Get out of the routine

Now that it’s November, there’s a feeling that the year has finally begun a we adjust to our routines and settle down to a long stretch of regular life.

Chanukah (or Thanksgivukkah, for immigrants from the US) is nigh, but in the meantime, there’s a whole host of lectures, activities, exhibitions and sites to hear, see and do, all worthwhile if you’re looking for something outside the ordinary week.

This week, the top five extracurricular activities to add to your regular routine.

1) Take in a book reading with bestseller author Anat Lev Adler, who will be reading from her latest romance novel, “Kotevet U’moheket Ahava” (the title translate to “Writing and Erasing Love”), about a married woman of 40 learning about love and lifelong relationships. Lev Adler will be reading at the HDL Daphna Levinson studio in Tel Aviv, where she’ll hold a discussion after the reading. Her books will be for sale, as will Daphna Levinson’s collection. Thursday, November 21, 8:30 pm, 1 Alfasi, Tel Aviv, sign up on the HDL website for one of the limited spaces.

2) It’s been 50 years since John F. Kennedy’s assassination.The Kennedy Memorial just outside Jerusalem, put in place in 1966, commemorates the memory of the American president. Designed by architect David Resnik, the memorial is in the shape of a tree stump, symbolizing a life cut short, and surrounded by 51 columns representing the 50 states of the US and Washington, DC. Members of the Kennedy family, US presidents and governors have planted trees in the forest surrounding the memorial, creating a meaningful attraction for visitors. Yad Kennedy, just above Moshav Aminadav, near Hadassah Ein Kerem.

Speaking of the US, “Aircraft Carrier” is a new Israel Museum exhibit on America-Israel relations with art, architecture and design, taking its name from US President Ronald Reagan’s statement that “Israel is the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk.” The exhibition deals with the influence of American ideas on Israeli society, as seen through the lens of architecture, as well as quirky products that reflect on the rise of Israeli capitalism. Aircraft Carrier, at the Israel Museum through January 4.

3) It’s Gangnam style week-plus at the Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem Cinematheques, where the Korean Film Festival opens Sunday, November 17, extending through the end of the month. The festival opens with “Masquerade,” a historical film about a common acrobat masquerading as king, who is facing the threat of being poisoned. It’s currently the fourth-highest-grossing Korean film and it swept the 49th Grand Bell Awards, the Korean version of the Oscars.

4) Diane Samuels, a Pittsburgh-based visual artist who is one of the four fellows in the American Academy in Jerusalem, a project of the Foundation for Jewish Culture, is in the midst of her 10-week project writing poetry and recording conversations with Jerusalemites from her perch at the YMCA. The plan, said Samuels, is to provide an annotated map of her experiences. Next week, she’ll be working with the preschoolers at the YMCA, aiming to enhance the feeling of community and shifting one classroom into a private living room, complete with tea, coffee and cookies. But for now, walk into the YMCA at any time, and you’ll usually find Diane, chatting with someone or working quietly in her notebook. Become one of her subjects. YMCA, King David Street, Jerusalem.

5) It’s the season for designer sales and pop-up shops, and Thursday marks the start of the Tel Aviv Designers Station at Public/Space, a platform for independent, free and fair trade and exhibitions by local artists and designers.

Housed in the beautifully preserved surroundings of the Social Lab of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 27 designers will be selling their wares on the bottom floor while LaCulture contemporary art, with prices ranging up to NIS 500, will be available on the top floor, featuring the work of local illustrators.

Thursday, November 14 through Saturday, November 17, at Public/Space, Maze 9, Tel Aviv.