Since taking office in July 2021, President Isaac Herzog has voted in Jerusalem for the Knesset elections, but on Tuesday he voted in Jerusalem for the first time in the municipal elections, at the School for the Arts polling station. Even though his private home is in Tel Aviv, Herzog voted for the Jerusalem Municipality.
His late father, Chaim Herzog, also voted at the School for the Arts during his presidency and not in Herzliya, where he had his private home.
The younger Herzog’s immediate predecessor Reuven Rivlin, unlike either Herzog, is a multi-generational native son of Jerusalem and therefore voted at the polling station closest to his private residence.
Gil Troy does public speaking on Hamas war, Zionism, and history
■ FANS OF Gil Troy’s Jerusalem Post column will enjoy him even more as a public speaker. Not only does he deliver his message with passion, but his body language is truly something to behold. It’s like a series of mobile punctuation marks to emphasize the message that he is delivering.
Troy will be the guest speaker at the Rosh Hodesh Adar Bet luncheon of the Jerusalem Rosh Hodesh Women’s Club on the topic “Understanding October 7 – and This War – as a Zionist Reset Moment and in Historical Perspective.”
But there’s a catch – you can’t just walk in off the street. Advance registration is required for the catered event, to ensure sufficient food as well as adequate seating. Attendance at these luncheons is quite high, with 159 women coming to the last gathering.
Troy is a senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute and a popular commentator on politics and other issues. He is also a professor of history at McGill University, Montreal, and writes a column for the US website The Daily Beast on forgotten history, putting current events into historical perspective.
Register by Monday, March 4 via email: roshhodeshwomen@gmail.com. If there is no response, it is advisable to try again (due to spam). The cost of NIS 50 (in cash) includes a light lunch. The venue is Kehillat Mevakshei Derech, 22 Sderot Shai Agnon, San Simon. Doors open 12:30 p.m.; the event will begin at 12:45 p.m.
A friendly investiture for Rabbi Yosef Ote
■ ALTHOUGH SEVERAL months have passed since Rabbi Yosef Ote assumed his position as the spiritual leader of the Ohel Nechama Congregation in Old Katamon, it was not until mid-February that he was accorded a formal but very friendly investiture.
The ceremony was conducted by Sherwin Pomerantz, a former chairman of the congregation, along with current chairman Eliezer Jesselson, and Rabbi Aharon Adler, Ote’s immediate predecessor.
Also gracing the ceremony was Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, founder and head of the Har Bracha Yeshiva. He is also the author of Peninei Halakha (Pearls of Halacha), a series of books that explains many aspects of Jewish law. In his lecture on the holy Tabernacle, he explained how lessons for life can be gleaned from every detail related to its construction.
American-born Ote was raised in Israel, studied at the Har Etzion Yeshiva, and was ordained by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. He is also a graduate of Bar-Ilan University and was a combat unit commander in the Givati Brigade of the IDF. He is also a member of the Tzohar rabbinical organization.
Key National Library donors have died
■ DELAYS IN the official opening of the National Library, which has been operating for approximately half a year, means that when there eventually is an official opening, two key donors will not be present because they are now deceased.
Both Sanford (Sandy) Gottesman, the American mega philanthropist who was a member of a philanthropic family dynasty, and Lord Jacob Rothschild, whose family has given so much to Israel in general and to Jerusalem in particular, were present in April 2016 at the laying of the cornerstone, a ceremony that was attended by donors from around the world. They are among various donors whose names now appear in different sections of the library in perpetuity.
Also participating were then-president Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – each the son of a noted professor – who pledged to give a portion of the libraries and archives of their respective fathers to the future National Library, the construction of which was scheduled to be completed in 2020. But it took a lot longer. Gottesman died in September 2022, and Rothschild, this past week.
The Gottesman family has contributed substantial funds to several projects in Jerusalem, such as the bicycle track by the old train station, Hadassah-University Medical Center, Hadassah Academic College, and the Israel Aquarium.
Following her husband’s death, Ruth Gottesman contributed a billion dollars to New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she had been a longtime professor. The donation provides free tuition for students who qualify for financial support.
Various branches of the Rothschild family have helped fund the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Knesset, the Israel Museum, the Supreme Court, and the President’s Residence, to mention just a few of the Jerusalem beneficiaries of their generosity. A Rothschild was among the people who in 1918 laid the cornerstone for the Hebrew University, which celebrates the centenary of its official opening next year.
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