Professor Stanley Fischer, Governor of the Bank of Israel nominated as the Central Bank Governor of the Year 2010 Award: By Steven Scheer and Ari Rabinovitch
The Governor of the Bank of Israel, Professor Stanley Fischer has recently been in international news as the honoree of numerous distinctive international honor. Euromoney magazine gave the prestigious annual award at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meeting on Sunday, October 11, 2010. This year the “Central Bank Governor of the Year of 2010” nominated as the world’s best of the bank governors and finance ministers went to the Israeli National Bank Governor, Professor Stanley Fischer.
He was honored for the distinction of successfully guiding the economy of the State of Israel through the global crisis. As the magazine stated, “Israel's stamina in a time of financial crisis and its aftermath prove that Fischer is worthy of the respect he gets from the financial community,"
As a native of the Nation of Rhodesia, Fischer rose to the eminence as a professor at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) from 1977 t0 1988 and later as vice president of development economics and chief economist at the World Bank from 1988 to 1990. In 2005, he accepted the position as Chief of Israel’s central bank. In a world in which even the Nation of Israel is an amalgamation of secular and religious Jews, even the banking governor came under scrutiny by his own people for accepting to give a speech at the International Monetary Fund convention in Washington DC, on the Seventh-day Shabbat (Sabbath) of the Jewish people.
As reported in Israel National News (Arutz Sheva) - This fact brought forth Jewish criticism from David Vazana, the head of the Union of Bank of Israel Employees, when his quotes were publicized on Arutz Sheva:
Israel National News – “Professor Stanley Fischer has recently received a series of important honors abroad, culminating with his being named the best central bank governor in the world for 2010 by an important publication. However, he appears to have slipped up Saturday when he gave a speech at the International Monetary Fund convention in Washington, DC, despite the Jewish Sabbath – and he is getting flak over it in Israel.
David Vazana, head of the Union of Bank of Israel Employees, said the Sabbath speech was a “very grave” matter. He explained: “It is too bad that such a thing was done in front of the nations of the world, who know and revere the Torah of Israel, of Moses, and all of whom respect Judaism – while this makes it appear that we the Jews, ourselves, do not respect the Torah.”
Vazana said that he has great respect for the fact that Fischer left a very successful career abroad and came to Israel, in what he termed “a great act of sanctifying G-d's name.” But the speech on Sabbath is the opposite of that, he said. It is, rather, a desecration of G-d's Name.
“I expect that he [will] issue an immediate apology as previous governors did when they made mistakes like issuing a statement [on the Sabbath],” Vazana told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew language news. “I have been working in the Bank of Israel for 23 years but I have never seen such a public desecration of G-d's Name,” he stressed.”
Later it was reported the chairman of the Knesset’s Finance Committee, MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), actually canceled a meeting with Fischer the next day in protest of the Sabbath speech. Little by little we are beginning to see a transformation in Jewish Israeli society. As the Eternal One of Israel is calling the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel home, He is also wooing His emancipated and assimilated Jews living in the Diaspora also back home. He wants His people to be a spiritual and a guiding light to all nations. They are not to be just distinctive, but He expects them to be “holy”.
Credit to Gil Ronen – “Disappointment with Fischer for Sabbath Speech” – Arutz Sheva – October 11, 2010