Grapevine: Queen for a day

This year the annual Women’s Festival in Holon coincided more with Purim than with International Women’s Day...

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
THIS YEAR, the annual Women’s Festival in Holon coincided more with Purim than with International Women’s Day. The chief honoree was the multitalented Rivka Michaeli, who was surrounded by family and friends who laughed uproariously at all the skits, written especially for the occasion by Ephraim Sidon, but particularly at the drag queen act performed by Roi Bar- Natan who, attired in shoes and clothes from Michaeli’s closet, did a hilarious spoof on her.
Among the members of the entertainment industry who came to applaud Michaeli’s lifetime achievements were Mike Burstein, Hani Nahmias, Tiki Dayan, Dror Keren, Avi Greinich and Miki Kam. At the conclusion of the special performance in Michaeli’s honor, Holon Mayor Moti Sasson mounted the stage and presented her with a giant bouquet of flowers. Michaeli didn’t spend too much time basking in the glory. Two days later, she and Dayan and other members of the cast of Hanoch Levin’s play The Suitcase Packers were on a flight to China.
■ IN PETAH TIKVA, International Women’s Day also came early with the formation of a new forum of religious and secular women who will get together on a regular basis to promote mutual respect and understanding, as well as to discuss common social issues and to host joint events. One of the initiators of the forum was public relations consultant Liora Libowitz, a successful career woman and single mother with an 11-year-old daughter.
Libowitz is campaigning for a seat on the Petah Tikva City Council and is running on the list of Danny Suissa. Libowitz believes the forum will prove to be an important vehicle for the advancement of the status of women, especially when religious and secular women are working together for a common cause.
■ STILL IN the spirit of International Women’s Day, Concert International Women’s Day will be a festive event with pianist Nadia Weintraub, conductor Talia Ilan and 12 female string instrumentalists performing romantic works by four composers, two of whom are women. The concert will be held at the Einav Center in Tel Aviv on March 13.
■ AS A resort city, Eilat has the special challenge of having to provide attractions to suit all tastes. In the realm of music, it has now added an extra genre to its classical, chamber music and jazz festivals. At the initiative of hotelier David Fattal, a three-day rock festival was held at Herods Palace Hotel, with the participation of Berry Sakharof, Skazi and Dana Berger, with warm-up performances by Hatavlinim, Guy and Yahel and DJs Roi Salomon and Alon Landa.
Fattal is one of these laid-back tycoons who never look ruffled and who manage to combine business with pleasure. Just two days prior to the festival, he added to his array of hotels by signing a NIS 1.5 billion deal for the acquisition of 20 additional hotels in Germany. He returned to Eilat to enjoy the festival in the company of television personality Gadi Sukenik; Netanya Mayor Miriam Feierberg, in whose city Fattal will open a Leonardo Hotel next year; discount king Rami Levy; model and cosmetician Sheli Gafni; comedians Eli Finish and Uri Gottlieb; and many other well-known personalities who were among the thousand or so people who attended the inaugural festival, which Fattal hopes will become an annual tradition. Fattal then headed back to Berlin to participate in the 16th annual International Hotel Investment Forum. For him, frequent flying is a way of life.
■ THE INVITATION to the Gala Opening of the House of Fashion on Tel Aviv’s Lilienblum Street contains several word plays. For instance, the event is cohosted by The Tel Aviv Arts Council, TLV Style and Lilly & Bloom and is headlined as The Cutting Edge of Israeli Fashion, Art and Design. The idea is to showcase promising young Israeli artists and designers and thus catapult them into the public eye.
■ TRADITIONALLY, ON the eve of the race, marathoners are served a large pasta meal to build up their energy through carbohydrates. In Jerusalem on Thursday night of last week, the meal, as in the past, was provided by the Crowne Plaza Hotel, whose chef Gili Ben-Moshe went to a lot of trouble to devise a menu that would be attractive to both the eye and the palate. In Jerusalem, Mayor Nir Barkat turned up for the pasta dinner; and in Tel Aviv, Mayor Ron Huldai is expected to do the same next week at a dinner to be held in Rabin Square.
Actor Itai Turgeman, who ran a half marathon in Jerusalem, is among the invitees, and maybe he’ll run farther on more familiar turf. Also among the invitees will be Dorit Cohen, the widow of soccer star Avi Cohen, who died following a motorcycle crash two years ago.
