Memorial Meeting Held for Shargil

Family, friends and colleagues of the late Yitzhak Shargil gathered at Beth Sokolov in Tel Aviv Monday night to recall his memory, on the first anniversary of his untimely death at the age of 52 a year ago. Shargil had been Tel Aviv correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency for many years, and was a senior editor of Yediot Achronot.

At the memorial meeting the first annual Shargil Prize for sports coverage was awarded by the prize committee to the sports sections of Israel Radio and Israel Television, for their coverage of the Maccabia sports meetings, with which Shargil had been closely connected during his lifetime. Among those present at the meeting were his widow, Dvora, his sons, Ofer and Yoav, and his brother, Dr. Avner Shargil.

Yediot editor in chief Noah Moses described the late Shargil as the “unknown soldier of the newspaper” whose name did not often appear but whose untiring work enabled the paper to appear every day, as one of its senior editors.

Ramat Gan Mayor Dr. Israel Peled, a member of the Shargil Prize committee, described Shargil’s work on behalf of the Jewish people. He said that at a time when the term Zionism was sometimes referred to with cynicism, Shargil had striven “to put and keep Zionism on the world map.”

Other speakers from many walks of life referred to Shargil’s activities on behalf of many public causes, including Jewish sports and the Soldiers Welfare committee. “In these days of rampant materialism, Shargil was a fine example of the volunteer for Jewish causes,” said Moshe Lerer, on behalf of the Israel Journalists Association.