KNOWN FOR many years for his mammoth contribution to reviving Jewish life in
Eastern Europe and restoring the heritage and religious identities of untold
thousands of Jews, philanthropist, international businessman and world Jewish
leader Ronald Lauder is also recognized in Western Europe.
Lauder, who is
also president of the World Jewish Congress, was this week awarded the French
Legion of Honor. Most awardees who are not French citizens usually receive such
recognition via French ambassadors in their home countries. But Lauder received
his award directly from France’s President François Hollande in a ceremony at
the Elysee Palace.
Hollande called Lauder “a man of peace, of culture and
of commitment” who travels the world conveying a message of tolerance and peace.
He also referred to challenges that Lauder confronts in “a world of menaces, a
world where old hatreds are resurfacing that we thought had disappeared long
ago.”
The ceremony was also attended by French Interior Minister Manuel
Valls and a number of other French government officials.
Lauder was in
Paris as head of a delegation of the Conference of Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations, of which he is a past president. He also held talks with
Hollande and raised issues of concern to Jewish communities, notably the Iranian
threat. Hollande told Lauder that Iran was not the problem of Israel alone but
of the whole world. The WJC head called on France to support an initiative to
put Hezbollah on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations, following
the evidence presented by Bulgaria on Tuesday that the Lebanese Shi’ite movement
was involved in the Burgas bombing of Israeli tourists in July 2012.
■ HE
HAS already made history as the only Knesset speaker to have twice occupied the
position. The jury is still out as to whether Reuven Rivlin will be elected a
third time, which in effect would allow him to continue in his role as acting
president of the state whenever the present incumbent is abroad or for whatever
reason unable to fulfill his duties. It is no secret that up until the Knesset
election, Rivlin was considered the No. 1 candidate to succeed Shimon Peres when
his tenure expires in mid-2014. But since the election, the name of Silvan
Shalom has also been tossed into the potential presidential ring, and who knows
what other names may come to the fore in the interim? ■ THE KNESSET website is a
fascinating treasure trove of information that includes trivia, such as a file
on family ties, which as of Thursday morning had not yet been updated. The file
includes the names of MKs who were divorced from each other, married to each
other, parents and offspring, siblings and in-laws.
Missing in the list
were Yitzhak and Yair Shamir and Yosef (Tommy) and Yair Lapid.
Other
members of the 19th Knesset whose names were already on the list from previous
periods of service were Tzipi Livni, whose father, Eitan, served long before she
did, Meir Porush, whose father, Menachem, served from the fourth to the 13th
Knesset, Tzachi Hanegbi, whose mother, Geula Cohen, spent 18 years as an MK and
Orly Levy-Abekasis, whose father, David Levy, a three-time foreign minister, and
uncle, Maxim Levy, preceded her.
The Dayan family, which is not
represented in the 19th Knesset, still holds the record of being the only family
in which three generations – Shmuel, Moshe and Yael – have served in the
Knesset.
Although she has received a lot of publicity as the youngest
member of the 19th Knesset, Stav Shaffir, 27, is not the youngest ever. Former
justice and finance minister Moshe Nissim was 24 the first time he took his
Knesset seat in 1959, and served continuously until June 1996.
The
offspring of four prime ministers – Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak
Shamir and Ariel Sharon – followed their fathers into politics; prime minister
Ehud Olmert also followed his father into politics, but it was the son and not
the father who became head of government.
■ ALEH, ISRAEL’S largest
network of facilities for children with severe physical and cognitive
disabilities, marked its 30th anniversary last Saturday night with a gala
fundraiser at the Leonardo City Tower Hotel in Ramat Gan. Proceeds from the
event will subsidize the construction of a therapeutic pool at ALEH’s new center
in Bnei Brak, a state-of-the-art facility that will provide enhanced special
education and rehabilitative programming.
Among those attending the event
were Bank of Israel governor Prof. Stanley Fischer and his wife, Rhoda, honorary
president of ALEH Negev; retired Supreme Court justice Eliezer Rivlin; founder
and CEO of Y&R Tel Aviv Shlomi Avnon; attorneys Yehuda and Tami Raveh; CEO
of Tempo beverage company Jack Bar; CEO of Mifal Hapayis Eli Dadon; rabbi of the
Western Wall and the Holy Sites of Israel Shmuel Rabinowitz; Maj.-Gen. (res.)
