All in the family

When it comes to the Tshuva-Dankner partnership, the two share more than a love of the deal.

By ARYEH DEAN COHEN
When it comes to the Tshuva-Dankner partnership, the two share more than a love of the deal and a hope that their Las Vegas project will be a rousing success: Both men have their children deeply involved in the family business. Tshuva has several of his children involved in his construction empire, the most well-known perhaps being daughter Gal Nauer, whose New York-based firm Gal Nauer Architects was founded in Netanya in 2000 and opened a New York office in 2004. Nauer, who originally wanted to pursue a career in dance, turned to architecture after her family moved to New York. Her New York projects include everything from longtime residences to historic hotels. In an interview with The New York Times, she said of the Plaza renovation project: "The challenge is that New Yorkers are so connected to the Plaza - they celebrated their Sweet 16 there, they had tea with their aunt or grandmother there. They have a vision of what the Plaza was and what it should be." Nauer's team spent 14 months researching the hotel's elegant history before beginning to work on their plans. While her renovation got some mixed reviews, Vegas observers believe her work on the classic New York property will surely have her working on her father's new project. Tshuva's other daughter, Orly Daniell, is chairwoman of El Ad US Holdings, and organized the Plaza bash for her father. "Everything my father accomplished in his life he did his way. He's not your old-school businessman," she said in an interview with the Times during the party she organized, which featured a 12-foot-high cake representing a replica of the hotel. Tshuva's son Elad is a major figure in the firm named after him. As for Dankner's daughter Rona, she too is following in dad's footsteps, although only just starting out. She was recently appointed to an executive position at Discount Investments, part of the IDB group, after completing an MBA at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, and will be in charge of subsidiary companies While reports in the Hebrew press said there was some objection by board members to the starting salary proposed for her, it's unlikely she or the Tshuva kids will have problems eventually asking dad for a raise.