LOVERS OF cantorial music should mark the weekend of January 9-11 in their calendars, for a musical weekend at the Ramada Hotel sponsored by Tour Plus and featuring Dudu Fisher, Yitzchak Meir Helfgot and Yaakov Motzen. The latter two are flying in from New York; all three will appear together in concert on Thursday. On Friday, there will be a musical Kabbalat Shabbat with Helfgot and friends. Helfgot and Motzen will lead the services for Shabbat prayers on Saturday, and singer Israel Parnas, known for his extensive repertoire of hassidic songs, will lead community singing at the Shabbat meal.Also in January, but towards the end of the month, is the CyberTech 2014 International Exhibition and Conference at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds.Cyber tech and security are becoming increasingly important global issues. The three-day event will be opened on January 27 by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.ISRAEL RADIO’S Haim Ador came home on Sunday to find a letter inviting him and his wife to attend a charity performance by Yehuda Poliker. The event was also to be attended by Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Health Minister Yael German. But when Ador, who lives in Haifa and broadcasts from the North about the North, read the name of the person who had signed the letter, he got goose bumps. It was signed by Dov Lautman, who only a few hours earlier had been taken to his final resting place.Lautman, who was born, raised, lived, died and was buried in Tel Aviv, was mourned by many individuals and representatives of organizations and institutions. It is customary when someone has the title of “Yakir,” an honor given by municipalities to residents who have performed outstanding service in one or more fields, for the mayor to place a small death notice in the newspapers when such a person dies. In the case of Lautman, who was also an Israel Prize laureate, the notice signed by Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai was more than twice the usual size, and the wording began, “The city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa mourns the death of Dov Lautman…” Huldai, in his capacity of chairman of the board of directors of Kiryat Atidim – Tel Aviv’s science-based industrial zone, of which Lautman was a longstanding member of the board – also signed a much more personal notice. In it, he stated that Kiryat Atidim was parting from Dovik Lautman with “pain and deep admiration for a man of vision, great action, a leader and a true friend.”INTERNATIONALLY CELEBRATED lawyer Alan Dershowitz will answer tough questions from young professionals on Sunday, December 8, from 7 p.m. at the David Intercontinental Hotel. The Tel Aviv International Salon and StandWithUs have made a deal with Globes to enable young professionals to attend the event, which is part of the annual Globes Conference. Though the premises are huge, pre-registration is required.The entry fee is NIS 20, which includes wine and refreshments. The event, from the standpoint of Tel Aviv International Salon and StandWithUs, is strictly limited to young professionals in their 20s and 30s. Early birds can also catch a session of the prestigious conference at no extra charge.Registration details are available on the Facebook page of the Tel Aviv International Salon.THINGS ARE not going well for actor Yehuda Levi, who is finding it difficult to stay in one place. Following the breakup of his relationship with Ninet Tayeb, he moved out of the apartment they had shared and rented another in Neveh Tzedek. But three months after he moved in, the landlord sold the apartment, and the new owner asked him to move out. With no time to find an alternative, Levi moved into temporary quarters at Herods Hotel, which though conveniently located from the perspective of getting to places in central Tel Aviv, is still not the same as a place to call home.AT AGE 36, singer, songwriter and musician Idan Raichel became a first-time daddy at the beginning of the week, when his partner Damaris Doebel gave birth to a girl at Lis Maternity Hospital in Tel Aviv. Raichel had been worried that he might not be present at the birth due to performance commitments, but the stork took his engagements into consideration and the baby arrived at a time when he was free to welcome her into the world.Mother, daughter and father are all well.
