Director's Blog

Directors Report July 10th-29th, 2011

2011-07-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

My last blog before going on vacation for the month of August:

Last Week of Dickinson Summer Sustainability Program - The Dickinson College Summer Sustainability Program at the Arava Institute is in its last week. For the last 3 weeks 8 students and Dickinson faculty member Dr Marcus Key have explored issues of sustainability in Israel , focusing mainly on the Southern Arava. The program has included a range of lectures, workshops and local trips including biodiversity of local sand dunes, earth science in the Arava, tours and sessions on renewable energy initiatives in the region, an introduction to human ecology and archeology , sustainable agriculture., mud building , discussions and lectures on water management in the Middle East and discussion groups and role plays based on environmental justice and activism.

Submitted by Cathie Granit

Israeli Minister for Environmental Protection, Gilad Erdan, visited the Arava Institute

Minister for Environmental Protection, Gilad Erdan, visited the Arava Institute on July 26th. The mnister came with his entire senior staff to visit the area, see the Samar Sand dunes under threat of mining for building purposes, the Sasgon Valley near Park Timna under threat of development, renewable energy projects in the area and to visit the Arava Institute. The Minister was also accompanied by Hevel Eilot Regional Council Chair, Udi Gat. After introductions, David Lehrer gave a brief overview of the Arava Institute highlighting the academic program, research programs and alumni activiies. The minister was especially interested in the cross border cooperative educational and research programs. Minister Erdan said that he did not want this visit to be check off on a list of things to do but the visit should be followed up by cooperation between the Arava Institute and the Ministry for Environmental Protection. Both the staff of the the Ministry and the Arava Institute is charged with following up programs and ideas for further cooperation. At the end of David's presentation, David gave his usual closing line: "It is our vision a the Arava Institute, that some day, the Minister of the Environment from Israel, the Minister of the Environment from Palestine and the Minister of the Enviroment from Jordan will all be graduates of the Arava Institute and will be able to work together for a more sustainable and peaceful Middle East." Minister Erdan just smiled.

Arava Alumane Manar Saria participates in Washington DC Program

A new program in Washington DC, founded by Paul Costello is the New Story Leadership Program. We had two Arava alumni participating in the first pilot group and now the Arava Institute partners with NSL by identifying excellent alumni to participate each year. Arava alumnae Manar Saria is participating in the second New Story Leadership Program. NSL sees that Stories matter. NSL says "Old stories of grievance, suspicion, and fear, recycled endlessly, have kept generations of Israelis and Palestinians from moving toward a future free of conflict. It’s now clear: without a new story, there will be no peace. Fortunately, young people throughout the region are increasingly grasping this truth. More and more of them are no longer willing to play a part in the dead-end story their elders have scripted for them. They want a voice in their own future." See what's been happening this summer – what Manar and the others on video on the site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKYdRr7PRRY&feature=share

Submitted by Sharon Benheim

Across Borders: Managing Transboundary Environmental Resources

From June 26th through July 24th, the Arava Institute, in partnership with Dickinson College, hosted a U.S. State Department funded program, “Across Borders: Managing Transboundary Environmental Resources in the Middle East.” The program, attended by 17 Americans from all sectors of environmental management, has participants attending lectures and site visits in Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt. The program focused on transboundary water issues in and between these four countries. At the end of the program, participants completed group projects on environmental economic development, water conservation in Amman, the Red Sea-Dead Sea canal project and the prospect for transnational water management in Israel and Palestine.

In 2012, the program will bring young leaders from Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt to the United States to learn about transboundary environmental issues in the Chesapeake Bay. Applications are currently being accepted: http://blogs.dickinson.edu/acrossborders/call-for-applications-across-borders-2012//
The program is funded by the US State Department's Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.
Submitted by Kristina Donnely

In keeping with the high standards of this blog, here is a little taste of student life at the AIES:

As you know our campus life team works tirelessly to address the needs of our campus community. However, many people always wonder what the Program Associates (PA) are up to since they seem to come and go, from the office, through out the day. Here is a sneak peak into what our two PAs from this past semester were up to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D1tYvA9cRM
Submitted by Josh Neirman
The next blog will appear in September. Have a good summer

David Lehrer

Director's Report June 19th to July 8th

2011-07-08T01:11:00.000-07:00

Speech to Students at the End of the Spring Semester 2011
It is my privilege to have been the Director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies for the past 10 years. I became the Director as the second year of the Intifada Al Aqsa began and just 10 days before the 911 Tragedy. For the past 10 years, the Middle East has remained a turbulent and unstable part of the world going from crises to crises and conflict to conflict; the Second Intifada, the second Lebanon War, The Gaza Withdrawal and the Gaza Operation/Invasion, Katyushot on Kiryat Shmona, Kasamim on Sderot, the Flotilla and then there is the wider Middle East conflicts – the Second Gulf War, Iran and this year – uprisings in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen.. Notice how so many of these conflicts start with the Second… Doesn’t that say something about our region? Are we trapped in a house of mirrors where we can only see ourselves and are doomed to walk around in circles repeating history and our own mistakes?

For 15 years, the Arava Institute has offered Middle Eastern and International students the opportunity to break through the mirrors and the stereotypes and to meet the other. For many of you it is your first time to really get to know the human side of the other side. Through wars, uprisings, political and military conflicts, the Arava Institute continues to wave the banner of “Nature Knows No Borders”. The institute continues to shine the light on a different path presenting a different paradigm for the Middle East. You have sat side by side in class, studying Ecology, Ethics and Water Politics together; you have slept on the beach together, hiked through dry desert valleys and braved pouring rain. You have disagreed over politics and over what to bring to the pot-luck dinner and you have agreed that there must be a different way to solve the Middle East conflict and that Elli gives way too many quizzes. You have had the incredibly unique opportunity to experience what life could be like in the Middle East without conflict.
It is not just a one time opportunity. Your teachers, staff and fellow students have given you the tools you need to go back to your home communities and to create a different paradigm. Like Bill Murray in Ground Hog Day, who discovers that the way to get out of the endlessly repeating loop in which he was caught was to stop looking at himself in the mirror and to start seeing the world through the eyes of others. I hope that your experience at the Arava Institute has enabled you to see the world through the eyes of your neighbors and that you will be able to carry this new view of your neighborhood back to your friends and family in order to enable them to envision a sustainable Middle East without conflict and a world living in peace. Thank you and good luck. - David Lehrer

Sababa at the Knesset
On June 22nd, an urgent gathering of the Knesset Finance Committee was called to discuss the mining in the Samar Sand Dunes. Five Sababa members and 16 representatives from other environmental organizations took part in the discussion. The meeting ended with the committee calling on the Israeli land Authority to stop the plan to mine sand in the Samar Dunes until surveys are conducted for alternatives such as mining below the surface of already mined areas, using sand from Timna waste piles and importing sand from Jordan. The support of Knesset members for our campaign to save the Samar dunes gives us proof that our mission in Sababa is important as the only grass roots environmental organization protecting and promoting sustainable development in the Arava.

Provided by Taal Goldman

Sababa in the Hevel Eilot Region
Sababa has taken on the challenge of leading the discussion of sustainable development in the region. On June 26th, a hot Monday afternoon, 50 people from the region came to a Sustainable Development Workshop to discuss future plans in the Arava and ways we can promote sustainable development and lifestyle. The two hour session resulted in a list of ideas and projects for Sababa to take on as new campaigns and a draft for a joint vision of the Arava. This is the first step in a one year project. We hope that by the end to present to the Chairman of the Regional Council a proposal of a new sustainable development policy to be used as guidelines for regional growth.
Provided by Taal Goldman

Across Borders
From June 26th through July 24th, AIES, in collaboration with Dickinson College, is hosting part one of a two-year project entitled Across Borders. In 2011 the focus is on managing transboundary environmental resources in the Middle East. Seventeen young emerging young professionals from the United States are actively participating in seminars at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and in the field, on site visits in the Negev, the Jordan River Valley, and the Red Sea coast. The group will travel through Israel, Jordan and the Sinai peninsula. The goal of this two-way exchange project is to allow professionals from the Near East and the United States to explore and develop a substantive, nuanced understanding of those complex forces that impact the management of trans-boundary environmental resources through interdisciplinary studies and complementary experiential learning.
The AIES faculty coordinator is Dr. Clive Lipchin, and research intern Kristina Donnelly is the program coordinator. Dickinson staff are Bryan Bartosik-Velez, Senior Associate Director for International Services, and Prof. Ed Webb of the Political Science and International Studies departments.
Provided by Tali Adini

Jordanian Recruitment Trip

Sharon Benheim and Brenda Hausler traveled to Amman last week(June 27-29). Fifteen potential students were interviewed. Visa forms and application materials are currently being collected. In addition to our 6 continuing Jordanian students, we have accepted one new Jordanian student and are hoping to review another 5-6 candidates. Our Jordanian representative organized the intensive interview days, and many alumni came to visit and lend a hand.
Provided by Brenda Hausler

English Ulpan
The Institute received funding to do a pilot English language ulpan with Western Galilee College, in an effort to encourage Arab Israeli students to apply to the Arava Institute. The English Ulpan is going to open at the Western Galilee College on November 1, 2011. It was decided, after some feedback, that having an intensive ulpan, 5 mornings a week in the month of July was not going to be successful. People expressed interest in a longer program with evening hours. Dr. Hussein Tarabeah is our program coordinator. We are working closely with Liliana Caminer, the director of the college, and with Haya Shenar, the English Program Coordinator.
Provided by Brenda Hausler

Dickinson Summer Course

For the month of July the Arava Institute is running the Dickinson College Summer Sustainability Program. This program has 8 students who are accompanied by Dr Marcus Key from the Department of Earth Sciences and Joseph Priestley Professor of Natural Philosophy at Dickinson. The Sustainability Program is an introduction to the unique aspects of the desert environment and its natural resources and provides an understanding of the environmental challenges that are connected to human settlement in the Southern Arava. The course is divided into two main sections: Natural History of the Desert and Development Challenges in a Desert Environment. The AIES faculty coordinator is Dr Uri Gordon and the program coordinator is Josh Neirman.
Provided by Cathie Granit

Center for Transboundary Water Management
As part of the GLOWA research project, a training workshop was held at the Institute for Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian water professionals. The workshop, held from June 19th through the 24th, was focused on building proficiency in the use of a model-building software called WEAP, Water Evaluation And Planning. Over twenty participants from all three countries spent five intensive days with an instructor from the Stockholm Environment Institute, another partner in the GLOWA project, learning about the software and building models. The workshop was sponsored by GLOWA-Jordan River, an interdisciplinary project addressing water scarce regions under the impact of climate and global change. GLOWA-Jordan River is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Provided by Abby Lutman

Director's Report May 1st to June 17th

2011-06-16T22:57:00.000-07:00

To Director's Blog Readers'

I apologize that I took a two month break in writing the blog. The last two months have been very intense and I was not able to keep up with the blog. Things have calmed down a bit and I have finished the two courses I was taking at BGU - Quantative Research Methods and Evolutionary Ecology, so I will try to go back to producing the blog about once every two weeks. The following report is not everything that has happened in the past two months but some of the major highlights.

Arava Institute student receives prestigious award for hydrogen production research

The World Renewable Energy Congress 2011 (WREC 2011) is an international scientific event that occurs once every two years. Most of the topics in the WREC 2011 focused on renewable energy technology and renewable energy applications. Arava Institute Ben-Gurion University Joint Master’s student, Bara Wahbeh had the chance to present his Master’s research; “Hydrogen Production by Boron Hydrolysis” that he is performing at the Arava Institute under the guidance of Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, the Arava Institute’s Director of the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation. The research simulates Hydrogen production in a car, by reacting steam with boron particles, the products of this reaction are Hydrogen gas, steam and boric acid (no green house gases are produced). During Bara’s presentation at the conference, he also discussed the advantages of Boron over other elements and compounds, as well as the hydrolysis technology compared to other technologies that are used to produce Hydrogen. Hydrogen production on board a car can overcome some of the obstacles facing Hydrogen use in vehicles such as the need for infrastructure to supply and store Hydrogen fuel. Bara’s paper was selected by the scientific committee of the conference as the winner of the “Best Paper Award within the topic Fuel Cells”.

Peace Building and Environmental Leadership Seminar (PELS) Trip

From May 18th to the 20th, Arava Institute students went on a three day study trip. It started off with a hike on the ridge of Machtesh Ramon. Following that the students headed to the Sderot-Gaza area where they went to Moshav Netiv HaAsara, along the Gaza-Israel border. While there, they met with members of Other Voice, an organization that was created three years ago to continue dialogue and contact between Gazans and Israelis from the Sderot area. Besides hearing from Israeli members of Other Voice, the students were also able to speak with an individual from Gaza in order to get an idea of what the conflict is like there. Later in the day the students met with 9th graders from a regional school in Sderot. The students asked them questions ranging from what they think their government should be doing to help them to asking what it was like during Operation Cast Lead. The final part of the day in Sderot consisted of going to the JNF Sderot Indoor Recreational Center which is an indoor protected playground for the children of Sderot. The students organized and environmental art project with them the children. That evening the students spent the night at the Adamama Ecological Center in Netivot.

The next day the students travelled to the West Bank to the archeological site of the ancient village of Susya in the southern Hebron mountain region, where they were given a tour from a resident of the nearby Jewish settlement of Susya. The students saw the ancient synagogue and walked through some of the underground buildings. Students also asked questions about what it is like living in a settlement and how did the settlers from Susya get along with their Palestinian neighbors. After that, the students went to the Palestinian village of Susya which is next to the Jewish settlement. They received a tour from Arava alumni, Yair Teller and Abeer Abu-Sara of the bio-digester project that Arava Alumni projects has created and spoke to the villagers. The students learned about ongoing issues with the settlers. The students met members of the Villagers Group, an organization of Israelis and others who are working to help villages like Susya. The Palestinian villagers of Susya have set up a community center, which hosts groups and has programs throughout the year. The students split up into three different groups. One group went to plant trees that were donated by Dr. Elaine Solowey, another group worked on an environmental art project and the last group played with children from the village. At one point, students witnessed a confrontation between settlers and Palestinians over where the settlers' sheep could graze. That evening the students were divided and hosted by families where they had dinner and slept.

The final day of the trip was in Jerusalem where the students met outside the Knesset with Likud Knesset Member Benny Begin, who gave an impassioned speech about what he believes, are the history and truths of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Following MK Begins talk, the students heard from Christopher Gunness, a spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The students received an in depth briefing of the situation for the refugees in Gaza and in the West Bank and were very interested in what he had to say. The PELS trip was a unique opportunity for Arava Institute students to hear a wide range of narratives from Israeli’s and Palestinians. Report submitted by Josh Neirman.

Alumni Gathering in Jerusalem

The Alumni Department spent many hours over the month working on the submission of permit requests for Palestinians to attend the International AAPEN Gathering hosted by the Israel AAPEN Committee in late May. Additionally, visa requests were made for several Jordanian alumni. The visas and permits were received in time for the alumni to attend the gathering in Jerusalem. The International AAPEN Gathering took place on May 27-28, in Jerusalem. The main goal of the event was a social gathering with the possibility of discussions for developing regional activities. Around 50 people attended the gathering which included a number of workshops, meetings and discussions. Alumna Inna Filkovski led a gender circle, Assaf Katz and Liel Maghen facilitated a communication circle about the current situation in the Middle East, and Yoel Vierba helped organize and facilitate a session to focus alumni towards creating a new project. The gathering ended with a high level of energy and a feeling of family, new connections made amongst alumni from different years of study, and a team of people formed to plan the next social gathering.

AIES Night

On Monday, June 6th the Arava Institute held this semester's AIES night when students present their research from Independent Study and Masters Research. This semester there were five poster presentations and over twenty power point presentations. The students received high praise from their instructor, Dr. Clive Lipchin and the Director of the Academic Program, Dr. Elli Groner. The event lasted close to 4 hours but the time seemed to fly by, as each presentation was well thought out and interesting. The topics ranged from the feasibility of implementing a carbon tax in Jordan to hydrogen production via metal hydrolysis. It was a pleasant evening and included great desserts provided by AIES staff. The audience consisted of students, staff, kibbutz members and residents from the region. Report submitted by Josh Neirman

David Lehrer

Director's Report March 27th to April 8th, 2011

2011-04-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

Student Culture Night
On Monday, March 28th, the students gathered for their first culture night of the semester. It was a nice community event as many staff, kibbutz members and their families also attended. The evening started off with an American presentation of how to make a proper peanut butter and jelly sandwich. There were then a few presentations about Jordanian and American culture through pictures. The Israelis presented an extremely funny skit about an Israeli Passover seder and after that there was a beautiful Arab wedding ceremony. There were a few music pieces preformed and a few poems read as well. To finish the night the Arab students led us in a dabke (Arabic dance) and from there we danced the night away.It was another very successful evening and it was very nice to see the community come together and celebrate everyone's culture. Report provided by Josh Neirman

Food Sustainability Workshop
     Tali Adini, Director of EcoPaths and I attended a Food Sustainability Workshop held on March 28th and 29th at the Nes Ziona guest house in the Carmel Mountains. The guest house is located on a mountain top that overlooks areas that were part of the carmel forest fire disaster in the fall of last year. The fire did not reach the guest house but came very close.
     Two years ago, the Arava Institue, together with the Heschel Center held Israel's first ever sustainable food confenrece, "Food for Thought". Ever since then, the Heschel Center and the institute have been deliberating on how to bring in additional partners and create a real coaltion of individuals and organizations who are working together to promote a more sustainable food system in Israel. Heschel used the funding for its annual think tank workshop MAOF to fund a 2 day coalition building workshop. About 20 people attended including representatives from the Ministry of Health, the Local Governments Council, a variety of non-governmental organizations working on food security, nutrition, vegeterianism, sustainable food supply as well as organic farmers and interested individuals. The program included round-table discussions, "coffee house" discussions, "speed dating" and other creative ways to put on the table issues such as the food supply chain, the role of the major supermarket chains, government impediments to small local food supply industries, food security, nutrion, processed food, organic farming, farmers markets etc.
     The two day workshop produced an agend and a variety of projects that will be followed up through ad-hoc committees and continued coalition building. One of the important results of the workshop is the development of a Sustainable Food Covenant which will help the newly formed coalition to create a common agenda and action plan. Tali and I agreed that the conference was very helpful and that the Arava Institue must find a way to continue our involvement in the initiative.

Student Water Trip
     On Monday April 4th the students departed on a three-day field trip for the Water Management course. On the first morning the group visited the sinkholes in the Dead Sea area and learned about the Dead Sea Works company that extracts minerals and resources from the increasingly destabilized Dead Sea. Dr. Clive Lipchin, an expert in water management in the Middle East, acted as tour guide and teacher, gave information about many sites along the way and provoked discussion on issues the students are learning about in class. As they drove along the Israeli side of the Dead Sea, the students also learned about what is happening to the Dead Sea and about water resources on the Jordanian side.

     After viewing several areas near the Dead Sea, the students arrived at a swimming beach for lunch, just in time for the first rainfall of the trip. The students witnessed the rare sight of large waterfalls cascading from the cliffs of Ein Gedi and as the journey continued north many more waterfalls could be seen from the road. Very fitting for a trip designed to learn about the water systems and resources in the region, the students stopped at a large waterfall next to the road and watched the roaring water fall from the towering cliffs above, flood the road and flow into the Dead Sea. Successfully bypassing the area through the rain and floods, the bus continued and made several more stops in the Dead Sea region for more lectures from Clive. The group then stopped at the Lido Junction, which sits at the northern tip of the Dead Sea. There the group discussed issues related to the history of the Dead Sea Region, in relation to transboundary ownership and management. They discussed the ways in which the area has changed as the waters have receded and ownership has changed hands over time. They arrived at EcoME, an alumni project in the West Bank that is easily accessed by Israelis and Palestinians, learning about a successful alumni venture and were hosted overnight by Arava Institute alumni Yair Wahle, Rina Kedem, Ilana Meallem, Jennifer Golding and the rest of the EcoME team.
     Flexibility was required of both students and staff when the planned hike had to be cancelled due to flooding in the desert, and the group set off through the lightly falling rain to a natural spring north of Jericho to hear about the spring that provides water for the settlements and villages in the area. The visit included a lecture from Clive and an improptu trash cleanup at the spring. From there the students continued to Uja village for lunch and then a visit to a family home to learn about the sewage treatment systems that individual households maintain without relying on waste water infrastructure. In the afternoon the group visited a village in East Jerusalem to understand the problems of wastewater systems related to the political situation and the interests of Palestinians and Israelis working together on wastewater management. There the group also visited a current student's home and heard from a community member about the efforts to manage water in the village.
     The group had dinner in East Jerusalem at a restaurant owned by the family of alumnus Ihab Baraket and spent the night in Nes Harim in the Jerusalem mountains. They woke up early to arrive at the Palmachim Desalination plant south of Tel Aviv and were given an in-depth educational tour of the facility to learn about alternative water resources in a region that has very few (and those are rapidly depleting). After several hours at the plant the group visited the Palmachim beach, which was recently saved from development by an environmental campaign. One of the campaign activists came to speak with the students at Ketura earlier in the semester to teach them about activism in the Environmental Leadership course. After lunch, sand-castle building, volleyball, and swimming, the students left the beach and arrived at the last stop on the field trip: the biggest waste water treatment facility in the world, the Shafdan waster water treatement plant. After an hour of education, discussion and questions the students were able to tour the entire facility by bus and see the treatment of sewage firsthand!

Despite a rain cloud following the bus around the country, the trip was successful in educating the students on the many issues of water in the region. The discussions had during the trip are relevant to Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians and students from around the world because it's clear that no water source or treatment system can be considered without thinking of the other people who rely on the same bodies of water to provide fresh water. The trip was also an opportunity for the AIES community to travel together, visit alumni, visit student's homes, and recognize the borders that are sometimes overlooked while learning in a classroom on campus. Report provided by Lindsey Zemler

Director's Report March 11th - 25th, 2010

2011-03-26T01:56:00.000-07:00

It has been a relatively quiet two weeks at the institute since my last posting, at least as compared to the turmoil taking place in the rest of the world, the natural disaster in Japan, the revolutions accross the Arab world and the increased violence between Israelis and Palestinians.  In contrast, Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian and international students participated in this year's annual soccer tournament on Ketura:

Pini Lutman Soccer Tournament - On Monday the 14th the Arava Institute men's team participated in the "Tournir Pini", an annual soccer tournament in memory of Pini Lutman, a kibbutz member who passed away over 15 years ago. The men's team was matched against Kibbutz Samar, the defending champions of the tournament. The Arava Institute team was made up of eleven student, staff and faculty members from Israel, Jordan, Palestine, America and Turkey. It was a very tight match through out and Samar took the lead in the second half, scoring, after colliding with the Arava goalie. With Samar leading 1-0 the Arava team put a lot of pressure on Samar's defense and eventually scored on a nice crossing shot. Regulation time came to an end and the game went to penalty kicks (PKs). The initial PKs were best out of three and both teams made one. Then the match moved to sudden death penalty kicks. It kept going back and forth with both teams goalies blocking many shots. It wasn't until the 9th PK that Samar finally scored. The men's team put up an amazing effort and their match was actually the closest any team had against Samar until they won 4-1 in the finals.
      On Wednesday the 16th the Arava women's team had their first match to defend their title. They first played against the Kibbutz Ketura team. In the first half the Arava team dominated and entered half time up 2-0. In the second half a few errors by the Arava team led to Ketura scoring and making it a 2-1 contest. However, the women's team came together in the end to hold of Ketura.
     On Friday the Arava women's team played Kibbutz Yotvata in the finals. It was an extremely hot afternoon and both teams were battling against each other and the heat. Kibbutz Yotvata scored mid way through the first half and halftime came with a 1-0 lead for Yotvata. In the second half the women's team gave it their all but ended up coming up just short on multiple occasions and the whistle blew with Kibbutz Yotvata winning 1-0. It was an amazing effort by our women's team and I'm sure they will be back in the finals next year. Congratulations to both teams! Reported by Josh Neirman

Trip to US

I just spent a week in the US at a conference at Brown University and some time with our new Executive Director of the Friends of the Arava Institute, Dan Schachter along with our Chair, Seth Morrison and our Director of Development, Rabbi Michael Cohen. In the aftermath of the horrible terrorist attack at Itamar, I wrote the following message from the conference in Brown to our students:

Message to Arava Family
I am currently attending a conference at Brown University called "Israelis and Palestinians: Working Together for a Better Future". The conference is sponsored by the Elga K. Stulman Fund and the Watson Institute for International Studies of Brown University. The purpose of the conference is to expose students and faculty from Brown University to the myriad of cross border Palestinian and Israeli cooperative organizations such as Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), All for Peace Radio, Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (PRIME) and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES). The conference started in the evening with an informal dinner for the conference speakers. I met old friend such as Gershon Baskin, Hanna Seniora and Eyal Naveh. I met new friends from peace organizations such as Maysa Baransi-Siniora, Mossi Raz and Galia Golan. I also met Professor David C. Jacobson, the Director of the Judaic Studies program at Brown and our host for the conference. This was the conference that Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed was supposed to attend but could not because he never received an answer from the US Consulate for his visa application.

On the first morning of the conference, the participants woke up to the horrific news of the terrorist attack on the Itamar Settlement, and the slaughter of the Fogel family including the unthinkable murder of an infant. We were all in shock, Israelis and Palestinians alike, at this inhuman act which is difficult for any human being to comprehend. It was a very surrealistic feeling to be in the cocoon of an American university campus, about to hold academic discussions on Israeli/Palestinian cooperation, only to be confronted by the reality of terrorism in the Middle East. Every panel session opened with a condemnation of this heinous act but we did not allow the violence in the West Bank to overshadow the message that we came to deliver to the students and faculty of Brown University. The message, of course, is that there is an alternative to the violence. The resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians can be achieved through peaceful means. The overall consensus of the conference participants was that 70% of the Palestinian people and 70% of the Israeli people agree on a two state solution, yet our leaders do not have the ability to lead us to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

In addition to the human and personal tragedy of the cold blooded murder of the Fogel family, this is a tragedy for the Palestinian and Israeli people because it feeds the flames of hatred and pushes the Middle East towards the precipice of another cycle of violence. Unless Palestinians and Israelis commit themselves unequivocally to a condemnation of violence and all forms of military aggression, we will find ourselves locked into a never ending brutal struggle with one another that will leave many more victims like the 5 members of the Fogel family.

