Although it was known three weeks ago that Israel’s former consul-general in New York, Dani Dayan, had been nominated by Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton to succeed Avner Shalev as chairman of Yad Vashem, Dayan’s appointment did not become official until Sunday of this week, when it was approved by the cabinet.
When Shalev retired in December 2020 after a 27-year career with Yad Vashem, then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, together with then-minister of higher education Ze’ev Elkin, nominated former government minister, party leader and war hero Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Effi Eitam, whom they considered to be ideal, as he was also a second-generation Holocaust survivor.
But Eitam’s nomination was mired in controversy because he had made allegedly racist comments in relation to the Arabs. This did not sit well with many people, including Holocaust survivors, and the issue became so contentious that it seemed that politics had pervaded the carefully apolitical Yad Vashem.
Part of the reason for this was that among those leading the campaign against Eitam was Colette Avital, a former Labor MK, who currently chairs the Center Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel. Avital, who several years earlier had also been a consul-general in New York, was supportive of Dayan, despite their political differences.
Dayan, who is politically right of Center, is a former chairman of the Yesha Council, and firmly believes in the expansion of Jewish settlement in the disputed territories.
Political differences did not prevent Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who is somewhat right of Center, from appointing Avital, who is very left, to the Yad Vashem Board of Management. In so doing, he stated that with her history, she would be a real asset. Dayan, for his part, welcomed the opportunity to work with Avital.
Following his approval by the cabinet, Dayan tweeted: “Leading Yad Vashem is more than a position – it is a mission that I take today with awe and reverence. Yad Vashem is not just a commemorative endeavor. On our shoulders rests the responsibility to research and educate, to document and disseminate, to validate fact-based historical truths about the Holocaust and reject all forms of distortion, in order to safeguard the memory of the Shoah and to ensure that the Jewish people and humanity will forever continue to remember this event. As time passes, our work will become more challenging, albeit more vital than ever before.”
In an interview with Israel Radio Reshet Bet’s Aryeh Golan, who happens to be a member of the Yad Vashem Council, Dayan said that he was very pleased that Colette Avital would be joining Yad Vashem’s Board of Management.
In thanking all those who had placed their confidence in his ability to take Yad Vashem to the next level, Dayan did not overlook former Knesset director-general and current mayor of Nof Hagalil Ronen Plot, who held the fort until a permanent replacement could be found.
Dayan also thanked Shalev for his many years of dedication in the service of Holocaust remembrance, and for his leadership in transforming Yad Vashem into a global organization.
On the premise that a new broom sweeps clean, Golan asked Dayan about changes that he intends to make in his new role. Dayan said that it was much too early to make any plans, but indicated that he would like to make greater efforts in tracing the lives of child Holocaust survivors, and cited the little boy from Bialystok.
Although he did not mention him by name, he was obviously referring to the story that was written by Bialystok-born Ben Midler, who was orphaned at age 13, and who managed to escape concentration camps and execution squads, and was haunted by nightmares for most of his life, until he was 80 and decided to put his story on paper.
To Dayan, it is very important to tell the stories of such children because it points to Jewish resilience, even among the very young, and it illustrates the saga of Jewish continuity.
On his first day in his official capacity, Dayan chose to meet with two Holocaust survivors who work at the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, giving them priority over senior Yad Vashem officials. He had a long conversation with Berthe Badehi and Jacob Weksler.
Badehi, who was born in Lyon, France, in 1932, was able to survive by living with a Christian family which protected her, and hid her when necessary. She has been working at Yad Vashem for many years, and recently participated in Martin Scholler’s exhibition “Survivors: Faces of Life after the Holocaust,” in which she was one of 75 survivors.
Weksler, who was born in 1943 in Vilnius, Lithuania, has worked at Yad Vashem for the past decade. Like Badehi, he was given to a Christian family for safekeeping. He was one month old at the time. His biological parents never returned, and he grew up as a devout Catholic, so much so that he became a priest. It was only as an adult that he discovered his Jewish identity, came to Israel, spent time at a kibbutz, studied Judaism and was awarded Israeli citizenship in 2019, after which he belatedly celebrated his bar mitzvah. At Yad Vashem, he researches and translates wartime documents.
