Weekly Report October 11th-16th, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

Gmar Hatima Tova

David

Weekly Report September 13th -18th, 2009

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

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

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

David Lehrer

Weekly Report September 6th -11th, 2009

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

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

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

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

David

Weekly Report August 30th - September 4th, 2009

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

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

David