Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan |
Ehud Barak of Israel |
James Wolfensohn greeting Queen Rania Al Abdullah |
Bono and Queen Rania Al Abdullah |
Bernard J. Arnault and Mayor Michael
Bloomberg |
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Henry
Kissinger |
James Wolfensohn and Bono |
Muhtar Kent, Gordon Brown and Bernard J. Arnault |
Queen Rania Al Abdullah and Rabbi Arthur Schneier
and wife Elisabeth |
APPEAL OF CONSCIENCE
Queen Of Jordan Glitters
At Waldorf-Astoria Gala
Story & Photos by Tim Boxer
HE’S utterly radiant and drop-dead gorgeous. Her
Royal Highness Rania Al Abdullah, the charming queen of the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, dazzled the 920 guests as she entered
the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria for the 2009 annual awards
dinner of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.
Rabbi Arthur Schneier of the Park East Synagogue
organized the foundation in 1965 to promote religious freedom and
global tolerance.
It was a week of frenzied traffic gridlock in
Manhattan as one motorcade after another, escorted by wailing patrol
cars packed with appropriate defensive gear, brought kings, queens,
heads of state and unabashed dictators through the jammed streets of
Midtown to the annual gabfest of the UN General Assembly.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain was one of
three honorees at the Appeal of Conscience event. He came for the
press conference but skipped the dinner – it was that kind of hectic
night. He had dinner with leaders of the G-20 to discuss climate
change.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was also at the
photo op but couldn’t stay to eat as he had three other appointments
that night.
At the dinner, former U.S. Secretary of State
Henry
Kissinger, got up to present the British prime minister with the
foundation’s World Statesman Award, and was flummoxed. He looked
around but couldn’t find Brown.
Kissinger recalled last year’s dinner when he
presented the award to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"I introduced Sarkozy—after he spoke. This time I’m
introducing Brown who’s not even here."
Rabbi Schneier introduced the second honoree,
Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent, as the son of Necdet Kent,
vice consul for Turkey in Marseilles during the Second World War,
who saved a lot of Jewish lives by issuing visas to escape occupied
France. "Turkey put out a stamp commemorating Kent’s hu7manitarian
rescue," Schneier said.
"Our one million employees in over 200 countries,"
Kent said, "are deeply committed to our mission of refreshing the
world."
He said that the last time he was in Paris he
ordered an ice-cold Coca-Cola at a café and the waiter just smiled
and said, "Ah, American Champagne."
The third honoree, Bernard J. Arnault, chairman and
CEO of LVMH, was proud to follow in Sarkozy’s footsteps as recipient
of an Appeal of Conscience Award.
Among the many notables who applauded the three
honorees were Bono, former NYC Mayor Edward Koch, former NY Governor
George Pataki, Wilbur L. Ross Jr., Archbishop
Demetrios, primate of
the Greek Orthodox Church of America; Imam Yayha M. Hendi, Muslim
chaplain at Georgetown University; fashion designer Donna Karan; Dr.
Klaus Kleinfeld, president and CEO of ALCOA; media titan
Rupert
Murdoch of News Corporation; James D. Wolfensohn, former president
of the World Bank; Dr. Srgjan Kerim, president of the General
Assembly; Ehud Barak, defense minister of Israel; plus the prime
minister of Hungary, foreign minister of Spain, intelligence chief
of Morocco and so on.