THE LOUNGE
Haim Saban
Businessman and philanthropist Haim Saban arrived in Israel this week with a delegation of American Jews who are contributors to the American Friends of the IDF and Panama (FIDF). The delegation included the founders of the GUESS fashion brand, Paul and Maurice Marciano. Along with Saban, the two toured the IDF training center in southern Israel, home to a sports center that was financed by Saban. The delegation was welcomed by the soldiers and Col. Avi Motola, the commander of the training base. The Marciano family continued their tour of the Holyland, which culminated in the bar mitzvah celebration of Paul’s son Ryan at the Western Wall.
Scientific Symposium
The Israel Cancer Research Fund’s Scientific Symposium, which was held at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, sponsored by “City of Hope,” was the crowning achievement of the ICRF-Israel Cancer Research Fund Mission. The delegation from the US and Canada, headed by ICRF president Rob Densen and ICRF chairman Dr. Mark Israel, included donors, researchers, and ICRF board members from all of the fund’s branches. During the eight-day visit, the delegation heard interesting lectures, participated in important meetings, and explored Israel.
One lecture was given by Prof. Ronit Saatchi Fainaru, head of the Cancer Research Laboratory and Nano Technologies, which is developing new drugs for cancer treatment. Saatchi Fainaru received a grant from ICRF for another seven years of research. In addition, the delegation was taken on a fascinating tour of laboratories at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, heard a lecture on various studies, and participated in a meeting with Dr. Asia Rawls and researcher Naama Geva Ztorsky, both of whom received scholarships in the past. The visit concluded with a symposium at Hadassah led by Tamir Gilat, who emphasized the importance of the foundation’s work and spoke of his experiences as its chairman and as a patient himself.
Teddy Sagi
Teddy Sagi, one of the richest Israelis in the world, celebrated his 47th birthday last week, which was a great excuse for holding a big extravagant party. Last Thursday, Sagi, his wife Yael Nizri who is pregnant with their fifth child, and their friends enjoyed a fun-filled evening at the Avigdor complex in Tel Aviv. There was an abundance of culinary treats, performances, and drinks. The place itself was plastered with a spectacular design including the English initials of the birthday boy. Guests enjoyed performances by Eden Ben Zaken and Sagi’s good friend Omer Adam, as well as a dance show by a Georgian band.
Mellanox Technologies
Last Wednesday, Mellanox Technologies hosted a thousand senior hi-tech executives from around the world at its annual gala event at the Sheraton Hotel in Dallas, Texas. During the event, Mellanox CEO Eyal Waldman presented the company’s newest technologies and gadgets, as did Bob Ciotti, chief architect/ supercomputing systems lead at NASA Ames Research Center, and Thierry Pellegrino, vice president of HPC at Dell EMC. Later in the evening, guests were treated to a breathtaking performance by mentalist Lior Suchard, who transfixed spectators with an interactive technological performance. The evening was part of SC18 Technology Conference, one of the most important conferences in the tech world, during which Mellanox won nine prizes and the TOP 500 list of the world’s leading supercomputers was published. The Mellanox InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions accelerate the majority of the TOP500 platforms.
Schneider Hospital
The annual fundraising event for the Schneider Children’s Hospital took place last Thursday at the Smolarz Auditorium at Tel Aviv University. The focus of this year’s fundraising event was supporting organ transplants for children in Israel. During the evening, guests heard the story of a couple, who are foreign workers from India and parents of a baby who was suffering from a serious liver disease that endangered his life and prevented them from returning home to India. The baby received a life-saving liver donation from an Israeli woman who did not know him. The overjoyed parents attended the fundraising event with their son and offered heartfelt thanks to the hospital staff. The hospital had raised NIS 1.5 million by the end of the event. During the second part of the evening, guests were treated to a performance by singer Ivri Lider who managed to get everyone up on their feet, dancing and singing with him. The evening was hosted by Israel Makov; Dr. Avinoam Pirogovsky, deputy director of Schneider; chairperson Ronen Tov; and CEO Efrat Bar-Natan.
Translated by Hannah Hochner.