CAmerica-Israel Cultural Foundation FOCUS Summer 2005 AICF’S 66TH ANNUAL GALA

You’re Invited!

AMERICA-ISRAEL CULTURAL FOUNDATION is celebrating its 66th anniversary! ± Annual Gala Concert at Frederick P. Rose Hall Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center Broadway @ 60th Street New York City ± Rachel and Dov Gottesman to Sunday November 20, 2005 3:00 p.m. Receive King Solomon Award ± Rachel and Dov Gottesman are dedicated citizens of Israel, and patrons of Master of Ceremonies Israeli arts and culture, whose interests extend worldwide from Tel Aviv, to Jonathan Light Geneva, to London and to New York. Emigrating with his family from Vienna to Palestine in 1932, Dov fought for Israel in the Palmach and the War of Independence and served in the Israeli Defense Forces until 1955. Aviv Award His wife of over 50 years, Rachel, was born in Israel and trained as a teacher. Together, they have become highly respected leaders in Israeli cultural life. Astute collectors of Israeli and international art, Rachel and Dov have been in the vanguard of philanthropic support for the creative arts in Israel, devoting themselves to the encouragement of Israeli artists. Since June 2001, Dov has served as president of the Israel Museum. Both in the museum and in many other cultural endeavors in Israel, Dov’s efforts are enhanced immeasurably by Rachel’s graciousness, quiet elegance, and keen aesthetic sense. Rachel and Dov became closely involved with the America-Israel Cultural Foundation at the 2003 Aviv Competitions for young Israeli musi- cians. Since then, they have become loyal followers and supporters of the competitions and the competitors. Their devotion to the activities of AICF is ~ Amos Gitai ~ exemplary. In recognition of their outstanding efforts on behalf of Israeli art and Israeli Filmmaker Israeli artists, and their role in elevating the international status of Israeli art, and their generous support of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, the America-Israel Cultural Foundation has selected Rachel and Dov Gottesman to receive its King Solomon Award. FROM THE PRESIDENT AMERICA-ISRAEL CULTURAL FOUNDATION, INC.

C HAIR OF THE BOARD Vera Stern

O FFICERS Bill William A. Schwartz, President Schwartz Margalit Meidar, Vice President Ronnie Ackman, Secretary Harvey E. Rothenberg, Treasurer Ronald M. Appel, Esq., Assistant Secretary and Counsel How would you like an opportunity to touch a life? What can be more B OARD OF DIRECTORS satisfying than helping Israel Ronnie Ackman • Diane Belfer • Ann Bialkin • Shelly Blondes • Marshall S. Brozost • perpetuate the arts from generation Renee Cherniak • Lonny Darwin • Debby Edelsohn • Carl Glick • Charlotte S. to generation. The abundance of Hattenbach • Joseph E. Hollander • Jane Stern Lebell • Bradley Lubin • Marguerite gifted young people in this wonder- Perkins-Mautner • Margalit Meidar • Toby A. Nussbaum • Paula Sarnoff Oreck • David A. Oestreich • Helen Sax Potaznik • Harvey Rothenberg • Tamar Rudich • ful country is impressive. More Linda Schonfeld • Renee Schreiber • William A. Schwartz • Romie Shapiro • than two thousand musicians, Jeannette R. Solomon • Vera Stern • Ralph Tornberg • Guri Yavnieli dancers, artists, filmmakers and architects are competing this year AST RESIDENTS P P for AICF scholarships. Each Carl Glick • Frederick R. Mann† • William Mazer† • Samuel Rubin† • Vera Stern applicant is given an opportunity to P AST BOARD CHAIRS present his or her work before a George M. Jaffin† • Raphael Recanati† panel of qualified jurors. The H ONORARY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR excitement and intensity of these Stanley Grayson† students is palpable. For many years AICF has H ONORARY DIRECTORS † † helped Israel maintain its standing Joan Arnow • Walter Artzt • Sidney Bernstein • Stanley Bogen • Alan A. Fischer • as a world leader in the performing Janice Levin† • Isidore Morgenstein† and visual arts. I invite you to C HAPTER PRESIDENTS participate in this project. By Charlotte S. Hattenbach, Cincinnati providing scholarships for study in Renee Cherniak, Debby Edelsohn, Marguerite Perkins-Mautner, Los Angeles Israel and abroad, each one of Carol Starley, Washington, DC AICF’s supporters has the opportu- Guri Yavnieli, Miami nity to nourish a great talent. A RTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE The Aviv Competition, which Jacques d’Amboise • Milton Babbitt • Eugene Istomin† • Menashe Kadishman • furthers young performing musi- Joseph Kalichstein • Pearl Lang • Zubin Mehta • Henry W. Meyer • Itzhak Perlman • cians who are ready for a profes- Dina Recanati • Mstislav Rostropovitch • John Rubinstein • Robert Sherman • Joan sional career, will be held in Tel Miklin Silver • Neil Simon • Stephen Sondheim • Frances Sternhagen • Eugenia Aviv from December 24, 2005 until Zukerman • Pinchas Zukerman January 5, 2006. This contest †In Memoriam showcases the finest talent that Israel has to offer. I urge all of you S TAFF – NEW YORK S TAFF – TEL AVIV to visit Israel, and to join me at any Barbara A. Simon, Administrative Director Gideon Paz, Executive Director or all of the Aviv events. Tickets Gary S. Eisenkraft, CPA, Director of Finance Meira Geyra, Artistic Director will be made available to those who Alexander London, Executive Administrator Netta Pnini, Scholarships’ Coordinator would like to attend as guests of Carlos Asencios Benny Briskin, , Information Specialist Director of Finance AICF. Please contact our office for details. America- Israel Cultural Foundation Come to Israel this winter. 51 East 42nd Street, Suite 400 Don’t just go to see the country. New York, New York 10017 Feel it, touch it with your mind and Tel: 212-557-1600 Fax: 212-557-1611 soul, and understand the vitality [email protected] • www.aicf.org and inspirational force that is Israel. AICF’s History of Artistic Encouragement

AICF was established in 1939 by Edward Norman of Chicago, its original mandate being the rescue and resettlement of musicians from Germany in what was then Pales- tine (among these musicians were many early members of the Pales- tine Symphony, which is today the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra). In the years immediately before and after Israel’s statehood, AICF was providing seed money for the burgeoning cultural institutions of ROM THE HAIR this new country — the art muse- F C ums, dance schools, art academies and music conservatories that Dear AICF Friends: flourish today. In the 1950’s, AICF began its It has become an annual tradition to welcome you at our Gala concerts-The Sharett Scholarship Program, now 2005 one being planned and I hope that you will join us again- the “jewel in the crown” of our I strongly believe to go back to the source, Israel, where all our talented activities. In 2001 alone, we students have and still are studying – The Aviv Competition that takes place th th awarded over 800 scholarships to from December 24 to January 5 will give us a chance to hear and appreci- talented young people in art, dance ate the tremendous wealth of talent. You can spend as little or as much time film, music and theater. Many of during that period This visit will also give you the opportunity to make this our past winners have gone onto trip a personal one, arrive earlier and leave later- distinguished careers in the arts, I look forward to sharing with you exciting concerts, meeting artists mem- among them the violinists Itzhak bers of Israel’s cultural circles — Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Shlomo Mintz and Gil Shaham; With best wishes, the pianists Yefim Bronfman and Joseph Kalichstein; pianist/ Vera Stern conductor Daniel Barenboim, Chair of the Board Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Shulamit Ran and visual artist Menashe Kadishman. iting their artwork in galleries and are 55 former scholarship recipients But these are just the world- museums around the world, gaining of our Foundation. Others are at famous names. Countless others recognition for Israel as an impor- the threshold of important careers are teaching in the educational tant center for visual and plastic in the arts: a retrospective of institutions of Israel, helping to arts. AICF scholarship winners photographer Michal Rovner is in guide the next generation; perform- form the nucleus of Israel’s many the planning stages at the Whitney ing nightly on the stages of Israelis symphony and chamber orches- Museum, film-makerDover theaters; winning international tras—among the 100 members of Kosahvilli (Late Wedding)—are distinctions at film festivals; exhib- the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among some the names to watch.

Many Thanks to the AICF 66th Anniversary Gala Committee! Margalit & Moshe Meidar (chairs) • Ronnie & Larry Ackman • David Oestreich Paula Sarnoff Oreck • Linda & Myron Schonfeld AICF’S 66TH ANNUAL GALA Israeli Filmmaker Amos Gitai to Receive Aviv Award

Amos Gitai was born in Israel in based for most of the following 1950, just two years after the decade. There, he continued establishment of the modern state directing documentaries. Some of of Israel. After military service those documentaries focused on Gitai, following in his father’s international journeys, such as footsteps, studied architecture at “Pineapple,” a humorous odyssey the Technion in Haifa, and then at about the growing and marketing the University of California- of pineapples. Other of his docu- Berkeley. His studies were dis- mentaries dealt with the resurgence rupted by the 1973 Yom Kippur of fascism in Europe, including “In War, an event that profoundly the Valley of the Wupper,” set shaped his life and work. around a Neo-Nazi incident in A helicopter, in which he was Germany. serving on a search and rescue While in Paris, Gitai also mission, was shot down, killing began directing fiction/history people who were very close to him features about the experience of tine, which won the critic’s prize at and nearly ending his own life. exile. Among these films were: a the Venice Film Festival; as well as After this, Gitai gradually turned stunning adaptation of the Biblical three films related to the Jewish toward filmmaking, using a Super 8 Book of “Esther,” which was legend of the Golem, including camera his mother had given him presented in the Cannes Film “Birth of a Golem,” “Golem: The for his birthday. Gitai brought the Festival’s Critics’ Week; “Berlin- Spirit of Exile,” and “Golem: The camera with him on several heli- Jerusalem,” a powerful historic epic Petrified Garden.” copter missions, but not on the about the emigration of European In the mid 90’s following the fateful one that ended in a crash. Jews to British Mandate era Pales- election of Yitzhak Rabin, Gitai Intrigued by the immediacy that filmmaking offered, as opposed to the long-term commitments of architecture, he began making short abstract films on Super 8 and 16mm which featured landscapes and political rallies. In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Gitai directed numerous documentaries, some of them for Israeli television. Many, including “House” (1980) and “Field Diary” (1982), were censored. During that same period Gitai received his PhD from the University of California- Berkeley, and directed several documentaries about the United States, such as “In Search of Identity” (1981) and “American Mythologies” (1981). Following the controversial reception of his film “Field Diary,” Hiam Abbass, Natalie Portman, and Hanna Laslo in Free Zone. Amos Gitai’s Gitai moved to Paris, where he was film about three women on a journey blah blah blah moved back to his hometown of Haifa. There he continued directing S TH NNUAL ALA films at an astonishing rate. AICF’ 66 A G Among his recent films have been the trilogy: “Devarim,”(1995) “Yom Yom,” (1998) and “Kadosh,” Jerusalem Quartet to Give Gala (1999) “The Arena of Murder,” a 1996 documentary about the Concert Performance assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, In August 1995, the Jerusalem participated in numerous master “Kippur,” (2000) about the Yom Quartet took audiences by storm at classes with well-known artists Kippur War, “Kedma,” (2002) about the Kfar Blum Chamber Music such as Isaac Stern (AICF’s Chair- the 1948 War of Independence, Festival. Today, after more than a man Emeritus), Michael Tree, “Alila,” (2003) “Promised Land,” decade of performing chamber Henry Meyer, Gyorgy Kurtag, (2004) and “Free Zone” (2005). music together, this quartet, Tabea Zimmerman and members Amos Gitai’s work has been considered amongst the greatest of the Amadeus and Alban Berg the subject of numerous chamber music performers in Israel, Quartets. Prior to the formation of retrospectives, world-wide. Major has established itself internation- the Quartet, its members had been retrospectives have taken place at ally as an exceptional and dynamic awarded soloist scholarships by the Jerusalem Cinematheque, the ensemble. AICF. After its formation the National Film Theatre (London), The Jerusalem Quartet was Quartet received support from the Cinematheque Francaise (Paris), “born” in the Conservatory of the AICF as a quartet, including and the Filmoteca Espanola Jerusalem Academy of Music and support in the form of loaning its (Madrid.) The next major retro- Dance. Starting life as a student members first-rate musical instru- spective will be offered by the ensemble, it soon crystallized into a ments. Lincoln Center Film Society from superb string quartet, guided by its During its years working November 30th through December teacher, last year’s AICF “Master together, The Jerusalem Quartet 8th of this year. Teacher” prize-winner, violinist Avi has garnered numerous prizes. In It is with great pleasure that Abramovich, who noted: “After one 1996, the Quartet received First the America-Israel Cultural Foun- rehearsal, it was already evident Prize at the Jerusalem Academy dation awards its Aviv Award to that we had something very special Chamber Music Competition. The Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai. before us something in the sound, following year the ensemble won in the totally committed involve- ment of each one of them in a love of music and a determination to succeed.” ALA ONCERT In tandem with their studies G C at the Jerusalem Academy of PERFORMERS Music and Dance, the Quartet

Featuring prize-winning Israeli Artists, all AICF scholarship recipients

THE JERUSALEM QUARTET Alexander Pavlovsky, violin Sergei Bressler, violin Amichai Grosz, viola Kyril Zlotnikov, cello

Rinat Shaham, mezzo-soprano

Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet Amit Peled, cello Alon Goldstein, piano SCENES FROM THE 65TH ANNUAL GALA

Honoring “The Art of Teaching in Aviv Award Jim Dine, Master AICF Life Achievement Award Israel” Artist and Teacher Chaim Topol, Meira Geyra Avi Abramovich Actor and Writer

How AICF’s Programs Support the Arts in Israel

The America-Israel Cultural cians: Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas B) Scholarships for study Foundation’s mission is to raise Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Gil abroad. Scholarships are granted funds to foster the arts and culture Shaham, Shlomo Mintz, Daniel for all of the above-mentioned in Israel. AICF supports the study Barenboim, Joseph Kalichstein, categories for graduate students or and the teaching of the arts, with composer Shulamit Ran, choreogra- those who have exhausted their special emphasis on the develop- pher Ohad Naharin, visual artist study possibilities in Israel. ment of young Israeli artists, in Menashe Kadishman, artist Michal C) Fellowships for artists and order to sustain and continue Rovner, and filmmaker Dover teachers – This program grants Israel’s rich cultural legacy. Koshashvili. support for short term professional Since its creation in 1939, the A) Scholarships for study in study. These grants are designed to organization has supported almost Israel. Scholarships are granted in assist advanced students, profes- every cultural institution in Israel. the following categories: sional artists and teachers of the AICF is now devoting major Music-all of the arts to participate in training funding to granting of over 1,000 orchestral instruments, voice, piano, programs and conferences, ad- scholarships annually to students chamber music, instruments of old vanced courses and seminars in of the arts, both in Israel and music, plucked string instruments, Israel and abroad, as well as trips abroad, and to the support of instruments of Arabic music, abroad to broaden their profes- programs for teaching of the arts conducting, composition, and jazz. sional horizons. and the development of Israel’s art Visual Arts- painting, D) Travel grants for scholar- schools. sculpture, photography, multime- ship students to attend competi- Building and sustaining dia, video, design of all kinds and tions and workshops abroad – The Israel’s cultural life is our mission – architecture. purpose of this program is to meet for this generation and those to Dance – ballet, the needs of AICF scholarship follow. modern dance and choreography recipients who are invited to Support for the arts in Israel Film & Television – participate in international work- takes the form of our Sharett scriptwriting, directing, editing, shops, competitions, festivals, etc., Scholarship Program. photography and general studies. because in most cases, the travel Some of our more well known Theatre – acting, costs are not provided by the scholarship recipients are musi- directing and playwriting. organizers of these events. E) Teacher’s Coaching Project – This project, initiated in 2002 by EGACY OF NTERNATIONAL violinist Miriam Fried and the A L I Jerusalem Music Center, enables CULTURAL ENRICHMENT leading violin teachers of Israel’s music academies to serve as men- tors to music teachers in music Among the major centers of culture around the world conservatories throughout Israel. in which AICF scholarship alumni have been This pilot program has been represented, past and present, are: extended to include piano and jazz studies through the MATAN project. MATAN is an organization whose purpose is to nurture arts ART DANCE and culture for Israeli youth. Metropolitan Museum of Art Martha Graham Dance Company F) Musical Instrument Bank – Museum of Modern Art, New York Ballet Hispanico of New York loan of musical instruments and acquisition grants The Jewish Museum Lar Lubovitch Dance Company Projects for Young Artists – the The Art Institute of Chicago Bejart 20th Century Ballet purpose of these projects is to Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Batsheva Dance Company provide young artists with oppor- Museum of Modern Art, Bat-Dor Dance Company tunities for professional develop- San Francisco ment. The Israel Ballet Jerusalem Music Centre’s Los Angeles County Inbal Dance Theatre Young Musician’s Unit Museum of Art Israeli Defense Forces Out- The White House FILM standing Musicians Program Sculpture Garden New York Film Festival The Aviv Competitions Hakone Museum, Japan Israel Film Festivals/NY & LA Artic Exhibitions and Cata- Musee de l’Elysee, Lausanne logues Edinburgh International Festival Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris Acquisition of Israeli Art by Cineuropa Festival of Florence Berlin Museum Israeli museums which has been Rotterdam Film Festival created by young Israeli artists The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Montpellier Festival, France Projects for young artists in Tel Aviv Museum of Art theatre, dance and music. Mexico City Film Festival Haifa Museum Israeli Opera Studio Jerusalem International Festival Support for Art Schools and MUSIC Workshops THEATER AICF provides seed money, New York Philharmonic BAM Theater Festival which often serves as a trigger for Chicago Symphony Orchestra other support. In general, we prefer Broadway Production of The Philadelphia Orchestra to invest in people, rather than in “Les Miserables” equipment. We assist different San Diego Symphony Sanford Meisner Theater, schools in all fields of the arts, and Houston Symphony Orchestra New York don’t necessarily support the same Santa Barbara Symphony Cameri Theater schools year after year. Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Habimah National Theater Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Munich Beer Sheva Municipal Theater Hong Kong Symphony New York State Theater Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Gesher Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra Haifa Symphony Orchestra Israel Camerata Rehovot Israel Chamber Orchestra IDF Chamber Orchestra first prize at the “Franz Schubert and the Music of the 20th Century Competition” in Graz, Austria. Other awards include: the Interna- tional Music Forum of Normandy’s Special Prize as guests of the Forum; and two awards from the Israel Minister of Education. The first of those awards was bestowed in 1998, for the Quartet’s contribu- tion to the development of cham- ber music in Israel and the second award the Quartet received the Israel Minister of Education’s Prize for Israeli Music. The Quartet has appeared with preeminent artists such as Daniel Barenboim (AICF Scholar), Tabea Zimmerman, Joseph Kalichstein (AICF Scholar), Rich- ard Stolzman, Boris Pergamenschikow, Sharon Kam, Jessye Norman and the Vermeer and Prazak Quartets. The Quartet’s varied reper- toire ranges from Haydn to con- temporary music. The Jerusalem Quartet is a frequent guest at important music centers through- out the world. Its members serve on the teaching staff of the Royal Academy of Music in London, where they give master classes in chamber music.

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