Chief Rabbi of Mountain Jews Synagogue receives state medal of Azerbaijan

Rishon Le-Zion, Israel, hosted a solemn presentation of the books "Life and work of Nizami Ganjavi", "Eternal memory and literary disgrace" and "100 most famous Jews".

The event was attended by the employees of the State Committee on Work with the Diaspora (SCWD), the mayor's office, representatives of the local community, and members of the Azerbaijani Diaspora.

Speaking at the event moderated by Yegana Salman, Director of the Azerbaijan Cultural Center under the AzIz Israel-Azerbaijan International Association, Deputy Mayor Mikhail Raif and Rector of Ariel University Albert Pinkhasov talked about the friendship and cooperation between the two countries, twin cities, science and education exchange, and highly appreciated the visit of SCWD employees to Israel.

Shmuel Simantova, Chief Rabbi of the Mountain Jews Synagogue in Tel Aviv, Alexander Agranovsky, Head of the Jerusalem Branch of the AzIz Israel-Azerbaijan International Association, and Professor Michael Agarunov were awarded Azerbaijan’s medal for “Services in Diaspora activities” for their contribution to the development of the Azerbaijani community in the friendly country.

Then a congratulatory letter of "AzIz" to several jubilees was read. In the artistic part of the event, opera singer Kamelia Ioffe and singer Tarlan Aliyev performed songs in Azerbaijani and Hebrew.

A meeting was held at the Sokhnut International Jewish Organization's Jerusalem office with Josh Schwartz, Secretary-General of the Jewish Agency, Foreign Relations Coordinator, and Yigal Palmor, Head of International Relations Division and Foreign Policy Advisor to the Chairman.