The 2010 Moskowitz Prize for Zionism was awarded Wednesday evening at Ir David. Among the speakers at the ceremony were Minister Moshe Yaalon and Brigadier General Avigdor Kahalani, representing the prize committee.
The recipients in 2010 are:
Anita Tucker, one of the early pioneers of the Gush Katif settlement enterprise, who became one of the leading spokespersons for the residents during the long and intense struggle against the Disengagement.
In 1976, she and her husband Stuart moved southward to develop a new agricultural community named Netzer Hazani – the first in Gush Katif. They stayed there for 29 years, building up Netzer Hazani, a vegetable-raising and packing business, and their family of five children. When they were ultimately expelled in the Disengagement, they lived for 11 months in temporary lodging in dormitories, and now live in the community’s temporary quarters in Kibbutz Ein Tzurim. Anita now works to help the Gush Katif communities retain their unique, pre-expulsion character of Torah and Land of Israel values, friendly communal relations, and pioneering spirit.
Rabbi Yoel Schwartz is the founder and driving force behind the Nahal Hareidi – the first IDF unit organized especially for hareidi-religious soldiers. The framework allows the soldiers to maintain their religious way of life, including scheduled time for prayers, Torah classes, kosher l’mehadrin food, and the like. Rabbi Schwartz was originally shunned within his own hareidi public for his work in Nahal Hareidi.
Author of dozens of books on Jewish Law and Thought, Rabbi Schwartz says he started Nahal Hareidi in order to make sure that Israeli society did not develop into two separate nations, one religious and one secular. “This was a dream of unity,” he explains.
Gen. Aharon Davidi is most well-known for having headed Sar-El, an organization for IDF volunteers from abroad, for nearly 30 years. He began his army career in 1944, volunteering for the Palmach and taking part in the conquest of the city Be’er Sheva. He took part, in increasingly higher-ranking capacities, in the War of Independence, the Sinai Campaign, the Six Day War, and the Yom Kippur War.
Sar-El was founded in 1982 for the purpose of recruiting volunteers to help fill the places of reserve soldiers who were called up for the Peace for Galilee War. The organization grew increasingly larger, and today has 5,000 volunteers from some 30 countries, serving several weeks each year. The volunteers chiefly help in logistics, guard duty, medical services, catering and the like. The goal is to free up soldiers for work that requires more training, as well as to forge ties between the volunteers and Israel and the IDF. Some 6,000 Sar-El volunteers have made Aliyah over the years.
The Moskowitz Prize for Zionism, founded by Dr. Irving and Cherna Moskowitz, was first awarded in 2008. It is given to three Israeli citizens every year, whose deeds exemplify modern Zionism and who deal with the challenges facing Israel in the fields of education, research, settlement, culture, security and more. It includes a cash award of $50,000.