“First I Need Your Hand, Then Forever Can Begin” by David LaChapelle, $10,000	David LaChapelle and Jim Kempner
David LaChapelle and Robert Benrimon
Enid Shapiro, executive director of AFTAM, with Oded Halahmy and his sculptures
Audrey and Harvey Feuerstein with George Roland
Janet Lehr, co-owner of Vered Art Gallery in East Hampton, and Jane Ann Fell	Marylyn Dintenfass and John Driscoll
Bella Meyer, florist and Marc Chagall’s granddaughter, and philanthropist Herta Amir	Joan Muss and her nephew, Preston Scott Cohen, architect of the new Herta and Paul Amir wing of Tel Aviv Museum

TEL AVIV MUSEUM
New Yorkers Pay Tribute To
The Rolands, David LaChapelle

STORY AND PHOTOS BY TIM BOXER

I

 WAS sitting with a couple of lawyers at the American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art gala at the Pierre Hotel in New York.

Harvey Feuerstein, of Manhattan, proudly mentioned that his son, Mark Feuerstein, is now in his fourth year starring in Royal Pains on the USA network. The 40-year-old actor plays the lead role of the doctor, Hank Lawson, in this comedy series.

The other lawyer, George Roland, didn’t say much. His card informed that he’s president of Roland Land Investment in Encino. He came from California for the annual AFTAM dinner. He has an interest in art.

You can imagine how surprised I was to see George spring on stage to accept an award on behalf of his late parents, Anton and Susan Roland. His parents had gifted the museum with 13 magnificent paintings by masters of the 20^th century, including a Francis Bacon triptych appraised at $75 million.

"My parents were opposites," George said. His mother came from Hungary and father from the Carpathians. Dad studied in a yeshiva in Prague when the war broke out.

He found his future wife on the street wearing a Jewish star. "Why are you wearing that?"

"They told me to."

"Just because they told you to do it doesn’t mean you do it."

He ripped the star off her coat and took her to the underground where he was working as a forger for the resistance against the Nazis. They stayed together ever since.

AFTAM chairman David Genser and gala chair Lauren Etess Schwartz honored David LaChapelle as artist of the year.

LaChapelle donated a limited edition print of his "First I Need Your Hand, Then Forever Can Begin," 2009, valued at $10,000, the proceeds of which will benefit the Tel Aviv Museum.

Among the artists who applauded were James Rosenquist, Donald Sultan, Nir Hod, Boaz Vaadia, Marylyn Dintenfass and Oded Halahmy. Also architect Preston Scott Cohen who designed the Herta and Paul Amir Building that opened November 2011. The museum earned the 2012 Best Museum Award by Travel and Leisure Magazine for this magnificent Amir wing.

LaChapelle said in an interview that he was born in Fairfield, Conn., to Huguenot parents. His ancestors were Protestants who fled persecution in France in the 17^th century to freedom in Canada.

Two decades ago LaChapelle stayed in a kibbutz and took a bus to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. "I met Moti who was so welcoming I felt relaxed," he said of Mordechai Omer, director and chief curator.

He was so taken with the warmth of the people of Israel and "their personification of living in the moment – people at the beach, in the cafes, on the scooters. The way they embraced life was so different from anything I experienced."

The 250 guests sorely missed Professor Mordechai Omer, who held sway over the gala year after year. He succumbed to cancer in June 2011. In his stead came Suzanne Landau. Chief curator of fine arts at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Landau will succeed Omer in September.