Grapevine: Name change

Various members of the Bronfman family have been exceedingly generous in contributing toward cultural and educational institutions here.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Ben Gurion UNiversity 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Ben Gurion UNiversity 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
■ THE LATE Sammy Ofer discovered that it is not always true that the man who pays the piper calls the tune. Ofer was willing to donate $20 million to the Tel Aviv Museum on condition that it be renamed for him and his wife, Aviva. But veteran donors to the museum, especially those who had donated valuable collections, as well as money, objected strongly, and in the end Ofer took his money somewhere else.
However, the relatives of the late Frederic R. Mann, who more than half a century ago donated $250,000 toward the construction of the Mann Auditorium that bears his name, were easier to persuade to relinquish his name on the building in favor of that of Charles Bronfman, who is contributing $1 million toward its renovation.
Various members of the Bronfman family have been exceedingly generous in contributing toward cultural and educational institutions here, and this is yet another example in an ever-growing chain.
The Mann family’s stipulation in return for its consent was that there should be some prominent reminder of Frederic R. Mann on the premises. The renovations are scheduled for completion by March of next year, and for the grand reopening the concert hall will be renamed the Bronfman Auditorium.
■ PRIZE-WINNING author Aharon Appelfeld will be in Modi’in on Sunday at Hameginim Synagogue, where he will dialogue with members of the audience. The meeting, in English, is open to the public.
■ UNEMPLOYMENT RATIOS, high prices and low salaries notwithstanding, new shopping malls keep cropping up all over Israel as an act of faith in the seemingly unlimited spending power of the Israeli collective. The most recent venture of this kind, the Ir Yamim Mall in Netanya, a city that already boasted extensive shopping facilities, was officially opened last week in the presence of Netanya Mayor Miriam Feirberg-Ikar, Shikun Ubinui CEO Ofer Kotler, Shikun Ubinui Real Estate CEO Tamir Dagan, holder of controlling interest in Azorim Hershi Freedman, Azorim CEO Ofer Greenberg, Azorim chairman Rotem Ravivi and leading figures from Israel’s capital markets and the financial sector, as well as representatives of fashion and other retail chains.
The new mall, adjacent to Netanya’s Ir Yamim neighborhood and Ramat Poleg, will serve residents of the Sharon area. It was built by the above-mentioned companies at an investment of NIS 450 million. The investors, obviously expecting a large number of regular shoppers, have provided parking facilities for 2,000 vehicles.
■ A DELEGATION of Chinese executives from Jiangsu Province, led by Yang Weize, secretary of CPC Nanjing City Committee of Jiangsu Province, was at Tel Aviv University last week to sign a first-of-its-kind cooperation accord and to launch Entrepreneurship and Innovation – The Israeli Model, a program of studies conducted by LAHAV Executive Education at the university’s Faculty of Management.
The Chinese chose this program of studies after examining various options available around the world for executive education in entrepreneurship and innovation.
As a first stage, about 1,000 senior executives and entrepreneurs from Nanjing, a city of eight million inhabitants, are expected to participate in LAHAV’s program over the next five years. Participants in the first program, which opened last week, will learn about the Israeli model of entrepreneurship and innovation, including the special conditions created by the Israeli economy to support the establishment of global advanced technology firms in the various areas of hi-tech. The program consists of meetings with leading academics, managers of venture capital funds, senior government officials, and visits to leading enterprises.
Tel Aviv University is proud to play a focal role in strengthening academic relations between China and Israel, said TAU President Prof. Joseph Klafter.
■ American philanthropist Toby Mower has donated $2 million to American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, to fund and develop the Toby Mower Curriculum for the Prevention and Treatment of Addiction, including endowing two presidential development chairs at BGU.
The Toby Mower Presidential Development Chairs in Addiction Prevention and Treatment, BGU researchers Miriyam Farkash and Dr. Orli Grinstein-Cohen, were inaugurated at BGU’s 42nd Board of Governors Meeting in mid-May. Prior to the dedication ceremony, Mower, a longtime substance abuse treatment advocate, gave a lecture on battling addiction to faculty and students in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University’s Leon and Mathilde Recanati School for Community Health Professions. Mower is a retired registered nurse with a master’s degree in clinical psychology. She and her husband, Dr. Morton Mower, a world-renowned cardiologist and co-inventor of the automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator, live in Baltimore, Maryland, and Beaver Creek, Colorado. They are the founders of the US’s first Jewish recovery home: Jewish Recovery Houses (JRH), located in Baltimore. JRH assists Jewish men and women in the early stages of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. The Mowers have funded several important programs at BGU.