I am deeply saddened by the senseless murder of the Fogel family and my prayers go out to Tamar, Roi and Yishai. Most of all, I pray that the Fogel family are the last victims of this tragic struggle and I strengthen my commitment to help find an end to the violence in the Middle East and my resolve to work towards a just, secure and peaceful resolution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

David

Director's Report Feb 27th to March 11th

2011-03-11T08:34:00.000-08:00

• Spring Semester students are continuing a volunteer project that was started by our students from last year working with Sudanese refugee children in Eilat. This week, one of the student organizers, Inna Filkovski presented the project to staff members. There is a Sudanese refugee community living in Eilat. The total number of Sudanese refugees in Eilat is unclear. There is a strong distrust of Israelis authorities so they don’t reveal numbers. Because Eilat residence view the Sudanese refugees as a threat to their jobs and because the Israeli government has not stepped in to provide funding for welfare services the Eilat municipality has decided to ignore the refugees and provide social services for the adults nor for the children. Some children study in school and some don not . But there is no afternoon program for the children. The policy of the municipality does not allow the social workers to attend activities with/for Sudanese.

     Despite the animosity in Eilat towards the refugees, the students of the Arava Institute have stepped into the void and are trying to provide afterschool environmental activities. The students go to the refugee neighborhood once a week. The program was started by Assaf Katz in fall 2009 and ran all year. This year's student's decided to continue the program. The weekly is on Sundays from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. The children are of various ages (from 5-15). About 15 children attend on regular basis. There are approximately 25 children in the building. The activity takes place in an abandoned building in the Sudanese refugee neighborhood because the community centers in Eilat will not allow the activities to take place on their premises.
     The program includes strengthening English skills with an emphasis on environment, recycling, reducing using environmental games like bowling with recycled bottles, identifying animals, and arts and crafts using local material. The kibbutzim in the area have donated material and toys for the project. About 15 Arava students were involved last semester, even more are participating this semester. The fact that many Palestinian and Jordanian students are involved is helpful because the Sudanese speak Arabic.
• Visits: A group from the Holy Land Trust, 15 college students visitied the Arava Institute this week. Cecil Rimer spoke in morning. Dr. Tariq Abu Hamed did walk through the park. Intro to PELS with Michelle Shachar , Sharón Benheim held a student panel (which also served the Ramah group staying in Keren Kolot).
     A group of students from LeSalle University, a university with campuses around the world vsiited the institute and met with students. This group was from Philladelphia and from Brazil. They are on a program looking at sustainability through community.
     Karen Shapiro, member of the Friends of the Arava Institute, her husband Doug Frazer, Israel Ride alum, Doug's parents, Karen's mother and Nathan Frazer visited the institute. David Frazer, Doug's father facilitated the May Mann Estate donation which funded the May Mann Campus and the May Mann laboratory. The family was taken on a tour of the institute, the new Research and Visitors Park, the new Arava Power Company solar panel field and the dorms. The family also had the opportunity to hear from a student panel.
• The new group of students, although already busy with their classes in their second week at AIES, have initiated a number of extracurricular activities. Last night was the first Women's Circle of the semester, held around a campfire on the night of International Women's Day and attended by the female students and staff members. Continuing students from last semester facilitated a space for personal communication and invited each one present to speak about a woman who influences and inspires them. Many women shared what qualities they admire in the women who influence them, and later a staff member who attended told them that in order to recognize such admirable qualities in others, the female students certainly embody the qualities themselves. In addition they were invited to share the difficulties in a new place and to see the circle as a safe space of support and listening. The evening ended with rolling out dough and making pita over the fire, and the women were encouraged to continuing asking themselves the questions which had come up and to seek each other out for individual communication and reflection, as well as invited to facilitate future Women's Circles. Cathie Granit, Program Director, who attended the event said: "The women’s circle was fantastic. It made me feel excited about the students we have this semester, at least the women. We have a dynamic, energized, active bunch this semester. They seem to have good follow through." Reported by Lindsey Zemler

David Lehrer

Director's Report - Month of February 2011

2011-03-03T02:27:00.000-08:00

I apologize to all blog fans but the month of February overwhelmed me with travel and conferences such that I was not able to keep the blog updated. I will try to fill in the month of February and then hopefully get back to a routine of updating at least every two weeks.

Alumni Conference in Aqaba - Feb 3rd-5th - Over 100 alumni and affiliates of the Arava Institute gathered in Aqaba, Jordan for the annual Arava Alumni Peace and Environmental Network (AAPEN) Conference. In our largest alumni conference to date, an amazing groupof individuals gathered to participate in workshops, see inspiring lectures, communication and planning sessions, alumni-led activities as well as social opportunities, networking, and cultural activities. It was a weekend full of energy and activity which included a lecture by a representative of Engineers Without Borders Palestine who spoke about his experiences working in the environmental field in the Palestinian Authority, small-group “open space” discussions, a “Decision Making and Time Management” workshop with a Jordanian management consultant, an alumni-only communication session which provided the opportunity for more personal connections based on shared experiences between alumni from various years, presentations and discussions on the structure of the alumni network, elections for a new alumni committee, and a keynote speech by T.H. Culhane on his solar energy projects. A number of alumni presented their current work to all conference participants to offer an opportunity for cooperation and collaboration and provide updates from their field and experiences. Amongst those who shared were Gonen Sagy, the coordinator of the Youth and Environmental Educational Peace Initiative (YEEPI) project run by AIES and funded by USAID, Yair Teller on the bio-digester project in Susya, updates on various environmental and peace building projects happening the Jerusalem area, our Jordanian alumni who are working on a project called Green Echo in Jordan, and a team of alumni who initiated the EcoME Centre.In addition to a full schedule the alumni and other conference participants held a Kabbalat Shabbat service, an open prayer session with music, various musical jams, and a dance party as well as many chances to socialize, network, meet new and old friends, and revitalize the feeling of strength and connection between alumni. At the end of the weekend each region (Jordan, Israel and Palestine) elected four representatives to sit on the new AAPEN committee with a chair for each region coming together to form the international committee. The conference ended with a feeling of progress, inspiration, and excitement for all the upcoming events, projects and potential collaborations and partnerships. (Report provided by Lindsey Zemler)

Our alumni having a serious discussion about sustainability in the Middle East

Trip to the US Feb - 6th -18th - Immediately after the conference, I travelled to the US in order to attend the Friends of the Arava Institue (FAI) Executive Committee meeting hosted by Board members Karen and Barry Fierst in their home in Maryland. The main purpose of the meeting was to finalize the FAI budget, work plan and to interview candidates for the position of FAI Executive Director. The meetings were very successful and the committee has chosen a new Executive Director for FAI, Daniel Schachter from Boston, Mass. In addition to the committee meeting, I also had the opportunity to meet with donors, foundation representatives, political leaders in Boston, NY, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Colorado. I also met with the JNF Board of the Mountain State Region who have raised over $800,000 towards their $ 1 M goal for the new dormitories. I had the opportunity as well to visit Eddie Sperling, our rider who was seriously injured on the 2010 Israel Ride, in the hospital where he was undergoing a procedure.
Opening of the Spring Semester 2011 - On Tuesday, February 22nd, a group of 38 students, 4 Palestinians, 9 Jordanians, 13 Israelis, and 12 North Americans, arrived to Kibbutz Ketura and the Arava Institute. Before classes begin, the students have a few days of orientation. The first evening of orientation, the students and interns participated in some get to know you ice breakers and then the students were officially welcomed by the Arave Institute staff. The next morning all of the students walked over to Dr. Elaine Soloway’s experimental orchards where she explained that she’s growing trees from Morocco and Jordan to see how they adapt to the climate of the Arava and understand their medicinal value and other traits.. The students then had their first Peace Building and Environmental Leadership Seminar session with Michelle Shachar and Dr. Uri Gordon. Everyone had the opportunity to learn about one another through different activities. Later in the day, the students went on a hike followed by a Middle Eastern style gathering with the staff and faculty of the institute. On Thursday the students were taken on a regional trip. They went to Kibbutz Naot Smadar where they learned about the art center, saw wood working and got to learn about the construction of the building. The students also went to their organic winery and learned about organic agriculture and cheese production on the kibbutz. The students finished the day by taking a hike to Nachal Kasui pristine landscape above Ketura with sand dunes close to 100 feet high. The students frolicked in the sand for a half hour and then had a very nice lunch on the dunes. Friday was course registration day. Everything went smoothly for the students. In the evening some students went to Friday night Shabbat services and everyone came to a very nice meal in the kibbutz dining hall. On Shabbat about half of the students went on a beautiful Shabbat hike in the desert. On Sunday morning classes began. (Report provided by Josh Neiman)
International Renewable Energy Youth Conference - Feb 20th - 22nd This year, the first International Renewable Energy Youth Conference Competition was held in the Hevel Eilot Region as part of a broad focus on renewable energy and spring board for regional development Thirty two youths participated in the conference: 2 from Jordan, 12 from abroad (France, Germany, Italy, Britain, India, Romania, Latvia, Croatia, Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Serbia) and 16 from Israel. The competition was about creative solutions for energy storage. Participants also toured sustainable projects in the region. The participants stayed at the Keren Kolot Guest House and had the opportunity to visit the Arava Institute, the Research and Visitors Park and hear a lecture from Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, head of the Arava Institute Center for Renewable Energy. The competition winners created a "fly wheel renewable energy storage system. The atmosphere of the conference was interesting and exciting and introduced the participants to life in the Arava.
Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Conference - Feb 22nd - 24th - The fourth annual Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Conference was held in Eilat at the Herods and Dan Hotel. Over 2,000 people participated in the conference which once again brought together, entrepreneurs, scientists, policy makers and financers to discuss the promotion of renewable energy in the Middle East and the world. The conference began with the opening ceremony of the new Arava Power Company solar field, the first commercial size field to be licensed by the Israeli Electric Company. The APC field is located just south of the new Arava Institute Research and Visitors Park. Throughout the conference, both the new solar field and the Research and Visitors Park were flooded with visitors from high government officials, reporters, developers and other conference participants. On the final day, 4 bus loads of conference participants descended on the park, the field and the institute providing a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness of the institute's academic and research programs.

David Lehrer

Director's Report January 16th - 28th, 2010

2011-01-31T07:14:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, January 18th, the Heschel Center and the Arava Institute held a workshop in Tel Aviv on "Food Sustainablility in Israel". Over 80 people attended the workshop which was an extension of the "Food for Thought Conference" held in the fall 2009. Since the conference, the Heschel Center and the Arava Institute have been working to create a coalition of non-governmental organizations to promote a more sustainable food system in Israel. The coalition includes environmental organizations, organizations that work on food security and organizations concerned with food and health issues. The workshp held on Tuesday was the first in a series of meetings, workshops and conference planned for the coming year. The speakers at the workshop included, Dr. Jeremy Benstein, from the Heschel Center, PhD candidate, Ami Ettinger, one of Israel's experts on food sustainability and an Arava Institute alum, Miki Lipshitz, Director of the "My Love of the Land" Organization of the Center for Regional Councils and Dr. Uri Gordon, a faculty member at the Arava Institute who presented the report on the current status of sustainability in the Israeli food chain. Food Sustainability in Israel Report
The JNF Parsons Water Fund -Arava Institute tour was a great success. The group appreciated a range of site visits to the, King Abdallah Canal, Shamir Drill, Al Oja village, Jerusalem and Beer Sheva River. The packed schedule also included official meetings with: Red Sea-Dead Sea consultants, Mekorort water representatives, researchers from the National Energy Research Centre of Jordan and a dinner at the Israeli Ambassador's house in Jordan, which was attended by the American Ambassador and former Jordanian ministers. A particular highlight was the final dinner with Uri Shani, Israel's current Water Commissioner, whose wealth of knowledge of the regional water situation and candid approach was very well received. The group was dynamic-- interested and committed to finding partnerships, spurred by impressive generosity, and keen to find viable ways to work throughout the region.

JNF Parsons Water Tour at Israeli Amabassador's house

Member of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) Dov Hanin, invited Vered Balan, the Heschel Center Project Coordinator for the joint Arava Institute Heschel Center Sustainable Food Initiative andy myself to appear before the Environment Committee of the Knesset to participate in a discussion about food sustainability in Israel. The first item of business on the agenda was a presentation of a report on trace levels of insecticide and pesticides found in fruits and vegetables that reach the Israeli marketplace and therefore Israeli homes. The impressive report was presented by Shiri Bass Spector, who works for the Research and Information Center of the Knesset. After Shiri spoke, Vered gave a ten minute presentation on the issue of food sustainability in Israel and the vision statement of the Arava Institute Heschel Center initiative. Shiri was seated on my left and Vered on my right and when it was my turn to speak, I simply said that I am the Executive Director of the Arava Institute and if anyone wants to know what the Arava Institute does, I will point out that Shiri Spector Bass and Vered Balan are both graduates of the institute and say no more. This brought out a number of smiles and a laugh or two from the audience but mostly a great sense of pride from me.

The fall semester 2010 came to a sad but sweet end last week. Their final weeks were spent studying hard for exams. In between exams the campus life team organized numerous surprise parties for students who had to leave early. The Campus Life Team also provided a midnight breakfast in order to allow a break from studying. The students paid one last visit to the Sudanese children in Eilat where the students played football and made pompoms and had one last amazing potluck dinner on campus. A final Peace Building and Environmental Leadership Seminar session was held which brought closure to the multi-cultural experiences of the semester. Students offered blessings to one another and talked about how they had personally changed during the semester. A very successful final party was held two days before the students left. The theme was "Under the Sea" and the students received certificates of completion, funny awards, and year books to start things off. Then there were multiple skits by students and staff including a wonderfully choreographed staff dance to the song "Under The Sea." The students and staff danced the night away. On the final day as students were about to leave they organized themselves into an AIES sign on the grass out of their bodies. This was an amazing group of students and we wish them luck in the future!

David Lehrer

Weekly Report January 2nd-14th, 2011

2011-01-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

2011 has started off with a flurry of activity:

On January 3^rd a group of alumni and AIES staff members met in Amman, Jordan to plan the 2011 AAPEN Conference that will take place in Jordan on February 3-5^th. Suleiman, a former student and Program Associate, and the Chair of the 2011 Conference Organizing Committee, hosted the group at restaurant in Amman for a planning session to discuss the conference schedule, speakers, workshops, and logistics. In attendance was Organizing Committee made up of Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian alumni, as well as AIES staff; Sharón, the Director of the Alumni Department, Lindsey, the AAPEN intern, Khaled, who does Jordanian recruitment, and Elad, the current Chair of AAPEN, and myself. The team eventually moved the meeting to Suleiman's apartment in order to continue working late into the night, taking advantage of a time in which those from different regions could share a space. The night ended successfully with a feeling of progress and with a visit to a local sweet shop that provided us with their last piece of kanafeh.
On Tuesday, January 4th, Taal Goldman, Sababa Coordinator and I met with the Management Committee of Park Timna. The purpose of the meeting was to receive an overview by Yuval Peled, from the Israeli Parks and Nature Authority, of the process for listing Park Timna as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The leadership of Sababa and Park Timna have been discussing this issue and the management of the park in general for sometime. It was decided to jointly review different international recognition programs and management techniques. After a complete review, a decision will be made as to which direction to go.
The intergenerational meeting at ECO-ME Center at the Jericho Junction. If you are on your way to the Dead Sea from Jerusalem, please take a few moments to stop at the newly established ECO-ME Center just after the turnoff to Jericho on the left side of the road. From the road, it doesn't look like much and admitedly, once you are inside the compound it doesn't look like much more, just a collection of tents, shaded areas, compost toilets, solar panels and camp fires, but I believe that for those who look carefully, you will realize that you are seeing a revolution. I had the opportunity to visit the ECO-ME Center, established about 4 weeks ago by 4 Arava Institute Alumni, Ilana Meallem, Rina Kedem, Jennifer Golding and Yair Wahle and one non-alum, Itamar Cohen, for the first time at the intergenerational meeting on Friday January 7th. In addition, to the 5 founders, a number of Israeli, Palestinians and internationals have joined the center for a stay of from a few days to a few weeks. The goal of ECO-ME is to create a space in the Middle East which is easily accessible to Israelis and Palestinians for meetings, workshops and ongoing contact. Eventually, the goal is to find a space which is also easily accessible to Jordanians. The current location, makes it possible for both Israelis and Palestinians to reach with no need for permits. The intergenerational meeting included about 40 people, obviously young and old representing different generations of peace and environmental activists. The purpose of the meeting was for the younger generation to learn from the experience of veteran activists in order to build a permanent center and eventually an eco-village. Though ECO-ME is not a specific Arava Institute project, through the Alumni Programs Department, the institute is providing some support. I personally was incredibly proud to see how our alumni have taken the lessons learned at the Arava Institute and are turning them from theory into reality.
This week the Arava Institute hosted a delegation from Dickinson College who came for a three day site visit from Sunday Jan 9th – Tuesday Jan 11th . The Arava Institute is partnering with Dickinson College on a 4 week program called "Across Borders", which will bring 17 environmental professionals from the United States to the Arava Institute in the summer of 2011. The program is funded by a large grant from the US State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The purpose of the program will be to learn about our local environmental resources, to study the connections between environment and security, and to consider the contributions that environmental studies, economics, political science, policy studies, as well as social, cultural and religious history can offer to resolving these issues effectively and sustainably. The visitors, Steve DePaul, Dr. Andrea Lieber, Dr. Doug Edlin, Dr. Ed Webb, and Bryan Bartosik-Velez, spent their time meeting with Arava Institute staff, attending AIES night, and having lunch with the European Ambassador and his delegation.
In parallel to the visit of the delegation from Dickison College, Professor Yaakov Karni, the new Chair of the Arava Institute Board of Directors, and head of solar energy research at the Weizmann Institute, http://www.weizmann.ac.il/ESER/People/Karni/spent three days at the institute getting to the staff, students and our program. Yaakov has already served on the Arava Institute Board for one year and is the head of the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Steering Committee. The timing of his visit was fortuitous because it coincided with a number of exciting events that took place this week.
On Sunday evening, January 9th, the Academic Department held the end of semester AIES Night, when students present their independent study projects and masters research. This is an evening when the students get a chance to showcase the fruits of their academic labour and demonstrate exactly what they have learned through their independent study and research projects. Those students who are taking the independent study course choose a topic and a methodology at the beginning of each semester and then spend once a week doing research. The students work together with advisors, who provide knowledge and guidance for the mini-research projects. As Dr. Clive Lipchin, teacher of the course and host of the evening noted this year, 4 of the advisors were Arava Institute alumni. The kibbutz community center played host to the event which included a combination of Powerpoint and poster presentations to a wide audience of fellow students, staff and faculty and kibbutz members. It was certainly inspiring listening to not only the phenomenal research projects the students are involved in, but also witnessing their dedication to promoting environmental and social change in places where it is sorely needed.

Roy Zaidenberg, student shows his poster with Yonatan Chesler, staff member

On Monday, January 10th, the Arava Institute was privileged to host the Head of the Delegation to Israel from the European Union, Ambassador Andrew Standley. Ambassador Standley was accompanied by Rober Krengel, the Head of the Scientific Section and Alexandra Meir, Policy Officer for the Scientific Section. The visit was initiated by Uri Nusinow our Financial Director who invited the Ambassador to visit the institute last year when Uri attended the Europe Day celebrations held in Tel Aviv at the home of the Ambassador. The visit was flawlessly coordinated by Rutie Kaplan-Roth. Ambassador Standley was very moved by the mission of the institute, the programs and the students. The final meeting was our traditional student panel where the Ambassador had the opportunity to hear from 4 students about their experiences at the Arava Institute. The Ambassador asked questions and then summarized his visit by praising the students and the work of the institute. I believe that we now have a new and influential friend of the institute. As I accompanied the Ambassador and his colleagues back to their car for their 4 hour trip back to Tel Aviv, it occurred to me that the EU Ambassador to Israel had made this trip especially to see the institute. He did not stop by on his way to Eilat. He got in the car, drove 4 hours to Ketura and when the visit was over, got in his car and drove back to Tel Aviv!

Ambassador Standley addresses the students

Solar for Gaza and Sderot Workshop - from January 11 to 13, 2011, over fifteen energy and environment experts from the academic, non-profit and private sectors in Israel, Palestine, the United States and Europe convened at the Arava Institute for the initial workshop of the Solar for Gaza and Sderot (S4GS) project. The workshop, "Exploring the Role of Renewable Energy in Addressing Humanitarian Concerns," was distinctive for enabling residents of the Gaza Strip and Israeli border region, among others, to meet. The workshop agenda was designed to facilitate discussion, networking and planning among potential partners for research, education programs, technical trainings and applied projects focused on addressing the humanitarian and energy crises in the Gaza Strip and contributing to a more sustainable and peaceful cross-border region.

Discussion of next steps

The first five panel sessions and video-conference presentations explored the current conditions in the Gaza Strip and Israeli border region; potential roles for renewable energy in achieving better living conditions in Gaza; the threats of non-renewable energy and climate change to the region; the state of the Palestinian energy sector; and the value and feasibility of cross-border, civil society cooperation. The final session of the workshop, facilitated by two students of Tufts University, resulted in a list of next steps, long-term objectives and potential joint projects, including providing a clinic in Gaza with solar power, building household-scale solar desalination applications and bringing Gazan students to the Arava Institute.While the current political situation, regional instability and siege on Gaza produce formidable challenges to enacting any educational, research or applied projects, the workshop was a significant, first step toward understanding the need and feasibility of these efforts as well as the interest in pursuing them among potential partners. The S4GS workshop also included a regional tour of local renewable energy initiatives in the southern Arava and informative evening discussions on conditions in Gaza and the Israeli border region with Institute staff and students and members of Kibbutz Ketura. The workshop was organized by the Arava Institute, the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University and the Sustainable Spatial Development Group at the University of Liechtenstein, with the integral support of the Merrin Family Fund and the Israeli Ministry of Regional Cooperation.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report December 12th - 31st, 2010

2010-12-31T01:45:00.000-08:00

December has been an incredibly packed month:

On December 12th through the 15th, the Research Department held a conference on Kibbutz Ketura for 15 Palestinian, Israeli, and Italian water professionals: "The Development and Management of Marginal Water Resources in Water Scarce Regions: The Case of Israel and the Palestinian Authority". The conference was funded by the Italian Trade Commission and the Israeli Office of Regional Cooperation. Due to the increasing scarcity of clean water in the West Bank, Israelis, Palestinians and Italians spent three days discussing a cooperative framework for regional water resources management and ways to utilize grey water (water from kitchens, showers and sinks) for agricultural purposes. The final result of the workshop is a commitment from the Arava Institute, Italian representatives, and West Bank local council to assess and implement marginal water reuse schemes in Palestinians villages. More information is available at: http://english.themarker.com/joint-italian-israeli-palestinian-project-to-solve-sewage-problem-1.331049
On December 13th, Professor Miri Amit, the new Dean of the Eilat Campus of Ben Gurion University visited the institute. Professor Amit is a mathemation and for more than ten years served as the National Superintendent of Mathematics at the Israel Ministry of Education, overseeing school curricula, national testing and mathematics education policy for the entire State of Israel. Professor Amit was appointed to her new position as Dean of the Eilat Campus and is very interested in deepining the relationship between the Arava Institute and BGU. Professor Amit had the opportunity to meet staff and students on her first visit to the institute.
A few days after the conference at Ketura, Israeli and Jordanian researchers met in Aqaba under the umbrella of the Dead Sea Arava Science Center, headed by Dr. Hanan Ginat. On December 16th and 17th, 30 Israeli researchers and 30 Jordanian researchers who are working together on cross border research in hydrology, biology , ecology, renewable energy, sustainble agriculture and medicinal plants met for two days in Aqaba to report on progress and to develop ideas for future research programs. The logisitics of the confrerence was organized by a group of Arava Institute Alumni who have created a new environmental organization. Many of the projects are joint Science Center Arava Institute research and a number of Arava Institute staff attended the conference including Dr. Clive Lipchin, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Dr. Elli Groner, Dr. Michael Beyth, Gigi Strom, Abby Lutman and myself. The conference was a major success hosting an unprecidented number of Israeli and Jordanian researchers who are working together. The proof of the success of the meeting was not during the presentations of research but during the meals when instead of Jordanians sitting at one table and the Israelis at another, the biologists sat together with the biologists, the ecologists sat together the ecologists and the hydrologists sat with the hydrologists; science knows no borders. The conference and the research is funded by the Israeli Ministry of Regional Cooperation.
The following week, on December 23rd, the Arava Institute held its final Board of Director's meeting for 2010. The Board recieved an update, reviewed goals for 2011 and discussed the budget for 2011. The 2010 budget year was difficult due to a lower than expected fundraising campaign. Board members asked for clarification of the budget and want to see a plan to stabilize the finances in 2011. The Directors of the institute will submit such a plan by January 15th, 2011.
After the Board meeting the Association held its Annual General Meeting. The meeting approved the Board of Directors for 2011 and appointed Professor Yaakov Karni to replace Dr. Michael Beyth as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Arava Institute. Professor Karni is head of the Solar Tower and solar energy research at the Weizmann Institute in Rechovot. Dr. Beyth will continue to serve on the Board. The institute wants to thank Dr. Beyth for his tremendous contribution to the Arava Institue by serving as Chairman for three years and wishes Professor Karni luck and success in the new position.
On Wednesday, December 22^nd and Thursday, December 23^rd, students participate in the PELS Jerusalem trip. The students first had a tour with Eitan Katz from the Ir Amim (City of Nations) Organization. He took them around Gilo, Harmon HaNatziv, Jabel Mukaber and Mount Scopus, where he spoke about the geographical and political landscape. The students then spent the rest of the day at the Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies (JIIS) where they heard from Israel Kimcki who is the director of the Jerusalem Studies Desk and former Director of the Policy Planning Department for the Jerusalem Municipality. He spoke about the issues Jerusalem faces and possible solutions to those issues. Following that the students heard from Walid Salem, director of the Center for Democracy & Community Development. He spoke about the Arab Peace Initiative. Also speaking to the students was Dr. Alon Liel, Former Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He spoke about the Syria-Israel Track and where it stands today. Both gentlemen then had an open discussion with the students where they asked many tough, but thoughtful questions. The following day the students awoke early in the morning to have a compassionate listening training preparation for the day ahead. This was led by Maha El Taji-Daghash and Annael Harpaz. The students then went to the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem where they went on at Jerusalem Reality Tour led by Rotem Mor. The tour took them through the City of David where they learned about the importance of it to the Jewish people. They then went to the Alternative Welcome Center, run by the residents of Silwan, where they heard from a resident of Silwan about the struggle the people are facing when it comes to dealing with the Jerusalem Municipality and the Jewish residents of Silwan. Following that the students went to Sheikh Jarah where they met with three Palestinian Legislators from Gaza where they asked amazing questions ranging from peace with Israel to Gilad Schalit to Palestinian politics. The students then had a very somber meeting with Noam Schalit (the father of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit) and heard about the latest regarding Gilad’s status. Following that the students briefly recapped the two day trip and went on their way.
The first Friends of the Arava Institute Eco-Tour arrived on Kibbutz Ketura on December 26th. There are 18 participants on this pilot Eco-Tour including 4 members of the Friends of the Arava Institute, Seth Morrison (FAI Chair), Barry Fierst, Karen Fierst and Hillel Solomon. The tour was organized by Tali Adini, Director of the Eco-Paths Department of the Arava Institute and led by Dr. Clive Lipchin and Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed. The tour spent a day and a half on Ketura learing about the institute, meeting Arava Institute students and hearing lectures about cross boundary water issues. The next three days were spent travelling in and around Jordan, Israel and Palestine.

