HAIFA Desiree Rogers, Social Secretary to American President Barak Obama, move over! Rambam's own lovely Nurit Naeh, Director of Public Relations, outdid herself producing the gala evening for Israeli Friends in salute to our medical center's 70.
 
The event was held on December 16th in Haifa at the International Convention Center and included the participation of Mr. Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel; Mr. Yacov Ben Yizri, Minister of Health; Mr. Yona Yahav (in an expansive mood after having recently won reelection as Mayor of Haifa); Prof. Yehuda Hayuth, Chairman of Israeli Friends; and Ariela and Eitan Wertheimer, Co-Chairs of Rambam’s Vision of Adam social-venture capital campaign for the 21st century.

Invitees could be excused for at first supposing that they had wandered into a lavish birthday bash for an individual blessed with 1,600 local friends and additional guests flying in from abroad, among them American Friends Aaron and Irma Spencer of Boston and Ms.
Florence Tatistcheff of New York. Mr. Yair Kagan and Ms. Anita Alexander-Passe, who direct Rambam’s American and British Friends Associations from New York and London respectively,
were also present.

After hors d’oeuvres, guests filled the Convention Center’s cavernous auditorium for a production showcasing tens of singers, dancers and musicians. Performers took their places onstage in front and back of a translucent screen both on and behind which was projected documentary footage of patients, physicians and nurses at Rambam. Many of the images were filmed by Dr. Eran Tal-or, Director of the Surgical Emergency Room and a gifted amateur cinematographer.

Vocalist Hagit Beyar (daughter of Director General Rafael Beyar) opened the evening with a bilingual rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Reigning Israeli pop goddess Miri Mesika (pictured) headlined.

President Peres’ attendance signified the importance of Rambam’s seventy years in the life of the nation. Like Rambam, Mr. Peres, 85, has played a shaping role throughout Israel’s history. He is now a dignified elder who has risen well above the political rough-and-tumble of his youth to become a world statesman with an urgent, wise message to impart.

See page 2 for an excerpt from the President’s remarks to the Friends of RambamMedical Center— delivered on that evening in his famously solemn, gravelly, low-pitched voice