Rapaport, September 15, 2010: Carved Gems on Display in Israel
RAPAPORT...
The exhibition of jewelry, cameos and artifacts carved from gemstones, And thou shalt breathe life into a gem, opened at the Harry Oppenheimer Diamond Museum, in Ramat Gan, Israel. The exhibition comprises works by master carvers in Idar-Oberstein, Germany and is the result of cooperation with the Deutsche Edelsteinmuseum there. The opening ceremony was attended by Israeli minister of industry, trade and labor Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, German Embassy chargé d'affaires Peter Prugel, chairman of the Idar-Oberstein museum and treasurer-general of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses Dr. Dieter Hahn, leaders of the Israeli Diamond Industry and guests from Germany and Israel.
Shmuel Schnitzer, chairman of the Harry Oppenheimer Diamond Museum, opened the ceremony and thanked German ambassador to Israel Dr. Harald Kindermann for sponsoring the exhibition. He said, In this exhibition we are cooperating with the gem and diamond merchant community of Idar-Oberstein, which is another avenue of Israel's special and warm relationship with Germany.
Minister Ben-Eliezer said that he found the exhibition amazing and impressive. It reflects the fruitful cooperation between the peoples of Israel and Germany. I thank the embassy of Germany for enabling this exhibition to be realized.
Hahn said that this is the first time that this exhibition is being shown outside of Germany. We are honored that this is taking place in Israel, he said. Hahn also spoke about the uniqueness of Idar-Oberstein, the only place in the world where the entire range of gemstones are cut and all of the professions of the industry are represented. He also said that his grandfather began the diamond cutting industry there in 1886 by hiring Jewish master diamond cutters from Amsterdam.
Prugel said that he was speaking for ambassador Kindermann in expressing his indebtedness to the Harry Oppenheim Diamond Museum for bringing and displaying this exhibition. The close connections between the diamond industries in Germany and Israel are an integral part of the special relationship between the two countries, he said. Relations have never been better.
The exhibition features jewelry and artifacts reflecting traditions going back hundreds of years, passed down from father to son. It encompasses a vast range of sculptures, objets d'art, cameos, jewelry and utensils, comprising about 150 items valued at approximately one million dollars. It includes cameos, animals, human figures, flowers, fruits and sweets -- all carved from gems, yet remarkably lifelike. Gemstones used include agate, carnelian, tourmaline, amethyst, quartz, rose quartz, chalcedony, onyx, ruby emeralds and sapphires.
The exhibition was initiated and realized by Yehuda Kassif, artistic director and curator of the Ramat Gan diamond museum. It will be open until the end of December 2010.
Ramat Gan Safari
Ramat Gan Safari
Photographed
Michael itskovich
From Tiberias from Israel
Ramat Gan, Safari, Zoological Center, Tel Aviv, Israel, collection, Middle East, site, African , zoo, birds, reptiles, visitors, tourists, animals , gardens, park , hippos, lions, Asian elephants, gorillas, orangutans, Qalqilya Zoo, the Palestinian Authority, children's, , Avraham Krinitzi, Yisrael Peled, Zoological , Tanzania, African elephant, White rhinoceros, Grant's zebras, Thomson's gazelle, Waterbuck, eland, ostriches, Masai giraffe, Grant's gazelle, East African oryx, dik-diks, Grant's zebras, De Brazza's monkeys, African park, opened, public , modern , Hanover Zoo, European zoo , Griffon vulture, White-tailed eagle, Elephants, Asian, Yossi, Rhinos, Shalom, , Gorillas,Animal welfare, Behavioral enrichment, chimpanzees, natural, classes, programs, school groups, summer camps, study, Israel Wildlife Hospital, Nature and Parks Authority, clinic , Western lowland gorilla, Sand cat, Blue wildebeest, Plains zebra, Eurasian stone-curlew, Glossy ibis, Shoebill, Marabou stork, Grey crowned crane, Greater flamingo, Thomson's gazelle, Common eland, Waterbuck, Arabian oryx, Scimitar oryx, Great white pelican, Masai giraffe, Addax, Nyala, Monkey, Carnivora, Guineafowl, Chicken, Emu, Laughing kookaburra, Cockatiel, Southern cassowary, Red kangaroo, Eastern grey kangaroo, White cockatoo, Lyle's flying fox, Sumatran orangutan, Hamadryas baboon, Lar gibbon, Cotton-top tamarin, Emperor tamarin, Ring-tailed lemur, Red ruffed