The official opening of the new Daniel Fischel & Sylvia Neil Family Research and Visitors Park in Memory of Dr. Eugene Fischel & Dina (Diane) Markowicz was held on December 27th with the participation of the FAI Eco-Tour, Kibbutz Ketura members, AIES staff and students. Unfortunately, due to personal reasons, Daniel, Sylvia and their families could not attend the ceremony. A special dedication ceremony will be held sometime in the future when the family can participate. The Research and Visitors Park is located just in front of the Institute's offices and will serve as an area for field testing renewable energy technology, sustainable water technology, sustainable agricultural techniques and for studying ecosystems. The park will also serve as an educational demonstration site where students and visitors can learn about the research being done at the Arava Institue. Finally the park will serve as an outdoor classroom for students from around the world. Rutie Kaplan-Roth and Sarit Maagan-Rosenfeld did a superb job organizing the ceremony.

Thursday night, December 30th, Sababa (The Center for a Healthy Environment in the Arava) held its final steering committee meeting for 2010. With 16 participants, the committee was updated on the current campaigns, Timna Hotel, Samar Sand Dunes and Agricultureal Waste. The committee received the news that the District Planning committee in Beer Sheva rejected the Israel Lands Authority's objection to the planned declaration of a nature reserve in the mid-section of the Samar Sand Dunes, paving the way for approval of the natur reserve. Taal Goldman, Sababa Coordinator and other Sababa and Green Course activists participated in the hearing in Beer Sheva. The committee also recieved a report from Revital Katz about the Environmental Impact statement which was commissoned by the Beer Sheva District Planning Committee on the Timna hotel. The report clearly recommends not to build the hotel in the Sasgon Valley and recommends that it be built near the entrance to the Timna Park. All in all, a good month for the environment!
Late breaking news: The Arava Institute has been recognized as a winner of this year's MEPEACE "Education" Award. : http://www.mepeace.org/events/mepeace-awards-event-dec-31

Happy New Year!!
David Lehrer

Weekly Report November 21st to December 10th, 2010

2010-12-10T02:15:00.000-08:00

Things continue to be a bit hectic at the institute so I have not kept up with the blog. I cannot record all that has happened in the past three weeks but I will try to give a few highlights:

On November 25th, students left at the crack of dawn for what was to be an intense and emotionally stimulating Peacebuilding and Environmental Leadership Seminar (PELS) day-trip to Jerusalem, where they visited the abandoned Palestinian village of Lifta and the Jewish Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem. The trip was sponsored by "The Parents Circle" http://www.theparentscircle.com/, an organization, that Michelle Shachar, PELS Coordinator has worked with in the past. The trip was funded by a grant from USAID that the Parent's Circle received this year.

November 29th to December 2nd, the Arava Institute Center for Transboundary Water Management (CTWM) and the Dead Sea Arava Science Center (DSASC), together with Oxford University sponsored a 4 day workshop for researchers from Israel, Jordan, Palestine, the US and England. The conference was organized by Dr. Clive Lipchin (CTWM), Danny Shachaf (DSASC) and Professor Deborah Sandler (Oxford University). The subject of the meeting was the establishment of the Dead Sea Jordan River Basin Forum. Unfortunately, the Palestinian delegation, under pressure from the PA security department, cancelled their participation in the conference at the last minute. Despite the loss of the Palestinian delegation to the conference, more than 20 people participated including some 5 Arava Institute alumni (2 Palestinians, 1 Jordanian, 1 Israeli and 1 English). 4 of the alumni are doing graduate studies in England. The conference was held in Wadham College of Oxford University and hosted by Professor Deborah Sandler of Wadham College. Workshop participants such Professors Eilon Hadar and Alon Tal from Ben-Gurion University gave the Israeli perspective on water and natural resource management in the Dead Sea Jordan Rive Basin and Dr. Samar Talozi from the Jordan University of Science and Technology represented the Jordanian perspective. We also heard from international conflict resolution expert Dr. Brian Polkinghorn from Salsbury University in Maryland. Professor Ian Goldin of the James Martin 21st Century School of Oxford University addressed the conference on the role of academics in meeting current global challenges. Representatives of the DSASC, Dr. Hanan Ginat, Eilon Gadiel and Elli Raz presented the local perspectives on environmental degradation at the Dead Sea. We also heard from Professor Emeritus of MIT , Frank Fisher, Col. Sharon Davidowitch of the JNF Parson Fund and Robin Twite of IPCRI. The last day and a half of the conference was spent discussing practical steps for moving forward with the forum. Paul Whitehead, Director of Professor of Water Science in the Oxford Centre for Water Research offered help in writing a major grant proposal to establish the Dead Sea Jordan River Basin Forum. So despite the setback with the Palestinians, much progress was made and the next step is clearly reaching out to the Palestinians to make sure that they are willing to participate in the establishment of the forum. The fact that the conference was held at Oxford University added greatly to the prestige of the workshop and also to the atmosphere.

AIES Staff and Alumni

The week starting December 5th, was one of ‘experiential learning’, as opposed to regular academic classes, thus both a welcome break and change of routine for the students. Substituting class time, the Institute arranged a number of hands on practical workshops for students. These included practical learning in the form of mud-building, more spiritual learning in the form of a movement and dance class and a workshop on transforming an idea into an actual project. To cap things off, the students then spent Tuesday afternoon hiking in the nearby Saskon Valley followed by a chilly night out sleeping under the stars. For many it was an enlightening experience as they discovered that “yes, it does get very cold in the desert!”

Rhodes Scholar, Katy Hansen playing Staff Soccer Goalie

On Wednesday night, December 8th, staff and students celebrated the last night of Hanukah with a communal candle lighting ceremony, followed by the traditional student staff football (soccer) match. This year after a grueling game that went into overtime, staff and students tied 1 to 1. The candle lighting ceremony was also an opportunity to publicly congratulate research intern Katy Hansen who just won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. We are incredibly proud of her and now know which pubs to recommend in Oxford.
http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_b90606c6-f60f-11df-b151-001cc4c002e0.html

David Lehrer

Weekly Report, November 7th - 19th, 2010

2010-11-21T01:04:00.000-08:00

Tareq Abu Hamed flew to Northern Cyprus (Turkish Cyprus) on November 7th to spend three days hosted by the Sustainable Environment and Energy Systems (SEES) Graduate Program at the Middle East Technical University, North Cyprus Campus (METU NCC). The main purpose of the visit was to discuss the possibility of a joint Master's Degree in Renewable Energy with METU NCC. Tareq met with numerous faculty members fo METU NCC including Professor Turgut Tumer, the Campus President. A number of areas of cooperation were explored including METU students participating in AIES programs, joint programs and joint research.
On Tuesday, November 9th,I brought three students from the institute (Sara from NJ, Brian from Seattle, and Elham from Amman) to visit Edward Sperling, the injured rider, at Tel Hashomer. It was my first opportunity to visit Eddie since the night of the accident. We arrived about an hour before visiting hours so we were able to have lunch in an Aroma Coffee Shop inside the hospital with Micha Sperling, Eddie's son. Micha told us that Eddie was awake and able to communicate. The students were grateful for a chance to get to know Micha and also to tell Micha about themselves. At around 12:00 we went to visit Eddie in the ICU unit. Visiting hours are from 12:00 to 14:00 (2:00 pm) and only two people at a time can go in at once. Of course being typical Israelis we initially ignored that rule but were then promptly kicked out. In any case, we took turns visiting with Eddie. The students had prepared a beautiful folder with pictures of all of the students and each student wrote something personal next to their picture. Sara, Brian and Elham took turns reading what they and other students wrote. Eddie's face looks pretty good considering the beating it took. His eyes are bright and he had an amazing look of satisfaction as the students chatted with him. In addition to reading the card, the students told Eddie about themselves. Eddie mouthed some words which the students were able to understand with some difficulty. I hope that the visit gave Eddie and his family some cheer. It was incredibly important for the students themselves, who recognize the fact that Eddie had been on the ride in order to support the institute.

Brian, Micha (Eddie's son), Elham and Sara

On Wednesday, November 17th, I spoke to Micha who told me that Edward and his family were flying home. For more updates on Edward and his family, please go to http://edsperling.wordpress.com/
Tuesday, November 9th, was the first day of the 4 day Negev Field Trip for the students. Day one of the trip saw the students arrive at Sde Boker to sit in on the second day of the Bi-annual International Desertification Conference. For the Masters students it was also a chance to get a real feel for the place they will call home following the completion of their first year of studies here at AIES. Day two of the trip was that much more crammed, with a number of activities lined up beginning with a hike through Ein Avdat and ending with a homely culinary experience in Yeroham. Highlighting the issues of waste disposal, environmental justice and social inequity , day three involved a visit to Ramat Hovav municipal waste disposal facility and a visit to the unrecognized Bedouin village of Wadi El Na’am. Appropriately, the night was spent in Bedouin tent accommodation at Khan HaShayarot. The ride home included a stop in a Tel Sheva, where Mariam, the improbable founder of her very own range of organic herbal health products enlightened the group as to her fight against adversity as a Bedouin women in order to start her own business.
This Arava Alumni Leadership Jam in collaboration with YES ( www.yesworld.org) brought together a group of 24 diverse AIES alumni from Jordan, Israel, USA, and Palestine for 5 intensive days in the Wadi Ram Desert - Jordan. Participants were diverse in both the year that they studied or interned at the AIES (as far back as 1999!) age, nationality and field of expertise! Being in the quiet of the desert and facilitated by a team of YES and AIES alumni the group was guided through a trans-formative process focusing on the interplay between introspection, lifestyle sustainability and the ability to bring about systemic change in the world. Some of the outcomes were; a deepening and building of authentic relationships between alumni, invigoration of the AAPEN and alumni projects, rejuvenation of body, mind and spirit and time to reflect on the post Arava Experience and its influence on the personal, social and professional realms.

Alumni in Wadi Rum

On Sunday, November 14th, along with the entire world, the students of the Arava Institute watched "With Earth and With Each Other" the first annual virtual web rally for Peace and the Environment sponsored by the Friends of the Arava Institute (FAI). The broadcast was a bit choppy at first but by the end the broadcast was smooth and the students, staff and kibbutz members who attended the program were inspired and proud. Of course much thanks goes the FAI staff members, David Weisberg and Jessica Reed for the incredible effort put into the broadcast. I also want to thank Yonatan Chesler who oversaw the project at the Arava Institute and Josh Neirman for his technical support. And of course a special thanks to Mandy Patinkin, Pete Seeger and all of the other artists who made this a unique and special event.
Monday, November 15th, Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara, from the Ministry of Regional Cooperation and the Ministry of Negev and Galil Development visited the institute. I first met the Deputy Minister at this year's Renewable Energy Conference in Eilat in February. I invited Minister Kara to visit the institute. The Deputy Minister was accompanied by the Eilot Regional Council Head, Udi Gat. Three students from the institute met with the Deputy Minister and talked about themselves and their experience at the institute. The Deputy Minister asked a few questions to the students and then staff members raised issues concerning funding from his two ministries as well as issues concerning permits for Palestinians. The Ministry for Negev and Galil Development has promised funding for the new dorms and the Ministry for Regional Cooperation has promised funding for cross border conferences. The Deputy Minister expressed a strong interest in helping the institute to promote cross border cooperation. After the meetings, the Deputy Minister was taken on a tour of the institute's renewable energy research facilities.
On Wednesday, November 17th, the students met with the son of a kibbutz member who had been the one to spray paint the anti-Arab slogan on the door of one of the units on the campus of the institute. Similar to the meeting with Louie, the volunteer who also participated in the incident, the meeting was very moving and refreshing. Marvin apologized for his actions and talked a bit about his background coming from France where he had experienced anti-Semitism and he also spoke about his experiences in the army. Marvin said how ashamed he was of his actions and that since the incident he has been torturing himself over it and when he comes home from the army does not leave his house. The students told Marvin that Ketura is his home and that he should not fear leaving his house. Many of the students spoke about the impact of the incident on them but most of all they expressed forgiveness and a sincere desire to put the incident behind them. Raja, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem read the following statement to Marvin:
"My name is Raja' I am an Arab girl form Jerusalem. This letter is for you since you live in this kibbutz. I was not shocked, not even a little bit when I heard about what you did, but I was hurt that this norm in Israel happened here in the Arava Institute, where all these nice Israelis welcomed me as student. Obviously you have no idea why I’m here, but let me tell you that you attacked an Arab group who are here to look at this conflict between us from another perspective, a peaceful one. I hope that you can take this experience back to the Army with you, to turn it into a positive one and not to brag to others that you attacked a peaceful Arab group in your kibbutz."
Cathie Granit, the Institute's Program Director reminded Marvin, that as a soldier, he is looked up to by the younger kids of the kibbutz and that he needs to be an example. In an emotional statement, Cathie asked Marvin "To please do the right thing."

David Lehrer

Weekly Report October 17th - November 5th, 2010

2010-11-08T06:39:00.000-08:00

It has been an intense and stressful two weeks since my last posting. Unfortunately, a few sad events have occurred and overshadowed a great deal of the positive work being done at the institute. Most of this week's posting will be devoted to these sad events but I will also try to provide an update on other more positive stories.

• About two weeks ago, the Institute held a cultural night where recently arrived students had the opportunity to share their diverse cultural backgrounds with other students and residents of the kibbutz through food, music, songs and dance. The evening was very successful however, Sometime after the party was over during the night, two drunken residents of the kibbutz visited the campus and wrote a racist hate message against Arabs on the door of one of the student's units. When the students discovered the graffiti message on the door, that were horrified and immediately informed the staff of the Institute who informed the kibbutz officers. The Regional Security Coordinator was called in and she investigated the crime. The next morning, the kibbutz officers met with the students and assured them that they were safe, that this act was an isolated one that in no way reflects the attitude of the members or residents of the kibbutz towards the students and that those responsible would be found and dealt with appropriately. Within a few days, the Regional Security Coordinator had discovered who perpetrated this hate crime on our students. Sadly, it was a volunteer and the son of a kibbutz member. Both admitted their guilt. In the past week, the staff of the institute has been dealing with this despicable act and the impact it has had on the students. Though this has been a traumatic experience for the students it has also been instructional as it has given them an opportunity to test their commitment to peaceful conflict resolution and to try out the tools they are learning in the Peace Building and Environmental Leadership Seminar (PELS). On Thursday morning, the students met with the volunteer who participated in the incident. It was a very moving session in which the volunteer took full responsibility for the part he played in the crime and expressed his sincere regret without making up any excuses. The students conveyed to the volunteer the impact the incident had on them, how it made them feel but also appreciation to the volunteer for his willingness to speak to them and to apologize to their face. The session went a long way to heal the wounds created by the crime and created a live example of how dialogue can resolve conflicts. The students will be meeting with the son of the kibbutz member next week.

• This year's Arava Institute Hazon Israel Ride began on Wednesday, October 17th with 117 Riders. Though the ride was successful on many levels, a number of serious accidents which plagued the Ride overshadowed those successes. Two riders collided on the first day which resulted in both being sent to the hospital and left with their arms in casts. The most tragic accident however occured on the last day of the ride when Edward Sperling fell from his bike just as we were about to enter Eilat. Edward is not in an life threatening situation however his injuries are very serious. We do not know yet the full consequences of his condition and may not know for many months. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with Eddie and his family. If you would like an update on Eddie's condition, the family has set up a blog to keep family and friends informed. http://edsperling.wordpress.com/

These two sad events made the past two weeks very difficult for the staff of the institute and of Hazon, students, riders, kibbutz members and family of those involved in the accidents. On a personal level this has been one of the most difficult times of my life but what has given me strength is the warm human spirit I see in Eddie's family, the unwavering belief of the students in dialogue as a means to resolve conflicts and the love and support staff and colleagues. I want to thank all of you for giving me the strength to deal with these tragic circumstances while continuing the valuable work of the Arava Institute.

Other events:

• This week saw the close of the MASHAV course on ‘Gender, Water and Development’, which took place between the 25th of October and 7th of November. 26 participants from 11 countries were hosted by Kibbutz Ketura and as a token of their appreciation held a Culture Night for everyone on the kibbutz last Wednesday, which included many fun and educational displays, ranging from a cooking course in Myanmar cuisine to an Africa wedding.

• In response to pressure from Sababa and other Israeli environmental organizations to save the Samar Sand Dunes, an official hearing in the Supreme Court has been set for January 12th, 2011. In the mean time events to raise awareness continue, with guided tours being offered daily during the Chanukah vacation and an open photography event taking place on the 4th of January run by a group of photographers from New York.

• Gigi Strom recently returned from her trip to Germany and the UK where she had many worthwhile experiences, in particular at the GLOWA (Global Change and the Hydrological Cycle) workshop which looked at projections of climate change and projections of socio-economic and political realities in the Jordan River Basin from now until 2050. She also came across certain opportunities for collaboration with the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland (a research institute which focuses on issues of land use, environment, and agriculture) which, with the exception of local differences of annual rainfall and regional conflict, is largely working on the same issues as AIES.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report September 24th to October 16th

2010-10-18T01:55:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a while since I have been able to update the blog as I have been travelling around the US for the past few weeks. Michael Edmeston, the Administrative Intern gave me the following report on the first week of the new semester:

Each semester the arrival of the first ‘batch’ of students at the kibbutz always signals something special for all of us at Arava Institute: a sense that a new horizon awaits to be explored, mixed with a profound appreciation that all the previous years of hard work are what make that horizon possible. This year, it was the arrival of five MASA students (North American Students who are recipients of the Jewish Agency scholarship program MASA) on Tuesday the 28th of September that signalled the new beginning. A week later, on the 6th of October, the arrival of the other 24 students making up the student body for the fall semester ensured that (despite the stress and panic of the faculty) a breath of hope and excitement filled the Institute.

With the semester officially starting on the 10th of October there was just enough time to provide the students, many of whom it is there first visit to Israel or a kibbutz, a chance to get to know one another and what life might be like for the next four months. Over the last few days numerous orientation activities took place- from the mundane such as registration to the more entertaining such as a tour of neighbouring kibbutz Lotan, kite flying at the nearby Samar sand dunes and an evening social gathering of students, interns and staff at the pool followed by that which makes up the fabric of any great academic institute- a night at the pub. Finally, to top things off and as timing would have it, the day before the first seminars everyone was treated to the unique cultural celebrations synonymous with a bar-mitzvah. Making the event that much more meaningful was the fact that not only was it a bar-mitzvah for twins, but also that the boys were the sons of Sharon Benheim who herself deserves celebration for taking on the powers that be in order for students from all walks of life to be part of the experience.

Indeed, like any other academic institution, the students are the ones that make up the life energy of the Arava Institute. However, the fact that the students congregated here in the beautiful Arava desert in the south of Israel are a mixture of American, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian Jews, Arabs and Christians gives a whole new meaning to the idea of student life. For these students the chance to learn, live and celebrate under the same roof for a whole semester while their respective communities remain at political odds offers them more than simply a means of getting ahead in life. It offers them (and the world) a means of learning to get along in life. So, as the fall 2010 semester get underway, we wish all the participating students well as they pursue their respective ambitions, all of which no doubt share the common thread of helping build a more peaceful and environmentally conscious society.

A few highlights from my trip:

Peace Building and Environmental Stewardship Award Ceremony for Pastor Gerald Durley

On October 6th, the Atlanta Friends of the Arava Institute, led by Board of Trustees member Glenda Minkin held an event to bestow the Arava Peace Building and Environmental Stewardship Award on Pastor Gerald Durley of the Providence Missionary Baptist Church of Atlanta Georgia. Pastor Durley is a well known figure in the Afro-American community in Atlanta. Durley has been a long time civil rights and human rights activist and has recently become very involved in the environmental movement http://pmbcatlanta.org/bios.html. In addition to civil rights and the environment, Pastor Durley has been very active in interfaith community activities in Atlanta. For the past 10 years, the Atlanta religious community has sponsored an interfaith trip called the World Pilgrimage Mission to the Near East and Mediterranean visiting, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Turkey and other countries in the regions concentrating on religious sites that having great meaning to Christians, Moslems and Jews. Many of the leaders of the three religious communities in Atlanta have participated in these pilgrimages. In 2007, the World Pilgrimage Mission visited the Arava Institute and made a lasting impression on the participants in the trip including Pastor Gerald Durley.

A few months ago, David Weisberg approached Pastor Durley about accepting our award and though reluctant at first (he said he had enough awards) he finally agreed after he and David found a common love for Broadway musicals and because Pastor Durley understood how much a large community event could help support the Arava Institute. Over 100 people from the various religious and ethnic communities came to the event which was held in a downtown Atlanta hotel only a few blocks from the home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose presence was felt throughout the evening.

The event was emceed by a local Atlanta television news anchor, Brenda Wood. The evening started with our own alumni Mousa Diabat and Eitan Amiel speaking about their experiences in peace building at the Arava Institute. Then David Weisberg played the guitar and led the Providence Missionary Baptist Church Choir in a rendition of "The World is Coming to a Start" from the Broadway musical "Purlie" (yes it will be very hard to replace David Weisberg). Other speakers included long time civil rights activist, Reverend C.T. Vivian and the Fulton Council Commissioner, John Eaves. The award itself was given to Pastor Durley by three of his friends who are also members of the clergy, the Reverend Dr. George Wirth, Rabbi Ron Segal and Immam Plemon El-Amin. The evening took on a comical air as the four old friends traded barbs and turned the evening from an awards event into a "roast". As Pastor Durley was speaking last, he warned Plemon, "don't bring a knife to a gun fight". I was laughing so hard that tears came to my eyes and in his concluding remarks Pastor Durley reminded us all of how important it is to keep a sense of humor about us as we fight to make the world a better place. The three clergy also announced that in addition to granting the award, they have established the Durley Legacy Fellowship which will annually enable two Arava Institute alumni to come to Atlanta and spend time with Pastor Durley and other community leaders to learn about community organizing and activism in the birthplace of the civil rights movement.

This event was an overwhelming success and by far one of the most professional and high profile events ever held by FAI. It raised the bar for FAI and has helped to strengthen the institute's connection with the diverse Atlanta interfaith community. Enormous congratulations and thanks go to Glenda Minkin, David Weisberg, Audrey Galex (who first made the connection to the World Pilgrimage Mission) and the other organizers of the event.

Meeting with Pete Seeger

On October 8th, my daughter Ariana and her boyfriend, Ori and I drove up from Manhattan to Beacon, New York to meet famous folk singer and activist, Pete Seeger. It was an incredible honor for us to have been invited to this American icon's home along the Hudson River. Pete Seeger has been one of my heroes since childhood and after spending over two and a half hours at Mr. Seeger's home with him and his daughter Tinya, I am even more in awe of him and his conviction to make this a better world. At 91, Mr. Seeger may not be as physically active as he once was but his mind is as sharp as ever, especially when it comes to what the human race needs to do to survive. Pete Seeger says that if the human race exists 100 years from now, it will be because people who deeply disagree with each other have learned how to communicate often through music, the arts and even sports. I told Mr. Seeger and his daughter about the work of the Arava Institute bringing Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and students from around the world together at the Arava Institute to teach them that nature knows no borders. I also discussed the concerns raised about the Jewish National Fund's sponsorship of "With the Earth and With Each Other", the internet event in which Mr. Seeger has agreed to participate. I explained to Pete and his daughter Tinya that the Jewish National Fund (JNF) has been an important partner to the Arava Institute over the years enabling the institute to do the cross border environmental work and to bring Palestinian and Jordanian students to the institute. The JNF is only one of many sponsors of the event which is focused on raising awareness about peace building efforts in the Middle East such as the work of the Arava Institute.

Though I originally thought we would spend about an hour with Mr. Seeger, Pete was incredibly generous with his time and seemed to enjoy, telling my daughter, Ariana, her boyfriend Ori and I about his long history as a folk singer, peace activist, civil rights activist and in recent years environmentalist. Pete's Clearwater Foundation has led the battle to clean up the Hudson River. We were enthralled to hear Mr. Seeger tell us about his early days starting out singing, his friendship with Woodie Guthrie, how he met his wife, his early days as a member of the Communist Party, the need to "switch sides" when Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler, the revival of folk music in the late 50's and early 60's and his current activities in support of the environmental movement. I hope that at the age of 91, I still have the same fire in my eyes, moral conviction and courage that I witnessed on my visit to Beacon, NY. The Arava Institue and the Friends of the Arava Institute are privileged to be able to name such a legendary artist and social activist as one of our friends.

David

Weekly Report September 12th to the 24th, 2010

2010-09-24T02:57:00.000-07:00

On September 13th, the new Academic Team including Cathie Granit the new Program Director, Barbara Finkel the new Campus Life Director, Dane Cooper, the new Academic Coordinator, Brenda Hausler, the new Admissions Coordinator as well as the Dr. Elli Groner, the Academic Director and Michelle Shachar, Director of PELS, kicked off the opening of the Academic year with a faculty meeting. The meeting reviewed the achievements of last year as well as the expectations for the coming year, the new developments in the relationship with BGU, admissions (about 35 students expected in the fall semester) and the start of construction of new dorms.
The next day, 35 members of staff and a few family members, went on a two day staff seminar. The following report was provided by Michael Edmeston, the new Administrative Intern who replaced Tamar Norkin:
Staff Trip September 14th - 15th, 2010
Early Tuesday morning the Arava staff gathered at the kibbutz bus station and began a two day tour of interesting ecological projects taking places across the country. The theme of the tour was ‘sustainable food production’. Included in the itinerary were four selected projects: Bio Bees Biological systems located at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in; Emek Netofa a model for cooperative farming in the Bet Netofa Valley; EcoOcean Marine Research and Education operating in the Red Sea and; Hava and Adam an ecological farm near the city of Modi’in in central Israel.
Bio-Bees Biological Systems: On arrival at Bio-Bees the group was introduced to the concept rearing beneficial insects and mites as a means for pest control in the agricultural industry. Here we were presented with what can be best described as a nature documentary that utilized the best in 1980’s horror film sound-effects to enlighten the public as to how this concepts works. As a progressive and ecologically thinking company, their objective is to provide the agricultural industry with an chemical-free alternative to protect crops against the invasion of destructive pests. After a brief tour of the kibbutz’s other environmental projects (such as the installation of owl houses in agricultural fields) we made our way to a seemingly enchanted picnic area located on the kibbutz where we enjoyed delicious home prepared bread, pastries and cakes combined with other typical Mediterranean cuisine such as hummus, pickled and fresh vegetables and dolmades.

