Grapevine, May 22, 2024: The people person

After initiating several social and cultural organizations for young English-speakers in their 20s and 30s, plus one organization in which young men and women adopt a Holocaust survivor whom they visit regularly for conversations and help in tasks that the survivor may need help with, social entrepreneur Jay Shultz is now focusing on an older generation and aims to build an immigrant community of individuals aged 45 plus.

Essentially, it will be a speakers forum for open conversation and social interaction fueled by wine. The launch, at the Neveh Tzedek Community Center, 9 Neveh Shalom Street, Tel Aviv, will be on Thursday, May 30, at 7 p.m. The charge is NIS 50. The launch speaker will be journalist Ben-Dror Yemini, who will engage in conversation with the audience.

International journalists 

IN GRAPEVINE last week, mention was made of awards being made to two Israeli journalists – but they’re not the only ones.

Earlier this month, Hillel Schenker was in Vienna, where he and his Palestinian colleague Ziad Abu Zayyad received the 2024 Ari Rath Prize for Critical Journalism on behalf of Palestine-Israel Journal, given by the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue.

The moving ceremony included their presentations and their discussion of the current crisis, which has caused so much anguish and distrust on all sides.

Onstage in Vienna was a huge portrait of Ari Rath, a former coeditor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, who for 14 years, from 1975 until 1989, headed the paper, which was founded by Gershon Agron in December 1932. Rath succeeded the paper’s second editor-in-chief, Ted Lourie, who had worked closely with Agron.

Born in Austria, Rath and his elder brother fled to the Jewish homeland in 1938, soon after Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany.

During his first 16 years in the country, he lived on a kibbutz, and joined the Post in 1957.

Many of Israel’s leading figures were his personal friends, as were leading political and media personalities in Germany and his native Austria.

Rath, a passionate and fearless journalist, was also a member of the executive board of the International Press Institute, and an ardent advocate for Palestinian rights and for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He spoke and wrote about the importance of dialogue and mutual tolerance and understanding.

In 2007, Rath, who had lost his Austrian citizenship, had it returned to him, and spent his final years in his native country, where he was hailed as a celebrity.

He died in Vienna, a week after his 92nd birthday, and was brought back to Israel for burial at Kibbutz Givat Hashlosha, where mourners included then Austrian ambassador Martin Weiss, Doris Bures, then president of the Austrian National Council, and Gertraud Auer Borea d’Olmo , secretary-general of the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue, who specially came to Israel for the occasion.

In January 2025, family, friends, and former colleagues will mark the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Gil Zohar, a frequent contributor to various publications of The Jerusalem Post Group, is to be awarded the American Jewish Press Association’s Rockower Award for excellence in Jewish journalism for his coverage of the Gaza war in the Vancouver Jewish Independent.

The award is to be presented at the AJPA annual conference, in Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday, June 4.

Zohar was also awarded by the Associated Church Press 2023 Awards for his Gaza war coverage.

Creative writing

MANY JOURNALISTS are also creative writers, even when writing books that come within the category of nonfiction, because in books they can take certain liberties that are not allowed in factual newspaper or electronic media reporting.

Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Netanyahus, will be at Bar-Ilan University on Sunday, June 2, to open the 2024 Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing International Conference, which is free and open to the public.

The two-day, three-evening conference, called “History, Prophecy, Art,” will include writing workshops, discussions, competitions, and lively conversations, and allow participants to witness the powerful works of literature that help shape and interpret the world, and our place in it.

“We probe into the ways literature has shaped our identity as a Jewish people throughout history, and has opened channels of prayer and community, as well as political critique,” said conference organizer Prof. Marcela Sulak, director of the Shaindy Rudoff Program

Monday evening, June 3, will feature Ruth Franklin, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life. On Tuesday, Iddo Gefen, winner of the Sami Rohr Prize for his short story collection, Jerusalem Beach, will close the conference during the Eighteenth Shaindy Rudoff Memorial Evening.

