Grapevine: News of the news

Lauder and Barkat celebrate 'The Jerusalem Post''s move to the JCS.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
nir barkat_311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
nir barkat_311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
JERUSALEM MAYOR Nir Barkat took time out of his election campaign recently to celebrate the relocation of Channel 10’s studio from Givatayim to Jerusalem. Barkat was delighted to welcome Channel 10 to an area that is on its way to becoming the capital’s media city: the Jerusalem Capital Studios building, the ground floor of which was completely remodeled to accommodate one of the owner’s investments (JCS belongs to American multinational businessman Ronald Lauder, who is also a major shareholder in Channel 10).
Because JCS offers every imaginable production service to the electronic media, a number of foreign media outlets have headquartered their Israel bureaus at the centrally located building, while others have gone to Malha. Lauder and Channel 10’s principal shareholder, Yossi Meiman, had considered moving Channel 10 to Malha, Abu Ghosh or Neveh Ilan, from which Channel 2 broadcasts.
But in the end, Barkat’s lobbying efforts prevailed, and Jerusalem became the new Channel 10 headquarters.
This past April, The Jerusalem Post moved to JCS from nearby Romema. Lauder and Barkat attended the festivities to mark the paper’s new location, and of course both were there for the toast celebrating Channel 10’s move to the capital. Also on hand were representatives of Meiman, who has poured millions of shekels into Channel 10; JCS CEO Hanani Rapoport; Avi Balashnikov, Channel 10’s chairman of the board; Michal Grayevsky, who chairs the affiliated Nana 10 news source; many of the channel’s stars; and its CEO, veteran broadcaster Rafi Ginat.
The new ultra-modern studio has definitely enhanced the building.
Lauder is pleased that Channel 10 has moved to Jerusalem, and said it was important that its main base of operations be in the capital.
RABBI Yisrael Meir Lau, the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, who has spent Yom Kippur at the Great Synagogue for the past 20 years, gave a dual-language sermon on Kol Nidre night, first speaking in Hebrew regarding what Yom Kippur is all about, then switching to English and focusing his remarks on the Yom Kippur War. Noting the media criticism of failures in the country’s intelligence system and the lack of military preparedness, Lau said the important thing was that Israel – though caught by surprise and radically outnumbered by enemy forces – managed to end the war with a victory in 18 days. No superpower has been able to do this, he said, citing Russia’s ongoing war with Chechnya, the Vietnam War, and the wars in the Falklands, Africa and Afghanistan, involving the US, Britain and France.
Congregants from the Great and many other synagogues nearby stopped on their way home to enjoy a group of young Americans singing liturgical and other Hebrew songs at the Keren Hayesod-King George-Rambam-Agron intersection. Most of those singing were in the country with Masorti youth groups, though there were also some Reform youngsters and a group of students spending a semester at the Hebrew University. Sing-alongs in the middle of the road at that spot have become a Yom Kippur night tradition, with crowds gathering around after services and creating a sense of camaraderie.
But this practice may be coming to an end: Aside from a police car and a Shaare Zedek medical service van that were cruising the area, there were actually cars and high-speed cyclists passing through.
Along with the non-operation of traffic lights on Yom Kippur, these conditions may eventually force the youngsters off the road – and that would be a pity.
HADASSAH COLLEGE lecturer Dr. Dalia Gavriely-Nuri has a bone to pick with the Israeli media, which she says have not devoted sufficient attention to the home front in their extensive coverage of the Yom Kippur War, or to the fact that women were called to take over men’s jobs while the latter went to the army. At Moshav Rehov in the Beit She’an Valley, for example, all the men were called into military service, and the women were left to tend the fields, which were in the direct line of Jordanian snipers. Modern irrigation techniques were not yet in force, so the women crawled on their bellies at night to water the crops. Gavriely-Nuri wants to organize a conference that will give due credit to women’s role during the Yom Kippur War.