Grapevine, March 8, 2024: The voice of Israel

■ FOR MANY years anyone speaking of The Voice of Israel was referring to Israel Public Radio – and some broadcasters still do.

But since October 7, the “Voice” of Israel has become Michal Herzog, the wife of President Isaac Herzog. Although many people have spoken out against the cruel, inhuman conduct of Hamas, particularly the brutal attacks on women by Hamas sadists, few have spoken out as frequently or in as many influential circles as Michal Herzog, who has made eliminating violent sexual abuse and the use of women and children as weapons of war as her cause.

She brings the subject up in conversation at every opportunity and does not allow her listeners to forget that the key victims are those Israeli women abducted by Hamas.

“They cannot cry out for themselves,” she tells her audience. “We have to be their voice. We have to cry out for them.” She has heard the most shocking and heart-breaking stories about these women, and she has ample opportunity to speak out on their behalf during the month of International Women’s Day, as her schedule includes somewhere in the range of a dozen events in various parts of the country – and she is invited to speak at all of them.

Among those that she attended this week was one hosted by the Israel Building Center (IBC) in Netanya, where other speakers focused on different aspects of the construction and housing industry, such as architecture, neighborhood, marketing, interior décor, the psychology of the decision-making process and more. The event attended by numerous women executives who represented varied careers, was moderated by Ilanit Melchior, who before she became head of strategy at IBC was the longtime director of tourism at the Jerusalem Development Authority, with considerable experience in both public and private sectors.

She reminded Herzog that she had said of her when she entered the President’s Residence as the wife of the President of the State that there was no-one better suited to be Israel’s first lady. What has happened in the interim vindicates that opinion, said Melchior.

Not to be outdone, IBC chairman Eran Rolls, who was one of a handful of men who were present, declared that Isaac Herzog was the best president in Israel’s history.

In keeping with the occasion, Rolls was pleased to see women in executive positions in every field.

Although this was indeed something to celebrate, the fact that there were Israeli hostages who were unable to celebrate, remained paramount in everyone’s consciousness. On every seat, there was a yellow tulip – a flower whose petals are usually closed just as the hostages are in closure. Yellow, of course, symbolizes the readiness to welcome the hostages when they eventually return home.

Launching the Oxford Israel Alumni Society (OIAS) 

■ A CELEBRATION of another kind is also being held in Israel today, March 8. British ambassador Simon Walters will host the launch of the Oxford Israel Alumni Society (OIAS) at a reception at his residence in Ramat Gan. It’s not just because he represents the UK in Israel. He also happens to be an Oxford alumnus.

The OIAS is an official alumni club representing the University of Oxford in Israel.

More than 600 Israelis have enrolled at Oxford in recent decades.

The University is consistently ranked among the top universities worldwide. Despite the relatively large number of Oxford alumni (including immigrants) living in Israel, there has not been an active official alumni society in the country in recent years.

Among the people attending the society’s opening function will be Anita Leviant, president of the Israel-UK Chamber of Commerce, and Neta Gruber Perry, director at the Innovation Authority, who will each speak on Israel’s contributions to impact investing, focusing on the health and climate sectors.

The University of Oxford Alumni Board has officially appointed attorney Simon Kotlerman, Dr. Aviv Yehezkel and Tomer Amir to head the Israel Society. Kotlerman is a social entrepreneur and business development manager; Yehezkel is cofounder of the cybersecurity start-up Cynamics; and Amir, is a technology expert. All three are alumni of the prestigious Saïd Business School. Within merely a month, since getting started, they have managed to attract more than 100 Oxford graduates as founding members.

”It is with great excitement that we inaugurate the Oxford Israel Alumni Society, a vital part of Oxford’s worldwide alumni network,” said Kotlerman. “This society is set to become a key venue for collaborative projects and enhancing relations within our global community.”

Yehezkel sees the Society as a vital channel for strengthening Israel-UK relations. “By bringing together alumni from various fields in Israel, the society aims to create a supportive community and provide a distinctive channel for reinforcing the Israeli ecosystem through connections with the UK,” he said.

The 96-year-old who shows up in uniform when needed

■ TECHNICALLY, ISRAELIS who have served in the IDF, are automatically part of the Reserve forces and are called up for duty up to the age of 40, though many keep going much longer. But it’s doubtful that anyone can beat the record of Ezra Yachin, 96, who still shows up in his uniform whenever he feels there is a need.

During the period of the British Mandate, he was an underground fighter and belonged to Lehi, a right-wing paramilitary organization. Once Independence was declared, he was a combatant in most of the wars in which Israel was engaged, and after that took on other military assignments.

This week he joined other active and veteran reservists at the President’s Residence, where President Herzog who is a history buff was possibly more interested in meeting Yachin than the latter was in meeting the president. American media outlets discovered Yachin many years ago and have featured him several times on television and in newspapers and magazines.

Jerusalem's upcoming Biennale

■ AMONG THE exhibitors in the upcoming Jerusalem Biennale running in the capital from March 25 to April 29 and directed by Ram Ozeri, is internationally-known photographer Joan Roth, whose works will be among thirty exhibitions of varying art forms that collectively come under the heading of contemporary Jewish art.

Roth’s exhibition, which includes some of her early works, actually opens earlier and goes on display at the Black Box Gallery on March 11.

More than half a century ago, Roth set herself a photographic mission to make Jewish women visible.

Judging by the tribute she received from the late Alice Shalvi, the founder of the Israel Women’s Network, and author with her late husband of an encyclopedia of Jewish women, Roth has obviously succeeded.

Shalvi wrote: “Joan Roth has the gift for seeing the significant moment, the meaningful gesture, the fleeting look which conveys an in-depth character, a lifetime of experience, an entire culture... Joan’s gaze is a female gaze and, in the capacity to penetrate below the surface to the essence of women’s lives, it is a feminist gaze which does not objectify but rather empathizes, sympathizes, identifies with the subjects of her work”.

For this exhibition, Roth has blown up photographs that were originally printed in a considerably smaller size, The new dimension also creates new impressions.

Assaf Granit set to be kosher 

■ CELEBRITY CHEF Assaf Granit and his partner Uri Navon are finally going to be kosher. After all the non-kosher restaurants that their Mahaneh Yehuda group has opened in Israel, London, and Paris in the past, their upcoming venture in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood will be, according to a report in Yediot Aharonot, a kosher dairy and fish restaurant. But that’s not all. The restaurant will be integral to a 22-room boutique hotel, which will be their first step into the hotel industry. The hotel will be housed in the Molcho building which is a protected heritage site.

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