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"The Basketball Game" is a graphic novel adaptation of the award-winning National Film Board of Canada animated short of the same name – intended for audiences aged 12 years and up. It's a poignant tale of the power of community as a means to rise above hatred and bigotry. In the end, as is recognized by the kids playing the basketball game, we're all in this together.

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Beauty of spring in Israel

Spring. Every year, it returns like a miracle and Israel is carpeted with wildflowers. There are nearly 3,000 types of wild plants in this tiny land, a wonderful profusion, among the most abundant on earth. Israel boasts a variety of different ecological systems – deserts and marshes, high mountains, dense forests and open fields, with wildflowers to suit each habitat.

Wildflowers are protected in Israel and nature reserves prohibit the picking of any flowers, even the most common, which helps them to propagate over wider areas. In turn, this brings the sunbirds, which feast on their nectar.

The Song of Songs, which we read every Passover, is a most beautiful love poem. King Solomon wrote it as a dialogue between a young shepherd and his beloved: “Rise up, my love, my fair one and come away / For lo, the winter is past / The rain is over and gone / The flowers appear on the earth / The time of singing is come / And the voice of the turtle is heard in the land.”

The flowers he refers to, nitzanim, still carpet the fields – shiny red poppies flaunting scarlet beauty in the grass.

In Jerusalem Forest, delicate cyclamens bloom in the crevices between the rocks. Called Solomon’s Crown (in Hebrew), they lift their pink, cream or lilac heads on slender stalks. Clumps of wild violets, the dew shimmering like diamonds, add their touch of magic.

Israel’s rainy season, mid-October to late March, leaves a bequest of green. Sharon Valley is dotted with tulips and narcissus. “I am the rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys” – it is believed that King Solomon was referring to the magnificent black tulips of the Galilee.

In spring, even the weeds in Israel are pretty – the milk vetch, which is a thistle, adds purple blooms to the roadside. The rockrose is abundant in forest glades and the orange ranunculus bursts into bloom. Like its velvety cousin, the anemone, it is a protected wildflower in Israel.

The perfume of daffodils – which suffused the winter – still wafts on the breeze and the white, cream, yellow and blue noses of lupins are pushing through the soil. Oleanders are in bud, growing wild by the banks of the River Jordan and near streams in Galilee, promising a burst of summer beauty. And the blue statica reminds us that we, too, have a Mediterranean coast like the famed Riviera. This lovely sea plant flowers from mid-spring to mid-summer, when its corolla drops off and only the sepal remains.

Who says Israel has almost no natural resources? When you see the splendour in the grass of the land’s spring glory, the wildflowers glowing like jewels, you’ll echo the poet’s words: “Had I but two loaves of bread / I would sell one of them / And buy white hyacinths to feed my soul.”

Dvora Waysman is a Jerusalem-based author. She has written 14 books, including The Pomegranate Pendant, which was made into a movie, and her latest novella, Searching for Sarah. She can be contacted at [email protected] or through her blog dvorawaysman.com.

Format VideoPosted on March 27, 2020March 26, 2020Author Dvora WaysmanCategories IsraelTags environment, flowers, Israel, nature, spring
Jewish sea turtle swims again

Jewish sea turtle swims again

Hofesh can swim now, thanks to a flipper made of polypropylene that is durable but flexible. (photo by Baz Ratner from Yanic Levy)

When a young green sea turtle with both his left limbs nearly severed washed up on Israel’s Mediterranean shore four years ago, the first thing on the rescuers’ minds was how they could save his life. The rescuers amputated both of the turtle’s limbs, which left him unable to swim or even keep his head above water – he was able only to stay on dry land or navigate in shallow ponds. Things changed when Shlomi Gez, a student from Hadassah Academic College in Jerusalem, happened upon the turtle rescue centre’s website.

Gez had been looking for a final project to complete his studies. “As soon as I saw the place, I was inspired, and I knew I could help solve their most acute problem, which was Hofesh,” he said.

The biggest hurdle for Hofesh – that’s the name given to the rescued sea turtle – was the loss of balance. Losing both limbs on the same side interfered with the stability needed for swimming. “A flipper enables fish to retain their balance, so I decided to adapt the idea to a sea turtle,” Gez told the Independent.

