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of the Negev ARGENTINA MEXICO NATIONAL AND LONDON REGION Nava Rubenzadeh, President Ing. Pedro Dondisch, ORT House Honorary President 126 Albert Street Roy J. Zuckerberg ASOCIACIÓN ARGENTINA DE Yoje Dondich, President London NW1 7NE Chairman, Board of Governors AMIGOS DE LA UNIVERSIDAD Message from the President 1 Robert H. Arnow BEN GURIÓN DEL NEGUEV ASOCIACIÓN MEXICANA DE AMIGOS BRIGHTON COMMITTEE Chairman Emeritus, Suipacha 531 piso 9 DE LA UNIVERSIDAD BEN GURIÓN c/o Sam Barsam, Chairman C-1008 AAM Ciudad Autónoma EN EL NEGUEV (AMAUBG) 47 Hove Park Road Board of Governors Lord of the Flies 2 de Buenos Aires Río Tiber 78 Hove Lord Weidenfeld of Chelsea Colonia Cuauhtémoc East Sussex BN3 6LH BELGIUM C.P. 06500 México, D.F. On the Seventh Day, They Rested 4 Honorary Chairman, MIDLANDS COMMITTEE FRIENDS OF BGU IN BELGIUM Board of Governors Michael Lavender P.B. 26, Ixelles Louise THE NETHERLANDS 148 All Saints Road A Clinical Approach to Healing 6 Vice-Chairpersons, Lange Leemstraat 12 Willem Deetman, President Kings Heath B-1050 Brussels-Ixelles Board of Governors DUTCH ASSOCIATES BGU Birmingham B14 6AT The Law of Learning 8 Zvi Alon Postbus 488 CONTENTS BRAZIL Eric A. Benhamou 2501 CL The Hague UNITED STATES Dr. Claudio Luiz Lottenberg, President Sir Ronald Cohen Carol Saal, President Biologically Determined 10 Av. Albert Einstein, 627 / 701, 3er andar Dr. Heinz-Horst Deichmann Republic of PANAMA Doron Krakow, 05651-901 Morumbi Sao Paulo SP BGU Now is published by Dame Vivien Duffield Moises A. Mizrachi, President Executive Vice-President Managing the Masses 12 Apartado 7347 the Department of Publications Bertram Lubner CANADA AABGU NATIONAL OFFICE & Panama 5 and Media Relations Michael W. Sonnenfeldt Gary Fine, National President GREATER NEW YORK REGION Falling Through the Cracks 14 Dr. Felix Zandman Leo Marcus, Executive Vice-President 1430 Broadway, 8th Floor Republic of SOUTH AFRICA Director: Faye Bittker Suzanne Zlotowski New York, NY 10018 NATIONAL OFFICE & Bertram Lubner, President Editor: Angie Zamir A “First” for Hebrew Literature 16 David Brodet TORONTO CHAPTER Herby Rosenberg, Vice-President AABGU NEW ENGLAND REGION 1000 Finch Avenue West, Suite 506 1318 Beacon Street, Suite 8 Chairman, NATIONAL & JOHANNESBURG Acting Editor: Patricia Golan North York, ON M3J 2V5 Brookline, MA 02446 Diversity of Spirit 17 Executive Committee OFFICE Contributors: Vice-Chairpersons, MONTREAL CHAPTER P.O. Box 895 AABGU MID-ATLANTIC REGION Sandra Bloom In Case of Emergency 22 Executive Committee 4950 Queen Mary Road, Suite 400 Saxonwold 2132 The Pavilion at Jenkintown Montreal, QC H3W 1X3 261 Old York Road Larry Derfner Dvora Tomer WESTERN CAPE CHAPTER Suite 417A, P.O. Box 1128 Patricia Golan WINNIPEG CHAPTER P.O. Box 2350 Souvenirs 24 Aharon Yadlin Jenkintown, PA 19046 Dina Kraft # 220 – 2025 Corydon Avenue Cape Town 8000 Winnipeg, MB R3P ON5 AABGU WASHINGTON / BALTIMORE Roberta Neiger KWAZULU / NATAL CHAPTER A Culture of Understanding 26 Prof. Rivka Carmi 4800 Hampden Lane, Suite 200 Jessica Steinberg P.O. Box 74050 President FRANCE Bethesda, MD 20814 Rochdale Park Edward L. Tepper On the Boookshelf 29 Gérard Worms, President Galia Walsh Prof. Jimmy Weinblatt Durban 4034 AABGU GREATER FLORIDA REGION Rector Les Amis Français 20283 State Road 7, Suite 215 Photos: Dani Machlis On the Wild Side 34 de l’Université Ben-Gourion SWITZERLAND Boca Raton, FL 33498 Prof. Moti Herskowitz 16, rue de la Pierre Levée Michel Halpérin, Président Additional Photos: AABGU GREAT LAKES REGION Vice-President and Dean for 75011 Paris Wolfgang Motzafi-Haller It’s All About Speed 36 AMIS DE SUISSE DE L’UNIVERSITE 250 Parkway Drive, Suite 150 Research and Development BEN-GOURION DU NEGUEV Lincolnshire, IL 60069 ISRAEL Design: Shai Zauderer 5, avenue Léon-Gaud David Bareket Prof. Yizhak Peterburg, Chairman AABGU GREATER TEXAS REGION Food for Thought 38 CH-1206 Geneva Vol. 4, No. 3 Vice-President and 24 Greenway Plaza, Suite 550 ISRAELI FRIENDS OF BGU Winter 2008/9 Director-General Houston, TX 77046 In the Path of God 40 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev UNITED KINGDOM ISSN 0793-7393 Prof. Amos Drory P.O. Box, 653 Beer-Sheva 84105 BEN GURION UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION AABGU NORTHWEST REGION Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Cell Divisions and Inhibitions 42 Vice-President for Harold Paisner, Executive President 240 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Suite 260 External Affairs JAPAN Lord Weidenfeld of Chelsea, Corte Madera, CA 94925 P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel Koji Akatsuka, President Vice-President AABGU SOUTHWEST REGION Fax: 972-8-647-2803 Prof. Yael Edan Suzanne Zlotowski, Vice-President From Hot to Cold 44 FRIENDS OF BGU JAPAN CHAPTER 9911 West Pico Boulevard, Suite 710 David Wernick, Chairman E-mail: [email protected] Deputy-Rector 75-1, Otobe, Tsu Los Angeles, CA 90035 Website: www.bgu.ac.il A Chemical Reaction 46 Prof. Lily Neumann 514-0016 MIE Vice-Rector From the President

Dear Friends,

The University has come alive with activity now that the new academic year is underway. This is no small accomplishment. It took a collective protest by students, faculty and presidents of universities nation-wide to avert yet another crisis in Israeli higher education.

