This week in Jerusalem

Peggy Cidor’s round-up of city affairs.

By PEGGY CIDOR
This week in Jerusalem (photo credit: Courtesy)
This week in Jerusalem
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Of hosting and hurdles
The initiative to host the next Maccabiah Games (scheduled for July 2013) has encountered some logistic problems – the arena where the games were scheduled to open will not be ready on time. Nevertheless, the Maccabiah Organizing Committee outlined its plans and budget to the relevant ministers earlier this week.
The games will open officially on the evening of July 18, 2013 at Teddy Stadium (instead of the arena still under construction) and will end on July 30. The government has approved the proposal and allocated a grant of NIS 18 million for the Maccabiah.
The Maccabiah is considered the world’s third-biggest sports event, superseded only by the Summer Olympics and the Asian Games. The organizers say that the Maccabiah’s logistical requirements far outstrip any other civilian event in Israel.
There are over 8,000 athletes already registered within their national delegations in 70 countries on six continents for next summer’s games. The athletes will participate in 40 sports in about 120 tournaments, many of which will take place in Jerusalem as well as at venues in the Negev and Galilee. Athletes and officials will use 116,000 beds in 30 large hotels; around 70,000 buses will carry athletes to and from their hotels, tournaments and events; Israeli security companies will provide 80,000 personnel hours; and athletes will consume nearly one million liters of mineral water.
Eighty percent of the $52 million that will be spent on the event will be generated by delegations from abroad, and tourists drawn to Israel for the games are expected to spend $35 million in the country. There’s just one more year until we see how it all pans out.
Light rail reckoning
The bottom line first: The Knesset Economic Affairs Committee has voted in favor of creating an external committee to hear appeals over unjustly issued fines that passengers have received from CityPass.
The decision followed a petition from the municipality, launched by the mayor and City Councilman David Hershkowitz (Jerusalem Beytenu), who holds the public transportation portfolio.
The three-person committee will consist of representatives of the Justice Ministry, CityPass and the public, and may lead to a friendlier attitude toward passengers and their needs. It will also enable passengers to contest citations and fines they have received and obtain an answer within 30 days at maximum.
Dorms in the center
Here is some good news for students – the dormitory project that this column reported a year ago is happening. Dorms for hundreds of students studying at the Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design will be built in the center of town.
Last year, an initial tender was published to decide which of the city’s academic institutions would obtain these facilities, and Bezalel won. A tender for the project will be published by the Eden company (an auxiliary of the Jerusalem Development Authority) in the coming days and construction will take place on the site of Agron House (close to the under-construction Museum of Tolerance).
In its first stage, the dorm project will offer up to 200 beds, but the project is designed to grow to a few hundred more. The rent will be NIS 1,200 per month, and together with moving the classrooms from the Mount Scopus building, it will bring hundreds of students back to the city center – and lower the rental prices for the city’s students in general.
According to the terms of Eden’s tender, the winner will maintain the dorms for 25 years. The project will include a new building of six stories and a four-story addition to the existing Agron building.
Global Jerusalem
A modest local initiative that emerged during the gender segregation protests and religious tensions in the city a few months ago is reaching its first – and hopefully not last – turning point.
Dr. Elan Ezrachi, president of the Ginot Ha’ir neighborhood council (the German Colony, Rehavia and Old Katamon), has launched the Inclusive Jerusalem website. Over 100 people – locals and representatives of several Jewish organizations abroad – are registered for the first meeting of the site’s members. The “Global Jerusalem” gathering was set to take place Friday at the Beit Yehudit facilities on Emek Refaim Street.
At the heart of the program, there will be five roundtable discussions on five Jerusalem-based topics: Fostering a pluralistic public space, enhancing Jewish renaissance, providing meaningful opportunities for young adults, promoting multiculturalism and tolerance, and searching for the next big idea to connect world Jewry. Besides Ezrachi, those leading the discussions will be Elisheva Mazya from the New Spirit students’ organization; Uri Ayalon, founder of the Yotzer Or congregation in Talpiot; Ginot Ha’ir Community Council director Shaike El Ami; and Techila Nachalon from Ne’emanei Tora Ve’avoda.
Interreligious and friendly
As part of the 21st annual conference of the Interreligious Coordinating Council for Israel (ICCI), three women activists and community organizers of each of the monotheistic religions spoke on Monday about the exclusion of women in their respective communities.
The three activists, who have been involved in a myriad of initiatives aimed at empowering women, were Nora Kort, a specialist in community development who has worked for the Christian community in Palestine for more than 30 years; City Councilwoman Rachel Azaria, an Orthodox Jew who lives in Jerusalem and has tackled issues including segregation of men and women on the streets of the ultra-Orthodox Mea She’arim neighborhood during Succot; and Dr. Laila Abed Rabo, a researcher on Islamic law at the Hebrew University and a women’s rights activist in the country’s Arab-Muslim community.
Rabo interviewed more than 200 Muslim women who had appealed for redress in Shari’a courts here after being abused and maltreated by their husbands.
The discussion took place at the Notre Dame Cultural Center.
The ICCI has been a leading organization in promoting interreligious dialogue for the past 21 years.
Our cherries
Thousands packed the Gush Etzion region last Friday to celebrate the 2012 cherry season in the Kibbutz Rosh Tzurim orchard. The visitors were invited to pick their own cherries from the trees and eat as many as they could, then visit the fair nearby, which offered leisure activities for children.
The Cherry Festival will run through July. Visitors can coordinate their arrival with the local tourist information center.