Kenan is a volunteer with several diverse organizations and sits on the executive committees of some of them. He has had a 36-year connection with Herzog Medical Center, for which he is a leading fundraiser, and is very proud of the hospital’s standards and development.
■ PESSIMISTS WHO declared that the world would never be the same again after the pandemic should have been at the Music Square (Kikar Hamusica) on Thursday night of last week, which was filled to capacity by diners and music lovers.
The staff members of Piccolino were run off their feet bringing tantalizing dishes to the tables, but their life was made easier by violin virtuoso Nir Sarussi and his three-piece band, whose renditions of classics, Broadway musicals, hassidic, folk and pop music interacted with each other without missing a beat.
The audience went wild over snappy tunes, stood on chairs and danced between tables, and Sarussi went with the flow, jumping off the stage and serenading groups and individuals and posing for endless selfies while playing. He has the same effect on people wherever he plays in the world.
One of the merrymakers whom he serenaded on Independence Day was Jonathan Pollard, who was in the crowd that flocked to Piccolino.
■ FOR THE first time since COVID-19 caused an upheaval in the lives of the nation and the conduct of its institutions, a bridegroom was called to the Torah last Saturday at Hazvi Yisrael Synagogue, as a large prayer shawl was held over his head in the form of a bridal canopy, after which he was pelted with candies from the women’s gallery.
The groom is Jake Kuperstok, the son of Orly and Nathan Kuperstok of Montreal, and the bride is Dani Wind, the daughter of Ofra and Robbie Wind of Teaneck, New Jersey. Travel restrictions notwithstanding, some relatives from both sides managed to get to Israel for the wedding.
■ EVERY YEAR, Lynn and Amnon Gimpel host a Jerusalem Day party at their spacious home in the German Colony.
A hundred years ago, Amnon’s father walked from Bialytstok to Jerusalem, where Amnon was born. His early childhood was fraught with uncertainty, not knowing whether there would or would not be a state. The Jewish population was sparse in comparison to what it is today, and Amnon remembers when many of the city’s built-up areas were open fields.
After the establishment of the state, Jerusalem was divided, and Gimpel’s family lived on Shammai Street, which was then on the border. Following his army service, Gimpel went to America in 1964 to study medicine, and while there became a football champion, developing a kicking style, previously unknown to Americans. It was there that he met his wife, Lynn, who was also a medical student, and after graduating from university, he focused on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, on which he has become a leading world expert.
Although they vacationed frequently in Israel, it was not until approximately 30 years ago, that the Gimpels and their three sons made Israel their permanent home.
When he drives around the city, Gimpel marvels at how it has changed completely from the Jerusalem of his youth.
Many of the guests who attended the Gimpels’ Jerusalem Day party moved in the same social circles in the pre-coronavirus era, and in most cases had not seen each other in more than a year and were delighted to be able to socialize again.
■ MANY ENGLISH-SPEAKERS whose Hebrew is not at a level that enables them to fully comprehend a lecture in Hebrew are particularly keen on Shavuot to find places where they can listen to lectures in English.
The Israel Center is arguably the best option for English-speakers, but not everyone lives within walking distance, and there are certainly other places in Jerusalem, such as Beit Hoffman (Gonenim), with top-notch English-speaking lecturers Rabbi Dr. Aharon Adler, Gila Fine and Rabbi Reuven Tradburks. Doors open at 10 p.m. on Sunday, May 16, with admission in accordance with Health Ministry guidelines. Lectures begin at 10:15 p.m.
Adler, who is the community rabbi at Ohel Nehama Synagogue near the Jerusalem Theater, will speak on “Bikkurim and the Convert.” Fine, a lecturer at Pardes and editor-in-chief at Maggid Books at Koren Publishers, will speak on “Mirror Mirror in the Temple – A Tale of Love and Liberation,” and Tradburks, director of the Israel branch of the Rabbinical Council of America, will relay some inspiring stories of converts in Israel.
Further information is available from: Beni Ferber (054-812-8475), Joe Krycer (054-777-6696) and Anat Uzzan (052-609-0492), gonenim.olim@gmail.com
■ EVANGELISTS IN Jerusalem were saddened last week by the death of Rev. Charles Kopp, 72, one of Jerusalem’s most veteran Evangelical leaders.
He and his family arrived in the city in the mid-1960s and witnessed the Six Day War. Kopp was senior pastor at the Narkis Street Congregation from 1992 to 2016, and was also a chairman of the Evangelical Alliance of Churches in Israel, in which capacity he often liaised with the government to resolve issues for the local Evangelical community.
He was buried at the Alliance Christian Cemetery in Emek Refaim.
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