Nobel Naches
By Judy Lash Balint
Jerusalem--Nobel laureate Yisrael Aumann lives about ten
minutes walk away from me. I share a publisher with his
brother, Moshe, a renowned expert on Christian-Jewish
relations. That's about as close as I get to the Nobel
aura...but tonight, Israelis kvelled as the 75 year old
wearing a white knitted kippa to match his white beard and
starched formal shirt, rose to receive the Nobel prize in
economics for 2005.
As the TV cameras panned the crowd in the Stockholm
auditorium (thank heaven he didn't have to go to Oslo to
receive his prize) it wasn't hard to pick out the Aumann
delegation. First of all it was the largest cheering section
in the hall. Secondly, the men were all wearing white
knitted kippot, while the modestly dressed women sported
colorful, shiny headcoverings.
The Aumann clan spent Shabbat in the Swedish capital,
honored by the local Jewish community. The ceremony started
well after the close of Shabbat, and kosher food was ordered
for the banquet. Despite the fact that Aumann, born in
Germany, was educated in the United States and not in Israel
(like almost all of the previous 8 Israeli Nobel prize
winners) it was still unquestionably a great moment of
kiddush Hashem.
Not surprising then, that the British newspaper, The
Guardian, couldn't help report on the Israeli
"intellectuals" who have garnered 1,000 signatures on a
petition demanding that the Nobel committee withdraw its
prize to Aumann on the grounds that he's a "warmonger."
The effort is actually being led by one Shraga Elam, an
Israeli living in Zurich, long known for his anti-Israel
diatribes.
While Elam grovels amongst the slime of Europe's Israel
bashers, I think I'll walk over to the Aumann home and hang
up a sign welcoming our new Nobel laureate back home to
Jerusalem to thank him for the much-needed infusion of
Jewish pride and the honor he's bestowed on Israel.
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