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Friday, July 06, 2012

'Impoverished' social protesters invest NIS 1,000 each... in a pub

Our 'impoverished' social protesters have invested NIS 1,000 each to open one of the 'revolution's most critical needs: A Tel Aviv pub.
About half the revelers at Bar Kiama (Hebrew for "Viable") were shareholders who had invested NIS 1,000 each, and will be entitled to wholesale price food and drink for life.

"It's my bar," one of them said without blinking when I asked them about the place.

One could say the pub, whose founders include Yigal Rambam and Julian Feder, shows protest activists just wanna have fun. But it also stands for building things and setting an example, reminiscent of the beginning of the previous century, when huge cooperatives were set up here.

The bar's address - on Hamashbir Street, is also symbolic. Hamashbir was the first cooperative in this region, founded in 1916 and named by Berl Katznelson.

Even so, class distinctions reared their head. Oded, a former high-tech lad, boasted he had bought share No. 123. He was immediately silenced by Adi, who said she had bought share No. 21 and even signed the founding document.

The fear of being left out was contagious. If I weren't a journalist afraid of being investigated I would have slapped NIS 1,000 on the table. Another journalist, a serious guy in a button-down shirt, interviewed Rambam at length and decided he wanted to buy a share. The problem was, there were no ATMs in the area.

In contrast to most cafes, the new bar does not use plastic water glasses. As a souvenir I took a receipt for the large coke glass I drank from, inscribed "Love for all and long live the revolution." On the other side it said "Cafe Greg."

"It's all recycled," one of the dozens of owners told me proudly.
I wonder if Fraunce's Tavern started like this. Heh.

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2 Comments:

At 4:12 PM, Blogger Sunlight said...

#Occupy brats and addicts going through withdrawal. They need the alcohol to rev up the covet level. Really, if they actually want to upgrade people's prospects, why aren't they out there tutoring and reading to kids coming up and using the money to buy education supplies for kids... rather than financing a bar. Nope, they want to force other people to do those things. A bunch of tyranny advocates in the false name of social justice. NOT the way the Torah outlines.

 
At 5:23 PM, Blogger Daniel said...

I am so sick of "Im not Jewish Im Israelis" aping the worst aspects of Euro-trash and American low brow culture.

 

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