are few pictures were text is playing an important role. On a picture from70^s one can read on LP: “Not too long time ago” and 40s model in modern time has an interesting text on a poster behind her: War is happened under your nose.”

Enjoy the works and don’t forget: “Fashion is never out of Fashion !”

Photo: Rami Kafarov  Styling: Julia Høgevold  Models: Nadja, Julia, Masha, Svitlana, Liza

Not every Argentinean dances the tango. This phrase slipped out during the conversation with Jorge F. in his shop being a workshop of wind instruments. A small business and almost monopolistic position on the local market allow to feed a family well enough, and above all, to have to do with the music almost every day. The music around which all the life of this extraordinary man is going on.

In an early childhood, as long ago as being in Argentina, in order to stand out in a crowd of followers of a classic guitar, as well as reckoning for finding a job ex professo in orchestra, Jorge entered the department of wind instruments. Since then a clarinet became his ever present instrument. The military coup and the taking power by Junta forced Jorge and his parents to leave the country. But every cloud has a silver lining. In Jerusalem academy of music he had met the only woman, with whom he would have a family and bring up children. This is a way passing all logical understanding by which the fates of people from two distant lands are intertwined: he came from sunny Argentina, and she came from cold Norway. The subsequent leaving for the USA is a kind of support of the notorious theory about eternally wandering Jew. The life with a number of crossings, as well as the work, where one often gets thoughts to oneself, gives rise to speculations, but fortunately Jorge has no doubts concerning the correctness of his steps and taken decisions.

Moreover, in his spare time he plays the Klezmer music and on rare occasions concertizes, so watch the announcements! And if not every Argentinean dances tango, an Argentinean who plays the Klezmer is few and far between.

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Не каждый аргентинец танцует танго. Эта фраза проскользнула во время разговора с Хорге в его магазине-мастерской духовых инструментов. Небольшой бизнес и почти монопольное положение на местном рынке позволяет неплохо кормить семью, а самое главное, почти каждый день соприкасаться с музыкой. Музыка, вокруг которой построена вся жизнь этого необычного человека.

В далёком детстве, ещё в Аргентине, чтобы выделиться из толпы последователей класической гитары, а также из расчёта найти работу по специальности в оркестре , Хорге пошёл на отделение духовых инструментов. С тех пор его неотлучным инструментом стал кларнет. Военный переворот и приход к власти Хунты вынуждает Хорге с родителями покинуть страну. Но нет худа без добра. В Иерусалимской академии музыки он встретил ту единственную, с которой у него будет семья, и он вырастит детей. Вот таким непостижимым логике путём переплетаются судьбы людей из двух далёких стран: он из солнечной Аргентины, а она из холодной Норвегии. Последующий переезд в США как бы подкрепляет известную теорию о вечно странствующем еврее. Жизнь с большим количеством перекрёстков, а также работа, где очень часто остаёшься наедине  с мыслями, даёт почву для спекуляций, но к счастью Хорге не сомневается в правильности сделанных шагов и принятых решений.

А ещё, в свободное время Хорге играет клезмерскую музыку и изредка даёт концерты, так что следите за анонсами! И если не каждый аргентинец танцует танго, то ещё реже встретишь аргентинца, который играет клезмер.

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Ikke enhver argentiner danser tango. Dette fikk jeg høre fra Jorge mens vi snakket sammen i hans verksted for treblåsinstrumenter. Den lille forretningen hans har nesten lokalt monopol og hjelper ham å forsorge familien. Ikke minst gir den ham en mulighet til å dykke i musikken hver dag. Musikk er hans lidenskap. Å leve uten den er utenkelig for denne ekstraordinære mannen. I hans tidlige barndom i Argentina ville han skille seg fra massen, hvor hver enkelte spilte gitar. For øvrig var det lettere å finne jobb om man spilte en annen instrument. Det var derfor han begynte han på blåseinstrumentskolen og valgte klarinet. Siden da fulgte instrumenten ham overalt. Etter et væpnet opprør tok Hynta styret over Argentina, så Jorge sammen med foreldrene ble tvunget til å flytte til Israel. Akkurat der og da møtte han sin kjære. De traff hverandre i musikkakademi i Jerusalem. Hun var den som skulle bli hans familie og hustru i framtida, den som han skulle ha barn sammen. Det var nok en av livets ufattelge veier, som plutselig kan knytte to skjebner fra to så ulike land: det solrike Argentina og det kjølige Norge. Senere reiste han mye til USA og forsterket med dette det gamle begrepet om en evigvandrende jøde. Et liv likner på en vei. Den som har mange kryss kan ofte gi en viss grunn til noen spekulasjoner, men Jorge har aldri hatt noen tvil på det han har gjort. På fritiden spiller han klezmer, og av og til gir han konserter (så følg med annonsering!). Ikke enhver argentiner danser tango, men det er endå vanskeligere å finne en argentiner som spiller klezmer.

