A LITTLE rub on the ego seldom goes astray. Dr. Arthur Eidelman, former chief of neonatology and pediatrics at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center and professor of pediatrics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Hebrew University School of Medicine, has been awarded the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine graduation ceremonies at Lincoln Center.
That this award acknowledged his professional accomplishments was obviously appreciated by Eidelman, but what was of greater significance as far as he was concerned was that the award was for his activities in Israel.
Eidelman is best known for pioneering neonatal care in Israel after immigrating from the US in 1978. He served as the first president of the Israel Neonatal Society, as founding father of the Israel Board of Neonatology, and as neonatal consultant to the Health Ministry. Currently, he is a visiting professor of pediatrics at Einstein, where he had once served as director of newborn services prior to his move to Israel, and was a member of the medical school's graduating class of 1963.
FOR MORE than 40 years the Jerusalem Rotary chapter has been distributing scholarships to deserving Jewish, Christian and Muslim students. When Jacqueline Miller and her sons decided to give a NIS 1,500 scholarship in memory of her husband and their father, well-known Jerusalem dentist Amram Miller, who was a past president of the rotary, Jacqueline Miller said that she wanted to give it to a member of the Ethiopian community.
She was told that to make this kind of distinction was against the rules, but wasn't about to pull out from such a worthy project just because she couldn't have her way. Therefore she was pleasantly surprised when the recipient of the Amram Miller Memorial Scholarship turned out to be Shmuel Mekunan, an Ethiopian student at the Hadassah Seligsberg-Brandeis High School.
Alexander Zavatov of the Havat Hanoar High School was the recipient of the Lucien Harris Memorial Scholarship awarded by the rotary. The erudite Lucien Harris was a past president of the Jerusalem Rotary and a district governor of the Israel Rotary Club. The scholarship was presented by his widow, Ruth Harris, who is also a past president of the Jerusalem Rotary.
In addition to these two scholarship recipients, 51 students from various Jerusalem schools, whose conduct exemplified the values of Rotary, received scholarships that were less in value.
The awards ceremony at the Jerusalem YMHA included a lecture by Sharon Brown of the Israel Police Forensic Department, who described the intricacies of deciphering the diary of astronaut Ilan Ramon, who lost his life in the Columbia space shuttle disaster in February 2003.
MEMBERS OF the Foreign Press Association, most notably from Reuters, AP, AFP and the BBC, have been playing informal five-a-side football games for the past year or so, and decided to combine the last game of the season with the FPA's 50th anniversary Euro Finals. The finals were shown on a big screen at the Kraft Stadium, where the finals were played for the FPA cup, which was won by Reuters.
More than 50 soccer players and scores of supporters turned out to make the initial FPA five-a-side Football Cup a roaring success. Despite the warm weather and the fact that the players are amateurs, enthusiastic friends and families were treated to several notable performances and enjoyable matches.
In the final analysis, the Reuters Galacticos Geriatricos prevailed, seeing off Los Yanquis from AP in a tense and hard-fought final which the Galacticos held on to win 3-1.
Les Rosbifs from the BBC and Los Sancho Panzas, a team of Spanish journalists, also put in stellar performances to make it to the semi-finals before gracefully bowing out. Itzik Ederry from Contact provided the big screen, Gil Malka and Eli Berizon of Reuters organized the match, and the overall event was organized by Julian Rake.
FOR A long time the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel was reluctant to become involved in the Jonathan Pollard affair primarily because although many of its members are politically active, the AACI per se is an apolitical organization. For that very reason, it has been able to serve Americans and Canadians of every stripe.
Those AACI members who have been active on Pollard's behalf tried many times to put the Pollard case on the AACI agenda at annual general meetings, but were unsuccessful. Now it seems that even those people who in the past kept their distance are outraged by the discriminatory practice to which Pollard has been subjected.
The most recent AACI newsletter contains a paragraph stating: "AACI has been empowered by its membership to assist in the efforts on behalf of Jonathan Pollard to be released from prison. Please check the following Web site: 'Justice for Jonathan Pollard' and 'Bring Jonathan Pollard Home.'"
SPONSORED BY the Peres Center for Peace, Cecilia Bohan, director of photography for the International Herald Tribune and former foreign photo editor of The New York Times, was in Israel this week to participate in a Borders of Reality symposium devoted to Israeli and Palestinian photojournalists.
The symposium was part of the Frames of Reality project that explores different aspects of photojournalism through lives in the Middle East, and enjoined Palestinian and Israeli professional photojournalists in 12 workshops held in Beit Jala and at Hadassah College. The meetings included guest lectures with leading photojournalists. An Internet social network was also established so that participants from Gaza could also take part.
Participating alongside Bohan at the symposium were Palestinian publisher Hanna Seniora, Israeli journalist Itai Engel and Israeli photojournalist Eldad Rafaeli.
THE ANNUAL Shenkar College graduates' fashion show will be held this Tuesday evening, July 8, in Kibbutz Ga'ash. The show is under the patronage of Honigman, which over the years has employed a number of Shenkar graduates, some of whom later opened their own studios and became household names.
On July 10, the Fashion and Jewelry Design Departments of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design will hold its annual fashion show on campus. The event will also include a shoe exhibition by Aya Bentur and jewelry by Na'ama Bergman.
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