Daytime events at the conference include: a panel discussion on Yosefa Raz’s The Poetics of Prophecy, featuring Maeera Shreiber and Aviva Zornberg; writing workshops in fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry, hybridity, and literary translation, facilitated by featured guest speakers as well as faculty of the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing.

Poets and writers from all over the country – such as Annie Kantar, Yael Hacohen, Julie Zuckerman, Yoni Hammer Kossoy, Lily Shehady, Janice Weizman, Avi Landes, Shoshana Sarah, H. William Taeusch, and Batnadiv Hakarmi – will read and sell their new books during a free picnic-style lunch.

The public is also invited to compete for a NIS 500 prize in poetry and fiction. Details may be found on the conference website: https://www.biu.ac.il/en/event/580641 or write to barilanwriting@gmail.com. A full conference program may be found at https://www.biu.ac.il/en/event/580641

The life of Abie Nathan

IN HIS weekly songs of yesteryear program (Matok Me’az) in which he features hits of the past, some of which have endured and remain popular to the present day, Dan Kanner referred to songs broadcast on Radio 100 FM which were relayed from Voice of Peace, an illegal, shipboard radio station, run by peace activist Abie Nathan, which broadcast in the Middle East for 20 years from the former Dutch cargo vessel MV Peace.

Nathan was born in April 1927 in Iran, but grew up in India, and during the Second World War he joined the Royal Air Force. After the war, he worked as a pilot for Air India, and, following the declaration of Israel’s Independence, offered to help in defending the nascent state. He thought it would take a few months and then he would return to India.

It didn’t work out that way. During the War of Independence, he served as a combat pilot, and after bombing the Arab village of Tarshiha he went there to survey the damage. When he saw what he had done, he was extremely depressed.

He later joined El Al, after which he opened a restaurant called California, where actors, singers, and writers gathered to discuss politics. He went through a series of business ventures.

In 1965, he made a failed run for the Knesset. One of his promises was that if he won a seat, he would fly to Egypt to speak to president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Despite his failed endeavor, he kept his pledge to fly to Egypt to talk peace, which was both a dangerous and illegal act at the time. In February 1966, with his fuel almost depleted, he made a forced landing in Port Said, where he was immediately interrogated by the Egyptian authorities.

The Egyptians took him at his word, and sent him back to Israel, where he was cheered by the public and arrested by the police.

He was soon released, and the whole episode set him on an international path of peace promotion and humanitarian aid, helping people who had suffered catastrophes in India, Biafra, Nicaragua, and elsewhere.

He had lived on the vessel for some years before it made its initial broadcast in May 1973. In addition to music, there were discussions and English-speaking DJs. During the Yom Kippur War, he sailed toward Egypt and anchored opposite Port Said, from where he called for a ceasefire and dialogue.

He also became involved with the movement calling for the freedom of Soviet Jewry, and actually flew to Moscow in 1984. In September 1989, he flew to Tunis to meet with Yasser Arafat in the hope of persuading him to cease his terrorist activities. He subsequently spent six months in prison, as meetings with members of any terrorist organization were illegal. Following his release, he continued to meet with them.

At the end of 1993, following the signing of a peace agreement between Israel and the PLO, Nathan decided to sink the ship near Gordon Beach in Tel Aviv, because he could no longer afford the maintenance. The final song that it broadcast was “We Shall Overcome.”

Nathan did not cease his humanitarian work around the globe, but in 1996, while in America, he suffered a serious stroke. He later suffered another stroke which affected him both physically and verbally. In the ensuing years, he received many international and local tributes and prizes, in recognition of his humanitarian and peace-promoting activities.

In April 2007, friends held an 80th birthday party for him at the Tel Aviv Haktana sheltered living facility. The former champion of the downtrodden, once a charismatic and impressive figure, oozing energy, enthusiasm, and commitment, Nathan was a shadow of his former self. His eyes lit up at the arrival of Shimon Peres, who was then vice premier. Joy registered on his face as Peres kissed him and took a seat alongside him.

