Category: Uncategorized

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Water Safety on the Kinneret

As the water level of the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) continues to drop over the years, it is increasingly risky place to swim The shape of the lake makes it get deep really fast and extremely hard to return to the shore.There were 97 potential drownings at the Kinneret in 2018 where Hatzalah medics rushed to the scene on their lifesaving boat. I edited this video for United Hatzalah of Israel and as a mother, I got very emotional while handling this story.

Please share this video to remind everyone how important water safety is all year long.

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The Current Situation of Plastic and Waste in Israel

A truly insightful and informative (English) panel on the current situation of plastic and waste in Israel. This past Thursday, December 13th 2018, organized by the Abraham Hostel Jerusalem and Plastic Free Israel.

The amazing panel included Stav Freed from Plastic Free Israel, Shalom Or from Jerusalem Green Fund קרן ירושלים ירוקה and Zero Waste Jerusalem, Inon Dan Kehati from البيت הבית The Home, Omri Hazor from Surf Film Nights, and organizer/moderator Therez Hill. Highly recommend watching!

To continue this important and relevant discussion, join the Facebook Group: Zero Waste Jerusalem.

The panel was filmed and edited by Amy Schwartz Ozeri from Café Avra Productions for Zero Waste Jerusalem.

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Sanaa Mahameed, one of 330 Muslim volunteers of United Hatzalah

I usually don’t get to share the videos that I make with with United Hatzalah of Israel because most of them are private for donors, but from time to time I get to make an important, public video such as this one, where stories like Sanaa’s are not regularly shared in the mainstream media.

Sanaa Mahameed is one of 330 Muslim volunteers of United Hatzalah who save lives daily all over Israel. I hope she inspires you with her enthusiasm and dreams, as much as she inspired me through the making this clip. Even though we haven’t yet met personally, kol ha kavod סנאא מחאמיד for all your work and letting us share your story.

 

And a special thanks to Stand With Us for sharing the video on their Facebook page and getting over 32,000 views.

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Lectures by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Since 2015, Café Avra Productions has been working with the Cardozo Lecture Series, filming inspiring and sometimes controversial lectures on a variety of topics in Jewish thought from Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo.

As written on the Cardozo Academy’s website, “Today, more than ever, Judaism should be an anchor and an inspiration. But excessive emphasis on dogma and ritual has led many to view Judaism as irrelevant and oppressive. The David Cardozo Academy was established to imbue Judaism with a new spirit – in fact, revitalizing Judaism’s original spirit as embodied by Abraham our Forefather – providing meaning and relevance to Judaism today.”

Here is a playlist of 6 recent lectures. (Click for link)

Prepare to be inspired.

“Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo has emerged as one of the most thoughtful voices in contemporary Orthodoxy. He is a man of deep faith and wide intellectual horizons, unafraid to confront the challenges of the age with the quiet confidence of one who is attuned to the music of eternity”

Rabbi Professor Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United
Hebrew Congregations of Britain and the Commonwealth

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Visiting Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jericho through an Art Lens

In light of what is now taking place around the current and future status of Jerusalem, and the uncertainty in the air, I truly hope that all the wonderful initiatives that have been taking place in recent years to connect all the cultures that live here will continue strong.

I am very grateful that only two months ago, the Leichtag Foundation let me join their visits to Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jericho through a very special lens. Through the arts. Through gallery tours and museums. Through contemporary art and thinking in these three cities. I was only able to catch a small glimpse of what I saw, but the trip was inspiring and eye-opening at the least.

I wish the Leichtag Foundation a lot of success with their future work in this arena, and I hope we can all continue to connect on cultural grounds.

Filmed and Edited on October 25, 2017 by Café Avra Productions for Modest Jerusalem.

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The Centennial of the Balfour Declaration

It was wonderful to join the team of the 3rd Jerusalem Biennale at the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) on November 7, 2017 where their recent exhibition “Balfour at 100” was showing to coincide with the Balfour Centennial conference.

We made a small clip to highlight the exhibition and to share the Biennale’s perspective on why it was important that British-Jewish artists could give their interpretation of what the Balfour Declaration meant to them.

It was a truly special day and conference, with an extraordinary lecture from Professor Simon Schama. (As seen above in the photo with British artist Beverly-Jane Stewart.)

For more information on the Jerusalem Biennale visit their website or Facebook page.

 

 

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The Jerusalem African Community Center

Cafe Avra Productions has recently produced two videos for the Jerusalem African Community Center’s crowdfunding campaign to raise additional funds for their children’s programs.

It was wonderful to meet their amazing and dedicated staff, as well as interviewing some brave and kind refugees from Eritrea that live in Jerusalem and raise their families here.

Please watch the first video below which features the parents of some of the children in these programs and click here to visit the campaign page.

 

And here is the second video, that features the educators and team leaders of their programs:

 

Hope you are having a wonderful summer and all the best from Jerusalem.

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Meet Yuvi Katz, of Friends by Nature

We are so happy to start working again with the amazing non-profit Friends by Nature – Community Empowerment who create community garins in 8 locations around Israel, for Ethiopian-Israeli families. (You must, must visit their thriving community garden in Gedera!)

We have subtitled in English this short, recently aired news clip to introduce their very own, inspiring, Yuvi Katz on her way to the Jewish National Fund – JNF conference in New York last week.

Link: https://youtu.be/C2AwQbmK4dY

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Training Clergy in an Era of Climate Change: An Interfaith Conference

We are happy to finally see the re-cap video we made (both filmed and edited) for Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Israel and The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development up on Youtube!

This was an incredibly informative conference and discussion on ways to incorporate climate change and other ecological issues within religious education, especially in seminaries.

We hope to work with both the Interfaith Center and KAS on more projects in the future.

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The Art of Motherhood

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I am very humbled to share this emotional video we produced to promote and fundraise for the upcoming  “Art of Motherhood” exhibtion as part of the 2nd Jerusalem Biennale for Contemporary Jewish Art which opens this Sukkot (Sept.24-Nov.5 2015).

Link: https://youtu.be/IlVldhKrfV4

All our creative mothers out there will truly relate to trying to find the right balance between the home and their artistic drive.

Click here to visit their Indiegogo page and support this wonderful and important exhibition.