Gez’s designed a specialty flipper made of polypropylene that is durable but flexible. He attached it to Hofesh’s back with a harness – and it worked. As Gez fine-tuned the prototype, the permanent flipper was recently glued to Hofesh’s shell with a special glue designed to grow with the shell as the turtle grows.

“At first, we could only put him in a shallow-water pool because he would have drowned but, now that he has his artificial flipper, he swims completely normally,” said Yaniv Levy, director of the rescue centre.

The centre has rescued more than 500 sea turtles – green turtles, a highly endangered species, and loggerheads – since it was founded 15 years ago, and successfully returned about 70 percent of them to the sea.

Unfortunately, Hofesh cannot be set free – if his flipper ever came loose, he would drown. But as a member of a globally endangered species, Hofesh has been selected for a breeding program. “We hope his offspring will be returned to the sea,” said Levy.

Although Hofesh’s disability is visible, this does not bother his new mate, a blind green sea turtle, named Tsurit. They swim together in their shared tank at the centre. “He nibbles her neck and likes to frolic with her,” said Levy, noting green sea turtles have about the same average life span as humans, but reach sexual maturity only around the age of 30.

In 1930, the green turtle population was at around 30,000. At the time, they were called, “the Edible Sea Turtle,” hunted nearly to extinction. Today, there are fewer than 30 wild green turtles in the area.

In 1930, the green turtle population was at around 30,000. At the time, they were called, “the Edible Sea Turtle,” hunted nearly to extinction. Today, there are fewer than 30 wild green turtles in the area.

The centre runs a breeding program, which currently includes 26 green sea turtles. Its hospital treats the green turtles and the more common, but also endangered, loggerhead species, with some 15 patients in care. Like Tsurit and Hofesh, most have been injured by boats and fishing nets.

“It’s unfortunate that Hofesh will never be free,” said Levy, “but he has a good life here.”

The hope, of course, is that Tsurit and Hofesh’s union will increase the population of rare green sea turtles in the Mediterranean.

Sea turtles lay 300-500 eggs per breeding season. During a female’s lifetime, she can lay around 6,000 eggs.

The survival rate of young sea turtles is estimated as only one in every 100 hatchlings reaching sexual maturity. In the Mediterranean alone, about 1,000 turtles are injured annually.

The Israeli Sea Turtle Rescue Centre is part of the world network focused on treating injured turtles. Its aim is to create a better future for the turtles’ near-extinct populations, to raise public awareness for better life, to achieve a society that better cares for its oceans and seas and to help reestablish an environmental balance. The new dedicated rescue centre inside the existing Alexander River National Park, where the river forms an estuary flowing into the Mediterranean, will be isolated from noise and populated areas.

Another Israeli turtle story involves a groundbreaking medical device used to treat terror victims helping save the life of a Caspian turtle at the Israeli Wildlife Hospital, Ramat Gan Safari. This turtle posed a challenge for veterinarians, as its shell had too big a crack to fix the standard way (with bolts and wire). The veterinarians turned to the head of the plastic surgery unit at Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera, Dr. Morris Topaz, an Israeli doctor who treats terror victims.

Topaz originally created the device to help people who lost areas of skin too far separated to sew together yet too close together to do a skin implant. It brings the two edges of existing skin closer to each other, eliminating the need for skin implants. With the special device, they glued the unique plastic device on both sides of the turtle’s fracture and connected them with a special plastic string that looks a lot like a zip tie.

Seeing his device in action on a turtle, Topaz decided to donate the idea and device to the Israeli Wildlife Hospital for future cases.

More than 2,200 injured wild animals are brought to the Israeli Wildlife Hospital annually. About 60 percent of the animals are treated, rehabilitated and returned to the wild.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Format VideoPosted on May 2, 2014July 9, 2014Author Rebeca KuropatwaCategories IsraelTags Alexander River National Park, Israeli Wildlife Hospital, Morris Topaz, Ramat Gan Safari, Yaniv Levy
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