UBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" Driving the message home -- Sun, Dec 5, 2010       28 Kislev, 5771       --         Breaking News Diplomacy & Politics Defense National News Middle East International Iranian Threat Trade Sports Sci-Tech idea Columnists Editorials Op-Eds Letters Jewish World Jewish News Jewish Features Judaism Cafe Oleh Lifestyle Arts & Culture Food & Wine go Health Features Insights & Features Week in review Blogs In the news Judaism From the Middle East Lifestyle Aliyah Science and Technology Premium Zone The Jerusalem Report run 20 Questions e-paper Ivrit Magazine Metro In Jerusalem Christian Edition My JPost Subscription Center Newsletter RSS feeds News Ticker Facebook Twitter Classifieds Français More Services JPost Store JPost Games Israel Hotels Vacation Rentals Green Israel Car Rentals Learn Hebrew Israel Guide Links Perform Miracles JP daily e-paper לימוד אנגלית Astrology Sitemap      Breaking News     JPost.com Local Focus In Jerusalem   .large_body p, .large_body span { font-size: 18px; } .small_body p, .small_body span { font-size: 12px; } Photo by: Marc Israel Sellem Driving the message home By GREER FAY CASHMAN  11/12/2010 17:01 Zaka is joining the conflict on traffic accidents, founder Yehuda Meshi-Zahav awarded with Civilian Award for promoting road safety.   â-  AT A unique Knesset gathering last week to label National Road Safety Awareness Day, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz presented Zaka Rescue and Recovery chairman and founder Yehuda Meshi-Zahav with a Civilian Award for his role in promoting road safety awareness among Israel’s general public.This year’s awareness day focused on the difficulty of distracted driving, with an emphasis on the dangers of talking on mobile phones or sending text messages while driving – a factor which, according to a recent report by a previous Traffic Court judge, causes 80 percent of all traffic accidents and, according to National Road Safety Authority studies, quadruples the chances of being involved in an accident.“Zaka is a firsthand witness, day in day out, to the senseless carnage on the roads, which is why we are involved in road safety awareness campaigns throughout the year,” Meshi-Zahav explained.Zaka’s 1,500 volunteers respond to more than 21,000 incidents a year, most of which are related to road accidents.â–  THE ATTACHMENT that philanthropists and population activists Libby and Moshe Werthan have for Pardes, the orchard of Jewish learning and discussion, is no secret. Pardes is one of their favorite places. They not only recede there to study, yet for the past 18 years they have also been heavily involved in the development of Pardes and have contributed to and raised funds for it.Last week Pardes held a gala event in their honor, which was attended by close to 400 of their relatives, friends and acquaintances, including their four children who left their own households behind in the US and came to join their parents in Jerusalem.â–  THE Say of health of the guest of honor precludes him from attending, but that has not deterred his family and the Lehi Veterans Organization from celebrating the 95th birthday of former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir. The festivities will hold place at the start Heritage Center on Monday with the participation of BHC chairman Herzl Makov; chairman of the Lehi Veterans’ Association Yair Stern; Vice Premier Lt.-Gen (res.) Moshe Ya’alon; Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein; former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit; and Shamir’s son Yair Shamir, who is chairman of Israel Aerospace Industries.â–  NO CONCRETE suggestions emerged from a panel discussion on the prevention of desecration and vandalism of graves on the Mount of Olives held Saturday night at the Jerusalem noteworthy Synagogue. Calls for increased security and police action were actually cries in the wilderness to a police force that is alarmingly understaffed and whose priorities may not necessarily include the Mount of Olives, despite its importance in Jewish history and tradition.What did emerge was a new star on the panel discussion or lecture circuit in the person of rabbi, lawyer and businessman David Martin, who is an engaging and informative speaker with a wealth of knowledge, a gift for rationale and a sense of modesty.â–  STAND-UP COMEDY star Adi Ashkenazi has been seen in Jerusalem with increasing frequency over the past half year – and it’s not since she gets so many gigs in the capital. It’s since of her romance with Jerusalem businessman Eitan Ben-Zaken, who is the father of her unborn child. Ashkenazi, 35 and a divorcee, is in the fourth month of pregnancy. Whether she will plod permanently to Jerusalem after the baby is born remains to be seen.