A matter of priorities
Jabotinsky Institute chairman had been scheduled to deliver an address at Oxford University last month, but instead opted to speak at a conference at Bar-Ilan University on the same date.
“I wasn’t supposed to be here today,” he told other participants at the outset of his address, but he could not ignore the conference that dealt with the ideological and other differences between the Hagana and the Irgun.
Actually it was a major sacrifice on Ahimeir’s part not to go to Oxford, because he had been invited to speak at the launch of an English translation of a book about his late father Dr. Abba Ahimeir, who initiated a revolt against the British Mandate authorities.
The book was initially conceived as a doctoral thesis by Canadian-British historian
who also happens to be
Jewish.
When Ahimeir revealed what his predicament had been, the crowd applauded approvingly that he had opted for Bar-Ilan over Oxford, thereby disclosing his priorities.
■ THE UPMARKET Tzahala neighborhood in north Tel Aviv is home to the rich and the powerful, with particular emphasis on the residents of Yoav Street. Tzahala was originally home to high-ranking army officers, but over the years, it evolved into the neighborhood of choice of many affluent individuals. As is the case in Herzliya Pituah, people often pay a king’s ransom for properties, tear them down, build something new, and within two or three years, the site is sold yet again. who is a former director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office under the administration of Yitzhak Rabin, later became an adviser on political strategies to governments and political leaders around the world.
Sheves spent several years living outside of Israel, and after returning, he and his wife
three a years ago built a magnificent home in Tzahala. In the interim, they decided to divorce and to sell their luxury house and split the profits. The buyer is the billionaire founder and chief technology officer of Pao Alto Networks. Zuk is one of the major Israeli success stories in Silicon Valley and has been living in San Francisco for several years. Now, he’s thinking of coming home, but will be on a regular commute between Tel Aviv and the San Francisco Bay area. His new home in Tel Aviv was purchased for NIS 50 million.
Sheves is among those Israelis who did not become euphoric over United States President peace plan that was last week presented to the world at large, and claims that Trump’s “Deal of the Century” is very similar to a peace plan that was presented to Rabin in 1995. Rabin had rejected it because the Palestinians had not been consulted. According to Sheves, the only agreements in which both Israel and the Palestinians were more or less on the same page were the Oslo Accords.
■ WHILE MANY European monarchs of the last century were direct descendants of Queen Victoria, the blood relationships of current reigning dynasties go back even further in time.
All the kings and queens of the current reigning dynasties in Europe, including Britain (which is no longer a member of the European Union), are descended from Carolina of Orange-Nassau. Among them is the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, who is his country’s monarchical head. His father was Grand Duke Jean, who died in 2000, and his maternal grandfather was King Leopold III of Belgium.
When the Germans invaded Luxembourg early in World War II, the royal family fled first to Paris, then to North America and in 1942 to England, where Grand Duke Jean enlisted in the British Army, fighting together with a young Irishman by the name of Vivian Herzog, better known in Israel as Chaim Herzog. When the current Duke of Luxembourg was in Israel last month to attend a conference on Holocaust and antisemitism, he met Jewish Agency Chairman and the two spent time talking about their respective fathers. Although he is a very distant cousin to
the Grand Duke bears an unmistakable resemblance to her father George VI and to her uncle Edward VIII
THERE HAS been a certain changing of the guard at World WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization). At the recent enlarged general meeting celebrating WIZO’s centenary year, WIZO presented its new executive committee, which is now chaired by – who has been a member of WIZO for 25 years during which she filled a variety of positions in Israel and abroad. World WIZO President
was reelected for a second fouryear term.
Friedman, 59, a native of Bogota, Colombia, grew up in a Zionist family and made aliyah by herself at the age of 17. In 1989, due to her husband’s business interests, she moved with her family to Miami, where she became involved in WIZO and eventually rose through the ranks to become chairperson of WIZO Florida and vice-president of WIZO USA. The family returned to Israel in 2013 and Friedman was appointed deputy chair of WIZO’s fund-raiser department. Two years later she was elected as the department’s chairperson. Under her leadership, WIZO extended its fund-raising activities, expanding its inventory of hundreds of welfare and educational services, which include day care centers, schools and youth villages for at-risk youth, shelters for abused women, “warm homes” for girls and more.
In her acceptance speech as chair of World WIZO, Friedman pledged to promote changes in Israel’s education system and in relation to the labor market so that women will be able to combine raising a family with managing a career. This includes: longer school days, free education for children from the age of three months old and state-sponsored frameworks for children during school holidays. As president of World WIZO, Mor is charged with representing WIZO around the world and in Zionist institutions and for strengthening the relationship between WIZO and all its worldwide federations in more than 40 countries the Diaspora. Mor has been a member of WIZO for 39 years and has held several positions in the organization. Including chairperson of the World WIZO Fundraising Division. She also served as WIZO’s representative in several different countries strengthening identity and membership and establishing new federations.
Friedman is responsible for WIZO’s 800 institutions and educational establishments in Israel, as well as liaising with all branches of local government agencies, public and business entities operating with WIZO to strengthen society in Israel.
Also celebrating its centenary this year and next is Keren Hayesod, which was established in December 1920, and currently has branches in 45 countries.
Then in December, next year, Keren Kayemet, the Jewish National Fund will celebrate its 120th anniversary – a very significant number in Jewish tradition.
As far as people are concerned, close to the High Holy Day period, Shas and the office of the Chief Rabbinate will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late Shas spiritual leader and former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who according to the Gregorian calendar was born in Baghdad on September 20, 1920 and died in Jerusalem on October 7, 2013. Yosef was given a massive traffic-stopping funeral and one suspects that celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of his birth together with close calendar date of the anniversary of his death, will prompt a series of mega-events designed to strengthen Shas both spiritually and politically.
■ MOST JEWISH festivals include special foods and the dinner at which they are served is usually a meat meal, which is painful to vegans and vegetarians – whose favorite Jewish holiday is arguably Tu Bishvat, the new year for trees at which the meal is actually vegan.
On Sunday evening February 2, one of the foremost champions of vegetarianism in Israel, Ph.D., professor emeritus, College of Staten Island; president emeritus, Jewish Veg; and author of Judaism and Vegetarianism, Judaism and Global Survival, and over 250 articles online, will deliver two lectures related to Tu Bishvat and will lead a Tu Bishvat Seder at the Israel Center, 22 Keren Kayesod Street, Jerusalem (opposite the Dan Panorama Hotel).
Many people, even in the religiously observant community, are unaware of what constitutes a Tu Bishvat Seder, so those attending the event will gain food for thought as well as for the palate, and some will also acquire knowledge that they did not have before.
■RELIGIOUS SINGERS are increasingly gaining a following. Let’s be honest,
– who is currently touring the country – is not particularly charismatic, nor does he have a particularly good voice, but his concerts are packing in both religious and nonreligious audiences, so much so that tickets for his performance at Jerusalem’s Beit Avi Chai on February 20, have been sold out. In fact, Rand, who has a reputation for being constantly in debt, is doing so well on the entertainment circuit, that he should very soon be able to say that he is debt free. But he’s not the only religiously observant performer who is playing to full houses. Regardless of whether they’re singing Carlebach, or whether it’s in the flesh performers such as
the
or a bevy of other bigtime Orthodox singers, whether they sing in a concert hall or a stadium, the place is always full. Maybe that’s what’s meant by what in Yiddish is called dos pintele Yid – that tiny point of being a Jew.