In late October, a somewhat satisfactory budgetary solution was reached with the prime minister that we hope the Finance Ministry will respect and uphold.

Despite these challenges, we are now looking forward to a year of productivity and accomplishment thanks to the commitment of our wonderful students, faculty and staff who strive for excellence, in both teaching and research. By all objective standards, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is a success story. This is evident in the quality of students who have chosen to study in one of our myriad of academic programs and in the noteworthy increase in the competitive research grants that our faculty have received over the past few years.

More than ever, we are focusing on issues of great importance to the Negev and the world, with our mission inextricably linked to the fate of the region. With the aim of both advancing research and promoting development of the Negev, the University continues to reinforce its relationship with industry via both academic collaboration and development of our Advanced Technologies Park, whose infrastructure is currently under construction.

Parallel to the setting of research priorities in the areas of water and alternative and renewable energy – all in the general context of promoting the sustainability of drylands – a new University-wide initiative has been launched to “color the campus green.” This includes initiatives that range from creating educational programs that encourage energy conservation and environmental preservation, while investing in a long-term plan to make our infrastructure more harmonious with the environment.

Continuing to mark a special year – the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel – the University recently marked Ben-Gurion Day, commemorating our first prime minister, by recognizing several important personalities in the arts, history, law, politics, philanthropy and the sciences from Israel and around the globe.

During these days of economic turmoil around the world, it is all the more important to thank our friends and supporters who have made all of this possible and encourage you to continue seeing in us an important and sustainable investment.

