Grapevine: The name of the game

Among the cleanest public toilets in Jerusalem are those located next door to Gan Hasus, one of the sites of the capital’s tent cities.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Gan Hasus tent city Jerusalm_521 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Gan Hasus tent city Jerusalm_521
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
■ ISRAEL LIKES to think of itself as a pluralistic society, and on the surface it may be; but apparently ethnic discrimination still exists. Former Black Panther and former MK Charlie Biton is married to an Ashkenazi high-school teacher. One of their five children is a physician who has chosen to call himself by his mother’s maiden name. Speaking about baseless hatred at the annual Tisha Be’av marathon of speakers’ panels at Beit Avi Chai, Biton said the reason his son calls himself Dr. Freund is that it inspires more confidence than he would receive if he called himself Dr. Biton. This, despite the fact that many so-called Orientals have risen to top positions in most state institutions and in local government.
Delighted by the massive public response to the call for social justice, which is far more positive than the reactions to demonstrations staged by the Black Panthers in the 1970s, Biton said that he has been waiting 40 years for others to take over where the Black Panthers left off. He’s also going to provide a broader platform for the current surge of protest against the system through a weekly Wednesday night program called White Panthers that he will hosting together with Shimon Yair on Radio Jerusalem. The program’s title presumably derives from the Ashkenazi component in the demand for social justice.
■ THE HEBREW month of Elul begins at the end of August, and with it comes the period of penitential prayers that precedes the High Holy Days. Traditionally these prayers, often set to music, are recited or sung in the synagogue, but in recent years pop singers – not all of them religiously observant or even moving in that direction – have taken religious liturgy to the masses with new poignant or upbeat tunes and arrangements. Beit Avi Chai got in early and this week hosted Iris and Ofer Portugali with 16 musicians singing Jewish-style gospel songs, jazz with liturgical overtones and traditional Jewish verses straight out of the Bible or the prayer book.
Something a little more traditional will be a night of penitential prayers billed as a Slihot Party on September 9 at Jerusalem’s old train station, with the participation of Lior Elimelech, Kobi Oz, Micha Sheetrit and child prodigy Elohai Lugassi.
■ AT SHALVA, the Association for Mentally and Physically Challenged Children in Israel, there’s great excitement in the knowledge that Dr. Hillel Davis, former vice president for university life at Yeshiva University, will on September 1 become Shalva’s director of strategic planning & initiatives.
Before joining YU, Davis, who holds a PhD in organizational psychology, was a senior vice president of human resources at IDT Corporation and previously held similar senior-level positions at Republic National Bank (now HSBC) and Citicorp/Citibank, N.A.
Davis joins the SHALVA team just as SHALVA is preparing for expansion. The new SHALVA National Children’s Center is under construction and will be the largest facility of its type in Israel, serving as a model for innovative programming and therapies.
Davis and his wife, Rachayl, planned for many years to eventually live in Israel.
In fact, he resigned his position at Yeshiva University in order to fulfill this dream.
Davis and his wife arrived in Israel last month with Nefesh B’Nefesh and are residing in Jerusalem.
■ RETURNING TO Jerusalem after a prolonged absence is Moshe Hebroni, the former head of the Jerusalem district operations of the Meuhedet health fund. He left that post several years ago following a dispute with Shmuel Mualem, who was then the director-general of Meuhedet. Hebroni has been called in to try to resuscitate the ailing Bikur Cholim Hospital and will take on the position of general manager.
■ THESE DAYS, the surname Leitersdorf is associated with millionaire architect and businessman Jonathan Leitersdorf, who is married to skincare guru Ronit Raphael, who is a walking advertisement for her own luxury products; or Andrea, better known as Dushi Leitersdorf, who is a well-known restaurateur and who owns the Villa Dallal in Neveh Tzedek.
However, there was a time when the name conjured up images of couture fashion that carried with it not only a sense of drama but also the history and traditions of the region. Finny Leitersdorf, who died 25 years ago, was the undisputed doyenne of Israeli fashion. The Hungarian immigrant with her instinctive sense of chic was for several years the unique fashion mainstay of Maskit, the wonderful but long defunct chain of stores created by Ruth Dayan, to exhibit and sell the traditional arts and crafts of North African immigrants whom she had encouraged to establish cottage industries. The magnificent evening gowns designed by Leitersdorf are timeless, but she was most famous for her desert coat inspired by the traditional outer garment of the Beduin.
For this past week, a retrospective exhibition of Leitersdorf creations, put together by her granddaughter Dushi, has been on view at the Villa Dallal.
■ AFTER ENGAGING in a nationwide tour of the tent cities, listening to protesters and voicing his support for their battle for affordable housing, Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) founder and candidate for the chairmanship of the Labor Party Erel Margalit took the initiative and invited international housing experts Prof. Glen Yago and Steven J. Weiss to participate in the first of a series of discussions at the Rothschild Boulevard tents in Tel Aviv and offer their insights on various means that have been used internationally to address crises related to affordable housing.
Margalit believes that dramatic social changes can be achieved through collaboration between the government and the private sector if undertaken in a smart, regulated and responsible manner.
“If the government provides the proper conditions and incentives, the private sector can play a key role in leading this transformation. We can have 30,000 new housing units available rather than just 2000,” he said.
Margalit further believes that the process for change must start at the banks, which he said must be obligated, by threat of sanctions, to provide a social investment in the communities in which they operate and profit.
■ AMONG THE cleanest public toilets in Jerusalem are those located next door to Gan Hasus, one of the sites of the capital’s tent cities. Even though the toilets are exceptionally clean, the liquid soap containers were often empty until the start of the encampment when someone who is responsible for the toilets realized that a greater effort had to be put in towards the maintaining of hygiene. Now the containers are always well stocked.
But more than that, realizing that protesters living in tents need to wash regularly, especially in the heat of the Israeli summer, someone has put a big sign across the mirror reading: If you need a shower, call Shaike or Yonatan, with their respective phone numbers.