THERE IS life after the Knesset – as evinced by former Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, who has been appointed president of Password for Every Child. The computer-based initiative is designed to increase computer literacy, communication and knowledge on the part of both teachers and students, and is run by businessman Udi Angel in partnership with the Israel Corporation. Although major shareholder Idan Ofer is splitting up the Israel Corporation and moving a large slice of its operations to London, its philanthropic works on behalf of the community and the environment in Israel will continue to function. Password for Every Child is an outgrowth of a program called Computer for Every Child, which was launched by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the late 1990s during his first term in office. Netanyahu recently called for a tablet for every child, to keep pace with developments in the computer industry.VOICES ISRAEL, a group of English-language poets, was founded in 1971 by Leslie Summers, Reuben Rose, Moshe Ben-Zvi and Jacob Katwan, to provide an outlet for writers of English poetry in Israel, encourage new poets and form international friendships through poetry. From the initial quartet, membership has grown to around 150 poets, who meet on a three-times-a-year basis in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and elsewhere, to read their poetry aloud and participate in workshops. Towards the end of last month, they met at Kibbutz Amiad in the Upper Galilee to pay tribute to one of their veteran members, Tommy Berman, who was killed in an accident in the Galapagos Islands just after Passover. Voices president Wendy Blumfield described Berman not only as a popular personality with a wonderful sense of humor, but “an amazing poet.”A large number of people from all over the country came to his funeral, and later came to console his wife, Debby, and other family members.Berman was also known for his work as a professor of limnology, and had been an active member of Habonim in the UK prior to coming to Israel as one of the founding nucleus of Amiad. In the immediate aftermath of his death, tribute poems poured into the kibbutz as well as to the addresses of Voices executive members. These tributes, together with some of Berman’s best poems, have been published in an anthology.Berman was a Kindertransport child as well as a scientist, teacher, mentor and poet.He traveled to England from Czechoslovakia with his leather suitcase when he was five years old, and kept it with him all his life. Indeed, he wrote a poem about it that won international prizes. Berman loved the Galilee, and that love was frequently expressed in his poetry. He also loved nature and adventure, and perhaps because of his experiences as a child, his motto was to seize the moment. That’s what he was doing when he died.ENTERTAINERS WHO live on the Coastal Plain and beyond are increasingly finding their way to Jerusalem, where culinary options and accommodations are infinitely better and more plentiful than they were a decade ago. One of the more recent visitors was actress and singer Liraz Charhi, who was in the capital as mistress of ceremonies at the scholarship awards of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School. Six months pregnant and definitely showing, Charhi, who is a niece to Rita, is carrying on with all of her commitments – just as singer Miri Mesika carried on with all of hers when she was pregnant, continuing to perform until almost the last minute.EVERYONE KNOWS that you can’t dance at two weddings at the same time, but there are some people in the Tel Aviv Municipality who want to prove differently. For them, it’s a matter of trying to maintain positions they might lose on the Labor list for the October 22 elections. The crux of the problem is that Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, who is running for a fourth term as the head of One Tel Aviv, will not join forces on this occasion with the Labor Party, which is fielding its own list. Huldai is willing to include in his list Labor Party members who are already on the city council but fail to make the Labor list in the upcoming elections. However, this has provoked an outcry in some Labor quarters, with demands that Labor members be prevented from running on other lists. Having Labor members on other lists when the party itself did not have a list has always been quite acceptable, say the protesters, but this time around, they insist, the practice has to stop.IN THE years before he entered politics, Finance Minister Yair Lapid was a frequent visitor to the trendy Genki nightspot in south Tel Aviv, where patrons danced on the tables to the spirited singing of Einat Sarouf. Another frequent visitor and enthusiastic dancer was Israel’s wealthiest woman, Shari Arison. Many of the Genki patrons developed friendships with each other – after all, if you’re dancing together on tables, you should have something to say to each other afterwards.Thus, it was not exactly a surprise when Lapid took time out from his budgetary problems to attend Sarouf’s 50th birthday performance at Shuni Park, between Binyamina and Zichron Ya’acov on the southern ridge of the Carmel Mountains. Lapid was not the only member of the government in attendance: Communications Minister Gilad Erdan was there as well.
