The Jaffa Daled neighborhood is quiet and sleepy at noon on an ordinary Tuesday. The streets are empty, and it seems that the only movement is children playing in the parking lots under the buildings. In the sultry heat, the buildings themselves look like they are wilting. Opposite one of the residential buildings, where one balcony has a sign in large letters exhorting passersby, Remember the sanctity of the Sabbath day, and another has a sign in Arabic, is the local community center, which is filled with character. Loud music blasts from the inner courtyard, cutting through the drowsy silence. A large group of teenagers paints splendid graffiti on one of the community centers outer walls. Their clothing is stained with spray paint and their hands are dirty. They are all sweating by the gallon, and their hair sticks to their foreheads. Although pieces of red watermelon are laid out on folding tables beside bottles of soft drinks and plastic cups, the group is too focused on the joy of creating art together to eat or drink. As the sounds of laughter and conversation mix with the music, one could almost forget the oppressive heat and humidity. Slowly, the gray wall of the community center is covered with an abundance of colorful paintings depicting Israels landscapes, and various symbols that represent the country. The young artists drew their inspiration for their mural from a ten-day tour throughout Israel organized by Taglit-Birthright Israel. Birthright is celebrating its thirteenth year its bar mitzvah year so to speak. In its thirteen years, it has brought 330,000 people from more than 59 countries to Israel. As part of the tours, Jewish teens from all over the world are introduced to Israels wonders, its landscapes, history and culture. In addition to its regular groups, Birthright also brings specific interest groups where the members have a particular common interest. The group that decorated the community center is called Design Your Life. It comprises 30 young American artists. Some of them are art students, while others are beginner designers. They are connecting to Israel through design, art and fashion. This group of designers is not the only special group that has come to Israel this year. Among the niche groups that Birthright has brought here over the past years have been a group of physicians, chefs, musicians, athletes, bloggers who blogged about their trip in real time, and young entrepreneurs. In the best tradition of Birthright, the groups are joined by Israelis who share the same interest as the visitors. Ten Israelis, all of them students of design, art or fashion at the WIZO Academy of Design and Education and the Holon Institute of Technology, joined the Birthright group. Only in Israel Erika Rae Schuster, a 23-year-old designer of baby and childrens clothing from New York, looks at my yellow dress with interest. After a closer look, she says, That dress is from Castro! I look at her in amazement. How can this young woman, who has only been in Israel a week, spot Israeli fashion brands at a glance- Schuster keeps me in suspense for another moment before bursting into laughter. No, I didnt really spot it. One of the Israelis in our group works as a designer for them, and he told me. Still, even if Schuster cannot spot Israeli brand names just yet, she is a veteran designer in the city of her birth, New York, and is now busy establishing her own brand of childrens clothing. Schuster studied fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her grandfather, who came to the United States from Turkey, also studied there and Schuster knew from a young age that she would follow in his footsteps. Her grandfather even lived in Israel for several years, and this is not Schuster's first time here. But it is her first time on Birthright, and her first time in such a unique professional setting. I have a lot of friends who went to Israel on Birthright, but on regular trips, she says. Even though I didnt purposely register for a fashion trip, I was lucky that they called me and made the offer. Its just right for me. Its naturally where I belong. Do you think your future collections will take inspiration from your trip here- Definitely. This trip has had an artistic influence on me. Ive drawn a lot of inspiration from Israel, and that will come out in the designs of my brand. I feel at home here. Im Jewish, and I have family here. This wont just have an influence on my art, but on my whole life. Jameson Martin, a 22-year-old Renaissance man from Los Angeles, is a freelance food designer for TV ads. My job is to make the food look good, delicious and inviting. Once, I prepared more than 50 pizzas until I got to the perfect pizza that was worth shooting, he says. He also sculpts with metals. He says that his trip to Israel will have a direct influence on his artwork when he goes back to Los Angeles. One of the shapes that inspired me was the hamsa [a palm-shaped amulet]. I saw a lot of different varieties of hamsas during our visits to the various markets, and I think Ill be creating similar images when I get back home. Which of your experiences here do you think will influence you the most- One of the strongest memories that was seared into my brain is a morning in Jerusalem. We stayed at a hotel downtown and I went out onto the terrace so I wouldnt wake my roommates. Suddenly I found myself looking at the Jerusalem landscape in the early morning hours with the Bridge of Chords in front of me, the hills around me and the whole city laid out below me. It was amazing. It floored me that I was really, truly standing there. That feeling will stay with me forever. Another meaningful experience that Martin recalls was his visit to the Western Wall. Besides putting on tefillin near the Wall, Martin had a unique meeting with an elderly Jewish man who approached him in an alley in the Jewish Quarter. The man pulled him aside, asked him his first and last names, put a hand on his head and prayed over him. That was an interesting and emotional experience, he says. I dont consider myself a religious or spiritual person, but there was still something very strong energetically. Things like that dont happen in Los Angeles. My professional curiosity got the better of me, and I could not help asking the young artists what they thought of local