THE LOUNGE
TA Museum of Art
At the annual Tel Aviv Museum of Art gala evening that was held last week, President Reuven Rivlin spoke in front of more than 300 guests. The evening was hosted by Tel Aviv-Yafo Mayor Ron Huldai, who serves as chairman of the museum’s international board of trustees, Suzanne Landau, the outgoing director-general of the museum, and attorney Dina Papo, head of public relations at the Tel Aviv Museum.
Rivlin, Huldai and Landau welcomed the guests and spoke about the importance of freedom of thought, creativity and expression. While conservatives espoused loyalty in culture, these three have pledged that there will be no censorship whatsoever in the Tel Aviv Museum and in Israel.
Among the guests were: the president’s wife Nehama Rivlin; Adv. Haim Samet; chair of the museum’s Board of Directors and chair of its finance committee Varda Samet; Irit Rappaport, chair of Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum; Glenn Perry; and Susan and Martin Sanders.
Aman Group
As in years past, Ben Pasternak, the CEO of the Aman Group, hosted a small gathering of 100 CEOs and VIPs in hi-tech and business. The forum’s special guest this year was former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who held the audience entranced with his unconventional lecture. Pasternak welcomed his guests and told them how Aman is continuing to expand in Israel and around the world. The group is 2,000 people strong and recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China in the fields of big data and block chain.
Transplant department
The new transplant department at Beilinson Hospital was inaugurated on Monday evening. The department was named after Pinnit and Pini Cohen, chair of the Friends of Rabin Medical Center, who donated their private funds. Most transplants in Israel are currently performed at Beilinson Hospital and the promoters of the new unit believe that people who have been hospitalized in order to donate an organ should be put up in 5-star conditions.
Participating in the event were Prof. Ehud Davidson, director-general of Clalit Health Services; Dr. Eran Halpern, director of Beilinson; donors Pninit and Pini Cohen; and Eitan Mor, director of the transplant department.
Int’l photo festival
At the end of the week, Tzachi Arbov, Ilan Kapon and Ziv Yaacobi – the owners of Acro Real Estate – hosted customers and business partners and offered them an exclusive glimpse of the sixth International Photography Festival, which will take place until the end of the month in the Tel Aviv neighborhood of Neot Afeka.
The festival will be hosted this year in the legendary Kitan Center, which will be demolished at its conclusion. In its place, Acro Real Estate will build the “Golf Complex” residential project, which will consist of four luxury towers and a business center.
David Azrieli Prize
At the Smolarz Auditorium at Tel Aviv University, the 15th annual David Azrieli Prize ceremony took place in which winners were chosen for the 2018 Student Architecture Project. The Azrieli Foundation awarded NIS 100,000 to the top three prize winners. The goal of the prize is to encourage excellence in academic architecture institutions in Israel, while strengthening ties and mutual enrichment with the professional community in Israel and around the world. This year, international architect James von Klemperer, president and chief designer of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, joined the judging team. The prizes were awarded by Azrieli Group Chair Dana Azrieli, who also serves as chair of the Azrieli Foundation, Naomi Azrieli, chair of the Canada Azrieli Foundation, and a panel of judges.