GRAPEVINE: HU High School’s high achievers

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
The Hebrew University (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The Hebrew University
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
THIS YEAR marks the 80th anniversary of the Hebrew University High School in Givat Ram, generally known as Leyada. One of the most prestigious high schools in Israel, it was established by the Hebrew University in 1935. Its impressive list of alumni includes Israel’s fifth president Yitzhak Navon; Nobel Prize laureate Daniel Kahneman; former president of the Supreme Court Aharon Barak; singer, actor and radio and TV personality Yehoram Gaon; best-selling authors David Grossman, Meir Shalev and Etgar Keret; former Israel Air Force commander Ido Nehushtan; Check Point founder Gil Schwed; and Bible Quiz champion Avner Netanyahu.
Leyada is somewhat younger than the Rehavia Gymnasia, which in 2009 celebrated its centenary and also boasts among its faculty and alumni people who have left their mark on the nation. Among the teachers was Israel’s second president Yitzhak Ben-Tzvi, and among the alumni are Israel’s fourth and 10th presidents Ephraim Katzir and Reuven Rivlin. Other alumni included brothers Dan and Sallai Meridor; best-selling authors Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua; Entebbe Rescue Operation hero Yoni Netanyahu; politician and former commander of Army Radio and former IDF spokesman Nahman Shai; Israel’s ambassador to China Matan Vilna’i; Israel’s second chief of general staff, renowned archaeologist and politician Yigael Yadin; and politician Rehavam Ze’evi.
This is only a very short list. Both schools definitely have something going for them, considering the number of high achievers who have passed through their corridors.
ISRAEL IS full of walking history, though people do not always realize that the person standing next to them at a cocktail party or in line at the supermarket may be a direct descendant of someone whose name is indelibly carved into the foundations of the state or into the saga of Zionist endeavor. Tel Aviv lawyer and philanthropist Daniel Jacobson is one of those people. Jacobson is the grandson of Zalman David Levontin, the first general manager of the Anglo-Palestine Bank which, in the course of time, became Bank Leumi. When Jacobson was a very young boy, his grandfather opened an account for him at the bank. That was 85 years ago. That account is now the bank’s oldest operating account.
Jacobson is a long-time supporter of the Hebrew University, to which he donates scholarships every year and to which he donated his impressive collection of postcards and Rosh Hashana cards, including last messages sent by victims of the Holocaust to relatives in the Land of Israel.
Jacobson will again be distributing scholarships to students enrolled in the Hebrew University’s Revivim program, which trains educators to teach various aspects of Jewish cultural heritage to high school students. Some 150 Revivim graduates are teaching Jewish studies in more than 80 schools across the country to ensure that students who do not necessarily come from religiously observant backgrounds are familiarized to some extent with their cultural Jewish heritage. The program was born out of the realization that too many young Israelis know almost nothing of Jewish tradition.
The scholarship presentation ceremony will take place on April 26 at Beit Maiersdorf on the university’s Mount Scopus campus. It will include a lecture on poetry and song in Israeli culture by Prof. Yael Reshef. There are currently 59 students in the Revivim program. Of the program’s 200 graduates, more than 90 percent are teaching under the auspices of the state education system.
WHEN JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife, Akie, visited Israel in January, Mrs. Abe brought with her the Akie Book Collection of Japanese/English books and magazines on Japan and Japanese culture. The collection is donated to each of the countries that she visits. In this instance, it was intended as a donation to the Hebrew University library, specifically because the Hebrew University has a Department of Asian Studies, and the university plays a leading role in the study of Japanese in Israel.
The presentation ceremony was postponed because the Abes’ visit was cut short due to the hostage crisis in Japan. This week, Japanese Ambassador Shigeo Matsutomi and his wife, Kaori, traveled to Jerusalem to present the collection to the university’s Bloomfield Library for Humanities and Social Science on behalf of Akie Abe.