Israel Seen – Backpage News from the Front Oct. 21 2016
Once again Daniella Ashkenazy treats us to “daily life ” in Israel according to the Hebrew Press
A UNIQUE MEMORIAL
In a unique commemoration project of Naomi and Itam Henkin z”l – a couple murdered just before
Sukkot 2015 by a Palestinian terrorist, family and colleagues shared the sukkot decoration that Naomi – a graphic artist – had prepared for the holiday and shared with others on her website, HaMa’abada. Amplifying her legacy, they inviting surfers to visit the special website they dedicated to the two – Aguda Achat – to download and print out the poster she had shared with others…together with additional posters that colleagues designed in the same spirit, incorporating quotes from Biblical and Talmudic phraseology and other apt sources – to use them in celebrating sukkot, as a living memorial. (Yediot)
* Click to open a particular file. The files can be saved, printed out…or sent to a digital print shop to order A-3 size professional posters. Share the URL with others: http://www.tazizu.net/blank-4
ONE-OF-A-KIND LEGACY
The price of housing in Tel Aviv (and elsewhere within commuting distance to the Big Orange) is a sore issue among tenants, who face constantly rising rents while finding it impossible to even dream of owning their own apartment*… everyone except four occupants of half a dozen flats – some of them longtime tenants, others recent renters – who were given their flats on picturesque Michal Street in the heart of Tel Aviv, by the landlord in his Last Will and Testament.
Uri Giladi, whose material grandfather had built the building at 20 Michal Street, was, in contrast to the unique milieu of Michal Street**, a very shy and private individual – somewhat of a recluse whose only interactions with others were with his female tenants. He inherited the apartment building from his mother and continued to live off the rentals (modest, without raising the rent at all) until he died in May 2016 of cancer at age 56 – without direct heirs, but leaving a handful of tenants who will never forget him as long as they live. (Calcalist, ynet, NRG – Maariv) Photo credit: The Marker
* On the average, the price of apartments rises by 150,000 NIS ($39,473) every year. Each of Giladi’s 2.5 room apartments is worth over two million NIS ($526,315) on the current real estate market.
** Michal Street between Habima and Dizzengoff Center – a narrow tree-lined cobblestone side street – is nicknamed ‘the kibbutz’ due to the intimate interactions that typify its residents who jointly tend to the building facades, water the neighbor’s house plants when they are abroad and annually even hold their own Purim block party and cheesecake baking contest on Shavuot.
GRAVEN IMAGES
While sculptor and painter Menashe Kadishman was best known for his sheep motifs (see “Mixed Media”) a metal sculpture titled “Birth”: (Ledah),recently added to a Kadishman sculpture garden in the Ramat Gan National Park, has attracted a truly quirky category of art lovers.
Religious girls have taken to sitting or prostrating themselves on the sculpture while reading psalms or praying. The visitors claim the abstract metal sculpture possesses mystical powers that ensure fertility and an easy birth. The Ramat Gan National Park issued a statement clarifying that the sculpture garden with 14 Kadishman works was designed to make art accessible to the masses, and the sculpture harbors no “abilities or magic qualities”…but to no avail. (Yediot, Israel HaYom) Photo Credit: Wikicommons, Avishai Teicher
WHEELS OF CHANGE
Declaring what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, the Central District Court ruled on an 108 M NIS ($2.8 M) class action suit against Insurance Direct (Bituach Yashir) that the car insurance company’s policy adopted in May 2014 that men would be charged 80 NIS ($21) if they called a tow truck to change a flat tire, while women would receive this road service free of charge, constituted gender discrimination and violated the Protection of Human Dignity Law. The insurance company claimed their policy was based on physiological differences and constituted ‘affirmative action’ on behalf of women.
The judge ruled that even if statistics would show more men know how to change a tire than women, there was no justification for the insurers perpetuating the gender gap… (Yediot) Photo credit:flickr.com
* American statistics show one out of every three women doesn’t know how to change a tire compared to four percent of all men.
MINDING HIS BUSINESS
Does crime pay? Apparently yes, if you ask Uri Levy (54) who on the 29th of July 2016 was caught on security cameras breaking into the Tax Authority’s offices in Holon where Levy had been under interrogation the previous day. The next day being a Friday when government offices are closed, Levy cut a square hole in an exterior wall made of drywall, crawled in and helped himself to 22 boxes of documents that the tax men had painstakingly gathered concerning his business dealings.
While the caper landed him in a magistrate’s court, on ‘breaking and entering’ and ‘obstruction of justice’ charges, so far there is neither hide nor hair of the incriminating evidence… (Israel HaYom and Bhol.co.il) Photo credit: Screenshot of Levy, as caught on security cameras
ORDER IN THE HOUSE!
In an ‘Ask the Rabbi’ column in Israel HaYom, a petitioner wrote-in: “I heard that the presence of a lizard in the house brings good luck. We have a lizard on our door mantle, what does it signify?”
The rabbi’s reply? “It’s time to order an exterminator”… (Israel HaYom) Photo credit: Netvision’s logo
INVITATION TO MY FUNERAL
It’s common in Israel to post death notices in the newspapers (and near the home of the deceased and next-of-kin). One encounters the
phrase b’seva tovah (at a ripe old age) when an elderly person has passed away – suggesting in the subtext that bereavement is lightened by a long life.*
In a departure from the norm, an ultra-secular family chose to take things a step further, placing a unique black-bordered death notice at various locations in Ramat Hasharon announcing: “Mrs. Masha Mushinsky z”l …is honored to invite you to her funeral which will take place TODAY…in the Kibbutz Anat cemetary.
As is traditional, the notice contained the address where the family would be sitting shiva – but with a twist: a week after the deceased celebrated her 98th birthday, it stated her family would be “celebrating her memory” – not mourning her death. (Yediot) Photo credit: The article in Yediot about her amazing life, prompted by the irregular notice
* and b’terem ate – ‘a premature death’ when a relatively-young person dies – stressing the tragedy and that the family’s grief is heavy.
