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Tel Aviv came to life with the captivating sounds of Romanian opera on Wednesday night, as diplomats, expats and friends of the Romanian embassy were treated to a concert celebrating Romanian Cultural Heritage day, and the 15 year anniversary of Romania’s ascension to the European Union.
Martin Salamon, the Director of the Romanian Cultural Institute, opened the evening by explaining the context for the evening–the significance of Romania’s joining the EU, and the country’s growth in the last 15 years as an active member of the organization.
This concert, featuring soprano and baritone singers from Romania and Israel, led by an Israeli musical director, highlighted the vibrancy of Romanian culture and its interaction with Israeli society, a key mission of the Romanian Cultural Institute.
Ambassador Radu Ioanid welcomed all the guests, and noted with appreciation the ability to enjoy this concert despite the challenges brought by Covid-19. The Ambassador emphasized the key economic and development benchmarks achieved since Romania joined the European Union on January 1, 2007. Keeping his remarks short, Ambassador Ioanid stated that there was little need to talk when “music can speak for itself”, and invited the audience to enjoy the concert, led by Ethan Schmeisser, artistic director of the Bucharest Opera.
Four singers: Sopranos Shiri Magar and Mirela Grinarinaru, and baritone singers Ionut Pascu and Sebastian Catana, took the stage to regale the audience with both solo and duet operatic pieces.
The performances were stunning, with the singing enhanced by the engaging stage presence.
During several interludes Ethan Schmeisser provided explanations and commentary, including highlighting when original pieces were performed for the first time.
The evening concluded with a standing ovation from the audience, as Ambassador Ioanid and Director Salamon presented bouquets to the artists.
Diplomacy.co.il congratulates the Embassy and people of Romania on the 15 year anniversary of Romania’s ascension to the European Union.
Steven Aiello
Founder--DebateforPeace
Photos credit Silvia G. Golan
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- Written by Silvia G. Golan & Steven Aiello
Not even the sky's the limit if you work hard. That was the message sent Thursday when a group of high school students and recent graduates from Israel made history. Working together in teams spread out across eight cities and diverse communities, the teenagers assembled eight satellites to be launched into orbit. After waiting months to see their satellites deployed, the historic day finally arrived, as the satellites hitched a ride to space aboard SpaceX’S Falcon 9. Falcon 9, the world’s first reusable rocket, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida Thursday morning US time.
The “Tevel” program (a hebrew pun using the acronym for “Students build satellites”) partnered with the Israel Space Agency (ISA) and the Science and Technology Ministry to select, train and oversee the simultaneous construction of eight different satellites by students based in: Sha’ar Hanegev, Givat Shmuel, Kiryat Ata, Ma’ale Adumim, Nazareth, Ofakim, Taybe, and Yeruham, representing a range of ethnic, religious and geographic communities around Israel. In addition to making history as youth-built satellites were launched into orbit, the eight satellites combined with two satellites from Ariel University aboard the flight constitute the largest number of satellites deployed from Israel in one day.
To celebrate the occasion, the student teams and their families gathered for a launch party in Herzliya together with ISA and Tevel leadership. There were video highlights of the project, student testimonials, and a welcome from Science and Technology Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen. After a detailed explanation of what to expect, a live feed from NASA came on the screen. As the final countdown began, the room filled with nervous excitement. Together, the students chanted the last 10 seconds: “10, 9, 8, 7….” until the rocket launched into the sky, with the room erupting in cheers and applause. Less than 10 minutes later, the booster rocket had detached and was landing back on the launchpad, while the Falcon 9 continued to accelerate into the sky with 105 satellites, including the Tevel 8, safely aboard.
Once successfully put in orbit, the satellites can be used to carry out experiments in space in coordination with Tel Aviv University. But the tevel program’s impact is even greater than reaching the sky. The success of the program shows the heights that high school students can achieve when they work together to overcome challenges. The project was groundbreaking for including Arab students in Israel in a space industry project, and can be a launching pad for greater integration of Arab students and students from peripheral communities into STEM studies and careers.
