ABBAS DECREE Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas, 85, handed a presidential decree for new Palestinian elections to Hana Nasr, chairman of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission, in Ramallah on January 15. Under the decree, elections are scheduled to be held for the Palestinian Legislative Council on May 22, followed by presidential elections on July 31. Hamas welcomed the decree and agreed to hold talks with Abbas’s Fatah faction in Cairo to discuss terms for the elections. Abbas’s move appeared to be aimed at boosting ties with the US ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration as president.
BLESSING BIDEN Israel’s president and premier congratulated US President
Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris after they were sworn in on January 20. “May God bless your efforts and crown them with success,” President Reuven Rivlin wrote. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “I look forward to working with you to further strengthen the US-Israel alliance, to continue expanding peace between Israel and the Arab world and to confront common challenges, chief among them the threat posed by Iran.”
TOP PHILANTHROPIST Sheldon G. Adelson, who built the world’s largest empire of casinos and resort hotels and was the Jewish world’s top philanthropist, died on January 11 at his home in California at the age of 87. Adelson and his Israeli-born wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson, donated millions of dollars to Israeli and Jewish causes, including Birthright and the Adelson School of Medicine in Ariel, and to the election campaigns of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. In 2007, Adelson established the freebie rightwing Israeli daily, Israel Hayom, which became the most widely read newspaper in Israel. He was buried on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives.
INTERVIEW KING Legendary US Jewish talk show host Larry King died in Los Angeles on January 23 at 87, a month after being hospitalized with COVID-19. Considered the king of interview talk shows on radio and television, he conducted by his count more than 60,000 interviews in his 63 years in the business, peaking on CNN’s “Larry King Live” from 1985 to 2010.
BARON ROTHSCHILD Baron Benjamin de Rothschild died on January 15 at the age of 57 after suffering a heart attack at his home in Switzerland. The son of Baron Edmond and Baroness Nadine de Rothschild, he took over the prestigious Edmond de Rothschild Group in 1977. In April 2020, Rothschild and his wife, Ariane, donated 50 million shekels for medical equipment at 22 hospitals across Israel to assist in the battle against COVID-19
GENEROUS DONOR South African steel tycoon and philanthropist Eric Samson died at his Newport, California, home on January 19 at the age of 82. Samson was a generous donor to Israeli causes, including Keren Hayesod, universities and hospitals, several of which named departments in honor of him and his wife, Sheila.
CAPITAL COLLECTOR Ezra Gorodesky, Jerusalem’s colorful collector who featured on the cover of The Jerusalem Report in 2018, died at the age of 92 on January 11 after contracting COVID-19. In recent years, he donated more than 1,000 documents and rare books to the National Library and his valuable button collection to Shenkar College of Fashion and Design.
YALLA, SABABA! At a virtual press conference during its training camp in Girona, Spain on January 18, the Team Israel Start-Up Nation (ISN) cycling team introduced new riders Chris Froome, Michael “Rusty” Woods and Sep Vanmarcke. Froome, 35, a four-time Tour de France winner, said, “I’m not done yet – I want number five!” The British cyclist also stars in ISN’s new season video trying out Israeli slang such as “yalla” (let’s go) and “sababa” (cool). The video features training rides by Froome and teammate Guy Sagiv and ends with the two cyclists scooping up hummus like pros. ISN, Israel’s first professional cycling team, was established in 2015 and is co-owned by businessmen Sylvan Adams and Ron Baron.
