{"id":41638,"date":"2018-03-15T03:07:50","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T09:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=41638"},"modified":"2018-03-15T03:08:49","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T09:08:49","slug":"mayim-bialik-makes-a-facebook-pitch-to-light-an-independence-day-torch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/mayim-bialik-makes-a-facebook-pitch-to-light-an-independence-day-torch\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayim Bialik makes a Facebook pitch to light an Independence Day torch in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) \u2014 Actress Mayim Bialik wants to light a torch on Mount Herzl for Independence Day.<\/p>\n<p>For the second year in a row, one of the 12 torches lit by important Israelis at the annual Independence Day ceremony to open the 24-hour celebration will be reserved for a member of Diaspora Jewry.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_41639\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/GettyImages-624504324.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-41639\" class=\"wp-image-41639 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/GettyImages-624504324-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/GettyImages-624504324-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/GettyImages-624504324-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/GettyImages-624504324.jpg 880w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/198;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-41639\" class=\"wp-image-41639 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/GettyImages-624504324-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/GettyImages-624504324-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/GettyImages-624504324-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/GettyImages-624504324.jpg 880w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-41639\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayim Bialik attending the 1st annual Marie Claire Young Women\u2019s Honors in Marina del Rey, California, Nov. 19, 2016. (Matt Winkelmeyer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Last year the Diaspora torch was lit jointly by Michael Steinhardt, co-founder of Taglit-Birthright Israel, and Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center founder.<\/p>\n<p>Names swirling around for this year include Bialik, Ivanka Trump and Alan Dershowitz.<\/p>\n<p>The Diaspora Affairs Ministry put out a call for nominations for the honor, which closed on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Two days before that, Bialik asked her followers on Facebook to nominate her.<\/p>\n<p>Her&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MissMayim\/posts\/10160175026435008\">post<\/a>&nbsp;said: \u201cYou may not know this is a thing, but in Israel every year, a torch is lit on Mount Herzl for Israeli Independence Day. Apparently, nominations are \u201copen\u201d and I have been mentioned along with some pretty \u2026heavy hitters lol. If you\u2019d like to nominate me, I would appreciate that! I would be unbelievably honored to even be nominated as a candidate for this tremendous honor! \u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Ministerial Committee for Ceremonies and Symbols asked for nominations of a Diaspora Jews who \u201cpersonifies the concern and work being done for the future of the Jewish people, who reinforces the link between the world Jewry and Israel, and relates to the selected theme.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s theme is \u201cA Legacy of Innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bialik, 41, has a doctorate in neuroscience, and plays neuroscientist Amy Fowler-Farrah on the popular television series \u201cThe Big Bang Theory.\u201d A divorced mother of two sons, she was raised Reform and now practices Modern Orthodoxy. In many interviews she has described herself as a Zionist and has family living in Israel. She is a contributor to JTA\u2019s sister website Kveller.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Mayim%20Bialik%20makes%20a%20Facebook%20pitch%20to%20light%20an%20Independence%20Day%20torch%20in%20Israel\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7139,27,25],"tags":[8781,8790,8795,1315,8788,9230],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41638"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41641,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41638\/revisions\/41641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}