That’s Lifestyle: Celebrities, smartphones, rockets

Lifestyle editor weekly wrap-up: Kim Kardashian gets caught in Gaza crossfire; smartphones save souls.

By YONI COHEN
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian 370 (photo credit: Henry Romero / Reuters)
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian 370
(photo credit: Henry Romero / Reuters)
Living in Israel we are all too familiar with big news events that take up a lot of space on The Jerusalem Post’s website. Under most circumstances at the Lifestyle section we adopt a true Israeli attitude of “lifes goes on” and continue to publish our regular content. However, even those of us who don’t deal with the hard news couldn’t ignore the IDF’s Operation Pillar of Defense to root out terrorists firing rockets from Gaza.
While there wasn’t the usual array of recipes, restaurant reviews and travel tips we managed to feature content related the conflict.
Seeing as this is the Lifestyle section, any stories related to the conflict had a lighter tone compared to the heavy news filling the other pages of the site.
While it’s usually Jewish and Israeli celebrities taking center stage on the Lifestyle page, this week our dose of celebrity came from an unlikely source. US reality TV star Kim Kardashian kicked up a storm on Twitter when she posted pro-Israel and later pro-Palestinian comments on the micro-blogging site, leading to this apology:

Jewish celebrities on the other hand, stood by their support of Israel. Actress Mayim Bialik showed on Twitter that her thoughts were with Israel.

At the same time, comedian Steven Crowder went one stage further and uploaded a YouTube clip to explain why Israel has the right to defend itself.
Getting back to the situation on the ground, the Post’s social media manager Zohar Friedman offered up some practical information on how to cope with rocket attacks. As part of her Appaholic column, she detailed the smartphone applications that were developed to help people keep up to date with the latest information and how to stay safe.
Also on hand with advice on how to cope with rockets, Natalie Marx answered questions from worried residents of the South who were looking for a natural way to calm their nerves during the tense period.
In that typical “life does go on” attitude we did, however, feature some regular content. Jerusalem Post film critic Hannah Brown had lots of good things to say about Room 514, a tense and ambitious drama about the investigation into a complaint of IDF brutality against a Palestinian family.
Chef Laura Frankel took inspiration from Italy for her recipe this week when she explained how to make Osso Buco, a Milanese specialty that means “bone with a hole” in reference the cross cut shank bone.
Wine expert Adam Montefiore tackled a very technical question this week when he asked:To decant or not to decant? Read the full article to find out the answer.
After exploring some of Europe’s main capitals to uncover what they have to offer the Jewish traveller, this week Tanya Powell-Jones took us on a journey to a more remote part of Germany with her tips on a day of sightseeing in Freiburg.
Catering for Christian travellers, Wayne Stiles stayed a little closer to home when he went on a tour inside Stephen’s Gate in Jerusalem to uncover the Pools of Bethesda.
With quiet now restored, next week there is a lot to look forward to. Travel writer Will Blesch will be launching a new column, “The Great Escape,” in which he’ll document his travels around the country in search of hidden treasures and quiet getaways. Professional photographer Yehoshua Halevi will present the first in his series of photo essays looking at different aspects of Israeli life.
The writer is JPost.com's Lifestyle editor.


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Mayim Bialik