For Succot, President Rivlin gives priority to Lod over Jerusalem

As a city with a mixed population of both Jews and Arabs, with a history that dates back to Biblical times, Lod has an important place in Rivlin’s ambitions for the nation.

OCTOBER 9, 2014 03:06

Succa painting (photo credit: YORAM RAANAN) — Succa painting

(photo credit: YORAM RAANAN)

President Reuven Rivlin will host a Succot celebration in Lod on Sunday.

Traditionally, presidents open their official home in Jerusalem to the public during one of the intermediate days of Succot. While Rivlin and his wife, Nechama, will be doing so on Monday, he will welcome visitors to another succa in Lod a day earlier.

In addition to his advocacy of Jerusalem, high on Rivlin’s agenda are national unity, reconciliation and equal rights for minorities.

Lod as a city with a mixed population of Jews and Arabs and a history that dates back to biblical times, has an important place in Rivlin’s ambitions for the nation.

So on Sunday, he will be in Lod where he will conduct a roundtable discussion in the succa with Mayor Yair Revivo, who is a lawyer by profession; MK Itzik Shmuli, who lives in the city; CEO of the Lod Municipality Aharon Attias; CEO of the Torah nucleus Benny Prince; Shmuel Boanish, who holds the youth portfolio in the municipality; Yuval Badulach, the head of the Lod Students Union; Michael Menchik, the deputy head of the Lod Students Village; Liv Sander, the CEO of the Lod Development Fund; Avital Blonder, the founder and head of Jindas Urban Renewal; and Alginati Fatan, the director of the Chicago Community Center in Lod that caters to both Jews and Arabs.

Afterward, Rivlin will visit the succot of the various organizations in Lod, and at the central youth succa he will be presented with a book of hopes and dreams compiled with the help of social media. In the succa of the Lod Development Fund he will view new projects designed to locate, recognize and spur the city’s human potential with aim of bringing about significant social change.

On Monday, Reuven and Nechama Rivlin will receive the wider public in the presidential succa in Jerusalem, from 8.30 a.m. to 12 noon.

There will be exhibits prepared by the ministries of Agriculture and Environmental Protection. The agricultural exhibits will include new strains of fruits and vegetables as well as eye-catching flower arrangements, whereas the focus of the environmental exhibits will be on recycling of waste, including a glimpse of the future in which gas for domestic use will be produced from organic waste.

There will be art works created from recycled products.

As always, there will be entertainment by way of singing, dancing and music, and Rivlin will address the crowd at 10 a.m. and again at 11 a.m.

Visitors to the president’s succa are asked to bring either an Interior Ministry- issued ID card or a passport.