Hi Rhonda – Greetings from Jerusalem where Anita Wortzman and I are staying at the King David hotel where the delegation for the Hebrew University was staying for the big Board of Governors meeting that was scheduled to take place June 13-19. This year was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the university by Einstein and it had been planned for years so it’s incredibly disappointing that everything is cancelled.
We decided to move from beautiful Tel Aviv on the advice of many people who said statistically Jerusalem is less likely to be the target of the missiles. This is proving to be true. I was told the Iranians will not want to accidentally destroy sacred sites such as the Dome of the Rock or Al Aqsa mosque, or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Meanwhile with everything cancelled, stores and restaurants closed and no one travelling for meetings we are just following the Israel Homefront app advice and staying close to shelters.
While the alarms have been going off once or twice a night we did have one at 8:30 this morning. We are not taking any unnecessary risks!
Our first alarm was in Tel Aviv at the Hilton in the middle of the night and it was definitely unnerving getting our fully charged phones, sensible shoes and room keys and going to the stairwell to wait ten minutes. We were not thrilled with the hotel’s lack of staff who could assist. (Also, stairwells are not as safe as bomb shelters.)
But four days later we are old pros and know the drill. It’s good to be at the King David and not in a tower so we can calmly walk a couple of flights down to the shelter where there are plenty of seats and staff even offer water.
Then it’s back to the room after 15 minutes or so and hopefully back to sleep if you aren’t too jarred by this unprecedented situation!
Days are more calm and pleasant as we work diligently to find a faster and safe escape route in the event skies don’t open soon. Lots of talk of Jordan and boats to Cypress and we may avail ourselves of those options if we can be assured it’s safer than staying put in the gorgeous King David!
There are risks to being on the road – and we are safe here so we continue to assess the ever changing situation and the reams of advice people here and outside are giving us.
I am really busy communicating with colleagues, friends and family but I just wanted to give you a feel for life in Israel as a visitor.
– Gail
P.S. Singer David Broza is in the hotel. He was doing a concert here and is stuck too. He did a lovely impromptu concert for us the other night! Surreal!
Editor’s note: As a teen, Gail Asper frequently travelled with her parents Israel and Babs Asper to Israel when they attended the Hebrew University Board of Governor meetings. Gail Asper O.C., O.M., LL.D is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is the Chair of the Asper Foundation. Anita Wortzman is the President of The Asper Foundation.
The idea of a Hebrew University was initially conceived at the first Zionist Congress in Basil, Switzerland, in 1897.
In a 1921 interview with the New York Times, Albert Einstein declared, “There has been no event in my life that gave me greater satisfaction than the initiative to establish the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.”
The Hebrew University‘s Mount Scopus Campus was founded in 1925, 23 years before the modern State of Israel. Today, Hebrew University has consistently ranked among the top institutions of higher learning in the world.
?The Hebrew University of Jerusalem serves students from various backgrounds. Arab students make up a significant portion of the student body, and the university actively works to encourage diversity and inclusion through various initiatives.
In January 2021, the Asper Foundation donated $5 million to the Hebrew University for the creation of Asper HUJI Innovate, the Hebrew University’s center for innovation and entrepreneurship that promotes Hebrew University as a supportive environment for entrepreneurship, cultivates an entrepreneurial mindset and skills among students, researchers and staff and serves as a catalyst for the development of start-ups and social enterprises.
About the King David Hotel: The iconic King David Hotel which opened in 1931 was founded by Ezra Mosseri, a wealthy Egyptian Jewish banker. At the end of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war the hotel found itself overlooking "no-man’s land" on the armistice line that divided Jerusalem into Israeli and Jordanian territory.
