As rockets from Hezbollah and Hamas continue to fall on Israeli territory, causing damage and destruction, towns and cities in the north and south are experiencing an exodus of population, but an influx in Jerusalem.
In addition to new immigrants, the city also hosts many Israeli and foreign visitors for conferences and celebrations, which must be a great source of satisfaction to city hall officials.
Jerusalem Day is just around the corner, and despite a decision to forego any jollity until all the hostages taken by Hamas to Gaza are returned to Israel, the usual crowds of singing, dancing and flag-carrying young people from across the country are due to turn out.
But before that there is the Jerusalem International Writers Festival, where writers from different countries always engage in dialogue on subjects that affect them in different ways.
Some of these events are sold out. One of them, which is free to enter, will take place on Monday, May 27th at the de Bottom Gallery in Mishkenot Sha’ananim, and will feature artist Michal Rovner in conversation with Sir Simon Schama, renowned award-winning author, historian, and former art critic for The New Yorker, about the meaning of art and contemporary creation in times of war and crisis.
A professor at Columbia University, Schama is best known for his work on the popular BBC documentary series “A History of Britain,” and more recently wrote the three-volume “The Story of the Jews.”
■ And next week, on May 29, mayors, deputy mayors, CEOs, legal advisers, city engineers and other senior officials from municipalities across the country will gather at the Jerusalem International Conference Center to discuss urban renewal. More than a dozen women are among the presenters, but the only one is mayor, Michal Rosenschein, who heads the city of Kiryat Ono.
The event is being organized by the Israel Architecture Center, and so many real estate developers are in attendance, including Rami Levy, who owns a supermarket chain and also builds hotels, senior living facilities, shopping malls and housing complexes, Yossi Avrahami, who is renovating the former Eden Hotel on Hillel Street into a luxury housing complex, and Micah Klein, executive director of Africa Israel, which has built and owns a number of properties in Jerusalem. Of course, there are several other developers as well.
■ This week, the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), in collaboration with the Dalia and Eli Hurwitz Foundation, hosted the Eli Hurwitz Conference on Economy and Society at the Orient Hotel in the German Colony.
Eli Hurwitz, a prominent Israeli businessman, died in 2011 at the age of 79. He was the founding chairman and CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. He was born in Jerusalem and graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
His wife, Dahlia Solomon, was the daughter of the managing partner of Asia Chemical Laboratories, a small company that later merged with Zoli and acquired a controlling interest in Teva in 1969. The three companies merged to become Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, a global conglomerate.
Mr. Hurwitz also served as Chairman of the Israel Export Institute, Chairman of Bank Leumi, Chairman of the Jerusalem Development Authority, a member of the Advisory Board of the Bank of Israel, a director of Coal Industries and Magal Security Systems, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Weizmann Institute of Science, a director of Vishay Technologies, and Chairman of IDI.
He is an Israel Prize laureate and has received honorary doctorates from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Tel Aviv University, among many other honors and awards. Teva Pharmaceuticals logo in Tel Aviv, Israel, February 19, 2019. (Credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)
Given his association with IDI, it is not surprising that the organization would host a conference in his memory.
Many of the IDI’s researchers are well-known in their fields: for example, the conference’s chair, economist Karnit Flug, is a former governor of the Bank of Israel and the first, and so far only, woman to hold the position.
It was odd that the list of participants did not include Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Economy and Industry Minister Nir Barkat, or Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem.
The only two ministers from the current government, Gila Gamliel and Idit Silman, attended the meeting, but current and former members of parliament who held ministerial positions in the previous government, namely Avigdor Lieberman, Yair Lapid (opposition leader), and Orna Barbibai, also attended.
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