Dayan was extremely moved by what he heard from Badehi and Weksler, and told them that for him they are heroes and the most important people at Yad Vashem.
He pledged to do all in his power to carry the torch of remembrance and to ensure that it is passed on to future generations.
“For me, Yad Vashem is the continuation of all that I had and lost,” said Badehi. “I do not see this place as just a place of work, but also as a home and a family.”
■ MANY OF the friends she made in Israel are anxious about the safety of former Canadian ambassador Deborah Lyons. Prior to taking up her post in Israel in 2016, she was ambassador to Afghanistan– the only woman ambassador in the foreign diplomatic corps.
Much as she loved Israel, Afghanistan occupied a permanent place in her heart. When United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres offered her the opportunity to return to Afghanistan as his special representative for Afghanistan and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, replacing Tadamichi Yamamoto of Japan, she could not have been happier, even though she had experienced terrorism in Afghanistan while serving as ambassador there. She was appointed to her present role in March 2020.
On August 6 of this year, Lyons told the UN Security Council that the war in Afghanistan had entered a “deadlier and more destructive phase.” She also doubted that the Taliban was sincere in its declarations that it was interested in a political solution to the conflagration, and that it was genuinely committed to a negotiated peace settlement.
“A party that was genuinely committed to a negotiated settlement would not risk so many civilian casualties, because it would understand that the process of reconciliation will be more challenging, the more blood is shed,” she said.
Since then, her assessment has unfortunately proved to be correct. Kabul is in chaos, and it looks as if the situation will get a lot worse before it gets better.
Lyons has not tweeted since July, so it is difficult to know where she is and what she is doing. But her voice was briefly heard on radio this week, talking about crying children in Kabul who had not eaten in two days.
■ DUE TO travel restrictions, first lady Michal Herzog was unable to travel to the Kyiv Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen hosted by Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, as part of Ukraine’s 30th Independence Day celebrations, but she did send a video to the summit.
As one of the newest first ladies, she said, she believes that her biggest challenge is bringing together the different groups in Israeli society. “We have gone through two challenging years, both internally and externally, not to mention COVID, and I see my role as being a unifying force,” she said. “As first lady, I will strive to be a person that the people of Israel can turn to.”
■ EVEN THOUGH the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency are made up of different political factions, politics should not be permitted to intrude on the basic goals of both organizations.
The weekend edition of Haaretz carried a story by prizewinning journalist Judy Maltz in which she wrote that representatives of the Adelson family successfully blocked a planned move by Birthright from the Prime Minister’s Office to that of the Diaspora affairs minister.
The problem is that Miriam Adelson and her late husband, Sheldon, were the largest donors to Birthright, which brings young adult and teen Jews on free educational trips to Israel. The experience instills a greater sense of Jewish identity in many, and a significant percentage of Birthright young men and women return to Israel to volunteer for the army or to become immigrants. No one denies that it was very noble of the Adelsons to give millions of dollars to such a cause. But now it seems, judging by Maltz’s article, that the gift was conditional. The Diaspora Affairs Ministry, which, logically, is the natural home for movements such as Birthright, is currently headed by Nachman Shai, who is a member of the Labor Party. Sheldon Adelson was one of the leading donors to the Republican Party, and president Donald Trump gave Miriam Adelson America’s highest civilian award – the Medal of Freedom. There are those who believe that she is even more staunchly a Republican than was her husband. Under the circumstances, she certainly wouldn’t want a Labor Party minister calling the Birthright shots.
What would have happened if the agreement to transfer responsibility had gone through as planned? Would Adelson have asked to get her money back? If the story in Haaretz is indicative of her influence, just how much are other organizations and institutions that have benefited from the Adelson largesse bowing to her will?
■ WHEN SHE comes to Israel this month, as part of her farewell tour, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with President Isaac Herzog, who will be the fifth president of Israel to meet with her.
Though not yet chancellor, but a five-year veteran of the Bundestag when it was addressed by Ezer Weizman in January 1996, she subsequently met Moshe Katsav when he visited Berlin in May 2005. At that time she was six months away from becoming chancellor, but was chairwoman of the Christian Democrat Party, and as such conducted talks with the president of Israel.
