Gala in Paris honoring the late Simone Veil
Above: Prof. Daniel Zajfman discusses the importance of French-Israeli research collaborations. Background image shows the late Simone Veil, the founder of the Pasteur-Weizmann Council. Below: (L-R) Prof. Daniel Zajfman, Minister Bruno Le Maire, Weizmann France President Maurice Lévy, Weizmann France Treasurer Alain Grosmann.
The Pasteur-Weizmann Council hosted a gala in Paris on December 20 in partnership with Weizmann France, which honored the late Simone Veil, founder of the Pasteur-Weizmann Council. The Council and Weizmann France are both chaired by Maurice Lévy. More than 1,500 people attended the event, which took place at Salle Pleyel.
The Pasteur-Weizmann Council oversees a longtime scientific collaboration, providing support to researchers from the two institutions. The Council was established in 1975 in large part because of the initiative of Ms. Veil, then France's Minister of Health. For the last 40 years, the collaboration has served as a model for international scientific collaboration.
At the event, Prof. Daniel Zajfman, President of the Weizmann Institute, and Prof. Christian Vigouroux, President of the Pasteur Institute, talked about the importance of collaborative research between France and Israel, while Prof. Pascale Cossart, Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Avi Levy, Dean of the Faculty of Biochemistry at the Weizmann Institute, spoke about current research and collaborations between the Pasteur Institute and the Weizmann Institute.
Other speakers included Laurent Delahousse, who directed a film about Ms. Veil called The Instinct of Life, and French actress Isabelle Huppert, who read texts penned by Ms. Veil. Sidney Toledano, a member of the Board of Pasteur-Weizmann, discussed the results of scientific research related to cancer and antibiotic resistance. The pianist Khatia Buniatishvilli and the jazz bassist Avishai Cohen gave two recitals.
Other special guests included Agnès Buzyn, France’s Minister of Solidarity and Health; Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of Economy and Finance; Valérie Pécresse, President of the Ile-de-France Region; Bernard Cazeneuve, a former Prime Minister; and Aliza Bin Noun, Israel’s ambassador to France.
The event ended with a dinner that brought together more than 500 people in the restored Salle Pleyel, the “Cathedral Hall.”
