City Notes: Haifa names pre-military program after Yitzhak Rabin

A round-up of news briefs from around the nation.

By COMPILEDTAMARA ZIEVE

OCTOBER 29, 2015 19:04

Updated: OCTOBER 29, 2015 19:05

Cinema City Jerusalem (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST) — Cinema City Jerusalem

(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

NORTH

Haifa launches Mechinat Rabin

Haifa hosted its main ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin last week. During the ceremony, a pre-military preparatory program that is set to launch in the Hadar neighborhood was named after the slain leader. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the opposition Isaac Herzog, Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav and Emir Mohamad Sherif, head of Haifa’s Ahmadi Muslim movement, spoke at the service.

“Haifa was chosen for the program as a symbol of coexistence,” said Attorney Danny Zamir, founder of Mechinat Rabin, the Yitzhak Rabin Pre-Military Leadership Development Academy, and CEO of Israel Zionist Leadership Academies. The program will combine learning and social activities with the aim of preparing its graduates for leadership roles in the IDF and in civilian life. Forty-five youths will participate in the first year of the program, but its founders hope that this number will double within three years. The participants will live in the Hadar neighborhood and will volunteer to work with at-risk youth and elderly. Their studies will focus on Zionism, Judaism, pioneering, leadership and Arabic.

Cinema Day held across the country

More than 40 cinemas nationwide took part in Cinema Day last week, with tickets going for only NIS 10 for regular films and NIS 14 for 3D films.

The cinema chains – Yes Planet, Cinema City, Rav Chen, Lev, Globus and Globus Max – were among those participating in the initiative. Several movie premieres took place that day, including Burnt, Black Mass, Crimson Peak, The Last Witch Hunter and Be Careful What You Wish For.

Cinema Day was held for the first time in Israel two years ago and ended up being a national success, with over 200,000 cinephiles filling up the seats of cinemas nationwide. Cinema Industry Association director Danny Kafri remarked: “The tremendous success of the first Israeli Cinema Day made it clear that the onetime initiative had to become an annual tradition. We are very happy with the nation’s positive response; the public deserves an extraordinary cinematic experience.”

CENTER

NGO kennels flooded in heavy rain

The NGO for Dogs and Cats kennel in the Sharon region, housing 40 pooches, was flooded due to the heavy rain this week. Volunteers called on members of the public to help by providing temporary homes for the dogs as well as transportation to evacuate them.

Exhibition celebrates 50 years of Jerusalem-Berlin ties

An exhibition celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany opened in Israel on Thursday, in parallel to an exhibition in Germany.

In the coming months the exhibition will be shown in 20 cities in Germany and Israel. In Israel, the exhibition will be shown at Tel Aviv’s Tahana October 29 to November 7; in Beersheba’s city hall November 10 to 19; Haifa’s auditorium November 21 to 30; and Jerusalem’s First Station December 2 to 30. The exhibition is open to the general public free of charge.

The exhibition examines the development of diplomatic relations between the two countries over the past five decades: political tensions, emotional challenges, uncertainty, and at time, distrust – ending with a focus on the past decade, which has been marked by political, economic, scientific and cultural ties, alongside some lingering suspicion.

SOUTH

Sderot pupils host Jerusalem counterparts who lost teacher to terror

Sderot pupils invited children from Jerusalem’s Moriah School for a day of fun in their city last week, after the latter lost their teacher, the late Rabbi Nehemia Lavie, who was stabbed to death in a terror attack in the capital’s Old City earlier this month.

Following the incident, several schools in Sderot contacted Moriah School in efforts to offer comfort. Hearing about the trauma suffered by the pupils, they offered to host the 200 children for a day of fun in Sderot, which included water slides, making pitot, a barbecue and playing in the protected activity areas in the city.

“The students of Jerusalem embraced Sderot pupils during Operation Protective Edge,” noted Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi. “Today, the pupils of Sderot returned a warm and loving embrace to the Jerusalem pupils.”

Hundreds sign petition for family of lynched Eritrean

Hundreds of citizens signed a petition demanding compensation for the family of the late Haptom Zarhum, the 29-year-old Eritrean lynched in Beersheba after being shot by a security guard who mistook him for a terrorist.

“Hundreds have already signed our petition, within hours from the moment it was launched, and signatures keep coming,” the initiators of a public campaign said last week. The petition demands that the Israeli government grant a terror victim status to Zarhum and compensate his family accordingly.

Zarhum’s family is eligible to receive the benefits granted to relatives of terrorist victims, the Defense Ministry and National Insurance Institute have said.

The law holds that only Israeli residents, citizens or others who entered the country legally are eligible for such benefits.

“When it was made clear that he was a completely innocent man, the State of Israel itself should have assumed immediate responsibility and done the required minimum,” the campaign leaders asserted.

“It turns out that our state is incapable even of that, based on a formalistic argument that “the law does not allow it.”

The Defense Ministry and National Insurance Institute have said they will bring the case up before a special committee that will meet soon.