Weekly Report March 14th to 18th, 2010

• 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 February 21st to 26th

• 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 - January 10th - 22nd

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 - December 13th -18th, 2009

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