As chancellor she met Shimon Peres several times, both in Israel and in Germany, as well as elsewhere in Europe, and likewise Reuven Rivlin, to whom she last spoke via Zoom in June of this year, a month prior to the conclusion of Rivlin’s term of office.
In February 2014, Merkel became the first European leader to be conferred with Israel’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Distinction, which was initiated by Peres, who felt that if Israelis were receiving America’s Medal of Freedom, the French Legion of Honor and similar awards from presidents and foreign ministers of other countries, Israel should have a similar mode of recognition of the achievements of both foreign and local individuals.
Rivlin did not follow through with this award, but it is to be hoped that Herzog will realize its value in enhancing bilateral relations, and will revive it.
■ THERE WAS much discussion and criticism last weekend over the decision by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to take a brief vacation break with his family within the country, and the decision by Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli to go abroad at a time when Bennett had asked all Israelis to refrain from overseas travel unless it was absolutely necessary.
Michaeli did not confide in anyone as to why she and her partner, satirist Lior Schleien, were traveling to the United States. It was to be present at the birth of their son, Uri, who was born to a surrogate mother after Michaeli had unsuccessfully endured fertility treatment.
There are two things to be learned here. One is that love conquers all; and the other is that it is wrong to jump to conclusions before seeing the broader picture.
It was Schleien who wanted to subscribe to the “baby makes three” family formula. Michaeli has been outspoken against surrogate motherhood. She has also advocated that women can have fulfillment without becoming mothers. Those views have not changed, but when she realized how important it was to Schleien to have a child, she went along with him.
In the photograph of the couple with their newborn son that was published online on Saturday night and in many newspapers in Israel and abroad on Sunday, it is Schleien who is cradling the infant, while the usually well-composed Michaeli is standing awkwardly at his side.
Of course, once the news got out, all the criticism turned to congratulatory messages on social media. There may now be a problem with Uri’s Jewish identity, since his birth mother is not Jewish.
Perhaps with all the reforms in Israel, there may be one pertaining to surrogate motherhood as well, including a caveat to the effect that, other than payment of medical expenses related to the pregnancy, it must be altruistic. One of Michaeli’s chief objections to surrogate motherhood is that it’s a form of human trafficking, in that women are literally renting out their wombs. While most surrogate mothers say that they want to help a childless couple, they have no qualms about asking to be paid to do so.
■ AS FOR Bennett’s super-brief vacation, during which he remained glued to his cellphone, Haaretz political analyst, news and feature writer Yossi Verter, who used to write so scathingly about anything done by Netanyahu, regardless of how positive an act it may have been, put all his weight behind Bennett, writing that he was entitled to a break.
But neither Verter nor other political journalists would be prepared to give the same leeway to Netanyahu. Even when the latter paid his own way in a luxury hotel in Hawaii where he, his wife and one of their sons are vacationing, he was still subjected to criticism. Had he booked into a three-star hotel, his critics would have said that he was trying to a create a “man of the people” impression, which is what many of them said when he was photographed in transit in San Francisco sitting on his luggage.
■ SINCE HER extradition to Australia in January of this year, not much has been heard about Malka Leifer, who is facing a long string of child abuse charges of a sexual nature. Manny Waks, an earlier victim of sexual abuse at the Chabad Yeshiva in Melbourne, whose revelations and subsequent court action led to far greater awareness, went to Australia this week to be present when Leifer shows up in an Australian court.
Waks, who now lives in Israel, continues with his global battle to defend the rights of children against all forms of abuse, but particularly abuse by sexual predators. He has been one of the key supporting figures of Dassi Erlich and her sisters, who as students in a haredi school in Melbourne were allegedly sexually abused by Leifer.
In a protracted case, in which Leifer’s lawyers tried to prove the she was psychologically unstable and therefore unfit to stand trial, there was eventually sufficient evidence to the contrary, and Leifer, now back in Melbourne, is facing 74 charges.
Waks flew to Australia this week for the Malka Leifer Committal hearing, which commences on September 13, which falls between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He is currently working on a groundbreaking documentary film that addresses child sexual abuse within the family, with particular focus on the tragic, hopeful but inspiring story that is being shared by a courageous family in which such abuse occurred.
