“A new star is born,” declared comedienne and actress Rotem Abuhav, who for the fourth consecutive year was master of ceremonies at President Reuven Rivlin’s morning celebration of Independence Day.
This time the format was somewhat different from that of past years, beginning with a prerecorded broadcast that included video clips of different aspects of the president’s activities both inside and outside the President’s Residence, plus, in the course of recording, meetings with various groups and individuals.
Medina was asked to sing, and invited Rivlin to join him. Rivlin is a great lover of Hebrew songs of all genres, and happily accepted the invitation, singing duet most of the time, but also solo with exuberant body language, which provoked the enthusiastic exclamation from Abuhav.
Although singers of North African background were popular even before the establishment of the state, their music was not. Shoshana Damari, one of the greatest of them all, though possessed of a pure Yemenite voice, performed with Polish-born and trained composer and pianist Moshe Wilensky, whose compositions were often reminiscent of Polish cabaret. It took a long time for European- and American-style music to give way to the music of the region, and Medina, who also composed many songs for Zohar Argov, can be largely credited for the success of Mizrahi music in Israel.
On Independence Day, whether in tribute to him or simply because North African singers have made their mark not only in Israel but worldwide, several radio programs focused on singers of North African background as well as on Mizrahi music. Both Medina and Argov were naturally included, as was Damari, but so were Boaz Sharabi, Yossi Banai, Shaike Levi, Joe Amar, Ofra Haza and many others.
■ AT THE annual reception that he hosts on Independence Day for ambassadors, military attachés, honorary consuls, religious leaders of non-Jewish faiths and heads of communities and international organizations, Rivlin said that he was especially pleased to welcome all the ambassadors of the Muslim faith, singled out United Arab Emirates Ambassador Mohamed Al Khaja, and wished all the ambassadors of the Muslim faith as well as Israel’s Muslim community and Muslims worldwide, Ramadan kareem. Also present among the Muslim diplomats was the head of Morocco’s Liaison Office in Israel, Abderrahim Bayoud.
■ IN A departure from tradition, neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Defense Minister Benny Gantz attended the morning ceremony in which 120 outstanding soldiers received medals and scholarships, nor did Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi attend the reception for diplomats, since he was in Cyprus. He sent regards but no message. In previous years, this reception was cohosted by the president and the foreign minister.
■ ON MAY 3, Polish Ambassador Marek Magierowski will host a reception to celebrate Poland’s Constitution Day. Poland was among the first countries in the world to adopt a constitution, on May 3, 1791. It came into force two years after the American Constitution of 1789. The Polish Constitution defined the balance of power between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, determined a two-chamber parliament and provided for political equality between different strata of society.
Israeli legislators have for years been debating the need for a constitution, and now that the winds of change seem to be blowing in the Knesset and the government, perhaps the time has come for Israel to finally adopt a constitution.
This would probably be encouraged by Prof. Shimon Shetreet, an internationally recognized professor of law, if he succeeds in his bid to become Israel’s next president. But then again, in Israel one never knows, which is why politics in this country remain interesting. As Ben Caspit, the veteran columnist of Maariv, the sister publication of The Jerusalem Post, wrote in Tuesday’s paper, “Netanyahu is down, but he’s not out.”
■ DESPITE THE friction between their two countries, Chinese Ambassador Cai Run and Japanese Ambassador Mizushima Koichi will, on Wednesday, April 21, present their credentials to Rivlin. Both ambassadors have law degrees, and both are career diplomats.
Cai, who arrived in Israel in February, was previously his country’s ambassador to Portugal, where he spent five years. He succeeds the late Du Wei, who died in his Herzliya residence in May 2020, before having the chance to present his credentials.
Mizushima, who arrived in Israel last month, immediately went to work, and his activities to date have included a visit to the Foreign Ministry, where he met director-general Alon Ushpiz, deputy-director general for Asia and the Pacific Gilad Cohen, and Chief of Protocol Gil Haskel; visits to Yad Vashem and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a meeting with Maj.-Gen. Kamil Abu Rukun, head of Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories.