Meretz leader Yossi Beilin, who was then the head of Meretz, also sat nearby, as did former Tel Aviv mayor Shlomo Lahat, who recalled the days when Nathan had been a member of the Tel Aviv City Council. Maestro Zubin Mehta, Nathan’s longtime friend, who, like him, was born on April 29, albeit a few years later, sent a huge bouquet of flowers with an apology that he could not be in Israel at that time. Some of the well-known faces in the crowded dining room of Tel Aviv Haktana included those of Yafa Yarkoni, Dan Almagor, Ruth Dayan, Shaul Biber, Yaakov Agmon, Didi Menusy, Zvika Gurevic, and Miri Aloni, who serenaded him with “Shir Lashalom” (Song for Peace).

Peres said that Nathan, in his quest for peace, had crossed all boundaries and norms. But he had also made his presence felt in places where others did not always go. “Wherever there was poverty and tragedy in the world – there was Abie,” Peres said. “I don’t know of anyone who has given as much as he has. He has shown us what one person can do.”

A few weeks later, Nathan gave the Post what was probably his last interview. It was difficult to understand him, but his close friend, restaurateur Rena Pushkarna, was able to make sense of what he said, and helped with the interview.

Nathan died in August 2008. Peres and MK Ahmad Tibi were among those who eulogized him at his funeral.

Yael Dayan

NATHAN WAS not the only member of the peace camp to visit Yasser Arafat when it was still illegal to do so. Another was former MK Yael Dayan, who died last weekend. Others included journalists Uri Avnery and Anat Saragusti.

Yael Dayan and her mother, Ruth, also formed a strong friendship with Arafat’s mother-in-law, well-known Palestinian journalist Raymonda Tawil.

Labor Party leadership bid

HI-TECH ENTREPRENEUR Avi Shaked, who founded Israel’s first Internet company, and today provides an income for 12,000 employees, will next week compete against Yair Golan for the chairmanship of the Labor Party.

If he wins, Shaked will also compete for the premiership of the government. Taking a leaf out of the book of former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, Shaked proposes a rotating premiership, with an Arab politician as the alternate prime minister.

Many non-Arab Israelis will find this hard to swallow, and many Arabs – both Israeli and Palestinian – will be opposed to an Arab being the No. 1 politician in the Jewish state. But Shaked points out in his advertising campaign that 2.5 million Israeli Arabs equal 30 potential mandates for the Labor Party in the next Knesset elections. Having an Arab prime minister is, in Shaked’s opinion, the only path to peace.

But there is one big snag. Up till now, the Arab community has not united behind any Arab party, much less a Jewish party. Labor has had Arab and Druze ministers in the past, and Meretz has also had an Arab minister, but there’s a big gap between the office of prime minister and those to whom he gives ministerial portfolios.

Potential PM contenders

THERE’S ALSO a big gap between the current prime minister and people in his own party who did well in the Likud primaries.

In the past, Benjamin Netanyahu alienated Gideon Sa’ar when he failed to give him a ministerial portfolio after Sa’ar scored one of the top five places on the Likud list.

Netanyahu was equally uncharitable with MK Danny Danon, an immediate past permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations.

Gilad Erdan, who does not presently represent a political threat to Netanyahu, is due to complete his mission to the UN during the summer. Danon, who had preceded Erdan at the post, did a good job, and, according to reports, Netanyahu is seriously considering sending him back to New York.

Meanwhile, Danon has been careful not to say anything disparaging about Netanyahu.

The US Ambassador

US AMBASSADOR Jack Lew and his wife, Dr. Ruth Schwartz, visited Tikkun Olam Makers innovation center in Tel Aviv, where they were greeted by TOM founder and president Gidi Grinstein, who showed them TOM’s groundbreaking affordable products that can be used by people with disabilities in the US and Israel.

Such products include a mobility chair for toddlers, a 3D printed prosthesis that costs $150, and a crib for parents who are bound to wheelchairs.

Lew was also briefed on how TOM solutions have been used since October 7 to help displaced families and wounded civilians and soldiers in Israel.

