Throughout Israel, there are so-called parliaments of prominent personalities who get together each week to coming up with solutions for Israel’s myriad problems.
By GREER FAY CASHMANPalestinian youths hurl stones during clashes with Israeli police in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz, September 7.(photo credit: AMMAR AWAD / REUTERS)
NO ONE should be the victim of an unwarranted attack, especially people who spend their lives helping others. Case in point is Jeff Seidel, a resident of Jerusalem’s Old City who is famous for organizing Shabbat hospitality for young men and women, and provides information about Jewish study centers and scholarships to Israel’s universities.Seidel was on his way to a funeral at the Mount of Olives last week when his car was attacked by more than a dozen Arab youths, who shattered the windows with rocks and cinder blocks. At the time Seidel was driving through an Arab neighborhood, and the attack brought his car to a standstill. This was one of many assaults launched against vehicles driven by Jews on the road to the Mount of Olives.Seidel said he frantically called police on his cellphone, but they didn’t show up. Eventually, the traffic cleared sufficiently for him to drive to the nearest police station, where photographs were taken of his damaged vehicle.THROUGHOUT Israel, there are so-called parliaments of prominent personalities who get together each week, usually a Friday in a coffee shop or restaurant, to chew the fat and discuss the issues of the day, coming up with solutions for Israel’s myriad problems – which for some reason or another, have eluded the incumbent government.Among the members of such a Jerusalem parliament was artist David Soussana, who had been an artistic adviser to Teddy Kollek as well as to Kollek’s successors. He had supervised the artistic work in the city’s David Amar Worldwide North Africa Jewish Heritage Center, and been deeply involved in many of Jerusalem’s cultural projects. Soussana died last month at the age of 70.Born in Tangier, Morocco, and educated in France, Spain and Portugal, Soussana came to Israel in 1961 and enrolled in the Hebrew University, graduating from the faculty of humanities. He lived in Kibbutz Ha’ogen for a year, then moved permanently to Jerusalem.He was president of the Israel Painters and Sculptors Association and director of the Jerusalem Municipality’s art and galleries division.An internationally known painter and sculptor in his own right, Soussana participated in numerous individual and group exhibitions in several countries as well as Israel. He also produced and edited art books and a Spanish monthly magazine on art.Soussana was a member of the “parliament” comprising Israel’s fifth president Yitzhak Navon, Yehezkiel Zakai, Yosef Blatt, Meir Ben-Harush, Yehoshua Ben-Shahal, Yechiel Gutman, Arieh Durst, Yehuda Raveh, Eliezer Rahmilevich, Moti Simcha, Yair Green, Jonathan Halevy, Haim Cohen, Shlomo Mor-Yosef, Danny Azriel, Rafi Peled, Danny Tzivoni and Mickey Schneider.ONE WOULD imagine that a book called Days of Ticho would be launched at Jerusalem’s historic Beit Ticho on Harav Kook Street, where painter Anna Ticho and her husband, the famed eye doctor Avraham Albert Ticho, made their home. For many years now, the property has served as a museum, restaurant and cultural center, where lectures and concerts are held.However, David Reifler’s book, Days of Ticho: Empire, Mandate, Medicine and Art in the Holy Land, published by Gefen, will be launched on Thursday, January 15 at another historic site – the reading room at Mishkenot Sha’ananim.INTERFAITH PEACE activist Elana Rozenman has organized a meeting to give the Women Waging Peace leadership an opportunity to meet with religious women, who may not necessarily be on the political Left or even politically involved in any women’s movement, but are no less interested in ending the killing in this part of the world. WWP wants to hear the views of religious women, and share their own perspective on a viable peace agreement in the region.The meeting, in English, will be held this Sunday, January 4, at 7:30 p.m. at Kehilat Yedidya, 12 Lifshitz Street, Baka.ROBERT ASCH, announcing a kiddush that was hosted last Saturday at Talbiyeh’s Hazvi Yisrael synagogue by Ariel and Claude Richard-Tenenbaum – in honor of the marriage this week of their daughter Ilana to Emanuel Bettach – said that in addition to the many Americans and Brits in the congregation, “we have French people, too.” He forgot to mention that there are also native Israelis.
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