■ JUST BEFORE leaving Israel at the end of this month, Max Haber, the ambassador of Paraguay who was also the dean of the GRULAC group, which includes all of the Latin American and Caribbean States, was feted at a reception hosted at the business premises of Yoram Naor, the honorary consul of Belize, by the Ambassadors’ Club of Israel, and presented with the Ambassador of the Year award for 2021. The event was attended by all the GRULAC ambassadors, with the exception of the ambassador of Panama. It was also announced that the new GRULAC dean is Honduras Ambassador Mario Castillo.
Also present was Haskel, who noted that the 78-year-old Haber was the only serving ambassador still in Israel who had presented his credentials to president Shimon Peres.
Among the other guests was the new dean of the diplomatic corps, Martin Chungu Mwanambale, who is the ambassador of Zambia. He succeeds Hennadii Nadolenko, the ambassador of Ukraine, who completed his posting last year after a decade in Israel.
Mwanambale noted that Haber, too, had served an unusually long period of duty. Most ambassadors serve in the host country for two to four years, but Haber has served for seven-and-a-half years. Prior to taking up his post in Israel, Haber was a businessman, who for 15 years was honorary Israel consul in Asuncion. He promoted Israel in his home country, and promoted Paraguay in Israel.
Castillo praised Haber for his excellent conduct of the GRULAC group, as did Yitzhak Eldan, the founder and president of the Ambassadors’ Club of Israel, emphasizing the harmonious relationship that Haber had with both the club and with his honorary consul Ruth Amit-fogel, this despite some of the stormy upheavals in bilateral relations.
In paying tribute to Haber, Eldan said that the club was honoring not only a fine ambassador but also Latin American and Caribbean diplomacy, which played a significant role in the November 29, 1947, vote of the United Nations General Assembly that paved the way for Israel’s statehood.
Haber reviewed what he had done during his period of tenure, proving the truth of the old adage that still waters run deep. While far more modest than some of his European counterparts, Haber accomplished much in many different spheres of bilateral relations.
Amit-fogel presented Haber and his wife, Renée, with a nano bracelet incorporating the whole of the Bible.
■ RETIRED SUPREME Court justice Elyakim Rubinstein was the guest of honor at Beit Midrash Ohel Yitzhak’s Independence Day dinner, sponsored by Anita and David Fuld. The Jerusalem synagogue (not to be confused with the Ohel Yitzhak Synagogue complex in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City) was founded 11 years ago by Shlomo Eisenberg in memory of his father, for whom it is named in perpetuity. The synagogue is located in an impressive residential complex that stands on the site of the former YMCA soccer stadium.
Rubinstein shared several anecdotes of his diverse career, particularly the period when he was legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry, in which capacity he participated in the talks at Camp David that led to the peace treaty with Egypt.
Rubinstein also spoke of clandestine meetings that he had held abroad with King Hussein. Like other prominent Israeli figures who met with the king and other leaders of Arab states in Arab countries at a time when it was taboo, Rubinstein went to such meetings in disguise. Nonetheless, as an observant Jew, inasmuch as possible, he maintained religious rules and traditions when on such missions. On one such occasion, as he was eating the third Sabbath meal, Hussein showed up and asked to join him, because he understood that Rubinstein was lonely.
Kosher food was less of a problem in Muslim countries than many people envisage. Several countries still have pockets of Jewish communities, and have many Jewish business executives from abroad staying for extended periods of time, so there is often a permanent kashrut supervisor.
Secrecy notwithstanding, it was always known in Jewish quarters in these countries when an Israeli dignitary or an important Jewish person from elsewhere had arrived. In Rubinstein’s case, he would find a note in Yiddish in his room with the words “Ich bin du” (I am here), which was a sign that he could eat the food that was served to him.