In addition, he was updated on how, with the support of the US Embassies in Israel and the region, TOM’s activities help to bring together Jews and Arabs, as well as Israelis and Palestinians.

Lew was also briefed on how American diplomatic missions throughout the region have been helpful to TOM in building collaborations across the Middle East.

TOM is a project of Reut USA and a recipient of the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act grant, which supports Jewish and Arab collaboration within Israel, as well as collaboration among Israelis and Palestinians, by using innovations in technology and design to create and disseminate affordable solutions for marginalized groups.

Bring them home

LAST SATURDAY night, Lew was among the ambassadors who participated in the rally in Hostage Square near the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. He assured the huge crowd of the United States’ commitment to keep working every day to bring home the hostages and not to stop.

A video clip of former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, in which she said that the hostages should be freed immediately and action should be taken immediately to bring them home, was prefaced by her comment that the hostages are citizens of seven countries, and practice five religions. “These hostages represent so much more than who they are,” she said.

Other diplomats at the rally included German Ambassador Steffen Seibert, who has been with the hostage families since day one; British Ambassador Simon Walters, and Austrian Ambassador Nikolaus Lutterotti, as well as entertainers Eden Golan, who was introduced by former government spokesman Eylon Levy, who hailed her as a heroine, former Eurovision Song Contest winner Netta Barzilai, Montana Tucker, Noga Erez, and Lola Marsh.

Emotions against Netanyahu ran high and were intensified on Sunday in Jerusalem.

Public apathy

IT SOUNDS like a terrible thing to say, but every day, members of the hostage families and their supporters are thinking up new gimmicks to attract public attention to the plight of their loved ones. Without the gimmicks, the wider public loses interest, and attention fades away.

Despite growing antisemitism worldwide, there are still decent people who care that innocent human beings are being made to suffer, are deprived of sunlight, food, and medications, and either die or are murdered.

In France there is an organization called The October 7 Collective which came up with the bright idea of having a survivor of the Supernova music festival or someone from the families of the hostages to parade in a yellow dress at the Cannes Film Festival.

It contacted Laura Blajman Kadar, a French-speaking survivor of the Hamas massacre and put the idea to her that she parade on the red carpet in a yellow dress with prints of the faces of the hostages and a sash across the bodice with the words “Bring them Home.”

Although she was a bit nervous about the idea, never having done that kind of thing before, she understood that by agreeing she could send a powerful message.

The dress was made within 48 hours, and at her request the portraits on the front were those of her friends Eli Hacohen and Elkana Bohbot.

An anonymous supporter who had tickets to the film festival surrendered them to Blajman Kadar, who had a little trouble getting past the security guards, but eventually they escorted her upstairs on condition that she stay away from the photographers and the television cameras.

Nonetheless, some people caught sight of her, and photographs were posted on social media outlets. It was a dress that no eye could miss – a dress that simultaneously spelled out pain and hope.

Benefits of business 

THE LAUNCH event last week of the Arison Center for ESG at Reichman University focused on the theme “Israel after October 7: The Role of the Business Sector in Healing Israeli Society.”

As far as is known, the center is the first academic-practical center of its kind in Israel. Its aim is to lead and implement a discourse that strengthens the relationship between companies and society in Israel, emphasizing the business sector’s central role in civil society. The center will focus on the restoration and development of a fairer society and culture.

Speakers at the event included Prof. Uriel Reichman, founding president and chairman of the board of directors of Reichman University; David Arison, a board member of Arison Investments and the Ted Arison Family Foundations; Prof. Niron Hashai, dean of the Arison School of Business at Reichman University, who interviewed Prof. Colin Mayer of Oxford University; and Yair Avidan, former supervisor of banks and head of the advisory board and the Fellows Forum at the Arison Center for ESG.

The panel on the role of the business sector in healing Israeli society, moderated by Prof. Eli Bukspan of Reichman University’s Harry Radzyner Law School, featured Julia Zaher, founder of Al Arz Tahini, Uri Levin, CEO of the Tidhar Group, and Dr. Michal Tsur, co-founder and co-CEO of Remepy.

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