Word: navone
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Recognition of these distinctions is institutionalized in Israel's Chief Rabbinate: one Ashkenazi, one Sephardi. Elevation of certain Sephardim to high positions-President Yitzhak Navon is a Sephardi-represents a triumph of talent over prejudice, even though more than half of Israel's population are Sephardim. Economic inequities mirror the prejudice. Explains Daniel Shimshoni, director of Israel's neighborhood rehabilitation program: "Most of the residents in depressed neighborhoods, or their parents, came from Middle Eastern or African countries. Of the lower income groups, those of Asian and African origin form the majority...
...some problems remain we closed the cycle of hostility, opening the chapter of blooming peace." So ended President Yitzhak Navon's welcoming speech to Saad Mortada, 57, Egypt's first Ambassador to Israel. A mood of lighthearted camaraderie followed the formal red-carpet ceremony as the two men joked and chatted together in Arabic. Before they parted company, hearty salvos of laughter were echoing through the main hall of Navon's official residence in Jerusalem. Mortada was so besieged with requests for interviews and invitations to dinner that he asked, "Does every new ambassador get this treatment...