By GREER FAY CASHMAN(photo credit: GPO)
THE AMERICAN Colony Hotel in east Jerusalem has been named by World Travel Awards as Israel’s leading boutique hotel for 2017.Other boutique hotels that were nominated include the Alma Hotel and Lounge; Bayit Bagalil Hotel; Efendi Boutique Hotel; and Hotel Montefiore. Not all of these are kosher. The American Colony won for the fourth time and for the third consecutive year.THERE’S A glut of Balfour Declaration events, with additional ones popping up all the time. Some started as far back as September, even though the centenary is not until November 2. The Israel Branch of the Jewish Historical Society of England is also getting an event in early with a panel presentation this coming Sunday, October 22, at 7:45 p.m. at Beit Avi Chai, 44 King George Avenue.Zionism was not actually such a hot commodity in England in November 1917, and while some British Jews were delighted, others wanted to distance themselves from it. The panel will discuss how the Balfour Declaration was received in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow. Speakers from those respective cities will be Raymond Cannon, Gavriel Sivan, Leslie Wagner and Kenneth Collin.IN CELEBRATION of the new basketball season and star players, team manager Guy Harel and supporters of Hapoel Jerusalem got together at the Jerusalem Waldorf Astoria hotel during the intermediate days of Sukkot. Players autographed their team shirts and personal possessions and sold them for a good cause.Waldorf Astoria general manager Avner On, in greeting the players, said that he hoped they would remain the best and would keep coming back to the hotel to celebrate victories. The hotel management would be delighted to host them again in 2018, if they succeed in once more being the national champions, he said.THE ASSOCIATION of Americans and Canadians in Israel is holding a Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday November 23 at La Gondola in Yad Harutzim Street.The dinner menu includes turkey, traditional side dishes, Israeli dishes, desserts, beer and wines. It’s an opportunity to make new friends and for old friend to get together to enjoy great food and music, followed by a show!After dinner, the Thanksgiving diners will leave the restaurant and will head down to the AACI Glassman Family Center (37 Pierre Koenig Street, Talpiot) for a performance by AACI J-Town Playhouse’s You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown directed by Aviella Trapido. Cost for dinner and the show is NIS 240, with a reduction of NIS 20 for AACI members. The cost for dinner without the show is NIS 175 for non-members and NIS 150 AACI members. For reservations call (02) 566-1181. Reservations should be prepaid before Wednesday, November 8. All reservations are final and cannot be refunded.ALSO UNDER the auspices of AACI is the resumption of the musical appreciation series by conductor and music lecturer Harvey Bordowitz.This will be the fifth season of his lecture series, and it begins on Sunday October 29 under the heading of “Cherchez la Femme – Look for the Woman.”Bordowitz calls it a women’s night entirely devoted to women, including heroines, villainesses, witches, murderesses, monarchs, mothers, seductresses and abandoned women, such as Madam Butterfly, Delilah, Tosca, the Queen of Sheba, the Queen of the Night, Evita and My Yiddishe Momme.The program begins at 7.30 p.m. at AACI, 37 Pierre Koenig Street.
