Dec. 17, 2018, Ronit Farm (Havat Ronit) hundreds of Chamber members, industry leaders, government and U.S. embassy officials gathered to celebrate the strong and booming Israeli-American business and investment Relations. The Chamber awarded the 2018 Chamber Awards to six companies: Nice, KLA Tencor, Alfa-Omega, SolarEdge, AbbVie, Soda Stream, and a Life-Time Achievement Award to Rabbi Avraham Elimelech Firer.
The theme of the evening "Being Part" highlighted the extensive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the Chamber's members and its CSR Forum. In his remarks, Mr. Yaniv Garty, CEO of Intel Israel and the Chamber's Chairman, said that in Hebrew the word Hevra חברה means both company and society, and that this is the focus of the Chamber's CSR Forum - to align the business and the societal aspects of our members.
Mati Gill, Teva's representative on the Chamber's Board and the event's Platinum sponsor, is the Chamber's CSR Forum Chairman. In his address Mr. Gill emphasized the cooperation among the Forum members and their commitment to working together towards a a common goal. The focus of the Forum members is on Future Employability. How to address the changing landscape of the workplace, with many job types (e.g. drivers, bank clercks etc.) being eliminated and others being created at rapid pace. The Forum in partnership with government and academia is launching a process to find tools and processes to address this.
The highlight of the evening was certainly the Life-time Achievement Award presented by Ambassador Friedman and Mr. Garty, the Chamber's co-chairs together with Prof. Itsik Kreiss, CEO of the Sheba Medical Center, to Rabbi Avraham Elimelech Firer for his "life-long, outstanding endeavor establishing Ezra Lemarpe, and numerous activities that save thousands of lives by providing them with the most accurate medical advice, connecting the sick with the very best medical care in Israel and in the United States; providing those who need it most with empathy, care and with any required medical equipment and support including a network of ambulance transportation, dental-care for under-privileged children, a unique treatment for reducing the suffering of Parkinson patients, a special Hidro-therapeutic pool treatment and more; all without charge. For establishing the rehabilitation center in Sderot, providing the residents of the south of Israel with never-before available service, changing lives of hundreds; for inspiring us with his modesty and humility and for being a beacon of love to fellow human beings, and thus striving to make the world a truly better place."