Mahmoud Haj-Yahya, from Taibe, told Diplomacy.co.il that: "This was a historic moment for me, a moment of pride not only for me but for the State of Israel. I thank the Israel Space Agency, the Taibe Municipality, my school, my teachers and instructors and everyone who helped us and let us try it and be part of the Tevel project".
Maysan Masarwa added "These three years of work and learning were not easy, but thanks to our drive and hope we overcame all the difficulties, and here we are today seeing the results with feelings of intense joy and pride."
Muhammad Abdulkader summed up the group’s sentiments: "The launch was really exciting. We never dreamed of achieving something so massive–the sky is no longer the limit! We have no limits, and we can do anything!"
More information about Tevel, the project, and Falcon 9 can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.space.gov.il/
https://www.spacex.com/
Steven Aiello
Photos Silvia G. Golan
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MWU Chanukah Message Maccabi World Union: a century of Jewish-Zionist life
Dear friends,
This year, the celebration of Chanukah, Chag HaMaccabim, the Festivity of the Maccabees, embraces the colors of our Maccabi Movement which celebrates 100 years as the World Movement that promotes a vibrant, present and relevant, inclusive and respectful Jewish-Zionist message in Jewish communities around the world.
The Maccabi Movement, with half a million members in more than 70 countries on all continents, celebrated its 100 years as a World Organization on August 29th, 2021. After the first Maccabi Club was established in 1895 in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey), the Maccabi Clubs grew and developed, incorporating the message of "muscular Judaism", thus interpreted by Max Nordau within the Zionist Movement as its first Vice-Chairman: “[w]e must renew our Youth [based on our past]: we will develop a broad chest, strong limbs, a courageous appearance. We will transform ourselves into a people of value."
It was on August 29, 1921, during the XII World Zionist Congress in Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia (modern-day Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic), when the strong network of Maccabi clubs in Europe, America, Africa, Asia and Australia became a World Union, maintaining the promotion of its Maccabi values: Jewish Continuity and Zionism and establishing the largest Jewish event in the world, the Maccabiah, in the Land of Israel (the first took place in 1932, 16 years before the founding of the State of Israel).
Although hundreds of Maccabi clubs were annihilated during the Holocaust, Maccabi World Union and its Continental Confederations managed to rebuild themselves in Europe and establish a foothold in all continents, providing meaning, socialization and commitment to Jewish life and the State of Israel in all Jewish communities, large and small. The once Maccabi "clubs" grew and developed into the largest Maccabi Jewish Community Centers in the world, with opportunities for the entire Jewish family. In 1929, Macabi World Union established a highly developed Youth Movement, Maccabi Tzair, that is today a global Network known as Macabi Tzair Olami, and a wide range of offers: workshops; courses; trainings for all ages; camps; educational programs in Israel; leadership training for all levels of leadership –educators, lay and professional leaders, from which the Maccabi Future Leaders Forum, MFLF, and the Maccabi CEO Forum emerge; Hasbara Seminars, in the permanent struggle for the recognition of the right to life itself for the State of Israel ... and, of course, the development of Sports. Maccabi is the center of all sports disciplines and social activities of the Jewish people around the world, with extraordinary achievements throughout its 100 years of glorious history- from Judith Deutsch of Hakoah Vienna in 1935 and Agnes Keleti of Maccabi Hungary in 1954 to Artem Dolgopyat from Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Gold Medalist Champion at the recent Tokyo Olympics. Of course… Maccabi World Union is also the organizer of the largest Jewish-Zionist event in the world and largest tourist event in Israel: the Maccabiah, with 10,000 participating athletes and more than 20,000 followers from around the world. The Maccabi Continental Confederations organize, in turn, the largest events in the Americas and EuroAsia: the Latin American Maccabi Confederation (CLAM) is responsible for the Pan-American Maccabi Games (with the exceptional Games in Mexico serving as the latest example), and Maccabi Europe leads the European Maccabi Games (the last memorable ones occurred in Hungary).
