Grapevine: Bridging the age gap

New exhibition at Holodn Children's Museum will use advanced multimedia techniques to highlight the issue of ageism.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Growing old together on Bat Galim beach, Haifa (photo credit: Esteban Alterman)
Growing old together on Bat Galim beach, Haifa
(photo credit: Esteban Alterman)
■ THE HOLON Children’s Museum, home to the highly popular “Dialogue in the Dark” and “Invitation to Silence” exhibitions, will open a third chapter in the series called “Dialogue with Time.” The new exhibition will use advanced multimedia techniques to highlight the issue of ageism and how to combat age-based discrimination. Lea Nass, deputy minister of the Ministry for Senior Citizens, said, “This exhibit provides a remarkable educational experience by allowing young people to literally step into the shoes of the elderly and experience what it feels like to age.” Nass believes this will heighten communal awareness and strengthen inter-generational bonds.
■ A COURSE for would-be chefs with mobility problems has been initiated by chef Yoni Ofer. Having suffered from polio as a child and never regaining total use of his legs, Ofer got the idea for the course when his daughter enrolled at the Bishulim Cookery School in Tel Aviv. The school’s principal Meir Danon was extremely open to his suggestion. The school will allocate a room that will be made suitable for the participants in wheelchairs, who will delight in being able to treat their families and friends to their culinary creations.
■ THE SIGNING this week of the agreement that gives the green light to putting the Israel Broadcasting Authority reforms into operation heralds a new lease on life for the city of Lod. Under the terms of the reforms, the IBA had to relinquish its Tel Aviv premises and move to another central area of the country. Several municipalities put in bids for being the central location for the IBA, whose other two locations are Jerusalem and Haifa. Lod, headed by appointed mayor Meir Nitzan, came up with the most attractive offer. The entry of the IBA to Lod is just the beginning. A number of government and quasi-government offices that would rather not pay the expensive rentals demanded in Tel Aviv have indicated that when their leases expire they will also consider moving to Lod. If this transpires, it will result in many job opportunities and will impact on Lod’s demography, as many people prefer to live near their place of work.
■ FOR THE fourth consecutive year, 170 students from Israel and abroad will come together at the College of Management Academic Studies in Rishon Lezion to participate in a program called ISRAMUN (Israel International Model United Nations).
The ISRAMUN debates will be held from August 13 to 20, and the main theme will be “It’s not all about money.” On Monday at 5 p.m., Prof. Stanley Fischer, the governor of the Bank of Israel, will deliver an address on “Israel and the Global Economic Crisis” to an audience that will include diplomats, economists, academics and local and foreign students.
Last week, Fischer met with the top brass at Ma’agalim, which seeks to provide educational opportunities for youth from peripheral areas to ensure that they will have the tools for making the right career choices. Among the subjects discussed was greater involvement by business enterprises in peripheral areas in the formal and informal education processes.
■ HAIFA MAYOR Yona Yahav, together with Minister for Industry, Trade and Labor Shalom Simhon, this week launched a NIS 5 million pilot project aimed at turning Haifa into the new media and movie production capital of Israel. Yahav said that Haifa, with its breathtaking views, was an ideal location for filming.
Simhon said that with all due respect to Tel Aviv, where the majority of production companies for film and TV are concentrated, he had to concern himself with providing job opportunities in other parts of the country, and since Haifa is the capital of the North, it was natural to headquarter the two-year pilot project there.
Filmmakers whose applications are approved will receive a grant of NIS 600,000.
■ A SEMINAR for 26 doctors, nurses and hospital administrators from 20 countries opened last week at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa. The goal of the two-week course, held in conjunction with the Foreign Affairs Ministry, is to share with medical personnel worldwide Rambam’s rich experience and know-how in treating trauma victims.
The course consists of lectures, workshops, simulations and tours, within Rambam and throughout Israel, designed to prepare attendees to build systems in their own countries for treating victims of natural and man-made disasters.
This is the ninth annual course of its kind. Global interest continues to rise, along with the number of attendees. Participating countries this year include Belarus, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, Peru, The Philippines, Russia, Thailand, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.