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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

A cure for Israeli chutzpah?

Kol hakavod to David over at Treppenwitz for the non-abusive way he dealt with the classic and frustrating situation of a shopper in the express line with a cartful of groceries. You can read how he came out a winner and a hero to all the shoppers behind him at [Waste] my time...[Spend] your money.

In Jameel's comment on the above he mentions a contest being sponsored by Ronny Maman, an Israeli who returned to Israel after 18 years in the USA. His Center for manners (derech eretz) is offering $60,000 as an incentive for YOU to send in a practical idea on how to improve Israeli behavior through manners. The idea must cause the reader to implement and use it as a means to improve behavior (that means no philosophical ponderings, they want tachlit). The best 100 ideas will be featured in a book the center will publish.

The website is Hebrew only so here are the relevant details in English:
Deadline: January 22nd, 2008 (Tu B’Shvat)
Mailing address: Rehov Achuza 96, P. O. Box 26, Ranaana, Israel
Fax: 09-7409592 (+972-9-740-9592 internationally)
Winners announced: June 6, 2008

The contest is open to all ages so get those creative juices flowing.

3 comments:

email said...

I read the post you refer to. It was fantastic how he handled that. But are so many people that rude over there that the things he mentions are common? That's hard to believe. And a CONTEST to improve Israeli manners? Is it THAT bad?

Fern Chasida said...

Unfortunately, it really is. Israel has a lot of things going for it but manners is not one of them.

Anonymous said...

Israelis should never improve thier manners! thats what so special about us and it will never change. Yes our directness is just honesty and we should not feel bad for saying it how it is. If foreingners cant see how soft & sweet we are from the inside they clearly dont worth our attention. many people around the world are well mannered but fake & phoney at the same breath. Honnesty is way more apritiated than manners.