Hmm, not sure this is the right place, but...

[The Baron]

...I would have some questions to ask concerning Israel, for something I'm making.

The first question would be straight foward : Akko, is it a relatively, err, quiet town ?

[Gilgamesh]

...I would have some questions to ask concerning Israel, for something I'm making.

The first question would be straight foward : Akko, is it a relatively, err, quiet town ?
Yes it is. Akko is a bit poor town with significant crime rate, but over all, you never here about it in news sources.

http://www.akko.org.il/English/main/default.asp
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/Acco.html
http://www.stateofisrael.com/tourism/akko/
http://www.canaan.co.il/hebrew/tourism/zimers/h_akko.html

[The Baron]

I will rework the question in another way...If a woman wanted to raise her lone child (a girl with...let's say some issues....) in Israel, could Akko be a credible choice (even if this come up with an argument like : no one could think that I would be insane enough for...)

[Gilgamesh]

I will rework the question in another way...If a woman wanted to raise her lone child (a girl with...let's say some issues....) in Israel, could Akko be a credible choice (even if this come up with an argument like : no one could think that I would be insane enough for...)
Akko can be as credible choise and any other place in Israel.
If that woman, has good means, there are better places then Akko.
Employment is troublesome in Akko like in other smaller towns, which make people move to bigger cities, such as Hiafa, greater Tel Aviv, and greater Jerusalem. Also, that woman has to decide to which community she feels most affinity, Ultra-Orthodox, modern Orthodox, secular, non-Jewish, Russian speaking... ect.

What ever the problem maybe, the people of the Jewish agency, or the ministry of Aliya (misrad ha'klita) can help that woman alot, both finding a job and suggesting resisdence best suited to that woman needs.

[The Baron]

Money is not a problem for her, her priority is the safety of her child (note : this is for a work of fiction, so it need to be ACCURATE, not EXACT)

There is an Russian community in Akko ? Even better...

Second question, related to the first ones.

Are Russians (or Falashas) people are now well integrated in Israeli society ? (two sites I consulted say yes, two others say no...)

[Toga]

Israel has given refuge to the Jews from 120 countries speaking 80 different languages. It has also accepted some persecuted Arabs, the Vietnamese refugees, etc. It is all a matter of how one perceives his/hers status in Israel. If you want to feel Israeli you can. It requires to learn the language, get the education, understand the Israeli jokes, etc. It is a process and it requires an effort. It is not easy. It is a lot easier to speak your native language in Israel, shop at the stores where they understand you, watch the TV instead of going to class, etc. and constantly complain that Israel is at fault for not integrating you fast enough.

[The Baron]

The problems of the child, Iris, are clearly in the realm of the fiction. They are kinda hard to explain without sounding to have severe brain damage. Iris is a lovable child, good-hearted, a little spoiled-it's just that if she is exposed to violence, this could lead to pretty nasty conscequences (in the remote possibility that someone touching an hair of Iris survive the wrath of her mother, he is in for quite a surprise...)

As I said, I'm just asking for basic answers to try to make my stuff more accurate than Dan Brown novels (not hard, that) Accordingly, the sense of the question about the Russians immigrants was ''Could a woman of soviet origins, arriving as a teen in Israel, could CREDIBLY end up years later with an relatively important post in Israeli governement/administration (she is very capable)

[Womble]

The problems of the child, Iris, are clearly in the realm of the fiction. They are kinda hard to explain without sounding to have severe brain damage. Iris is a lovable child, good-hearted, a little spoiled-it's just that if she is exposed to violence, this could lead to pretty nasty conscequences (in the remote possibility that someone touching an hair of Iris survive the wrath of her mother, he is in for quite a surprise...)
There is no place anywhere in the world where one could live without any exposure whatsoever to violence- whether in the form of warfare, or crime, or school bullying and such.

The general rule, however, is that the smaller the town, the less likely one is to run into severe forms of violence. I'd recommend one of the small-to-medium towns in Israel. Zichron Yaakov would have been near ideal- small, beautiful, calm and relatively homogenous in population. The immigrant presence there is rather low, though, so if the people in question are Russian born and access to Russian bookstores or "Russian food" shops is an issue, it would make more sense to settle in Maalot or Karmiel.

As I said, I'm just asking for basic answers to try to make my stuff more accurate than Dan Brown novels (not hard, that) Accordingly, the sense of the question about the Russians immigrants was ''Could a woman of soviet origins, arriving as a teen in Israel, could CREDIBLY end up years later with an relatively important post in Israeli governement/administration (she is very capable)
Easily. There's plenty of people here who arrived to Israel either as teens or as adults, and have gained important posts in the Israeli political system. Avigdor Lieberman is a prime example. There's plenty of successful female politicians too (like Limor Livnat). There are Russian born female MKs in the Knesset (Marina Solodkin, Sofa Landver, Esterina Tratman). For some reason, Israeli political parties that position themselves as representing the immigrants tend to have a significantly higher ratio of women compared to other parties.

[Justcurious]

I remember having taken a photograph of Akko's road sign. Why? One of the lakes near my home is also called Akko, that's why. (The photograph is of the road sign of the Northern Israeli town.)

