Grapevine December 20, 2023: An exception to the rule

■ NOT EVERY civil servant or politician who dared to criticize judicial reform was ousted or demoted. Among the exceptions to the rule is Bank of Israel governor Amir Yaron, who this week was appointed to serve a second five-year term. Yaron had warned that judicial reform might have a negative impact on the independence of Israel’s institutions. Still, by mid-November when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to keep Yaron on board, judicial reform had been placed on the back burner, and if brought forward again, will be greatly revised. So, there was no point in considering anyone else for governor – especially during war-time.

It’s unusual for the guest of honor at an event at the President’s Residence, where the appointment ceremony was held, to arrive early in the main hall and rehearse his or her appearance in front of the video camera. But Yaron arrived almost half an hour ahead of schedule, mounted the stage, and took his place behind the podium.

Perhaps because he was aware that the ceremony would be broadcast live, he wanted to be sure to stand correctly in the eye of the video camera.

He also posed for still photos with some of his predecessors who had been invited to attend.

■ FEBRUARY 14 is Valentine’s Day, but for many Jews in America, as well as American citizens in Israel, February 13 will be a much more important date. That’s when votes will be cast for a special election to replace George Santos, who after being indicted on 23 fraud related cases, was forced to vacate his seat in Congress. The frontline runner in the Congressional race is an Orthodox Jewish mother of seven, who also happens to be a former paratrooper in the IDF. Her name is Mazi Melisa Filip and she has been nominated by New York Republicans. Born in Ethiopia and arriving in Israel at age 4 within the framework of Operation Solomon, Filip, 44, is reputed to have a dynamic personality and a gift for attracting attention as soon as she enters a room.

Although there is already bi-partisan support for Israel in US Congress, it doesn’t hurt to have someone who also speaks Hebrew and is familiar with the Israeli mentality.

■ LOS ANGELES based Sabra actress, producer, author, social activist, and ex-model Noa Tishby, who was born in Tel Aviv, has dedicated several years of her life to fighting antisemitism and promoting Israel. While she may be physically absent from the land of her birth, her heart is still in Israel, and she has waged numerous verbal wars in defense of Israel’s right to exist.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry had appointed her special envoy to combat antisemitism, but she was ousted from that position after speaking out against judicial reform.

Some people might wonder whether Israel would not have been caught unawares on October 7 if the nation had been less preoccupied with the whole issue of judicial reform. The dismissal did not really faze her, because she had earned her credentials long before her appointment, during the term of the previous government. Tishby will be appearing with a host of other influential people at a Yediot Aharonot hosted conference on Forecasts for 2024. The conference at Rokeach 101 in Tel Aviv, will be held on December 27 from 8.30 a.m to 2 p.m.

■ POLITICAL MUSICAL chairs, officially known as rotation, are supposed to take place at the end of this month with a swap between Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and Minister for Infrastructure, Energy and Water Israel Katz. In a somewhat weird arrangement, resulting from both displaying strong loyalty to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and each wanting the Foreign Affairs portfolio, an agreement was reached whereby Cohen would serve as Foreign Minister for one year, then Katz for two, and Cohen would again take the reins in the fourth year. Political pundits say that Katz refused to have a regular two-year rotation, because he feared that the government would not last a full four-year term. Katz previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2019 to 2021. Hopefully, his command of English has improved in the interim. Cohen speaks English quite well, but Katz, during his term as foreign minister, often relied on a translator or interpreter, rather than open his mouth in English. When circumstances prevailed upon him to read a speech in English, he stumbled over the words. There’s something not quite right, in 2024, about having a foreign minister who is not a fluent English speaker.

■ AMONG THE many Israeli entertainers who have contributed to the war effort on the home-front and the battlefield, are some who have also given concerts abroad to not only raise moral support for Israel, but also financial support to help the many volunteer organizations to continue their work.

Matti Caspi and Danny Robas, who were in the latter category, were in the United States, where according to Robas, concern in Jewish communities is possibly greater than it is in Israel. Many American Jews have Israeli relatives who are fighting in the army, and are naturally worried about their safety. On top of that, the growing antisemitism on campuses across America has become very scary and affects both faculty and students.