In friendship,

Prof. Rivka Carmi, M.D. Lord of the Flies Dr. Uri Abdu

Asked to name the positive characterii external factors such as radiation, istics of the pest known as the common chemical or UV light exposure, as fruit fly, most people will draw a blank. well as internal factors like cellular Not Dr. Uri Abdu from the Department metabolism and replication errors. of Life Sciences and the National “These ‘DNA damage checkpoints’ It quickly became Institute for Biotechnology in the repair damage done to genes,” he Negev, whose work on understanding explains. “They apparently detect the apparent that at the development of cancerous cells in presence of damage in the genome and least 50 percent humans has led him to study the genetic relay a message to other components of model of the fruit fly, the Drosophila the cell that give the cell enough time to of fly genes have melanogaster. repair it.” direct counterparts “The fruit fly genome was mapped So here is the riddle that Abdu is about ten years ago,” Abdu explains. trying to solve: Why do certain cancer – homologous “It quickly became apparent that at cells have dysfunctional checkpoints genes – in man least 50 percent of fly genes have direct that allow these cells to continue to counterparts – homologous genes – in mutate and proliferate uncontrollably? man. Even more important, 75 percent Born and raised in the Negev, Abdu of human genes known to be associated received his undergraduate and graduai with disease have homologous genes in ate degrees from the University’s the fruit fly,” he says excitedly. Department of Life Sciences. “I did my To understand the research post-doctorate research in Princeton performed in his lab and its connection University’s Department of Molecular to cancer, Abdu says that it's important Biology. When it was time to come to understand the function of “DNA back to Israel, it was a no-brainer that Other proteins are emerging as key damage checkpoints” in the human I'd want to return to my roots in the And here he returns to the “players” in DNA damage checkpoints body. These are the proteins that repair Negev,” relates Abdu, whose wife, advantages of the common fruit fly in a with a well-established position as genetic mutations that cause cancer. Dr. Sigal Abramovich, is a researcher laboratory setting. “The drosophila works as an excellent Abdu is specifically looking at the a bona-fide tumor suppressor. “We “Genes are coded messages inside in the Department of Geological Take eyes, for example. A gene for model system for research,” says Abdu, BRCA2 gene in women, which, when hope that our research will lead us a cell that tell it how to behave, and and Environmental Sciences. “I was the human eye has a homologous gene citing their low maintenance cost and damaged or mutated, clearly puts the to understanding the occurrence of intact genes are necessary for proper fortunate to be able to work out a dual in the fruit fly eye, even though the two short life cycle – only 12 days. “In fact, carrier at a greater risk for developing cancers in which certain proteins are functioning of the human body,” he appointment with the NIBN and the eyes are obviously very dissimilar; the the lowly fruit fly has become such a breast or ovarian cancer than the intact, but others are defective,” declares continues. “When a gene is damaged Department, which allows me to look same genes that cause eye degeneration popular model organism for studying general population. Abdu. “Each such protein could serve as or lost, a mutation occurs and some beyond the basic science issues to see in flies are also present in humans. human disease that it is often described “We have found a gene in the fruit a target for drugs.” kinds of mutations cause a cell to start how this may have applications for the Amazingly, a gene from a human eye as a ‘little person with wings’. fly (CG31069) that is homologous to As the father of two little girls, reproducing itself uncontrollably. This treatment of cancer. can rescue the loss of a drosophila eye “In short, drosophila cells use many the human BRCA2,” explains Abdu. Abdu hopes this research will provide cell is cancerous and uncontrolled “We want to understand how these and human eye-genes can be introduced of the same genes and proteins to “We are investigating the interaction successful genetic cures for the next reproduction causes tumors.” ‘fixer’ genes work and why they go into the humble fruit fly to cause control growth and organization as between BRCA2 and what we call generation of women. Human genes can be damaged by awry,” says Abdu. “We hope that this growth of numerous drosophila eyes! human cells,” he says. “Drosophila has the “9-1-1 complex” in the fruit fly’s will help us to find new ways to control proven value in revealing the fundami DNA damage checkpoint, and also cancer cell growth and develop new mental mechanisms by which human in humans. This, he hopes will help drugs that will pinpoint these specific cells control their behavior.” researchers understand the way these genes.” genes work. 2 [3] On the markedly upbeat and even playful. After a decade in the corporate world Seventh stronger built-in leisure ethic. “I was expecting older adults to be working in marketing and advertising, She notes that Israelis, especially discussing serious issues, like health, Dr. Galit Nimrod is studying and teachii older Israelis, have a strong work retirees’ rights and families, but what I ing about leisure for a living and can Day, and family ethic, but leisure is often found is that most often they discussed hardly believe her luck. dismissed by them as a frivolous fun topics and play social games. Nimrod has begun to make a name pursuit. Having fun is the best way to cope studying leisure and older adults, They Americans’ hobbies like fishing and with all these challenges posed by age specifically looking at how retirees sailing are almost unheard of in Israel. and that is what they do on-line,” says spend their newly bountiful free time Instead, Israelis over 65 tend to spend Nimrod. and how the choices they make affect Rested much of their free time with their She recently won a $60,000 grant the quality of their lives and off-set the families, more than their American from the U.S. Mental Health Research trauma that sometimes accompanies counterparts, but genuine leisure time Association (NARSAD) to specifically the transition into retirement. Her tends to be scarce. study how the topic of depression is research has taken her from studying Dr. Galit Nimrod Nimrod jokes that while Jews dealt with on-line. This study does not seniors’ tourism styles to on-line surfing were perhaps the first to honor the focus on older adults exclusively, but is to see how retirees are tapping into the importance of leisure time through the most relevant for them, as an estimated Internet as a new form of community. In her research, Nimrod has looked at creation of Shabbat, a sanctified time 30-40 percent of seniors suffer from “Today, people are retiring the links between being innovative and acknowledging the role of leisure and depression. Her research examines earlier and living longer. Some have having a successful retirement. When rest, Israelis themselves seem to have retirements as long as 30 years, but people are older, she explains, they are forsaken the concept. many don’t know what to do with the generally thought of as conservative and “We invented leisure and are among Israelis over 65 tend time, seeing it not always as a blessing uninterested in pursuing the new. the last to enjoy it,” she says, laughing. but sometimes as a curse,” says Nimrod, “But I argue that if you can start The study of leisure itself, a discipline to spend much of a lecturer at BGU’s Department of something that is completely new, you that began over a century ago, is their free time with Hotel and Tourism Management, who can benefit from expanding your virtually unknown in Israel. bubbles over with an almost infectious interests, and that the challenges the “Here, no one has ever heard of it their families, more enthusiasm for her topic. new activity gives you can eventually and when people hear what I do, they than their American “My focus is transitions later in life grant you more meaning in your life,” think I’m going to the beach,” she says, such as retirement, widowhood and she says. laughing again. counterparts, but health decline, and how we can use This does not mean