Six new carousel parking installations on track to arrive this week in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul neighborhood will provide 90 new parking places while using only six parking spaces
By PEGGY CIDORSOMEONE AT Safra Square seems, ‘sof sof,’ to have realized that pupils need more time in the educational framework. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Longer learning launchedSome 2,500 elementary and junior high school students, whose school days currently end as early as 1 p.m., will benefit from a new educational framework that will add up to four hours a day, four days a week, in 34 schools. Establishing study centers inside the schools (no need to shlep children from one school to another), the program will provide supplemental learning, including homework help and enrichment activities.The schools due to launch this program as of next week are from all neighborhoods (not including Arab neighborhoods, where such programs have existed since 2015). Additional schools are to be included in the months to come. Planned and implemented together with the city’s parents’ association, the program is funded by the municipality (NIS 5 million) and by the Ministry of Education.Car carousels comingSix new carousel parking installations on track to arrive this week in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul neighborhood will provide 90 new parking places while using only six parking spaces. Costing NIS 5 million, the carousels will make ease parking in places like Hadfuss Street,The municipality is promoting this and other parking initiatives as part of the plan to provide alternative parking wherever roadwork for the new light rail lines reduces parking spaces.Not everyone is happy with the carousel solution, arguing that it harms the city’s skyline, but there is no other known way to continue to provide a minimum of parking places while large parts of the city become construction sites.Free RehaviaThe “Free Jerusalem” group of activists taking action – mostly demonstrations – in the city to raise awareness against the “occupation,” particularly in east Jerusalem, has launched a campaign targeting Mayor Moshe Lion. Following the police activity in the predominantly Arab neighborhood of Isawiya in recent months, resulting in hundreds of arrests without indictments, the group’s protests are targeting the mayor, claiming that he is failing to provide security and uphold the rights of all of the city’s residents. The group wants him to order the Jerusalem police chief to stop its actions in Isawiya.
For three consecutive Saturdays nights, organization activists demonstrated in front of Lion’s private house in Rehavia, holding signs. The police detained a few of them last week and the protest moved on to the Russian Compound police headquarters.Lion has accused the seven-seat opposition Hitorerut Party of standing behind the movement and the protest, which is strange, since Free Jerusalem is a radical Left group that has nothing to do with Ofer Berkovitch and Hitorerut, which are more on the Right side of the political map. A Free Jerusalem spokesman issued a press announcement denying any connection with Hitorerut.The feminine touchWhile hi-tech is too often considered a men’s domain, with women employed in junior positions, there is a group working to improve the situation. Fem JLM-Jerusalem’s Women in Tech and Entrepreneurship community, had its official launch last week at WeWork Jerusalem. The event was sponsored by Taboola, the Jerusalem Development Authority; Malam Team; JNEXT; Orcam; Ex Libris; Arc Impact; and the Jerusalem Municipality, all private and public organizations committed to strengthening the city’s hi-tech – and particularly the status of women in that field.More than 250 women joined for inspirational talks, a mini-job fair and presentation of volunteer opportunities for female-led organizations (QueenB and She Codes) and networking. The women came from all over the city and from different backgrounds, Jewish – both ultra-Orthodox and secular, Arab, young and old.Speakers included FemJLM founder and Made in JLM COO Rachel Wagner Rosenzweig, Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Meron Capital general partner Liron Azrielant, Alpha Omega co-founder Reem Younis, and Emerj co-founder and CEO Chedva Kleinhandler. The next steps, after the festivities, will be offering courses to help females in tech in junior positions progress to senior positions, and aiding female computer science and engineering students to receive their first job in hi-tech in the city, while hosting events for both women and men to discuss topics such as ensuring diversity in the hi-tech workplace.