Rubinstein, a popular raconteur, has a huge fund of anecdotes. One about Moshe Dayan was quite interesting. Dayan was totally secular, but at a time when they were both in Washington, Rubinstein invited Dayan to join him at Sabbath synagogue services. Dayan was already unwell, and had some difficulty in walking. Because it was a 45-minute walk to the synagogue from his hotel, Dayan opted to come by car. Nonetheless, Rubinstein arranged for Dayan to be given the honor of removing the Torah from the ark and putting it back after the weekly portion had been read. After the service was over, Dayan decided not to return to his hotel by car. He told Rubinstein that it wouldn’t look good to be seen getting into a car after he had received such an important mitzvah, and took the long walk back.
On a more religious note, Rubinstein spoke of his great friendship with Yosef Burg, the longtime leader of the National Religious Party.
Among the regular congregants at Ohel Yitzhak is Marcel Hess, a former restaurateur who was known as the Sausage King because he won blind international competitions for which he entered sausages made from kosher meat. Before moving to Israel more than quarter of a century ago, Hess ran a very successful kosher restaurant in Basel, where he was also a member of parliament, representing the Basel-Stadt canton.
He told Rubinstein that whenever Burg came to Switzerland, his first destination was to Basel to visit Hess’s father, Hermann Hess, a master sausage maker whom he knew from their youth in Frankfurt. He also enjoyed eating the authentic Frankfurter sausages that the senior Hess piled on Burg’s plate and the authentic Frunkfurter potato salad for which Marcel Hess’s mother was renowned.
■ THE LATE newspaper editor Mannie Oderberg used to tell young reporters to try to refrain from using expressions such as “the first,” “the best” and “the only” because chances were high that someone would come forward to disprove such claims. If such expressions have to be used, he said, they should be prefaced with “it is widely believed” or “as far as is known” or something of a similar nature.
Happily, in a reference last week to Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, a very young child survivor of Buchenwald, Oderberg’s advice was taken, because although Lau was only seven years old, there were at least two younger survivors, as noted by Shira Schmidt, who, together with Jessica Setbon, translated Lau’s autobiography, whose English title is Out of the Depths. Lau was among the youngest, she emailed, but not the youngest. Among younger survivors of Buchenwald who are referenced in Wikipedia and Google, respectively, were Polish-born Joseph Schleifstein, who was four years old and after the war went with his parents to America, and Julius Maslovat, who was two-and-a-half years old, and who was also born in Poland, coincidentally in Piotrkov, where Lau was also born.
After the war, Maslovat was adopted by a Jewish family in Finland, and later moved to Canada. Schleifstein was born near the Sandomierza Ghetto and, like Lau, was hidden in a sack – Lau by his brother, and Schleifstein by his father. Schleifstein and Lau were both in the HASAG slave labor camp in Czestochowa before being deported to Buchenwald.
■ SEVENTY-SIX YEARS after the end of the Holocaust and World War II, relatives who did not know of each other’s existence are finding each other.
This happened recently with cousins Marit Danon, a secular woman, and Pinchas Zaidman, a Gerrer Hassid. Coincidentally, both live in Jerusalem, and did not know of each other until Alon Goldman, the very conscientious chairman of the Association of Czestochowa Jews in Israel, published, in a newsletter, part of a talk that Danon had given in the context of Zikaron Basalon, as well as an interview she had given on Channel 7. In both cases, she spoke of her grandmother Mejtel Finkelstein (née Dzobas), who was sent from Czestochowa to the gas chambers of Treblinka.
After Zaidman read the newsletter, he sent a WhatsApp to Goldman, telling him that Meital Finkelstein had been a first cousin to his mother. The message was signed with the initials of the sender, and Goldman asked for his full name. He got more than that. The man also sent a photograph, and Goldman realized that he knew him and had met him. Goldman forwarded the photograph to Danon and asked whether she knew this person. She didn’t, and queried who he was. She almost fainted when she learned that they were blood relatives. She was initially hesitant about getting in touch with him because of the vast difference in their lifestyles, but encouraged by Goldman she sent Zaidman an email.
When he replied, they both realized that despite their differences, they had grown up hearing from their parents about Jewish life in prewar Czestochowa. Zaidman asked her why she never came to family gatherings, and she replied that she felt she would not be accepted because all the others were Gerrer Hassidim. Zaidman told her that this was irrelevant, and that she would be warmly welcomed. Without the newsletter, this poignant family reunion would never have happened.