. The chief honoree was the multitalented Rivka Michaeli, who was surrounded by family and friends who laughed uproariously at all the skits, written especially for the occasion by Ephraim Sidon, but particularly at the drag queen act performed by Roi Bar- Natan who, attired in shoes and clothes from Michaeli’s closet, did a hilarious spoof on her.
Among the members of the entertainment industry who came to applaud Michaeli’s lifetime achievements were Mike Burstein, Hani Nahmias, Tiki Dayan, Dror Keren, Avi Greinich and Miki Kam. At the conclusion of the special performance in Michaeli’s honor, Holon Mayor Moti Sasson mounted the stage and presented her with a giant bouquet of flowers. Michaeli didn’t spend too much time basking in the glory. Two days later, she and Dayan and other members of the cast of Hanoch Levin’s play The Suitcase Packers were on a flight to China.
■ IN PETAH TIKVA, International Women’s Day also came early with the formation of a new forum of religious and secular women who will get together on a regular basis to promote mutual respect and understanding, as well as to discuss common social issues and to host joint events. One of the initiators of the forum was public relations consultant Liora Libowitz, a successful career woman and single mother with an 11-year-old daughter.
Libowitz is campaigning for a seat on the Petah Tikva City Council and is running on the list of Danny Suissa. Libowitz believes the forum will prove to be an important vehicle for the advancement of the status of women, especially when religious and secular women are working together for a common cause.
■ STILL IN the spirit of International Women’s Day, Concert International Women’s Day will be a festive event with pianist Nadia Weintraub, conductor Talia Ilan and 12 female string instrumentalists performing romantic works by four composers, two of whom are women. The concert will be held at the Einav Center in Tel Aviv on March 13.
■ AS A resort city, Eilat has the special challenge of having to provide attractions to suit all tastes. In the realm of music, it has now added an extra genre to its classical, chamber music and jazz festivals. At the initiative of hotelier David Fattal, a three-day rock festival was held at Herods Palace Hotel, with the participation of Berry Sakharof, Skazi and Dana Berger, with warm-up performances by Hatavlinim, Guy and Yahel and DJs Roi Salomon and Alon Landa.
Fattal is one of these laid-back tycoons who never look ruffled and who manage to combine business with pleasure. Just two days prior to the festival, he added to his array of hotels by signing a NIS 1.5 billion deal for the acquisition of 20 additional hotels in Germany. He returned to Eilat to enjoy the festival in the company of television personality Gadi Sukenik; Netanya Mayor Miriam Feierberg, in whose city Fattal will open a Leonardo Hotel next year; discount king Rami Levy; model and cosmetician Sheli Gafni; comedians Eli Finish and Uri Gottlieb; and many other well-known personalities who were among the thousand or so people who attended the inaugural festival, which Fattal hopes will become an annual tradition. Fattal then headed back to Berlin to participate in the 16th annual International Hotel Investment Forum. For him, frequent flying is a way of life.
■ THE INVITATION to the Gala Opening of the House of Fashion on Tel Aviv’s Lilienblum Street contains several word plays. For instance, the event is cohosted by The Tel Aviv Arts Council, TLV Style and Lilly & Bloom and is headlined as The Cutting Edge of Israeli Fashion, Art and Design. The idea is to showcase promising young Israeli artists and designers and thus catapult them into the public eye.
■ TRADITIONALLY, ON the eve of the race, marathoners are served a large pasta meal to build up their energy through carbohydrates. In Jerusalem on Thursday night of last week, the meal, as in the past, was provided by the Crowne Plaza Hotel, whose chef Gili Ben-Moshe went to a lot of trouble to devise a menu that would be attractive to both the eye and the palate. In Jerusalem, Mayor Nir Barkat turned up for the pasta dinner; and in Tel Aviv, Mayor Ron Huldai is expected to do the same next week at a dinner to be held in Rabin Square.
Actor Itai Turgeman, who ran a half marathon in Jerusalem, is among the invitees, and maybe he’ll run farther on more familiar turf. Also among the invitees will be Dorit Cohen, the widow of soccer star Avi Cohen, who died following a motorcycle crash two years ago.