By ABE SELIGjerusalemites 311(photo credit: courtesy)
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat presented 12 outstanding Jerusalemites with the Worthy of Jerusalem Award on Wednesday night at the Tower of David Museum in the Old City.The award, bestowed annually, honors veteran residents of the capital who are at least 70 years old and who have made significant contributions to the city.This year’s recipients were:• Asher Od, a Holocaust survivor and former director of the Yesh organization for orphaned child survivors of the Holocaust. Od has also served for decades as the secretary-general of the Jerusalem Retiree Volunteers organization.• Asher Ohayon, the founder of the World Heritage Center of North African Jewry in Jerusalem. As director-general of what was then the Welfare Ministry for many years, Ohayon also oversaw numerous education and social welfare projects in Jerusalem.• Rami Bar-Giora, a clinical psychologist who managed the Ilan Child and Youth Treatment Center for over 20 years. Bar-Giora has promoted preventive child care services and legislation that protects children, while devoting himself to developing public services that promote children’s mental well-being.• Rafi Devora, a former manager of the social education department at the Jerusalem Municipality, who also served as the city’s spokesman and as an adviser to the mayor on social and urban planning issues. He was active in developing the community center and administration systems that involved residents in municipal decision making.• Batsheva Yanovsky, a volunteer for over 40 years with the Yad Sarah organization and is the current president of its women’s branch. Yanovsky is also on the board of an organization that has provided help to hundreds of needy brides.• Shulamit Cohen-Kishik, a former Mossad agent who in the late 1940s, helped Jews emigrate from Arab countries to Israel. She was eventually arrested and sentenced to death in Beirut, but was returned to Israel in 1967 as part of a prisoner swap after the Six Day War.Cohen-Kishik currently volunteers her time with a number of causes in the capital.• Rivka Sneh, a teacher and journalist by profession. As the mother of a child with Downs Syndrome, Sneh is active in raising public awareness of special-needs children, and has volunteered for over a decade with the Akim organization in Jerusalem. She helped draft Knesset legislation which has led to the integration of special-needs children in regular classrooms.• Noah Flug, a Holocaust survivor and chairman of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, who also is president of the International Organization of Auschwitz. Poleg is a Yad Vashem member and has served in many roles that promote the welfare of Holocaust survivors and commemoration of the Shoah.
• Israel Kimchi, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies and also a lecturer at the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute for Urban Studies. He has written, edited and published dozens of books about Jerusalem and conducted numerous studies that have contributed to the establishment of conservation and development policies in Jerusalem.• David Kroyanker, an architect, historian and prolific writer, is considered one of the world’s leading experts on Jerusalem’s architectural history, and has successfully fought to conserve many of the city’s historic buildings. • Prof. Arnold Rosin, a world-renowned expert in the field ofgeriatrics, directed the department of geriatrics at Shaare ZedekMedical Center in Jerusalem for 20 years, served as director of thehospital from 1982 to 1984, and still sees patients in his privatepractice. In 1982, the Glasgow native founded Melabev, which providesservices to victims of Alzheimer’s disease. He also founded and stillruns the Center for the Study of Aging in Shaare Zedek, which educateshealth professionals about issues relating to the elderly.• Prof. Nahum Rakover, professor emeritus at Bar-Ilan University, is aformer deputy attorney general, and a leading researcher in the area ofapplying Jewish law to Israel’s state legal system. He is the author ofover 30 books and 200 articles, and his work has won him numerousawards.
