Celebrating 25 years of Grapevine: The work of Greer Fay Cashman

She’s been covering socialites and the diplomatic sphere of Israeli life for a quarter of a century, but how much do you know about Greer Fay Cashman?

By HAGAY HACOHEN
Jerusalem Post reporter Greer Fay Cashman and her husband, photographer Dan Landau (photo credit: Courtesy)
Jerusalem Post reporter Greer Fay Cashman and her husband, photographer Dan Landau
(photo credit: Courtesy)
With her keen sense of fashion, rapid wit and quick pen, Greer Fay Cashman had been covering social life in Israel since the first-ever Grapevine column was printed in October 8, 1993. Her first column focused on “The Event,” a social event in which 10,000 English-speaking olim (Jewish immigrants to Israel) gathered in the Wingate Institute and wondered, as all other ethnics in Israel have their day, why not Anglos?
The first-ever Grapevine also dealt with Madonna touring the Holy Land, the naming of a Jerusalem street after Jewish-American composer Leonard Bernstein, located at the intersection of Chopin Street, and Leah Rabin opening the home of the prime minister to supporters of the Israel Autistic Society, of which she served at the time as the founding chairperson.
Having covered the field of fashion for The Jerusalem Post, Cashman was quick to note Rabin was wearing earrings designed by Aya Azrielant.
Born in Melbourne in 1940 to Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivors, she is a Capricorn, a zodiac sign connected in astrology with ambition and determination.
After spending some time in Europe and Turkey, Cashman made aliyah in 1973 and began working for the Post in 1981, where she obtained tenure after working as a freelancer for five years and co-founded “In Jerusalem,” alongside Michael Eilan and Robert Rosenberg.
She married photographer Dan Landau, who took the famous 1986 photograph in which former nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu pressed his palm against a car window and announced to the world he was abducted in Rome. Until this photograph was published, Israel had denied he was in Israeli custody.
In October 9, 1998, Cashman received a rare invitation to a meeting of the Asian Women’s Club hosted by Montie Salpeter. Other topics covered in that Grapevine were marking German Unity day [October 3] in the home of then-German Ambassador to Israel Theodor Wallau and a bit of global trotting done by Jerusalemite Vered Kollek.
Grapevine also covered crime-related stories from time to time, such as the October 8, 2003 column which noted that Hava Ya’ari, former wife of Middle East expert Ehud Ya’ari, was released from prison and found a job as an editor in the Safed publication, New in the Galilee. Ya’ari was convicted of murdering 59-year-old Mala Malavsky in 1985.
Beyond diplomacy, Grapevine also celebrated milestones in the lives of those who make the Post work. Such as the October 8, 2008 Grapevine that featured a beaming Gil Hoffman holding his newborn son, who was named Amichai Moshe, and very politely made his entrance to the world after his reporter father was able to file the results of the Kadima primaries to the paper. In that same column, Reena Ribalow was featured after winning the sixth annual Margert Reid poetry contest.
Greer Fay Cashman holding her 2015 Women of Valor award from the Ambassador's Club given for her journalistic work on behalf of the Post / Courtesy
Greer Fay Cashman holding her 2015 Women of Valor award from the Ambassador's Club given for her journalistic work on behalf of the Post / Courtesy
Greer herself is no stranger to awards, having won the 2015 Women of Valor award from the Ambassador’s Club for her journalistic work on behalf of the Post. The award was presented to her by long-standing diplomat Yitzhak Eldan, but our readers never got to read about it, until now, as she felt Grapevine should not be used to present her own accomplishments.
Greer once claimed that she’s “totally incompetent, the only thing I know how to do is journalism,” however, we at The Jerusalem Post disagree and look forward to future Grapevine columns.