Ten Bay Area residents with big hearts will receive Israel in Our Hearts Community Awards in a ceremony at “Israel in the Gardens” Sunday, June 5.
The awards from the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation were created to recognize members of the Jewish community for their commitment to Israel as well as their efforts in strengthening Israel-Bay Area relations. Nominees must have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to Israel and proven leadership in an initiative or program that has enhanced the Jewish community’s relationship with Israel.
The following are the winners for 2005:
Mathilde Albers was lucky enough to get out of Germany just days before the beginning of the war, though she lost her entire family. The Oakland resident has continued with the mission of Holocaust remembrance. The honorary president of the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay — where she sits on its overseas committee — has also shown an unwavering support of Israel.
Albers has served on the local boards of American Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Anti-Defamation League, AIPAC-American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Israel Bonds. She has also been active with American Society for Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and was part of UJA/ Federation’s North America Prime Minister’s Council, an elite group of American philanthropists who have donated $100,000 or more to the Jewish state.
Several decades ago, she led fund-raising efforts for the East Bay’s Project Renewal efforts in Safed, Israel. She helped build a two-story daycare center for the elderly in that city in memory of her husband, Henry Albers.
Zvi Alon is the founder of NetManage, Inc. and has served as its chairman, president and chief executive officer since the company’s formation in 1990. From 1986 to 1989, Alon was president of Halley Systems, a manufacturer of network equipment. He previously held management positions at Sytek, Inc., a networking company, and served as manager of the strategic business group for architecture, graphics and data communications at Intel Corporation.
As an Israeli living in Silicon Valley, he has been heavily involved in promoting Israeli businesses locally. He also has been involved with the California-Israel Chamber of Commerce and AIPAC. Together with Eric Benhamou, Alon helped found Israel 21c, a pro-Israel Web site that provides stories about Israeli technological and medical advances to media outlets, to show a broader view of Israel beyond the conflict. He continues to serve as chairman of 21c’s board of directors. As national chairman of the board of directors of American Associates of Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, Alon helped conceive the idea for a high-tech research and development park adjacent to the university, which is currently under construction. A building named after him at Ben-Gurion is almost complete.
When the Israel Center of the S.F.-based JCF came into existence, Debbie Cohn was chair of its advisory committee. The former associate director of AIPAC, Cohn is a native San Franciscan. Her activism in the Jewish community began with her serving as regional president of B’nai B’rith Youth Organization’s Northern California region in 1977, and her activism in the Jewish community hasn’t stopped since. Cohn helped found the Israel House on the U.C. Berkeley campus. She worked for AIPAC for 10 years, where she helped start its young leadership program. Cohn later helped found the Israel Center, and still serves on the boards of AIPAC, the Israel Center and the Bureau of Jewish Education. She is also a parent volunteer at Brandeis Hillel Day School, which her two daughters attend. Most recently, Cohn has chaired the Israel Education Initiative, a project of the Israel Center and the BJE, which brings innovative teaching of Israel to the Bay Area’s classrooms.
Arnold Eisen is the Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and Religion at Stanford University. An expert in the modern transformations of Jewish religious belief and practice, he is the author most recently of “Rethinking Modern Judaism: Ritual, Commandment, Community,” for which he received the Koret Jewish Book Award.
Eisen spent three years in Israel while working on his doctorate at Hebrew University: one year on sabbatical from Columbia University and two years as a senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University. Conflicted over whether to stay in Israel or return to the United States, he wrote the book “Galut — Modern Jewish Reflections on Homelessness and Homecoming.” Eisen has been a strong voice of support for Israel and the values it represents on the Stanford campus.
Husband and wife Peter and Mimi Haas will both be honored.
Miriam “Mimi” Haas has served as president of the Miriam and Peter Haas Fund since 1981. Haas also is a trustee and a member of the finance and executive committees at both the San Francisco and the New York museums of modern art.
Peter Haas joined the family business in 1945 and has served on Levi Strauss & Co.’s board of directors since 1948. According to the nominating committee, “Peter Haas has provided leadership in both difficult and stable times, following in the Haas family tradition of commitment to Jews here and abroad. When Israel has needed him, he has always been ready to help. Mimi has had a strong feeling for Israel all her life, attending college there, and is involved directly with ECHAD, a program focused on early childhood education for Arab children.”
Earl Raab, the executive director emeritus of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the S.F.-based JCF, served as its director from the 1950s until 1985, and was responsible for shaping many of the community’s education and advocacy strategy for Israel. Over the years, he has written many columns that appeared in the Jewish Bulletin as well as other community publications, educating people about Israel, especially during crises. According to the nominating committee, he was at the forefront of shaping the community’s response at every level.
Alan Rothenberg is president of Huret, Rothenberg & Co., a San Francisco merchant-banking firm that works with and invests in privately owned companies. Active in Jewish life, Rothenberg currently serves on the board of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. He served as president of the S.F.-based JCF’s board from 1996 to 1998, and still serves on the board. He also has served on its overseas committee.
One person who nominated Rothenberg said he was “instrumental in making our community’s Israel and overseas efforts significantly more innovative and effective.” Rothenberg also took a major role in establishing the JCF’s relationship with its sister community in the Upper Galilee region of Israel.
Tom Lantos has served as a member of Congress since Jan. 3, 1981. He is currently serving his 13th term in the House. Lantos was born in Budapest, Hungary. He was 16 when Nazi Germany occupied his native country. As a teenager, he was a member of the anti-Nazi underground and later of the anti-communist student movement. He is the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress.
As the ranking democrat of the House International Relations Committee, Lantos is a strong voice for American support of Israel. He has introduced, led, co-sponsored and voted for countless bills and resolutions intended to strengthen U.S. ties with Israel — from resolutions reaffirming Israel’s right to act in self-defense against terrorists, to the annual foreign aid bill to the Syrian Accountability Act and the Iran Freedom Support Act.
Adam Weisberg has served as executive director of Hillel at U. C. Berkeley for the past five years. The native San Franciscan and U.C. Berkeley graduate has worked to strengthen Israel education, programming and advocacy efforts at Hillel and on the Cal campus, including lobbying the university administration and faculty to ensure balance and fairness in how Israel is presented in the classroom.
While challenging anti-Zionism on campus, Weisberg has also insisted that Hillel maintain a “big tent” on Israel issues to make sure it remains a “safe space” for all Jewish students. He and the rest of the Hillel staff and student leaders have worked to educate the campus community about the legitimacy of the Zionist enterprise and Israel’s right to thrive as a democratic Jewish state.