Hod Hasharon - held a braai and heard from former Ambassador to S.A. Dr. Alon Liel

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The Hod Ha’Sharon regional committee held its post Lag Omer braai at the home of Paul Roberts. The event was attended by 40 residents from mainly Hod Ha’Sharon and  Ra’anana, but also from further a field as Herzlia and Tel Aviv.

 Dr Alon Liel, the Ambassador to South Africa from 1992- 1996, came all the way from Mevaseret Zion to tell us of a few of his experiences and anecdotes during his tenure in South Africa.  One of them was how he for the first time met the Madiba:  thanks to Selma Braudie who knew Nelson Mandela very well. At 6 am in the morning, only a few days after Alon arrived in Johannesburg, he was awakened by a phone from Nelson Mandela himself, requesting a meeting. Most members of the foreign ministry thought that it would take up to a year to get a meeting with Nelson Mandela!

Also interesting was how late President Ezer Weizman, Yaser Arafat and Nelson Mandela all met for the first time, when they came for the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president. After their meeting, a private room was arranged for President Weizman and Yaser Arafat to hold talks.

The braai participants also included the Naale students from the Mosensohn school with their Madrich, Haim. I must admit that without their prowess, we wouldn’t have managed to get the two big braais burning! (See attached picture)

 Thanks go to Sharon Bernstein and Dorron Kline of the Telfed staff, who without their efforts and hard work this evening would not have got off the ground.

 We would once again like to thank Alon Liel for joining us and making this evening enjoyable and enlightening.  

Picture below shows from left to right - Telfed executive member Barry Kornel, Ambassador Dr Alon Liel, Hod Hasharon Regional Committee chairperson  Nechama Keinan and regional committee member Paul Roberts who kindly hosted the evening.