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Movers and shakers in Israeli society.
By GREER FAY CASHMAN JANUARY 31, 2025 09:36
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS (from left to right): George Shefi, 93, Walter Bingham, 101, and Paul Alexander, 89, who came to the UK on the kindertransport are pictured with relatives at the residence of the British ambassador to Israel.
(photo credit: COURTESY BRITISH EMBASSY)
■ AT HER farewell reception two weeks ago Thai ambassador to Israel Pannabha Chandraramya said she had two unfulfilled wishes, one of which was to see the release of the Thai hostages who have been in captivity in Gaza since October 7, 2023. She more than doubled her service time in Israel to welcome them on their return to freedom.
She even canceled a quick visit to Thailand before taking up her next appointment in Switzerland on February 5, when it became known that the hostages were on the verge of being released. She is just as emotionally moved as the families who have welcomed their loved ones.
■ HEBREW MEDIA reports indicate that after a long absence in Miami, Sara Netanyahu will return to Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following his meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, with whom Sara had dinner in Miami some weeks before his inauguration. Sara Netanyahu has been away for close to three months. Did the Netanyahu family foot the bill or was the cost of her extended get-away yet another foray into the public purse?
It should be remembered that both Sara and her troublesome elder son Yair, who has been living in Miami for a much longer period, have official Israeli bodyguards in tow.
Sara did not come home when her husband underwent surgery, nor did she come to give him moral support during his court hearings, the number of which are consistently reduced for what appear to be valid reasons. At this rate, the trial will drag on for at least another year.
Presumably, Sara will not miss the opportunity to join her husband in Washington when he visits the White House, but the question still remains as to whether she will accompany him back to Israel on Wing of Zion or take a commercial flight back to Miami first.
Wolt's controversy
■ PRICING IS not the only reason there should be a public boycott of the Wolt delivery service. KAN 11 economics reporter Shaul Amsterdamski – who also has his own food-themed radio show which takes him from Jerusalem to all over the country and introduces listeners to restaurants and chefs and provides tips on cooking and preserving different edible products – supports the boycott but, so far, only from an economic perspective.
Pedestrians are well aware that most Wolt delivery personnel, ignore road rules, drive on the sidewalk during traffic congestion, drive in the wrong direction in one-way streets, and wait not AT the crosswalk, but ON the crosswalk for traffic lights to change from red to green. These motorcycle riders are a menace to public safety, as are many others for whom traffic violations are the norm.
■ IT WAS inevitable that the dredging up this week of material related to Adolf Eichmann would include 99-year-old Michael Goldman-Gilad, who was Eichmann’s interrogator more than 60 years ago.
Goldman-Gilad, who is an Auschwitz survivor – prisoner 161155 with the number still visible on his left arm – last year again came to public attention, six decades after the Eichmann trial, with the publication of his autobiography.
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Prior to being taken to Auschwitz in 1943, Goldman-Gilad was an inmate at the Przemysl Ghetto, where he was subjected to 80 lashes, during which he lost consciousness several times. Witnesses to the sadistic and severe punishment presumed he had died because few people could survive anything so harsh.
But Goldman-Gilad defied the odds, not only in the ghetto but in Auschwitz itself and later, on a death march in the freezing cold of the Polish winter. He escaped from the death march and joined the Red Army.
He was wounded in battle, and after the war, having lost his parents and sister and left alone in the world, he decided to head for pre-state Israel in 1947. The ship was intercepted by the British, and its passengers, including Goldman-Gilad were sent to Cyprus where he remained until 1949, when he eventually came to Israel.
He joined the Israel Police and enjoyed relative anonymity until the Eichmann trial in 1961.
Eichmann, who had sent so many people to their deaths in Auschwitz, had fled to Argentina, which ironically was a haven for both Nazis and Holocaust survivors. Eichmann, who had taken on another identity, was captured in 1960 by Mossad agents and brought to Israel, where Goldman-Gilad was one of his interrogators and was later present at Eichmann’s trial.
Much was written about him during the trial, and here and there in the years that followed, and again last year when he published his autobiography. As an Auschwitz survivor, he was the natural radio interviewee this week on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
■ IN ADDITION to heads of state and government who gathered at Auschwitz this week, there was also a coalition of black Americans from diverse backgrounds, who had been brought to Poland by the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation to learn the lessons of the Holocaust and the importance of fighting bigotry.
The group, which learned about the history of the Holocaust, and the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis, included: global investor and philanthropist Robert F. Smith; CNN commentator, Dream Machine founder, Emmy award winner, and New York Times best-selling author Van Jones; actress, singer, and activist Malynda Hale; Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter Victory Boyd; Philadelphia-based Christian pastor and social justice advocate Pastor Carl Day; and entrepreneur and philanthropist John Hope Bryant.