that people have Nimrod recently won the prestigious genuine leisure time leisure to deal with them,” she says. to completely reinvent themselves and Max Prohovnik prize of the Israel “Today’s new seniors are so different their interests once they are retired, Gerontology Association, awarded tends to be scarce from the old times’ seniors that you she notes. Rather, her research has once every two years for research in the cannot call them ‘old’ anymore. Even shown that people have also found area of old age. She is now introducing how people use depression forums the term ‘old’ is so subjective. When success in retirement when they choose leisure studies into the Hotel and and chat rooms to share information, does a person start to become old today? a new activity that builds on their Tourism program, which is the first of find understanding and possibly even When they retire? When they get sick?” life-long interests or previous career. its kind in Israel. improve their situation. Her interest in the topic was first For example, the lawyer who turns “Ben-Gurion University is perfect “For people feeling isolated and piqued after observing the decline to writing legal mystery books or the for this because it’s an open, innovative depressed, such contact can serve as of a family friend who, soon after he now arthritic drummer who can no university that is friendly to new on BGU, hoping to obtain a position will eventually contribute to developing a lifeline,” says Nimrod, “so I became retired, transformed from being vibrant longer perform but finds achievement disciplines. It really enables research here. But after receiving a Fulbright good leisure services for Israelis at large deeply interested in how people use and successful to depressed and even and fulfillment in organizing music and helps provide all the support one Award, she traveled to the United States and in so doing, will help contribute on-line communities to get inspiration physically frail. Like many other people festivals. needs,” says Nimrod. to work with Prof. Douglas Kleiber of to a better quality of life for what is an to cope with depression and share their moving into retirement, he seemed Nimrod came up with some She explains that even before the University of Georgia, who is one of ever-increasing population. feelings.” lost in a world where he was no longer surprising results while conducting a completing her Ph.D. at the Hebrew the world’s leading leisure scholars. Nimrod’s research has recently defined by his career. cross-cultural study of both Israeli and University of Jerusalem, she had her eye Nimrod is hoping that her research turned to the use of on-line American retirees: that Israelis are not on how older adults use leisure time communities for seniors on the good at leisure. Americans are “better” Internet. The results of her research at transitioning into retirement she have brought surprises, most notably found, because the culture itself has a that the tone of such discussions is 4[5] 30. Like with other autoimmune which would require steroids. He has diseases, the body mistakenly identifies also been examining cardiovascular normal cells as “foreign tissue” and disease in lupus patients, who are A Clinical produces antibodies that attack them. at an increased risk before the age “Once a person has lupus (SLE), of 50, although early detection can it’s for life,” says Abu-Shakra. One in help improve their survival. Approach 1,000 women contracts lupus, which “It’s all about helping and is “not a few,” he adds, and each case alleviating symptoms and gaining There is increasing differs from the next, ranging from more of an understanding for what interest around to Healing mild to serious symptoms of the affects this disease,” he says. “Bottom disease. But while the disease can line, it’s an autoimmune disease the world in both be fatal if left untreated, there are and we want to understand it.” autoimmune diseases Prof. Mahmoud Abu-Shakra treatments and medications that allow Besides his work at the clinic, people to live with it. Meanwhile, Abu-Shakra heads the Rheumatic and women’s health the prognosis for those stricken with Diseases Unit at Soroka, working lupus has improved: whereas in the with patients with chronic diseases past 50 percent would die within five and with students from the Joyce and years of contracting the illness, today Irving Goldman Medical School. 80 percent of those stricken with Abu-Shakra spends much of his the disease survive for 20 years. time shepherding third- and fourth- There is increasing interest around year students, as he believes that the world in both autoimmune diseases clinical work allows them to become and women’s health. Abu-Shakra’s doctors in the true sense of the word. research into SLE combines both. More “Internal medicine is the basis of than five years ago, he and five other medicine,” he says. “This is where rheumatologists established a special they really encounter all kinds of lupus clinic, conducting clinical studies cases and where they learn to click that he hopes will eventually provide with the patients. You have to learn a cure for SLE and other debilitating how to check patients thoroughly autoimmune diseases, whether by and find what others don’t. You gene therapy or other techniques. have to learn how to decipher.” The clinic, staffed by five With all of his responsibilities, rheumatologists and two nurses, Abu-Shakra still finds time to “gives an answer to those who volunteer at a health clinic in Rahat, need it and a place for us to do our the largest Bedouin town in the Negev, research,” says Abu-Shakra. Patients where he offers basic care to local with other rheumatic diseases also residents who wouldn’t otherwise frequent the clinic, offering a “real have easy access to medical care. range” of patients, which, he explains, For Abu-Shakra, who was raised Mahmoud Abu-Shakra didn’t set out But upon reflection, sitting in his into rheumatic diseases, focusing is very helpful for his research. in the north, living in Israel’s south As for being the first Arab-Israeli to become a professor of medicine. paper-piled office at the Soroka on systemic lupus erythematosus, Among his discoveries made while has distanced him from his extended doctor who is also a professor, he Growing up in Umm Al-Fahm, the University Medical Center, he relates known more commonly as SLE or treating the disease is the usefulness family, but as compensation, it offers doesn’t have much time to think about largest Arab city in northern Israel, he that it was the untimely death of his lupus, in which the immune system of the flu vaccine in lupus patients by him the combination of work at the it, although he does make time to was always good at math and figured mother at age 49 from heart failure attacks the body’s cells and tissue. preventing potentially fatal infections, University and in a clinical setting, act as a mentor to many of the Arab he would become an engineer. But that changed his career plans. “I “I was exposed to research on the despite concerns about the safety of with a wide variety of patients. students who are working toward somewhere along the way he was drawn understood that I was more curious disease there and wanted to understand the vaccine for those with a troubled Abu-Shakra is also currently similar goals. With that cue, there’s a to medicine, first as an internist and about medicine than engineering.” more about it,” says Abu-Shakra, immune response. He found that the researching rheumatic diseases in knock on his door as a student arrives then to the world of rheumatic diseases. After graduating from Tel Aviv who, upon his return to Beer-Sheva, vaccine is safe for lupus patients and athletes and conducting research to ask the good doctor a question. Abu-Shakra races between his University’s Sackler School of Medicine, opened a lupus clinic at Soroka. doesn’t create a clinical flareup of SLE, into the causes and symptoms of research projects, clinical work Abu-Shakra moved with his family An autoimmune disease, SLE fibromyalgia. “For a doctor, academia is with patients and helping students. to Beer-Sheva for more training and mostly affects young women, who important,” he says. “Here, a doctor can then to the University of Toronto are usually diagnosed by the age of combine clinical work with research.” School of Medicine for three years, where he expanded his research 6[7] The Law of Learning Dr. Rami Reiner