Although universities are concerned that major Jewish donors are beginning to withdraw their donations and others are threatening to do so, a first step towards not losing Jewish money is that presidents of all universities in which antisemitism is rife, will follow the example of Liz McGill, the president of Penn University, who resigned following testimony she and Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard, and Sally Kornbluth, the president of the MIT gave to Congress in response to questions about antisemitism on campus. There has been considerable pressure on Gay and Kornbluth, who is Jewish, to pack up and go.

Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife Batya set the ball rolling when they resigned from the Harvard board in response to persecution of Jewish students by antisemites and the general pro-Palestinian stance on campus. The quitting by the Ofers, prompted the Wexner Foundation to likewise cut its ties with Harvard.

ONE OF the students at Harvard is Adam Perl, the son of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Perl who was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan, in February 2002 and murdered.

In a video released by his executioners, Perl’s final words were: “My mother is Jewish. My father is Jewish. I am Jewish. Back in the town of Bnai Brak there is a street named after my great grandfather Chaim Perl who was one of the founders of the town.” Adam was born after his father was murdered.

■ AT PENN University, there are high ratios of Jewish alumni and donors. Among them are Ronald Lauder, Marc Rowan, David Magerman, and Cliff Asness, who are not the only Jewish billionaires who have each given millions of dollars to Penn projects. Some non-Jewish mega donors have also withdrawn their support on the grounds that they do not want to be associated with a university that allows antisemitism or any form of racism on campus. Amir Yaron, who was a professor at Penn’s Wharton School prior to his return to Israel, is probably thrilled at the present time to have a second innings as governor of the Bank of Israel.

■ PEOPLE WHO were initially scheduled to come to Israel for reasons other than solidarity, opted to stay longer and volunteer in the war effort.

One example is Prof. Eugene Koonin from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Koonin, who is one of the leading evolutionary biologists in the world. came to Israel to attend an academic conference at the University of Haifa, but did not miss the opportunity to volunteer in the Gaza Envelope area. “This conference at the University of Haifa is particularly important for me, because it conveys the message that even in this period, we are continuing our scientific work, continuing to think about the future. We won’t let terrorism stop us,” he said.

Koonin has long standing ties with the university and with Israel. His mother lives in Haifa, and he came to Israel not only for the conference but also to visit his mother.

Travelling via Paris, he was questioned at passport control where surprise was expressed when he said that he was travelling to a conference in Israel, “They didn’t believe that there could be an academic conference now in Israel, or that there could even be any academic activity in the country. Maybe things would have gone more smoothly if I’d just said that I was coming to visit my mother.”

Among the other conference participants was Turing Prize (the “Nobel Prize” of the computer sciences) recipient Prof. Shafi Goldwasser of UC Berkeley.

Koonin suggests that the vociferous positions against Israel in US academia do not reflect the true positions of many faculty members who support Israel. “I find the demonstrations on campuses against Israel unacceptable, but at least as far as I know, they in no way reflect the opinions of American academia. Unfortunately, the groups that oppose Israel are very vocal, but they’re certainly not the majority. It may be that smarter people also tend to be less vociferous. Among my colleagues and people I speak to, I hear a lot of support for Israel. Of course, many of them are Jews, so my position may be a bit biased,” he comments.

■ ANOTHER PERSON, who initially came for a reason other than solidarity is opera singer Konstantin Rittel Kobylianski, whose repertoire includes folk songs from the US and Europe. Kobyliyanski arrived in Israel in the first week of October to begin a concert tour, and found himself caught up in a war. So, he decided to do what Israeli entertainers are doing, and traversed the country singing to wounded soldiers, soldiers on army bases, displaced persons, and on behalf of volunteer organizations.

■ THOUGH MANY entertainers went to the US to raise money for Israel causes, Eyal Golan and his band went to Paris where he appeared before thousands of people at a fund-raiser for ZAKA volunteers. Golan and his musicians gave their services gratis, and were instrumental in raising half a million euros. Golan said that he considered it a privilege to be able to help raise money for the wonderful ZAKA volunteers who are doing holy work. There are many heroes among our soldiers and in ZAKA, said Golan who has also visited wounded soldiers in hospital – “but tonight is dedicated to ZAKA.”

