Menachem Begin Heritage Center Bulletin 12, Vol. 5

Menachem Begin
Heritage Center, Jerusalem
Volume 5, Issue 12
January 8, 2009
Total Number of Visitors Since October 2004: 463,098

The Songs of Natan Alterman
This week Nahum Heyman ("Nakh'che") presented a program on the songs of Natan Alterman in the history of Israeli music. This performance series is quite interesting because Natan Alterman and the others that are featured in the other performances are not songwriters, per se. They are poets who published poetry prior to Israel's existence and after. Later, their words were put to music and became popular Israeli songs.
The Reuben Hecht Auditorium was nearly full with an audience ready and enthusiastic to sing along to some of Alterman's songs. The singer that evening was Chani Livneh and there was a special performance by an Israeli folk dancing troupe. The guest lecturer was Chaim Guri, a songwriter, who was a friend of Natan Alterman. The evening concluded with the sing-along that the audience happily joined.
The next Nahum Heyman evening will be January 20 at 8:00pm about Mordechai Ze'era and Ya'acov Orland. Tickets are 40 NIS and reservations are required. Call (02) 565-2020.

Parashat HaShavua: News and Updates
The very successful Rohr Family Parashat HaShavua program will be finishing the first book of the Torah, Bereshit/Genesis, this week. We thank Dr. Ido Hevroni for his excellent lectures these past two months. We welcome next week Rabbi Yermi Stavitsky,the principal of the religious boys' high school, Himmelfarb, who will be the primary lecturer on the portions of the week in Shemot/Exodus.
Starting next Sunday, the Begin Center will launch an internet campaign to advertise the Parashat HaShavua in the Judaism section of Ynet. Links will be provided in the bulletin next week.

Note to Our Readers
In preparation for the launch of our new website, you may experience difficulty in accessing the current website. Look for details next week on the website launch, which will be at the same website address www.begincenter.org.il.

In Brief
Rachel Glazer, who was once an intern at the Begin Center, visited leading a group of university students on a tour of Israel under the auspices of the ZOA. Yisrael Medad, Director of the Information Resources Unit, spoke to them about hasbara issues and how to bring the information that they learn on this trip back to campus with them.
Groups who are interested in more that just a visit to the museum, can coordinate with the reservations department to request a speaker from the Begin Center to give a short presentation on a variety of topics.
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Shelly Goldberg's course, an introduction to Kabbalah, ended last week and was very successful. We hope to be able to plan more courses on an assortment of subjects in the future.
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Not all of Israel's soldiers were in the South this week, as a large group who are in officer's training came to the Begin Center to visit the museum.

Visit our blog: http://begincenterdiary.blogspot.com/
The Menachem Begin Heritage Center
6 Nahon Street Jerusalem 94110 ISRAEL
972 (2) 565-2020; Fax: 972 (2) 565-2010
offices@begincenter.org.il www.begincenter.org.il