A special awards night was held at the Jerusalem Congress
Center (Binyanei Ha'Uma) for residents active in a
project sponsored by the community authorities to improve the
city's appearance. The event marked the end of Neighborhood
Volunteer Week during which all of Jerusalem's neighborhoods
were evaluated by a special public committee that unanimously
decided to award one of the leading prizes to Ramat
Shlomo.
The neighborhood began to address the issue of improving its
look one year ago with the publication of a special booklet
called, "Hasevivoh Behalochoh," a compilation of
chiddushim by neighborhood avreichim and
rabbonim.
As an extension of this idea, Ramat Shlomo is currently
holding a prize competition for halachic expositions by
avreichim and yeshiva students on protecting public
property, hilchos shecheinim, halachic aspects of
preserving the local surroundings and related matters.
Another awards ceremony is scheduled for Motzei Shabbos
Bereishis 5766.
The community authority and local residents also took up the
task of improving the neighborhood's appearance by gardening
and tidying areas adjacent to playgrounds, tending to
gardens, installing benches and organizing cleanup drives
conducted by children and local residents. The crowning
achievement was the setup of a central park in the heart of
the neighborhood with the assistance of the local Kupat
Cholim Meuchedet clinic.
After touring the neighborhood at length, the members of the
prize committee made special note of an idea imported from
the US by the community authority: painting playgrounds using
special stencils that create a game-board effect on the
ground. This project, also carried out on a volunteer basis
by neighborhood residents with materials supplied by the
community authority, helped convince the committee to award
Ramat Shlomo the second-place prize.
When Community Authority Chairman Rabbi Gavriel Kossover and
representatives of the volunteers were called forward to
receive a certificate and prize from the mayor, Rabbi Uri
Lupoliansky commended them for their efforts. Rabbi Kossover
then thanked the Mayor for always standing by the
neighborhood, saying that the volunteer project to improve
the look of the city contributed greatly to residents'
feeling of cooperation and nesiyoh be'ol as befits one
of Jerusalem's model neighborhoods.
