Israel’s cabinet on January 15 approved an updated 2024 State Budget after negotiations that lasted almost 24 hours. The new budget totals some NIS 582 billion, a rise of nearly NIS 70b. in government spending since the original budget passed last year, the Treasury said. The increase includes repayment of debts linked to the war against Hamas; strengthening of the IDF; funding for IDF reservists and their families, and the public mental health system, and rehabilitating the Gaza border area; and support for the hi-tech and real estate sectors. Six of the 37 ministers voted against – Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi (Likud) and the five members of Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, which said the new budget “does not reflect a fundamental shift in government priorities and ignores the heavy effects of the war.”
Eleven countries, including the US, Britain, and Germany, announced that they were suspending funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) following a revelation by Israel that a dozen UNRWA employees had participated in the October 7 Hamas massacre. In response, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini urged the countries to reverse course. “These decisions threaten our ongoing humanitarian work across the region, including and especially in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
American billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and his Israeli-born wife, Prof. Neri Oxman, acquired a 4.9% equity stake in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). TASE said in a statement on January 24 that local and foreign investors had purchased an 18.5% stake in the exchange for a total of NIS 242 million ($65 million) in net proceeds. Among the buyers were the Ackmans, who invested $17 million, it said.
Canadian filmmaker and producer Norman Jewison, who directed the award-winning film Fiddler on the Roof (1971), died on January 20 at the age of 97. Jewison’s films received 46 Academy Award nominations and won 12 Oscars, and he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in 1999. Although he was not Jewish, he had a Jewish wedding with his second wife, Lynne St. David Jewison, in 2010.
Rabbi Raymond Apple, emeritus senior rabbi of the Great Synagogue of Sydney (1972-2005) and a leader of the Australian Jewish community, died in Jerusalem on January 19 at the age of 88. He was honored as an Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to the community, and held the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal and the Centenary of Federation Medal. Apple, a regular contributor to The Jerusalem Report, made aliyah with his wife, Marian, in 2006, and they lived in Jerusalem. He published more than a dozen books and was the author of OzTorah, a weekly email service of insights into the Torah reading.
In a special ceremony to mark the end of the 30-day mourning period for Dr. Avraham Avi-hai on January 18, Keren Hayesod-UIA World Chairman Sam Grundwerg presented a book in his memory to his wife, Henrietta, and three daughters, Shosh, Tova, and Drorlee. Avi-hai headed Keren Hayesod from 1978 to 1988. “He was a leader, a journalist, and an author,” Grundwerg said. “Keren Hayesod’s Avi-hai Award was initiated in his honor in 1989. May his memory be blessed.”
