Grapevine: We hear you, sister

Titled “We hear you Sister,” this special performance is for women who are coping with cancer or who have coped with cancer in the past.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Updated: FEBRUARY 22, 2018 17:25
Mayor Nir Barkat (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Mayor Nir Barkat
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
IT SEEMS that almost everywhere one turns these days, one encounters someone coping with cancer or who is fortunately in remission.
Among current cancer patients is the multitalented Toby Klein Greenwald, who is probably best known for writing and directing women-only theatrical productions that enable religiously observant female singers, dancers, actresses and musicians to exercise their talents in front of all-female audiences. This ensures that talent does not go to waste and that gifted women can share their abilities with others.
An eternal optimist, Klein Greenwald, who is a conductor-trainer at Na’na Playback Dance Theater, has been living with breast cancer for the past nine months, undergoing surgery and various treatments. Her own condition has made her extremely sensitive to other women with cancer, as a result of which the theater will put on a special performance on Sunday, February 25, at 7 p.m. at Beit El Halev, 3rd floor, 2 Poalei Tzedek Street, Talpiot, across the road from the Hadar Mall. She is the group’s conductor.
Titled “We hear you Sister,” this special performance is for women who are coping with cancer or who have coped with cancer in the past, as well as for female friends or family members who are part of this sisterhood of suffering and sympathy that is cocooned in love and hope.
The event will be largely conducted in Hebrew but translated into English on request, and will consist of theatrical improvisation based on stories from the audience.
There are some amazing stories about physicians and the morale boost that they give to their patients, in addition to the therapies they prescribe. Very often friends who haven’t told anyone outside of their families about their condition discover each other in the waiting room of such physicians.
Klein Greenwald’s own oncologist, Dr. Beatrice Uzieli of Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem, has quite a following of patients who are one another’s friends and acquaintances, who share the expertise of the same forever cheerful physician who encourages them to feel good about themselves.
Partners in the February 25 performance are the Yuri Shtern Holistic Center and El Halev, to which proceeds of the evening will be directed. Tickets are NIS 30 each to ensure that as many women as possible will be able to attend.
Klein Greenwald says that she has experienced so much kindness since she took ill, that this is her way of giving back. All the performers are donating their services free of charge.
AT THE annual New Year reception that he hosts for heads of religious communities and members of the diplomatic corps, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was complemented on the extent to which the city has developed during his tenure. Barkat announced that plans have been approved for further development and that numerous building projects, including 5,000 hotel rooms, are in various stages of construction.
BDS notwithstanding, tourism to Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular has increased dramatically, as indicated by the recent expansion of Ben-Gurion Airport and the number of new hotels in many parts of the country, but especially in Jerusalem.
The former Tirat Batsheva Hotel on King George Avenue has been totally renovated and expanded, and is now known as the Wyndham Jerusalem Batsheva. Diagonally across the road, opposite the Jewish Agency compound, the Jerusalem Intercontinental luxury hotel is under construction, and on Jabotinsky Street the luxury Inbal Hotel is expanding. The luxury Orient Hotel opened last year on Emek Refaim Street, and more than a dozen boutique hotels and hostels exist between Hillel Street and Jaffa Road, plus others near completion.
In addition to all that, there are high-rise residential and office complexes going up in almost every neighborhood, but there are few opportunities to widen roads or to construct new ones other than going underground or building bridges. Bridges spoil the view and would be detrimental to the beauty of Jerusalem.
While strenuous efforts are being made to improve public transport services in the capital, as well as to and from the city, there is no guarantee that owners of private cars will stop using them. Jerusalem’s traffic problems will be worse than ever.
Moreover, in addition to the opposition Barkat is encountering in his desire to have the light rail go along Emek Refaim, the residents of French Hill are equally unhappy about plans for the Green Line of the light rail, and they, too, are rallying in opposition.