Zubin Mehta Wins Medal of Distinction
Image by getty images
Conductor Zubin Mehta was awarded a Presidential Medal of Distinction by Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Mehta is the music director for life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and a visiting conductor for orchestras around the world.
The award, presented at a special event Monday morning at the President’s Residence, was conferred “for his outstanding contribution to culture in the State of Israel.”
Peres in conferring the award said he could not think of anyone else who has offered such a unique contribution to Israel, its people and its mood.
“You have shown leadership,” Peres said. “A leader was born to elate the spirit and the hopes of the people. That’s what you did.”
Peres said Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic “carried a flag of friendship across the world and represented our country in an unbelievable manner. Music conducted by you became a message for peace, a message of hope.”
In accepting the award, Mehta said, “What Israel has given me in the last 50 years I can only give back by having my musicians night after night play their hearts out all over the world.”
The Presidential Medal of Distinction is awarded to individuals and organizations that have made unique and outstanding contributions to Israeli society and Israel’s image around the world, and which constitute examples of initiative, innovation, creativity and vision.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
