ZOA Florida was very excited to hold its second fundraising dinner, chaired by board member Liz Brauser, honoring “Heroes for Israel,” the Honorable Ron DeSantis, Governor of the State of Florida; the Young Israel of Hollywood under the leadership of Rabbi Yosef Weinstock; and the Irving I. Moskowitz Foundation, which presented the Moskowitz Student Leader Award to FIU student Jacob Covas, on the evening of Sunday, December 15th , at Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus in North Miami. The event was attended by close to 350 guests, emceed by Gloria Garces, Christian Zionist, TV Host, Journalist, and Community Activist. Special guests included:
ZOA National President, Morton A. Klein
ZOA National Director of Outreach and Engagement, Talya Messeri
ZOA National Deputy Director, Howard Katzoff
The new Consul General of Israel in Miami, Ishmael Khaldi
The new Deputy Counsel General of Israel in Miami, Kasa Harbor
Former Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department, Dr. Kiron Skinner
Miami Beach Commissioner, Steven Meiner
Broward County Judge, Michael Davis
Chairman of Dade County Commissioners, Esteban Bovo
The Mayor of the Village of Bal Harbour, Gabriel Groisman
The Mayor of Hollywood, Josh Levy
Letters of congratulations were sent in from Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Brian Mast (R-FL), and Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rick Scott (R-FL). Senator Rick Scott also sent in an accompanying video. The letters and video were shared with the guests.
Other guests of note included Reverend Dr. Mike Davis and Reverend A.D. Lenoir, and the Rabbis of at least 9 major local synagogues.
Both the Sun Sentinel and Jewish Press published pre-event articles on the dinner.
The evening began with a VIP reception for Donor Society members, elected officials, and special guests, which was followed by a buffet dinner reception during which, guests participated in a silent auction of vacation packages, run by non-profit partner AmFund, and a pair of tickets to the Super Bowl. About $5,000 was raised from the silent auction.
After the dinner, Emcee Gloria Garces opened the program by welcoming the guests to ZOA Florida’s second annual Heroes for Israel dinner and inviting everyone to stand for the Star Spangled Banner and Hatikva. The ZOA promo video was shown, and ZOA Florida Executive Director Sharona Whisler was invited to the stage. Sharona thanked the ZOA Florida board, dinner host committee, and sponsors, and appealed to guests to get involved in and join ZOA’s Donor Society, referencing ZOA’s critical work that was outlined in the video, and appealing to the guests on their necessary involvement and support. She then showed a video of Moskowitz Student Leader award recipient, Jacob Covas, confronting Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on campus and speaking as part of a panel at a ZOA parlor meeting. Southeast Campus Coordinator Ben Schine invited Cherna Moskowitz and two of her daughters, Laurie Moskowitz and Judy Schultz, to present the Moskowitz Student Leader Award to Jacob Covas, which was a blue glass flame. During his acceptance speech, Jacob thanked the Moskowitzes and ZOA for their support in helping students, and committed to continuing his Zionist activism with ZOA.
Gloria then welcomed ZOA Florida board member and event chair, Liz Brauser, to the stage to make a fundraising appeal with a phone number to text pledges to. Before making the appeal, Sharona presented a surprise Ashis Chayil award to Liz as a gesture of gratitude for her activism and committed energy to ZOA. Liz talked about ZOA’s important work and implored everyone to text in their generous pledges, which populated the screen. (We are waiting for the final tally of pledges from the AV professional who ran the text pledge software for us.)
Gloria then invited the evening’s Diamond Hero Sponsor, Simon Falic from the Falic Family Foundation, to present the Zionist Hero Award to Governor Ron DeSantis. Mr. Falic spoke from the heart about Zionism and thanked ZOA for its important work, and about hosting the governor during his trade and education mission to Israel.
At last year’s event, then-Governor elect Ron DeSantis stopped by the first ZOA Florida Heroes for Israel dinner and announced that his first foreign trip as governor would be to Israel. The governor fulfilled this promise, bringing a delegation of university presidents, CEOs, elected officials, and ZOA National President Morton Klein to Israel, in May, 2019 as part of a trade and education mission. In the Sun Sentinel article that was published before this year’s dinner, Governor DeSantis said, “It’s a true honor to receive the Zionist Hero Award and be recognized as a champion of Israel."
