Mosaic Tree Panels for Park Baltimore

An exciting exhibition opened yesterday in the city: A group of Ashkelon artists, trained by Ashkelon's own world-renowned mosaic artist Ilana Shafir, are exhibiting mosaic panels, all with the theme of "The Tree of Eden" . The colorful mosaic wall panels will be mounted on a wall in Park Baltimore after the exhibition.

Nira Portugaly, one of the mosaic artists explained: "The panels are made using Ilana Shafir's original technique which is called 'spontaneous mosaic' whereby scraps of pottery, stones and shells collected from nature, and specially made ceramic elements are all combined together in a spontaneous mosaic creation".

Tova Shafran, one of the mosaic artists, thanked Ilana Shafir and noted that she will celebrate her 85th birthday this week. The panels are a gift from the artists to the city and will be displayed in Park Baltimore after the exhibition.

Gesher Hai at Netzach Yisrael School

This week Geula, Nicole and I were the guests of honor at a special performance by the girls of Kita Vav (6th Grade) at Netzach Yisrael religious school for girls. The girls have been matched through our Gesher Hai (Living Bridge) project, with a sixth grade class at Beit Yakov school in Baltimore, and they have worked hard on a project showing selected sites in Eretz Yisrael, under the expert hand of their dedicated teacher Tehila Chayun. The two schools have kept in touch through the internet and by phone and have forged a close bond, working together on this project.

Geula Shalev, the Gesher Hai coordinator is very proud of their efforts: "it is heartwarming to see the enthusiasm of the students and the staff for this project".

At the performance, the girls sang a specially composed song in Hebrew and English and showed off models they had made of religious sites in Israel, The models were constructed out of a variety of materials including cardboard, papier-mache, plastic, and mosaic, and also included printed texts that the girls had researched about each place. The class made a cd showing places in Israel and featuring them singing their special song. The CD will be sent to their partner class in Baltimore. Nicole

Plant-Futrovsky Family Visits Ashkelon

The Plant and Futrovsky families, together with some of their friends, spent a jam-packed 12 days travelling together seeing Israel. They toured all over the country, from the Golan Heights to Eilat. During their trip they celebrated the batmitzva of Cory Futrovsky at Corazim and on their last day in Israel, they visited Ashkelon in memory of the late Morton "Sonny" Plant - a prominent and active member of the Jewish community and The Associated in Baltimore and a good friend to Ashkelon.

Their day in Ashkelon included a family mosaic-making activity run by volunteer Tova Shafran. Grade 8 students from the Ashkelon Art School also helped. Grandparents, parents and children, everyone spent a few hours choosing bits of glass, stone, tile and mosaic and carefully gluing them to their section of the wall mosaic panel featuring a view of Jerusalem - in honor of Israel's 60th birthday. The final result is a joy to behold. Not only was this a lovely bonding activity for the family and the Ashkelonians who participated, but it will be a beautiful art work for Park Baltimore in Ashkelon, and will forever symbolize the connection and partnership of the two communities.

We hope the Plants and Futrovskys will come back to Ashkelon soon, and see their artistic creation proudly displayed in Park Baltimore. Thanks to Tova Shafran, Debbie, Nira, Kobi, Maia, and all those who helped to make the day and the activity, such a success.

Check out the whole photo album of the mosaic building activity at: http://picasaweb.google.com/nikirose

Hebrew article about the visit : http://www.local.co.il/ashkelon/3674/articles.htm

"This is the 4th mission to visit Ashkelon from Baltimore this month. Despite the security situation at least 100 people from Baltimore visited Ashkelon in June"

Nicole