Movers & Shakers: Yossi Klein Halevi, Azerbaijan Helping Chabad and NDF’s New Executive Director

Modern Orthodox community Westwood Kehilla’s 2022 Visionary Awards honored Israeli author and journalist Yossi Klein Halevi. 

“A crucial source of Jewish power is the ability to maintain at least minimal unity within the Jewish people,” Halevi said during the Feb. 6 virtual program, delivering a keynote address called “The Jewish Moment.”

Westwood Kehilla President Greg Smith led the gathering. Participants included Westwood Kehilla Rabbi Avi Stewart and Jewish Journal Editor-in-Chief David Suissa. The live-streamed event also recognized Westwood Kehilla members Wendy and Clark Gross. 

Suissa congratulated Halevi for being honored, saying, “The expression, ‘This man needs no introduction,’ I think was invented for Yossi…the greatness of his writing is something that is rooted in a tremendous amount of holy struggle.”

During his half-hour remarks, Halevi highlighted the threat Iran poses to Israel as well as the hope offered by the Abraham Accords, which resulted in formal diplomatic relations between Israel and several Middle Eastern nations.

The Abraham Accords, Halevi said, “never received the true recognition they deserved.”

The honoree also spoke about the delegitimization of Israel in some American progressive spaces, including college campuses, and the danger of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. 

“What BDS is doing is restoring conditionality to American Jewish life,” Halevi said. 

Joining Halevi in Israel, Smith’s son, Micah, gave the honoree a plaque affixed to a shofar.

“Your words are always a clarion call, like the shofar blast, to the Jewish people,” Micah said, presenting Halevi with an award engraved, “Thinker, seeker, mensch.”

The World Values Network’s tenth annual “Champion of Jewish Values International Awards Gala” was held at Carnegie Hall in New York.

The Jan. 20 gathering honored global philanthropist Miriam Adelson with the Light of the Jewish People Award on behalf of her late husband, Sheldon Adelson, whose yahrzeit fell shortly before the gala.

Several high-profile community leaders turned out, including Marion Wiesel, co-founder of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, along with her son Elisha; former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft; television personality Mehmet Oz; Consul General of the Republic of Poland in New York Adrian Kubicki; IsraAid CEO Yotam Polizer; and Tom Rose, a former advisor to Vice President Mike Pence. 

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla appeared virtually. 

The gala marked the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, a meeting among high-ranking Nazi officials that coordinated the “final solution” to the “Jewish question.” Evening honorees and speakers spoke of the significance of this event and discussed best practices for preventing future genocide. They also examined recent spikes in global anti-Semitism, evidenced by the recent hostage crisis at a Texas synagogue on Shabbat. 

“The Jewish Values International Awards Gala is a time where we can recognize the best practices pioneered by leaders from around the world to combat hate, and appreciate how they can make a difference at a global scale,” Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, founder and executive director of the World Values Network, said. “We must also highlight the key role these leaders have played in championing social cohesion and peace building efforts. The World Values Network affirms that we are all entitled to justice, inclusion at all levels of society, and access to equal opportunities. The Jewish community is of critical importance in establishing a true values-based global society.”                        

The World Values Network, a nonprofit, aims to impact the world globally with the power of universal Jewish values. Its message, based on Boteach’s teachings, is communicated through high-profile events, speeches and public debates.

The Neuromuscular Disease Foundation (NDF) has appointed Geoffrey Gee as its new executive director. Gee succeeds Lalé Welsh, who previously announced her decision to retire from her longtime role as chief executive officer. 

Gee has been involved with a number of Jewish organizations, including American Technion Society, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and University Synagogue, now part of Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

“Our board conducted a comprehensive search for an executive director candidate with Geoffrey’s expertise, know-how and ability to strengthen strategic relationships and manage donor relations,” NDF Board Co-Chair Ralph Loren said in a statement. “With his exceptional track record of leading programs to broaden organizational reach, unite and galvanize communities, support large-scope initiatives, and take organizations to the next level, we believe Geoffrey is the ideal executive director to lead the Neuromuscular Disease Foundation in its next stage of growth and achievement.”

The Beverly Hills-based organization is close to the Jewish community since GNE Myopathy, also known as Hereditary Inclusion Body Myopathy, is a rare genetic disease that primarily affects Middle Eastern Jews. 

A Northern California Chabad rabbi met with Consul General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles Nasimi Aghayev on Feb. 10 to discuss the Azerbaijani consulate’s support for rebuilding his Chabad, which was destroyed last December in a fire.

“I truly believe that people of different faiths should always help each other in times of trouble,” Aghayev said when asked why the Azerbaijani consulate was supporting the synagogue. “That’s how a sustainably harmonious society can be built for the benefit of all.“

Those in attendance at the consulate’s Los Angeles office included Chabad Rabbi Mendel Weinfeld, who leads the Chabad House in Almaden Valley, a neighborhood of South San Jose; Aghayev, a longtime ally of the Los Angeles Jewish community; David Taban, a philanthropist on the Chabad building committee; and Rabbi Kalman Weinfeld, a member of the executive rabbinical council at OK Kosher.

“To see the Azerbaijan people be there for the Jewish people is the most incredible thing,” Rabbi Mendel Weinfeld said in a phone interview.