Weekly Report September 21st - 25th, 2009

Sunday was the second day of Rosh Hashonah so it was a shorter week than usual.

• On Wednesday, the Academic Department held a faculty meeting for those faculty teaching in the coming semester. In addition to the veteran teachers such as Uzi Avner, Avigail Morris, Elaine Solowey, Clive Lipchin, Elli Groner (Academic Director), Tareq Abu Hamed and Shmuel Brenner, the institute welcomed new teacher's Omer Pollack, Nadav Davidovitch, Nadav Shashar and Shlomo Chertok. The institute also welcomed back long time faculty member Rabbi Michael Cohen who is here in Israel on Sabatical. Course listing.
• Among other information, the faculty heard that 11 Palestinians had received permits and 7 Jordanians had received visas. Altogether 47 students have been accepted to the fall semester and two are on waitlist.
• Wednesday evening, Rabbi Michael and I went to Tel Aviv to attend the going away party of the European Union Ambassador at his residence. The food was great and we exchanged lots of business cards.
• Thursday, Sharon travelled to Jordan to meet with alumni and with the new students. She had a meeting in Amman with 9 Jordanian alumni and 6 new students. Khaled Shorman our representative in Jordan helped arrange the meeting and also attended. The alumni talked about organizing an event in October around the issue of climate change. They also spoke to the new students about life at the institute.
• Thursday evening, 9 of the 10 North American students arrived at the Institute as part of the MASA program. The institute holds a three week pre-program of Hebrew and Israeli studies for all Jewish students who have received scholarships from the MASA program. This is part of the agreement with MASA which certifies MASA programs in Israel.
• On Friday, Tareq Abu Hamed spoke to a group of local Arava residents about energy conservation in building. This was part of a regional workshop on energy conservation in building that was organized by the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative. It was Tareq's first lecture in Hebrew! He did great.

Gmar Hatima Tova

David

Weekly Report September 13th -18th, 2009

I returned from my trip to the US on Wednesday so my update about the institute this week will be short:

• Through the untiring efforts of Judy Bar Lev and the Middle East Student Recruitment Team of Cecil Rimer and Sharon Benheim, the Arava Institute submitted 12 requests for permits for Palestinian students to study in the fall semester 2009. On Thursday, we heard from the Israel Defense Force that we recieved 11 out of the 12 requests!
• This week, the contractor almost completed the work on the expansion of Center for Sustainable Agriculture's new office. Dr. Elaine Solowey has already moved in and is working at her desk. The outside of the building has been covered with a dry mud exterior to match the outside wall of the institute's main office building.
• We received good news from the Tal Fund and the Narayever Congregation in Toronto. The Tal Fund granted the request to fund the Samar Sand Dunes Campaign of Sababa and the Narayever Congregation once again will fund scholarships for students from their Yom Kippur Fund.
• An article in the prestigious Israeli financial newspaper "The Marker" named the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies as one of the 20 best run non-profit organizations in Israel. See article in Hebrew

That is all for this week. Shana Tova and Eid Said.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report September 6th -11th, 2009

Though I am travelling in the United States this week, I am happy to report on a succesful staff trip held this week. Once a year the institute organizes a field trip for staff members to deepen their knowledge of current environmental and coexistence projects in the region. The following is a report that Miriam Sharton sent me:

1. We met Roee Elisha on the Dead Sea where he gave us a talk about his work with the Dead Sea Preservation Company (DSPC) and the major problems and possible solution specifically regarding the flooding of the hotels. It was great to what Roee has achieved and hear about the important work he is involved in. We were all impressed and proud of him- he gave an informative and interesting talk.
2. We met with Noam Ilan (NOT our Noam Ilan from Lotan) and his partner in the project Elad, who took us to the village of Susia in Southern Hevron. The residence of susia literally live in caves and shacks. Noam and Elad together with the residents of Susia installed a solar panel and a wind tower to provide enough energy for the basic needs of 8 families . We visited the site and had an interesting discussion with Noam and Elad about this project and other potential projects.
3. Next we picked up Munther Hind who took us to another village in Southern Hevron where he built and is running a small wastewater system that provides clean water to two families – 18 individuals. We heard about the project and then were invited into the house of one of the families and heard about the history and challenges of the village which is situated in a politically unstable area of the west bank.
4. We were then joined by Elan Pitchi from "Break the Silence" which is an organization started by ex- combat solders who's mission is to share with the media testimonies of soldiers who have served in the West Bank . Elan gave us a short tour of the area of southern Hevron and talked to us about the work of his organization.
5. After that we drove to Clive's house where Clive and Hani hosted us for a great BBQ dinner. Thank you Clive and Hani!!

In addition to the the staff trip, the institute enjoyed a special "simcha" (happy event) when Uri Nusinow's daughter, Avital, was married on Thursday. Congratulations to Uri and his family.

Finally, I am, in the United States this week and am heading to the Board of Trustees meeting in Baltimore with Tareq Abu Hamed, David Weisberg and Jessica Reed. Tareq and I were in Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota hosted by the JNF and Debbie Jewett, Abby Lutman's sister. We had a number of successful fundraising events and I had a good Mexican meal.

David

Weekly Report August 30th - September 4th, 2009

This week was a bit quieter at the institute than last week, still there were are a few important events to report:

• The end of the summer brought back to work many staff members who had been a way either for vacation or because the institute had downsized staff over the same. The returning staff included Miriam Sharton, Moishe Siel, Michelle Shachar, Ronit Friedman, Sharon Benheim and Adi Belman.
• We said goodbye this week to our Alumni Intern, Elinor Marboe, who has been with us all year. Elinor returns to Larchmont, NY. We will really miss her.
• We heard wonderful news this week - our close colleague from the Jordan University of Science and Technology, Dr. Samer Talozi is getting married this month. Abby has been invited to the wedding.
• We had special visitors this week: Deanna Neil and Brett Kaufman came to visit Ketua. Deanna is the daughter of Sylvia Neil. Sylvia and her husband Dan Fischel have made a large donation matched by the Goldman Foundation to build a Research and Visitors Park at the institute in memory of Sylvia's sister Dina Markowitz and Dan's father Eugen Fischel. The visit went very well. We are now in the process of writing up the program of the park which will be used by the architect to create the design.
• We broke ground this week on Elaine Solowey's new office expansion. Through a grant form the Merrin Family Foundation, we are adding another 18 square meters to Elaine's office. Once the expansion is complete we will build a "Biblical Garden" outside the office which will be the new home of Methuselah, Elaine' s 2,000 year old date tree. In addition, with the help of Elaine and the Merrin Foundation Grant money, the kibbutz started a community garden just outside the dinning room.
• I am travelling to the US tomorrow so I am posting this early.

David