Grapevine: A hard night's day

It's unusual to see a group of black-hatted and black-coated haredi rabbis gathered around a horse-riding track, but that’s what happened.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Independence Day bbq 187 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Independence Day bbq 187
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
■ A REASONABLY good salary in Israel is in the range of NIS 20,000 per month, which works out to NIS 240,000 per year. Popular singers make nearly three times as much in a single night on Israel Independence Day. It’s a hard night’s day or a hard day’s night, whichever way one wants to look at it, with Sarit Hadad and Eyal Golan reigning as the top money-earners making a total of approximately NIS 700,000 each for appearances in five different cities.
Scheduled at press time, Hadad also appeared in Jerusalem, as she did last year. Miri Mesika and Harel Skaat had fewer appearances on Monday night, but on Thursday of last week joined Kobi Aflalo in rehearsing for their Independence Day performances at Beit Hanassi on Tuesday morning. For Mesika and Skaat, who were performing till after midnight on Monday night, the early-morning trip to Jerusalem was no picnic.
Several singers who performed around the country on Independence Day also sang at events marking Remembrance Day for the Fallen.
■ MEMBERS OF the business and diplomatic community, plus a few stars from the entertainment community, almost always include the Herzliya Pituah headquarters of businessman Yossi Maiman in their list of party rounds on Independence Day. The building, which is surrounded by a huge lawn, is an ideal venue, and Maiman’s Independence Day party is a long-held tradition.
This year, he and his wife, Halit, were intent on keeping gatecrashers out of the festivities and sent out numbered invitations, which had to be presented at the gate in order to gain entry.
■ IN THE Independence Day spirit, Steimatzky gave prominence in its window display to Yoram Kaniuk’s prize-winning book 1948. Kaniuk will again be in the limelight on May 14, when he will be among the recipients of honorary doctorates to be awarded by Tel Aviv University.
■ IT’S UNUSUAL to see a group of black-hatted and black-coated haredi rabbis gathered around a horse-riding track, but that’s what happened last week when rabbis, ministers, MKs, mayors, medical experts, philanthropists and business people from the haredi community congregated at the Sde Hemed Youth Village to officially launch what is believed to be the country’s first haredi therapeutic riding center.
There are other therapeutic riding centers in the country from which haredi children and adults have benefited, but the haredi community now has one of its own. Sde Hemed will also be open to youngsters from the general public whose ailments can be reduced by therapeutic riding, said Rabbi Yitzhak Lorenz, who heads Sde Hemed.
■ KFAR SABA is the site of a new yeshiva high school which will be integrated with Midrashiat Noam and which will have a complete bagrut (matriculation) program.
The principal of the school is Rabbi Michael Schachter; the educational director is David Singer and the Rosh Yeshiva is Rabbi David Samson. Parents who want to register their children may do so on Lag Ba’omer, May 22, at the Midrashiat Noam School, Rehov Moshe Sneh 4, Kfar Saba.
■ AN EMPLOYMENT fair aimed at youngsters who want to earn some money during the summer school vacation period will be held at Dizengoff Center on May 24, between 6 and 8 p.m. The fair is being held in conjunction with the Employment Services, with the aim of ensuring that students taking summer jobs know their rights and will not be exploited.
Youngsters are invited to come with their parents and to bring with them a health certificate, a passport photo and an ID card.
The fair will be held in the area of the designers’ gallery.
■ YIDDISH AFICIONADOS should mark Thursday May 26 on their calendars. It is the date on which singer Vera Ludinski, accompanied by Emil Einbinder on accordion, will launch her new Yiddish disc Wunderweg, a compilation of Yiddish folk songs. The launch at Sholom Aleichem House at Rehov Berkovitch 4, Tel Aviv, will include a concert recital.
■ BEN-GURION University of the Negev researcher Alberto Bilenca, PhD, has been awarded a $100,000 grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant is one of 88 awarded to researchers from 25 countries to explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve global health.
Bilenca is a member of BGU’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, where he is establishing a state-of-the-art laboratory in the fields of biomedical and nano optics. The project that earned him the grant uses the principles of optical polarization/speckle and cell phone technology to create a low-cost, portable probe to quickly and accurately diagnose malaria in field settings. Malaria causes approximately 1 million deaths per year throughout developing countries.