“I was a student student abroad at Hebrew University for a semester from Canada and Jeff’s Student Centre gave me a place I could go to meet more Jewish students, attend fun events, and learn more about my Jewish identity and what it means to be Jewish. I am also appreciative that you helped set me up with a host family for Shabbat dinner when I needed it. This made my experience studying abroad in Israel much more special and it is something I will never forget. I met Jeff when I was on Birthright a few months prior and he already made me feel like I had place to go when I got to campus. Thank you Jeff for all you’ve done!”
Sagiv Fadida – Hebrew University
15
May
May
George Deek is an Arab-Israeli diplomat. In 2018, Deek was appointed Israeli ambassador to Azerbaijan. He is the first Israeli Arab Christian to become an ambassador. Deek grew up in an Eastern Orthodox Christian family in the Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa, in a building where the other tenants included Muslims, Catholics, Jews and a Catholic priest of Jewish ancestry.[2][3] His father, who worked as a tax advisor,[3] was one of the leaders of the Christian community in Jaffa who served as chairman of the Orthodox Association, and was considered a well-known and popular figure in the city until in 2015 a square was inaugurated in his memory in Jaffa in the presence of Mayor Ron Huldai.[4] According to Deek, his grandparents fled to Lebanon for safety when the 1947–1949 Palestine war, having been told that the Jews would slaughter them if they remained in their homes, but expecting to return home once Arab armies defeated the Jews.[3] According to Deek, when the war ended, his grandparents felt that they had been “deceived”, and decided to return illegally to their home in Jaffa rather than remaining in Lebanon as refugees. Since reentering the country was illegal, Deek’s grandfather, an electrician, was arrested and jailed.