Doron Almog, chairman of ALEH Negev; and Rabbi Yehuda Marmorstein,
directorgeneral of the ALEH centers.
“Since its very inception, ALEH has
worked diligently to promote legislation for and raise the social awareness of
special needs children,” said Marmorstein, who added that although ALEH has made
many inroads, it still has a long way to go and relies heavily on its 900
professionals, 350 volunteers and countless friends and supporters around the
world to renew their commitments to enable ALEH to continue to move
forward.
■ PRESUMABLY, DEFENSE Minister Ehud Barak – whose political days
are numbered – and acting Knesset Speaker Binyamin Ben- Eliezer will take the
cake on Tuesday, February 12, when both celebrate their birthdays. Barak will
turn 71 and Ben-Eliezer 77.
Five days later, on February 17, Arye Deri
will celebrate his 54th birthday; Ibrahim Sarsour celebrated his 54th birthday
on February 2. Nitzan Horowitz will turn 48 and Gila Gamliel will turn 24 on
February 24.
On February 26, Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma for
seven years, will turn 85.
■ FANS OF Rabbi Benny Lau whose sole contact
with him has been via radio and television because they don’t live close enough
to attend services at his congregation can make up for missed opportunities this
coming Tuesday night at the Jerusalem International Book Fair, where he will be
signing books that he has authored at the Koren stand in the Jerusalem
International Convention Center.
■ WITH ELECTIONS behind them,
politicians could finally take a breather and engage in other activities. Silvan
Shalom, minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, joined his
wife, Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, at a benefit night for Hom (“warmth”), the
organization she heads which provides food for hungry children.
The
benefit constituted paying way above the cost of a regular ticket for the
premiere of Les Miserables at Globus Max in the Ramat Poleg industrial
zone.
Among those contributing to the cause were Yoram and Lea Globus,
Nissim Mishal, Roni and Elisheva Milo, Shari Arison, Yigal and Shirley Zilcha,
Rami and Irena Shalmor, Israela Shtir, Tzvika Pik, Yehuda and Tami Raveh, Ami
and Michal Federmann and Amos Shapira, among a host of wellknown
personalities.
■ IT'S BEEN a lucky period for Rita, who is one of
Israel’s leading singers. Just before she and her ex-husband, Rami Kleinstein,
split up, they also called it quits with Helicon, the recording company with
which they had been associated for 20 years, claiming that Helicon had withheld
millions of shekels worth of royalties from them.
They subsequently sued
the company for a very hefty sum.
Helicon denied the allegations, saying
that in between 1995 and 2005, the couple had earned NIS 15 million. After five
years of wrangling, the two sides reached a compromise. Although the details of
their settlement remain classified, it is widely understood in the entertainment
industry that Helicon will pay the couple a sum in the range of NIS
2.5m.
While money may be a balm, it doesn’t do much for the ego.
Performing before an audience one never dared to dream of is a different story
altogether. Rita, who has performed for some of the world’s most noted
dignitaries, and whose albums are being sold on the black market in Iran, where
she was born, is about to perform before the General Assembly of the United
Nations.
The scheduled date is March 5, and among those expected in the
audience are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, president of the UN General
Assembly Vuk Jeremic, ambassadors and diplomats, heads of the Jewish and Iranian
communities in the US and prominent American entertainers.
Rita will sing
in Farsi as well as from some of her most popular hits.
Israel’s
permanent representative to the UN Ron Prosor will no doubt be thrilled to hear
the applause instead of the usual voices of criticism and opposition that Israel
encounters. He is confident that Rita will evoke an altogether different
response of hope, peace and multiculturalism, which are among Israel’s
fundamental ideals. In contrast to the Iranian nuclear threat, says Prosor, Rita
is a bombshell of the positive variety.
■ LAST YEAR, when he worked as a
graphic artist for The Jerusalem Post, Sam Sokol, not yet 30 years old, was
called into the army during Operation Pillar of Defense just around the time his
fourth child entered the world. Prior to joining the graphics team, Sokol made
his living by writing features. He proved to be such a good writer that the
editors decided to make him a reporter. The everenergetic Sokol now covers the
Jewish World beat.
