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Family affair/Dr. Shlomo Abrahamov By Avner Avrahami W The cast: Shlomo Abrahamov (53) W Time and real estate: Traffic on the coastal highway zips along on Friday morning. Past the sign for "Yakum" and the elegant Europark industrial zone ("We are in partnership with [tycoon Eliezer] Fishman") are concrete paths, lawns, a row of casuarina trees, a dining hall and a cultural center. In 1947, pioneers heeded the "call of the movement" and set out to settle a barren wadi south of Netanya. Bingo. Advertisement W The home: Bypassing the community's burgeoning "expansion" neighborhood, which faces the hills of Wingate Sports College, we return via a flanking movement to the homes of the veteran residents. Shlomo lives in a small, shaded structure that was once the studio of Yecheskel Kimche ("a distinguished artist who has been forgotten"), from the generation of Streichman and Zaritsky. The red-roofed building - 60 square meters of residence, 40 sq. m. of workshop - is poised on the edge of a blooming plot of grass and jacarandas. On the veranda is a collection of stones from brooks and a Siamese cat named Henry. Mordo arrives, navigating his motorized cart agilely. W Mordo: Mordo Abrahamov, 88, Shlomo's father and a longtime photographer and landscaper. The Hebrew for jacaranda, he says, is sgulan. An album of his photographs that document the kibbutz from the day of its establishment was recently published. We are given a copy (signed) and enter straight into the living room. W The living room: On the white walls are photographs, most of them taken by Shlomo. They are large portraits of olive trees, all in black-and-white; this has been his primary theme for years. He also has an Ikea sofa (the firm's Israeli branch is 2 kilometers to the south), a eucalyptus-wood bench made by a friend and small stools that Shlomo made in the kibbutz woodworking studio ("I've been a carpenter since the age of 15"). All the objects have been selected with care and are arranged with much deliberation. Some are restored items, such as the chair he found in the kibbutz's "storeroom of old furniture" and painted blue ("in homage to Yves Klein"). The order is striking. On the bookshelf are four pairs of sunglasses in perfect formation, ready for liftoff, and next to the telephone is a Ph.D. certificate. W Ph.D.: In "photography and visual literacy," from Anglia Ruskin University in England. We embark on the tour. W The tour: In the bedroom is a wide bed ("that I built") opposite an old stool with a plasterer's brush ("a sculptural element"). In the study (on the other side), against a background of music, is a Bedouin rug (from Nuweiba, in Sinai), an old table and a covered ("against dust") laptop. Nearby, in a bookcase from Shomrat-Hazorea, are books on art, history and archaeology. There are also diplomas from two University of California branches (Santa Barbara and Irvine). Back to the living room. The soundtrack switches to Haris Alexiou. Where is the TV? "I kicked the habit in 2003." W Livelihoods and occupations: Shlomo Abrahamov is an artist, notably a photographer ("but actually total art"). Three times a week he teaches at three different academic institutions - the Holon Institute of Technology, the Shenkar School of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem - specializing in the theory and history of photography and "visual literacy" ("which mainly means the Internet"). Shlomo: "I teach the reading and writing of images." He likes teaching, considers himself an educator and is connected to his students (even if they sometimes drive him nuts). "Soccer coach" is the metaphor he uses to describe his avocation as an instiller of motivation. When he is not teaching he is busy preparing for the classes, writing articles for journals (British and American) and doing creative work in the studio. He gets around in a 1996 Toyota and on a mountain bike, on which he plies the trails of the Sharon region every morning. Quarterly he sits on the board of directors of Yakum Development, which is part of the Fishman Holdings Group, enjoying the view of Tel Aviv from the top of the Rubinstein Tower ("and also enjoying Rubin and Bergner originals"). He gives his salary to the kibbutz treasury and gets it back after community taxes are deducted. W The kibbutz: Undergoing privatization. Everyone lives off his salary. Eating in the dining hall costs money, so does getting your laundry done. The members of Kibbutz Yakum pay health tax ("a token amount"), and general assemblies are held only for "serious decisions." The homes do not yet belong to the members, but ultimately each member will receive 350 square meters ("by decision of the Israel Lands Administration"). W The Sephardi Democratic Rainbow: "What that group [which went to court against the privatization of the kibbutz lands] forgot is that the kibbutzim determined the country's borders," Shlomo says. "The kibbutzim have no PR," he adds. "They haven't branded themselves effectively." W Bio: Born on the kibbutz, 1954. His Lithuanian-born mother, who was in charge of landscaping, died in 1994. His father, now retired, was born in Bulgaria and arrived in Palestine in 1939 on the ship Tiger Hill; he was a gardener and also worked as a photographer for the now-defunct newspaper Hashomer Hatzair (the organ of the leftwing