A style all her own, By Barry Davis
“Mervat Hakroosh is obviously a doer. The 28-year-old has just completed a two-year term as chairperson of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design students’ union and, by all accounts, she has done a pretty good job. Even before we get down to talking about what the union is doing and where it is going, the evidence of the organization’s robust health is self-evident.”
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A cornucopia of creativity, By Yuval Saar
“It’s no mean feat to visit 10 exhibitions by graduates of design schools in two and a half weeks. Thousands of works are usually tediously presented in uninspired fashion without much difference between institutes or departments.  It’s possible to do it differently, as Yael Burstein proved in curating the display of the department of visual communication at Jerusalem’s Bezalel School of Art and Design.”
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Exhibiting fair and square, By Melanie Lidman
“‘We bring the outside world to Israel because we know that the Israeli public won’t get to every country,” explains Sara Malka, the producer and artistic director of the Hutzot Hayotzer International Craft Fair, which is embarking on its 35th year this August….Artists from 39 countries will spread out their handiwork at the base of the Old City walls almost every evening from August 2 to August 14, when the fair makes the city’s cultural nightlife come alive. This year’s festival will feature the usual attractions: 150 artists from 39 countries, Israel’s top musicians playing nightly concerts, and 165,000 expected attendees….New this year is a pavilion spotlighting Bezalel students, dedicated to nurturing Israeli talent in an international arena.”
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Cartoonist Mordillo to visit Tel Aviv comic con in August, By Nirit Anderman

“Argentinean cartoonist Guillermo Mordillo…will be the featured guest of Tel Aviv’s 10th annual comics festival, which opens August 17 at the Cinametheque.  The festival, which will run through August 21, is changing its name from the International Animation, Comics & Caricature Festival to Animix….Veteran Israel illustrator and animator Yossi Abulafia, who used to head the animation department at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, will receive a special honor at the festival.”
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Designs on Academia, By Barry Davis
“Academia and art seem to make strange bedfellows. Art, as any impressionist painter would have told you, has to feed off Mother Nature’s offerings in an immediate manner….So where does that leave us when we come to take a look at the creative work produced by students in the cloistered rooms and halls of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design? According to the powers that be of the academy’s History and Theory Department, the incubator ambiance does not stifle creativity. The foreword to the department’s Protocollage 2010 publication talks of the mutually beneficial relationship that exists between the arts students and their teachers and how the different disciplines within the institution fuse to yield rich artistic fruit.  The latter offerings are currently on display at Bezalel in the form of end-of-year works produced by students from all the academy’s departments. The exhibition runs until July 30 and includes works from across the institution’s creative spectrum, from fashion design and graphics to photography and architecture.”
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Grapevine: Clothes encounters, By Greer Fay Cashman
“EVEN THOUGH much of the country’s fashion output is made in China, the creativity behind the garments is inspired and trained here at schools like Shenkar and Bezalel, both of which held endof- year fashion shows this month to display the talents of their graduate students….The Bezalel show was held without fanfare at Jerusalem’s Central Post Office…..Bezalel’s Rachel Lichtenstadt took everyone’s breath away with her voluminous, multicolored reversible batwing dress that had enough meters of fabric from which to make at least another four dresses. Lichtenstadt had lost count of the amount of fabric she had used, and when asked how much after the show, she could only say, “A lot.”  Another amazingly creative Bezalel student was footwear designer Lihi Lasker, who devised an extraordinary layered soft shoe, which is really three separate shoes in different shades which are worn on top of each other, and through clever lacing, form a trishaded rosette at the top of the foot.”
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Greetings to Gilad, Greer Fay Cashman
“German Ambassador Harald Kindermann joined Adi Stern, head of the Visual Communications Department at Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, in opening an exhibition of illustrations of love as depicted in children’s books. The exhibition is at the Hatahana Complex in Tel Aviv- Jaffa’s old train station. On display till the end of the month are works by students of illustration from leading academies of design and illustration in Korea, Germany, Bulgaria and Israel. There are many kinds of love: maternal love, imaginary love, a love for a doll and unrequited love, with each country having its unique cultural vocabulary of images, traditions and style. A close examination of children’s books, which are usually highly illustrated, allows viewers to examine the way in which the universal theme of love is explored in so many facets.”
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Looking for the ‘Made in N.Y.’ Label: Shopping with Ron Gilad, By Tim McKeough 
“Ron Gilad, the Israeli product designer, does not see himself as a shopper. “I’m probably the last person to go shopping,” he said. “If I need something, I will make it for myself or I’ll get it from my neighbors.”  Mr. Gilad has an advantage: he lives and works in an old warehouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where his neighbors are artists, designers and other creative types.  On the rare occasions when he does have to buy something, he said, he sets himself a challenge. “I will try, at least, to think about the source of what I’m buying, and where the money goes,” Mr. Gilad said. “I will try to distribute my little money in a way that other people benefit from it — not to people who already have it, but to people who need it.””
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Child’s play it’s not, By Tamar Rotem
“As far as is known, arguing spiritedly about the state of children’s literature under clouds of cigarette smoke and mists of alcohol is not a literary norm.  But Tamar Hochstatter and Yotam Schwimmer, founders and editors of a new Internet journal about children’s literature and culture, Hapinkas (”The Notebook,” www.ha-pinkas.co.il ), have serious intentions about their new enterprise, evident from the site’s sober look and content.  In its three months of existence, Hapinkas has averaged about 2,000 hits a month – quite a lot for a first outing when you take into account that the site is a private venture without any institutional support….The editors say that their work comes from their love of children’s literature. They are both 25 years old, students in Jerusalem, opinionated and broadminded. Schwimmer studies comparative literature and French studies and Hochstatter is finishing the illustration track in the visual communication department of Bezalel.”
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Natural Playing Field, By Barry Davis
“Bill Fritts and Michelle Ricker came to Israel to bring us some encouraging green messages from their home base on the other side of the planet, Portland, Oregon, but they also got an eye-opener or two themselves.  Fritts owns the Solidcore company, which manufactures environmentally friendly furniture and interior design items…Last week Fritts and Ricker took part in the Hybrid Design conference at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and also spent four days at Jerusalem’s Hand in Hand bilingual school for Jewish and Arab children.”
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