Dr. Avraham (Rami) Reiner, a devoted And there were some of the answers, We want to look teacher and scholar of Jewish thought carved into tombstones. Here was and Halacha (Jewish law), received the chance to delve into the lives of at Jewish law his most significant research break in ordinary Jewish communities. and see how it an unexpected place: a cemetery in “We needed to understand the Würzburg, Germany. The recent discovee structure of the community,” says changes, consider ery by German colleagues of what are Reiner, who, with his colleagues in the obstacles considered to be the earliest collection Germany and Israel, studied writings of 12th and 13th century Jewish tombse from the period as well as clues and see how they stones in Europe, including graves of uncovered by the gravestones. “Were were overcome people who had been killed during the children buried the same way as adults? Second Crusades, as well as during the What did people do for a living? Why and how those period of the Black Plague in the 1340s, and how did people die?” solutions travel provided new insight into these critical According to their findings, the periods in European history. reasons for death were not unusual for around the world For Reiner, a member of the those times: women died in childbirth; Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish people were killed by criminals or Thought, this discovery provided an because of religious persecution; there opportunity to learn about the life of were any number of illnesses. Children the Jews in Europe in medieval times died at such a frequency that they often from primary sources. He had long been did not even have gravestones. curious about the actual lives of the “It’s all there in Jewish law: love and great Talmud and Torah commentators death, a huge world of culture,” he says. Rabbenu Tam, and his grandfather, “It allows us to understand the culture Rashi, the rabbi from France who wrote of the times. The gravestones opened 5,000 of the Jewish calendar, which also explored the nuances of change Reiner’s students run the gamut from one of the first commentaries on the my eyes to the history of the times, was considered a millennial year for in modern Israel as seen through the religious yeshiva graduates to secular entire Talmud and Torah. widening my spectrum.” Jews, that would usher in redemption, prism of Jewish law. students who have never been exposed What were the mundane textures in Reiner’s research group also found sort of like Y2K for the Jews,” says “There’s a sense that Jewish law is to the concept of Jewish law. For those the lives of these great commentators, that there were many amongst the Reiner. Indeed, many French Jewish frozen and in conflict with modern who have never opened a book of who have shaped his own studies and Jewish community who had converted families traveled to the Land of Israel culture,” comments Reiner, a father of Talmud in their lives, the language research so profoundly? from Christianity during the 1100s. in anticipation of the arrival of the five who grew up in the ultra-Orthodox of the texts is different, unique and “There is no page of Talmud in That trend began to change, however, as messiah. world and then moved into academia in requires its own level of understanding. which Rabbenu Tam is not there; he’s Jews became increasingly marginalized; Aside from his interest in Jews of his late twenties. “But it’s not.” For those students who have grown up the senior commentator,” says Reiner. with the rise of the Crusades, they were medieval times, Reiner, who earned “What I am doing is really cultural steeped in precepts of Halacha, their “It was Rashi and Rabbenu Tam in the regarded as impure and a threat to all three of his academic degrees at studies,” he explains. "We want to look classes with Reiner may be the first time West and Maimonides in the East. I Christianity. The First Crusade of 1096 the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, at Jewish law and see how that has they are critiquing these texts. want to see who they are, what they marked the unleashing of the violent has been devoting the last few years changed, consider the obstacles and “Modern Jewish law is fascinating thought, how they lived, to deal with European persecution of the Jews. to studying modern Jewish law and see how they were overcome and how because there are so many challenges,” their daily lives.” In an intriguing footnote to this its ability to adapt to change. He has those solutions travel around the world. says Reiner. “I tell my students that period, Reiner relates that 200 years It’s like orchestral music; I look at the you can love it or not but it is a whole later, in the year 1240, contemporary minor questions and major questions, cultural world to explore.” Jews believed their salvation was as in a musical movement.” near. “This corresponds to the year 12th and 13th century Jewish tombstones in Europe 8[9] computer tasks into incremental steps so that at each step you face a sub- problem,” explains Ziv-Ukelson, who is now a member of the Department of Dr. Michal Ziv-Ukelson always Computer Sciences. This marriage of computer science dreamed of being a biologist. She “It’s a bit like organizing a messy and biology – what is now referred to studied biology in high school and at closet,” she suggests. “If you give as bioinformatics – “allowed me to go university, but then her “dream crashed in to the temptation to flit between back to biology, without going back to head-on with reality,” she says, relating organizing a few hanging suits and the traditional laboratory. Instead, my how she discovered that she has, “two then a few pairs of shoes in no apparent computer is my lab,” she says. left hands, and I hated dissecting order, you’ll get nowhere. You have to Ziv-Ukelson says she has found the animals.” She had no choice but to divide the task – organizing the closet University’s Departments of Computer accept the fact that laboratory work was – into sub-tasks, like ‘organize shoes’ Science and Life Sciences, “wonderful, not in her future. Instead, she found and ‘hanging clothes’ and work on each collaborative environments.” These that she had a knack for computers. sub-project in systematic, incremental days, she is working to unlock the “I was drawn into the computer- steps. mysteries of ribonucleic acid (RNA). science field of pattern-matching that “In other words, I devised algorithms A chemical cousin of DNA, RNA is is used to determine whether certain to perform the same pattern-matching responsible for translating the genetic things have a desired structure,” she a lot more efficiently – hence a lot faster code of DNA into proteins, and for explains. She found herself at IBM’s – than the old programs,” she says with other chemical activities of the cell. T.J. Watson Research Center in New characteristic simplicity. Researching binding sites of micro- York, where she was part of their The inducement that drew Ziv- RNA has involved her in the “RNA cutting-edge handwriting recognition Ukelson back into biology was the revolution”. project. “We each have our own unique handwriting style, and even though our handwriting may vary slightly from day to day, there are enough similarities to Biologically create a certain distinct pattern,” she explains. She developed an algorithm to “teach” the computer to recognize Determined handwriting, so that it can accept user-input from a pen-based computer screen, instead of the standard Dr. Michal Ziv-Ukelson keyboard, and automatically convert it to text as it is written. This became For many years, we part of IBM’s “electronic-ink” computer enormous scientific breakthrough that “I am trying to unravel the makeup thought that DNA products. resulted in the mapping of the human of these sites because there are some After five years at Watson, Ziv- genome. Consisting of three billion forms of disease or cancer that may research was the Ukelson decided it was time to go back letters that make up the human DNA, be attributed to mutated messenger or to school. She received her Masters the genome holds the genetic blueprint micro-RNAs,” she says, adding that key to finding a cure degree in 1997 from Polytechnic of life. this aspect is new. “For many years, we for cancer. Today, themselves in such a way that many accessible. Similarly, we need to know University in New York, and then came “Since genome data are represented thought that DNA research was the key binding sites are simply not accessible how the mRNA ‘folds’ itself in order back to Israel to complete her doctoral as strings of text,” she explains, “I was to finding a cure for cancer. Today, we we focus on RNA for matching mRNAs. to focus on binding sites that are studies at Haifa University. able to apply the same principles of focus on RNA research as well.” Using her hands to clarify the point, accessible.” “In my studies and research, I used combinatorial pattern-matching I’d Her research focuses on predicting research as well Ziv-Ukelson explains that “to visualize “Once we know how all the my pattern-matching experience used before to invent more efficient target mRNA structures and accessible this, press your fingers together and forms of RNA work, we can tinker to improve dynamic programming computer algorithms. These can be RNA binding sites. The adjective look at your hand. The only parts of with them and start looking for algorithms, which involves developing implemented as practical software tools “accessible” is critical here, because your fingers that are really accessible a cure. But first we must find out programs that break down complicated to assist scientists to make sense of it turns out that mRNAs “fold” are your finger tips. Now spread your how they work,” she concludes. the genomic data and unlock genetic fingers as far apart as possible; more secrets.” areas between the fingers are now 10[11] Managing the Masses Dr. Amir Grinstein