Kibbutz Ha'artzi movement). Shlomo was raised in the children's house system. ("[There are psychological] residues"). He attended high school in Kibbutz Ma'abarot (part of the Shomer Hatzair movement), where his youth passed in checkered flannel shirts and slippers to match. Like everyone else he listened to the Beatles, then switched to Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. He did his army service in the Engineering Corps and remembers mainly the breakthrough from Nuweiba to Santa Katarina under the command of Gavriel ("Gavrush") Rapaport, from Kibbutz Beit Alpha ("a real experience"). After completing his service he returned to the kibbutz. W After his service: He worked in the cotton fields, saved up, went to Europe, worked in construction in Greece, grew carrots in Switzerland and picked grapes in Provence, then went to Paris, where he made marionettes in Montmartre. After Paris came California, where he obtained a bachelor of fine arts degree (in painting), worked as a gardener, did a master of fine arts degree at Irvine and returned to Israel, then changed his mind and went back to Los Angeles, where he worked in the Museum of Contemporary Art. Returning to Israel in 1996, he taught in a number of academic institutions, including Beit Berl College. W Wedding: "It never happened." It's a matter of type, Shlomo says. He is used to being alone, he notes, though he "always has [his] thoughts." He has had quite a few girlfriends. "At some point you understand that reality is not forced on you, but you create it." He talks about individualism, about not compromising. about self-concentration. Egoism? "I wouldn't say. I think I am actually generous." W His parents: "They never pressed me." W Regrets: Definitely not. Shlomo: "As long as I am creating, I feel that I exist." W Daily routine: He rises at 6 and makes herbal tea from the garden ("two types of mint"), bicycles for an hour ("up to Ra'anana"), catching glimpses of foxes and mongooses on the way. Back home he showers, has some whole-wheat bread as well as parsley and rocket and drinks a second cup of tea. At 7:30 he sets out in the Toyota for Holon, Ramat Gan or Jerusalem. He lunches in the school cafeteria. "Food," he says, "is not an issue." The only food he really likes, he says, is herbs from the garden. He gets home toward evening and chats a little with Henry. W Henry: "I was a dog person my whole life, until a girlfriend brought me a cat and I saw that you can communicate with them. Cats are a psychological thing - they have a reason for everything they do." W Evening: At around 8, 9 or 10 he has a bite to eat (salad or rice) and sits down at the computer. He also likes to read. W Reading: Mainly in English. Recently he liked "The Spider's House," by Paul Bowles, a novel set against the background of Morocco's 1954 nationalist uprising. Shlomo: "Implicit in the book is the Moroccans' internal conflict about Islam." He goes to bed at about 1 or 2. Does he sleep well? "Let's say I do." W Dream: He wants to write something about photography, "a book that will complement Roland Barthes" (the French thinker). W Life partner: "It will happen if it needs to happen." He has no profile of a desirable woman ("You can't plan anything"). He thinks that now he is open even to women who hold political views that are the opposite of his ("which in the past would not have been possible"). W Political views: "I have become more moderate, less left-wing." W God: "I don't believe, by definition, and there is also no reward and punishment." He has never prayed, either in bad times or good ("I am more into meditation"). Still, he thinks there is a metaphysical reality beyond us. W Israel: He hesitates. "It is possible that we will cease to exist," he says. The model to be wary of, he says, is that of the Second Temple period, as described by the Jewish historian of the period, Josephus. Shlomo: "The worst atrocities happened in Jerusalem, among the Jews themselves." At the same time, he is somewhat optimistic: "The fact is that I didn't have to live here but nevertheless chose to come back." The biggest problem, he says, is the occupation, a "voluntary cancer that is eating us from within." W Household chores: A major problem. "You can't find cleaning women nowadays." So he washes the place "whenever necessary" using a wet rag and the vacuum cleaner. W Laundry detergent: "Persil liquid." W Softener: "Always Badin." W Entertainment: Mainly movies, usually the Lev Theater in Herzliya or in Even Yehuda. The best film he has seen recently: "The Edge of Heaven" (a Turkish-German co-production). W Cafe: Tapuz, in Batsra (a moshav), or at Bono in the Yakum gas station. W Clothes: "A lot" (Golf, Fox, Zara). He even buys ties. W What he misses: Ras Mohamed, in Sinai ("the bond with the surroundings, being filled inwardly"). W Happiness quotient (scale of 1-10): "Variable" - yesterday 2, today 9.78. Yakum A kibbutz north of Herzliya, population about 550, established 1947 by Hashomer Hatzair settlement groups from Palestine and Bulgaria. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Terror in the capital A Palestinian rammed his bulldozer into a bus in Jerusalem, killing three. Poetic injustice Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish blends sarcasm and hope in his latest work.

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