18 Nov
Arts & Culture, Latest

Israel's Donald Trump? Reality Show to Feature "The Arcadi"

By Mandy Katz Jerusalem voters may have told Arcadi Gaydamak, "You're fired" last week, as Nir Barkat edged him for the Jerusalem mayoralty. But don't imagine the oligarch just sitting at home counting his shekels, or making prank phone calls to those méchants prosecutors in France trying him for arms trading. The Russian-reared Gaydamak, one of Israel's richest citizens, plans to star in a reality-TV show along the lines of Donald Trump's Apprentice series, but devoted to snack stands and other small businesses, Ynet reports: will accompany and advise businesses with especially small turnover rates, such as Falafel stands, clothing stores and factories in the periphery, until their profit margin rises significantly. If he boosts those felafel profits high enough, maybe we could import him for a future season devoted to slightly larger businesses. I can think of three...

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18 Nov
Latest

I inherited 10,000 Shares of Jerusalem Stock, What Should I Do?

By Benjamin Schuman-Stoler Nir Barkat, the newly elected mayor of Jerusalem, gave the UJC a tender statement on what could be seen as the very essence of Zionism: "Every Jew in the world is a 'shareholder' of Jerusalem," he said. Besides the serious concept of "global Jewish Israel interventionism," the idea that simply being Jewish justifies—or necessitates—ideological and other contributions to the Jewish State, Barkat's quote got me thinking. What if we were actually shareholders in Jerusalem & co. in the same way some sports teams are owned by the fans? Hmmmm... What would you do if you were a board member at Jerusalem & co.?

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12 Nov
Latest

Nir Barkat Elected Mayor of Jerusalem

By Benjamin Schuman-Stoler We had a preview of Jerusalem's mayoral election earlier this week. Now we can declare software entrepreneur Nir Barkat the winner. Barkat embodies a bit of a contradiction, doesn't he? "The great hope of the city's secular Jewish community," as BBC describes him, will not consider dividing Jerusalem and plans to build Jewish housing in Arab East Jerusalem. From Ynet (which also has a video): He announced his victory early Wednesday morning. "Tonight Jerusalem has won, tonight Israel has won, tonight the Jewish people have won," the soon-to-be mayor declared. "Victory belongs to all those who love and cherish this special and amazing city of ours, the Jewish people's eternal capital. It belongs to the Right and the Left, it belongs to the religious and the secular." Barkat called on the city's residents to unite. "As of this...

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10 Nov
Latest

Post-Obama Fix: Jerusalem's Mayoral Election

In a haze of post-Obamania deflation this week, I turned for a political fix to Jerusalem and the hotly contested mayoral election taking place tomorrow. For a city beset by race wars, poverty and a middle class exodus, it can be a grim business, but not without flashes of color. Today's Washington Post offers a sober rundown of how the contest reflects the city's ortho-secular culture wars. But, for more local analysis and also a whiff of fringe politics circa 1973, inhale the latest on Jerusalemite.net. If London can elect offbeat politicos like "Red Ken" Livingstone and blustering Boris Johnson, why shouldn't Jerusalem enjoy its rainbow-hued candidates? Jerusalemite offers a Q&A with Dan Birron, long-locked pub owner and Green Leaf Party candidate (you read that right: not "Green," but "Green Leaf")—sort of Ralph Nader meets Richard...

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