Grapevine: Bridging the generation gap

Described by his cousin and former longtime partner Yoram Globus as the backbone of Israel’s film industry, Menahem Golan was memorialized in Tel Aviv and was buried in Kfar Saba.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Israeli filmmaker Menahem Golan. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Israeli filmmaker Menahem Golan.
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
CHABAD IS becoming increasingly active in Jerusalem, with Chabad emissaries in almost every neighborhood and Chabad centers in most neighborhoods. But few are as active and creative as Chabad of Rehavia director Rabbi Yisroel Goldberg and his wife, Shoshi, who are forever dreaming up new projects to attract and involve more people from different backgrounds and age groups.
Their latest venture is Young at Heart, in which they aim to bridge gaps between youth in age and youth in spirit. Partnering with schools, youth movements and community organizations, they want to encourage joint activities such as MasterChef competitions in restaurants, art exhibitions and tours; voluntary classes in which people of the third age will teach music, art, languages and other subjects of interest to younger people; and various other activities that will enable people of different age groups to connect.
The Goldbergs also want senior citizens to tell their life stories to schoolchildren and university students so there will be a better understanding among the younger generation of what life was like without all the modern technology on which we rely today; what it was like to be in Europe during the Holocaust; to be banished by the British to Cyprus; to fight in the War of Independence; or to live in Israel during periods of extreme austerity and so forth.
The coordinator of the project is Ishai Drazin, who can be reached at 052-358-8028. Shoshi Goldberg is available at 052-483- 8770.
DESCRIBED BY his cousin and former longtime partner Yoram Globus as the backbone of Israel’s film industry, Menahem Golan, who was undoubtedly its most prolific pioneer, was born in Tiberias, lived and died in Jaffa, was memorialized in Tel Aviv and was buried in Kfar Saba, which in itself could be the plot for a film.
Though extremely ill, he put in an appearance at the Jerusalem Film Festival last month for the screening of The Go-Go Boys, Hilla Medalia’s documentary about the amazing success that he and Globus were able to achieve. At the festival, he was photographed with its founder, Lia Van Leer, who celebrated her 90th birthday last Friday on the day that Golan died.
Globus told reporters that Golan lived, breathed and ate cinema.
If you pricked him, instead of blood coming out of his body it would be film, said Globus. After a long rift, the two cousins came together again and spent several years in the making of The Go-Go Boys.
The death notices placed in the Hebrew press by Golan’s family stated that he had been called to create a film industry in heaven.
Golan’s wife, Rachel, was surprised to see so many people at the funeral and wondered where they had been during his declining years. Naomi, one of his three daughters, was much more blunt and said that in his heyday, when he was an international celebrity, people flocked to him like bees to honey. But towards the end, she said, he was all but isolated and ignored.
But that isn’t quite true. When he went to Cannes in May for the screening of The Go-Go Boys, he received a red carpet welcome and a standing ovation. And even two weeks before he died, he was sending film scripts and outlines for films to local producers and directors. He remained a dreamer and a visionary until his dying day.
EVEN WHEN celebrities remain active, not everyone recognizes them. That was the case last week with Dudu Fisher, who made one of the briefest appearances on record when he showed up at the inauguration of the new Jerusalem branch of the Lone Soldiers Center. At the event, there were several lone soldiers in uniform who had just returned from Gaza.
Fisher arrived after the commencement of the formal proceedings and stayed just long enough to sing “Hatikva.” He was not formally introduced, so many of those present didn’t realize who he was.
Two weeks earlier, David D’Or had sung “Hatikva” in the Knesset following Reuven Rivlin’s presidential inauguration, but D’Or had arrived long before the ceremony and stayed until beyond its conclusion.