KNOWN FOR many years for his mammoth contribution to reviving Jewish life in
Eastern Europe and restoring the heritage and religious identities of untold
thousands of Jews, philanthropist, international businessman and world Jewish
leader Ronald Lauder is also recognized in Western Europe.
Lauder, who is
also president of the World Jewish Congress, was this week awarded the French
Legion of Honor. Most awardees who are not French citizens usually receive such
recognition via French ambassadors in their home countries. But Lauder received
his award directly from France’s President François Hollande in a ceremony at
the Elysee Palace.
Hollande called Lauder “a man of peace, of culture and
of commitment” who travels the world conveying a message of tolerance and peace.
He also referred to challenges that Lauder confronts in “a world of menaces, a
world where old hatreds are resurfacing that we thought had disappeared long
ago.”
The ceremony was also attended by French Interior Minister Manuel
Valls and a number of other French government officials.
Lauder was in
Paris as head of a delegation of the Conference of Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations, of which he is a past president. He also held talks with
Hollande and raised issues of concern to Jewish communities, notably the Iranian
threat. Hollande told Lauder that Iran was not the problem of Israel alone but
of the whole world. The WJC head called on France to support an initiative to
put Hezbollah on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations, following
the evidence presented by Bulgaria on Tuesday that the Lebanese Shi’ite movement
was involved in the Burgas bombing of Israeli tourists in July 2012.
■ HE
HAS already made history as the only Knesset speaker to have twice occupied the
position. The jury is still out as to whether Reuven Rivlin will be elected a
third time, which in effect would allow him to continue in his role as acting
president of the state whenever the present incumbent is abroad or for whatever
reason unable to fulfill his duties. It is no secret that up until the Knesset
election, Rivlin was considered the No. 1 candidate to succeed Shimon Peres when
his tenure expires in mid-2014. But since the election, the name of Silvan
Shalom has also been tossed into the potential presidential ring, and who knows
what other names may come to the fore in the interim? ■ THE KNESSET website is a
fascinating treasure trove of information that includes trivia, such as a file
on family ties, which as of Thursday morning had not yet been updated. The file
includes the names of MKs who were divorced from each other, married to each
other, parents and offspring, siblings and in-laws.
Missing in the list
were Yitzhak and Yair Shamir and Yosef (Tommy) and Yair Lapid.
Other
members of the 19th Knesset whose names were already on the list from previous
periods of service were Tzipi Livni, whose father, Eitan, served long before she
did, Meir Porush, whose father, Menachem, served from the fourth to the 13th
Knesset, Tzachi Hanegbi, whose mother, Geula Cohen, spent 18 years as an MK and
Orly Levy-Abekasis, whose father, David Levy, a three-time foreign minister, and
uncle, Maxim Levy, preceded her.
The Dayan family, which is not
represented in the 19th Knesset, still holds the record of being the only family
in which three generations – Shmuel, Moshe and Yael – have served in the
Knesset.
Although she has received a lot of publicity as the youngest
member of the 19th Knesset, Stav Shaffir, 27, is not the youngest ever. Former
justice and finance minister Moshe Nissim was 24 the first time he took his
Knesset seat in 1959, and served continuously until June 1996.
The
offspring of four prime ministers – Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak
Shamir and Ariel Sharon – followed their fathers into politics; prime minister
Ehud Olmert also followed his father into politics, but it was the son and not
the father who became head of government.
■ ALEH, ISRAEL’S largest
network of facilities for children with severe physical and cognitive
disabilities, marked its 30th anniversary last Saturday night with a gala
fundraiser at the Leonardo City Tower Hotel in Ramat Gan. Proceeds from the
event will subsidize the construction of a therapeutic pool at ALEH’s new center
in Bnei Brak, a state-of-the-art facility that will provide enhanced special
education and rehabilitative programming.
Among those attending the event
were Bank of Israel governor Prof. Stanley Fischer and his wife, Rhoda, honorary
president of ALEH Negev; retired Supreme Court justice Eliezer Rivlin; founder
and CEO of Y&R Tel Aviv Shlomi Avnon; attorneys Yehuda and Tami Raveh; CEO
of Tempo beverage company Jack Bar; CEO of Mifal Hapayis Eli Dadon; rabbi of the
Western Wall and the Holy Sites of Israel Shmuel Rabinowitz; Maj.-Gen. (res.)
