Bloomberg Is First to Receive a $1 Million Jewish Award
By EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS
Published: October 20, 2013
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will be honored on Monday as the first recipient of a $1 million award that organizers are calling the “Jewish Nobel Prize.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel will present the award, named the Genesis Prize, to Mr. Bloomberg at a ceremony in Jerusalem in May. The award, established by a charity founded by Russian Jewish billionaires, aims to honor “exceptional people whose values and achievements will inspire the next generations of Jews.”
The announcement of the inaugural award will be made at a news conference in New York on Monday. The charity, the Genesis Philanthropy Group, has financed an endowment of $100 million to pay for the prize for years to come. ...
The Genesis Philanthropy Group was created as a foundation that promotes Jewish identity among Russian-speaking Jews worldwide. Mr. Bloomberg is the grandson of immigrants from Russia and what is now Belarus.
The foundation was set up by three of Russia’s so-called oligarchs: Mikhail M. Fridman, Pyotr Aven and German Khan.
German Khan?
The prize is administered in partnership with the Israeli government, and is open to those who have succeeded in various fields, including science, the arts, business and diplomacy, the organizers said.
The charity’s leaders have high hopes for the prize: they want it to be as prestigious as other major international awards like the Nobel Prizes and the MacArthur awards.
