Grapevine: Three generations of Dayans

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Moshe Dayan (left) and Ariel Sharon on the western side of the Suez Canal in October 1973. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Moshe Dayan (left) and Ariel Sharon on the western side of the Suez Canal in October 1973.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
 ■ SEVERAL OF the nation’s families and their offspring have made an impact on Israel, but few are as well known as members of the Dayan family, which inter alia also married into the Gefen, Schwartz and Sarid families. Three generations of Dayans served in the Knesset, in addition to which members of the family distinguished themselves in defense, security, film, theater, pop culture, literature, journalism, fashion, social justice, peacemaking and more.
Shmuel Dayan, the patriarch of the family, served in the first Knesset, followed by his son Moshe and his granddaughter Yael.
Born in Ukraine in 1891, Shmuel Dayan came to the Land of Israel in 1908. An interesting photo exhibition titled “A Dayan Family Album, 100 Years,” will be on display at the Haim Shturman Museum at Kibbutz Ein Harod on May 27.
Curator Guy Raz spent more than two years researching Dayan family pictures and found rare, intimate images that will be shown to the public for the first time. A photograph of Ruth and Moshe Dayan on their wedding day depicts them as starry-eyed but serious.
The photo is one of the rare pictures of Moshe Dayan without his eye patch and with a full head of hair. There are also several photographs of well-known Dayan family members as children.
■ CONSPICUOUS IN his absence among the speakers listed for next week’s Ashdod Conference on Transportation is Transportation Minister Israel Katz, who last week organized a special train to travel part of the way to Meron for Lag Ba’omer.
The reason for his absence is that the conference will take place on May 22, which is the date on which US President Donald Trump arrives in Israel. As Katz is a member of the Security Cabinet, it is his duty to be in Jerusalem on that date.
■ AMONG THE many open houses on view in Tel Aviv this week are some designed by Lotte Cohen, the city’s first woman architect, who designed the Rassco neighborhood in North Tel Aviv, but whose name has been buried beneath the dust of history. The person who unearthed it and that of other female architects long forgotten is another woman architect who turned from designing buildings to academia and has researched the works of women architects in Israel.
To make the public more aware of what female architects have contributed to aesthetics and the environment, Sigal Davidi will lead guided tours today (May 19) through Tel Aviv’s Rassco neighborhood to explain the impact of Cohen’s work.
■ THE ACROBATS, a sculpture created in 1997 by artist Theo Tobiasse, was unveiled this week in the presence of his daughter, Catherine Faust-Tobiasse, who donated it to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Théo Tobiasse was born in Jaffa in 1927 to a family of Lithuanian origin. They relocated to Paris in 1931. Tobiasse survived the Holocaust in hiding, comforted only by his books and drawings.
He moved to Nice but ultimately settled in Saint-Paul de Vence, where he lived and worked until his death on November 3, 2012.
He was influenced by the works of Rembrandt, Dubuffet, Claver and Picasso, who was also a friend.
Experimenting with a variety of mediums, Tobiasse used painting, sculpture, etching, pastel, drawing, pottery and stained glass to express his emotions. His works feature themes of exile, the woman as mother and lover, and reminiscences of his childhood.
Celebrated throughout the world, his works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions worldwide and are held by leading international museums.
Born in British Mandate Palestine, he always maintained a soft spot for the Land of Israel. Following the establishment of the state, he became a Zionist. His daughter felt that it would therefore be fitting for a leading Israeli university to serve as the home for one of his works.