The strong emotion that is nostalgia

■ NOSTALGIA IS one of the strongest of emotions. It’s not something that you might get over quickly like a burst of anger. Quite the opposite, it continues to take over your heart, your mind, and your soul. Just as a sophisticated restaurant reviewers tend to frequent gourmet establishments, but actually prefers the cuisine from his mother’s kitchen, so in times of crisis or great sadness, most of us, when listening to music, opt for old, nostalgic songs and compositions that are not drowned out by electric guitars and heavy percussion instruments. We choose recordings in which the lyrics are clearly audible and the background music soft. Heard quite a lot on radio lately, given the number of fallen and wounded soldiers from the Golani Brigade is the brigade’s theme song Golani Sheli (My Golani) sung by Yehoram Gaon who will be celebrating his 84th birthday on December 28. The lyrics were written soon after the Yom Kippur War in 1974, by Amos Ettinger (who passed away on December 6), and the melody composed by Efi Netzer. Following the falling in battle in Gaza of Col. Itzhak Ben Bassat, who headed the Golani Brigade’s Commanders team, someone suggested to Netzer that Ben Bassat’s widow might like to have the original score of Golani Sheli. Netzer searched for it, found it, and presented it to an amazed Adar Ben Bassat.

Incidentally, three of Israel’s IDF past chiefs of staff Motta Gur, Gabi Ashkenazi and Gadi Eisenkot, were each Commanders in the Golani Brigade.

Another nostalgic song dating back to the Six Days War is Ma Averech (With what shall I bless…?) It was originally a poem written by Rachel Shapira in memory of 21 year old Eldad Kvarek, a member of Kibbutz Shefayim where Shapira also lived. Composer Yair Rosenblum, who died in 1996, came across the poem and set it to music, thereby giving it a permanent place on the Israeli sound track. In 1970, Rosenblum also composed Shir Hashalom (Song of Peace) which was sung by Miri Aloni who also sang it together with Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres on the night that Rabin was assassinated. Rosenblum also composed Et Hamingina Hazot Iefshar Lehafsik ( This melody can’t be stopped). Both songs have been revived and are heard on radio almost daily. Rosenblum’s most popular compositions will hit the air waves on January 6, 2024, the date marking the 80th anniversary of Rosenblum’s birth.

All three songs have a poignancy which still resonates today and touches people’s souls.

■ IT’S NO fun being a public figure during Hanukkah and having to go menorah-hopping to participate in yet another candle lighting ceremony. This year many public figures felt that they could not bow out because they had a strong sense of empathy and duty with the families of hostages that were abducted and taken to Gaza; displaced families who had for reasons of safety moved out of their homes; wounded soldiers in hospitals; and senior citizens.

Likewise, people engaged in volunteer activities related to any of the above, also ran from one candle lighting ceremony to another.

With municipal elections taking place next month, mayoral candidates also had another reason for participating in large scale candle lighting ceremonies, as for instance Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion.

On the sixth night of Hanukkah, the Jerusalem Municipality held a festive event at the new National Library of Israel building for some 500 young Jerusalemites. The event, which highlighted the commitment of young people to ‘bring light’ to their city and society, opened with the lighting of Hanukkah candles by the mayor.

A short tour of the Library was followed by a panel discussion, hosted by writer-actor-comic Hanoch Daum, with young Jerusalemites in which they discussed doing good deeds during wartime. The event culminated with an exciting performance by singer-composer Jasmin Moallem that brought the crowd to its feet, and marked the first public event in the Library’s new David Geffen Auditorium.

■ ON THE following night Yad Sarah held a special candle-lighting ceremony in honor of the hundreds of mobility-challenged evacuees sheltering free of charge at the organization’s “Yirmiyahu 33” Wellness and Rehabilitation Hotel.

In addition to Moshe Lion, the ceremony was attended by both hotel guests and public figures, who came to light candles, support evacuees, and uplift their spirits with a performance by Jerusalem’s youth choir conducted by Hanan Avital.

Lion, voiced admiration for the high-quality of hospitality and the attention to detail that went into creating the fully-accessible environment, which has found deeper meaning for the many people housed there as a result of the war.

Yad Sarah founder and former Jerusalem Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupolianski, offered a prayer for the safety of the soldiers and hostages and spoke of Yad Sarah’s commitment to help the aging population and people living with disabilities, in the spirit of Hanukkah’s triumph of light over darkness.

