Managing Partner and Former Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes (below right) is shown presenting the American Friends of Magen David Adom Community Service Award to Gabriella Shalev, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations at a ceremony hosted at her apartment on Manhattan’s upper east side. The former Mayor is the Chairman of the NJ Chapter of this organization (Israel’s equivalent of the American Red Cross)
Mr. Wildes recounted a story about one of Ambassador Shalev’s predecessors to the UN ambassadorship- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During his tenure representing Israel at the UN, Netanyahu had a meeting with the Lubavicher Rebbe who told him that his mission was to “light one match” in order to spread truth in an institution full of lies. Ambassador Shalev continued with the Rebbe’s analogy to discuss briefly the hypocrisy in the criticism Israel has been receiving at the UN, especially in the weeks since Israel’s interception of a Gaza-bound ship of activists attempting to break the blockage. “The support of the Jewish people outside of Israel is crucial” she said, speaking to the Magen David Adom contributors at the event.