■ AS PREVIOUSLY mentioned in this column, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is commemorated in Poland on the Gregorian calendar anniversary of April 19. The state ceremony, with the participation of Jewish organizations and others, dedicated to the preservation of the history of Jews in Poland, is held at the Warsaw Ghetto monument in the heart of the area that was the Warsaw Ghetto. Among the participants were Polish President Andrzej Duda and his wife, Agata, who is of Jewish descent, and Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich.
Although there were fewer people present than in previous years due to fears of contracting coronavirus, there was still a fairly large crowd, with many people wearing the traditional six-petalled daffodil, reminiscent of the yellow star the Nazis forced Jews to wear on their outer clothing. Several people also carried bunches of daffodils. At the side of the monument, Polish and Israeli flags fluttered in the wind. Flames rose from every branch of the menorah that is an intrinsic part of the monument.
Just as the wail of sirens brings Israel to a halt on Holocaust Remembrance Day, the wail of sirens also makes Poles freeze momentarily, as it reminds them of this extraordinary act of courage by young Jews who had nothing to lose, but who in mounting a resistance battle that was impossible to win died as heroes and not as lambs taken to slaughter.
“They chose to die with weapons in their hands, and refused to die in concentrations camps and gas chambers,” said Duda, who noted that this was the first major civilian resistance against the Nazis. “They fought heroically. They fought like lions,” he said.
Schudrich recited kaddish and stated that it is a moral obligation to tell the story of the uprising.
Deputy Minister of Culture Jaroslaw Sellin described the uprising as “the largest revolt of Jews against the Germans, who had been trying to murder all the Jews of Nazi-occupied Europe.”
The “Partisan Song,” which begins “Zog nisht keyn mol az du geist dem letzten veg” (Never say that you are going on your final journey), was sung in the original Yiddish, and not in Hebrew as is the case in Israel.
■ ODERBERG’S COUNSEL proved itself earlier this month when former ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon hosted a reception for diplomats which was touted as the first diplomatic event organized in Israel since the coronavirus pandemic.
Only a few days earlier, French Ambassador Eric Danon hosted a Holocaust Remembrance Day event at his residence, which was attended by most European ambassadors whose countries had been caught up in the Holocaust; and throughout the year, the Ambassadors’ Club hosted both in-person and Zoom events for ambassadors, as did Rivlin.
Some of the in-person events hosted by the Ambassadors’ Club in 2020 included a Woman of Valor ceremony in June; a farewell for Latvian Ambassador Elita Gavele and a visit to Jerusalem, both in September; a farewell for Dominican Republic Ambassador John Guiliani in October; and a Diplomat of the Year event in December 2020.
■ A REPORT in Yediot Aharonot this week relates to model and fitness teacher Fay Jakite, who with her friend Tia Galili won the seventh season of the television reality show Race for a Million. Such success often brings with it additional perks, such as trips abroad, contracts for commercials for global products and film roles. Among Jakite’s perks was a trip to Barcelona for a movie shoot.
Though born and raised in Israel and staunchly Zionist, Jakite is not an Israeli citizen, because her parents, who are from Congo, were never granted citizenship. She therefore travels on a foreign passport. To make matters worse, her given name is not Fay but Fatima, which always sends a red alert to security inspectors. She has been subjected to humiliating and invasive body searches, and more than the regular search of her luggage.
When she flew to Barcelona, she forgot to lock her suitcase, and the search was conducted out of her line of vision. When she arrived at her hotel and unpacked, she went into shock. Everything was a mess, and her cosmetics had been spilled all over her clothes. She did receive an apology of sorts, but that kind of treatment to any passenger on the basis of religion or race is indefensible and outrageous. It is not Jakite’s fault that she is not a citizen. She is an Israeli in every other sense. She engages in volunteer social work with Holocaust survivors and in hospitals, and is always ready to help where needed.