| WEIZMANN INSTITUTE
Israeli Ambassador Says
It Makes Life Easier At UN Text and Photos by Tim Boxer  SRAELI Ambassador to UN Dan Gillerman surveyed the ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York and remarked, "What a beautiful evening, full of excellence, creativity and warmth. For a moment I thought I was in the General Assembly!"
He was the keynote speaker at the 2006 New York gala of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science. The university is based in Rehovot, Israel. The ambassador recalled a time when presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson addressed a similar audience: "It is my job to speak, it is your job to listen. If you finish your job before I finish mine, you are free to leave." A guest gushed, "That’s beautiful. You will get the vote of all decent people." "That’s not enough," Stevenson replied. "I need a majority." The ambassador praised the Weizmann Institute for its tapestry of creativity and productivity, making the world a better place. "Without knowing it, you have been of enormous help to me at the UN. We try to bring awareness that we are not a one-issue country. We are a country that has contributed more to mankind than most other members of the UN." Prof. Daniel Zajfman, incoming president of the university, beamed. Gershon Kekst, past chairman of the board of governors, presented the Distinguished Service Award to James D. Wolfensohn, ex-chief of the World Bank. Wolfensohn told how his father, when he was 20, worked for Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first president, for whom the university is named. "My father was a recruiting agent for the Jewish Brigade in the First World War." | 