Doron Almog, chairman of ALEH Negev; and Rabbi Yehuda Marmorstein,
directorgeneral of the ALEH centers.
“Since its very inception, ALEH has
worked diligently to promote legislation for and raise the social awareness of
special needs children,” said Marmorstein, who added that although ALEH has made
many inroads, it still has a long way to go and relies heavily on its 900
professionals, 350 volunteers and countless friends and supporters around the
world to renew their commitments to enable ALEH to continue to move
forward.
■ PRESUMABLY, DEFENSE Minister Ehud Barak – whose political days
are numbered – and acting Knesset Speaker Binyamin Ben- Eliezer will take the
cake on Tuesday, February 12, when both celebrate their birthdays. Barak will
turn 71 and Ben-Eliezer 77.
Five days later, on February 17, Arye Deri
will celebrate his 54th birthday; Ibrahim Sarsour celebrated his 54th birthday
on February 2. Nitzan Horowitz will turn 48 and Gila Gamliel will turn 24 on
February 24.
On February 26, Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma for
seven years, will turn 85.
■ FANS OF Rabbi Benny Lau whose sole contact
with him has been via radio and television because they don’t live close enough
to attend services at his congregation can make up for missed opportunities this
coming Tuesday night at the Jerusalem International Book Fair, where he will be
signing books that he has authored at the Koren stand in the Jerusalem
International Convention Center.
■ WITH ELECTIONS behind them,
politicians could finally take a breather and engage in other activities. Silvan
Shalom, minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, joined his
wife, Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, at a benefit night for Hom (“warmth”), the
organization she heads which provides food for hungry children.
The
benefit constituted paying way above the cost of a regular ticket for the
premiere of Les Miserables at Globus Max in the Ramat Poleg industrial
zone.
Among those contributing to the cause were Yoram and Lea Globus,
Nissim Mishal, Roni and Elisheva Milo, Shari Arison, Yigal and Shirley Zilcha,
Rami and Irena Shalmor, Israela Shtir, Tzvika Pik, Yehuda and Tami Raveh, Ami
and Michal Federmann and Amos Shapira, among a host of wellknown
personalities.
■ IT'S BEEN a lucky period for Rita, who is one of
Israel’s leading singers. Just before she and her ex-husband, Rami Kleinstein,
split up, they also called it quits with Helicon, the recording company with
which they had been associated for 20 years, claiming that Helicon had withheld
millions of shekels worth of royalties from them.
They subsequently sued
the company for a very hefty sum.
Helicon denied the allegations, saying
that in between 1995 and 2005, the couple had earned NIS 15 million. After five
years of wrangling, the two sides reached a compromise. Although the details of
their settlement remain classified, it is widely understood in the entertainment
industry that Helicon will pay the couple a sum in the range of NIS
2.5m.
While money may be a balm, it doesn’t do much for the ego.
Performing before an audience one never dared to dream of is a different story
altogether. Rita, who has performed for some of the world’s most noted
dignitaries, and whose albums are being sold on the black market in Iran, where
she was born, is about to perform before the General Assembly of the United
Nations.
The scheduled date is March 5, and among those expected in the
audience are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, president of the UN General
Assembly Vuk Jeremic, ambassadors and diplomats, heads of the Jewish and Iranian
communities in the US and prominent American entertainers.
Rita will sing
in Farsi as well as from some of her most popular hits.
Israel’s
permanent representative to the UN Ron Prosor will no doubt be thrilled to hear
the applause instead of the usual voices of criticism and opposition that Israel
encounters. He is confident that Rita will evoke an altogether different
response of hope, peace and multiculturalism, which are among Israel’s
fundamental ideals. In contrast to the Iranian nuclear threat, says Prosor, Rita
is a bombshell of the positive variety.
■ LAST YEAR, when he worked as a
graphic artist for
The Jerusalem Post, Sam Sokol, not yet 30 years old, was
called into the army during Operation Pillar of Defense just around the time his
fourth child entered the world. Prior to joining the graphics team, Sokol made
his living by writing features. He proved to be such a good writer that the
editors decided to make him a reporter. The ever-energetic Sokol now covers the
Jewish World beat.
greerfc@gmail.com
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