â–  SOME 100 members of the Israel Harley-Davidson club will descend on the northern Dead Sea today in preparation for a like-the-Dead-Sea Bike Weekend that will take place in June. The bikers will call on the public to vote for the Dead Sea in the finals of the New Seven Wonders of Nature campaign.“This is a warm-up ride taking place one year before the final announcement of the seven winners,” asserted General (res.) Udi Adam, one of the Harley-Davidson bikers and one of the initiators of the ride. “We hope to have more than 1,000 bikers from bike clubs all over the state riding in the Love-the-Dead-Sea Bike Weekend in June so that the noise of our exhausts will be heard throughout the Dead Sea,” he stated.The Dead Sea is one of 28 finalists competing for the last seven places in the New Seven Wonders of Nature campaign whose contest initially included 420 natural sites around the world.Other finalists are the Amazon River, the Galapagos Islands, the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef and the Maldives. About one billion votes are expected to be cast before the campaign ends on 11.11.11, and it is estimated that the winning seven finalists will need to secure about 300-400 million votes. The Israeli campaign slogan is “No floating voters! Vote for the Dead Sea as one of the new seven wonders of nature.”■ AMONG THE diplomats whose moral integrity led them to aid and save Jews throughout World War II was Feng-Shan Ho, the Chinese consul-general in Vienna, who was recognized as the Chinese Schindler.Defying the instructions of Chen Jie, the Chinese ambassador in Berlin, Ho issued thousands of visas to Austrian Jews who had lived under a reign of terror following Austria’s annexation to Nazi Germany in March 1938 and who were later subjected to even more fright and panic following the traumas of Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938.The visas issued by Ho enabled many Jews, who would otherwise have been unable to leave Austria, to find a haven in Shanghai and elsewhere. Despite stern reprimands for his “misconduct,” Ho continued in the Foreign Service and, after a long diplomatic career, retired in 1973. He died in 1997 at the age of 96.Ten years ago he was posthumously recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations. Last week, his daughter Manli Ho was back in Israel to open a memorial exhibition of photographs in Petah Tikva in honor of her father.â–  Even though THIS is the last year in which long-time municipal comptroller Shlomit Rubin is presenting a report, it was nowhere near as free of criticism as Mayor Nir Barkat would have liked. On the contrary, it indicated that corruption and dishonesty are still alive and well at city hall, where all sorts of people who are on the regular payroll have received perks to which they were not entitled. Citizens of the capital who are wondering where their rates and taxes are going would do well to read her report.Rubin will retire at the end of this year. It will be fascinating to see if her successor discovers and exposes as many flaws as she did.   Subscribe to our Newsletter to receive news updates directly to your email     Tweet         Talkback Add a Talkback Report Abuse Read all Talkbacks   Send big little Print part   Tweet      Opinion and Features 1 2 3 Analysis: The impotent ‘If only’ of our northern infernoDAVID HOROVITZ Expressing gratitudeDANNY AYALON Who's fault is the continuing occupation of the Judea and samaria?A. M. DERSHOWITZ  My Word: Assange’s smoking gunLIAT COLLINS Out There: The homework helperHERB KEINON Column One: The WikiLeaks challengeCAROLINE B. GLICK  The fire we all saw comingJPOST EDITORIAL Coping with the curse of natural gasDAVID ROSENBERG Fundamentally Freund: A Hanukka giftMICHAEL FREUND      Your Choice Talkbacked Viewed Northern blaze delights many in ...Many Arabs also strongly condemned Egypt and Jordan for agreeing to help ...Talkbacks (26)12/05/2010 01:32Analysis: Time to cease waiting ...Israel can expect devastation, not only in its cities, but in its forests ...Talkbacks (15)12/04/2010 19:29Expressing gratitudeThis is Israel’s hour of need and nations across the world did not disappoint.Talkbacks (12)12/04/2010 23:41     Yisrael Katz road safety Jerusalem Adi Ashkenazi Yehuda Meshi Zahav Feng Shan Ho Nir Barkat           Israel Focus   The Dollar is DOWNPoverty is UP
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