Living life to the fullest

Jane Krivine is dedicated to her projects, which deal with coexistence, integration and animal welfare.

By GLORIA DEUTSCH
JANE KRIVINE 521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
JANE KRIVINE 521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Jane Krivine had a very demanding career in London, and thought that when she made aliya in 2003, she could take life a little easier. But as she discovered, things don’t always work out as one expects.
Today, in addition to her volunteer work as chairman of the English-Speaking Residents Association (ESRA) Zichron Ya’acov/Caesarea branch, she is kept busy continuing the work of her late father, Freddie Krivine, and running the foundation in his name. He had been a London businessman who settled here in 1984.
Always a keen tennis player, the elder Krivine realized early on that the game did not exist in the Arab sector, and thought it would be a way to bring Jewish and Arab children together – if only he could somehow build tennis schools and teach them how to play.
“He realized that it would be a great expression of coexistence but until they could play, they couldn’t play with each other,” she says. “So setting up the schools was top priority and he created his foundation for that, with financial support from family members in England.”
So far the foundation has set up some 10 schools in the Arab sector, some in small towns like Mrar and Usfiya and some in larger places like Nazareth.
One of the benefactors of the Nazareth school is Sir Cliff Richard, who thought the whole concept was fantastic, decided to get involved and went to look around on a visit here.
Freddie Krivine was one of the six founder-trustees of the Israel Tennis Center and was president of the Israel Tennis Association for 12 years, from 1992 until he died in 2004. His daughter has an interesting explanation for her father’s passion for tennis.
“When he was young, he played in a tennis foursome every Saturday morning in a public park in London with three friends,” she says. “One was a Jewish businessman, one was from Pakistan and one from Persia. The two Muslims were diplomats at their respective embassies and they all became firm friends.”
In fact they stayed in touch even after Freddie came to Israel, and the Pakistani, who reached a high ministerial position in his country, visited Israel several times.
“I’m still in touch with his children,” Krivine says.
She feels those early experiences of Jews and Muslims playing tennis together influenced her father to try and do the same here.
In England, before she retired, Krivine had run her own public relations company specializing in classical musicians, and had some well-known names on her list.
She was briefly married to another classical music agent and the union produced a daughter, today a documentary television producer in London, as well as setting her on the career path she has stuck to for over 30 years.
She also organized festivals, notably one at Windsor Castle, and this stood her in good stead for the organizational work she has been doing for ESRA since arriving here. She was the obvious choice to chair the ESRA 30th anniversary festival back in 2008, even though she was a relatively new immigrant herself.
Fifteen years have gone by since Freddie Krivine began to put his idealistic vision into practice. This means that hundreds of Arab children have had the chance to learn to play tennis with each other and with Jewish children, and to take part in international tournaments. One wonders how it has influenced them today as adults.
“What we see is fascinating,” she says. “We see the emergence of an Arab middle class. Most of our graduates go on to get an education and study either here or abroad. At the moment, we have four studying medicine in Italy and one studying veterinary medicine in Moldova. We have several who coach for us who also study.”
She often gets invited to weddings and feels perfectly comfortable in the Arab villages she visits.
“I find it a really interesting society,” she says. “And especially since I really feel my father’s work changed things. Once tennis was not part of Arab life, and today it’s very much part of Arab life – and this is a good thing.”
As if the tennis interest and the ESRA activities were not enough, she is also very involved in an organization called Spay Israel, set up in 2001 to neuter the many stray cats and dogs wandering around the country.
“I’ve always been very interested in animal welfare and I think this organization is doing amazing work, trying to bring down the number of street animals,” she says. “It’s also trying very hard to change the attitude that says spaying is not a good idea. There are three clinics, in Beersheba, Rehovot and Jerusalem, and they have just acquired a bus which is to be turned into a mobile clinic, with a plan to travel to the Beduin community.”
She feels very fortunate to be living in Israel and says she has a wonderful quality of life.
“I do things that really interest me and I hope that I make a difference, even if it’s on a small scale.”