The Rogatchi Foundation is pleased to inform that its co-founder and president, Dr Inna Rogatchi has been awarded The Patmos Solidarity Prize 2014 ‘for active stand in culture, philanthropy and public life to maintain moral values and decency of human life and conditions; for commitment and achievements in establishing historical justice and spreading the knowledge about it reaching wide international audience; for the passionate and creative approach in a hard labour of memory’, according to the Patmos Foundation statement.
Patmos Foundation (www.patmos.fi) is a Finnish Christian organisation internationally known for its wide-spread global humanitarian work. It has been founded by well-known public figure Leo Meller, and operates under steady and devoted management of the Foundation’s president Pirkko Säilä.
According to the Patmos Foundation Chairman Leo Laitinmäki, “support of Israel and the Jewish people is the core of the Patmos Foundation’s work”. Operating globally from early 1970s onward, Patmos has been a long-standing deeply committed friend and active supporter of Israel. The organisation is an active partner of Keren Hayesod in many activities of Keren Hayesod world-wide. Patmos is also a long-term partner of Magen David Adom ( MDA), and has been sending ambulance cars and equipment for them to Israel regularly. Their latest campaign on this direction is collecting funds for the next equipped ambulance in aftermath of the Har Nof synagogue massacre. The Foundation also conducted numerous medical projects in Israel, and is supplying the country with donor blood systematically.
There are many other ongoing projects of close co-operation conducted by the Patmos Foundation in Israel and on behalf of the Jewish people. They are particularly active in several demanding tasks of supporting aliyah from such countries as Ethiopia, Iraq, Georgia, Argentine in both organising and financial ways co-operating closely with Keren Hayesod on these tasks; and currently Patmos is deeply involved in assisting the aliyah from Ukraine.
Inna Rogatchi has become the third person and the first woman awarded the Solidarity Prize by The Patmos Foundation. The Foundation has announced that Inna Rogatchi is being awarded for her ‘life-long mission for the sake of the persecuted Jewish people and the Nation of Israel’.
The awarding ceremony took place in Helsinki at the celebrating dinner and concert in presence of H.E. Dan Ashbel, the Ambassador of Israel in Finland, Jacob Snir, the director of the Berlin bureau of Keren Hayesod, the members of the board of the Patmos Foundation, the members of the Board and International Advisory Board of The Rogatchi Foundation, the leadership of the Helsinki Jewish community and the Central Board of the Finnish Jewish community, and distinguished international public figures, including Leo-Dan Bensky, the president of the Maccabi World Union.
In her Award accepting speech, Dr Inna Rogatchi has defined a phenomenon of solidarity via prism of her close and long-standing co-operation with Patmos Foundation, and pointed out that “ solidarity we do need at the times like the current ones when open, vile anti-Semitism has become a fashion; when terrorism has turned into routine, in what I call as ‘beheading-for-breakfast’ phenomenon, due to the ultimate weakness of the world governments; when a general attitude towards Israel has become an exemplification of this new wave of enthusiastic anti-Semitism-without-borders”.
In her speech, Inna Rogatchi has also emphasised some goals for the solidarity-based joint work of those people and organisations who would like to support Israel and the cause of the Jewish people: “We do need this solidarity in order to bring up children in schools in the way that they know good from evil; and the one of the key-points on that direction should be an official decision on including a trip to former Nazi concentration camp into every school’ curriculum world-wide. I am working on this task for many years, and will continue do so until it will materialise.
We also do need this solidarity to establish a fair balance in shamelessly biased media coverage regarding Israel in many countries, Finland including, where its public TV and Radio broadcast company YLE does follow their colleagues at BBC not only in the way of its funding by the tax-payers money, but also in a shamelessly biased attitude towards Israel.
We do need this solidarity to be able to create jointly fair attitude towards Israel and Jewish causes based on the fundamental human rights and moral values, not distorted and manipulated ones.
We all need it for making life decent, – not in Israel, but here, in Europe and elsewhere, as a sign of dignity and fairness and a measure of self-respect. And I am sure that being together and sharing our understanding and devotion, we will certainly make it happen”.
Picture: Dr Inna Rogatchi is receiving The Patmos Foundation Solidarity Award. December 2014, Helsinki. Courtesy (C) The Rogatchi Foundation.
More information :
The Rogatchi Foundation – inna.rogatchi@gmail.com – +358 40 748 20 84 – www.rogatchi.org
The Patmos Foundation – pirkko.saila@patmos.fi – + 358 40 098 99 08 – www.patmos.fi