“As a congressman and now as governor, I’ve worked to strengthen the bonds between Florida and Israel, as well as aggressively combat anti-Semitism and discrimination against Israel and our Jewish communities. I was proud to enforce Florida’s anti-BDS law against Airbnb and to lead a historic business development mission to Israel earlier this year, where we bolstered cultural and economic relations in many areas. I look forward to continuing to strengthen Florida’s relationship with Israel.” The award presented on Sunday night was an etched image of the State of Florida next to the State of Israel, with a Magen David as the background, on acrylic glass. The following quote from the governor was also inscribed on the award, “Florida is the most Israel-friendly state in the country and as long as I am Governor, we will continue to stand with the Jewish community”. During his acceptance speech, the governor talked about his trips to Israel and the importance of including Judea and Samaria in his visits. He also talked about his successful efforts in getting the U.S. Embassy moved to Jerusalem as a Member of Congress, specifically noting the Congressional Hearing he held on the issue, at which National president Morton A. Klein was part of. During his speech, the governor asked Mort to remind him who else was part of the panel, to which Mort responded, Ambassador Jon Bolton and Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs President Dori Gold. Because of his efforts in getting the U.S. Embassy moved to Jerusalem, DeSantis was invited to help scout sites for the Embassy’s new location. He talked about this in his speech and about making sure the site of the Embassy would be in the historically Jewish eastern part of Jerusalem. The governor ended his speech to a standing ovation.
Gloria then invited the new Israeli Consul General in Miami, Ishmael Khaldi, to present the Pillar of the Community Award to Young Israel of Hollywood (YIH), led by Rabbi Yosef Weinstock, which was a cut-out piece of artwork depicting the three pillars the world stands on. The Consul General began his speech by saying, “It is a pleasure to be here in a room full of proud Zionists like myself”. He went on to thank the South Florida community for the warm welcome he had been receiving over the last couple of weeks and continued by saying, “I am very proud to be here, representing the State of Israel. I would also like to thank the Zionist Organization of America National President Morton Klein and Florida Executive Director Sharona Whisler for your tremendous work on behalf of Zionist causes and fighting against anti-Semitism and BDS”. He invited Rabbi Weinstock to the stage to accept the Pillar of the Community Award on behalf of the shul and asked for the members of the shul who were present (about 90) to stand to be cheered and recognized.
ZOA National Board Member and Gold Hero Sponsor of the evening, Dr. Paul Tartell, was then invited to introduce the keynote of the evening, ZOA National President Morton A. Klein. Paul’s thoughtful introduction of Mort was pulled from his bio but also included anecdotes of how Mort’s voice is inspiring and necessary, especially with the rise of anti-Semitism and Israel hatred.
Mort thanked Paul for the introduction and launched into his powerful and moving speech. Mort praised the State Department’s recent policy announcement on the legality of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and called out Jewish groups for not only its lack of support for this policy, but for condemning it. He declared that these groups should be ashamed and that their actions help Israel’s enemies. Mort condemned anti-Semitism perpetrated by white supremacists, which is widely condemned, but said that Muslim anti-Semitism is being ignored. Mort cited the alarming statistics of how prominent anti-Semitism is in the Muslim world. He declared that incitement to kill Jews is routinely common place in mosques, not only in Muslim countries, but horrifyingly in the United States, receiving barely a whisper of condemnation or action, except from ZOA.
Mort proudly talked about how Jews stood arm and arm with the black community during the Civil Rights movement, and called on black leaders who have been silent to speak out against the recent and on-going vicious attacks and killing of Jews by blacks, declaring, “Black lives matter, but Jewish lives matter too!” The black ministers in the audience applauded this statement.
Mort praised ZOA’s initiatives in educating students about the in the significance of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, bringing students there to meet their fellow Jewish brethren to see for themselves that these are good people who are trying to live their lives and dream in peace, as opposed to the way they are portrayed in the media and by Israel’s enemies. He held up an image of a kafyia covering the entirety of Israel next to a photo of Yasar Arafat to show that the Palestinian Authority seeks the complete destruction of Israel.
Mort ended his speech by quoting a little-known Bob Dylan song called “Neighborhood Bully”, which satirically portrays Israel and the Jewish people as a “bully” for simply trying to survive and live in peace. He finished to a resounding applause and standing ovation, with a powerful blessing and statement for Israel and the Jewish people to prevail as we have always prevailed with G-d’s help.
The evening was a true show of support, gratitude, and inspiration for all of the heroes for Israel who were honored, and the attendees.