The group explored historic sites in and around Oswiecim, (the Polish name for Auschwitz) which, before the war, was home to a flourishing Jewish community. They also went to Krakow and Warsaw, walked through a large section of the Auschwitz extermination camp, and spent a lot of time with Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation Director-General Jack Simony, Holocaust survivors, and relatives of Israeli hostages still in Gaza.
“Today, as we see a dangerous rise in both antisemitism and anti-black hatred, it is more important than ever that we build bridges of understanding and empathy between our communities,” said Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation chairman Simon Bergson. “The Black and Jewish communities have long shared a common experience of persecution, and it is incumbent upon us to stand together and fight for a world where hatred and intolerance are eradicated.
“The lessons of the Holocaust are more than historical; they are a call to action for all of us. We must carry these lessons forward, ensuring that future generations never forget the cost of hate.
“Almost 62 years ago, the Jewish and black communities stood together in solidarity during the historic March on Washington, and today, we are deeply grateful to Van Jones and the delegation of Black leaders who have joined us to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz,” said Simony.
“As time passes and the horrors of the Holocaust grow more distant, it is crucial that we continue to honor its lessons and remain steadfast in the fight against antisemitism and all forms of bigotry.”
■ PERHAPS BECAUSE his paternal grandmother, who is buried in Jerusalem, was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations for having sheltered Greek Jews during the Holocaust, King Charles III has for many years met with Holocaust survivors and has visited Holocaust memorial institutions in the UK and worldwide.
He was in Poland this week as head of the British delegation that attended the official ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, but he also visited the Krakow Jewish Center, which he had first visited in 2002 when still in its conceptual stage and then again in 2008 when he officially opened it long before ascending to the throne. The king is a patron of JCC Krakow.
He was welcomed by World Jewish Relief chair Maurice Helfgott, JCC Krakow CEO Jonathan Ornstein, and the Chief Rabbis of Poland and the UK Michael Schudrich and Ephraim Mirvis.
“Here in Krakow, from the ashes of the Holocaust, the Jewish community has been reborn,” the king said. “Standing on the steps of this wonderfully vibrant center some seventeen years ago and having encouraged its construction and taken immense pride in opening it, I was filled with a sense of hope and optimism of the life and energy that coursed through the building.
“So returning today, along with World Jewish Relief, of which I am extremely proud to be a patron, that sense of hope and optimism has only grown. With their support, together with other generous benefactors, the center has blossomed from the bud of an idea into an essential hub for the community.
“In a post-Holocaust world projects such as this center, are how we recover our faith in humanity. They also show us there is still much work to be done if we are not just to remember the past but to use it to inspire a kinder and more compassionate world of which we can be truly proud. And this remains the sacred task of us all.”
■ IN LONDON, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who was recently in Israel, co-hosted the International Holocaust Remembrance Day event with the Israel embassy at a reception held at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
In his address, Lammy, obviously conscious of the rising tide of antisemitism in the UK, said that as the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles – and that period of history moves further away – new ways must be found to tell the story of the Holocaust, to capture people’s imagination.
Lammy recalled his own visit to Auschwitz some years ago and the raw emotion of seeing a site of such evil.
Quoting Primo Levi, Lammy said: “Everyone needs to know that Auschwitz existed.”
Reflecting on the social malady that has infected the UK and much of the rest of the world, Lammy continued: “Auschwitz is outside of us, but it is all around us, in the air. The plague has died away, but the infection still lingers, and it would be foolish to deny it.”
It is understandable that people of color, who are in leading positions in government and elsewhere, comprehend the evils of antisemitism because they too have experienced discrimination and persecution.
Lammy related to this when he said: “As a black man descended from the Windrush Generation, as MP for the most diverse constituency in Britain – including, I am proud to say, a thriving Jewish community – and now, as foreign secretary, I see all too many signs of that lingering infection. Auschwitz did not start in its gas chambers. Genocide does not start with genocide. It starts with the denial of rights, with attacks on the rule of law, with a festering resentment of the other.”
■ AT HIS residence in Ramat Gan, British Ambassador Simon Walters, in cooperation with March of the Living, hosted three senior citizens who had come to England from Germany on the kindertransport and who now live in Israel. The three are also recognized as Holocaust survivors.
They are Walter Bingham, 101; George Shefi 93; and Paul Alexander, 89, who were accompanied to the ambassador’s residence by members of their families. Walters, who also invited diplomats from other embassies, said the great challenge today is to understand what we have to do to ensure that Never Again is more than a slogan.
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