Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
President Shimon Peres turns 90 in August. He is the last of Israel’s founding fathers still in office, and in recent months has strained his largely ceremonial role by speaking out on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
JERUSALEM — Barbra Streisand did not, as many here had been hoping or openly joking about, don a white fur coat and purr, “Happy birthday, Mr. President.” Instead, Ms. Streisand offered a pleading rendition of “Avinu Malkeinu,” a hymn from the Yom Kippur liturgy requested by the president in question, Shimon Peres, who said he cannot hear her sing it without crying.
There was no cake or candles, only scant canapés, at this gala in honor of Mr. Peres, who is already the world’s oldest leader and turns 90 in August. There were former statesmen (Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev), celebrities (Robert DeNiro, Sharon Stone), scholars and scions (five Nobel laureates and authors of 1,412 books, all with a collective net worth topping $24 billion, according to organizers), gathered here at Jerusalem’s convention center to fete Mr. Peres, whose public life has paralleled that of the modern state of Israel.
“We, in Britain, have our queen, and you have your Shimon,” declared Tony Blair, the Middle East envoy and former British prime minister. Mr. Clinton cracked that Mr. Peres was “the last living Israeli who knew King David,” and had promised to attend Mr. Clinton’s 90th birthday (he would be 113) and speak at his funeral.
They came from across the globe — or sent in glowing video tributes — for a grandfatherly figure whose post is largely ceremonial, with little ability to forge peace with the Palestinians. Long derided across Israel’s political spectrum as a schemer and serial election loser, Mr. Peres has grown in popularity as he has become a symbol of a distant peace. So Tuesday’s two-hour tribute was a hot ticket for the local crowd, and a way for mostly left-leaning international figures to gain the benefits of supporting Israel without wading deeply into its divisive politics.
“We have buried people we loved together, we have celebrated great hopes, we have endured great disappointments,” Mr. Clinton said. “I have watched you in sunshine and storm,” he continued. “And the thing that I love most about you is a remarkable combination of mind and heart.”
In this relentlessly informal nation where people wear flip-flops to Parliament, women were decked out in little black dresses, strappy six-inch sandals and sparkly baubles, though many men stubbornly stuck to shirt-sleeves. (“Why would I wear a tie?” asked Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, though he included his favorite expletive. “I didn’t even bring one.”) There were ministers and moguls, rabbis and raconteurs, a tall blonde model with a plunging neckline, a religious soldier with sidecurls and an Intel executive inexplicably donning a black beret.
The 2,800 guests — including a who’s who of American Jewish leaders — were asked to arrive as early as 4:30 p.m. to get through security for a show that started at 9, so the tiny mushroom tarts and eggplant puffs at the V.I.P. reception went fast. “Where’d you find that?” Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the 85-year-old psychosexual therapist, asked in Hebrew to a young man holding a finger sandwich. She followed him to the small buffet of potato chips, guacamole and salsa, and emerged with three barren rolls, one already bitten into.
“I hate stand-ups,” lamented Abraham Foxman, the director of the Anti-Defamation League, as the celebration entered its third hour. “See and be seen,” he added. “It’s like you can’t afford not to be here.”
In a career spanning 66 years, the Polish-born Mr. Peres stumbled into two short stints as prime minister of Israel, played a major role in arms procurement and is credited with creating Israel’s nuclear program. After helping establish early Jewish settlements in the heart of the West Bank, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the Oslo accords with the Palestinians. A protégé of David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, Mr. Peres is the last of the state’s founding fathers still in office, and in recent months has strained the largely ceremonial contours of his role by speaking out on the urgency of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and against a unilateral Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program.
In an interview last week, Mr. Peres said that he had no regrets, “because the past for sure is unchangeable,” and that he would not retire when his term expires next year because it is “better to die than to live as a bored person.”
Tuesday’s party kicked off a $3 million conference, financed by 40 individuals and foundations, and expected to draw some 5,000 people for two days of brainstorming and networking around the broad theme of “Facing Tomorrow.” It came after a public brouhaha over a separate speech Monday night at the Peres Academic Center, a private college, for which Mr. Clinton was originally scheduled to be paid $500,000 and guests charged $800. The British physicist and cosmologist Stephen W. Hawking also pulled out of the conference to protest Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.
Mr. Peres, in a dark suit and crimson tie, sat between his onetime rival Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Clinton, and gamely joined in for the chorus of “Jerusalem of Gold.” Throughout, he looked somewhat overwhelmed.
Virtually everyone who took the stage — including Mr. Netanyahu — spoke about peace. There was even a “Give Peace a Chance” singalong. Video greetings poured in from world leaders, Peres descendants, Facebook users and children translating “Happy Birthday” to Turkish, Arabic, Latvian, Ukrainian and Mongolian. Also: Bono.
At one point, Yusef Jarajeh, a Palestinian from Hebron, took the stage after a video showing the lifesaving surgery he had in an Israeli hospital shortly after his birth. It was arranged by the Peres Center for Peace.
“Thank you, Shimon Peres,” Yusef said, “and I wish we would have peace.”
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