As a Ph.D. student with few resources countries did excel, despite, and that is in scarce supply.” The usual minority communities have to be for cutting-edge research, Dr. Amir perhaps, because, of the challenges they strategy to reduce demand is by raising adjusted accordingly. Grinstein, now a lecturer at the had to confront. prices or applying regulations. “The implications for policy Guilford Glazer School of Business “Blessed are the resource-poor,” Grinstein wonders if the demarketing makers are that marketing, or in this and Management, tried out one of his jokes Grinstein who specializes in concept could be applied to the public case demarketing, can be used to management theories on himself. marketing, in discussing this research. sector, specifically to minorities. complement other policy tools that Can academics, like societies and Grinstein, who did his post-doctorate Would it be possible to examine the are typically being implemented,” nations, turn disadvantages and work at Harvard Business School, success of government demarketing comments Grinstein. “Policy makers constraints into assets? originally thought he would take up for a non-commercial product? He and often prefer to use economic incentives Spinning off from a theory of a career in marketing before he fell in his co-researcher Udi Nisan, Director- and regulations rather than marketing global history, which maintains that love with academia. He says he relishes General of the Israel Government because it’s hard to measure marketing it is during times of war, economic unearthing the unknown. “I want to Companies Authority, examined the campaigns’ effectiveness.” crises and shortages that societies tell people stories that will take them by use of tap water in Jerusalem during an But in this case, Grinstein and his become the most innovative, he and surprise, to tell them things they did not acute water shortage in 1999-2001 as colleague were able to present hard a fellow Ph.D. student had the idea of know before,” he relates. their test case. data, which showed a dramatic overall examining whether academics from Grinstein says that feedback to the “I wanted to show that demarketing reduction in use of water – about 6 developing countries with less resources research has been strong and “this could succeed in decreasing demand, percent. If the government had wanted and support for conducting research is part of why we feel this is a strong and also to see how this strategy to reach the same results without such a could outperform counterparts from theory. Because it can be seen in real produced different responses from demarketing campaign, they theorized, wealthier countries. Similarly, could life, people can relate to it, especially different ethnic groups,” he says. it would have had to raise water prices women who suffer social discrimination those who consider themselves Specifically, how would the diverse by 35 percent. surpass their male counterparts in underdogs.” residents of Jerusalem respond to an These findings can be applied to other academia? He and Rosenzweig recently started aggressive government ad campaign to public campaigns, Grinstein suggests, Taking a sample of research papers work expanding the research to reduce home water consumption? such as ones for recycling, using smaller that were published in four major examine how companies deal with What he and Nisan found was cars, reducing pollution and the war marketing journals during the 1965- challenging times and conditions – a that response to the campaign varied against drugs and alcohol use. "I think 1990 period and written by a variety project they are carrying out together depending on the consumers’ feelings of it's important for people in academia of contributors, including women and with Christine Moorman, a professor national connection. The non-religious to have an impact on public policy individuals from places such as India at Duke University who is a leading Jews were the most responsive and makers,” he says. and Israel, what are called “second tier” authority in marketing. had the greatest decreases in water Grinstein says he has found a countries in the professional lexicon, Getting a chance to work with consumption, followed by the Russian nurturing and supportive academic Grinstein and his colleagues, Stav someone of Moorman’s caliber, immigrants, ultra-Orthodox Jews and home at the University, a prime Rosenzweig of the Hebrew University Grinstein says, is another example of finally, Jerusalem’s Arab residents. example, he says, of his theory that of Jerusalem and Elie Ofek of Harvard his theory. When you live in Israel, Among Jerusalem’s Arab population challenged people and places can University, measured the papers’ you have to develop good and even there were discrepancies. Most notably, often be very successful. “It’s the most success by how often they were cited aggressive social networking skills, Arabs who sent their children to the challenge-oriented university in Israel. and referenced by fellow academics. he explains. “You have to be clear, mainstream Israeli educational system We are the youngest and hungriest of “The issue is how people overcome interesting and persuasive.” were more responsive than Arabs whose the schools and now we are the fastest challenging or constraining situations Grinstein has been drawing attention children went to Arab or independent growing one too,” he declares. and in turn develop special skills that for his research on the impact of non- schools. This further strengthened Can academics, like societies and nations, turn help them,” says Grinstein. marketing – or “demarketing” as he the thesis that national ties increase What they found was that both calls it – in the public sector, specifically responsiveness to government disadvantages and constraints into assets? women and people from second tier among minorities. campaigns and that approaches to “Demarketing,” Grinstein explains, “is when an effort is made at reducing or discouraging the demand for a product 12[13] With the ever increasing shortage of surface compared to the sandy soils soil and rock fractures, Weisbrod, during the night than during the day, in the world's water resources of the coastal aquifer. “Hydrologists now a resident of Sede Boqer with through fractures. During the day, the and dire warning of Israel’s own once thought chalk was a natural his wife and two small children, has air deep inside the fracture is cooler ongoing drought, research to reduce barrier protecting the groundwater recently focused his research on what than the warm air at its opening. This contamination of existing water under what is now the Ramat Hovav is coming up through these fissures. is a stable condition. At night, the air resources while developing new potable industrial complex, located south of “Gases, particularly water vapor,” he cools down and unstable conditions sources has become a pressing concern, Beer-Sheva, but they were wrong,” he explains, “are being released from develop, which is when convective here, as in the rest of the world. continues. “The chalk formation may deep underground through the earth’s movement takes place: the now cooler For example, due to massive be impermeable in most areas, but it fractures into the atmosphere. Until atmospheric air invades the fracture deterioration of groundwater quality, is fractured: the maze of cracks and now, scientists have neglected this and the relatively warmer and lighter the Israeli coastal plain aquifer now fissures create a kind of by-pass from critical aspect of fracture physics,” he humid inner air goes out. provides less than 50 percent of its the surface to the water table, allowing says. “We’ve demonstrated and quantified output 20 years ago. pollutants and salts to migrate through Fractures have been intensively this process both in the field and in a Thus the need to halt or reverse the cracks crossing the chalk rock and studied for their role in aquifer recharge specially designed climate controlled the degradation of the country’s reach groundwater at surprisingly high laboratory,” says Weisbrod. “We believe groundwater is crucially important. velocities,” he explains. this mechanism plays an important role Hydrologist Dr. Noam Weisbrod’s Weisbrod’s first face-to-face in the gas exchange rate between the research is providing the basic confrontation with such aquifer earth and the atmosphere and may also knowledge that can help in solving this pollution took place during his graduate be important in our understanding of crisis by understanding how pollutants studies at the Hebrew University of the energy balance across the earth’s reach the subsurface and how they Jerusalem in the early 1990s when surface.” behave underground. worrying signs of groundwater In addition to water vapor, movement Weisbrod, a member of the degradation under the hazardous waste of gases through fractures affects the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research depository at Ramat Hovav began exchange of many other “greenhouse” of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for appearing. He became a member of the gases, including carbon dioxide and Desert Research at the University’s scientific team looking into why this methane. “Even small changes in Sede Boqer campus, is investigating the was happening, studying the role of the such gases are thought to have large transport of various contaminants into Falling fractures as carriers of pollutants to the repercussions on global climatic the groundwater from land-surface, deep subsurface. function,” he continues. Since there are through the soil to the aquifer, and Weisbrod found the multidisci-p untold numbers of cracks, shafts, caves within the aquifer to vital production Through the plinary challenges in this field exciting. and other cavities on the earth’s surface, wells for fresh water. It involved the interface between if climatologists were given accurate Weisbrod, together with his fellow chemistry, physics, flow behavior or aquifer contamination during data on earth-atmosphere gas exchange researchers and students, has been Cracks and material properties, against the periods of liquid infiltration. In general, rates via these cavities throughout the studying how pollutants travel to reach politically charged backdrop of they have been considered inactive world,” contends Weisbrod, “they could the groundwater below industrial sites social, commercial and governmental when there is no precipitation. In arid design better models predicting climate at various locales around the country. inputs. All these aspects came into change and CO concentrations. And Dr. Noam Weisbrod and semi-arid environments, this is the 2 “Of special concern is the leaching of play during his postdoctoral studies case more than 90 percent of the time. this is a completely untouched area of contaminants from military-related at the Department of Bioengineering But here’s a surprising fact: geoscience.” industries, such as chromium, missile at Oregon State University, where he “Fractures breathe,” declares Weisbrod, By demonstrating how gases move fuel residues, explosives and volatile worked at a government nuclear waste “and this process has direct relevance to up and out of natural fissures due to organic compounds, which have been site in Washington state. There, he the question of global warming. The role temperature differences, Weisbrod released at the surface for decades,” studied transport processes in the local of geological fissures in global water- believes his research has opened a small he says with concern. At the largest sandy soil, which had been contami-n cycles has been entirely neglected in the window into a novel mechanism that waste reclamation project in Israel, Fractures breathe, nated by highly radioactive wastes that design of modern climate models," he may have serious implications for better the Shafdan, Weisbrod is working on and this process had leaked out of the site’s huge storage notes. prediction and understanding of global exploring the migration of treated tanks. Weisbrod and his group have shown climate change and the global water wastewater from filtration ponds has direct relevance Having spent years studying how that in dry arid regions, such as the cycle. through deep sandy layers. to the question of pollutants move down through natural Negev desert, there is a nightly escape The local chalk formation in the of water vapor from fractures. They’ve Negev desert is a very different kind global warming proven that, in fact, water vapors are being released at a much greater rate 14[15] A “First” for Hebrew Literature “Herstory” of a Journey