Hugging Trees at Kibbutz Sde Eliayhu

Al Batuf Valley (Emek Bet Netufa): After reluctantly packing up our lunch, we left Bio-Bees and headed further north towards Galilee and specifically the Bet Netofa Valley. On reaching the ascent overlooking the Valley area we were greeted by Laithi Gnaime, an Arava Institute alumnus, who explained to us his work and vision in developing the valley into model for sustainable and organic farming. The overarching aim of his project is to increase the Valley’s sustainability, independence, and economic viability. The main vehicles for this are the encouragement of traditional and organic agricultural methods, the establishment of an agricultural cooperative to educate, organize, and market the products of this agriculture, and the cultivation of the Valley as a destination for eco-tourist travel.
Abu Gil Organic Vegan Restaurant: Having been in the bus for much of the day it was a relief to finally reach our hotel in Tel Aviv where we would be spending the night. We briefly checked-in and then headed to our dinner spot- Abu Gil organic and vegan restaurant. On offer was tasty, healthy plates of various assortments ranging from bean soup to quinoa salad to lentil balls.
EcoOcean Marine Research and Education: Waking early, we once again got on the bus departing for EcoOcean’s research vessel docked at the harbor just north of Tel Aviv. Here we were welcomed by Andreas Weil, the founder of EcoOcean and also a proud alumnus of the Institute. Once on board we were briefed of all the necessary safety requirements before ‘setting sail’. Leaving the harbor, we were educated on the regions marine ecology and provided a short demonstration on how to take measurements of water salinity and sea life. This was followed by a particularly interesting lecture on the marine environment of Israel and the many problems facing those such as Andreas, his team at EcoOcean and other environmental groups when it comes to conserving and protecting the marine and coastal environment.

EcoOcean's Mediterranean Sea research vessel docked in Herzilya Port

Hava and Adam:Arriving hungry, our last stop was the ecological farm of Hava and Adam near the city of Modi’in. Again, as a group we were fortunate and proud to be introduced to the project by another two former students from the Institute- Haim Feldman and Dafna Dagani. Touring the eight-acre farm, we were shown the component necessary in order to truly live sustainably: composting toilets, chicken hatches, vegetables gardens and fruit trees, a grey water system and a herbal workshop to name a few. Having worked up an appetite once more, it was off to get our hands dirty as we prepared to harvest what we were going to eat for lunch. This meant collecting freshly laid eggs for omlettes and eggplant, onions and herbs for a salad and as filling for mud oven baked pastries.

Preparing the meal from freshly picked vegitable garden

There are not many work days in the month of September due to the holidays. Other than preparing for the arrival of the new students, things were fairly quite this month. One other exciting event took place on Tuesday, the 20th of September when the Steering Committee for the Alumni Biogas Project met in Susia, a Palestinian/Bedouin village just inside of the Green Line in the West Bank. A group of Palestinians, who live like Bedouins were living near Arad before 1948 and were forced to move to the West Bank during the war. Since the Israeli take over of the West Bank in 1967, their lives have not been easy and have included additional forced relocations as well as the destruction of their tent domiciles in 2002. The Israeli Supreme Court has backed their right to stay where they are, just outside of the Jewish settlement of Susia and to continue to live in tents (they are not allowed to build permanent structures). A lack of water, sewage, electricity, waste disposal, health care etc. makes life in the village of about 50 families (500 residents) fairly precarious. Yair Teller, is managing an Arava Institute Alumni project to introduce a low tech biogas technology solution to use animal waste to produce methane gas for cooking and heating. The project already has one working biodigester and is planning to build 4 more. A number of Arava alumni are working on the project which has included short stays in the village, environmental education programs and technical aid with the biodigester technology. The plan is to expand the areas of aid to include, other technological solutions such as rain water harvesting, gray water reuse, solar panels, agricultural help etc. The additional help to the village will probably be provided through the new Arava Center for Sustainable Development. The Steering Committee met with representatives of the village council to create a dialogue on how best the institute and its partners, Ben-Gurion University as well as other non-profits working in the village can best support sustainable development in the village.

David Lehrer and Ilana Meallem (Um Biogas) with the first flames on a biogas burner

David Lehrer

Weekly Report August 29th - September 10th, 2010

2010-09-12T03:38:00.000-07:00

The pace of the last two weeks due to the end of the summer and the holidays (Id Al Fiter and Rosh Hashonah) has been slow. Not a lot to report.

On Wednesday, August 31st, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, head of the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, Hannah Flamm, a research intern from Tufts University and went to Sderot to meet with members of "Other Voice", an organizaiton that promotes dialogue and cooperation between residents of Gaza and Sderot. We met with Eric Yellin, Julie Chaitin and Nomika Zion the heads of Other Voice and members of an urban kibbutz in Sderot. Tareq, Hannah and I met with the leaders of Other Voice in order to propose cooperation on a project that the institute is working on together with Tufts University to bring Palestinians from Gaza and Israelis from Sderot and the surrounding area to study together renewable energy. The project is called Solar for Gaza and Sderot (S4GS). The long term vision is to create cooperative projects between Gaza and Sderot using reenwable energy as the basis for cooperation. Eric, Julie and Nomika were enthusiastic about the project which will likely start in November or December with a workshop at the institute.
On September 1st, I attended the Board of Directors meeting in Tel Aviv of Arava EC&T. The for profit company founded by Elad Topel, an alum of the institute and two other entrepreneur friends of Elad's Avigal Shorek and Avi Rosenblatt is half-owned by the Arava Institute. The company is now poviding consulting services to a variety of companies and instititutions in Israel including the Aroma Coffee chain, the Shikmim farm owned by the Sharon family, the Hevel Eilot Regional Council and an off shore natural gas project. The Board heard reports on the projects and the projections for the rest of the year, which look very promissing.
On September 6th, I was back in Tel Aviuv for a meeting of a group of orgaizations interested in promoting the idea of a Green New Deal for the Israeli economy. This is an idea that is gaining acceptance around the world. The basic idea is that due to the world economic collapse, there is an urgent need to reinvest into national economies in order to jump start economic growth. The question is, what type of investment is planned. Are governments around the world going to invest into the same old polluting fossil fuel driven industries of the last century or is the world going to take this opportunity to move forward with renewable energy and energy efficient industries. Are we going to design policies that promote sustainabilty and utilize the need for massive investments to implement these policies. The Arava Institute has joined with other NGO's to try to create a New Green Deal for Israel.
On Tuesday morning over 30 members of the staff squeezed into the meeting room to raise a toast to the new year. Miriam and I went through all of the amazing events that took place this past year and we then raised our glasses in the hope that this year will bring even more success but most of all peace and stability to our region and the world.

Shana Tova and Eid Mubarak

David

Weekly Report August 15th -27th, 2010

2010-08-27T01:40:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, August 15th, the Steering Committee for the Arava Center for Sustainable Development (ACSD) met with Professor Bernard Amadei, founder of Engineers Without Borders EWB USA and EWB International http://www.ewb-international.org/ and Dr Vered Doctori founder of EWB Israel. Professor Amadei presented the history and activity EWB in the USA and around the world. Dr Doctori presented the work of EWB Israel is in the process of becoming its own registered association in Israel and has established a number of chapters on campuses around the country. Dr. Doctori proposed establishing a chapter of EWB at the Arava Institute. We discussed different ways for EWB and the Arava Institute (AIES) to cooperate through ACSD. We also discussed involving our alumni in the chapter. Amit Eliyahu, the new coordinator of ACSD initiated the visit and he will continue to develop the cooperation between EWB and ACSD.
Kibbutz Ketura and Keren Kolot hosted the Red Sea College - Arava Valley of Peace Summer program http://redsea-college.org/ of about 30 Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian and international high school students (16 to 17 year old). The summer program is part of the United World College organization http://www.uwc.org/ which has established international high schools around the world whose goal is "to deliver a challenging and transformative educational experience to a diverse cross section of students, inspiring them to create a more peaceful and sustainable future". The longterm vision of the Red Sea College is to build an environmental high school program in the Arava that brings Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and students from all over the world to learn how to work together to protect their shared environment. Sound familiar? Though the program was hosted by Keren Kolot, the Arava Institute was involved in the program and the long term goal is to create a permanent framework for cooperation between the newly planned international high school and the institute. The summer program is a pilot program and was considered very successful. The expectation is that the summer program will continue every summer until the establishment of the high school is feasible.
Though there are no students during the summer, the Academic Programs Department was not quiet. In addition to the usual activity of preparing for the coming semester and the recruiting students there has been a great deal of activity in human resources:
Moishe Siel, the Program Director for the last three years announced that he was leaving Kibbutz Samar, his home and moving away from the area. He therefore, sadly announced his resignation as Program Director. The Human Resources Committee has recommended that Cathie Granit, currently the Academic Coordinator replace Moishe as Program Director. In addition, Brenda Hausler has been hired as Admissions Coordinator and Barbara Finkel as the new Campus Life Director. Dr. Elli Groner, remains the Academic Director and will be overseeing a practically all new excellent all female Academic Programs Department Staff. Good luck Elli!
Shira Kronich sent me the following update on her trip to Brazil with Dr. Shmuel Brenner:
Dr. Shmuel Brenner and Shira Kronich were invited to participate as a speakers in the Second International Conference on Climate, Sustainability and Development in Semi-arid Regions (ICID 2010), in Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil. ICID18 conference aimed to create a space for the intensive and productive exchange of new ideas and experiences. As a platform for the production of knowledge, to enable discussions throughout the week to result in new ways of living on earth that promote cultural diversity and leverage the social and natural sciences toward integrative, innovate and sustainable new development pathways. On day 2 AIES presented 'The whole life cycle approach to capacity building in Semi arid lands; a case study of Sauri, Kenya'.

This presentation aimed to discuss and share AIES ideas and the experience of the Arava Centre for Sustainable Development (ACSD) in transferring its expertise – in agricultural techniques, integrated water management, renewable energy systems, sustainable development, ecosystem protection and climate change effects in semi-arid lands – to developing countries facing conditions of poverty, food insecurity, desertification and water problems. The presentation described ACSD’s interdisciplinary, trans-boundary, whole life cycle approach to addressing environmental and social problems and then explores specifically the ACSD capacity building workshops in Sauri. The workshops focused on increasing agricultural yield and accessing the market as well as optimizing water use for domestic and agricultural purposes. The ultimate objective of the presentation was to discuss the potential and limitations of the whole life cycle approach to development in semi-arid lands and share ACSD's lessons learnt and future goals.
On Monday, August 23rd, Hamutal Lerner from Midot, the Israeli non-profit organization that rates non-profit organizations in Israel, spent time at the institute reviewing our performance, interviewing staff members and getting updated on changes that have taken place at the institute since the last time Midot performed a rating review two years ago. At that time, the institute received a very high rating of -A. We certainly expect our rating to remain the same or to improve in this next review.
Tuesday, August 24th, Dr. Shmuel Brenner, straight back from Brazil, Dr. Clive Lipchin and I met in Jerusalem at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Ambassador Haim Divon, Direcor of MASHAV Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, with Ilan Flus, Bat Eden Kite and other MASHAV staff as well as private consultant Dr. Tamar Ron, expert on international development and conservation programs. The purpose of the meeting was to review Dr. Ron's proposal to set up the Israel Center for Sustainable Development through Environmental Cooperation (ICSD). The purpose of the new center which would be part of MASHAV is: To strengthen Israel’s role in achieving global environmental and sustainable development goals. To support sustainability in achieving the environmental conventions’ goals in developing countries, through establishment of bi-lateral partnerships, with focus on developing and delivering tailor-made comprehensive capacity building programs in cooperation and consultation with governments, organizations, communities and other stakeholders in specific countries. The Arava Institute has been proposed as the primary partner for this new Israeli Foreign Ministry initiative as the operational center of the program. This is a very exciting development and the ACSD team will discuss the proposal and how best to design the framework for cooperation with the Ministry.
The Sababa Steering Committee met on Wednesday night at the Eilat/Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative Offices. The agenda included a review of the Hevel Eilot Regional Master Plan for development in the Arava and a presentation of the Open Spaces Rating System being used to determine the value of areas arond the Arava for development and conservation. The Hevel Eilot region covers 13% of the land of the State of Israel including much of the countries last remaining wilderness, therefore, it is the responsibility of the region to be very thoughtfull regarding development and conservation decisions which are critical to the future natural resources of the country. The Sababa Steering Committee takes this responsibility very seriously and will issue a statement regarding the proposed master plan and how the Open Spaces Rating system should be used.
On Thursday, Shlomit Yarkoni, from Ben Or Consulting, spent the day at the institute meeting with staff in preparation for the Israeli Financial Resource Development Work Plan, Ben Or will present in September to the institute.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report August 1st -13th, 2010

2010-08-13T03:31:00.000-07:00

On the Sunday evening, August 1rst, Shira Kronich, fresh back from her trip to Kenya, gave a presentation to the members of Kibbutz Ketura about her experience there and about the exciting activiteis of the new Arava Center for Sustainable Development (ACSD). The institute is now in negotiation with the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs's Development Aid Department (MASHAV) on an expanded program for 2011. Members of the kibbutz were thrilled to hear about these global developments taking place in their own back yard.

The next evening, I presented the Arava Institute's strategic growth plan for the next 15 years to the Kibbutz Ketura Secretariat. The members of the Secretariat were impressed by the level of detail and strategic thought put into the plan. The Secretariat decided that the plan should also be discussed in the General Assembly of the kibbutz.
The following week on August 9th, Gigi Strom, Scientific Editor for the Arava Institute and I met with Nir Peres from the Israeli Ministry of Regional Cooperation. The ministry is interested in working together with the Arava Instittue on programs that promote regional cooperation in the area. The ministry turned to us because of our reputation and experience with Jordan and Palestine. They have proposed funding a number of programs including conferences, alumni activitiy and cross border work in high schools. Many of these projects are in cooperation with the Dead Sea Arava Science Center as Well. The mandate of the ministry is very similar to the mandate of the Arava Institute, therefore joint projects seems like a very logical step.
The next day, the institute staff decided to take the afternoon off and go to the beach. The beach day was organized by Ronit Friedman, our institute secretary. Late Tuesday afternoon, about 20 staff members piled into cars and headed down to the Dolphin Reef Beach in Eilat. The cool water and afternoon breeze was just what the staff needed - that plus the beer, humous and chips. Dolphin Reef is the home of a group of dolphins who are cared for by the professional staff of the beach but are free to roam the gulf. The staff was thrilled to have the opportunity to get a close up look a the beautiful creatures.

During the week, we recieved some exciting news from our partners at Dickinson College in Carlisle Pa. that we they had received the US State Department grant that we had submitted together. Miriam Sharton had worked with staff from Dickinson on the development of a proposal to the US State Department to fund a student and professional exchange program. The total grant is for $500,000 over two years. The proposal will enable the Institue to host a summer program and the following year to send a delegation of alumni to the US. It also strengthens our relationship with Dickinson College and opens the doors for long-term cooperation.
Thursday morning, Tali Adini, Eco-Paths Director, Sarit Maagan-Rosenfeld, Eco-Paths Logistics Coordinator and I drove to Mitzpeh Ramon in order to scout out the new hotel we will be using this year and look at other logistical issues. Due to overbooking at the Ramon Inn, the Israel Ride will be using two hotels in Mitzpeh Ramon, the Ramon Inn and the new Ramon Hotel which is also an apartment block converted into a hotel. It is brand new and though still lacking a pool, should be a great place to spend Shabbat for those Riders who will be housed there. The new hotel is about 5 minutes from the old hotel and very close to the machtesh. Tali, Sarit and I met with the hotel managers of both hotels and we also went to visit "IBike" where the crew will be spending Shabbat. IBike is a great little hostel for bikers - very cool and cozy - with its own hot-tub. The Israel Ride crew will be happy campers. Finally, we had lunch at restaurant called "HaKatzeh" (The Edge) right on the outskirts of Mitzpeh Ramon. I had the chicken, Tali and Sarit had the sweet potatoe quiche. Very good but avoid the brocoli souffle (not well cooked). In any case, we found Mitzpeh Ramon to be full of interesting tourist attractions and are looking forward to spending October 22nd-24th there during the Israel Ride. Mitzpeh Ramon - who knew!
On Thursday night, an evening in memory of Michelle Samson, a member of Kibbutz Ketura, who died of cancer last year, was held behind the pub. Michelle Samson was a avid star gazer and August 12th was chosen as the evening to celebrate her life because it is the peak of the summer Perseid meteor shower. The evening was organized by Abby Lutman a long time friend of Michelle's and staff member of the Arava Institute. Michelle a nature lover, participated in many classes and activities of the institute before her passing. The evening included a lecture by Ayli Eschar on astronomy and the meteor shower, the screening of the sci-fi movie classic, Galaxy Quest and the unveiling of the brand new telescope donated to the Arava Institute in Michelle's memory. Yonatan Chesler, who is in charge of IT at the institute instructed kibbutz members and childern on how to see Saturn through the telescope. The telescope will be kept inside the institute but will have a permanent stand in the new Research and Visitors Park.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report July 18th-30th, 2010

2010-07-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

Once every six months, Miriam Sharton, the Associate Director and I have a private feedback session with almost every member of the staff. Sometimes, Miriam and I sit together with a staff member and sometimes we meet seperately with an individual member. It is an opportunity for the staff member to raise issues, give feedback to the administration and in general express how they are feeling at the institute. It is also an opportunity for Mriiam and I to give feedback, both positive and negative to staff members basically to ensure that lines of communication remain open. This feedback system has been a tradition at the Arava Institute for almost 10 years and has been extremely helpful in flaging problems and maintaining a positive work atmosphere. This past week, Miriam and I met with about 25 staff members in order to give and receive feedback. Sometimes these sessions simple and sometimes they can be difficult but no matter what, they are always important.

Clive Lipchin and Shira Kronich came back from Kenya where the Arava Institute ran a course on Rain Water Harvesting for two groups of farmers. The course was funded by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is part of a new initiative at the Arava Institute, headed by Dr. Shmuel Brenner, the Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands (ACSDAL) which provides training and extensions services to peoples from the developing world.

During the week of July 18th to the 22nd, Arava Institute alumni, Yair Teller, Abeer Abu Sara and Leora Smith began a new alumni project in Susiya, a Palestinian Village in the West Bank building biodigesters to deal with the problem of animal waste while providing clean burning methane gas for cooking and heating. Leora and Abeer ran a parrallel environmental education program for children in order to expose them to environmental concepts.
On Sunday, July 25th, Dr. Michael Beyth, the Chairman of the Arava Institute Board of Directors met with our two Israel resource development consultants, Neal Levy and Shlomit Yarkoni from Ben Or Consulting regarding our Israeli Resource Development Work Plan. We discussed different avenues for development in Israel and how to position the institute in terms of Israeli donors. We expect to receive the work plan by the end of September.
That afternoon, I stopped in on ECOWEEK, an international meeting of "green architects" who are spending the week looking at sustainable building design in Israel and Palestine. The Arava Institute is one of the sponsors of the conference. Judy Bar Lev, the institute's office manager and expert on Palestinian permits and Jordanian visas obtained permits for a number of Palestinian architects to attend the conference. One of whom is interested in coming to the institute in the fall. Donny Ornstein, an Arava Institute faculty member represented the institute at the opening session. http://www.ecoweek.netfirms.com/ecoweek.gr/ecoweek2010_BJ/index.html
Tuesday, Friends of the Arava Institute (FAI) past Board Chair and current Board member, Eric Berzon and his wife Danielle Ruymaker arrived at the institute for a few days of meetings and relaxing. Eric and Danielle got a tour of the institute, met a number of different staff members, participated in a staff meeting and of course got a tour of Dr. Elaine Sollowey's experimental orchard.
Another visitor on Tuesday was Sam Yosefowitz, from Switzerland, who together with Rennselar University would like to fund a project he calls, an Agricultural Oasis, an independent desert farm that provides itself with its own purified water and energy. If the institute receives the grant, the project will go under the auspices of ACSDAL and will be a partnership between the Arava Institue and the Southern Arava Agricultural R & D Center.

OK -that's about all I got - a relatively quite two weeks at the Arava Institute.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report July 4th- July 16th, 2010

2010-07-16T03:09:00.000-07:00

On Monday, July 5th, I spent the day in Jerusalem meeting with various people regarding a multitude of issues concerning the Institute. In the morning I met with Yaakov Mimron and Yossi Vertzberger from the Ministry of Infrastrucure. Yaakov is head of mining resources in Israel and Yossi, who works under him oversees sand mining. I met with them to discuss an alternative to sand mining of the Samar Sand Dunes, an important ecological resource in the Arava and one which is being threatened by a potential sand mining for building operation. An agreement was achieved to pursue testing an alternative to destroying the dunes. Sababa, the Center for Sustainable Development in the Arava is very involved in this campaign.
In addition to this meeting, I also met with Avner Fuchs, past president of Rotary Israel about how the institute could partner with Rotary Israel and Rotary International on Fundraising. I also met with Avner Simon, the institute's architect to discuss the design of the new dorms. Finally, no trip to Jerusalem would be complete without a quick shopping spree in Machaneh Yehuda.
On Tuesday, thanks to our Arava Institute board member, Phillip Mendlinker, the Institute hosted directors from the Israeli Electric Company (IEC). The institue arranged a tour of the region which included a visit to the proposed renewable energy industrial area, the Aora Solar Tower at Kibbutz Samar and a visit to the Arava Institute. Directors of the IEC who visited were, Moshe Bachar, David Almachias, Assad Joubran and Asher Dahan. The visit was coordinated with the Eilat Eilot Renenwable Energy Initiative and the Arava Power Company. Much of the discussion with the IEC was how the electricity that will be generated in the Arava will be sent back up north.
On Sunday, July 11th, the staff reviewed the price proposals submitted by contractors for building the Research and Visitors Park. The lowest bid came from Kibbutz Neot Smadar, one of Ketura's neighbors in the mountains behind Ketura. The building should start by the last week in July.
That same afternoon, the institute held the annual summer ice cream party for staff and staff families. Judy Bar Lev and Ronit Friedman organized the event with ice cream from Kibbutz Yotvata. A very sweet afternoon!
For some reason, everyone decided to come visit the institute on July 13th! In the morning the Arava Institue and the Dead Sea Arava Science Center hosted ICA (Jewish Colonization Association) which is the Baron de Hirsch family foundation that has funded agriculture and development in Israel for over 100 years. ICA has funded purchasing lab equipment for the renewable energy lab and we have a request for more equipment next year.
Next, we hosted Richard Summers, Toronto Federation represenative, who brought with him consultants who work with the Toronto Jewish Federation in resource development.
Finally, Yael Shatiel, Executive Director of JNF Israel (KKL) along with 15 other KKL managers visited the insititute in order here about developments at the institute and updates on the new dorms.
In the evening I attended the presenation of the regional master plan 2030, which lays out how the Arava Region (Hevel Eilot) will grow and develop in the next 20 years. As a local environmetnal organization, the Arava Institute and its public involvement arm, Sababa have been very involved in issues around regional planing. In addtion to myself, Taal Goldman, Sababa Coordinator and 4 other members of the Sababa steering committee attended the meeting and were active in the discussion. Sababa has established itself as an important environmental voice in the region.
On Wednesday, July 14th, Shlomit Yardeni and Neal Levy, two partners at Ben Or Consulting spent the day at the institute initiating the in depth analysis of the institute as preparation for an Israeli resources development work plan that they have been contracted to provide the institute. Shlomit and Neal spent the day meeting staff and talking with each department to get a better understanding of the institute's strengths and weaknesses. In addition to Neal and Shlomit, Shir Harel, the institute's webmaster also came down to participate in the meetings because we assume the website and new media will be an important part of our resource development strategy.
On Thursday, Miriam Sharton and Tamar Norkin arranged a short seminar on renewable energy in the Hevel Eilot region for 15 MBA students from Maryland University. The tour was led by Asher Epstein, Managing Director, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship,Robert H. Smith School of Business. The students were intrigued by the amount of entrepreneurship in the field of renewable energy in the region. The visit also helps strengthen the relationship between Maryland University and the Arava Institute which has had a student exchange program for many years.
The same day I was in Tel Aviv, meeting with our colleagues from the Heschel Center and representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture regarding the joint Sustainable Food Initiative of Heschel and the Arava Institue. The ministry is very interested in joining the initiative and we discussed other parters from the agricultural, business and civil society sectors who we would like to invite to be part of a wider coalition that supports a social and economic shift towards a more sustainable food system in Israel.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report June 20th - July 2nd, 2010

2010-07-04T00:39:00.000-07:00

It has been a very busy two weeks:

On June 21st and 22nd, I attended the 38th annual conference of the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences. A number of Arava Institute faculty attended the conference including Elli Groner, the Arava Institue Academic Director, Shmuel Brenner, Nir Becker, Donny Ornstein and of course Alon Tal. In addition to faculty a large number of Arava Institute alumni also attended the confernce which brings together Israel's leading academic and professional ecologists and environmentalists to discuss current research in the field. Shmuel Brenner and Alon Tal appeared on the main panel discussing nuclear energy in Israel. I gave a presentation of my research on the economic impact of invasive species.
Immediately after I gave my presentation, I left the confernce in order to catch my flight to Sri Lanka where I had been invited to attend a workshop sponsored by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to discuss the report that IWMI is preparing for UNEP on the role of ecosystems in providing clean water and other ecoservices for agriculture. The institue was asked to participate in the writing of the report which is a collaborative work by research institutes around the globe. It was very exciting for me to visit Sri Lanka as it was my first venture to the Far East. The people I met both from Sri Lanka and from the research institutes were great. The meetings were held in Colombo which is the capital of Sri Lanka and the home of the IWMI. I had one day for site seeing but as it was a Budhist holiday, the shopping was limited. I was able to visit a Budhist Temple for the first time in my life. See trip report.

