City Notes: Belly-dance festival to shimmy into Eilat
By COMPILEDJULIE STEIGERWALDBelly-dance festival(photo credit: AVI HASS)SOUTHGyrating its way into Eilat for the 12th year running, the International Belly Dancing Festival is due to showcase four days of festivities in mid-February centered on the traditional Middle Eastern folk dance.More than 1,000 dancers, teachers, musicians and amateurs are expected to attend the program taking place February 15 to 18 at the Club Hotel in the Red Sea resort town.The festival will feature workshops, shows, competition, live music orchestras and parties. The program will offer more than 50 workshops for dancers of all levels.The festival will also include an original Arabic orchestra that provides musical accompaniment for the dancers each day of the festival. To encapsulate an authentic Middle Eastern atmosphere, parties and live entertainment will also be offered in a Beduin-style tent erected at the festival grounds.For tickets and additional information call 1-700- 509-011 or send an email to eilatfest@gmail.com.Beersheba to up stray cat sterilizationThe Beersheba Municipality is due to launch a new veterinary initiative aimed at increasing cat sterilization practices to decrease the number of feral felines roaming the city’s streets.The municipality said the move will enhance current sterilization operations, which include neutering and spaying thousands of stray cats each year.The joint project of the municipality’s veterinary department and the Agriculture Ministry’s veterinary services will be undertaken with the assistance of animal right activists.Under the direction of Municipal Veterinarian Dr. Roman Singer’s office, representatives from the department will examine the cats and conduct the sterilization operations. The cats will also be given vaccinations and medical examinations and treatments before they are released back to their environment as part of the Trap-Neuter-Return process, which is considered one of the most humane approaches to dealing with feral cat overpopulation.Each cat that undergoes treatment will receive a small mark on the ear to avoid repeat sterilization surgery. The municipality noted that the initiative was important for the health of the animals and to “prevent disease and improve the behavior and quality of life of the cats.”For more information or to recommend veterinary services for stray cats, contact catsruos@gmail.com.CENTER Train to ‘adopt’ a Holocaust survivorA local nonprofit that pairs young professionals with Holocaust survivors in Israel to alleviate their loneliness is holding a training session in Tel Aviv on Wednesday (February 8) for those who are interested in “adopting” a grandfather or grandmother.The Adopt-a-Safta (Hebrew for grandmother) initiative is scheduled to take place at North Central Synagogue at 7 p.m.Working along the lines of the Big Brother/Big Sister model, the organization seeks to prepare young volunteers for the process of “adopting” a Holocaust survivor who is in need of love and attention.The volunteer project involves weekly visits to provide the elderly survivors with companionship and the opportunity for the younger generation to have firsthand encounters.Wednesday’s program is part of the initiative to train as many volunteers as possible and to connect young professionals seeking to make meaningful contributions with the ever-shrinking community of survivors in need of warmth and connection.Registration for the free, hour-long training event is available at: AdoptASaftaTelAvivTraining.eventbrite.com.Celebrate Tu Bishvat atop Tel Aviv The urban farm on the roof of Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Center mall is holding a variety of social activities on Thursday (February 9) to mark Tu Bishvat and celebrate the new year for trees.In the spirit of the holiday, the urban farming complex atop the shopping center will host free tree-planting activities for the entire family. The seedlings will eventually be transferred to agricultural or biological reserves and to areas of Haifa that were scorched by a series of fires in the fall. Other Tu Bishvat activities on Thursday include projects utilizing “clean” energy generated by pedaling to make electricity.The urban farm facility will also invite the public to take part in urban wildlife training. The all-ages activity will deal with teaching about the importance of green spaces, trees in city centers and how urban planting enhances the quality of life.All of the programs are free and will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.NORTH Haifa hosts global architecture summitHaifa will attract a range of experts in the field for a conference on international architecture on February 21 to focus on progress in technological and industrial development.The fourth-annual Haifa International Waterfront Conference will be held at the Haifa Auditorium under the banner “Rethink Urban Architecture” and will examine how the practice of architecture in the urban environment affects the contemporary world.Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav, Haifa city engineer Ariel Wartman and more than a dozen architects, urban developers, real-estate experts and designers are slated to speak at the event.Admission to the summit costs NIS 280. Participants can register online at: haifawaterfront.com/
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