■ ALL HEADS of foreign diploatic missions get involved in one way or another with the host country, but German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert appears to have gone that extra mile according to a recent tweet: “Thank you to the organizers of last night‘s (Saturday) rally in Tel Aviv‘s Hostage Square for inviting me to speak. Germany stands by the hostage families. Their demand is our demand: The Hamas terrorists must release every woman and every man they have taken. #BringThemHome”

Earlier in the month, Deibert had sent a similar tweet after the lighting of the first Hanukkah candle at the German Embassy.

■ FRENCH AMBASSADOR Frederic Journes, is among those ambassadors who have been involved in more than the usual round of diplomatic activities due to the fact that citizens of the countries which they represent are among the families of the hostages, soldiers fighting in the Israel Defense Forces, soldiers killed in action and hostages, and other victims among the people murdered or kidnapped by Hamas. In addition, ambassadors have also had to help arrange the solidarity visits of dignitaries from their countries and have had to accompany those dignitaries during their visits. Seibert has been quite busy in that respect, and in the case of Journes, the two top ranking visitors from France have been President Emmanuel Macron in October and Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna this week.

Meetings with families of hostages have always been fraught with tension – even more so at funerals. Journes, with a black kippa on his head, attended the funeral of French Israeli hostage Elia Toledano and posted a heartfelt tweet about Toledano’s death.

At Shura military base where Colonna went to address the sexual and gender-based violence committed by Hamas and other terrorist groups she met Israeli officials and civil society representatives Ruth Halperin Kaddari, professor of law at Bar Ilan University and former vice president of UN CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all orms of Discrimination Against Women); Orit Sulitzeanu, director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, and Shari Mendes, IDF reservist within the unit responsible for the identification of corpses. She also met with the local Palestinian leadership.

■ ALTHOUGH FIGHTING antisemitism is high on Macron’s agenda, the sharp spike in antisemitism in France was a contributing factor to the unprecedented success of the Aliya fair that was held in Paris on Sunday by Israel’s Ministry for Aliyah and Integration and The Jewish Agency for Israel, in cooperation with Ofek Israeli.

French immigrants do not always find their place in Israel, but in recent years, many have purchased apartments and then have returned to France, knowing that they have a firm foothold in Israel in case the level of antisemitism becomes too threatening. It would seem from the vast numbers of French Jews who showed up and made inquiries at the fair on Sunday, that there will be a significant Jewish exodus from France in coming months unless a way is found to curb antisemitic incidents.

The importance that Israel attaches to antisemitism in France and its impact on Aliya was evidenced by the fact that the Aliya fair was attended by Aliya and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer.

The French culinary influence is already obvious in Israel with the opening of a large number of French restaurants, patisseries and boulangeries, not only in major cities, but also in peripheral areas.

That means that Journes will not only have a taste of home all over Israel as French Aliya increases, but he will also have to deal with many more French nationals, especially as additional Aliyah fairs, in Lyon, Marseilles, and other parts of France, will be taking place over the coming three months.

■ C2A SECURITY, an Israeli startup that specializes in cybersecurity for mobility, has partnered with the Jerusalem Chess Club JeruChess to offer chess activities to children whose families have been evacuated from the North and South.

The company bought large outdoor chess sets and dozens of smaller ones, which it gave to the children in the hotels where they are staying. The chess sets were delivered ahead of Hanukkah.

Since October 7, the volunteer instructors of the Jerusalem Chess Club have been visiting hotels in the Dead Sea and Jerusalem areas and teaching chess to anyone who wants to learn or improve their skills. The game is challenging and fun, and helps children cope with their difficult situation.

The program was initiated by Dr. Daniel Moskovich, the chairman of the Board of Directors of the JeruChess Chess Club, who has been volunteering for years. Moskovich is a mathematician and the leader of C2A Security’s algorithmic team. He is also a champion chess player who has won several titles, including the Maccabiah and Jerusalem championships.

“Every week, more children join our chess sessions, and they look forward to seeing the instructors. Lately, some parents have also joined in,” says Moskovich. “Chess is a game that requires a lot of thinking and concentration, and it gives children a sense of empowerment and distraction from their abnormal reality. It helps them feel more normal. Thanks to C2A Security’s donation, the children can play and practice even when the instructors are not there. Chess is also a tool that teaches patience, planning, decision-making, and how to deal with difficulties and failures.”

He surmises that maybe one day, one of these children who have discovered a passion for chess will become a champion.

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