Fashion is Art to a T
Fashion is an art form but is not always recognized as such in its contemporary creations. Several major museums around the world have permanent exhibitions of folk wear, period costumes or the distinctive clothes that oppressed populations were forced to wear as slaves or as victims of persecution. None of the above characterize Castro’s T-Art collection that was launched this week at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s new wing. This is the second consecutive cooperative venture between Castro and the museum designed not only to show off Castro’s creativity but also, according to Castro’s joint CEOs
and to provide a museum experience for the general public.
A lot of people have never been inside a museum, thinking that is too highbrow and embarrassed by the thought that they might not understand what they see. So for the month of August and in tandem with the T-shirt exhibition, Castro has sponsored Thursday is T-day, which translates as you can get in for free day. Israelis are a curious bunch and always ready to take advantage of something for nothing. If they don’t have to pay the entry fee to the museum, they may as well take a look. They may be most pleasantly surprised by the weekly happening, workshops, tours, music, et al.
The launch was kicked off with a musical performance by actress, singer and model Among those who enjoyed both the exhibition and the performance were Tel Aviv Museum executive director Maj.-Gen. (res.)
CEO of Clal Insurance, and her husband,
Elem president and her husband,
fashion and theatrical costume designer along with numerous artists and people from the business world.
WHEN PRESIDENT accepted the credentials of new ambassadors this week, it was obvious that he was going to be doing a lot of traveling, and he also may have overstepped his authority when he told Estonian Ambassador
that there should be an Israeli embassy in Tallinn. Israel’s diplomatic mission in Estonia is that of a consulate. Rivlin also mentioned his intention to tour the Baltic states.
ON THE more immediate horizon is his upcoming trip to India, which he briefly discussed with Ambassador
The Jerusalem Post has learned that Rivlin’s office and the Foreign Ministry are exploring the possibility of Rivlin continuing from India to Australia. Rivlin had been scheduled to visit Australia in March of this year, and Australian officials changed their own travel plans in order to be able to receive the first Israeli president to visit the antipodes in more than a decade. But in an 11th-hour decision, Rivlin went to Russia instead, promising the Australians that he would travel down under at the earliest opportunity.
IN HIS welcome chat with Chilean Ambassador who had previously been her country’s ambassador to the Holy See, Rivlin discussed religion, education and peace, with a remark or two about politics as an aside.
Jiménez is a former education minister and has been a peace activist for all of her adult life. Her father and brother were also government ministers, each serving as health minister. Her father, Oscar Jiménez Pinochet, served under president Salvador Allende, and her brother under President Patricio Aylwin.
Noting that she had come from the Vatican, Rivlin said, “We brought the ideas of God to Rome 2,000 years ago, because this is the center of the Holy Land. To telephone God from Jerusalem is only a local call.”
Aware of Jiménez’s previous connection with UNESCO, which he said is now denying the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, Rivlin noted that Jesus Christ was born a Jew. Realizing that he didn’t have to pursue Christ’s relationship to Jerusalem with a Catholic educator, he merely stated that “ignoring the connection of the Jewish people to the Holy Land does not serve any purpose and will not bring peace.” He also mentioned the large number of Palestinians living in Chile.
“I come from the Holy See to the Holy Land,” said Jiménez, but neglected to mention an added aspect of holiness, that she was born on Christmas Day.
A member of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation which investigated human rights abuses that resulted in death or disappearance during the years in which Chile was under military rule, she told Rivlin that she would do all that she could toward peace in the Middle East. “If something from our experience can help, we are happy to share it,” she said.
As a qualified educator and social worker, and not just a former education minister, Jiménez has worked with and for socially disadvantaged children and has also held high-ranking university positions. She is extremely interested in Israel’s institutions of higher learning and has already visited the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University, and next week intends to visit the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. She would also like to familiarize herself with some of Israel’s colleges.
THERE WERE far fewer representatives of the diplomatic community at the traditional vin d’honneur held at the King David hotel following the presentation of credentials.
This is partially due to the fact that some ambassadors are away on summer holiday vacations, and close to a dozen, having completed their tenures, have left over the past two or three weeks. Because there were two ambassadors from Asia, among those who had presented their credentials in the morning, there was a good showing of Asian diplomats, but African diplomats were conspicuous by their absence, even though
the nonresident ambassador of Lesotho, was also among the new crop of ambassadors.