This same week, Clive Lipchin, Shira Kronich and Yair Teller took off for Kenya. Through its new center, the Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands (ACSDAL), the institute has partnered with MASHAV - Israel's development aid department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to run 2 week long courses on water management in Sauri, a rural area of Kenya which suffers from a lack of infrastructure; electricity, water and roads. Clive, Shira and Yair will be running a course on water management for households and small farms using a rainwater harvesting and treatment system developed especially for this project by an Israeli company called Shamraz. The demonstration project was first set up at the institue and then shipped to Kenya. In addition to the course, Clive will be holding meetings with additional contacts in Kenya as well as making a trip to Tanzinia to meet with Sivan Achor-Borowitch, founder of Jewish Hearts for Africa, regarding the establishment of an eco-village.
The week of June 20th to the 24th was also the final week of the semester at the institute. Students completed their papers and took final exams. They spent the week cleaning the campus and meeting with staff in order to give feedback about the semester. As usual, the students expressed overwhelming satisfaction in their experience at the institute along with suggestions for improvement. The final party was held on Tuesday night and Thursday afternoon after a very tearful goodbye, most students got on the bus and left.

On Sunday June 27th, the staff said goodbye to Amit Chertoff our Student Life Coordinator and our two Program Associates, Yousre Odeh and Lauren Rauch. Though the academic year 2009-2010 presented its challenges, it was very successful and much credit goes to Amit, Yousre and Lauren as well as Michelle Shachar, Student Life Director and the other members of the Academic Staff. The institute wishes Amit, Yousre and Lauren lots of luck and hopes to see them back at the institute soon.
On Wednesday night, June 30th, Sababa held its monthly steering committee meeting. The committee was updated on a number of initiatives such as the initiative to list Timna Valley as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, meetings with the secretariats of the kibbutzim in the area, and the Timna hotel campaign. In addition, Avi Ramot, from the regional council water authority spoke about the planned new water reservoirs in the region. The committee then discussed the main issue of the meeting, the Samar Sand Dunes and the contractor's request for a building a mining permit. Taal Goldman and I updated the committee on what is happening and the committee decided to issue a letter to the region urging action to delay the issuing of the permit.
Professor Emeritus, Frank Fisher from MIT arrived on Wednesday night in order to meet with staff and discuss opportunities for collaboration. Professor Fisher is an economist who has worked on the issue of trans-boundary water management between Israel, Palestine and Jordan. Professor Fisher and his colleagues at MIT have developed a computer model that serves as a decision support system for water and resource allocation in the Middle East. Professor Fisher would like to work with the Arava Institute in updating the model (the information is 10 years old) and expanding to other countries in the region. Professor Fisher is on the Board of the New Israel Fund and the American Friends of Peace Now. Professor Fisher has also recently become involved in the new JNF Parsons Water Fund.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report June 13th - 18th

2010-06-18T00:25:00.000-07:00

The Dead Sea Arava Science Center (DSASC), which is a local R&D center funded by the Hevel Eilot Regional Council and the Israeli Ministry of Science and hosted by the Arava Institue, welcomed Dr. Ilan Stavi who began work on Sunday. Ilan was recruited to work on bio-fuels together with Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed in the framework of the Center for Reneawable Energy and Energy Conservation. Ilan and his family will be living in the new faculty house on the Arava Institute campus.
The Arava Institute Board of Directors met on Monday in order to approve the Institute's financial statements for 2009. The meeting was timed to coincide with AIES Night (see next item) in order to enable Board members the opportunity to see student presenations.
Monday afternoon and evening, the Institute held the end of semester AIES Night, when Masters students and Independent Study students make presentations about their research projects. AIES Night Schedule Some students, made Power Point Presentations while others produced posters for the evening. This semester's AIES Night included guest speakers from Jewish Hearts for Africa, Engineers Without Borders and Abraham's Path as well as an exceptional array of high quality presentations and posters on subjects as varied as Hydrogen Production via Boron Hydrolysis to Non Violent Struggle: A Means for Saving Our Environment.
That same evening two students from the Institute spoke to the Secretariat of the Kibbutz in order to update the Kibbutz members on the current semester and to express their positive feelings about their experience living on Ketura.
On Tuesday, Representatives of the Israeli Ministry of Regional Cooperation visited the Institute and brought with them Jochen Reiger, Director of the Middle East Office of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) http://www.gtz.de/en/ in order to discuss possible cooperation with the Institute and with the DSASC. GTZ is especially interested in cross border cooperation with Jordan and renewable energy projects.
On Thursday, Michael Ben Eli was invited to the Institute by the Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands (ACSDAL). Michael is an architect by profession but a few years ago, founded the Sustainability Laboratories http://www.sustainabilitylabs.org/ whose mission is to act as a catalyst to transition the world's societies towards sustainability through the establishment of sustainable pilot communities. One of Sustainable Laboratories first projects is in Wadi Yatir among the Bedouin Community. The project is creating a sustainable desert farm owned and managed by a Bedouin agricultural cooperative. The project is supported by the JNF USA. Michael came to the Institute in order to present the project and to discuss how the Institute could colaborate with the Sustainability Laboratories. At the end of the visit, Michael, Kristina Donnely from ACSDAL, Abby Lutman from the Research Programs Department and I agreed on a list of potential areas of cooperation including help with the Wadi Yatir project as well as the Institute joing the Sustainabiltiy Laboratories international network of research stations.
On the same day, the Institute was honored with a visit from the new Rector of Ben-Gurion University, Professor Zvi HaCohen and the outgoing Dean of the Eilat Campus Professor Shaul Krakover. This was an opportunty for the Professor HaCohen to get to know the Institute and for me to thank Shaul and Professor HaCohen's predecessor, Professor Jimmy Weinblatt for all they had done to enable the signing of the agreement with the University. Dr. Elli Groner, Moishe Siel, Cathie Granit and I also discussed some of the technical problems we have run into in registering our students in their courses. Professor HaCohen left me his card and said that I should call him any time if I need his help.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report June 6th - 11th, 2010

2010-06-11T03:09:00.000-07:00

This was a relatively quite week at the Arava Institute.

On Sunday, Associate Director Miriam Sharton, Academic Director Dr. Elli Groner and I met with Dr. Arieh Nesher, Director of the Porter School for Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University and his staff. We have had contact with the Porter School in the past. The Porter School has become an important and influential institute within Tel Aviv University and is now offering graduate degrees. The meeting was initiated by Arieh, who wanted to update us on their plans and to discuss possible cooperation and a joint program. Though we are in some ways in rivals, it is clear that both institutes are more interested in cooperating that competing. We concluded that Elli would write up a proposal about how the two institutions could implement a joint program.
That afternoon, Elad Topel outgoing Director of Eco-Paths, Tali Adini, the new Director of Eco-Paths and I met with Howie Rodenstein, the Israel Ride Chair and FAI Board member. The meeting was Tali's first opportunity to meet with Howie. Tali is transitioning with Elad this week learning the ropes of organizing the Ride.
The week was filled with lots of organizational meetings from Research Programs to the Academic Department.
We said good bye to intern, Cameron Davidson who was here working on her Masters Thesis from Brisbane University. We welcomed Lisa Blake from Cornell University who will be working on planning and policy issues with Elli Groner.
Wednesday afternoon, I was urgently called by Dorit Bannet, head of the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative for an last minute meeting with Yossi Inbar, the Director-General of the Ministry for Environmental Protection who was visiting planned solar panel fields in the area. Yossi decided at the last minute to visit the Samar Sand Dunes as well. Dorit called me to quickly come to the dunes to meet Yossi and explain Sababa's position on saving the dunes from intended sand mining. We had sent the Ministry a letter asking that the planned mining be halted and that tests should be done in the areas already mined to see if it is possible to use land disturbed by previous mining rather than destroy 600 dunam of a pristine sand dune ecosystem. Yossi agreed to pay for part of the testing along with the Regional Council and the Ministry of Infrastructure.
For the final PELS session this week, Michelle Shachar invited Rabbi David Rosen and his wife Sharon Rosen to visit the institute and speak to the students. David and Sharon are one of our current students, Amirit Rosen's parents. Both David and Sharon are very active in coexistence efforts in Israel and each spoke to the students about their work. Rabbi Rosen is the head of the AJC's Department for Inter-religious Affairs and Sharon Rosen is the co-director of Search for Common Grounds in Israel http://www.sfcg.org/.
Taal Goldman, Sababa Coordinator and I met with Sarit Cohen, the Sectretary of Beer Ora community near Eilat. Taal and I are meeting with the General Secretaries and eventually with members of all of the communities in the region in ordert to introduce Sababa to residents of the region and to present our postions on the different environmental issues we face. We discussed the Samar Sand Dunes, Timna Valley, the planned hotel in Timna Valley and the planned golf course at Beer Ora itself.
That afternoon, I spoke at the regional research meeting, a bi-monthly meeting of researchers in the area. I presented the Arava Institute's Research Department's activities.
Friday morning, I hosted Loyd and Alyson Fogler from Toronto Canada at the institute. The Foglers are active in philanthropy in the Jewish Community in Toronto and were very interested in hearing about the work of the institute and the regional renewable energy initiative.The productive visit was arranged by the Toronto Jewish Federation Partnership 2000 committee and the Hevel Eilot Regional Council.

David

Weekly Report May 30th - June 4th

2010-06-05T05:50:00.000-07:00

Weeks like this are the most difficult times for students and staff at the Arava Institute. The flotilla incident off the coast of Gaza, with the deaths of numerous foreign activists and the injuries and life threatening situation to Israeli soldiers generated anger and conflict among our students. At the same time, the mixed feelings of both staff and students towards the situation also created internal conflicts inside each one of us as we listened to the news and watched the television reports.
During times like this, I see my role as Director of the Arava Institute to keep the calm, to ensure that the students continue to feel comfortable on the kibbutz and to ensure that the kibbutz feels comfortable with the students. It is of course, not easy. At these times I do not see my role as explaining Israel's position to the students, giving a history lesson or using the opportunity to teach a message. I simply look for the right words to say to the students that will lower the flame under the pot and keep the pot from boiling over.
Before the week started, the Academic Department had been planning on sending the students on a two day trip to Jerusalem as part of the Peace Building and Environmental Leadership Seminar (PELS). The trip was scheduled for Thursday and Friday. On Monday morning when the events began to unfold on the news, the Academic Department Staff as well as other staff members, met to discuss whether or not it was right and safe to send the students to Jerusalem on the trip. The original program of the trip was to meet with politicians, journalists, human rights activists and alumni involved in an environmental project. After giving thought, the staff decided to go ahead with the trip but to make some adjustments to the program in order to avoid meetings in East Jerusalem. I also decided to join the students on the trip.
In the meanwhile, the student life staff, worked to create a safe space for the students to release their feelings in a way that would avoid hurting each other and would enable the program to continue to function. That evening, the student life staff helped the students organize an internal discussion that allowed them to exchange opinions and to get out their anger. It was a difficult discussion but the students used the many tools they had learned in PELS which enabled them to say difficult things to one another without things falling apart. Michelle Shachar, head of PELS and Student Life, and I made a strategic decision not to participate in the discussion but to give the students their space. Of course Program Associates were present, but the students ran the discussion themselves and it went on until the wee hours of the night. We understand that it was a very difficult discussion and that some students left still angry and conflicted.
Despite the difficulty, it seems that this session was enough to enable students to continue in the day to day campus life, going to class together, eating in the dinning room and preparing for the upcoming field trip to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Tuesday night, the night after the flotilla incident, I sat in front of the television, falling deeper and deeper into depression as I watched the Israeli and international coverage of the tragic events off the coast of Gaza. Suddenly I was reminded of a birthday party for Shira Kronich, one of our staff members, being held in the Keren Kolot lobby. My wife, Barbara and I were both happy to escape the televsion and walked over to the Keren Kolot guest houses.
We walked into the Keren Kolot lobby/coffee house as if we were entering a dream. About 30 students had organized a surprise party for Shira with cake, cookies, juice and so on. The students, Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and North Americans, were all sitting together around one long table, smiling, laughing, telling jokes. As soon as Shira walked in, they burst into singing Happy Birthday in three languages of course. They acted like a group of students anywhere's else in the world, happy to take a break from studies and just enjoy being together.
On Thursday afternoon, the studetns left for a day and a half field trip to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In Tel Aviv, they met with Tania Hary, Director of International Relations of Gisha, an Israeli NGO whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians through the Israeli legal system www.gisha.org. Gisha was the organiztion which helped the Arava Institute win its case to allow Palestinian students to study at the Arava Institute. The students met Tania in the outdoor park of old Jaffa. It was a beautiful night as Tania managed to overcome the surrounding noise to give the students a very vivid description of life in Gaza and some of the challenges faced by Gazan and West Bank Palestinans to travel. Obviously, many of our own students had no problem relating to these issues on a personal level. After the talk the students ate together in a great Middle Eastern restaurant - Abulafiah (I highly recommend it).
That eveing, the students went to spend the night at the Hava V'Adam Eco-Farm outside of Modiin. Two of our Arava alumni, Hayim Feldman and Dafna Dgani live and work on the farm.
The next morning, the students got a tour of the farm and some participated in one of the classes. After breakfast, the students packed up and we headed to Jerusalem for a few more meetings and lunch. Michelle, with the help of Miriam Sharton, the Associate Director of the Institute had organized a room in the Olive and Fish restaurant on Jabotinsky Street in Jerusalem (another restaurant I highly recommend). Before lunch, the students heard from two journalists, Amira Hass, who writes for the Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz and Tom Weiss, who hosts an American radio program called "The Ambassadors Show". Amira and Tom (both Israelis) represent very different perspectives on the blockade of Gaza and so the discussion was, let's say, quite lively, at times. Students participated fully in the discussions, asking quesitons, arguing and engaging in an issue that even for the North American students, has by now, become very personal. After lunch, the field trip closed with a talk from the two Co-Director's of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), Gershon Baskin and Hanna Senora. These two speakers were obviously in much more agreement than the previous speakers, though Hanna as a Palestinian was able to present the general mood of the Palestinian people, while Gershon concentrated on what he believes must happen in order for the proximity talks to succeed. Surprisingly, with all that is happening in the Middle East, both Hanna and Gershon are very optimistic that the end of the occupation and peace between Israelis and Palestinians under the two-state formula are within reach.
It was nice to finish the field trip and this week in general with a hopeful message.
As this tough week comes to a close, I am filled with awe at the continued courage and resiliance of our students. It is an unfortunate part of reality in this part of the world that as soon as conflict breaks out, the first thing that happens is the end of discourse. It is percieved as not honorable for enemies to speak to enemies and so often the secondary casualties of violence in the Middle East are the very coexistence activities between Palestinians and Jews that are designed to lead us out of the cycle of violence. The small revolution that is taking place at the Arava Institute is that the first thing that our students do in a time of conflict and crises is to meet and talk. The talks are difficult but that is how trust is built, by knowing you can say harsh things and still remain friends. The first reaction of our students, to meet and talk, during a time of crises may seem obvious and yet it is apparently not so obvious to the leaders in the region.

The political events overshadowed everything else that happened this week at the institue but I do want to mention some other important activities.

The institute held its first "Grant Writing" Course for staff and people from the region. The course was organized by Sarit Maagen Rosenfeld, our Hebrew grant writer, and was taught by David Epstein, one of Israel's leading experts in the field. Over 20 people attended the two day course. Five staff members took part while the rest were paying participants from the local area. The course was so successful that we plan to do a second course on "Fundraising" in the fall.
The Arava Institute Research Programs staff held a department meeting reviewing the impressive achievements of the department. Dr. Clive Lipchin, head of the department began by laying out a clear vision of the departments strengths and concentrations. Iff in the past, the institute has been opportunistic in its pursuit of research funding, today the institute has 4 very clear areas of concentration, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, transboudary water management and ecosytems. The four areas of research are represented by the four research centers. In addition, the Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands (ACSDAL) which is a partnership between the Institute, the Science Center and the Agriculture R&D Center, though not part of the Research Programs Department, a critical mechanism for dispersing the information and knowledge developed in our research programs.
The JNF organized a visit by a few trustees from the Reiger Foundation. The Reiger Foundation, located in Santa Barbara, California, works with the JNF to allocate scholarships to students studying sciences in Israeli universities. The trustees met with three of our students just before the students left for their field trip and after that we took the trustees on a tour of the institute.

Wishing you and the world a peaceful weekend.
David Lehrer

Weekly Report May 23rd -27th, 2010

2010-05-28T00:20:00.000-07:00

It was another interesting and packed week at the Arava Institute:
On Sunday afternoon and evening, Michelle Shachar took the students up into the mountains behind Kibbutz Ketura for a PELS overnight under the stars. The students started by riding bikes from the Neot Smadar restaurant at Shizafon Junction, located about 12 kilometers west of Ketura junction (and a well known watering whole to Israel Ride alum). The students ended their ride at the Nahal Kisui sand dunes, where they hiked, frolicked, cooked dinner, sang and slept. The next morning , they hiked back down the mountain to Ketura.

Sharón Benheim reports: also on Sunday, the Institute hosted the Quebec Labrador Foundation's (QLF) 2010 Land Conservation Fellowship program this past week. The QLF Middle East Program (see: http://www.qlf.org/internat_program/mideast_program.htm ) includes a Fellowship, during which North Americans visit and share innovations with partner organizations from Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank and the Middle Eastern fellows visit the New England area. The goal is to foster citizen diplomacy and cross-border environmental collaboration as a bridge to greater understanding, dialogue, and cooperation. Staff member Gail Osman participated as a Middle Eastern Fellow in the first part of this 2010 program, visiting the American Fellow's and learning about their case studies and this week hosted the American group at the Institute to learn about the Samar Sand Dunes Campaign. Participants heard about the campaign from David Lehrer and visited the site with Yaniv Golan. Sharón Benheim, a former QLF fellow and staff member Abby Lutman also helped host the group and make their visit a memorable one.

On Monday morning, Taal Goldman, Sababa Coordinator and I met with the Hevel Eilot Regional Council Chairman, Udi Gat, regarding ongoing local environmental issues such as the planned golf course at Ber Ora, the hotel that is planned to be built in Timna Park, the inscription of Timna Valley as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Samar Sand Dune campaign. We intend to meet with the Regional Council Chair once every two months in order to update him and discuss on going issues.

That evening, the Sababa subcommittee on Timna Valley inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site met to discuss ongoing negotiations with the Park Timna Management Committee. After that meeting the full Sababa Steering Committee met in order to discuss all of the current issues that Sababa is working as discussed with the Regional Council Chair in the morning. The committee finalized Sababa's stand on the Timna Hotel which will be presented to the residents in the region in the near future. The Steering Committee also viewed a presentation prepared by Taal Goldman about the upcoming plans of the Airport Authority to build an international airport in between Timna Park and Ber Ora on the border with Jordan.

On Wednesday, the institute was flooded with activity. First of all, the New Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands (ACSDAL) hosted a delegation of 7 staff members of MASHAV, Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The delegation was headed by the Director of Policy Planning and External Relations, Mr. Ilan Fluss. The visitors had the opportunity to hear about the Arava Institue, the work of the new center, see Elaine's experimental orchard, visit the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, see a demonstration of a water harvesting and purification system developed by the Arava Institute together with the Shamraz Company and participate in a meeting between students and an official government delegation from Ontario Canada (see next item). The MASHAV delegation was very impressed with their visit and at the final meeting at the end of the day agreed to work together with the institute to develop a long term partnership between MASHAV and the institute.

On the same day, the Premier of Ontario, Canada, Dalton McGuinty, the Canadian Ambassador to Israel, Jon Allen and a group of Ontario business leaders and reporters visited the Arava Institute. The Premier met with students in the Kibbutz Community Center (which also serves as a classroom for the institute). Students, staff, regional council staff, members of the Jewish Agency staff and the Ontario delegation crowded into the classroom in order to hear four Arava Institute students, a Jordanian, a Palestinian, an Israeli and a Canadian, introduce themselves and tell a little bit about their background and about the institute. Aftwards, the Premier himself gave a very inspiring speach to the students recognizing the uniqueness of the institue and the importance of our message that only by working together can we achieve sustainabilty and peace for our planet. The Premer praised the work of the institue and the courage of the students. Udi Gat, the Hevel Eilot Regional Council Chair closed the session by thanking the Premier for visiting the institute and the region. After the meeting, the Premier was taken on a tour of the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation by Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed.

Parallel to these visits, 9 students from the Arava Institute organized and participated in an activity with 37 African refugees from Eilat at the Samar Sand Dunes. The students have been voluntarily working with African refugees in Eilat all semester. The students facilitated activities of finding animal tracks is the sand, yoga, games and Pita bread making. The kids played in the sand, came to know the dunes and left back home happy with great big smiles on their faces. The students were as pleased.

On Thursday morning, a group of about 20 Allegheny College students accompanied by Professor Eri Pallant, Allegheny College faculty and Friends of the Arava Institute Board member, crossed from Jordan into Israel and after a quick stop at the Samar Sand Dunes, arrived at the Institute. The group of Allegheny students are participating in an eco-tour of Jordan, Israel and Palestine organized by the Arava Institute's Eco-Paths Department. While in Jordan, the students were hosted by Arava Institute's Jordnian alumni who made all of the arrangements for their tour. The focus of the program is on environmental issues especially issues around water and nature conservation. The students will spend the weekend at the institute and then head north. In the evening, the students were invited to participate in the a celebration of the graduation of 5 Arava Institute Masters students from Sde Boker. See the next item.

On Thursday afternoon, a group of about 15 Arava Institute Masters students came down from Sde Boker where they are studying at the Albert Katz International School of Desert Studies of Ben-Gurion University. Five of the students who came down have completed their Masters and are graduating this semester. The Arava Institute wanted to honor the students and inaugurate an annual event to celebrate the succes of the Joint Masters Program. The 5 students are Adi Maimon, Eitan Amiel, Sulieman Halasawah, Ziv Sherver and Jennifer Golding. Mazen Zoabi, a 6th graduate could not come down to the institute for the event due to family commitments. The 5 students presented their research to the other Masters students and to the current students at the institute in the afternoon. In the evening all of the students, Masters students. staff, Allegheny students and friends and familes gathered at the pool for a celebration including food prepared by the Arava Institute staff, ceremonial cetificates and gifts, a slide show, musical entertainment and dancing. The Joint Masters program in Desert Studies, Environmental Studies Specialization was initiated in 2002. So far over 35 Arava Institute students have been accepted to program and over 15 have completed their studies and graduated. A number of those graduates are now on their way to their PhD. This was a very proud evening for the Arava Institute.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report May 16th-20th, 2010

2010-05-20T05:08:00.001-07:00

After last week's long and action packed report, I am happy to provide a much shorter and calmer summary of this week's activities:

Students commemorate Nakbah Day "the Great Catastrophe of the Palestinian People"- One of the more difficult aspects of running a program where Palestinians and Israelis live together, is how to deal with national holidays and rememborance days. There is always a hightened level of tension around these events and every year, staff and students struggle to find the right balance of national pride and sensitivity to others. For a reminder of how the staff and students dealt with Israeli Memorial Day and Israeli Independence Day, please refer to my weekly report from April 11th to April 23rd, 2010. The following is a brief report by Yousre Odeh, one of our Program Associates and one of the staff who helped organize the Nakbah Day event this year.
On Monday night, we met together on the campus (North American, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian students) to commemorate the memorial day for Nakbah (Catastrophe). The commemoration was a student run activity which took place in 3 parts. We started with the screening of a documentary that shows the situation in Palestine from early 1984 untill 2007, shedding light on the human rights situation in the West Bank by interviewing civilians, politicians, Palestinian students, Israeli activist and Israeli professors. The second part of the activity was the telling of personal stories from selected students. We tried to have a diverse group of student speak. One student talked about her grandfather's experience as a refugee in the West Bank. Another spoke about his grandfather's experience as a refugee in Jerusalem. One student whose family were refugees in Jordan and another whose family is living in Haifa talked about their experiences. The last part of the activity was to divide up the group into smaller groups (family groups) where we reflected on what we heard and we tried to relate the personal stories and the movie to events in our lives. The impression about this session was difficult but positive and students stayed on the grass discussing their thoughts untill after midnight. - Yousre Odeh Student Life PA.
The students and staff had a break this week as Shavuot, the festival of Weeks commemorating the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, started on Tuesday night. On Tuesday afternoon, the kibbutz members, children, residents and students gathered together for the ceremonial offering of the first fruits (Bikurim). The kibbutz holiday staff organized a Bikuriada, a contest between various branches of the kibbutz. The Arava Institute went up agains the Kibbutz Environmental Committee in the trash recycling contest, seeing who could recycle the most trash within the time limit. Our valiant team was led by PA Lauren Rauch, but victory was snatched from our grasp as the kibbutz team managed to take the trophy (we of course have lodged an appeal on the judges decision). In any case, this game seemed unfair as the opposing team captain was our own Yonatan Chessler, wearing his other hat as head of the Environmental Committee. We'll get you next time Red Barron!
Finally, this week we celebrated Hannah Medaliah's 90th birthday. Hanah holds the world record as the oldest research intern at the institute. Hannah has been volunteering for years with Dr. Elaine Solowey in the Experimental Orchard. Born in Germany, Hannah made aliyah with her parents when she was a child. Hannah lived for more than 40 years on Moshav Bnei Zion near Rechovot, where she attended agricultural school. A number of years ago, Hannah moved to Kibbutz Ketura in order to be able to work with Dr. Solowey. Every morning after her coffee in the dinning room, Hannah walks down to the fields to spend the whole day, planting and taking care of trees, bushes and herbs. Clearly a recipe for a long life. The Arava Institute staff and some students threw a surprise birthday party for Hannah this morning at Keren Kolot.

