Nice Zionist Patriotic Booster, Moskowitz Prize for Zionism 2017, 5777

The media is so negative when it comes to idealistic Zionism that we all need some good "booster shots" periodically, and attending the prize-giving ceremonies put together for the Moskowitz Zionism Prize are just perfect. For various reasons I hadn't been to one for a few years, and I'm glad to have come this year.

Yehoram Gaon was the MC, and he did a phenomenal job both singing and providing the necessary introductions and background. Apparently, he had been invited to perform for visiting US President Trump and entourage but respectfully declined because it was at the same time as the Moskowitz ceremony.

The Moskowitz Prize has evolved over the years. It used to be that three people got the main prizes, and the audience was full of their families, friends and admirers. The program stressed the accomplishments of these magnificent individuals and was interspersed with amazingly photogenic and kitschy performances with the backdrop of Ir David, City of David.

This year it was at the much more accessible Sultan's Pool, between Jaffa Gate/Mount Zion/Old City Walls and Yemin Moshe. And instead of a variety of awardees, there was just one, the incomparable Moshe Arens. Arens is one of the last of a generation of Israelis, originally from the states actually, who was involved in a totally amazing amount of Israeli History. Yes, he's definitely worth prize recipients, or more.

One of the highlights of the event was certainly Education Minister Naftali Bennett's speech. There was a double theme of the evening, which were that it's ten years since the prize began and the fifty years since the Liberation of Jerusalem and the Six Days War.

Bennett gave a personal aspect to this, by telling how the tension and Arab threats before the war, plus the miracles all of my generation and older remember so clearly affected his parents.  According to Bennett, pre-Six Days War, his parents were typical unaffiliated assimilated Jews living in America, but the extraordinarily miraculous Six Days War woke up their Jewish identity and changed their lives completely. That's how they ended up making aliyah and discovering Torah Judaism.

Bennett also voiced a plea to visiting American President Trump to make history and recognize Jerusalem as Israel's Capital City.

A large proportion of the audience were teenagers. Schools came to attend, and it wasn't for the Zionism booster shot. There were some popular entertainers, two generations younger than the veteran Israeli star Yehoram Gaon. I whispered to my husband:

"Am I the only one who has never heard of these singers?"

As soon as the "concert" part of the evening began, many of us old fogeys left and went home. We had enough fun...

Irving Moskowitz, Doer not Talker

The late Irving Moskowitz, Z"Tz"L, used his money for the good of the Jewish People. He was a giant. He made history and changes.

Moskowitz, who was among the most prominent financial backers of Jewish communities in eastern Jerusalem and across Judea and Samaria, passed away last Thursday at his home in Florida. He was 88 years old.
Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, Rosh Yeshiva of Merkaz HaRav, eulogized Moskowitz.
“He was pure life. We are crestfallen. Much can be said about the man and his work, ‘the man on the wall’ [guarding the city]; the ‘president of Jerusalem,’ as my father called him, now joins the many great people who worked to restore [Jerusalem] to its former greatness.”
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat also spoke at the funeral, remembering Moskowitz as a “pioneer” and “man of vision”.
“Today we lay to rest a pioneer… a man of vision who saw the rebuilding of Jerusalem as his purpose in life. Irving was one of the first to invest and to donate to the development of Jewish settlement in eastern Jerusalem, [something which] came from an understanding of and belief in its importance and a deep sense of public [service].” (Arutz 7)

Through The Moskowitz Foundation, founded in 1968 with his wife, Cherna, Moskowitz donated untold millions of dollars to buy homes and institutions for Jews in eastern Jerusalem’s primarily Arab neighborhoods via Ateret Cohanim and the Ir David Foundation.
“The hundreds of families of the Old City, the old Yemenite village of Shiloach, Ir David, Ma’aleh Hazeitim, Shimon Hatzaddik, Kidmat Zion, Abu Tor, Beit Orot and the future families of Ganei Yitzchak are all ‘his families and homes,’” Executive Director of Ateret Cohanim Daniel Lauria said on Sunday. (Jerusalem Post)

I didn't know him personally, but I like many enjoyed and benefitted from his generosity 

Baruch Dayan Ha'emet

HaMakom Yinachem