A Celebration of the Sassoon Center

The dedication in Jerusalem of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism was the opening event in a weeklong celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The idea for the center, the first of its kind, was born in Los Angeles at a meeting three years ago when Sassoon was president of the Western States American Friends of the Hebrew University. Since that night Sassoon and George Shaw, the center’s co-chair, have crisscrossed the U.S. raising endowment funds.

The rest of the week was filled with tours to Tiberius, the Golan Heights, Masada and Caesarea, luncheons, dinners, awards ceremonies and even more dedications. A caravan of some 100 from L.A. joined in the celebration planned by the American Friends of the Hebrew University. One day 12 internationally known personalities received honorary doctorates; another afternoon the Lillian Silbert Gardens were dedicated and University Chancellor Avraham Harman hosted a luncheon.

On another evening, L.A. attorney Harvey Silbert and developer William Weinberg co-hosted a dinner for Sassoon and in attendance were Sassoon’s wife, Jeanette, and his 85-year-old mother, Betty. Ambassador Simcha Dinitz hosted yet another dinner, this one in honor of the family of the late philanthropists Leona and Oscar Pattiz, at which the Pattiz Academon was dedicated. Showing up here and there were Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Samuel W. Lewis, Theodore Bikel who sang at a few functions and Robert H. Smith, outgoing chairman of the university’s international board of governors.

It’s going to be a patriotic, rousing, all-American-style evening next Friday when the Los Angeles Pops Orchestra performs at the Century Plaza Hotel and the Pops support group, Keynote 88, shows up to join in on the pomp and circumstance. Carlo Spiga will conduct the orchestra in a program that will include a tribute to George Gershwin; Henry Cuesta, the clarinetist, will be the featured soloist. To add even more color to the evening the Marine Corps Color Guard will go through its maneuvers and flags will be flying everywhere.

Keynote 88 chairman Mrs. John I. Moore will be hosting a table of her friends--Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Oppenheimer, Doris Fields Heller, the Stuart Cramers, Mr. and Mrs. Doyle Cotton, Mary and Bradley Jones and John Wiegman. Madison Offenhauser and Adrienne Sully will be cheerleaders for the young contingent. And among those planning to enjoy the concert from their tables: Dr. Clifford Cherry, the Ted Leavers, Odell McConnell, Frances and Happy Franklin (she hosted the kickoff tea for the concert at the Regency Club), Dr. and Mrs. Max Peagram, Judge Mildred Lillie and her husband A.V. Falcone, Harriet and Charles Luckman, Sid and Frances Klein, Fred Hayman, Belle and Seymour Owens, the James Fosters, Margo and Michael O’Connell, George Page, Mrs. Willard Lewis, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Liff, the James Morrisons and the Robert Sullys.

The Social Scramble: Mr. and Mrs. Frank Price are hosting cocktails in the garden on June 22 for those involved with the upcoming (Oct. 26) scholarship fund-raising dinner hosted by the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Southern California and Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals. That evening the hosts also will present a Lifetime Achievement Award to some very special person whose name remains a secret until later. Times Arts Editor Charles Champlin, class of ‘47, is honorary chairman for the dinner, and Suzanne Marx and Anne S. Murphy are benefit co-chairmen. The evening’s benefactors are Linda Noe Laine of San Francisco and Gerald D. Murphy.

June 23 is the day for the Community Counseling Service’s first Phantom Ball, a fund-raising “non-event.” If you follow CCS director of development Mrs. Earl A. Powell III’s suggestions, you’ll fill in your check, mail it in and on June 21 just settle back to enjoy a quiet evening at home. Nancy Powell says it might also be nice to think for a few minutes about mental health. Meanwhile back at CCS headquarters, the wheels will be turning as the drawing for prizes goes on. Some of the goodies include a cruise for four on the Klaloa III, a cellular mobile telephone (the gift of Pactel Mobile Cos.) and the Feingarten Galleries’ stone head from Zimbabwe. It’s just a will-o’-the-wisp right now, but watch how the Phantom Ball idea catches on.

Doris Fields Heller is giving up her Newport Beach life style, her job with Amen Wardy, her guest house on Harbor Island to return to Los Angeles and her chums. Those chums are shouting with joy.

Nicholas Ruwe, a former Nixon aide, and his wife Nancy will be going to Iceland in August where he’ll serve as the U.S. ambassador. But not one to waste time, Nancy has already leased their Washington home, moved them into an apartment at the Watergate, taken inventory of her cold-weather clothes (including furs) and booked herself into the Golden Door for a little shaping up.

It’s on July 2 that the County Museum of Art, its president and its trustees host a reception-preview for the Olivetti-sponsored exhibition, “The Treasury of San Marco.”