lemur, Black-and-white ruffed lemur, Mandrill, Lion-tailed macaque, Celebes crested macaque, Siamang, Mantled guereza, Wedge-capped capuchin, Common chimpanzee, Linnaeus's two-toed sloth, Iguanidae, Honey badger, Asian black bear, Syrian brown bear, South American coati, Jungle cat, Persian leopard. Fennec fox, Rock hyrax, Gray wolf, African wild dog, Striped hyena, Giant anteater, South American tapir, Mara (mammal), Greater rhea, Capybara, Greylag goose, African grey parrot, Scarlet macaw, Hyacinth macaw, Blue-and-yellow macaw, Common kestrel, Eurasian hobby, Saker falcon, Mute swan, Black swan, Wood duck, Mallard, Black kite, Short-toed snake eagle, White stork, Red-crested turaco, Ross's turaco, Crowned pigeon, Long-eared owl, Little owl, Roseate spoonbill, Hume's owl, Northern bald ibis, Scarlet ibis, Mandarin duck, Northern shoveler, Lappet-faced vulture, White-tailed eagle, Buteo, African penguin, Golden pheasant, Caracara (genus), Great hornbill, Egyptian vulture, Eurasian scops owl, Eurasian teal, Barn owl, Alpaca, Chital, European rabbit, Bactrian camel, Ferret, Donkey, Sheep, Pony, Goat, Guinea pig, Dik-dik, Reticulated giraffe, American alligator, Green iguana, Yellow anaconda, Blue-tongued skink, Nile monitor, Burmese python, Python molurus, Boa constrictor, Nile crocodile, Aldabra giant tortoise, African spurred tortoise, Tortoise, Southeast Asia, Sumatran tiger, Komodo dragon, Java sparrow, Nicobar pigeon, Chital, Gharial, Smooth-coated otter, Lion-tailed macaque,
Jerusalem - Old City
Jerusalem located on a plateau in the Judean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, is one of the oldest cities in the world. It is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Israelis and Palestinians both claim Jerusalem as their capital, as Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there and the State of Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power; however, neither claim is widely recognized internationally.
During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. Archaeologists have unearthed a 7,000-year-old settlement in northern Jerusalem from the early Chalcolithic period. They describe it as the oldest discovery of its kind in the region. The part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent. Today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old City's boundaries.
According to the Biblical tradition, King David conquered the city from the Jebusites and established it as the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel, and his son, King Solomon, commissioned the building of the First Temple. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, assumed central symbolic importance for the Jewish people. The sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesus's crucifixion there. In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. In Islamic tradition in 610 CE it became the first qibla, the focal point for Muslim prayer (salat), and Muhammad made his Night Journey there ten years later, ascending to heaven where he speaks to God, according to the Quran. As a result, despite having an area of only 0.9 square kilometres, the Old City is home to many sites of seminal religious importance, among them the Temple Mount and its Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock, the Garden Tomb and al-Aqsa Mosque.
Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the core issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the areas captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured and later annexed by Jordan. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, together with additional surrounding territory. One of Israel's Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the country's undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset (Israel's parliament), the residences of the Prime Minister and President, and the Supreme Court. Whilst the international community rejected the annexation as illegal and treats East Jerusalem as Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, Israel has a stronger claim to sovereignty over West Jerusalem. The international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of national importance, such as the Hebrew University and the Israel Museum with its Shrine of the Book.
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Desert City by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (
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