Grapevine: Tel Aviv go bragh

In the past, St. Patrick’s Day in Israel has been celebrated at the residence of the Irish ambassador, but this was the first time that it was celebrated at Tel Aviv’s City Hall.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai (photo credit: FACEBOOK)
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai
(photo credit: FACEBOOK)
■ TEL AVIV’S City Hall was one of nearly 200 buildings and monuments worldwide that were bathed in green last week in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. This was part of a project of Ireland’s Office of Public Works and Tourism Ireland. In the past, St. Patrick’s Day in Israel has been celebrated at the residence of the Irish ambassador, but this was the first time that it was celebrated at Tel Aviv’s City Hall.
Co-hosted by Irish Ambassador Allison Kelly and Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, the event attracted hundreds of invitees, including diplomats, entertainment personalities, sports celebrities and leading business figures. Many people without invitations tried to gain entry but could not, and some who didn’t realize that diplomatic events do not start at Jewish mean time arrived when it was all over.
■ FOR THE first time, the municipal stage of the Family Quiz on Zionism, organized by the Zionist Council of Israel and the World Zionist Organization, will take place in Rehovot. The third annual quiz will be held on Sunday, March 27 at 6:30 p.m. in the city’s youth center.
The contest is conducted at three levels. The first is municipal, the second is regional, and the third is national. Municipal winners have to answer questions on basic Zionism. If they pass, they then participate in a seminar on Zionist history at the Herzl Center on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
Following the regional contest, 10 families will participate in the national contest, which will be held after Passover and will be aired on Channel 10 at the end of the Independence Day festivities. The winning family will receive the Zionist Council prize of a trip to Europe in the footsteps of Herzl, who traveled far and wide to promote his vision of a homeland for the Jewish people, speaking not only to Jewish communities but also national leaders.
Rehovot’s Deputy Mayor Matan Deal, who holds the city’s youth portfolio, emphasizes the importance of Zionist values in building up the land and says it is very important for youth to be well versed in the nation’s history from well before the Declaration of Independence.
■ PATRONS OF the Tapas Bar in Tel Aviv, one of the hospitality enterprises owned by Adi’s Lifestyle run by siblings Adi and Irit Strauss, will have to look elsewhere in the future, as the building in which it is located at 1 Ahad Ha’am Street has been sold to a private investor who wants to turn the property into a residential complex. The Tapas Bar will close on April 5, but this will not affect the other Adi’s Lifestyle restaurants. The Herbert Samuel Restaurant in Tel Aviv will continue to operate as will the kosher Herbert Samuel in Herzliya; and yet another Herbert Samuel is due to open in Jerusalem in mid-May.
■ THE DADA art movement, which celebrates its centenary this year, was brought to Israel by Romanian artist Marcel Janco, who was one of its originators and one of Romania’s leading Jewish intellectuals. Following the Bucharest pogrom of January 1941, Janco decided to take his family out of Romania.
Traveling through Turkey and Syria, they arrived in Tel Aviv on February 23.
Janco became exceedingly influential in the development of Israeli art. In the early 1950s, after coming across the deserted Arab village of Ein Hod at the foot of Mount Carmel, he decided that it would be an ideal place for an art colony and a tourist attraction. He was involved in the preservation of national parks and in political issues, as well as art, but his age began to slow him down. One of the last public events that he attended when he was in his mid-80s was the launch of the Janco-Dada Museum in Ein Hod, where there is currently a Dada centenary exhibition.
The museum’s director and chief curator since 1988, Raya Zommer-Tal was invited to Romania to curate “Art Safari Bucharest 2016,” the main exhibition, which is dedicated to the Dada Centenary. The exhibition will be on view from May 5 to 15. Meanwhile, on March 28, a fund-raiser for the Janco-Dada Museum will be held at Zappa Tel Aviv, hosted by Yoav Messer, chairman of the museum board; entertainer Gavri Banai, a member of the board; and Limor Alalouf, who chairs the Friends of the Janco-Dada Museum.
■ AN EXHIBITION of the Italian Jewish Renaissance, which is being held in cooperation with the Italian Cultural Institute and the Umberto Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art, will open on March 31 at Beit Hatfutsot, the Museum of the Jewish People. The curator is Micol Schreiber Benarroch, and the chief curator is Orit Shaham Gover.
The artifacts have been borrowed from the Italian Museum. Most of the 40 objects on display date from the golden age of Jewish art in Italy between the Renaissance of the 15th century and the Risorgimento, or Italian National Revival of the 19th century. Inspired by their cultural surroundings and supported by wealthy patrons, Jewish artists married the spiritual with the material to produce sacred objects of artistic significance.