Maccabi captured the imagination of the most extraordinary Jewish leaders of the Modern Era. Theodor Herzl, the Father of Zionism (and whose best friend and lieutenant was Max Nordau), referring to Maccabi, said: “Get organized! Establish local groups, branches of societies of all kinds, men's associations next to women's, gymnastic associations, song groups, all with one direction - to Zion!" Albert Einstein, the greatest theorist of Science of all time, amazes us when he writes about our Maccabi: "Blessed be the work of Maccabi, trying to bring a counter-effect to the one-sided over-spirituality of the Jewish people." Sigmund Freud, the Father of Psychoanalysis, wrote to the Maccabi Authorities, months before his death (1939), "[y]ou may include my name in the [Maccabi World Union] Board." David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of the State of Israel, declared, “Maccabi is undoubtedly the most important branch of the Zionist movement. Its importance is to breathe life into the stature of the Jewish people, weakened by so many years of exile.” These giants saw in the Maccabi Movement what many of us feel day after day: Maccabi is the most complete answer to the needs of the Jewish people. Maccabi is Jewish socialization, meeting, action, commitment, training and empowerment. Maccabi is also family, community, home and inclusion for all age groups. Maccabi is current and relevant ideology, respectful of the idiosyncrasies of each country and each Community. It is demanding, yes, of all of its affiliates the inclusion of its central ideological pillars: Jewish Continuity and Zionism- and in the singular understanding of those ideals by each Jewish Community.
Maccabi World Union, the Continental Maccabi Confederations and the Maccabi Territorial Organizations in each country were the founders of 8 kibbutzim; of Kfar HaMaccabiah (the MaccabiWorld Headquarters in Israel); of the city of Maccabim - today, a complex of 100,000 inhabitants in Maccabim-Reut-Modiin that plans to grow to a quarter of a million people; 56 Maccabi Tzair branches around the world, and more than 400 Jewish Community Centers and Clubs. This is not only infrastructure per se, but it is also about the Jewish-Zionist livelihood of the thousands and thousands of opportunities of our Movement through our cultural, traditional and inclusive Judaism in all its expressions and our connection to the State of Israel - recognized as the Center of our Maccabi self.
Maccabi World Union has joined the efforts of the State of Israel to defend the right to “lihiot am jofshi beartzeinu, Eretz Tzion viYirushalaim ”, to “be free in our Land: the Land of Zion and Jerusalem” – what we sing in the Israeli Anthem, “Hatikvah”. The delegitimization of the very existence of the State of Israel is a direct challenge to the Maccabi ideology, which conceives Zionism as the expression of the redeemed life of a people harassed by 18 centuries of brutal persecution, expulsion and genocide. This ideological demand already appears in the very name of the Movement, since the term "Maccabi" urges, in its Hebrew acronym, to assume responsibility for the very life of the Jewish People and for their Historic Land - the Land of Israel and the Jewish State.
Does Maccabi have today, “an ideal to follow,” as it did in the times of its ideological Father, Dr. Max Nordau? My answer is a resounding YES.
Our task is to ensure that each Maccabi member:
- conceives himself/herself as an integral part of Klal Israel, a member of the Jewish people (a group of brothers and sisters) scattered throughout the world and centered in Medinat Israel.
- promotes Jewish continuity and combats assimilation.
- studies, inquires about and knows the Maccabi ideology.
- connects to the religion-tradition-nation levels of the Jewish People.
- recognizes the centrality of Medinat Israel in the present and future of the Jewish People.
- demands a permanent remembrance of the Shoah.
- believes in democracy, pluralism and tolerance as essential values.
- identifies with the Maccabi club/JCC to which he/she belongs and with the Maccabi Movement in general.
During July 2022, tens of thousands of Jews from 80 countries and all continents will arrive in Israel, and Maccabi World Union will once again put its ideals into action in the greatest expression of Zionism and Jewish Peoplehood on the planet: the 21st Maccabiah.
