Israelis: Mind Your Manners
Israeli businessman Ronnie Maman wants to teach his fellow countrymen some manners. Maman, who lived in San Diego for 26 years and moved back to Israel two years ago, has announced that he will award $60,000 to anyone who comes up with the best way to teach Israelis how to be more considerate of one another.
Contestants may submit their proposals to Maman’s Web site, www.derech-eretz.org, and the winner will be chosen next year. The contest was announced earlier this week, and Maman says that he has already received hundreds of proposals. Maman moved back to Israel when his son decided he wanted to join the Israeli army, and his son’s choice was part of Maman’s inspiration for the etiquette initiative.
“If my son wants to sacrifice his life for the country, I should do something myself for the country,” Maman told The Shmooze. “Many people unfortunately really don’t care for each other very much anymore. People became materialistic and angry. It’s worldwide, but in Israel it’s really personal because we have a lot of enemies and we’re all sitting on the same bench.”
Maman also cites his time spent in the United States as a motivating factor for launching the contest.
“I think that being in the United States for many years really changed me. I’m sure I learned much better manners. One of the things I really liked is people greeting each other when they walked on the streets. Here on the elevators, people don’t greet each other.”
He added, “People here have a lot of chutzpah, and I think that we can change it. And it’s crucial for Israel.”
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
