Grapevine: Golden Experiences

A roundup of culture events around Jerusalem.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
United Hatzalah president and founder Eli Beer stands by a new minilance emergency vehicle. (photo credit: JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH)
United Hatzalah president and founder Eli Beer stands by a new minilance emergency vehicle.
(photo credit: JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH)
■ CAFÉ EUROPA, a network of clubs founded for Holocaust survivors and others of a similar age, has both Hebrew- and English-speaking groups. Coming up for the English-speakers on January 30, is a morning at the Israel Museum called “The Golden Experience.”
The event includes a tour of the museum, a musical performance of “Tel Aviv meets Broadway,” with Mika Eynay and Gay Prati singing popular Hebrew songs and Broadway hits. The Broadway songs will be in English, but if the singers do any talking it will be in Hebrew. The event starts at 9:45 a.m. in the entrance lobby of the museum.
■ IN THE evening of the same day there is an AMIT Ayelet movie night beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the Na’amat club rooms at 10 Shalom Aleichem St. Monique Schwarz, a Jerusalem-based, internationally known film-maker will show her film Beyond Paranoia-Antisemitism Unmasked, dealing with the emergence of a new and virulent form of antisemitism. The screening will be followed by a question and answer session with Schwarz. Refreshments will be served.
■ ANNA BORSHCHEVSKAYA, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and leading authority on Russian Middle East policy, will speak at the Truman Institute for Near East Policy on January 30 at noon. The Truman Institute is located at the far end from the entrance to the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University.
■ ISRAEL’S ENTERTAINMENT industry mourned the death just over a month ago of Danny Paran, one of the nation’s leading producers. A week ago, on Thursday, at the initiative of the Jerusalem Development Authority, the Jerusalem Cinematheque, the Israel Film and Television Producers Association, the Israel Association of Cinema Television Professionals, the Sam Spiegel Film School – some 300 household names from the big screen, television, stage and radio – filled an auditorium at the Jerusalem Cinematheque in tribute to his memory. Among those present: Angel Bonnani, Meshi Kleinstein, Maor Zaguri, Bat Chen Sabag, Kobi Maor, Israel Attias, Amira Buzaglo, Omer Perlman, Shifi Aloni, Shuli Rand and Dan Turgeman. The emcee was Daniel Gad. Shuli Rand performed, and Paran’s family found his singing to be very moving.
■ FOLLOWING THE announcement by Magen David Adom that they will be closing services in certain locations in Judea and Samaria, Eli Beer, the founder and president of United Hatzalah, said his organization will be diverting ambulances to those locations in order to provide coverage for the residents of the affected cities. The locations that would have been affected are: Dolev, Elkana, Shavei Shomron, Tekoa, and the Megilot Regional Council area by the Dead Sea. The nine locations that will see a significant cutback will include: Beitar Illit, Beit Arye, Alfei Menashe, the Jordan Valley, the city of Ariel, Ma’aleh Adumim, Givat Ze’ev and Shaked. Beer said that United Hatzalah had decided to add volunteers and ambulance services to these areas in an effort to prevent loss of life.
■ EARLIER THIS month, in the L-shape that leads from the corner of Keren Hayesod and Smolenskin streets to the corner of Balfour and Brenner, the municipal authorities decided to add to the prestige of the area. In addition to having repaved Smolenskin and Balfour, and paving part of the front lawn adjacent to the Prime Minister’s Residence, they introduced nailed-down benches for the convenience of passersby and security personnel, as well as for people invited to events at the residence who have to wait outside for security clearance. In honor of Tu Bishvat this past Monday, the lawn was beautified by the planting of several kumquat trees and they put up long vertical pairs of banners.
Non-residents might wonder about the security gate and guard booth outside one of the most beautiful buildings on the street, which in a bygone era was a diplomatic residence. Just over a year ago, when it became the residence of Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, the security of the building was tightened.
But unlike the Prime Minister’s Residence, within two minutes’ walk on one side and the President’s Residence on the other, the building inhabited by the Supreme Court president is a luxury apartment complex, and it’s not certain that her neighbors are pleased with the security arrangement.