Newly-expanded Hebrew literature archives, under the auspices of Asefu Bero, a doctoral candidate in Hebrew to be receptive to such ideas, the research Heksherim – the Research Institute for Jewish and Israeli Literature and literature, traces her penchant for writing project presents rather unique challenges. Culture, have opened in the Helen Diller Family Center on the Marcus to her grandfather in the Gondar region of Bero left Ethiopia as a little girl in 1986 Family Campus. The archives reflect the University’s commitment to creating Ethiopia, who was a Torah scribe. Yet her with her parents and brothers and sisters. It comprehensive research archives for the “First Israelis” – the authors, poets Diversity literary inheritance didn’t reveal itself until took them two years to get to Israel. “There and playwrights who began to write after the establishment of the State and she was in high school in the moshav Kfar was a civil war going on in Ethiopia,” she whose works reflect the historical and cultural currents that shaped Israel’s Hasidim, studying at a boarding school with says, explaining the long route. They arrived development. other immigrant children, including many in 1988, when she was eight years old. of Spirit Ethiopians. She went to boarding school in Haifa, The archives, made possible with the generous support of the Caesarea Foundation Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild, already include the works Today, Bero, 32, is a published novelist – then stayed with her grandparents in the of internationally renowned authors such as Amos Oz, Aharon Appelfeld, author of Yare’ach Acher (“A Different Moon”) northern Negev town of Kiryat Gat before Yehuda Amichai, Ruth Almog, David Avidan, Yocheved Bat-Miriam, David brought out in 2002 by the prominent Israeli being sent to the boarding school at Kfar publishing house Keter. “The book tells Hasidim where she discovered her love of Schutz and Nissim Aloni. about my journey from Ethiopia to Israel,” writing. Amongst the tens of thousands of articles housed in the archives, one can Our international says Bero. Her most avid readers, she says, are find a wide range of materials, from Aharon Appelfeld’s original manuscripts “The book is about men and women,” she young Ethiopians, especially women, whom to David Avidan’s typewriter and translations of Amos Oz’s books into student body brings a says, commenting that she didn’t intend it to she meets at conferences. “The young dozens of languages, including Korean and Finnish. The archives include be that way, “but that’s the way it came out.” generation of Ethiopians in Israel doesn’t the various editions of books in all the languages into which they have been wide range of experiences She defines herself as a feminist, adding that know what it was like in Ethiopia,” she notes, translated; research papers and articles pertaining to the authors and their she didn’t plan that either, but that her life so the saga she describes is all new to them. works; articles and interviews in newspapers, on television and radio in and perspectives to has taken her in that direction. But this is part of the problem for an various languages; photographs and films; diverse correspondence; original Bero completed both her Bachelors Ethiopian novelist in Israel – or anywhere, manuscripts preserved under appropriate conditions of heat and humidity; Ben-Gurion University’s and Masters degrees at the Department of for that matter – finding a large enough and other items worthy of display. Some of the material is still in the process Hebrew Literature in the special Folklore audience to make her books economically of being collected, classified and catalogued. family. These profiles Studies program, graduating with honors. worthwhile to publish. “The book industry The archives are open to researchers, students and the general public. For her Masters thesis, she focused on the is very commercial,” she says. “Not too many There are computer terminals for visitors, comfortable work areas, and a celebrate the variety of role of magical talismans in stories among people want to read about Ethiopians dying friendly staff that includes professional librarians, students and volunteers Israeli Jews of Ethiopian origin. The study in a Sudanese refugee camp.” who dedicate their time and expertise to organizing the material. was based on her own family history. While today Bero regards herself as interests and multitude of Once she completes her dissertation, a feminist, she says she came to this Bero will be the first Ethiopian to receive a understanding as an adult through talents – both academic Ph.D. from BGU. For her research, she plans literature, particularly works of African- to investigate the Zar trance ceremony American writers. “This reflected my own and extracurricular – of among Israelis of Ethiopian origin, under experience, that of being doubly repressed: Prof. Tamar Alexander and Dr. Yuval Harari as a woman and as someone from a just a few of these from the Department of Hebrew Literature. different ethnic background.” The phenomenon – which has been Being an Ethiopian feminist isn’t a ticket exceptional people. compared to the Jewish folklore concept of to popularity; the Ethiopian community a dybbuk – is a form of trance-possession tends to be extremely patriarchal, with prevalent among people of southern Sudan women expected to obey the husband. and Ethiopia, including the Ethiopian Jews. “There is a lot of fear of feminism in the Bero’s idea is to use the ceremony as a tool Ethiopian community,” says Bero. for examining the changes that occurred “A Different Moon” ends in the year during the community’s migration from 1994, but Bero, who is now married and the Ethiopia to Israel. Because Zar is a sensitive mother of two small children, is working topic, and members of the Ethiopian on her next novel that will pick up her community are very reluctant to share their personal/historical journey from there. “But beliefs with outsiders who have not proven I’m busy with classes for now,” she says, “so I’m going to have to finish it when I can find the time.” 16[17] The Road from Jordan

