This week in Jerusalem

Post no bills Want to advertise a sofa? Need a babysitter? Want to offer private math lessons?

By PEGGY CIDOR
Israeli museum archeology wing_521 (photo credit: (Tim Hursley/Courtesy of the Israel Museum, Jerusa)
Israeli museum archeology wing_521
(photo credit: (Tim Hursley/Courtesy of the Israel Museum, Jerusa)
Post no bills Want to advertise a sofa? Need a babysitter? Want to offer private math lessons? These kinds of announcements can be seen everywhere – at bus stops, on trees, on electrical boxes, on the street – in short, anywhere you wouldn’t want to see them and where it is forbidden to post them. Well, someone at Safra Square has come up with a good idea – special bulletin boards, friendly to the environment, that will be put up in specific spots around the city for our personal use – and free of charge. The first 30 baby boards (yes, that’s the official name) have already been put up in neighborhoods where there is a large number of students (apparently, the largest clientele for such advertisements), such as French Hill and Rehavia, or where there is a large number of young children, such as Ramat Shlomo, Pisgat Ze’ev and Romema. The bulletin boards are affixed on electrical poles, and hopefully they will help keep the city clean.
Separate museum viewing hours The Israel Museum, in an effort to bring in as many haredi visitors as possible to its current exhibition about hassidic life, has initiated separate visiting hours for men and women during the three-week vacation period of the haredi yeshivot. The visiting hours, which apply only to the exhibition “A World Apart Next Door: Glimpses into the Life of Hassidic Jews,” will be held after the regular opening hours of the museum so they won’t interfere with the visits of the museum’s other viewers.
The exhibition, which has been on display for about a month, depicts hassidic culture and features rare editions of hassidic books, clothing, photographs and video clips of events in various hassidic spheres.
Hatred – a wide spectrum A marathon of films on the painful issue of baseless hatred – in connection with the legacy of the destruction of the Temple commemorated on Tisha Be’av – will be screened at Beit Avi Chai. Between the films, debates and lectures on the topic will touch on the various reasons and causes of hatred that have plagued us throughout the centuries. What is hatred? Where does it come from? Why is it so difficult to eradicate it from our lives? Are there modern aspects of hatred that our forefathers didn’t experience – for example, can we consider women’s exclusion from public spaces an expression of hatred? On Sunday, all this and more will take place at Beit Avi Chai between 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. The films and debates (in Hebrew) are open to the public. The event will be moderated by clinical psychologist Avner Hacohen and journalist Tamar Rotem. Entrance is free of charge. Refreshments will be served at the end of the fast.
A walk in the park David’s Crown Park on the luxurious real-estate project opposite the King David Hotel is ready for the public. The five-acre park is built in the framework of the large construction project behind the YMCA. It was designed by architects Spectre-Amishar and Zvi Dekel and international sculptor Israel Hadani.
The park features a flowing stream, as well as a combination of stone, glass and steel intertwined with the flora, which changes color and aspects with the varying hours of daylight. At night, special lighting will illuminate the grounds. The park was designed to add more charm to the city, say the park’s entrepreneurs, the Rassco Company. The inauguration ceremony will take place on Monday at 6 p.m.
The Zionist Archives The local planning and construction committee has approved the renovations and upgrading of the Central Zionist Archives building, near the Jerusalem International Conference Center. Some 6,400 square meters will be added to the building, which will accommodate auditoriums, hotel facilities, offices and commercial areas with restaurants and coffee shops. The plan will allow the country’s archives to remain in the city and benefit from modern, wellequipped facilities.
The center is part of a larger plan to develop the city’s entry from the west side. In addition to the archives center, the complex will include the station for the high-speed railway from Tel Aviv, now under construction, and three additional towers for hotels and commercial and leisure facilities, as well as some of the government offices that will, it is hoped, move into the city. The designers are architects Ilana and Dan Elrod.
The Central Zionist Archives contain material relating to the establishment and development of the Zionist movement since its inception, dating back to the days of Theodor Herzl and even before. The archives contain more than 50,000 maps, some 500,000 photos and 18,000 posters, as well as newspapers and periodicals.
Art and architecture The end of the academic year at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design is always an exciting time for students and their teachers, as it provides an opportunity to show the public what has been achieved during the year at the prestigious school.
This year, Bezalel presented a show that featured pieces by the Fashion and Jewelry Department’s graduates, followed by an extensive tour of the art, industrial design and visual and screen communication works. The exhibitions, rich in diversity and innovation, offered a unique opportunity to detect the first signs of artistic achievement among the students, particularly the professional and intriguing works displayed in the industrial design wing.
The festive end-of-year week culminated with an international symposium and an exhibition of the works of graduates and first-year students of the Architecture Department, the only department that is already back in the city center in the historic Bezalel building.