Grapevine: Mazal Tov: 60 years

THERE APPEARS to be a very high ratio of Jerusalemites among soldiers who pay the supreme sacrifice, and the overwhelming majority are under 25; some have left young widows and babies who will never know their fathers. At the opposite end of the spectrum are people too old to serve in the IDF reserves whose grandchildren and great-grandchildren are defending Israel’s borders, fighting Hamas and Hezbollah. Increasing longevity means that many married couples are celebrating 50th, 60th, and even 70th wedding anniversaries.

One such couple, Deena and Auri Spigelman, recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary and hosted a kiddush in honor of the occasion at Hazvi Yisrael synagogue –whose members include at least three people who have celebrated triple-digit birthdays, as well as several couples who have been married for upwards of 50 years.

In addition, congratulatory synagogue announcements almost always include mention of a great-grandchild’s birth. The recipient of the most congratulations on this score is Rabbanit Miriam Hauer.

A United Hatzalah volunteer returns to Israel

■ BEFORE HE got married and returned to live in America, where he was born, Gavi Friedson had been, since his mid-teens, an active volunteer with United Hatzalah (UH) – often the first person on the scene in an emergency medical situation. With an engaging personality and the gift of the gab, he also served in the IDF Spokesperson’s Office after previously serving in the Nahal Infantry Brigade.

After his 2017 marriage in Jerusalem to American journalist, political commentator, and author Katie Pavlich, Friedson moved to Washington but returns to Israel several times a year to visit family and meet with UH volunteers. In America, he serves as UH international director of emergency management and has led UH missions in response to major disasters, such as Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico and Hurricanes Irma and Ian in Florida (where he spent the first 10 years of his life).

Friedson is now back in Israel and has been volunteering in the South. He not only delivers emergency medical aid but also helps to clean up damaged buildings and teaches emergency disaster relief techniques and psychological first-aid concepts.

Oud Festival will not be canceled

■ THOUGH MANY end-of-year festivals and most of those planned for the first half of 2024 have been canceled, the annual Oud Festival is taking place December 27-30. The difference between this year’s festival and those of past years is that there will be no guest artists from abroad. It’s an all-Israeli festival, opening with Ehud Banai and his band.

Memory stunt meetings at Jerusalem's Khan Theater

■ HOW’S YOUR memory? If you want to know the secrets of maintaining a good memory, the Khan Theater invites you to a series of Monday meetings in which Eran Katz, Israel’s best-selling author on mind power who holds the Guinness World Record for memory stunts, will share some of the techniques for remembering what you see and hear. Lesson number one is: pay attention. The series begins on December 25. The cost per individual lecture is NIS 60; for all lectures, it is NIS 200. Katz has lectured to government officials, business executives, and academics all over the world. For reservations, call (02) 630-3600.

Construction is changing Jerusalem

■ DESPITE THE downturn in tourism and the high cost of real estate in Jerusalem, the Prima Hotel Group, owned by the Moskovitz family of New York, continues to expand in the capital. During COVID, when tourism was also at a low ebb, all the Prima hotels were upgraded and renovated. The most recent acquisition is the 17-story Jerusalem Tower Hotel on Hillel Street, which was purchased for NIS 90 million. A further NIS 30 million will be invested in upgrades and renovations over the next two years. The Prima chain has been active in Israel since 1990, with hotels in Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, Eilat, Tiberias, Ra’anana, Tel Aviv, and Petah Tikva.

Prima is a private hotel chain founded by Irving Moskowitz, an American physician and businessman who was the ninth of 13 children and sired eight of his own. He launched his medical practice in California, where he also began building hospitals and managing nursing homes. Together with his wife, Cherna, he established the Moskowitz Foundation in 1968 to help people in need, regardless of religion or race. An active right-wing Zionist philanthropist, he donated millions of dollars for the construction of homes for Jews in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. He also helped to establish the Arutz Sheva news outlet in Beit El in 1988.

Prima hotels in Jerusalem include Prima Kings, Prima Royale, Prima Park, and Prima Palace.

The Jerusalem Tower Hotel, which now has a Prima preface, is situated above a shopping center, which, for some reason, given its prime location, has long been a white elephant. Maybe that will change under the hotel’s new ownership.

Just a few doors away from the Jerusalem Tower Hotel is the former Eden Hotel, whose dining room was often frequented by diplomats and Knesset members. That was when more embassies were located in Jerusalem and the Knesset was located in a nearby building that later housed the Ministry of Tourism, and then the office of the Chief Rabbinate. The former Knesset building has been chosen to become the Knesset Museum, although reconstruction is way behind schedule.

The Eden Hotel is now surrounded by a construction enclosure. Whether this is just to upgrade infrastructure on Hillel Street or for restoring the hotel and perhaps building on top of it is not certain.

In the days when Teddy Kollek was mayor, he was known as the greatest builder of Jerusalem since King Herod. However, with the exception of hotels and a couple of luxury residential buildings, Kollek did not permit buildings to be taller than four stories.

It seems that Mayor Moshe Lion may want to wrest the title away from Kollek, who had looked for open spaces on which to build. The open spaces that exist now, however, are the result of old buildings being torn down, which will be replaced by towers. However, when visiting neighborhoods like Kiryat Hayovel, which is no longer recognizable, one can see four tall, unsightly, adjacent towers that indicate the slums of the future and which eventually will be torn down to make room for even taller towers if Lion matches Kollek’s record for remaining in office.

Interior decorator Ruby Ray Karzen, a former long-term president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, is one of the veteran Jerusalemites who is upset about the drastic changes to the city since Lion became mayor.

“Adding to the general malaise we are all feeling,” she says, “is the fact that the mayor wants to turn our beloved, formerly beautiful Yerushalayim into Hong Kong.”

That sentiment has been echoed by many other native and long-term residents of the city.

While Kollek sought to restore the Old City, Lion seeks to modernize it, depriving it of its old-world charm, which international prize-winning architect Moshe Safdie did his utmost to preserve.

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