***

I had made the acquaintance of Yair Halevi in one of the first days upon my arrival to Norway. We often met in the synagogue and with the rabbi on the Sabbath. Once, sitting at the table, we got into a conversation about our hobbies. This is how I got to know that I had an owner of the very interesting collection of watches and not less interesting family stories in front of me.

As long ago as 1930s his grandfather and grandmother being convinced Zionists had decided to move to Palestine. Having sold all their property, they moved to a vicinity of Hadera-Pardes-Hana where purchased a lot and built a large house in which almost all childhood of Yair passed. In his opinion, that was a time his hobby began. A sound of grandmother clock ticking and striking had sunk into the mind of the child in such way that many years later, living in Norway, he entered a school of watchmakers, the only in the country. Unfortunately, the degree did not help in finding a job ex professo, and Yair had taken up with the collecting.

The time was passing. The clocks went beyond a luxury as they were at the beginning of the twentieth century. Nobody could not even imagine that each generation of Halevi’s family would have its own native language. His grandparents had Hungarian, his mother – Romanian, Yair – Hebrew, his children – Norwegian, and his grandchildren, God grant, will speak Italian or English. Every flow has its ebb. And only the pocket-watch, a family’s relic, one of three Longman specimens, bought by Yair’s grandfather before the departure, keeps time in order wherever they are and whatever language is spoken by its owner.

Today, the Yair’s collection has more than 100 watches, and all they are in good order. It is a amazing thing, these watches!.. They keep time which is constantly is going somewhere, sometimes running, but they themselves can run forever in caring hands of the master. At the end of our conversation Yair said to me: “You know, I would like to live more than hundred years long. I do not like to have nothing to do, and almost all my spare time is spent for my ardour for watches. I have plans to repair them even till my being 105 years old”. Till 120, Yair!

***

Яир Часовщик

Я познакомился с Яиром Халеви в один из первых дней после приезда в Норвегию. Мы часто встречались с ним в синагоге и у равина в шабат. Однажды, сидя за столом, мы как- то разговорились о наших увлечениях. Так я узнал, что передо мной сидит обладатель интереснейшей коллекции часов и не менее интересных семейных историй.

В далёкие 30-ые годы прошлого столетия дед с бабушкой, будучи убеждёнными сионистами, решили перебраться в Палестину. Продав всё своё имущество, они переехали в район Хадеры- Пардес-Ханы, где приобрели участок и построили большой дом, в котором Яир и провёл почти всё своё детство. По его мнению, именно из тех времен берет начало его увлечение. Звук тиканья и боя бабушкиных напольных часов настолько запал в душу ребёнка, что уже много лет спустя, живя в Норвегии, он пошёл в единственную на всю страну школу часовщиков. К сожалению, диплом не помог получить работу по специальности, и Яир с головой ушёл в коллекционирование.

Время шло. Часы перестали быть предметом роскоши, как тогда, в начале двадцатого столетия. Никто не мог даже представить себе, что каждое поколение семьи Халеви будет иметь свой родной язык. Дед с бабушкой – венгерский, мать – румынский, Яир – иврит, его дети – норвежский, а внуки, даст Б-г, будут говорить на итальянском или английском. Все течет, все меняется. И лишь карманные часы, семейная реликвия, один из трех экземпляров Longman, купленных дедом Яира перед отьездом, исправно показывают время, где бы они ни находились и на каком бы языке ни говорил их владелец.

Сегодня коллекция Яира насчитывает более 100 часов, и все они в рабочем состоянии. Удивительная вещь, эти часы!.. Они показывают время, которое постоянно куда-то идёт, а иногда и бежит, но сами они могут работать вечно в заботливых руках мастера. В конце нашей беседы Яир сказал мне: «Знаешь, я хочу прожить больше ста лет. Сидеть без дела я не люблю, и увлечение часами занимает почти всё моё свободное время. В моих планах ремонтировать их хотя бы до 105 лет.” До 120, Яир !