Longtime Jerusalem Post cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen, whose daily strip Dry Bones has run in the paper for four decades, won a 2014 Bonei Zion (Builders of Zion) Prize on Monday for his contributions to Israeli culture and the arts.Kirschen, 76, was born in Brooklyn and contributed to such publications as Cracked and Playboy before making aliya in 1971 and beginning his run writing and illustrating Dry Bones in 1973. According to Nefesh B’Nefesh, a private organization that runs Israel’s immigration operations in North America and conferred the $10,000 prize, Kirschen’s work “has provided a quintessentially Zionist, satirical and unique view of Israel to the world.”“I can’t think of an honor that I value more,” Kirschen told the Post Monday. The winners, each of whom was awarded the prize for “encapsulat[ ing] the spirit of modern-day Zionism by contributing in a significant way towards the State of Israel” in his or her field, are those who “fulfilled the Haggada’s injunction of ‘next year in Jerusalem,’” Kirschen said. “We are the people who took that seriously and came here and helped to build a society, and therefore, being recognized for what I tried to do for forty years makes me very happy.”Jerusalem Post columnist and solar energy pioneer Yosef Abramowitz was also recognized by Nefesh B’ Nefesh for his work in the technology sector.Calling Abramowitz “the founding father of Israel’s $20 billion solar market,” the aliya organization stated that the American immigrant “embodies positive and powerful hasbara (public diplomacy) as his efforts showcase Israel – and by extension the Jewish people – as a compassionate driven provider of renewable energy development for the betterment of the world.”
“It is a great honor to be recognized as a leading ‘technology entrepreneur’ in the Start-Up Nation,” Abramowitz said. “Anglo immigrants play leading roles in the continued building and transformation of the Jewish state. In that spirit, my wife Susan and I are contributing 10 percent of the Bonei Zion Prize for the benefit of refugee relief in Israel.”“I want to congratulate each of the winners of the Nefesh B’Nefesh Bonei Zion Prize for their remarkable accomplishments and important contributions to the State of Israel,” Nefesh B’Nefesh cofounder and executive director Rabbi Yehoshua Fass said in a statement. “We hope that accentuating the achievements of Anglo olim will serve as a catalyst to inspire others to make aliya as well as highlight the achievements of these olim who are helping to make a difference to our homeland.”