City Notes

$1 million parent-children center launched in Haifa.

By TAMARA ZIEVE
Tel Aviv Port’s Farmers Market (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Tel Aviv Port’s Farmers Market
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
NORTH A center for parents and children opened in Haifa’s Kiryat Eliezer neighborhood last week, as part of a program run by the Haifa-Boston Connection, an organization founded by Combined Jewish Philanthropies and the Haifa Municipality in 1989, to strengthen collaboration between the two sister cities.
The program, called Horim Bamerkaz (Parents at the Center), will provide guidance to parents starting from pregnancy, to give them tools to help their children avoid becoming atrisk youths down the road.
The new “Parents at the Center house” is the first to be opened. A range of lectures, workshops and joint activities for parents and children will be offered there, and professionals will also provide counseling on a variety of subjects connected to parenting.
Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav congratulated all those involved in the project, and thanked the donors. He stressed the importance of the program, particularly for first-time parents, in dispelling fears and concerns. Guidance and support for parents in the early stages of parenting benefit both their education and their relationship with their children, he said.
Haifa-Boston Connection director Vered Israeli said that many resources had been invested into the “house,” resulting in a wide range of activities on offer.
14-year-old girl in critical condition after Acre shooting A 14-year-old girl was in critical condition after being shot in her upper body, in Acre last weekend, Magen David Adom said. Police were investigating the incident.
Minors caught with alcohol and drugs in Tiberias Police found drugs and dozens of bottles of alcohol on a Tiberias bus carrying dozens of minors on Sunday night. Police suspected that the drugs were going to be used for personal consumption; several of the youths were detained.
CENTER Belgium Folklore Fest to grace TA Farmers Market A spread of Belgian flavors, colors, sounds and smells will be found at the Tel Aviv Port’s Farmers Market next week, in the form of the Belgian Folklore Fest. The event, headlined by the Belgian ambassador in Israel, will be open from March 25 to 27, between the hours of 7 p.m. and midnight. Top Belgian chefs, beers brewers and chocolatiers are set to participate in the event, which will offer food stands, DJ sets, video art, street performances, panels and workshops.
Lives of five kids saved over one weekend at Schneider Five children received lifesaving organ donations at Schneider Children’s Medical Center for Israel in Petah Tikva, over the course of last weekend. The operations included a heart transplant, two liver transplants and two kidney transplants, according to the Local website.
The five children who underwent surgery comprised a 16-year-old boy,nine-year-old old boy, a six-yearold girl, a two year old and a baby.
The conditions of all the children were described as stable following the operations.
Schneider is one of the few pediatric hospitals in the world that can handle numerous organ transplants simultaneously.
SOUTH Aviv Geffen meets Eilat pupils as part of music project As part of a music education program in Eilat, pupils from grades six to nine met last week with legendary singer/songwriter Aviv Geffen. Geffen spoke with the students about his life, and put on a musical performance together with pianist and musician Eran Mitelman.
The project, called “Password for every pupil,” is being run in cooperation with the Department of Education. The initiative is being led by Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevi, with the aim of turning Eilat into a “singing and playing” city, and acquainting its youth with Israeli songs connected to the land.
Prior to Geffen’s visit, the children tried their hand at writing their own songs about the Israeli landscape, and answered a survey about how they would like to participate in Geffen’s visit.
With 1,015 children answering, 590 said they would like to read a song they wrote to Geffen; 304 said they would like to hear him speak about how to become a successful artist and singer; 73 said they would like to sing with him, and 48 said they would like to play music with him.
Ninth-graders watched Geffen perform a full show with Mitelman, during which they learned about the songs and the stories behind them. With the sixth graders, he had in-depth conversations about his personal life, integrating educational messages about values, the importance of perseverance and diligence, acceptance of the other, love for Israel and other topics.
The pupils asked him questions, and some even performed with him on the stage.
Geffen told them that he was more excited to meet with them than they were to meet him, and praised Halevi, saying that only a mayor with an open mind would invite him to speak with and perform for the children.
Education Department director Miri Kopito said the encounter with Geffen contributed significantly to deepening the pupils’ values, particularly because the messages came from a famous singer-songwriter. “There is no doubt that the meeting with Aviv enabled the pupils to see the man behind the ratings, a person with feelings and values, talking honestly about art and the significance of persistence on the road to success. His statements undoubtedly constituted meaningful milestones for the children and youth, whose personalities are being shaped during these years,” she said.
Four Beersheba teenagers allegedly attacked man who asked them to be quiet Beersheba police on Sunday arrested four Beersheba teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17, on suspicion of attacking a man who asked them to be quiet over the weekend, the Local website reported.
The man filed a complaint last Friday at the police station, saying that after he asked the teenagers – who were underneath his home – to be quiet, they attacked him.
Police arrested the four after conducting an investigation into the matter. From their probe they found that on Friday evening, after the man asked for quiet, the teenagers threw stones at him, wounding him, and also stole his phone. The man came to the police station after receiving medical treatment.
Beersheba police noted that they have zero tolerance for bullying and violence, and added that since police cannot be everywhere all the time, it’s important to report such incidents to police.