We at Maccabi World Union greet you with enormous joy on this unique 100th anniversary, maintaining our commitment to provide meaningful connections between the Jewish Communities of the world and the Jewish State. We are always working for the promising, safe and happy future of our People everywhere.
Chanukah Sameach!
Chazak Ve'ematz!
RABBI CARLOS TAPIERO
Deputy Director-General
Maccabi World Union
Photo courtesy of RABBI CARLOS TAPIERO
Deputy Director-General
Maccabi World Union
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- Written by Silvia G. Golan
Merry Christmas 2020 and 2021 New Year Greetings
To honored members of the Israel Diplomatic corps and Embassy staff
members of the Government Offices, Cultural, Commercial
and Industrial community in Israel
and to all our www.diplomacy.co.il friends:
As 2021 approaches, we would like to extend our very warmest and best wishes
to you all for a joyous Christmas and Holiday Season
and a Healthy Happy and Peaceful New Year
Silvia Golan Daniel Schwarz
Steven Aiello
& all the staff of www.diplomacy.co.il
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- Written by Silvia G. Golan & Jacob Maor
The Accademia Italiana della Cucina held a cocktail dinner at HAYAMA restaurant in Old Jaffa. The occasion on Wednesday November 24 was part of the 6th world week of Italian Cuisine.
The Italian Academy of Cuisine works together with other Italian cultural and economic entities in Tel Aviv, as well as the Italian embassy, to promote authentic Italian cuisine and genuine Italian agricultural and food products. The event was sponsored by the Embassy of Italy in Israel and the Italian Tourist board.
85 people came to the Hayama restaurant that was decorated in an Italian atmosphere. The decoration was in the colors of the Italian flag- red in white and green. Each table was decorated with the academy flags, and flowers in the colors of the flag. The dinner was prepared by the chefs Marco Morello, Claudia Fabiani, Michele Bozzetto and Emanuela Panke, who came from Italy especially for this event.
The delegate of the Academy, Dr. Cinzia Klein, welcomed the participants and spoke about the theme of the VI World Week of the Italian Cuisine was the Eco Sustainability. For this reason the academic dinner was a dinner with recipes of food reuse.
The event opened with a blessing speech by the new ambassador of Italy, H. E. Sergio Barbanti. The ambassador and the head of the Academy Delegate, Dr. Cinzia Klein, and Vice Delegate Ms. Sabrina Fadlun, awarded medals of honor. Mr. Moshe Barel, owner of Pasta della Casa, was awarded with the Price Alberini for the best Italian product in Israel. Mr. Benny Ben Israel, owner of MoltoBen, was awarded with the prize Nuvoletti for his defense and promotion of the Italian food tradition.
The dinner opened with appetizers of bread gnocchi with black garlic and fermented artichokes. The first dish was fish balls. And the main course served was chard cutlets with cabbage and anchovy sauce and salted caramel. The last sweet dish was a nougat partrait with a large Nutella chocolate leaf on top of it. The meal was paired with excellent white and red wines imported from Italy.
Among the notable personalities attending the dinner were: The ex-Israeli Ambassador in Rome, H.E. Mr. Ofer Sacks. The Italian Italian military attaché, Col. Gioacchino Violante, The attaché for Italian Aeronautic Army Col Davide Salerno, The former Israeli Ambassador to Vatican, H.E. Mr. Oded Ben Hur, The Vice President of Israel-Italy Commerce Chambre, Mr. Roberto della Rocca ,The director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv, Dr Maria Sica, The Director of ITA in Israel, Mr. Fabrizio Camastra, Ms. Ludovica Laviani Mancinelli, Economic and Commercial Affairs, the psychiatric representative of the Israeli health Ministry Dr. Tal Berman, and Editor of the Diplomatic Journal Mrs. Silvia Golan.
Photos credit Silvia G. Golan
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