Grapevine October 1, 2021: Father of the groom

• Published date: 30 September 2021
• Author: GREER FAY CASHMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

"One day my son, in many years, you will realize that this morning was the most important day of your life. Your father wrote books and poems, was the presenter of TV shows, started a party and even a government, but still the most important thing I've done in my life, without competition, is to be Lihi's husband and father of all three of you.

"Yoavi, you're about to marry one of the most charming and intelligent young women I've ever met. She also connects us with a wonderful family and parents we love dearly. Lihi and I are happy with them, and I think they are also with us. At our age, we know that a person does not marry only a son or a partner, but also their family. In Shay's case, we made a great deal.

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"But not like the deal you made. Hereby you follow in the footsteps of your father and your grandfather – we also got married better than we deserved. In the next dozens of years, you will compensate Shay by carrying her in your hands as she deserves, love and respect her, and especially explain to her that the most important thing in the world is that every Friday night you have to come to dinner at your parents.

With love,

Dad"

■ JUST BEFORE returning home from the US with her infant son, Uri, Labor Party chairwoman Merav Michaeli, who has been running the party and the Transportation Ministry remotely, met up with Elizabeth Shuler, the recently elected president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. Like Michaeli, Shuler has a background in journalism, but whereas Michaeli is the second woman after Golda Meir to head the Israel Labor Party, Shuler is the first woman to be elected president of the AFL-CIO. At age 51, she is also the youngest person to hold the position. Accompanied by her good friend Randi Weingarten, who is president of the American Federation of Teachers, Michaeli met Shuler, whom she told that her paternal grandfather Nechemia Michaeli was the last secretary general of Mapam, a political party that championed the workers and sought to secure their rights. "I was raised in a home where the fights for equality and peace were not politics, but rather life itself," she said. "It was from that place that I came to the Labor Party which I am working to rebuild." Michaeli said after her visit to AFL headquarters that it had been a great pleasure to talk about...