The controversy erupted when Aguda thanked Ms. Zaher had given, but called it “significant.” He said the hotline would be open for calls by next month. The group’s C.E.O., Ohad Hizki, declined to say how much Ms. rights organization, was to help set up a hotline for Arabic-speaking Israelis. The donation she made to Aguda, a national L.G.B.T. No stranger to philanthropy, she had made previous donations to benefit women’s rights and people with disabilities. Zaher became the rare woman to lead a major Arab-owned company. The thick paste they make from Ethiopian sesame seeds is nearly ubiquitous at supermarkets and restaurants in Israel, and is exported to 18 countries including the United States. Today, her company’s two plants in the Nazareth area produce a whopping 20 to 25 tons of tahini a day. But she poured herself into it, paying off debts, convincing the bank to lend her more money and upgrading the manufacturing process. The company was in poor financial shape, she said in an interview on Saturday in Tel Aviv. A schoolteacher for decades, she took over her husband’s tahini business when he died after a heart attack in 2003.
