The Contrarian

We all know by now that last week the prestigious Israel Prize (for Lifetime Achievement) has been awarded to the Jewish Agency in honor of 80 years of service.

The UJC has sent their congrats as has Keren Hayesod. And of course Haaretz has weighed in with their perspective…

“I don’t know if anyone ever tried to work out the average age of Israel Prize recipients, but the profile is fairly standard. A man or woman in their seventies or eighties, hailed for decades of service in academia or some other worthy pursuit and for his or hers past contribution to Israeli society. Sad but true, this is usually a pre-obituary, almost-last honor, to a deserving individual long past the prime of life. The occasional practice of rewarding an organization with one of the prizes, is fairly ridiculous.

Founded in 1929, the Jewish Agency is also on the brink of octogenarianism, with a proud past in which it played a crucial role and gave decades of loyal service to the nation. But now it seems in the autumn of its life, and many of its stalwarts are openly predicting that the grim reaper may just be around the corner.”

You can read the complete article here.

Kind of reminds me of the occasional discussions that ensue following Time Magazine’s announcement of Person of the Year.

Meanwhile, I notice one primary funder missing from the list of congrats.