A citation will be conferred by the B’nai B’rith World Center upon Israeli musician and composer Idan Raichel in recognition of his contribution to fostering Israel-Diaspora relations through the arts. The citation will be presented at B’nai B’rith World Center’s 24th annual Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage in Memory of Wolf and Hilda Matsdorf.

Raichel is very influential in the Israeli cultural world. In a relatively short period of 15 years, this multi-talented artist has become one of the most outstanding musicians in Israel, and one of the most successful Israeli artists abroad. As a producer, keyboardist, lyricist, composer and performer, Raichel created a unique and superb stage presence that was new to the Israeli music scene. The worldwide collaborations that Raichel has created throughout his career have made him a cultural ambassador for millions of fans, hoping to represent a hopeful world, in which artistic collaboration breaks down barriers between people of different backgrounds and beliefs.

Having lived both in the far-flung corners of the Diaspora and in the heart of the Jewish world, Israel, Australian social workers Dr. Wolf Matsdorf and wife Hilda were supremely aware of the media’s influence on strengthening the relationship between Israel and world Jewry.
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The couple, passionate activists in many Jewish organizations including the Jewish Council to Combat Fascism and Anti-Semitism, the Society for the Rescue of European Jewry, and B’nai Brith International, recognized that quality reporting on Diaspora communities and Israel-Diaspora relations was essential for the resilience of both centers of the Jewish peoplehood.
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Long-time Israel Broadcasting Authority journalist Ya’akov Ahimeir will received a Lifetime Achievement Award in memory of Luis and Trudi Schydlowsky and musician Idan Raichel will accept a special citation for Outstanding Contribution to Israel-Diaspora Relations through the Arts.

​Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer will deliver the keynote address.

STILL ON the subject of volunteerism, but not in relation to the President’s Prize, is the annual B’nai B’rith World Center’s Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage in memory of Wolf and Hilda Matsdorf.

In recent years, in addition to awards conferred on journalists, citations have also been given to members of the entertainment industry who have distinguished themselves in promoting and advancing Jewish unity and inclusiveness. The special citation for fostering Israel-Diaspora relations through the arts was initiated in 2014, with previous recipients being Nurit Hirsh and David D’Or.

This year’s recipient will be musician and composer Idan Raichel, who with his special music project with members of the Ethiopian community has boosted the local Ethiopian community’s self-esteem and has promoted its music and its rights when performing abroad. In May of this year, Raichel was presented with an Unsung Heroes Award by Martin Luther King III in recognition and appreciation of what he has done to elevate Ethiopian pride and self-image and to create broader awareness of Ethiopian culture.

Beyond security and technology, my confidence in the future of the US-Israel alliance also comes from my appreciation that our alliance is rooted in things that run much deeper. It is rooted in our most cherished values and in a shared sense of destiny. The idea that all are created equal in the image of God, that no one is above the law, that compassion for the most vulnerable is a sacred obligation — ideas which have been a moral compass for generations of Americans — were ideas first championed thousands of years ago by the prophets of the Jewish people and which today are fused into the national identity of the Jewish state.

Having lived both in the far-flung corners of the Diaspora and in the heart of the Jewish world, Israel, Australian social workers Dr. Wolf Matsdorf and wife Hilda were supremely aware of the media’s influence on strengthening the relationship between Israel and world Jewry.

Wolf, an editor of the B’nai B’rith World Center Journal “Leadership Briefing,” worked as well in journalism in Israel and Australia. As such, to honor their legacy, the Matsdorf family inaugurated in 1992 the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage.
The couple, passionate activists in many Jewish organizations including the Jewish Council to Combat Fascism and Anti-Semitism, the Society for the Rescue of European Jewry, and B’nai Brith International, recognized that quality reporting on Diaspora communities and Israel-Diaspora relations was essential for the resilience of both centers of the Jewish peoplehood.
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Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer will deliver the keynote address.

Borschel-Dan recounted how she only discovered she was Jewish when she was nine years old. She said she decided to immigrate to Israel “at 24, with only a backpack and my violin,” after realizing that as someone “whose center of life is not the synagogue,” her future children’s children would very likely not grow up to be Jews if she remained in the United States.

She said it was always important to her that there is dialogue between Jews from Israel and the Diaspora, as well as between religious and secular Jews from all denominations.

Borschel-Dan said that she views the Jewish people as “a big family.”

“A family needs to be familiar with all of its members. But more importantly, a family must recognize and accept all of its members as family,” said Borschel-Dan.

Haaretz columnist Allison Kaplan Sommer was awarded the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportage in a ceremony on Thursday night.

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The B’nai B’rith World Center Award is the most prestigious prize in its field in Isral.

AFTER RECEIVING the Israel Prize and the prestigious Sokolov Prize among several other important awards, veteran journalist Yaakov Ahimeir last Thursday received a life achievement award at the annual B’nai B’rith World Center awards for journalism, established quarter of a century ago by the late Wolf and Hilda Matsdorf, and expanded since then to include an annual life achievement award in memory of Luis and Trudi Schydlowsky and a special citation established by the B’nai B’rith World Center to honor performing artists who have fostered closer relations between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora.