Summer Camp 2.0, Up and Running
Back in January we introduced you to eCamp Israel , the first international technology summer camp located here in Israel. Designed to bring enterprising young people from around the world together for a unique interactive experience, the camp is based in the eVillage of Aloney Yitzhak, 28 miles from Tel Aviv.
Opening the gates to the #1 success story of Israel, Technology Innovation, eCamp Israel introduces campers to an enriching experience that touches their deepest emotions and spurs creative energies in their minds. They provide an original, creative and fascinating program, matching worldwide youth with Israeli peers in a unique way using the universal language of Technology.
“As one of the global centers of technological innovation, it is time Israel gives back some of our know-how and share it with children from around the world,” said Nir Kouris, co-CEO and an Israeli entrepreneur. “Our biggest wish is for campers to experience the magic of Israeli innovation first hand, hear from technologists how they persevered despite the odds, and be empowered to realize their own dreams in a virtual world.”
And now today, the American Jewish Committee announced it is sponsoring scholarships for 40 children from the embattled cities of Sderot, Ashkleon, and the surrounding area to attend eCamp this summer.
“We could not think of a more meaningful way to touch the lives of these children, especially with the trauma they’ve experienced from rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza. The anguished requests from these children, as well as their parents and teachers, were a chilling reminder of the plight of Israelis living on the front lines under constant threat of violence,” said AJC Executive Director David A. Harris.
Halacha and the Environment
Jerusalem recently played host to an international conference titled, The Environment in Jewish Thought and Law. Spearheaded by Sviva Israel, an innovative Jewish social environmental organization, the goal was to enrich and raise the level of conversation on Judaism and the Environment.
Carmi Wisemon, the initiator of the conference and presenter of a lecture on “The Conflicts and Connections between Sustainability and Judaism”, was extremely pleased with the large turnout of people who came together from all walks of life to learn about the environmental issues facing all of us and Jewish responses to them. Wisemon said, “We are delighted that we have been able to bring together in a public forum the highest levels of rabbinical leaders in Israel with environmental professionals, activists, academics, educators, religious and non-religious. In understanding Judaism’s approach to the environment, it is incumbent upon us to first learn about the environmental issues that we face today.
The conference also marked the publication of the latest volume, and first in English, of “The Environment in Jewish Thought and Law” - Jewish environmental responsa on contemporary issues of sustainability and Jewish environmental ethics. You can access this publication here: The-Environment-in-Jewish-Thought-and-Law.
about: Sviva Israel creates environmental and civic responsibility in Israeli society by giving young people the knowledge and skills which will make them leaders for the protection of our environment while simultaneously building their Jewish and Israeli identities.
Their international and web-based projects connect young Israelis with each other and with their global peers through Jewish-environmental programming that contributes to their Jewish identity and pride in Israel. They nurture connections that will ensure Israel’s future as an environmentally sustainable home for the Jewish People.
The Diaspora Mezuzot Project
In an evening called Ethiopian Jewish Community Innovation held last night at the PresenTense Institute here in Jerusalem, we met young social entrepreneurs from Israel’s Ethiopian Jewish community who spoke about their crucial work on some of Israel’s most challenging societal issues.
The evening also featured an exhibit about the groundbreaking Afula based non-profit embroidery collective called ADISIA (meaning renaissance in Amharic) along with a presentation on the project by Sharon Ungerleider. We also learned about Guzo, an empowerment project for young Ethiopians directed through Hillel at Tel Aviv University; that will be subject to a separate post.
about ADISIA: Hundreds of miles away from the tribal huts and villages they once called home, Ethiopian women at the WIZO center in Afula are sustaining an ancient custom and adapting it to modern society.
ADISIA’s vision is to provide aide to Ethiopian women immigrants who face tremendous challenges adjusting to Israel’s culture and language. ADISIA gives these women both meaningful employment and an outlet for their cultural traditions along with pride in their Ethiopian origins.
With support from the Massachusetts based Harold Grinspoon Foundation and philanthropist Sharon Ungerleider, the World Diaspora Mezuzot Project was born in 2006. Originally, 25 mezuzot were created to represent the global Diaspora communities for a new synagogue under construction in Eugene, Oregon. Now, with the completion of that project, the ADISIA artisans create embroidered mezuzot with a variety of motifs, all inspired by patterns and symbols from historic Judaica from communities as diverse as Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen and Cochin.
ADISIA: helping to bridge the gap between Ethiopian women and Diaspora communities.
Here is a beautiful photo-essay of ADISIA crafts by Yonit Schiller.
Dateline: Hillel Tel Aviv
We are delighted to welcome Rabbi Yossie Goldman, Director General of Hillel Israel with this open letter on just one of the many programs being implemented at Hillel Tel Aviv.
Dear friends,
The concept of Jewish peoplehood is moving high on the Hillel agenda, as it becomes increasingly important to build bridges among Jewish communities around the world. The Ami”t project at Tel Aviv Hillel is engaging 25 young Israeli leaders to develop a sense of peoplehood and learn about how they can build connections between Israeli and North American students, helping to shape the future of the Jewish people. In the process, they develop leadership skills and strengthen their commitment to Jewish life.
The Ami”t project consists of weekly sessions that include text study and leadership training, and meetings with students from abroad. In addition to their theoretical training, participants also initiate new community-service projects on campus or in their communities. In one of these programs Ami”t participants recruited 30 students to harvest fruits and vegetables for distribution to needy families. Another initiative involved student volunteerism with Holocaust survivors. And a group of English-speaking students spent Shabbat together with Israeli students in Kibbutz Ketura in southern Israel , where many of the residents are immigrants from English-speaking countries. All of these initiatives help students refine their commitment to the Jewish community, in Israel and abroad. Read more
Dig In, and Find Three Answers
If you are a regular reader you know this is ROI week here in Jerusalem. Sunday night was the opening session and you can read some great posts by EstherK, who writes so much better than I, here and here.
But, just to pull out one small point: the keynote speaker was Shai Agassi, founder and CEO of Project Better Place. PBP’s mission, How can we make the world a better place? One electric car at a time.
Shai had the audience of (mostly) young innovators spellbound as he recounted his bio: from a deal with his Dad to buy him a new Apple II computer at age 14, to at age 39, being named the CEO-designate of global software powerhouse SAP - the first non-German to achieve such a position in any German mega-company. You can read more from Esther, but the take-away here, that deserves special note, is this: when challenged at the Young Global Leaders Forum and asked,
what are you going to do to make the world a better place by 2020?
his life was turned upside down. Shai then asked himself three questions and Project Better Place eventually was birthed. The questions?
- What are you passionate about? (In other words, what makes you wake up in the morning feeling that you want to do this again?)
- What are you best in the world at?
- What is your economic driver?
Shai encouraged all present to dig in, and find our own three answers.
Food for thought for all of us.
BTW, Project Better Place was one of the highlighted entrepreneurial projects that will change the face of Tomorrow from the Tomorrow’s Spaces exhibit at the recent Facing Tomorrow Presidential Conference.
HaOlim TV; The Trailer
We introduced you on Tuesday to HaOlim TV, a new reality show about the Zionist Dream in the 21st century.
HaOlim TV: where eight young participants will live and compete against one another through various extreme missions that mirror the different challenges Olim face building the State of Israel. Where one will be crowned the Ultimate Oleh.
Here, the newly released trailer.
Be sure to also check out what Jewlicious has to say about this show.
Reality TV: The Olim
I met Yana Kutikova last week; a high-energy, enthusiastic recent Olah from Atlanta. And like someone else from the same city, Yana had a dream. Hers, a reality show about the extraordinary olim who have chosen to begin their lives again in this, our extraordinary land.
Conceptualized by Yana, and now in the pre-production phase with Highlight Films, the show is described this way:
They will live and compete against one another through various extreme missions that mirror the different challenges olim faced building the State of Israel and eventually one will be crowned the Ultimate Oleh. This winner will be granted a golden ticket into Israeli society with a luxury apartment facing the beach in Tel Aviv, a brand new car, a dream job, and many more amenities to make for the ultimate Aliyah.
Contestants must be committed to making Aliyah to Israel and be fluent in English with little to no knowledge of Hebrew. Production is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2008.
After meeting Yana I have no doubt this show will succeed. For this young woman who could sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, HaOlim will be a cakewalk! And by the way, Yana was part of the media staff at ROI120 - 2007.
For more information, you can email info@haolim.com.
update June 12: view the trailer.
Generating a Socio-Economic Leapfrog
Yesterday, The Reut Institute organized the First ISRAEL 15 Vision Conference and I had the privilege of attending.
Inspired by the Clinton Global Initiative, and bringing together leading figures from different sectors of Israeli society, the focus was on how to turn Israel into one of the leading 15 countries in the world in terms of quality of life.
The necessary discussion: to understand what is needed to move from socio-economic growth to leapfrogging and the type of leadership required to initiate it.
Multiple sectors, including mayors, senior civil servants, businessmen, non-profits and social entrepreneurs, philanthropists from Israel and abroad and representatives of Diaspora Jewry, were brought together to harness support.
The vision requires a leapfrog: a process that takes places as a result of a combination of Government ‘Top Down’ policies and the launching of ‘Bottom Up’ processes. This happens when a nation sustains out-of-the-ordinary growth for a prolonged period. Current examples include China and India and countries such as Ireland, Finland, Singapore and even Israel, over the course of the past few decades.
As to our world of philanthropy, we can play a critical role in furthering the Vision by promoting better management and higher productivity in our sector.
And diaspora Jewish philanthropy, in particular, is in an excellent position to influence both local municipalities and the nonprofit community.
The significance of this point extends beyond ‘bigger bang for the philanthropic buck’. About 85% of Israel’s labor force is in low-tech, a sector which suffers from low productivity compared to developed countries. As productivity is highly correlated with income, its rise is critical for Israel’s wellbeing.
Philanthropists are also in position to funnel more funds to nonprofits and social entrepreneurs that are dedicated to promoting growth and development and to improving the quality of life of all Israelis.
The Conference concluded with a keynote address by New York Times correspondent, Thomas Friedman. Best known these days for his insightful book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, a ground-breaking work on the confluence of globalization, outsourcing and technology, Friedman both informed and educated the participants with his theories, insights into a book-in-process and diplomatically abstained from answering questions on the U.S. Presidential contest.
To read more about the role of philanthropy and interaction with the Vision, check out Jewish Philanthropy in Israel in our Symposia section; a series by the Reut Institute founder, Gidi Grinstein. Post 8 specifically speaks to the The Israel 15 Agenda as a Possible Framework.
updated June 8: Thomas Friedman’s column in today’s New York Times is pretty much verbatim some of the comments he made during his address.
Israel @ 60 in Words, Pictures, and Music
A video slide show celebrating 60 years of Israel
A collaboration between Bonnie Goodman and Professor Gil Troy (McGill University) in honor of Israel’s 60th Birthday. This is Bonnie’s artistic rendition of the updated version of Professor Troy’s article “Why I Am A Zionist”, first published in 2001.
Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem
