UK Ambassador Honours Lema'an Achai



Friday morning's official visit to Lema'an Achai and Beit Shemesh by British Ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould and British MP Richard Ottaway was a great success!

The Ambassador and Member of Parliament were accompanied by Mrs Nikki Ottaway (Richard's wife and a Court Magistrate) and Nathalie Tamam, Political Director of Conservative Friends of Israel.

The distinguished visitors came to Lema'an Achai in Ramat Beit Shemesh, in order to spotlight the community-based charitable social services organization, as an example for the British Government to take note of - and as an example of the positive impact of British Olim on Israeli society.

The UK Government has promoted a concept of "Big Society", which is to say that the grass-roots are being called upon to take on complementary and supplementary roles to Government services, including in the charitable sector.

Conservative Member of Parliament, and Head of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Policy, Mr Richard Ottaway described Lema'an Achai as "a shining example, here in Israel, of the principles of Big Society, now a central policy of the Conservative Party, and of David Cameron's Government".

The visit wrapped-up with scones with jam & cream, served up with English tea - kindly provided by local Brit and caterer, Mrs Miriam Kaplan.

Here's some snaps of the visit, including of the VIPs visit to Bet Shemesh Municipality and the Eshkol Community Center. "Official" photos should be coming soon....

From Left to Right: Amb. Matthew Gould, Mayor Moshe Abutbol, MP Richard Ottaway and Mrs Nikki Ottaway outside Bet Shemesh Municipality

Ceremony presenting Moshe Braun's artworks to the VIPs

Amb Matthew Gould, MP Richard Ottaway and Mrs Ottaway at Lema'an Achai

VIPs and Me!

Comments

  1. Uri27 November 2011 at 12:35

    Lema'an Achai makes me very proud - of being British and of being a resident of Beit Shemesh!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marrying a Soloveitchik

Image
Mazaltov! My nephew, Gedaliah Kestenbaum married Devori Soloveitchik in Jerusalem last week. Gedaliah has married into rabbinical aristocracy .    Devori is the daughter of  Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik, and the grand-daughter of Rabbi  Meshulam Dovid (Reb Dovid) Soloveitchik , who is Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Brisk (one of the two) in Jerusalem . The Soloveitchik's are a rabbinical dynasty descended from Rabbi  Yosef Dov (HaLevi) Soloveitchik (The "Beis Halevi") and his son Rabbi  Chaim Soloveitchik ("Reb Chaim Brisker"). Rav Chaim's sons Rabbi  Yitzchak Zev (Reb Velvel) Soloveitchik ("The GRIZ" The Brisker Rov) and Rabbi  Moshe Soloveitchik seem to have gone in different hashkafik directions. Whereas Reb Velvel's descendents are predominantly right wing hareidim, Rav Moshe's branch are leaders in the Modern Orthodox/National Religious hashkafa – most notably Rav Joseph Ber Soloveitchik ("The Rav") ...
Read more

Hoax Letter Sent to Synagogue

Image
            (Beis Tefillah Synagogue, Ramat Beit Shemesh) The following hoax letter has been sent to members of the Beis Tefillah Synagogue board of management, as if it was written by Rabbi CM [ed. name respectfully withheld] who serves as their rabbi: I think that as long as David Morris sets policy for L.A [ed. Lema'an Achai ], and is their public face,  I will not allow L.A. to use the Shul for fundraising purposes. This will change if: 1)David M apologizes publicly for stating,and insinuating again and again(in many forums,but especially in his childish Tzedek Tzedek blog) that , as a group ,  "Rabbis" (of RBSA ) are guilty of aiding and abetting and enabling child molesters.(And that of course that leaves LA to come to the rescue of our children.) OR IF  2)LA  publicly , clearly,and unambiguously disavows such statements .They must say--we clearly,and unambiguously ,disavow  statements or...
Read more