Beloved children's entertainer Tzipi Shavit to light Independence Day torch

The beloved children's entertainer and actress was all shock and smiles when the culture and sports minister told her that she would be lighting an Independence Day torch.

By TAMAR URIEL-BEERI
Beloved Israeli children's actress and entertainer Tzipi Shavit (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Beloved Israeli children's actress and entertainer Tzipi Shavit
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Beloved children's entertainer and actress Tzipi Shavit will be lighting a torch at the annual Independence Day ceremony.
"No way, you're just saying that!" she said over video conference when Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev told her the news.
"Tzipi Shavit, who many of us, of all ages, have grown up with, has been accompanying our cultural world for over 50 years," Regev's office said. "Shavit is astonishing with her incredible and multifaceted talent to connect to and between a number of generations... using her immense comic sense."
"It was something that wasn't even in my agenda," Shavit, who is known for a radiantly positive and bubbly personality, told Israel's N12 News. "It is truly the ceremony that I love the most, every year on Independence Day. My heart [rate] is on 2000!"
"To be honest, I went crazy," Shavit told Ynet in reaction to the announcement. "I thought because of the Zoom [application,] I didn't hear very well."
When asked by N12 if she is disappointed that the ceremony would not be in front of a live audience, but rather recorded from afar, Shavit scoffed. "If you offered me an Oscar or to switch Beyonce... I would say, 'Leave it, I am lighting a torch!'"
Shavit told N12 that it has been difficult not to see her family, including two children and six grandchildren, but that "the day we return to normal will be a day with just hugs and kisses. I am going crazy wanting to hug and kiss them."
Numerous women will be lighting torches this year other than Shavit, including Yasmin Mazaui, a 20-year-old Christian Arab woman who works as a paramedic for Magen David Adom (MDA) and who volunteered throughout coronavirus testing.
Adi Altshuler, founder of Krembo's Wings, a youth movement assisting children with disorders, will also be lighting a torch.
Na'amat, the Israeli women's organization affiliated with the Labour Zionist Movement, expressed support for the number of women who will be lighting torches this year.
The organization's chairwoman, Hagit Peer, said, "The choice of strong and empowering women to carry torches on the upcoming Independence Day must be commended. I am glad that what was supposed to be taken for granted by 2020 is now beginning to seep through – Israel has been blessed with pioneering and talented women, each in her own field, who bring about everything that is beautiful here, even in these difficult times."
She continued, "I am filled with hope that we will continue to see respectable and needed female representation in all fields and not just in this specific situation. We will all watch from afar this year: Tzipi Shavit, Professor Galia Rahav, Adi Altshuler, Yasmin Mazaui, Reina Abitbul, Yael Vilozhny, Hani Lipshitz and the rest who will be carrying torches with great pride."