Hannah Medaliah on the left, Dr. Elaine Solowey on the right.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report May 9th-14th, 2010

2010-05-14T23:55:00.000-07:00

This was an extremely busy week at the Arava Institute. I am not sure I can fit everything that happened on to one blog posting, but I'll try:

On Tuesday, the Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands (ACSDAL) hosted Rabbi Micha Odenheimer, the founder and director of Tevel B'Zedek http://www.tevelbzedek.org/. Tevel B'Zedek is an organization that brings Israelis and Jews from around the world to do volunteer work in Nepal and is starting to work in Haiti. The goal of ACSDAL is to provide sustainable solutions, training and extensions services to developing countries around the world. After we introduced Micha to the work of the Arava Institute and he introduced our staff to the work of Tevel B'Zedek, we discussed how our two organizations could cooperate. We decided on 4 areas of cooperation:
1) Creating the opportunity for our alumni to go from the Arava Institute to volunteering with Tevel B'Zedek
2) Helping Tevel B'Zedek develop practical sustainable technological solutions to water problems and other issues that they are confronting in Nepal and now Haiti
3) Cooperation on a new develoment project in an arid section of Nepal
4) Developing a certification program in Israel for development workers
These were the initial ideas and we expect there to be follow up in the next few months.
PELS was also very busy this week with two important guests. On Tuesday, Professor Mohammed Dajani of Al Quds University spoke to the students about "Wasatia" - which promotes centrism and moderation in Islam. The students heard from Professor Dajani about an approach to Islam which allows for the coexistence of Jews and Moslems. Wasatia teaches a moderate form of Islam which accepts fundamentalism in all religions as a belief in the teachings and writings of the religion but does not mean denying other religions or the promotion of violence or terrorism. "Radicalism and the claim of exclusive monopoly for the truth is the disease". www.bigdreamsmallhope.com/wasatia.pdf .
The Toronto Partnership 2000 Steering Committee spent time in the region this week. On Wednesday, Dr Tareq Abu Hamed and I met witht he committee and presented the progress of the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC). This progress report included reports on 8 different research grants which have been approved for funding, including solar hydrogen production, biodigester development for the Bedouin Community in Israel, Palestine and Jordan, PV panels for hothouses, dust effect research, PV panel cooling and the latest research funding for PV panel cleaning granted by the US Binational Science Foundation. In addition to research progress, we also discussed the slower progress of the development of a Master's Degree in "Energy and the Environment". Though progress has been slower than hoped for, there have been recent discussions with the Vice-Rector of Ben Gurion University, Professor Yael Eidan which have been very promissing.
Later that day, the Toronto Steering Committee took a tour of the new CREEC lab and Technology Validation Center at the institute. The Toronto Partnership 2000 program is a major funding sponsor of CREEC.
Wednesday and Thursday, the institute hosted Professor Pua Bar (Kutiel) the Academic Coordinator for Ben Gurion University who lectured in the Ecology of the Arava class. Professor Bar (Kutiel) also met with Arava Institute Associate Director Miriam Sharton and Academic Director Dr. Elli Groner to discuss the establishment of a new Masters Degree track in Environmental Policy.
In addition to Professor Bar (Kutiel), the institute also hosted Dr. Hussein Tarabieh. Dr. Tarabieh is a native of Sakhnin co-founder and director of the Regional Center for Environmental Education and R&D (TAEQ) in the Beit Natufa Basin near Sakhnin. He is also head of the environmental unit of the local villages council. Dr. Tarabieh recently came back from a post-doc at George Mason University where he researched and wrote about environmental mediation. Dr. Tarabieh gave a lecture to the Environmental Politics class.
On Thursday morning Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed and I met with the CREEC Steering Committee at the Weizmann Institute to discuss progress on developing the Master's Degree in "Energy and the Environment". BGU has proposed that the institute enlist an researcher or an academic institution from abroad who would partner with the institute and BGU in this program. The committee members brainstormed on potential partners and how to approach them.
Tareq and I had to rush back from Rehovot to the institute that afternoon in order to participate in the second major PELS activity of the week, the guest lecture of former Israeli Chief of Staff and current Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon. Vice-Prime Minister Ya'alon is a member of Kibbutz Grofit and though he is now a full-time politician and senior member of the Israeli Governement, maintains his connection with Kibbutz Grofit (Kibbutz Ketura's neighbor to the south) and with the Arava area in general. It was a great honor for the students to have the opportunity to hear directly from such a high level Israeli politician. Though what Vice-Prime Minister Ya'alon had to say was not always what many of the students wanted to hear, Ya'alon was honest, candid and direct (he did not attempt to sugar coat anything). He presented a very authentic Israeli view of the history of the conflict and the current peace prospects. Unfortunately, his narrative seemed to place 100% of the blame for the failure of the peace process so far on the Palestinans and on the Arab world and did not seem to allow for the possibility that current or past Israeli governments may also have been responsible for failures. This did not seem to me to be a very productive starting point for discussions. The students showed great restraint and respect though I am sure many of them had very strong reactions to the Vice-Prime Minister's speach. Once Vice-Prime Minister Ya'alon had concluded his remarks, students had the opportunity to ask questions. Again the students showed great restraint and maturity in their questions. They challenged the Vice-Prime Minister on current Israeli Army policy in the territories and on the treatment of the Palestinian people in general. The Vice-Prime Minister listened with patience to our students questions, responded and even engaged the students in discussions after the formal session ended. The overall tone of the Vice-Prime Minister's speach was not optimistic. He did not give much chance to the current negotiation process and stated that he did not believe we would see a peace agreement in this generation. Vice Prime-Minister Ya'alon did say that though he did not believe any more in top-down negotiated solutions by the regions political leaders, he did believe in bottom-up solutions. He said that the only way to change the reality in the Middle East is through education and people to people projects that allow Palestinians and Israelis to get to know each other and transform attitudes. This will be a long slow process but the result will be a new generation of moderate and leaders who will be able to reach an agreement on peace. The Vice-Prime Minister praised the Arava Institue as a great example of how to bring about peace in the Middle East. At least there was one thing that the students and the Vice-Prime Minister could agree on.

As I said - a packed week, I am tired just reading about it. Next week we celebrate the Jewish agricultural holiday of Shavout (Weeks). At least we will have some down time to rest. Happy holiday.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report May 2nd - 7th, 2010

2010-05-07T00:02:00.000-07:00

The Academic Study Program left this week for a 4 day trip around the Dead Sea Basin as part of the Water Course taught by Dr. Clive Lipchin. The trip started on Monday morning when the students crossed into Jordan at the Arava Border and headed north towards Wadi Mujib on the Dead Sea. The Palestinian students and Yousre, our Palestinian program associate are not allowed to cross into Jordan from at the Arava Crossing. They are required to go in and out of Jordan through the Allenby Bridge crossing, therefore they left on Sunday for Jordan spending the night in Amman. The Palestinians met the rest of the staff and students at Wadi Mujb for a wonderful hike in water that at some points reached people's waist. Students finished the day in Amman. The next day, the trip travelled up the Jordan Valley meeting with water professionals and visiting the King Abdallah Canal. The day ended in Irbid close to the Syrian border. The next day, the Palestinians students once again had to take a seperate route leaving early to cross back over the Allenby Bridge in order to eventually reach the Sea of Galillee. The rest of the students and staff visited the Yarmouch River where water is divided between Israel and Jordan. Then students and staff crossed at the Beit Shean border crossing back into Israel. That day included rafting on the Jordan River and a night on the Sea of Galilee. The final day of the trip included a visit to the Sapir pumping station where water is pumped out of the Sea of Galilee and sent by way of the National Water Carrier down to the Negev. The trip concluded with a visit to the West Bank and meetings with Palestinian water professioinals.
I did not join the students on their trip but I also travelled to Jordan on Sunday and Monday in order to acompany Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed in meetingw with the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) in Irbid and the National Energy Research Center (NERC) in Amman. At JUST we met with the Vice-President of the University and with the head of the Renewable Energy Department to discuss a joint research project on Biogas and the possibility of collaboration on a Masters Degree Program in Energy and the Environment. Our meetings in Amman with our NERC partners also concerned the Biogas project.
The student trip left the institute empty and quite but the staff left behind still had their hands full between visits, student registration at BGU and helping Ben Morgan in his recovery from his broken leg. Ben is doing fine but is on a crutch and needs a bit of help getting around. He got a note from the Doctor saying he was excused from classes for the next month!
On Tuesday, we were honored with a quick visit from the Treasurer of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Hagai Merom. Hagai has visited the institute in the past but was pleased to see the progress being made and to hear about the good relationship with the Toronto Jewish Federation through the Partnership 2000 program. The Chairman of the Regional Council, Udi Gat accompanied Hagai on the quick visit.
On Thursday, I met with a group from the JNF doing an environmetal tour of Israel. Among the participants in the tour was Bobbie Landau, a supporter of the Arava Institute who was thrilled to see the institute for the first time. Dr. Elaine Solowey took the group to meet the 2,000 year old date palm, Methusala and then took the group down to her Experimental Orchards.
That night, I was asked to come to Eilat to meet a group on a different JNF mission from Atlanta. This mission was organized and led by the Atlanta JNF Rep and past FAI Board member, Beth Gluck. I came a bit early to meet with Willian Rosenberg, a participant in the trip and a past head of the Air Quality Division of the US EPA. William and I discussed possible collaboration on a policy paper on renewable energy and his further involvement with the institute.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report April 25th to 30th , 2010

2010-04-30T02:15:00.000-07:00

Raed Samar, the Director General of the Bethlehem Rural Waste Joint Service Council for Planning and Development and Munther Hind from the Palestinian Wasterwater Engineers Group were hosted by the Dr. Clive Lipchin from the Arava Institute Resaearch Department and Shira Kronich from Arava EC&T. Raed and Munther are very interested in the Arava Institute's help the introduction of small scale wastewater treatment and reuse projects in the southern West Bank villages. In the West Bank village of Batir for example which has a lot of fresh water resources, there is no central wastewater treatment. Wastewater is mostly treated on an individual family level with septic tanks. The wastewater is seeping from the septic tanks into the ground water, contaminting the ground water, making it unusable for drinking, recreation or agriculture. Building a large scale wastewater treatment plant is unrealistic because of the required investment but also because of the need for Israeli permits and the need for a large tract of land that the village does not have. The Arava Institute has proposed implementing small scale family or building wastewater treatment and gray water reuse projects which would require less investment and not permits from the Israeli military authorities. The Bethlehem Council and the Arava Institute will seek funding for this projet (about $5,000 per family unit).
By chance, we ran into Udi Gat, the head of the local Hevel Eilot Regional Council here in the Arava in the dining room of Ketura. I introduced Munther to Udi. who was very pleased to make Munthers' aquaitance. They compared the work of the two councils and Udi tactfully mentioned that he had visited the southern area of the West Bank but only as a soldier. Munther responed that he invites Udi to come back to the area but as a civilian and "without his tank".
The Human Resources Committee of the institute is intensively looking for a replacement to Elad Topel as Director of Eco-Paths. Elad has been the Director since 2006. He is now going to work full time as CEO of Arava EC&T. After putting out a tender for the position the committee spent this week interviewing candidates and will hopefully be able to make a decision by next week.
Shir Harel, our webmaster also spent a day at the institute meeting with staff regarding the website and other new media projects. We look forward to an even more interesting and dynamic website which will interface with facebook, youtube and other forms of social media.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Arava Institute Board of Directors met at the institute. Udi Gat was invited to present the establishment of the Arava Renewable Energy Technology Center Consortium in which the Arava Institute is a shareholder (see last blog posting). The Board members also received a presentation by the institute's CPA of the draft 2009 Financial Statements. The final version of the 2009 Financial Statements will be approved in the June Board meeting.
Daniel Bar Elli, Secretary General of UNESCO Israel, visited Timna Park in order to discuss with local residents, the process for inscription of Timna Park as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Center for a Healthy Environment in the Arava (Sababa) is spearheading the effort in the region to inscribe Timna as a World Heritage Site in order to increase the level of conservation and protection of the region's national environmental and historical treasure.
Sadly, last night, Ben Morgan, one of our students, broke his leg playing basketball. He is in the hospital for the weekend and hopefully will be released on Sunday. Unfortunately, it looks like Ben will not be rafting down the Jordan River next week with the rest of the students on the Water Trip. We wish Ben a speedy recovery.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report April 11th - 23rd

2010-04-24T05:13:00.000-07:00

A letter I send last Thursday to all of our students:

Dear Students,

The period during the semester after the Jewish Holiday of Pesach is filled with national holidays and remembrance days. It is always a very difficult time at the Arava Institute where students from different backgrounds try to balance their national loyalties with a sensitivity to the feelings and narratives of their fellow students and friends. This is not an easy task and I truly admire the ability of the students and the academic staff "to hold it together" during this sometimes tense and uncomfortable period.

Israel's Independence celebrations start with a full day of remembering the fallen soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the sake of their country. Memorial Day is a very emotional day and one of the more difficult days for students at the institute. It is a day which we Israelis spend looking inward at our own pain and suffering. During this year's kibbutz ceremonies, I was strongly struck by the fact that little was mentioned of the other side, neither as the enemy or as the victim. It was as if the other side did not exist and all of those soldiers died in a vacuum disconnected from our struggle with the Arab people. Finally at the end of the Memorial Day ceremonies on Ketura, a quote was read from the speech of then IDF Chief of Staff, Yitzchak Rabin, on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate from Hebrew University in 1967 after the Six Day War:
"Moreover, the elation of victory has seized the whole nation. Yet among the soldiers themselves a curious phenomenon is to be observed increasingly. They cannot rejoice wholeheartedly. Their triumph is marred by grief and shock, and there are some who cannot rejoice at all. Those battling in the front lines saw with their own eyes not only the glory of victory, but also its cost -- their comrades fallen beside them soaked in blood. I know that the terrible price the enemy paid has also profoundly affected many of our men. Perhaps the education and the experience of the Jewish people has never brought it to feel the joy of the conqueror and the victor, and therefore the matter is accepted with mixed feelings."
Yitzchak Rabin, Hebrew University, 1967
So it took the Israeli Army's Chief of Staff to remind us of the terrible price that not only Israelis paid but the price the Arab people paid in this struggle. Recognizing the other sides pain and suffering is not a simple matter. We somehow feel that if we recognize the other sides' s pain and grief, we are justifying their actions. At the Arava Institute we continue to struggle to look for an appropriate way to recognize the pain of both sides. As such, we will soon commemorate Naqba Day and we will once again be reminded of the terrible toll this struggle has taken on the Palestinian people.
If it is difficult to share in each other's grief and suffering, how much more difficult is it to share in each other's joy? Yesterday was a day of celebration for the Israeli/Jewish people. The day we celebrate our freedom and independence. In Hebrew there is something we say to people who congratulate us on a joyous occasion. We say to them – "Bakarov etzlecha" – literally meaning "soon by you" but really meaning "may you too have a similar reason to celebrate".
So to our Israeli and Jewish students I say "Hag Sameach" – Happy Holiday and to our Palestinian students I say "Bakarov etzlecha!". To all our students I wish a blessing of peace.
David

During this intense and tense period of time, students and staff grappled with the issues around the Holocaust Remembarance Day, the Israeli Memorial Day and Israeli Independence Day. The height of intensity was on the evening of Israeli Memorial Day when a group of Palestinian, Israeli and American students organized a memorial service which honored and remembered Israeli soldiers and Israeli and Palestinian victims of violence. Not a simple feat and not without disagreements and tender emotions. Yet as I said in my letter, the students and staff manage to hold it together which is a feat in itself.

On Wednesday, April 13th, the new Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands invited Sivan Borowich-Ya'ari, founder and President of Jewish Hearts for Africa, a non-profit organization that is trying to bring appropriate and sustainable Israeli technology to help rural villages in Africa www.jhasol.org. After presenting the work of the Arava Institue and Jewish Hearts for Africa we discussed how the two organizations could work togehter. It seems like there are many possibilities including working together on supplying sustainable technology, organizing teaching and volunteering as well as the possibility of working toegether on an ecovillage in Africa. We will continue to be in touch with Sivan in order to see how partnering can create synergy.

Pua Bar-Kutiel, the new Academic Coodinator appointed by Ben-Gurion University spent a few days at the institue, teaching Ecology class, meeting with students about continued studies at BGU and meeting with staff in order discuss how to move forward on the Minor in Environmental Studies and a new Masters in Environmental Policy. Pua had an excellent visit and seems very enthusiastic about working with the institute.

On Thursday, Lucien and Yehudit Bronicki, the founders and heads of Ormat Technologies, an Israeli company that is a world leader in geothermal energy brought 200 employees from their Israeli headquarters in Yavne down to visit the Arava Institue and other renewable energy projects in the region. After a lunch served by Keren Kolot, the kibbutz guest house, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed from the Arava Institute's Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation and Noam Ilan and William Weistinger from the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative gave the Ormat Technology employees a tour of the new Technology Validation Center.

Lucien and Yehudit Bronicki with Tareq Abu Hamed

On the following Sunday, the members of the Arava Renewable Energy Technology Center Consortium that is competing for the Israeli Ministry of Infrastructure's tender on the establishment of a renewable energy technology center (incubator) in Israel visited the institue and held its first Board Meeting at the offices of the Hevel Eilot Regional Council. Members of the consortium include Ormat Technologies, Elbit, Rafael, the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative, a number of investment and finace companies, Ben-Gurion University and the Arava Institue for Enviornmental Studies (0.78% equity). If the consortium wins the Ministry of infrastructure's tender, a renewable energy technology center will be set up in the Arava. The purpose of the center is to enable start-up's in renewable energy by providing funding, space and know-how. Most of these start-ups will end up nowhere but a small percentage will succeed and the consortium will then own part of these successful new business.

Elli Groner, the Director of the Academic Programs, celebrated with his wife Zoe and their two children, Andy and Alona, the birth of a new baby girl, Yasmin. On wednesday, we raised a toast to Zoe, the new baby and the population explosion at the Groner house.

Last week we recieved sad news when we heard that one past members of Garin Hashachar and a good friend of the Arava Institute, Howie Katz, passed away suddenly. We would like to express our condolences to Howie's wife, Jackie, to his family and his friends.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report March 28th to April 9th, 2010

2010-04-08T23:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Director's Blog Fans,

After months of intensive non-stop action at the Arava Institute, the past two weeks have been incredibly calm, quiet and relaxing. I for one, have really enjoyed the spring break. There are still a few important things to report about the past two weeks:

Elad Topel, the Director of Eco-Paths for the past 4 years has announced his intention to leave the position by June in order to work full-time as the CEO of Arava Institute subsidiary, Arava Environmental Consulting and Technology (Arava EC&T). Eco-Paths is the department at the Arava Institute which runs the Israel Ride. The Human Resources Committee has begun to look for Elad's replacement. The institute wants to thank Elad for his incredible committment and energy to Eco-Paths and to the Israel Ride and wishes him luck as full-time CEO of Arava EC&T.
Gail Osman, Director of the Development Department is leaving this week for a Fellowship Program sponsored by the Quebec-Labrador Foundation. The program is called, Developing Strategies for Community-based Natural Resource Managment and is funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participants in the 2 week program come from Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank and North America. The program takes place in Massachussets, Maine and New Hampshire.
The students left for their spring vacation two weeks ago and regular classes only resume on Sunday. Some students, however, returned early to participate in the short-course, Biodiversity of the Sand Dunes, run by Professor Uri Shanas of Haifa University. The course is a jointly run for Haifa University students and students of the Arava Institute. About 10 students participated in this year's course, half from Haifa and half from the Arava Institute. The students get up early in the morning in order to trap gerbils, lizards, beetles and spiders. Professor Shanas has been working together with the Arava Institute on biodiversity research of the Arava on both sides of the border for many years.
On Thursday, a number staff members from the Arava Institue attended the monthly regional research seminar jointly sponsored by the Dead Sea Arava Science Center, the Southern Arava Agricultural R & D Center and the Arava Institute. The forum brings together researchers engaged in research in the southern Arava and Eilat. Thursday's seminar was attended by about 30 researchers and included lectures by both Professor Uri Shanas on the biodiversity of the southern Arava and by Dr. Reuven Yosef, Director of the International Birding and Research Center Eilat and one of Israel's leading ornothologists. Both Uri and Reuven are part-time lecturers at the Arava Institute.
Uri revealed some amazing results of the studies he has been conducting for the past 6 years with Arava Institute students and with Haifa University students, on the biodiversity of the Arava on both sides of the border. One conclusion of the research is that nature apparently does know borders. Uri's research found that, probably due to the cultural differences between the human populations on the Jordanian side of the border from the Israeli side of the border, there is a greater abundance of species on the Israel side, while there is a greater diversity on the Jordanian side. There are certain species which only appear on one side of the border or the other. In addition, Uri and his research assistants have found that some species inhabiting the Samar Sand Dunes have a closer genetic relationship to animals in North Africa then they do to animals living in other adjacent sandy habitats in the Arava. Uri could not give a definite explanation to this phenomenon but emphasized the global scientific importance of this discovery.
Dr. Reuven Yosef then spoke to the seminar about the importance of the establishment of the International Birding and Resarch Center Eilat on the old Eilat garbage dump. Reuven showed aerial photographs of the Eilat region prior to the establishment of the State which revealed a florishing salt marsh eco-system that was destroyed by the development in the region and agriculture. The salt-marshes at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba were a critical refueling station for birds flying from Africa back to Europe during the spring. The first researcher to make this connection was Professor Uriel Safriel in an article he wrote in 1968. In 1993, Dr. Yosef was able to get permission from the Eilat municipality to reestablish a small nature reserve on a city garbage dump at the entrance to Eilat. Over a half a million birds fly through Israel to and from Africa every fall and spring. Much of Reuven's original research in Eilat was done with the aid of students from the Arava Institute. Using solar radiation data to create a multi-year GIS map of Africa, Reuven showed the seminar how the migrating birds from Europe move in a circular pattern from Europe, to Western Africa, then as the winter progresses, on to Southern Africa and finally when spring arrives heading back towards Europe via Eastern Africa. The first refueling station available to the birds after flying across barren North African deserts is Eilat, thus making the Eilat Israel Birding Center a critical part of the global highway for migrating birds.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report March 21st to 26th, 2010

2010-03-28T03:56:00.000-07:00

The previous week, representatives from LTER-Israel’s Arava site and LTER-Jordan met for three days in Aqaba to create joint trans-border research projects. Since the Arava region of Israel and Wadi Araba of Jordan are so ecologically similar, this collaboration is a unique opportunity to examine the different ways in which humans’ interactions with their environment can affect natural existing systems. With nearly thirty ecologists, biologists, socio-ecologists, environmental economists, and politicians in attendance, the diversity of this meeting not only allowed for the creation of transborder projects, but also much-needed interdisciplinary projects. The Arava Institute had 7 employees, 4 alumni, and 2 masters students in attendance.

This week started out with a very important visit from a delegation representing the Premier of the Province of Ontario, Canada. The delegation was doing a pre-visit of potential sites, the Premier will visit when he comes to the Hevel Eilot region in May. Ontario is very interested in renewable energy and the delegation was very interested in hearing about what the institute is doing in the field. In addition, 4 students from the institute each spoke about their experiences. The delegation was especially interested in hearing about Ben Morgan's experiences at the institute. Ben is from Canada.

On the same day, Uygar Ozesmi, the Executive Director of GreenPeace Mediterranean came to speak to give a lecture to the Environmental Leadership class. Uygar is from Turkey and told me that their are about 40,000 members of GreenPeace in Turkey, Israel and Lebanon. About 40% of the members are in Israel, about 40% in Turkey and 20% in Lebanon.

Tuesday night, the students held a cultural evening where students provided their own entertainment with songs, musical performances, dance, karakoe, capoeira and other forms of entertainment. The evening was so successful that another evening is being planned for the end of the semester.

