|
JEWISH NATIONAL FUND
Praise for Mort Zuckerman
Makes Trees Grow in Israel
By TIM BOXER
YOU
learn a lot about a person when he’s the guest of honor. At the
Jewish National Fund’s gala for Mortimer Zuckerman, you
learn that no matter how busy Zuckerman is in publishing the New
York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report, and
running his Boston Properties real estate empire, he takes 45
minutes every morning to drive his three-year-old Abigail to school
and again every afternoon to pick her up.
In a videotaped message, Elie Wiesel
summed up the sentiments of the guests at the Pierre Hotel dinner:
“He is a Jew who makes other Jews proud.”
JNF president Ronald Lauder said he got
involved with JNF, which plants forests and builds roads, when he
realized that Israel will run out of water by 2012.
“If there is a war in the future,” he said,
“it will be over water. What we are doing here is helping to save
Israel’s future.”
Guest speaker was David Gergen, editor
at large at U.S. News, who served as a consultant to presidents. He
said that he was once introduced:
“Our next
speaker worked in the White House with Richard Nixon, Ronald
Reagan, George Bush and Bill Clinton. Ladies and
gentlemen, I give you the newest member of the world’s oldest
profession.”
With a captive
audience in thrall, Zuckerman launched into a profound analysis of
the Middle East situation. But to keep his listeners amused, he told
about the time a man walked out while he was giving a similar
lengthy speech.
“Where are you going?” Zuckerman asked.
“I’m going to get a haircut,” the man
said sarcastically.
“Why didn’t you get one before?”
“Before, I didn’t need one.”
|
