Weekly Report June 6th - 11th, 2010

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 November 22nd-27th, 2009

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