- ALTHOUGH THE management of the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) decided not to continue employing veteran broadcaster Daniel Pe’er after he reached retirement age, the number of people who turned up at his farewell party was a testimony to his enormous popularity. Other former IBA staff members – including broadcasters, producers, directors, editors and technicians – who have been long retired or who went to rival radio or television stations or both – were there to express their appreciation to him for teaching them the rudiments of the profession and encouraging them to further their careers. And, of course, there were lots of people who are still holding the fort at the IBA. “You taught us all,” said political reporter and commentator Ayala Hasson.
Geula Even, who co-anchored the Good Morning, Israel breakfast show with Pe’er, reminisced about how patient he had been with the young know-it-all who really knew very little about television. Oded Ben-Ami, who is now with Channel 2, recalled that it was at Pe’ers suggestion that he had become a broadcaster. Aryeh Orgad, who was once not only a respected broadcaster but also an expert on broadcasting equipment, had good things to say about Pe’er as did Yair Stern, a former managing director of Israel Television, as well as Ya’acov Ahimeir, Dan Kaner, Micha Limor, Tuvia Sa’ar, Yair Aloni, Yinon Magal, Aryeh Golan, Ron Ben-Ishai and other present and former stalwarts.
Sari Raz, who has been retired for more than a year but continues to broadcast, was also at the party as was Yigal Ravid, who organized the event at the IBA’s Jerusalem studios in Romema after interviewing Pe’er on his nostalgia program The Way It Was. Ravid, who is also close to retirement age but is still busy with news and nostalgia on both radio and television, was also responsible for the nostalgia clips highlighting Pe’er’s career, which were screened at intervals throughout the evening.Haim Yavin, who worked with Pe’er during most of the latter’s 50 years with the IBA, was also there. Speaking with the voice of experience, he told him, “Life doesn’t end when you leave the IBA. It’s just beginning. You can take the man out of the IBA, but you can’t take the IBA out of the man.” Yavin, who in addition to anchoring the news used to make documentaries, continues in that vein and has been in constant demand as a teacher of communications and public speaker in Israel and abroad.Even though IBA director general Moti Shklaar is not renewing Pe’er’s contract, he was on hand to pay tribute to his talent and his multifaceted contribution to the IBA. Daniel Pe’er may have a little time to relax right now, but it’s in the cards that one of the many colleges around the country will snap him up to teach a course in communications.
- MEDIACENTRAL DIRECTOR Aryeh Green instituted a tradition on his 40th birthday of sitting in a Jerusalem coffee shop from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. while friends dropped by to celebrate his special day. It started off with the now defunct Besograyim and then moved to T’mol Shilshom. Green has friends in different age groups, from varied backgrounds who are spread all over the country. He’s never sure who’s going to show up, but he has a deal with the café proprietor that all drinks are at Green’s expense.
As in previous years, Green sat on a throne-like chair and held court, regardless of comments by several guests that his chair – as elegant as it was – was lower than anyone else’s. Now 47, he’s looking forward to a really big bash when he turns 50. What he loves about these parties is that they bring together people who might otherwise never have met each other. There were seldom more than seven or eight people at a time, which meant that everyone around the table met everyone else and that everyone could join in the conversation. Other than teetotalers, everyone toasted Green with his own wine.
A vintner when he’s not catering to the needs of foreign and local media or lecturing in Israel and abroad as part of the Israel information campaign, Green produces his own mellow wine under the Greenhouse Cellars label. Media is a Green family affair. Green’s wife, Katie, is a freelance journalist, scriptwriter and filmmaker. She is also the head of International Relations at the Ma’aleh Film School.THE TOP echelons of Israel’s institutions of higher learning, museums, hospitals and social welfare organizations are busy traveling abroad to gala events the proceeds of which are devoted to their respective projects. Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design president Arnon Zuckerman flew to New York last week to attend a gala dinner hosted by the American Friends of Bezalel, with major-league fashion designer Donna Karan as the guest of honor. Meanwhile, megatycoon Moti Zisser and his wife, Bracha, who is the founder of Ezer Mizion’s bone marrow donor program, flew to London this week for a fund-raiser at the Park Plaza Hotel, which is jointly owned by Zisser and fellow Israeli business mogul Eli Papoushado, who joined the Zissers in London. Among the other guests were representatives of British branches of Israeli enterprises, as well as many British businesspeople and philanthropists.AFTER Marcel Hess, widely known as the Swiss sausage king, made aliya with his family, he opened a delicatessen in Ra’anana in March 1999; and when he decided to make his home in Jerusalem, he opened a restaurant and deli on Rehov Heleni Hamalka, thus perpetuating a family tradition that is more than 200 years old. The family firm was founded in Zwestern near Frankfurt in 1795 by Nathaniel Hess. The tradition was handed down from father to son. In 1912 Josef Hess, Marcel’s grandfather, began to expand the range of products. His son Hermann moved the enterprise to Switzerland in 1929. Had he not done so, it is doubtful that the Hess family would have survived World War II.
Marcel took over from his father, Hermann, in 1974 and had a verysuccessful business in Basel. After so many years of working, MarcelHess decided that he’d had enough and was contemplating selling outlock, stock and barrel, though it is unlikely that someone without hisbackground could have maintained his admirable standards of hygiene.His children were appalled at the idea of breaking with tradition, andhis son Doron Nathaniel Hess, along with one of his daughters, DaliahWolf-Hess, decided to take it over. The transfer became official on TuBishvat.Although he was raised in the kosher meat industry, Doron Hess soughtto expand his horizons and studied at Hadassah’s culinary school, afterwhich he worked in the kitchen of the King David Hotel and in hisfamily’s processed meat factory in Givat Shaul. The restaurant anddeli, now renamed D&D – the first-name initials of the two newproprietors – has a brand new menu and a wide range of mouth-watering,generously filled sandwiches.