Howard, Harper set for UIA Vic
Alan Hoffmann of the Jewish Agency and Greg Masel of Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal were special guests at UIA Victoria’s AGM on December 1.
TWO senior Israeli visitors, Alan Hoffmann of the Jewish Agency and Greg Masel of Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal (KH-UIA), were special guests at UIA Victoria’s annual general meeting on December 1.
The event at Central Shule, which farewelled long-time president Shlomo Werdiger and welcomed vice-president Nathan Shafir as his successor, also saw the announcement of former Australian prime minister John Howard and former Canadian PM Stephen Harper as keynote speakers at the UIA gala dinner and women’s division breakfast next March.
Hoffmann, director-general of the Jewish Agency, reported that Keren Hayesod has just provided emergency aid to 660 Israelis made homeless by the recent wildfires.
Speaking two days after the 69th anniversary of the 1947 United Nations partition of Palestine that led to Israel’s creation, Hoffmann said the Jewish Agency and Israel’s progress became intimately linked at statehood.
He noted founding prime minister David Ben-Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency from 1935 to 1948, famously said Israel, with some 600,000 Jews at its inception, needed at least five million Jews to be viable.
With 6.3 million Jews now living in Israel, Hoffmann asked: “Who brought the olim? We did, acting on your behalf.”
Last year the Jewish Agency brought 32,000 Jews to Israel, he said, including 8000 from France where Jews “no longer feel at home”, 7000 from Russia, and 6500 from Ukraine.
Masel, a former Australian who made aliyah, and now KH-UIA director-general, recalled a conversation with Shimon Peres during the last six months of his life in which the former Israeli president told him Israelis had been successful “because we are a people who are constantly dissatisfied … we’re always looking and striving to do better”.
Farewelling Werdiger from his presidency, UIA Australia -president Harold Finger conferred a UIA Askan Award on him for his 10 years at the helm, during which Werdiger helped raise close to $170 million for Israel. Werdiger announced that $15.7 million had been raised by UIA Victoria in this year’s campaign, up from $15.3 million last year. Masel, meanwhile, presented Werdiger with the Key to Jerusalem Award.
As well as a video tribute to Peres at the event, tributes also flowed for major local donors and supporters Saul Same and George Kuran who passed away since the last AGM.
PETER KOHN
comments