The protocol department of the Foreign Ministry is still waiting for the return of former long-term dean of the diplomatic corps
the ambassador of Cameroon, who after 22 years in Israel, 17 of them as an ambassador, and the most regular of attendees at vin d’honneur receptions as well as to farewells for other ambassadors, has yet to attend his own farewell. In April, it was announced that Essomba had been posted to Washington. A couple of months later, he left to present his credentials but promised to return in late July for an official farewell party. He is yet to arrive.
WHEN PEOPLE used to wish former president the traditional Jewish birthday greeting of till 120, he would ask them why they were being so mean. Physically, he may not be quite as energetic as he used to be when he was a young man careering around on a motorcycle, but mentally he’s as young as tomorrow. Peres celebrated his 93rd birthday this week in the company of hundreds of soldiers and army officers – and he had a ball. Let’s face it, almost anyone he meets these days is younger than he is, but there’s a difference between young and younger, and Peres prefers to be with young people who are still eager to march toward the future and whose minds are not clouded by mundane concerns or political pressures.
ISRAEL’S NEW consul-general in New York, who succeeded who after six years in GABRIEL AND ESTHER Rotter, joint CEOs of Castro, with Ania Bukstein (center). the post has returned to Israel, will have big shoes to fill both literally and figuratively.
Aharoni, who is one of Israel’s tallest diplomats, covered every possible base that a diplomat can cover. Dayan wasted no time in getting to know people and getting people to know him. An article that he wrote in The Huffington Post has a most moving introduction: “My father first crossed an international border inside a potato sack, his mouth muffled with a cloth. The year was 1921 and he was barely six months old. He and his family – my family – were fleeing pogroms in the Ukraine to the relative safety of Poland. His parents put him in that bag and covered his mouth to prevent him from crying – a mortal danger for the entire group. When they arrived to the Polish side, my grandmother opened the sack to see if her son was still alive. Luckily, he had not suffocated, and so the story continues.
“Sixty years later, my father – Moshe Dayan, a distant relative of the homonymous Israeli general – crossed another border coming from Israel into Guatemala. This time, as Israel’s ambassador to that country, he enjoyed immunity and was received with honors while carrying a diplomatic passport bearing the menorah of the sovereign Jewish state. A similar diplomatic passport I carry today as I arrive to New York to head Israel’s largest diplomatic mission in the world.
“The tale of these three crossings symbolizes the dramatic change in the history of the Jewish people from the dark days of the first half of the 20th century until the prosperity and achievement of today. The creation of the independent State of Israel made these changes possible, and its existence guarantees their permanence.”
Further on in the article Dayan promises not to ignore the elephant in the room, namely, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nor as a former head of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria does he hide his political views.
The article drew a response from veteran Palestinian politician
who is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. The two are not strangers to each other and debated each other on the BBC in 2014, with Dayan speaking from Jerusalem and Ashrawi from Ramallah. The two have a grudging admiration for each other.
An excerpt from what Ashrawi wrote reads:
“Dani Dayan stated, with no diplomatic ambiguities, that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are an ‘irreversible fact’ and claimed they are ‘not going anywhere.’ Mr. Dayan is a leading figure in the settler movement that is comprised of a half a million Israelis who have built cities, towns and villages on Palestinian land stolen and in some cases illegally annexed by Israel. He is at least candid. This is in stark contrast to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose occasional statements are apparently in favor of two states, but which on close inspection are so heavy with preconditions as to make the Palestinian state impossible.”
One suspects that there will be a lot of back and forth between Dayan and Ashrawi in the American media. IN ADDITION to the nine newly appointed members of the Supreme Rabbinical Court, along with members of their families who attended the appointments ceremony at the President’s Residence this week, there were also a number of dignitaries, including chief rabbis and Rivlin, who was the first of all the speakers, acknowledged the better-known dignitaries present by name, including National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Minister
who chaired the appointments committee, Religious Services Minister Justice Minister Interior Minister
and Deputy Defense Minister Yosef also listed the names of dignitaries. Lau decided that it was safer to dispense with names other than when referring to Steinitz, and in so doing made a Freudian slip and called him Yuval Ne’eman, but quickly and wittily corrected himself when there was a murmur of protest and turned the Hebrew word “ne’eman,” which means “loyal,” into an adjective, calling Steinitz a loyal chairman. The late Prof. Yuval Ne’eman, who died 10 years ago, was a professor of physics and, like Steinitz, a minister of energy and infrastructure, holding the portfolio from 1990-1992. Steinitz is a professor of philosophy