Jerusalem Post story on 80th Annivesary by Greer Fay Cashman

Greer Fay Cashman Jerusalem Post March 10, 2009
WHILE MANY Jerusalemites will be sitting down to a Purim meal today, members of the Jerusalem Rotary Club, which meets on Wednesdays at the YMCA, will be celebrating their 80th anniversary. The founding meeting of the Jerusalem Rotary Club took place on January 22, 1929 at the St. John's hotel in the Old City with 21 charter members, most of whom were British. The first president was J.W. Crowfoot, a British archaeologist, and the secretary was Vladimir Wolfson, the manager of Shell Oil. The Jerusalem Rotary Club was founded three weeks minus one day after the founding of the Cairo Rotary Club. Both clubs were chartered on March 11, 1929, and each was the first in its country. Early members included Jews, Christians and Muslims. Religious, ethnic and national frictions did not intrude on meetings, and the spirit of goodwill and understanding among nations that prompted the founding of Rotary in Chicago in 1905 continues in Jerusalem, with members of different faiths and backgrounds coming together in mutual respect to work for the common good. The Jerusalem Rotary Club and the Haifa Rotary Club will get together in Jerusalem on March 26 to celebrate the Haifa Club's 75th anniversary, and in June the District Convention of Rotary will celebrate the 80th anniversary of Rotary in Israel, and this event will also be held in Jerusalem.