On Wednesday, the Sababa Steering Committee organized a tour of potential alternative sites for the proposed Hotel Resort / Attraction Park near Timna Park. The committee toured a variety of sites in and around Timna Park. Later that evening the committee met and concluded that there are alternative sites for hotels on a much smaller scale then the current proposal and would require a change in the vision of the proposal to something more appropriate to a national park.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report March 14th to 18th, 2010

2010-03-19T00:34:00.000-07:00

Tal Goldman began work this week as the new Coordinator of the Center for a Healthy Environment in the Arava (Sababa). Tal is a member of Kibbutz Yotvata and is a professional landscape architect.
Rodney Vargas from the UNC Chapel Hill Study Abroad Department came to the institute for a site visit. This is the final step in the long awaited agreement between UNC Chapel Hill and the Arava Institute which will allow students attending UNC to come to the institute for a semester or a year without petitioning for special permission.
Many of you may have read Yonatan Chessler's beautiful letter describing the reception of the Palestinian students back on the campus after four days of closure on the West Bank. The background to the story is that after the closure was lifted, the Palestinian students went to Jerusalem to catch the bus to Ketura. Only one of the students got on the 10:00 am bus from Jerusalem for the 4 hour ride, via the Dead Sea to the institute. The other two students missed the bus and waited in the Jerusalem bus station for the next bus at 2:00 pm. The Egged 10:00 bus reached the IDF checkpoint on the Dead Sea at the border between the West Bank and Israel around 11:00 am. An Israeli soldier stopped and borded the bus to check passengers' papers. Though our Palestinian student had the permit which allows her to come into Israel, the soldier decided to remove her from the bus and she was told to go back to Jerusalem. The bus then left, leaving our student sitting on the side of the road in the in the Dead Sea with the next bus for Jerusalem, many hours away. The institute organized a taxi to come from Jerusalem to the checkpoint and pick her up (this took about an hour) and then take her back to Jerusalem. She met the other two students at the bus station. The three of them then took a bus to Ber Sheva and were picked up in Ber Sheva by the Program Director Moishe Siel. Moishe had decided not to take any chances so he made the two hour drive to Ber Sheva specially to pick them up and bring them back to the institute. This is what lies behind Yonatan's comment on the 12 hour trip from Jerusalem to Ketura which normally takes 4 hours. The institute is lodging a complaint with the Israeli Army regarding the actions of the soldiers at the check point. Matan Vilnai, Deputy Minister of Defense intervened on our behalf but it was too late to resovle the issue. We are deeply disturbed by these events and we appreciate the willingness of our Palestinian students to come back to the institute even under these trying circumstances. I also want to express my gratitude to Moishe Siel and to Judy Bar Lev for their efforts in getting our students back to the institute.
On Tuesday, I went to Tel Aviv for a series of meetings that included a meeting of the Arava Institute/Heschel Center Food Initiative Team. We had a good meeting and we were able to come up with a plan for the next steps in the Food Initiative this year. After that meeting, I participated in the Arava Environmental Consulting & Technology Board meeting. Elad Topel, CEO of Arava EC&T presented the business plan for 2010 which look very optimistic with projection of almost a million NIS of revenue by the end of the year. Finally, the Arava Institute's Board of Directors met for its first Board meeting of 2010. The Board heard from Elad about Arava EC&T plans, recieved an overall report from me about events at the Arava Institute and discussed the structure of the audited financial reports.
On Wednesday, Sarit Maagen-Rosenfeld, the new Chair of the Research and Visitors Park Steering Committee convened the first meeting of the commitee. The committee is made up of representatives of the different departments as well as representatives of the kibbutz guest house Keren Kolot. Sarit presented the architect's design for the park and committee members made comments and suggests.
That same day, the Sababa Subcommittee for the inscription of Timna Valley as a UNESCO World Heritage Site also convened for the first time and discussed strategy for cooperation with the regional authorities.
Finally on Wednesday, the institue recieved a site visit from a representative of the MASA program, the Jewish Agency program that encourages students to come on long term programs in Israel. The program provides scholarships to Jewish students from around the world to spend time in Israel. The institute is a recognzied program of MASA and about 9 of our North American students are MASA scholarship recipients. The visit seemed to go very smoothly.
On Thursday, Cynthia Hirsch, an environmental lawyer from Wisconson visited the institue, gave a guest lecture to our students and met with staff. Cynthia has hosted Arava Institue students at her home in Madison and is very interested in helping the institute in any way she can.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report March 7th to 12th, 2010

2010-03-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

A television film crew from Finnish TV came this week to interview Dr. Elaines Solowey, students and me. The crew was fascinated by our work and hopes to come back to do other stories. I don't know when the piece will be aired but as soo as I do, I will let all of our fans in Finland know when they can see the Arava Institute on TV.
The Finish TV crew had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of this week's PELS session PELS hosted Dr. Walim Saleem and Dr. Eyal Naveh who gave the students different perspectives on the current Israeli Palestinian conflict.
On Tuesday afternoon, we held the second meeting of the Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands (ACSDAL). The Center headed by Dr. Shmuel Brenner is a partnership between the Arava Institute, the Southern Area Agricultural Research and Development Center at Yotvata and the Dead Sea Arava Science Center. ACSDAL's pupose is to help transmit the knowledge developed by these three institutions to developing countries around the world suffering from desertification and poverty. Working with Israel's Foreign Ministry, the ACSDALwill use applied research, training and extension services to reach out beyond Israel's borders to people provide appropriate technology for sustainable agriculture, water management and renewable energy solutions.
At the same time as the ACSDAL meeting, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, head of the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation met with representatives of the British Embassy who came down to look at the Arava Technology Validation Center and the other work the Arava Institute is doing in Renewable Energy. The British Government is interested in promoting bilateral research between Israeli and British scientists similar to programs Israel has with the US. They are especially interested in clean-technologies.
As busy as everyone is at the institute, the whole day Wednesday was set aside for a staff workshop. The day was arranged by Miriam Sharton and Sharon Benheim as part of their responsibilities on the Human Resources committee. With the help of an outside faciliator, the staff spent the day dealing with issues such as team work, decision making, communication and institutionall growth. This is the second year in a row that the institute has held this type of seminar and it seems that there is a concensus that this is an important element that needs to be on our calendar every year.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report February 28th to March 5th, 2010

2010-03-05T02:40:00.000-08:00

This was the first full week of studies. This semester students have the opportunity to take such courses as Alternative Energy with Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Environmental Mediation with Dr. Yaron Ben David and Doctoral Student Timea Spitka or Environmental Economics with Dr. Nir Becker and yours truly. For a full list of courses go to Spring 2010 Course List.
The Green Course, the local branch of the national environmetal student organization, held its first meeting of the new semester and heard about some of the environmental issues facing the area. The next evening Sarah Cohen, the General Secretary of Kibbutz Ketura welcomed the students at the Student Life meeting.
Monday evening, the newly formed Local Committee to Save the Samar Sand Dunes created under the auspices of Sababa (The Center for the Environment in the Arava) met to plan a strategy to create public awareness about the threat to the future of the Arava's last large block of sand dunes on the Israeli side of the border. The Israeli Lands Authority has given permission to a contractor to mine part of the dunes. For more information go to Samar Dunes.
Amy Rosnblatt-Lui, Director of the Beverely Foundation which participated in the Jewish Funders Network matching grant program visited the institute, meeting with staff and students. Amy seemed very excited about what she saw and will try to strengthen our relationship with the Beverly Foundation as well as help us reach out to other foundations.
On Wednesday, I joined other environmental activists at the Knesset for a meeting of the Green Lobby headed by Member of Knesset Dov Hanin. I had the opportinity to speak about the hotel that is planned to be built in Timna Park. The Lobby discussed many threats to open spaces all over the country and the proposed planning reform law which will make it easierier for developers to build and more difficult for those who are concerned about open spaces and the environment to protect them.
Thursday morning, Miriam Sharton, Associate Director of the Institute flew off to Barcelona to participate in the Anna Lindh Forum 2010 in Barcelona. The 4 day conference will include over 500 representatives from member organizations of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The purpose of the conference is promote cooperation among civil society organizations committed to intercultural dialogue in the region and to increase its impact on the establishment of the Union for the Mediterranean while enriching the activities of the national networks and the work of the foundation.
This week, the region is holding the Hevel Eilot Football Tounament (Soccer for you Americans) at Kibbutz Ketura in memory of Pini Lutman, a member of Ketura. While the Institute students and staff suffered defeat last night at the hands of the Uvda Airforce Base soccer team, the score was only 1 - 0 and we put up a good fight. Meanwhile in less than an hour the female staff and students have the opportunity to return honor to the institue bydestroying the Kibbutz Ketura female squad. I'll let you know what happens.
Well sports fans, I am back from a thrilling game in which the Arava Institute Women's Team whipped the Kibbutz Ketura Women's Team 2-0 enabling the Arava Institute to bring home a regional championship for the first time.

Victory Dance

David Lehrer

Weekly Report February 21st to 26th

2010-02-27T20:49:00.000-08:00

42 students arrived this week for the start of the spring semester 2010.Students came down to the institute by bus on Sunday afternoon. They arrived a few kilometers away from the institute at Nahal Kisui, a beautiful spot in the hills behind Kibbutz Ketura where silky sand blown from the coast of Egypt covers bare sand stone rock. The bus dropped off the students and they hiked the rest of the way to the institute getting their first view of Kibbutz Ketura from high atop the mountain that overlooks the Arava. That evening, after settling in and eating dinner in the kibbutz dinning room, the student gathered in the kibbutz community center in order to meet each other and to meet the staff.
The next day, the students were taken on a tour of the area which included visiting the International Birding Center in Eilat, hearing from Dr. Reuven Yosef, one of Israel’s leading ornithological experts and visiting the Hai Bar Nature Reserve just south of Yotvata.
On Tuesday, Dr. Elli Groner, introduced the students to the Academic Program and then the students spent the rest of the day registering for courses, dealing with financial issues and receiving general orientation to the kibbutz and life at the institute. Wednesday morning classes began.
Andrea Lieber from Dickenson College, Pennsylvania, visited the institute this week. The initial contact with Dickenson College was made through David Weisberg. Andrea and David are old friends. I visited Dickenson last September and encouraged Andrea to plan to visit the institute. What is intriguing about the college is the strong emphasis on sustainability and on students spending part of their studies abroad. While the college is small with only 2,200 students, 60% spend a semester or year abroad. Andrea met with students and staff. Miriam and I discussed the possibility of a summer program with Dickenson and signing an agreement regarding transfer credit for the regular program.
Wednesday night, Sababa, the Center for the Environment in the Arava, organized an urgent meeting about the threatened Samar Sand Dunes. The Samar Sand Dunes are the last large block of sand dunes on the Israeli side of the border housing a unique ecosystem with endemic species to the Arava. The dunes are threatened by a decision to mine 1/3 of the sand to use as building material for housing in Eilat. Sababa opposes this decision and organized a special action committee to try to stop the proposed mining.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report February 14th-20th, 2010

2010-02-21T04:26:00.000-08:00

Generally the semester break is a quiet period but this week was very busy.

On Sunday, David Weisberg, Executive Director of the Friends of the Arava Institute visited the institute and met with staff and faculty. David had attended the Alumni Conference in Aqaba and came away with many new ideas and information.
The same day, the Academic Programs Department held the mid-year faculty meeting, going over the expectations for the coming semester, the schedule, courses and special events.

Following the faculty meeting, the PELS Committee met to discuss the plans for the seminar for spring semester.

On Monday morning the staff was drafted to help move furniture from northern most prefab student dorm. The reason was in order to prepare the dorm to be moved to closer to the other dorms to make room for a new faculty house. The Hevel Eilot Regional Council has arranged to distribute a number of prefab family houses among the different settlements in the region. Kibbutz Ketura was offered the option of receiving (renting) one of these family houses. The kibbutz did not have an area ready with the appropriate infrastructure. It has been in the long term plan of the institute to build houses for faculty in order to be able to host scholars in residence and to house faculty when they come for overnight stays. Due to the lucky circumstances, the institute is able to fulfill this long term dream within the next few months when the house will arrive.

Tuesday morning the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation dedicated the new Arava Technology Validation Center, a testing site for photovoltaic (PV) panels. Companies interested in putting up PV installations in the Arava will be able to contract with the Arava Institute in order to have their technology's efficiency tested under the Arava's climactic conditions. The Technology Validation Center was built in partnership with the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative and the Hevel Eilot Regional Council. Uzi Landau, Minister of Infrastructure cut the ribbon to dedicate the Center. The ceremony was attended by over 100 participants in the Eilat Eilot 3rd Annual Renewable Energy Conference. Other attendees to the dedication ceremony included former US Ambassador to Israel, Richard Jones, Korean Ambassador to Israel, Young San Ma, US Congressman Steve Israel from New York, Korean Ambassador Young San Ma and Slovenian Ambassador, Boris Sovic.

After the ceremony the participants joined the other 1,500 participants in the three day Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Conference in Eilat. In three years, the annual conference has grown from 300 participants to over 1,600 and become the largest conference dedicated to Renewable Energy in the Middle East. The conference is sponsored by the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative (REI) headed by Dorit Banet and Noam Ilan. Dorit is employed by the Arava Institute as Co-Director of the REI which is funded by the Greater Toronto Jewish Federation Partnership 2000 Program. Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Director of the Arava Institute Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation participated in a conference panel on the impact of academic research on renewable energy progress in Israel. Other panel members included representatives from all of the major universities and research institutes in Israel.

I also attended the first day of the conference but had to rush back in order to eat dinner with the Jewish Nation Fund' Makor Mission. The Makor Mission is the special lay leader leadership mission. The mission helps young JNF lay leaders learn about JNF projects in Israel in order to represent them in the US. Russell Robinson recommended that the mission stay at the Ketura guest house. During the day, the mission visited various JNF sites in the Arava including time at the Arava Institute meeting with staff and students. In the evening, I had dinner with the mission and met with Joel Leibowitz, JNF NJ Zone Director and Makor staff coordinator, about a possible large scale donation to the institute. Afterward, Clive Lipchin and I met with Sharon Davidowitch, the Israeli National Shaliach to the JNF to discuss cooperation between the Arava Institute's Center for Integrated Water Resource Management and the JNF Parson's Water Fund. We discussed possible cooperation on waste water projects in the West Bank and hosting the Parson's Water Fund Board of Directors on a trip around the Dead Sea Basin.

The Renewable Energy Conference was held for three days, February 16th through the 18th. Many of the Arava Institute staff members attended the conference. I also ran into a large number of Arava Institute Alumni who are now working in the field of renewable energy. The conference was a great opportunity to network with companies, academics and politicians looking to promote the use of renewable energy technology. We had the opportunity to meet with the Deputy Minister of Negev and Galil Development who is very interested in promoting Israeli cooperation with Jordan.

Thursday morning, Avner Simon, the architect who is designing the Research and Visitors Park outside the offices of the institute came down to see developments in the park and to consult with staff members and kibbutz members about finalizing plans for development.

That afternoon, the RE Conference concluded by offering participants tours of the region to look at the current RE instillations. In addition to visiting the Kibbutz Samar solar tower and the Kibbutz Yotvata parking lot PV shade, bus loads of conference participants came to the institute in order to see the newly erected Arava Technology Validation Center.

Next week does not look any quieter with 42 students arriving for the start of the spring semester on Sunday.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report January 31st - February 12th

2010-02-13T01:57:00.000-08:00

I went to the United States to attend the FAI Executive Committee meeting in Atlanta and then participated in a number of events and meeting in Atlanta, New York and Boston. See the Trip Report. The following report was written for me by Tamar Norkin, my administrative assistant.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report January 31st – February 5th

It was the first week of the academic break for the students, and most of them left for home or travels elsewhere therefore it was a quiet week at the Arava Institute.
We had a visit from Robert Barker, who is a dean at the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. The School has hosted several Arava Institute alumni as teaching fellows for its summer portals program in environmental studies, and is very interested in continuing its relationship with AIES. Two Arava alumni from the Middle East will travel to Hotchkiss to teach this summer and more will be invited in the future.

Weekly Report February 7th – February 12th

This week has been a very eventful one.

We are continuing construction of the Research and Visitors Park, and proceeding at a fast pace to have the site ready for next week’s validation center opening ceremony.
The Academic Program Department held a meeting to review the end of the semester and look ahead to the next one.
The Arava Institute hosted Alan Weisman, journalist and author of the best-selling book ‘The World Without Us’. He is currently traveling the world conducting research and interviews for his new book, which will be about the carrying capacity of the world. He interviewed researchers at AIES and learned about the ecology of the area.
The big story of the week is the 4th AAPEN alumni conference, which took place this week in Aqaba. Many people have been working hard to bring together this exciting event. Close to 80 people attended the conference, a number that reflects the significant growth and development of the alumni network.
Key speakers at the conference included Professor Alon Tal, one of the founders of the Arava Institute, David Weisberg, Executive Director of Friends of the Arava Institute, and journalist Alan Weisman. Guest attendees included members of the local government in Aqaba.
Arava Institute alumni Shira Kronich, Ilana Meallem, Yair Teller, Suleiman Halasah and Corey Mikami gave presentations about their environmental and transboundary projects, and Jamil Sarraj led a creative thinking workshop.
Sharon Benheim, director of Alumni Projects Department presented plans for future developments in the alumni program, including an exclusive online networking site and the initiation of alumni network branches around the world.
In all, it was a productive and positive program that allowed us to see how far we’ve come in the last 13 years and image how far we can go in the future.

Tamar Norkin

Weekly Report Jan 21st - 28th

2010-01-30T14:02:00.000-08:00

Week ly Report January 21st – 29th

This was the final week of the fall semester. The students spent the week, taking final exams, finishing papers, preparing for the final party and cleaning the campus.
The students had their final party Tuesday night. Cecil Rimer handed out funny awards to each student – these were special achievement awards, with each student receiving recognition for some personal stand-out characteristic that has earned them fame (or notoriety) at AIES. Students also received a copy of the Yalla yearbook, full of memories and also a bit of gossip. There was dancing, karaoke, live music provided by the students and a full barbecue dinner. A good time was had by all.
The students are now off for a three week break. Spring semester starts on February 24th. We expect once again to have over 40 students.

In addition to the Academic Program, a number of important meetings took place in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ber Sheva.

On Monday morning, Miriam, Elad and I met with our PR Consultants, Ben Or to discuss plans for the coming year. The calendar of events for 2010 looks packed and filled with opportunities for engaging the media.
The next day, Elad and I met with the staff from the Heschel Center to discuss the new Sustainable Food Initiative that the Institute and Heschel are planning on launching this year in light of the very successful Food Conference held last November. The initiative will try to raise awareness about the need for a more sustainable, healthy, equitable and carbon reduced food supply in Israel. The team spent a lot of time discussing other partners for the inititative.
On Wednesday, the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC) Steering Committee met at Hebrew University to review last year's achievements and the current research. The committee discussed some of the challenges facing the proposed Energy and the Environment Masters Degree program and went over the committee's job description. The CREEC Steering Committee is chaired by Professor Yaakov Karni from the Weizmann Institute. Many of Israelis leading experts in renewable energy are members of the committee.
Following the CREEC Steering Committee meeting, the Academic Advisory Board met to review the work plans of the Academic Department and the Research Department. Dr. Elli Groner, the Academic Director, went over plans for developing new programs and Dr. Clive Lipchin presented current research programs at the institute.
Finally on Thursday, Jonathan Schiff, the Institute's lawyer, and I met with, Professor Jimmy Weinblatt, the Rector of BGU, Professor Shaul Krakover, the Dean of the Eilat campus and the university's lawyer to finalize financial and legal issues in the new agreement. All outstanding issues have been resolved opening up the door for implementing the new agreement as of next semester.
Finally, through a connection with Dr. Donny Ornstein, one of our faculty, the Arava Alumni Peace and Environmental Network has been given the opportunity to host Alan Weissman, the author of the best selling book, "The World Without Us" at the February Alumni Conference in Aqaba.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report - January 10th - 22nd

2010-01-20T07:35:00.000-08:00

The week of the 10th throught the 15th saw a variety of visitors to the institute:

Maya Shafir and Horacio the Co-General Secretaries of Kibbutz Yotvata came to meet with Sharon and myself about the development of academic study track a the Arava Institute in cooperatives and sustainable communities.
Dr. Eli Kalmazon - an environmental educational consultant who is going to help the institute with the Research and Visitors Park.
Professor David Firestone from Vermont Law School who wanted to discuss cooperation between the Arava Institute and his school.
Yoel Levin - an experienced environmental builder who introduced me to the concept of earth ships - http://www.earthship.net/
Rafi Goldman - Director of International Projects for Negev Institute for Strategic Planning and Development to talk about cooperation with the institute on a variety of projects including the Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands and the development of an academic track in cooperatives and sustainable communities.
Dr. Uri Shanes - A faculty member at Oranim College, an Arava Institute research partner and also a Board member of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) who wanted to talk to us about cooperation between SPNI and the Arava Institute on programs for students from abroad.

No shortage of interesting people who came to visit that week. In addition to visitors, other events:

Hevel Eilot Regional Council Chair, spoke to the students about regional development and envrionmental challenges. Udi discussed controversial issues such as the planned building of a Hotel in Timna Park and the planned mining of the Samar Sand Dunes.
The Steering Committe for the Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands had its first meeting with representatives from the Dead Sea Arava Science Center and the Southern Arava Agricultural Research and Development Center. Dr. Shmuel Brenner led the discussion which was very productive. The next step is finalizing at vision paper.
Eitan Amiel and Amer Sweity, to Arava Institute alumni now studying at Sde Boker hosted a group from the Hornstein School for Jewish Professional Leadership at Brandeis University for a hike where they learned about the Arava Institute and about how to eat and drink from wild desert plants.
The Center for a Healthy Environment in the Arava (Sababa) Steering Committee met and discussed alternatives to the proposed site for the Hotel in Timna. Sababa is formulating its own stand on this issue. In addition, Sababa will propose creating a public park in Ber Ora.

The week of the 17th through the 22nd:

The week started with an impressive evening of presentations of the students independent study projects and Masters research. The following is a quote from my e-mail to the staff and students congratulating them on the event:
In my opinion, last night's AIES night was the best so far. Every semester, the program improves but last night really was an incredibly professional and aesthetic evening. The students did an exceptional job presenting subjects in an interesting way, speaking confidently, not reading the slides showing real scientific thought and methodology. The poster session was very impressive, informative and showed us how scientific knowledge can be presented succinctly and in a way that non-scientists like me can get it. The food and the set up of the evening was also exceptional. It is not surprising that this evening took place in our thirteenth year, the year, at least according to Jewish tradition, when a child becomes an adult. I had a real sense of the maturity of the institute. I want to thank all of those who were involved in making the evening a special one (I am sure I will have forgotten someone so please forgive me if I have mistakenly left your name off):

Clive, Suleiman, Amit, Lauren, Dane, Alison, Michelle, Moishe, Judy and Ronit.
I also want to thank the bakers: Sharon, Roee, Shira, Yonatan, Uri N., Abby, Alison and Yair. I want to thank all of the mentors/advisors who helped the students to produce great work.Finally, I want to thank the students for giving us an educational and enjoyable evening, one that we can all be proud of. AIES Night Program
In the middle of the week, we had an unexpected event - an extreme weather event. A storm hit the entire region and brought down about 20 milimeters of rain in our area. This may not seem like a lot of rain but we are generally average 2.5 milimeters of rain annually in our area. Take a look at this video clip by a local photographer - Mori Chen. Arava Flood
Finally, today at Keren Kolot we are we are sadly saying goodbye to Alison, Michael, Roee and Shira. It has been fun having them here and we will miss them very much. We wish them a soft landing back in the US and look forward to their next visit.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report - January 3rd-8th, 2010

2010-01-08T02:21:00.000-08:00

As the fall semester comes to a close, the pressure on students rises due to final papers and final exams on the horizon. The level of intensity increased this week because of a number of interesting visits and activities:

On Monday, the Director of the Jordan Department, of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, David Guvrin and his Deputy, Frieda Yovel, visited the Arava Institute and met with students and staff. We discussed the improvements in the visa process and the challenges we still face. Promises were made to continue to improve the system. David and Frieda were very pleased to hear about the growing relationship with Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) and the potential joint academic program.

This same day, the students held a Peace Building and Environmental Leadership Seminar(PELS) session on the experience of the Israeli students who had served as soldiers in the Israeli army. The Israeli students first wrote about their experiences in documents that were passed out prior to the session. During the session, the Israelis talked about their experience. The other students asked questions and expressed their own feelings. Some staff members of the institute also contributed. One staff member talked to the students about what it is like to be a mother of an Israeli soldier.

In the evening, I met with the students for a general update on what is happening at the institute. I discussed the latest developments with Ben Gurion University and the possibility of a minor in environmental studies next fall, student enrolment forecast for next semester, developments in research, events of the past few months and the Arava Alumni Peace and Environmental Network (AAPEN) conference coming up next month. Though the students are under a lot of pressure, the atmosphere was very positive. Students made suggestions about student recruitment and raised issues of balancing the academic program with the coexistence program.

On Wednesday, the institute hosted Professor Saleem Ali from the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont. Professor Ali was invited by the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University to participate in a conference on the potential for establishing a Peace Park in the Golan Heights as part of a reconciliation of the conflict between Israel and Syria. Professor Ali has worked on this issue for years creating parks along the border of his home country, Pakistan and India. Professor Ali is also collaborating on research into the feasibility of a Peace Park in the Golan Heights. He visited the institute, spoke to students and met with faculty.

Deputy Minister of Israeli Defense Matan Vilnai, made a short stop at the Arava Instiute as part of his tour of the region with Udi Gat, Chair of the Hevel Eilot Regional Council. Though the meeting was brief, less than an hour, it was a very meaningful and moving visit for all. Students generally leave the institute by Thursday afternoon but apparently many decided to stay in order to have the opportunity to meet the Deputy Minister of Defence. General Vilnai has always been a strong supporter of the the institute helping us out with permits for Palestinians and visas for Jordanians. Though he had visited the institute in the past, he had not yet met with students. About 30 students and staff filled up the small meeting room. Four representative students spoke first telling their personal story of how they came to the institute, and what their experience has been so far: Adi Segal from the US, Nancy Theodore from Jordan, Adli Kaaleyleh from Palestine and Amirit Rosen from Israel. During the student presentations General Vilnai asked questions about family background, history and he also related his only personal experiences as both a soldier and as a peace maker during the Olso Agreements. After the initial presentations, other students made comments and asked questions. Students did not hold back, bringing up tough issues such as Palestinian permits, the life of Palestinians under occupation and the Gaza War. General Vilnai was not thrown by these questions and gave very honest answers admitting that when war is fought in densely populated places like Gaza, civilian lives will be lost. Vilnai expressed the dilemma that he faces as an Israeli General, knowing that he is both responsible for the lives of Israeli civilians and Palestinian civilians. This was a very human meeting between two sides of an inhuman conflict. After the meeting with the students, General Vilnai turned to me and said "David, you are doing holy work - I will help you in any way I can."

David Lehrer

Weekly Reports - December 20th -31st, 2009

2010-01-01T00:10:00.000-08:00

The week of December 20th to the 25th:

Seth Morrison, Chair of the Friends of the Arava Institute (FAI) visited the Arava Institute during the first few days of the week. Seth met with staff and also participated in the Biodiversity short course run for students and alumni. Seth also participated in the Arava Institute Board of Directors meeting and the Annual General Assembly of the Association.

The students had a busy week. From Sunday through Tuesday, students had the choice of participating in one of 3 short intensive courses: Biodiversity of sand dunes, Geological Information Systems (GIS) or Community decision making. On Wednesday, all the students participated in a "Sand Day" activism workshop as part of the Environmental Leadership Seminar (the EL in PELS). Students slept out at Timna park on Tuesday night and then spent the next day exploring local environmental issues including the Samar Sand Dunes mining controversy and the proposed hotel resort to be built near Timna Park. The following day, the students went to Jerusalem for a Peace-building study tour (the P in PELS) meeting with Jewish Settlers, visiting Gilo, looking at the issues around the separation wall and visiting a Palestinian refugee camp. It was a very intensive trip which is still having a rippling effect on the students.

The Arava Institute Board of Directors met for the final meeting of 2009, approving the 2010 budget, hearing from Tamar Keinan, a Board member and Arava alum about her experience at he Copenhagen Climate Change conference and receiving the half year financial statements from instituter's CPA. Seth Morrison reported on FAI activities in 2009 and prospects for 2010. The board said goodbye to Hillel Gordon, a member of the Board of Directors since its founding in 1998. The board also welcomed two new members, Philip Medlinker, an investment lawyer and member of the Board of Directors of the Israeli Electric Company and Yaakov Karni, Professor at the Weizmann Institute specializing in solar energy. Following the Board meeting, the institute held its annual General Assembly of the Association in order to approve the Directors for the coming year.

On Wednesday, I travelled to the District office of the Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael (KKL - the Israeli JNF) and presented the dorm project for approval. The committee greeted the plans to build a new set of dorms at the Arava Institute very warmly and gave their approval. This will enable the Friends of the Arava Institute to work together with the JNF to raise money for the project and send it through KKL.

Thursday night, the Arava Institue was hosted by Becky and Tal Rowe Litman in their home in Gan Yishua for a "chug bayit" (parlor meeting). Thirty friends and neighbors came to hear Roee Elisha, Sulieman Halasah and me present the work of the Arava Institute. This chug bayit is part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness in Israel about the Arava Institute and to lay the foundation for an Israeli Friends of the Arav Institute.

The week of December 27th to December 31st was a considerably quieter week for both staff and students:

On Sunday, the Admissions and Scholarship committee met to discuss the dilemma of having more applicants for next semester than beds. It was decided to aim for 45 students and to request to rent 2 more apartments from the kibbutz.
The next day, the staff held the long awaited followup on the February staff communications seminar. The general consensus seemed to be that the communications seminar was successful, that the atmosphere at the institute is positive but that there is always room for improvement. The staff also looked at issues that they would like raises at the next seminar.
Noah David from MASA visited the institute and met with students and staff. Noah discussed with staff members ways the institute could leverage the resources of MASA in order to increase the visibility of the institute and recruit more students from abroad.