And, although Womble says: "There is no place anywhere in the world where one could live without any exposure whatsoever to violence..."

Our Akko is extremely peaceful, if you don't count exposure to televized violence, all too often coming from the land of the other Akko...

[Mira]

What about Arad? A good percentage of the people there are Russian and it's pretty laid back.

[jeans_moha]

thanks

[CoinToss]

Arad's mayor used to be a communist :S

[The Baron]

No, I need Akko for something else...

This is taking shape nicely. The basic idea is to mix the complete innocence of Iris (five years old) to the...darker...reality

The said darkness is coming from several ways :
1)Iris have, as I said, an ''issue'' that made her father considers an very extreme resolution concerning her. Her mother disagreed. The father had an unfortunate ''accident'' that was very spectacular, but hardly accidental. Iris mother is extremely protective of her daughter. She is a very normal person, with high ethics, UNLESS Iris is concerned.

2)As you might guess, the environnement in which Iris grew is maybe not the most peaceful one...

3)And there is dark things about Iris herself...

[CoinToss]

Israel has given refuge to the Jews from 120 countries speaking 80 different languages. It has also accepted some persecuted Arabs, the Vietnamese refugees, etc. It is all a matter of how one perceives his/hers status in Israel. If you want to feel Israeli you can. It requires to learn the language, get the education, understand the Israeli jokes, etc. It is a process and it requires an effort. It is not easy. It is a lot easier to speak your native language in Israel, shop at the stores where they understand you, watch the TV instead of going to class, etc. and constantly complain that Israel is at fault for not integrating you fast enough.
Ho, israeli people ! Take example on France, pliz ! :O

[CoinToss]

The problems of the child, Iris, are clearly in the realm of the fiction. They are kinda hard to explain without sounding to have severe brain damage.
I have some sharp knowledge concerning that kind of problem. Maybe you want to speak of that in PM ?

[The Baron]

Oh, as I said, it's because it's clearly in the realm of fiction...(surnatural)

Let's just say that Iris could kill someone easily if she wished ; because of the condition she had at her birth (note : this condition is not normall, but it did occured naturally-no stuff like experiences, and so on) The work I'm making try to combine extremely down to earth storyline (the plans of the character are CREDIBLE) with clearly SF things.

The other question concerning Akko is tourism-related. What, EXACTLY, is remaining of the Forsaken Tower ?

[CoinToss]

She killed her father ?

[The Baron]

Iris father wanted to get rid of her, at birth. Her mother was strongly disagreeing on this point. It's Iris mother that killed her (ex) husband, in a way showcasing that she is very protective of her daughter (normal. Which is less normal is that she have a lot of way to protect Iris. Please note that the said ways are very normal and natural. The problem is rather in the realm of ehtifcs and morality, but that is another matter)

Now, a ten bucks question : in your opinion, would talking about the Forsaken Tower (Akko wise) would look cheap ? (I'm trying to find something interesting history wise BUT accurate. Forsaken Tower, who was the curse of Saladin, the Crusaders and Napoleon himself, enters this category...)

[CoinToss]

I didn't notice you were writing a book.

The best way not to write too much irrelevance is to spend some time in Israel.
I checked for the Forsaken Tower, it seems it never existed ^^
Maybe under another name : Khan Al-Umdan ?

[The Baron]

Not EXACTLY a book, but yes, in this line. (My biggest issue is to make Iris-and the like-credible...)

See, that's why some info-seeking is required. The Forsaken Tower is supposed to be the strongest point of the ancient walls of Akko. Akko fell in 1291 on this precise point, and Napoleon was stopped at Acre because of the tower.

(Want, in PM, details about Iris fictive problem ? Fictive and surnatural)

[genghis_tom]

I checked for the Forsaken Tower, it seems it never existed ^^

There is the Tower of Flies...

[CoinToss]

According to wikipedia, there is 3 towers in Akko (שלושה מגדלים), but I don't know which.

[The Baron]

The Tower of the Flies, altought interesting, is not the right one. It was a naval tower (for covering the harbour)

See, my problem is that I use extensively references in my home language (french) in which the tower in question is systematically dubbed la ''Tour Maudite'' (the Forsaken Tower)

[The Baron]

Update : the whole Israel thing is now settled up...

New question : is ''Judith'' is a name actually gave to Jewish girls in modern times ?

[KettleWhistle]

Why not? The Hebrew equivalent is "Yudit".

[The Baron]

"Judith'' is then the Latin (or Greek, or whatever) translation of ''Yudith'' ? Good.

Dumb question : did the Judith in the Torah (or the Old Testament, depending of the religion) is present-day seen as an somewhat likable figure ?

I finally found an artist-the production will began soon.

New question : one of the core gimmick of the project is that there is a twin storyline : one in WW2 and is aftermath, and the other one in modern days. As you might guess, the characters of the 2005 story are related to the ones of the 1945 one...I recently thought that a connection on the side of ''foes'' would be nice, too...

I did have an idea, I want opinions on it : the so called grand Mufti of Jerusalem and his grandaughter ! (Note : the project is VERY pro-Israeli, but I can't invent stuff. The grand-daughter is going to be a crook)

[The Baron]

What the ?...