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"Israel Under Blue Skies" - Jewish Calendar by Ruth Beker
This Jewish calendar has 13 striking photographs taken in different picturesque parts of Israel: Jerusalem, Ashdod, Mazkeret Batya, Hod Hasharon, Michmoret, Haifa, Old Jaffa, The Beach - Tel Aviv, The Beach - Herzliya and Acre.
Ruth's photographs reveal hidden corners of beauty often passed by. These unknown gems, through her camera, become a chain of magical secrets. They are a lyrical link between her photographs and her poems and show a great affection for her subjects. She finds beauty in the simplest of things. Her photographs are a unique combination of whimsy and irony. They show the natural, vibrant and pulsating colors of Israel.
The size of this beautiful Jewish calendar is 12.2 in x 10.2 in (31 cm x 26 cm) when closed and 12.2 in x 20.5 in (31 cm x 52 cm) when open.
The calendar's layout is very convenient for writing appointments, dates and all kinds of happy occasions. There is also a column on the left side of each month for notes and reminders. The calendar is in Hebrew and English including all Jewish and Israeli holidays.
The poem on the first page "The Lifeguard" is by Ruth Beker. All the photographs are accompanied by a line of poetry in English written by Ruth Beker and translated into Hebrew.
The Lifeguard
is in mourning
for the summer running out, as
he sits on his high white chair
under a sky of gathering clouds,
and looks across the pool,
at the trees, the grass, the
empty colored chairs.
The lifeguard weighs the summer.
No one ready to give him their dreams.
No more children locked in ighty
sea battles shouting Marco olo, Marco Polo.
No golden girls sending sultry looks as they stroll
by dreaming of a pas de deux at midnight.
The lifeguard, they must be chosen
for their beauty, studies his reflection
in the water, his own movie,
as his life swims by.
His tan will fade.
His blue eyes are misty.
How can he get through the winter.
The pool, blue and still, waits for the
summer to close down. Everyone must
be gone before the first leaf falls.
Ruth Beker
Ruth Beker's poetry has been published in some of the leading poetry magazines in Israel and America and has won awards. Her poems are in the following anthrologies:
- Voices Within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets, Schwartz & Rudolf
- Without a Single Answer, Poems on Contemporary Israel, The
Judah L. Magnus Museum, Berkley, California
- Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews, Melvin Konner, Viking Penguin
- And the World Stood Silent, Isaac Levy, University of Illinois Press
- Lips: 1993 International Women Poets Anthology #1, Laura Boss
- 1984 Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of
American Poetry, Alan F. Pater, Monitor Book Co.
- Jewish Women's Literary Annual 2005
Ruth Beker's other products include a large collection of
beautiful note cards, gift cards, postcards and bookmarks.
They can be purchased online on this internet site. Ruth Beker's
cards are sold in gift, flower and book stores in North America,
Germany and Australia. Her images have been purchased by leading
European card companies.
In Israel her products are sold in Steimatzky, the leading
book store chain, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art gift store and
the Eretz Yisrael Museum gift store, Beit Hatfuzot, Yad Vashem
and ID Design Israel.
Ruth Beker is a well known photographer and poet. She grew
up in Seattle, Washington, graduated the University of Washington
with a BA in journalism and literature and now lives in Kfar
Shmaryahu, Israel. She has four children and three grandchildren.
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