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year

David

Weekly Report - December 13th -18th, 2009

2009-12-20T08:02:00.000-08:00

Hanukah is usually a quite week at the institute. The students are in classes but life slows down a bit as most of Israel goes on semi-vacation:

The week started with a dedication ceremony for the Center for Sustainable Agriculture's new office expansion and new tractor funded by the Vivian and Ed Merrin Family Foundation Grant. Students, staff, faculty and friends were invited for a ribbon cutting ceremony, candle lighting and a jelly donut feast.

Monday night, the Sababa Steering Committee met to discuss submitting Timna Park to be declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The declaration would help to protect the park and the surrounding area from over development. Sababa Steering Committee members also discussed alternative locations for the proposed resort hotel that is being developed near Timna Park.
On Wednesday, Shir Harel, the Arava Institute's webmaster from Ben Or Consulting came to the institute to discuss new media strategy - website, youtube, facebook, flicker etc. Shir first met with all of the staff and went over website statistics. Since the summer, the website has almost doubled its site visits. In addition, the website now appears on page 5 when googling "environmental studies" - previously we had disappeared from that search. In the coming months the institute will develop it youtube profile and become more organized in terms of facebook presence.
On Wednesday night, the students lite the Hanukah candles in the dinning room of the kibbutz, sang the blessing over the candles and sang a Hanukah song.
Thursday, the Executive Committee devoted time to finalizing the 2010 institute budget.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report November 29th - December 11th, 2009

2009-12-14T00:43:00.000-08:00

OK - it has been two weeks since I have had a chance to write something for the blog.

In fact the week of November 29th to the 4th was a fairly quite week at the institute. The students were all studying, the staff members were all working and meeting. The only exciting thing that happened that week was on Shabbat, I rode my bike to Eilat and then went diving.

Last week however was a bit more exciting.

Cecil and Sharon spent Sunday and Monday interviewing 20 Jordanian students in Amman.
On Monday night, a tremendous amount of rain poured from the skies all over Israel including in the Negev and the Arava. On Tuesday morning on my way to an 8:30 meeting with Avigad Vornshak, the Director of the Blaustein Institutes at the Sde Boker Campus of BGU, I came to Nahal Faran, which looked like the Colorado river. I could not cross the Nahal and it did not look like the water would subside any time soon. I turned my car around and drove back to the Arava road (route 90) and headed north. I turned off at the Maaleh Acrabim (Scorpion's Ascent) road. It is an amazing back road climb out of the Arava Valley onto the Negev Heights plain. The road is a narrow twisting steep climb of a few hundred feet almost straight up. At the top, I continued on through the Big Machtesh (Crater) finally arriving at Yeroham. This is the route we once sent the Chalutzim Riders on the 2007 Israel Ride (there is a reason we call them the Meshugaim). I was finally able to get to Sde Boker only a half hour late.
Elli Groner and I met Avigad Vornshak. We had an excellent meeting in which we worked out the kinks of the financial arrangements for the Masters Program for North American students, discussed how to move forward on the Energy and the Environment Masters Program and discussed the possibility of collaborating on an Israel Studies program.
Wednesday morning, Elli and I met with Shaul Krakover, the Dean of the BGU Eilat campus in order to finalize the details of the legal agreement that we are signing with BGU.
That same morning, Professor Pua Bar (Kutiel) the new Academic Coordinator from BGU gave a lecture to our Masters students at their weekly Masters Seminar. Professor Bar (Kutiel) is an Ecologist in the BGU Geography department in Ber Sheva.
In the afternoon, over 20 people attended the brainstorming session on the establishment of the Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands. Dr. Shmuel Brenner will head the new center which is a partnership with the Southern Arava Research and Development Center at Yotvata and the Dead Sea Arava Science Center. The new center will provide research, training programs and extensions services to developing countries around the world suffering from a lack of water and desertification. The center will partner with the Israeli Foreign Ministry on the Millennium Villages project as well as other partner organizations.
Thursday afternoon, the Academic Department held an open day and hosted 10 potential Israeli students at the institute. The potential students met current students, staff, were interviewed and tested for English proficiency.
Friday afternoon, the Arava Alumni Peace and Environmental Network (AAPEN) Alumni Conference subcommittee met on Skype in order to plan for the Alumni Conference in February.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report November 22nd-27th, 2009

2009-11-27T08:54:00.000-08:00

Having had barely any time to recover from last week's hectic schedule, the institute dove into a another packed week.

Early on Sunday morning the students took off for a three day trip in the Negev to look at issues of sustainability and environmental justice. The trip was organized by the Student Life Department and Dr. Clive Lipchin as part of the course he teaches "Society and the Environment". During the trip, students visited both recognized and unrecognized Bedouin villages, Jewish settlements, single family farms and the Ramat Hovev National Industrial Waste Site near Ber Sheva. At night, the students slept in a Bedouin tent at "The Desert Ship" camp ground and heard stories from Pharchan, the Bedouin camp ground owner. The students had bot a great time but were also challenged by the complicated issues they confronted. The trip ended on Tuesday night so that students would be back on the kibbutz in time for the signing ceremony with Ben-Gurion University the following day.

On Wednesday, the institute hosted a delegation from Ben-Gurion University and the Toronto Jewish Federation Partnership 2000 Steering Committee for the long awaited signing ceremony of the agreement between the Arava Institute and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The agreement grants the Arava Institute's academic program official affiliate status with Ben-Gurion University. The ceremony took place outside the Keren Kolot lobby overlooking the Bryan Medwed Renewable Energy Park and the Institute's Academic and Research Center offices. The ceremony was emceed by Ronit Debowy of Kibbutz Ketura and opend with a song in Hebrew and Arabic prepared by Arava Institute students. Mr. Udi Gat, Chairman of the Hevel Eilot Regional Council was the first speaker and spoke about the importance of an academic center in the region and the growing relationship between BGU and Hevel Eilot. Professor Jimmy Weinblatt, the BGU Rector spoke for the univeristy as well as Professor Shaul Krakover, Dean of the Eilat Campus. I spoke in the name of the institue (see speech) and two students, Yonat Morduch and Huda Al Beirut did a superb job representing the students. Professor Weinblatt and I signed a declaration of affiliation which accompanies the legal documents. The ceremony ended with a beautiful rendition of Halevai (a song of peace and hope) by Yuval and Sivan Musnik (two children of Kibbutz Ketura). After the speaches, the delegation from Ben-Gurion and Toronto walked over to the institute's offices in order to unveil the sign indicating that the institute is now an official affiliate of Ben-Gurion University. See declaration and pictures.

Other events this week:

We had a visit from the Director General of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Dr. Yossi Inbar, on Tuesday. Dr. Inbar came with a delegation from his office who recieved a brief explanation of the activities of the institute. The meeting was very brief and half way through our explanation of what we do, the Director General received a phone call on his cell phone answered it and spent 15 minutes talking while we all sat in silence and waited for him to finish. By the time the call was over, so was the meeting. Welcome to Israel.
On Friday, I was asked to give a presentation to the Hevel Eilot Regional Council about the Arava Institute. Over the past few years, the institute has begun to work much more closely with the Regional Council on issues such as Renewable Energy, the Science Center, the R & D Agricultural Station and so on. Udi Gat, Chair of the Council felt it was important that members of the Regional Council get a wider picture of what the institute does.
This week was both Thanksgiving (the American holiday of thanks) and Eid Al Adha (the Moslem holiday commemorating the sacrifice of Ishmael by Abraham). On Thursday evening, students stuffed themselves with a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat including a whole turkey cooked by Barbara Pinsker and on Friday, afternoon, in the traditional Moslem manner, the students slaugtered and lamb and barbequed it! Not too many students were hungry for Friday night dinner.

David

Weekly Report November 15th-20th, 2009

2009-11-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

This was a very busy week for the Arava Institute in and around the Middle East.

Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed spent the week in Amman Jordan attending the 4th Bienniel meeting of Middle Eastern scientists aimed at promoting peace through collaboration. The Malta Conference (first convenied in Malta 8 years ago) is sponsored by Collumbia College Chicago, the American Chemical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry in Great Britain and other agencies. Tareq has attended 2 other conferences and was once again invited to particpate in this year's conference held in Amman. It was Tareq's first trip to Amman. The other conference attendees were Nobel Chemistry Laureates and scientists from all over the Middle East including Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Iran, Syria and Lebanon.
Sharon Benheim and Cecil Rimer spent two days in Amman this week recruiting students. They interviewed about 10 potential candidates for the spring semester. This was also an opportunity to touch base with a number of alumni including Osama Suleiman and Sawsan Essa who have recently begun working on their own NGO which will run cross border environmental projects.
I also spent two days in Jordan this week. On Monday, Tareq and I went to Irbid in the north of Jordan. We met with the Vice-President of the Jordan University of Science and Technology, Professor Malkawi and the head of the university's new center for Renewable Energy. Tareq and I discussed with them the idea of cooperation on a joint Masters Program in Energy and the Environment. Professor Malkawis seemed very interested in developing a joint program. Tareq and I will follow up on this project in the next few months. We also toured the new green house built with funds from the MERC research grant that Dr. Elaine Solowey and Dr. Samer Talouzi are working on together. Dr. Talouzi said tha the project was producing excellent results and the university is very pleased with the cooperation with the Arava Institute.
In the evening, Tareq and I headed back to Amman where we met with Dr. Hassan Dweik, Vice-President of Al Quds University in East Jerusalem. Dr. Dweik was also attending the conference. Hassan was very pleased to hear that the institute has been able to aquire permits for West Bank Palestinan's to study at the institute. While this should make things easier in the development of greater cooperation between Al Quds and the institute, the current university policy has placed a moratorium on further cooperation between Al Quds and Israeli institutions of higher learning. Hassan is working on a statement of common principles on which cooperation between Al Quds and Israeli Universities can be based and allow an end to the moratorium. He asked if Tareq and I would be willing to help develop this document with him. We of course readily agreed.
The next day, I met with the new Israeli Consul, Danny Silvan and his staff at the Amman Embassy. We discussed the difficulties in receiving visas for Jordanian students and how together we can make things go smoother. Danny is extremely enthusiastic about our program admitting that we are able to do things that the Embassy cannot, in order to improve relations between Jordan and Israel. He told his staff that the Arava Institute requests are to receive top priority. We also discussed the technical difficulties that Jordanin students run into when they try to come to the embassy for their appointments. Danny promised to try to deal with those issues as well.
On Thursday, the Arava Institute and the Heschel Center, sponsored the first annual Food and Sustainability Conference called "Food for Thought". The confernece was held in Tel Aviv. It was the Arava Institute's first attempt at this type of activity. We did not know how many people to expect though our partner's, the Heschel Center, had a goal of 300 participants. On Thursday morning, the crowds started pouring in to the NOVA events center at the Tel Aviv Port. By the time the conference was in full swing we had over 500 attendees and we had to shut down registration because there was no more room! The conference opened with a welcoming speech by the Israeli Minister of Agriculture, Shalom Simchon. After both Eilon Schwartz, Director of the Heschel Center and I made our remarks, we invited our keynote speaker, best-selling author, Ruth Ozeki ("My Year of Meats" and "All Over Creation") to address the packed auditorium. Ruth was eloquent and inspiring. In a 45 minute speech she managed to capture all of the major issues and controversies around the food industry from genetically modified foods, to the environmental impact of the monoculture corn industry in the US, to the inhuman treatment of animals and the denial of basic human rights of small farmers around the world. At the end of her her speach, Ruth talked about a number of people who are leading the way towards more sustainability in food. Ruth mentoined the ground breaking work of Dr. Elaine Solowey who she met while at Ketura. Ruth captivated the audience and for the rest of the day, could not move two feet without being surrounded by fans. The conference continued with a series of short "lightning panels" moderated by our own Dr. Alon Tal. The panels included journalists, academics, professionals and activists and dealt with three subjects - Food and the Environment, Food and Health and Food and Culture. One of my favorite speakers raised the intriguing question "What happened to the famous Israeli Breakfast, the cheeses, yogurts, vegitables, juices etc?" Today almost 80% of Israelis eat cornflakes for breakfast! The short panels were followed by mini seminars which included a wider variety of food subjects and panelists including members of the Knesset, other government officials, researchers and heads of non-profits in Israel. The seminars covered issues such as the political arena, hunger, the meat industry in Israel, activism and more. Dr. Elaine Solowey ran a seminar in Engish for a group of visiting American food activists. After a delicious organic lunch of humus and salads, the conference reconvened with round table discussions, including one held by Rabbi Michael Cohen on Judaism and food. A closing panel looked at positive developments in Israel's food culture, organic markets, community sponsored agriculture, community gardens etc. The conference closed with the showing of a short video produced for the conference, featuring four young Israeli chefs who tried to produce a meal with the lowest carbon footprint possible. This short film was followed by the screening of the movie "Fresh" an excellent documentary about food initiatives in the US. We finally had to kick the last participants out of the builidng by 7:00 pm so we could go home.
The Arava Institute steering committee for the Food Conference was Elad Topel, Abby Lutman, Gail Osman, Miriam Sharton and Ayala Weiss. The committee along with staff from the Heschel Center was responsible for planning, organizing and running the conference. In addition to the committee members a number of insitute staff were recruited to help run the conference including, Rabbi Michael Cohen, Ilana Meallem, Yair Teller, Judy Bar Lev, Rutie Kaplan, Dane Cooper and Shira Kronich. In addition, over 30 Arava Institute alumni participated in the conference.

So another busy week for the Arava Institute. This coming week we are signing the agreement of affiliation with Ben-Gurion University.

David

Weekly Report November 1st - 13th

2009-11-12T22:42:00.000-08:00

Another 2 intensive weeks have passed since my last Blog update. Here are the highlights of the last two weeks at the institute:

Of course most of the activity at the institute in the last two weeks was connected to the the 9th Israel Ride. This year the Ride started in Tsfat (for the first time) with 40 Riders. There were 17 ride alumni on the Ride including 5 members of the Board of Directors: Howie Rodenstein, Michael Marcus, Jack Platt, Nigel Savage and Bruce Stanger. Rabbi Michael Cohen also participated and rode with the "Chalutzim"!! The first day of the Ride was a magnificent ride through the mountains of Tsfat, down to the Hula Valley, through Rosh Pina and eventually down to the Sea of Galillee. The second day we rode from sea to sea - from the Sea of Galilee, through Emek Yizrael, past Meggido, through an Israeli Army base ending at Kibbutz Sdot Yam on the Mediterranean Sea. From there, the riders were bussed to Kibbutz Mashabei Sadeh. On Friday, the riders rode to Sde Boker, visited David and Paula Ben Gurion's graves and rode mountain bikes to a desert spring. The day ended at the Ramon Inn in Mitzpeh Ramon where the riders spent Shabbat. Shabbat was filled with food, massages, relaxation, services (for those who wanted) and of course the highlight of the Shabbat at Mitzpeh, the Arava Alumni student panel. Riders were very moved by the stories alumni (both crew and students from Sde Boker) told of their experiences at the Arava Institute and their dreams of a new Middle East. The Shabbat ended with beautiful Havdallah Service overlooking the Ramon Crater led by the Hazon Staff. Sunday morning, the riders were up bright and early in order to ride through the Ramon Crater and across the Faran River Bed across a beautiful dry 70 miles of hot desert. Encountering a strong head wind at the very end, the riders finally made it to Kibbutz Ketura, home of the Arava Institute. At Ketura, the riders were treated to beer, tours of the institute, wonderful rooms at the Keren Kolot guest house, the pool, a barbeque and a coffee house on the lawn of the student dorms were riders had the opportunity to informally meet with students. The last day of the Ride, was from Kibbutz Ketura to Eilat, once again transversing a challenging desert landscape including climbing the magnificent Red Mountains surrounding Eilat and finishing with an amazing descent from the top of Mount Yoash down through the Red Mountains to the Red Sea. The Ride concluded with a dip in the Red Sea, more beer and a Shehekaynu.
On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we were privileged to host Dr. Jürgen Kleinwächter, a physicist from Germany who has developed the Solar Village concept at Tamera - Solar Village. Jürgen spent two days at the institute learning about our work, meeting staff and students and lecturing on the Solar Village concept. The conclusion from the visit is that there are a lot of areas for cooperation and we will certainly be in touch with Jürgen about further cooperation.
Shira Kronig from Arava EC&T and Dr. Clive Lipchin, head of the Research Department, spent two days in Aqaba meeting with French, English, Jordanian and Palestinian research partners on the Red Sea Dead Sea Conduit feasibility study funded by the World Bank.
On Thursday, Kibbutz Ketura celebrated the 36 anniversary of the founding of the kibbutz. The celebrations started with a dedication of the Community Garden which is funded by the Merrin Family Foundation grant given to Dr. Elaine Solowey to further her work in sustainable agriculture. The Community Garden of the Kibbutz allows the children of Ketura, the opportunity to get their hands dirty and learn about organic farming first hand. In the evening, the students of the institute joined the members of the kibbutz for a festive dinner and then a program that included songs, skits and Israeli folk dancing. The folk dancing began with an Arab "Debka" dance led by our students. Then the songs switched to traditional Israel folk dancing. It was quite a site to see some of our female Arab students wearing the traditional "Hejab" dancing to the Hebrew tunes of "Hora Medura" and "Shavteh Mayim"!
Though the institute is usually quite on Fridays, we are blessed with a number of visits that include, Martin Cohen, a friend of Mandy Patinkin, who is staying in Eilat and asked to see the institute. Martin is meeting with students, staff and will have a chance to meet Methuselah. The other visitor is Kenneth Ludwa a representative of USAID who is doing a site visit of the MERC project that Dr. Elaine Solowey is running jointly with the Jordan Unversity of Science and Technology. Kenneth was thrilled to hear about the diverse student body studying at the institute and said that it is now much clearer to him that the Arava Institute is a natural partner for USAID.
The outlook for next week is not any quieter. A number of staff members including Tareq, Cecil, Sharon and myself will spend the first part of the week in Jordan. On Thursday, November 18th, the institute along with the Heschel Center are sponsoring the first annual Sustainable Food Conference - "Food for Thought" www.foodforthought.org.il. The conference will host best seller author, Ruth Ozeki. The week after, the institute will celebrate the signing of the Ben Gurion University - Arava Institute Agreement.

Shabbat Shalom and have a good week.

David

Weekly Report - October 18th to 30th, 2009

2009-10-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

It has been two weeks since I have been able to write in the blog. It has been a very busy two weeks:

I came back from my trip to Portugal on Sunday evening October 18th. If you have not yet seen my report click here: David's Trip to Portugal Report .
Dr. Clive Lipchin and Dr. Shmuel Brenner also returned from their trip to Kenya. Clive and Shmuel's Trip to Kenya Report. The highlight of their trip was meeting President Obama's Grandmother!
Together with the Dead Sea Arava Science Center, we hosted a visit from the Jewish Colonization Association, the Foundation that distributes the Baron D'Hirsch fortune. The foundation is considering funding lab equipment for the Arava Institute and the Science Center.
On Friday, October 23rd, Eco-Paths, the Arava Institute's events department held the first annual "Arava Challenge" Ride. It was a 35 kilometer off road ride from Arad to the Dead Sea. We had 25 participants. People had a great time. Arava Challenge
On that same Friday, October 23rd, our Jordanian Alumni held their first Alumni event in Jordan on 350 CO2 day. A group of alumi decided to do their own event as an initial step. So they partnered with other organizations in the 350 event that was held as a march on the Rainbow Street in Amman Jordan. 350 Event
On Monday, October 26th, Israel and Jordan celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Jordanian Israeli Peace Treaty. Judy Bar Lev organized a delegation from the Arava Institue to attend the celebration and gives the following report:The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel and the Truman Institute Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace of Hebrew University sponsored a symposium on Monday October 26th 2009 to celebrate 15 years to the signing of the Peace Treaty between Israel and Jordan.
Here at the Machon Arava we have a number of colleagues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jordan Section who have assisted us over the years in arranging for our students from Jordan to obtain visas to study and live at Kibbutz Ketura.
They invited us to send a delegation to the symposium of staff and Jordanian students.
With the effort of leaving Ketura at 05:30 am and some of our alumni who are now at the Albert Katz school for Desert Studies at Sde Boker we arrived at 9:00am to the Truman Institute on Mount Scopus.
We were given the red carpet treatment upon arrival and our students had the opportunity to greet Jordan's Ambassador to Israel Ali al-Ayed who spoke later on about his participation in creating the Peace Agreement. Additional speakers were James Cunningham, U.S. ambassador to Israel and Yaakov Rosen, Israel's Ambassador to Jordan.
We made numerous additional personal connections during the coffee breaks, making the long day very much worth the travelling. The presence in the audience of our delegation from The Arava Institute was mentioned from the podium twice during the morning sessions.
On Tuesday, October 27th, the Institute held the bimonthly Board of Directors meeting chaired by Dr. Michael Beyth. Board members heard positive reports on student recruitment, the academic program, new research projects and fundraising successes in the US. The Board also approved of the planning process for next year's goals and budgets.
Wednesday morning, the Research Department held a research department meeting. In addition to hearing about Shmuel and Clive's trip to Kenya, researchers and grant writers updated each other on grant requests, grant approvals and research progress. The institute is currently involved in research on crops for arid lands, biofuel production from agricultural waste, biogas production from animal waste, dust settling research, hydrogen fuel production from solar energy, long term ecological and social research and the Dead Sea Red Sea Feasibility Study. Clive Lipchin, head of the Research Department emphasized the importance of publishing peer reviewed articles for journals. As usual, there was not enough time to talk about everything that is happening in the research department.
Parrallel to the Research Department meeting, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, head of the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation hosted Dr. Claude Trink from the French Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Town and Country Planning and Ms. Sophie Miller from the French Embassy. France is very interested in bilateral cooperation with Israel on renewable energy. Dr. Trink and Ms. Miller spent a few hours at the Institute and were very impressed with what they saw. We can expect further contact with the Embassy.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report October 11th-16th, 2009

2009-10-15T07:57:00.000-07:00

Summer is over and so are the holidays. Time to get back to work and it started this week:

The big news of course is that on Wednesday night, we opened the Fall Semester 2009 with 45 students! The largest semester in the history of the Institute. 15 Israelis, 12 North Americans, 12 Palestinians, 5 Jordanians and 1 Australian. The group looks great and the Academic Programs Department is completely prepared for a great semester. This week is orientation and next week starts classes.
We had the third meeting of the Coordination Committee between the Institute and the Kibbutz which tries to promote a positive relationship between Kibbutz members and the Institute.
In addition to the start of a new semester, the Fall schedule looks quite full and a lot of time was spent this week in meetings preparing for these events. Here is just a sample:
October 23rd - Arava Challenge - One day off road ride for Israelis
November 4th-9th - Israel Ride Fall 2009 from Tsfat to Eilat
November 19th-20th - Food for Thought - Food Conference in Tel Aviv
November 25th - BGU Agreement Signing Ceremony
So you can see that it is a pretty full schedule for the next two months.
Uri Nusinow left this week for a trip to Brussels as a guest of the EU. He managed an environmental project called Life which was funded by the EU and promoted sustainable solutions for waster water treatment in the Arava. Uri is in Brussels at a final conference of the project.
I am travelling tonight to Portugal, to the EcoVillage Tamera to meet with their leaders about research cooperation between the Arava Institute and Tamera.
Clive Lipchin and Shmuel Brenner are back from a very successful trip to Kenya. We hope that this trip will spawn a new initiative for a Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands.

Have a nice weekend.

David

Weekly Report October 4th-9th, 2009

2009-10-08T23:03:00.000-07:00

Another quiet week at the Arava Institute as we celebrate the week of Shavuot (the fall Jewish holiday celebrating the harvest and remembering our years of wandering in the desert) and gear up for the fall semester which starts next week.

On Monday and Tuesday this week, the Science Center hosted a "Science Festival" sponsored by the Ministry of Science. The Ministry supports local Research and Development Centers around the country including the Dead Sea Arava Science Center which has a branch located at the Arava Institute. None of us expected to see any visitors stop by the Institute as part of the festival but to our surprise, on the first day a family of five dropped by and on the second day, we had 20 visitors who came to the see the Science Center. Next year, we will try to leverage this into a larger event with more activities and hopefully more visitors.
Dr. Clive Lipchin, Director of the Arava Institute Research Programs and Dr. Shmuel Brenner, Director of the Arava Air Quality Research Program were invited by the Israeli Foreign Ministry to travel to Kenya and help develop joint academic, scientific and development programs connected to the UN Millennium Villages project. We will get a full report of their trip from Shmuel and Clive when they get back but for now, I want to share the following from Clive:
Greetings from Kisumu, western Kenya. Today Shmuel and I had a very special treat. We were taken to meet President Obama's grandmother in her village. It was a very emotional meeting. Barak Obama's grandmother lives in a very modest family compound. The only sign of Obama are some election stickers on her front door. She came out to meet us on her lawn and we sat around chatting with her. She does not speak English so one of our Kenyan colleagues translated for us. She is a very modest woman and we felt humbled to be in her presence. In her compound is the grave of Obama's father and his grandfather. Obama last visited his grandmother in 2006 and she last visited the US for his inauguration. According to the visitor's book it seemed we were the first Israelis to visit her. - Clive
So while our FAI Staff were off in LA cavorting with the stars and while our Research Programs staff were off in Kenya meeting Barak Obama's grandmother, I had a very quite week at the institute - I got a hair cut, went to the dentist, cooked a birthday dinner for my 16 year old daughter and attended a local farmers market at Kibbutz Yahel. Next week, the excitement begins when the students arrive on Wednesday, I take a trip to Portugal to visit the Tamera Eco Village and Uri Nusinow travels to Brussels at the invitation of the EU. More next week

David

Weekly Report September September 27th - October 2nd, 2009

2009-10-02T00:38:00.000-07:00

It was a fairly quite week at the institute between Yom Kippur and Succot:

The MASA program with 10 students from overseas was in full swing with classes, hikes and student life activities.
As usual, our Jordanian students ran into trouble at the Israeli Embassy. After being told that their Visa's were ready and to be at the Embassy in Amman at 9:00 in the morning, they waited 5 hours and then walked away without a visa in hand. Judy Bar Lev is working diligently to rectify the situation. This is certainly not a way for Israel to make friends with its neighbor.
Rabbi Michael had a very successful meeting this week with the American Ambassador in Tel Aviv.
Most of the week was spent in meetings, preparing for the coming semester, the Food Conference in November, the Israel Ride in November, the Biogas Project and other events and activities at the Institute.

Hag Sameach

David

Weekly Report September 21st - 25th, 2009

2009-09-25T03:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-18T03:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-11T05:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-02T21:15:00.000-07:00

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