Grapevine, December 18, 2020: Chinese on Christmas Eve
The movers and shakers of Isareli society
By GREER FAY CASHMANUpdated: DECEMBER 17, 2020 18:57Chinese Wall, Tel Aviv(photo credit: RICKI ROSEN)
FOLLOWING THE popularity of their Thanksgiving Zoom “dine-in-your-own-home communal experience,” the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel is presenting “The Best of Broadway,” accompanied by a kosher mehadrin meal. All things considered, this is taking pluralism not quite to its height – but near enough. The audience is almost entirely if not completely Jewish. The cuisine is Chinese; the music is American and the date is Christmas Eve, December 24. The singer is Aviella Trepido, a seasoned performer, who is appearing together with the multi-talented Ehud Knebel the show’s musical director and accordionist. The production will feature a host of Broadway melodies. Showtime is 7 p.m. The heat-and-eat three-course Chinese meal prepared by Kinamon Caterers will be delivered to homes in Jerusalem, Ma’aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion.Registration at: aaci.org.il/events/dinner-theater-with-aaci/ REGULAR READER and writer of letters to the editor Dr. Colin Leci, who lives on Brenner Street, Talbiyeh, is not an immediate neighbor of the prime minister in that the Brenner Street Ahad Ha’am intersection where his apartment is located, is more than a block away from Paris Square and Gaza Street, where demonstrators have been congregating for some six months. However, police allowed demonstrators last Saturday night to disturb the peace in Brenner Street. The noise level according to Leci, was more than a hundred decibels even when the shutters on all the windows in his apartment were closed. He made two calls to the police to complain. The noise could clearly be heard through the phone he says, but the response was zilch. Leci recorded the din and took video shots of the crowd and sent them to Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, though not expecting a response. The prime minister’s neighbors near and far have had to put up with this for six months.Leci is not trying to stop the demonstrations. He just wants police to contain them in one specific area. He is a member of a WhatsApp group calling itself Rehavia-Talbiyeh Residents, who want to reclaim their streets. Group members have also been in touch with Stelian Gelberg, the Environment Ministry’s director of noise prevention. Environment Minister Gila Gamliel is very tough on environmental violations. She has already fined Noble Energy-Chevron NIS 3.2 million for offshore pollution of the sea.BRITISH-ISRAELI street artist Solomon Souza, well-known in Jerusalem for his spray paintings on walls in and around Mahaneh Yehuda, entered into an arrangement whereby he helped to produce an exhibition on Jewish Athletes and the Holocaust. Souza was commissioned last year by Chelsea Football Club and its owner Roman Abramovich to create a commemorative mural to Jewish football players who perished or were murdered during the Holocaust. The completed mural was unveiled during Holocaust Memorial Day, after which Souza was asked to develop an extended exhibition under the title of “49 Flames” commemorating 49 Olympic medalists murdered during the Holocaust. The exhibition is part of the continuing campaign by Chelsea Football Club to Say No to Antisemitism.AT THE annual conference of Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, the organization’s founder and president, Prof. Gerald Steinberg spoke of the phenomenon of government funding to NGOs that claim to promote human rights but have links to terror groups. In its research, NGO Monitor has come across data indicating that more than $46 million in government funding has been transferred to such NGOs. Steinberg says that so far, 80 terror-linked individuals have been identified in organizations that purport to promote human rights.Other Israelis who participated in the international conference included Rabbi Eitan Shnerb, father of Rina Shnerb z”l, murdered in 2019 by a terror cell headed by officials from a European-funded NGO.Readers who missed the conference can listen to some of it on the NGO Monitor Facebook page.greerfc@gmail.com
