Dolphins in Tel Aviv? Did Flipper "Mit-fa-lep"?

Dolphins are starting to warm up to Tel Aviv. This Saturday, 15 dolphins were spotted off of the coast of Tel Aviv and Hertzliya, leading experts to believe that the bottle-nose of these under water mammals might be a due to a Jewish gene in their DNA.

No, but, for serious folks.  They may not be Jewish, but they love the warm waters of Tel Aviv as much as anyone.  And they've been loving it more and more, and researchers believe that they are making the Mediterranean waters of Israel their home. 

According to Haaretz, Tel Aviv is on it's way to becoming a dolphin spotters paradise. 

"We believe there are between 300 and 400 Mediterranean bottlenose dolphins near Israel's shoreline," Dr. Aviad Scheinin chairman of the research center, which is a non-profit group, said yesterday. "The data of the past year strengthens research I did at the University of Haifa showing that the bottlenose dolphin has a permanent population near Israel's shores and is an inseparable part of Israel's flora and fauna."

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The Last Supper: Israeli Havurah Style

The big 30. This was the year that I started feeling it. No,  I'm not quite there yet, but many of my chaverim (חברים, friends) have reached that nice ripe age of no longer young, but not quite old. You'd think that after about ten 30th birthdays this year we'd start running out of ideas of presents for friends. But, we somehow managed to squeeze out another creation.

In honor of my friend Noa's 30th year of life and in light of the fact that she, her husband Nir and their little girl Tom will be moving this winter to Hong Kong for two years, our branja (ברנג'ה, group of friends) got together to do something really special.  We decided that she needed to take with her something that would remind her of us day in and day out, and ensure she never forget how awesome she was to us. Irony becomes us so we took the old clichéd "Last Supper" painting and made it our own. Of course, Noa had to be Jesus. That went without saying.

So, I know that today's post is a bit of a digression from my typical Tel Aviv ramblings and Israeli political posts, but I thought you might enjoy this evolution of a 30th birthday present by my Israeli Havurah.

The paintings on the wall are gone!

Photoshop is Unearthly

Nearly Complete.

Final verion. Printed on canvass and then painted on top with acrylic.  Noa looks at her gift and says  "This is good. "