This week in Jerusalem

Peggy Cidor’s round-up of city affairs

By PEGGY CIDOR
Train Station521 (photo credit: SYBIL EHRLICH)
Train Station521
(photo credit: SYBIL EHRLICH)
Here it comes again The Jerusalem Season of Culture is back. As of next Monday (July 1), for the coming seven weeks a wide range of cultural events will inundate the city and gives us more than a glimpse of what Jerusalem and outside imports can add to our cultural life.
Since its inception three years ago, the JSC has attracted a large audience, many of them visitors from Jerusalem and abroad.
Among its features this year are indoor events such as Festival at Home, which takes place in private houses on opening day.
For more information, visit http://youtube/c9OVvxLkYdk Making changes, right now On Sunday, 15 young entrepreneurs, all residents of the city, both Jews and Arabs, presented their projects at a launch evening at the First Station. A haredi who has opened a preparatory program for young haredim who dropped out of yeshiva and loiter about, sometimes close to delinquency; a soldier who recently completed his army service who launched a theater center for youth at risk; and a virtual center for sexual education for youth are just three of a long list of projects planned within the framework of the fourth cycle of Presentense. It is an organization dedicated to helping young entrepreneurs develop various social projects, with the aid and support of business and logistical expertise.
Presentense, which operates in 10 major cities around the world opened its branch in Jerusalem four years ago to help expand the capacities of young adults to develop their skills in social and business projects.
Changing the rules Parents of pupils in elementary or junior-high schools, this is for you. The Israeli Parents Association for Better Education issued a warning to encourage parents to refuse to pay the sums required beyond tuition.
“Enough of this robbery,” says the letter addressed to the parents, encouraging them to refuse to pay the large sums and deepen the painful differences between the well-to-do families and the underprivileged.
This generates unbearable situations, explains Etti Binyamin, former head of the local parents’ association and today a member of the national organization, such as children who cannot go on class trips or take part in cultural activities because their parents cannot pay. Binyamin also sent a letter to Education Minister Shai Piron, requesting a revision of the fees.
Election time, No. 1 The internal elections for Meretz, which brought Meir Margalit to the head of the party, have been canceled following irregularities, and new elections will be held within a few weeks.
“Everything is open again,” say the candidates, including an eventual return of the unseated former leader, Deputy Mayor Pepe Alalu, who is running again. Among the other parties planning to run for the city council, there is more than a hint of concern. Margalit’s victory was good for them, since he is identified with the radical side of the left wing, thus enabling other parties to gain public support.
Election time No. 2 The forum Jerusalem Deserves More, which has been working for the past few months to find a candidate to challenge Mayor Nir Barkat’s candidacy, seems to have had some success.
Following the unofficial candidacy of Moshe Leon, president of the Jerusalem Development Authority and not a resident of the city, an old-new candidate is looming in the horizon.
According to sources inside the forum, former mayor Uri Lupolianski is closer than ever to deciding to run again. If the information – yet to be confirmed – turns out to be accurate, Barkat might find himself running against two candidates – something that some professional political advisers believe could be to his advantage. For the moment, Tzvika Chernichovski, former CEO of the Jerusalem Association of Community Centers, who founded the forum, says that he meets an increasing number of residents who encourage him to continue his efforts to bring challengers to the mayor’s candidacy.