Looking Pretty Good

As a follow up to my post called, “Getting Better With Age?”, I am posting the following video which, as you will see, was produced as PR by the Tel Aviv-Yaffo municipality. It is a fun little film summarizing the past year’s centennial celebrations. True, it may be a bit more wrinkled and sagging in some parts at the age of 100 (aren’t we all as we get up there in years?), but Tel Aviv is indeed a wonder and an exciting, vibrant place to live or visit. It may no longer be the quaint European-style town envisioned by its founders, but it boasts today a significant and compelling urban landscape (in its people and culture, as well as its physical infrastructure). The first Hebrew city is looking pretty darn good at 100.

Cities are considered feminine according to the rules of Hebrew grammar, so as 2009 comes to a close, I will extend Tel Aviv the kind of final Happy Birthday wish that any woman would like to hear: “Yom huledet same’ach! You’re not getting older, you’re getting better!”

© 2009 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.

Reading Pictures

I was struck yesterday by the coincidental timing of two major news events in the last two days, which the editors and producers at PRI’s “The World” seem to have purposely chosen to report one right after the other on yesterday’s broadcast to create a jarring juxtaposition in the minds of listeners (well, in the mind of this listener, at the very least). I am referring to the fact that yesterdaty marked the opening of the trial in Germany of 89-year-old John Demjanjuk for Nazi war crimes and that on Sunday the Swiss people voted to ban any future construction of minarets in their country. While both take place in Europe, the first is likely to be the last occurrence of its kind, and the second appears as though it may be on the vanguard of a political and social shift, with more similar events yet to come.

The most striking element of  yesterday’s news was not anything I heard or read, but rather something I saw:

This is the poster that the right wing, anti-immigration (ie. anti-Muslim) SwissPeople’s Party used to persuade citizens to vote for the ban on minarets. It appears that many (the majority of the 53% voter turnout) were, indeed, persuaded.

Nazi prison and camp guards, like the accused Demjanjuk, were shown posters, too. Here are a few examples:

My purpose is not to draw an equivalency between what happened under the Nazi regime during WWII and the situation in Europe right now.This is primarily because there is no such equivalency, but also because  a comparison of the two situations would require a long, highly informed and well researched article that goes beyond the scope of this post. I will say, however, that no matter what would be written in such a piece, I am quite confident that the terms propaganda and xenophobia would make an appearance.

The point I want to make here is about visual literacy. I suppose this must be due to the fact that I once worked as a museum educator, which has led me to strongly believe in the ability of images not only to inform, but also to inspire and persuade. Consequently, I argue that it is necessary to teach young people to be visually literate (or to “read pictures,” as it is explained to the little ones). To be visually literate means not only to be able to interpret what you are seeing, but also to think critically about it.

In many ways, and for many people, images are more powerful than words. They are subliminal and intuitive, and they elicit strong subjective impulses and responses. For this reason, parents and teachers do a disservice to children and teens if they fail to teach them to analyze images. Just as discussing current events with kids in age appropriate ways is crucial to their development into engaged citizens and moral human beings, so too is taking the time to interpret images with them essential to their making meaning, forming opinions and taking ethical stances.

Young people need to learn the importance of and skills for viewing an image objectively either before or at the same time as relating to it subjectively.  I am not advocating that kids should be taught to ignore their emotional responses to an image. Often, an emotional response is exactly the right one to have, but it needs to be moderated and mediated by cool intellect. Otherwise you lose your independence of thought.  Images are often meant to provoke, and it can be good that they provoke us to action…so long as we are first provoked to think carefully. Just as a speech can whip you up into a frenzy or mislead you, so too can a poster or a front page photo.

Visual literacy comes in handy in our highly technological society, enabling kids to distinguish among the millions of images bombarding them almost constantly. In our consumerist culture, it helps them figure out what is a true message and what is a marketing pitch for their money. Most importantly, visual literacy contributes to their ability to function in and preserve our free, tolerant and pluralistic democracy.

A picture is often worth a thousand words. But which words? It’s up to us grown-ups to help our kids figure that out, and to decide whether they agree with them or not.

