Former President Rivlin honoured at Theodor Herzl Awards

This year’s Theodor Herzl Awards Gala was a night of celebrating the astonishing lives of a true statesman and leader, former Israeli President Reuven “Ruvi” Rivlin, and acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns, whose work has enlightened the world.

As the World Jewish Congress (WJC) held this gala event on 9 November, the foyer of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City was abuzz with leaders from across the length and breadth of the Jewish world.

A leading international organisation representing more than 100 Jewish communities around the globe to governments, parliaments, and international non-governmental bodies, the WJC holds its annual Theodor Herzl Awards to bestow the organisation’s highest honour. Named after the father of modern political Zionism, the award recognises individuals who have done exceptional work to promote Herzl’s vision of a secure and open-minded world for the Jewish people through support of Israel and an enriched understanding of Jewish communities, culture, and history.

Rivlin, the tenth president of Israel, received the Herzl Award for his brave and committed leadership on behalf of Israel and Jewish communities worldwide.

Rivlin was born in the Rehavia neighbourhood of Jerusalem in 1939. His father, Professor Yosef Yoel Rivlin, was an oriental scholar who translated the Quran from Arabic to Hebrew, and his mother, Rachel Rivlin, was a nurse. Just nine years old when the state of Israel was established, the ensuing years of the Arab blockade of Jerusalem left indelible memories for Rivlin. Growing up in the divided city has an influence on his outlook today, and he’s greatly inspired by the philosophy of Jabotinsky.

Rivlin has had a long political career, serving on the Jerusalem City Council and then the Knesset for six parliamentary terms. Widely popular with the Israeli public for his consistent defence of the independence of the judicial and executive branches of the government and democracy in general, he was elected Israel’s president on 10 June 2014, and ended his term in July 2021. During his tenure, he worked to safeguard Israel as both a Jewish and democratic state. He’s honorary chairperson of the Israeli Democracy Institute.

As he called Rivlin to the stage, WJC president, Ambassador Ronald Lauder, said, “During a challenging moment in Israeli politics, Reuven Rivlin’s positive voice, his optimism, and his spirit, has always been a reminder of the profound vision of hope for the Jewish state that welcomes all people, of all religions, and all ethnic groups.” In his acceptance speech, Rivlin stated, “The Jewish people have the historical, legal, and moral right to sovereignty in our ancient homeland of Eretz Yisrael,” adding, “sovereignty must also be earned by responsibility, by the fact that we respect our rights as a sovereign nation to uphold the civil rights of all citizens in our state.”

Dr Henry Kissinger, a former United States secretary of state whose family fled Germany in 1938 and a former Theodor Herzl awardee, introduced the second award of the evening, in which Burns received the seventh WJC Teddy Kollek Award for the Advancement of Jewish Culture for his work. He has been making documentary films for more than four decades, and has directed and produced some of the most celebrated historical documentaries ever made.

In particular, Burns was honoured for his series The US and the Holocaust, which highlights the desperate plight of Europe’s Jews to escape persecution from the Nazi regime before World War II, and how they were turned away as a result of American immigration policies.

Burns’ other work includes Baseball; Jazz; Jackie Robinson; The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; and X. His documentary, The Civil War, was rated second only to Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North as the most influential documentary of all time, with Real Screen magazine calling him one of the “most influential documentary makers of all time”. As David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun said of Burns in 2009, “He turned millions of people onto history with his films. He showed us a new way of looking at our collective past and ourselves.” Burns has previously won 16 Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and has had two Oscar nominations. He was honoured by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

At the gala dinner, Lauder shared that he had called an emergency meeting to expand the organisations’ fight against antisemitism, particularly on college campuses. “Today’s hatred of Jews has set its focus on one target: the world’s only Jewish state, Israel,” he said. “Now, they may be succeeding in undermining Israel politically. And they’re concentrating their efforts in high schools, colleges, and universities to turn the next generation – even Jewish students – against Israel.”

The evening included a commemoration of the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, when in November 1938, the Nazi regime unleashed a wave of antisemitic violence across Germany and Austria as a precursor to the Holocaust. As part of marking this sombre event, the WJC has created an initiative to display digitally reconstructed images of four destroyed synagogues in Germany on the current buildings standing in their place.

Previous Herzl Award recipients include Dr Albert Bourla, the chairperson and chief executive of Pfizer; American President Joe Biden; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres; and Elie and Marion Wiesel amongst other luminaries. Actor Kirk Douglas was given the inaugural Teddy Kollek Award in 2016, followed by other leading names over the years, including philanthropist Robert Kraft, and violinist and conductor Itzhak Perlman.

On the days preceding and following the Herzl Awards, young Jewish leaders from the WJC’s flagship programme, the Jewish Diplomatic Corps, as well as members from its newer programme for younger Jewish leaders titled NextGen, met at the WJC offices in New York to discuss operational plans for the coming year. Antisemitism topped the agenda, as well as community unity, and the situation on university campuses.