The cabinet on Sunday approved Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer's plan for redesigning the 50 and 200 shekels bills. The new green 50 shekel bill will feature famed poet Shaul Tchernichovsky, and the blue 200 shekel bill will have a portrait of Nathan Alterman on it. According to Fischer's plan the two new bills could be ready for use by the end of the year; they were the first bills to receive the updates as they are most popular with counterfeiters, and apparently the easiest to fake. A new red 20 shekel bill featuring Rachel Bluwstein and orange 100 shekel bill with Leah Goldberg will go into circulation only in 2014, as the current versions have enhanced security features that make them more difficult to counterfeit. Fischer believes the new bills will help preserve the legacy of the featured poets on them. "Developed countries tend to replace their currency once every 12 to 15 years," Fischer said, noting also "the aging security devices in the [old] bills and the development of new security countermeasures against counterfeiters." The cost to update the bills currently stands at 225 million shekels ($59.6 million), and the bills will be used for the next 10 to 15 years. As in the days before the vote on the new bills, some criticized the lack of Mizrachi (Middle Eastern Jew) figures on the new bills. Shortly before the beginning of the government session, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett wrote on his Facebook page: "Where is the Sephardi Jewish legacy? I will push to include a Sephardi Jewish poet for the new bills at the upcoming government meeting." Bennett proposed including Rabbi Yehuda Halevi. The Chairman of the Public Committee for the Planning of Banknotes, Coins and Commemorative Coins Jacob Turkel defended the selection of poets on the bills on Sunday. "All those protesting the lack of Mizrachi poets need to be aware that there aren't pictures of them to be found," Turkel said, also calling the controversy over the Mizrachi background of the figures "trivial and stupid ... it is a pointless subject in the Israeli society of 2013." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the criticism at the beginning of the government meeting on Sunday. Netanyahu said he "agrees with those who say there is a place to bring in representatives for the poets of Sephardi and other origins ... I am making a concrete suggestion to include one of Israel's greatest poets for the next set of bills -- Rabbi Yehuda Halevi." Currency committee member Sherry Raz told Channel 10 Sunday night "we didn't think about the issue of people of Mizrachi origins. Had there been a significant figure they would have definitely been part of the list. I don't know any prominent Mizrachi poets from the 20th century whose poems are taught in schools."
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שיתוף כתבה
New faces, old divisions, on Israeli currency notes
Amid criticism over the lack of Mizrachi figures on new bank notes to be printed, PM proposes featuring Rabbi Yehuda Halevi • Four Ashkenazi poets to be featured on the new money • Turkel: "There are no pictures of Mizrachi poets to be found."