© 2009 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.

Keyboard vs. Clubroom

The late William Safire, founder of the Wednesday 10

A recent Wall Street Journal article by Katherine Rosman titled, “What Facebook Can’t Give You,” got me to thinking. The piece is about the Wednesday 10, a group of 20 New York men who have met regularly for over 52 years and have evolved to prominence together, each in his own professional field or industry. The “10″ in the group’s name comes from its unstated rule that at least that number of members were expected to show up at any given monthly breakfast or dinner meeting. The group is 75% Jewish, so it is fitting to call these men machers, their having risen to positions of influence and wealth in business, media, advertising, law, medicine, banking, politics and the arts. Women were not included at the initial formation of the group by William Safire, nor have they been since.  It’s not easy, but I will withhold any commentary on this fact and chalk it up to the “that was then and this is now” excuse.

Upon reading the article, I began comparing the relative merits of old-school social networking such as the Wednesday 10 with new-school social networking. As a disclaimer, I am going to mention right off the bat that I, who am on Facebook but do not Tweet, am no social networking maven. So, I do not claim any authority on the subject other than that derived from my having friends – both those whom I encounter as tiny two-dimensional head shots (419 and counting) and those with whom I interact in three-dimensional space.

A gag Sarah Palin Facebook page

I find I am always, as they say in Hebrew, al kav hatefer, on the seam line. Just as my mother was of the generation of women who were caught between either adopting a feminist identity and working outside the home, or opting for the traditional role of housewife, I too find myself with one foot on either side of a generational divide, this time relating to technology. I am keenly aware of this awkward position I find myself in, not averse to the digital revolution but at the same time not ready to completely embrace it.

There really is nothing that can replace face-to-face conversation with someone, especially if it repeats itself over and over on a regular basis for years. But how many of us are able to keep up in-person relationships with friends in our highly mobile society? Internet technology has allowed us to keep in touch with people no matter where in the world they – or we – live. Phoning, emailing and IM chatting may not be as good as being there, but they sure beat waiting weeks for a letter to arrive by post, or worse yet, saying goodbye forever upon parting.

High touch

Aside from sharing personal news, the members of the Wednesday 10 used their time together to learn the latest about each other’s work. The groups membership was carefully composed of men from a variety of types of professions so that they could “understand why other people do what they do – which is important in life and in business. You don’t learn anything from talking to sameness, ” said Robert Menschel, a senior director at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Today, when so much  - too much, some would say – information is coming at us in a constant, unrelenting stream, I find that I can gain a similar benefit to the one described by Mr. Menschel. That is, if I am careful about separating the wheat from the chaff. In between posts like “I could really use a stick of gum right now” and “My baby just burped,” I glean a decent amount of hard news and useful information and advice. I learn a lot about what is going on in the world from Facebook friends who are either participating in newsworthy events, reporting on them, or linking to articles about them. When they are not playing time-wasting online games or games of oneupmanship in witty quips and commentary, my many contacts bring to my attention interesting professional projects and philanthropic or social causes they are involved in, and invite me to learn more about and support them.

High tech

In an age, and at an age, when I simply don’t have the time to thoroughly read multiple newspapers and magazines and listen to NPR all day, it is extremely helpful (and truly amazing for someone like me who never owned a cell phone before age 29) that I can be kept up to date on important happenings and ideas in real time thanks to social networking. I like to rationalize that my CrackBerry addiction is a small price to pay for this huge payoff for having signed up for a Facebook account.

When it comes down to it, both the old-schoolers and the new-schoolers have it right. The Mishna exhorts us, “Aseh l’cha rav u’kneh l’cha chaver,” find for yourself a teacher and make for yourself a friend (Pirkei Avot 1:6). It appears that social networking may have been invented by Jews living in Ancient Israel. It wouldn’t surprise me, given the historical Jewish track record for discovering, inventing, and most pertinent in this case, schmoozing. The text doesn’t tell us, however, how to go about doing this important activity. In traditional and typical Jewish fashion, it leaves it up to each generation to figure it out for itself.

© 2009 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.