■ ODDLY ENOUGH, other than for small private parties, Australians living in Israel do not get together on Australia Day, January 26, unless some important Australian dignitary is visiting, as has happened a couple of times in the past. But they do congregate three times year – on ANZAC Day in April, on the anniversary of the Battle of Semah in September, and on the anniversary of the Battle of Beersheba in October. The Australian Light Horse Brigade participated in both battles, and is credited with defeating the Ottoman forces in the Battle of Beersheba. All three anniversaries relate primarily to the First World War, though on ANZAC Day, soldiers who fell in battle in all the wars in which Australian troops took part are remembered.
Moriah Ben David the Israel director of the Zionist Federation of Australia, advises that the ZFA, Kinneret College and Gan Garoo Australian Zoo have partnered for an “Aussie Day up North” on Thursday, September 30.
Immigrants from Australia can enjoy a free visit to the zoo and later have a BYO picnic on the shore of the Galilee.
At 5:30 p.m. Kinneret Academic College will host a memorial service for the Australian soldiers who fought in the area so bravely, and who are commemorated on the college campus. The nearby Tzemah railway station has been turned into a museum, where guided tours are conducted by people from Kinneret College.
■ IF THERE is one word to characterize Jewish organizational activity in the 21st century, it’s “outreach.” Not that it wasn’t a major force in the 20th century, but it’s definitely more so as Pew reports create increasing concern, year after year, that Jewish identity is going by the wayside, and has been reduced to chopped liver or bagel and lox.
As Jews enjoy more freedoms while antisemitism is simultaneously on the rise, there is a fear that millennial Jews who do not want to experience the travails of their ancestors will gradually move away from their faith and their cultural identities. It is to them that organizations such as Hillel, Birthright, MASA, StandWithUs and others are reaching out.
Among the notable successes in outreach organizations and movements is the New York-based Manhattan Jewish Experience, with localities on the West Side, the East Side and Downtown.
It is run by Rabbi Mark Wildes, an adjunct lecturer in the Rabbinic Training Program at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, from which he received his own rabbinic ordination.
Wildes decided to create a platform in which all Jews could feel comfortable. It’s a warm, and open community where millennial men and women in their 20s and 30s can explore Jewish life at their own pace and decide what is good for them. It offers social, cultural, educational and spiritual events through music, lectures, religious services, Sabbath meals, workshops, drama and more.
Wildes, who is also an author and a much-in-demand public speaker and interviewee on radio and television, can chalk up two major successes. One is that close to 350 marriages have resulted from couples who met through the Manhattan Jewish Experience, and the other is that a large number of his followers have made aliyah after participating in Israel Retreat programs that Wildes has conducted. But even in Israel, they keep their fingers on the MJE pulse by following activities on Facebook and other social media platforms.
At this time of year, many Jews make a sincere effort to improve their characters. An easy-to-read guideline on how to do this is the gist of Wildes’s latest book, The 40 Day Challenge: Daily Jewish Insights to Prepare for the High Holidays, which has had favorable reviews in the US.
■ IF ROSH HASHANAH is around the corner, the annual storytelling festival hosted by Yossi Alfi at the Givatayim Theater is scheduled to follow soon after, during the intermediate days of Sukkot. The festival is a wonderful way to pick up bits and pieces of Israel’s history from people who actually played a part in it. Not surprisingly, it’s a sellout, year after year.
Alfi’s programs are regularly rebroadcast on radio and television, and one of his frequent invitees is former Labor Party minister Moshe Shahal, who was born in Iraq, speaks Arabic fluently, and had an excellent relationship with the late Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
On one occasion in which he was invited to come to Egypt to discuss the possibility of peace with Syria, Mubarak arranged for him to meet with Syrian president Hafez Assad, but warned him that Israel must not give more to Syria than it gave to Egypt. Yitzhak Rabin was prime minister at the time, and gave Shahal permission to attend the meeting with Assad. However, Rabin neglected to inform Peres of this development.
Shortly before the meeting was due to take place, Rabin was assassinated. Peres became the interim prime minister, and Shahal asked him whether it was still all right for him to go to Syria. Peres did not know what he was talking about. Shahal briefed him, and Peres thought it wiser to wait till after the elections. Labor lost, and the meeting never took place.
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