fashion. Schuster says that she likes it. From what Ive seen, the way you dress here is more casual, calm and relaxed compared to the way people dress in New York, which is very sophisticated, buttoned up to the neck with a necktie. Even in summer, people in New York will dress in a much more tailored and self-aware fashion. In Israel, you can walk around in a fluttery dress or baggy trousers, and its fine. It goes better with the weather, I guess. Martin visited Tel Aviv for two days and decided that there was not much difference between the fashion scene here and the one in California. In the end, theyre all hipsters, here and back home too, he says. Both Schuster and Martin admitted that besides the experience of a trip to an interesting foreign country like Israel, there was an added bonus: they were with other young people just like them who came from different fields of art and design. They also talked about their daily routine, which included brainstorming, exchanging ideas and opinions about art and design, fascinating professional talks and absorbing a great deal of inspiration from the energy created by 30 talented young people precisely one of the main goals of putting together the special interest groups. Birthright is very committed to forming as many niche groups like this as possible, says Doron Karni, Birthrights VP of international marketing. The idea was to find another unifying factor besides the experience of the trip for the young people who come on the tours. This stimulates them to keep in contact even after they return to the U.S. and go their separate ways. A common professional denominator is an interest that stimulates people to stay in touch. Future collaborations, networking and young entrepreneurship are values that Birthright really wants to promote among these groups. Karni adds that the content of the tours for the young designers is the same as that for other groups. The only difference is the professional knowledge that the designers acquire and their common interest in their field. The Temple in 3-D Niro Taub, 33, is an unconventional young man who is both a tour guide and a graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Designs visual communications department. He has a great deal of experience combining Jewish and Israeli history and culture with design, art and fashion on Birthright trips, which he has been guiding for almost 13 years. Guiding design-oriented groups is his baby. Im one of the only designers who combines the high, elitist world of art with the world of hiking, which is earthy and dirty. I've been waiting for this group and preparing for it for a long time because with it, I can combine all the things I love guiding and also using visual aids in order to present the content in a better way. Give me an example. Since Israel is very hot and its hard to stay focused under the conditions of an intensive ten-day tour from morning until night, I realized that I had to be inventive to keep the group focused so theyd be able to absorb the mass of information we were giving them. For example, we talk a lot about the leaders who ruled in Israel and influenced our culture. Try explaining a period of 3,000 years to kids who need to understand why theres tension with the Arabs, why our borders are unclear, changing and volatile. So I created a kind of big, colorful fan that presents all the leaders. I dont want to load them up with all the information and the dates because that wont tell them anything. I want to give them the development of the story, to connect them with it visually. When I open that big, colorful thing in front of them, I can be sure that theyll better remember what Im telling them. Another refreshing example of teaching historical content using visual methods is the 3-D pop-up books that Niro designed. These books tell the story of the Temple and all of Jerusalem. The pop-up book about the Temple illustrates visually, in 3-D, how it looked and where the [Al-Aqsa] mosque is in relation to it, Niro says. It explains, in a better way, the tension that exists there. They dont understand that a mosque stands today where the Temple once stood. The pop-up book is Niros own invention. Standing there, holding a piece of paper up in front of a group of young people for ten minutes in broiling heat is a surefire recipe for losing their attention. But when I have a pop-up book and things open, close, move and jump out in front of their faces, I can be sure that I have their attention for a few more minutes. I use my talents as a designer to give them the Birthright content. I take advantage of my visual abilities to convey the information in a more organized way thats much more fun. The fun is not just for the young tourists. It is also for their guide. For Niro, the fact that the members of his group speak the same language of design that he does creates a totally different guiding experience for him. I specialize in graffiti tours and street art. Ive been doing it for a few years already, not just with Birthright, but also abroad, he says. But this is the first time that my group shares my language. We use the same terminology. They understand the professional terms and they get what Im trying to tell them much quicker because they think like designers. The very best part is the feedback I get from them at the end. Niro is referring to the groups final project designing hamsas. When they first arrived in Israel, they were given sketchbooks to record the various inspirations and ideas that they experienced during the trip. The last two days in Israel were dedicated to designing and making hamsas for display in the exhibition at Rokach House in Tel Aviv's historical Neve Tzedek. Its through the final project with the hamsas that the group gives me back their personal impressions of the trip in an artistic way, Niro says. The proud, happy expression on his face when the members of the group present their work shows everyone that as far as he is concerned, he has done his job.
Designing their lives
Taglit-Birthright Israel brings young American designers to Israel to learn about Jewish heritage through design, art and fashion • Some designers who were educated on New York boulevards find inspiration in the most Israeli of symbols - the hamsa.
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