It was about a decade ago that Fawzi “My time at the University has been Abdoh, a Jordanian water engineer, a wonderful experience. The academic first visited Ben-Gurion University while standard is very high. The courses are working on a Danish-funded, five-year very useful in my field. The facilities are water project in the West Bank. Today, he highly advanced and all the students and is a doctoral student at the Department professors have been extremely friendly of Geography and Environmental and helpful.” Development, beginning work on his Israelis hear a lot about the anti-Israel dissertation. Standing in his backyard in attitudes of academics and professionals Jebel Mukaber, the neighborhood of East in the Arab world. Wouldn’t it be difficult Jerusalem where he lives with his wife for him to work as an engineer in Jordan and three children, Abdoh points to the after living and studying for years in hazy sky in the east and says, “On a clear Israel? day, you can see the slopes of Jordan.” He “It might be a problem for an engineer is holding his nine month-old son, Ridha; just starting out, but not for someone the name means “satisfaction” in Arabic. with a lot of experience who has worked Abdoh, 39, finished the Palestinian on international projects,” says Abdoh, project in 2003, but was ultimately noting that at the Jordanian firm where interested in learning more about the he was employed, he had responsibility All in the Family science of water. Israel has a great deal for budgeting and manpower on to offer the Middle East, and Jordan in projects in 30 different countries, adding You could say the Yedidsion family – the students, more and better faculty members, because the university sets aside two hours particular, he explains, in the all-important that he himself headed a major project in name means “friend of Zion” in Hebrew – more facilities, more funding. Today, people every Wednesday for this activity. I said to issue of water use. “Agriculture in Israel Uganda. has come of age with Ben-Gurion University. know it as one of the best universities in the myself: “At BGU, you always see students isn’t a matter of tradition, it’s a science. In On a clear day, Abdoh can also see Ten years ago, brothers Liron and Harel were country.” sitting on the lawn chatting and listening to Jordan, it hasn’t developed to that extent the Dead Sea from his backyard. While lured here by scholarships from their native The city of Beer-Sheva has grown as well, music; you don’t need to schedule it in.” yet,” he comments. the severe receding of the Dead Sea is a city of Ra’anana. Today, they and four other though not nearly as dramatically as the Adi believes that because of BGU’s “I thought I could serve as a good terrible setback to the Israeli and regional members of the Yedidsion family – mother University – but the Yedidsions see this as distance from the populous center of example of peaceful co-existence – a environment, he believes it is also a Ronit, sister Ma’ayan, brother Sivan, and an advantage for BGU, a key to its unique the country, it has a larger proportion of Jordanian who had worked in the West source of hope. Noting that preliminary Liron’s wife Adi – have all completed, or are standing on the Israeli higher education students who’ve moved away from home Bank on a project for Palestinians and work on the canal linking the Red and studying toward, advanced degrees at the scene. than is found at other Israeli universities. In who was now studying in Israel,” he says. Dead Seas began in August, he says that University. They marvel at the changes that “Other universities in Israel are in the big fact, 50 percent of BGU’s student population His doctoral coursework took place in one day that canal will provide at least have taken place during the decade they’ve cities – Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Haifa – so the comes from outside the Negev. Thus, Hebrew, which wasn’t easy, but he credits 500 million cubic meters of fresh water been here. students there generally go to class and go she says, attending BGU is more like the the support he received from other every year to the parched nations of the Ma’ayan, the youngest of the Yedidsion home. There’s so much to do off-campus, so American experience of “going away to students and lecturers for his grade point Middle East. While the issue of water is a clan, is a student at the Joyce and Irving that’s where their social lives are,” says Adi, college” than in other universities in the average of 93. linchpin to peacemaking in the region, Goldman School of Medicine, while Ronit who earned her Masters degree from the country. “To accommodate me, one of my Abdoh says that the problem is not a is studying for her Masters degree in Department of Education and now works Liron, Harel and Adi all agree that their professors taught his course in English shortage of water, but a shortage of gerontology. Sivan is beginning his career as in the University’s Computation Center. years at BGU were part of their maturation – with the other students’ agreement. In “cooperation and coordination.” an accountant after receiving his Bachelors “Here, people spend more time together process; “self-confidence” is the benefit they another course, the professor showed the What’s needed are more “examples of degree in economics and accounting. on campus – studying and getting to know all mention, and they attribute it to their slides in English. One of my classmates, peaceful coexistence,” and in a Jordanian “In 1998, the University wasn’t particularly each other.” scholastic success at the University. Yaniv Monbaz, volunteered to tutor me water engineer living and studying well known. All I knew was that it was in Her husband Liron, who completed his Harel has grown so attached to BGU for free. Now he is receiving a stipend in Israel, the University has found a Beer-Sheva, which was this little backwater doctoral degree in Industrial Engineering – and, yes, to Beer-Sheva – that after three from the Office of the Dean of Students remarkable one. town you drove past on weekend leave and Management, illustrates the BGU years of working at a large hi-tech company for assistance he has given me and has from the army,” says Harel, who is a doctoral difference by describing a recent visit to in the North, he missed the University and been to Jordan as part of his studies,” says candidate in the Department of Industrial the Technion. “I was there on a Wednesday the city, so he returned. Now a student and Abdoh. Engineering and Management. “The afternoon, and my host told me the reason lecturer, he hopes to build his academic difference between BGU then and now I saw so many students sitting on the career here. is like night and day. It has so many more lawn, chatting and listening to music, was 18[19] Knowing without Seeing Combining Feminism and Judaism

Eynav Maharabani has been blind from birth blind. The results revealed that while time Sharon Orshalimi is a complex young know how to say the most basic prayers in – Orshalimi feels she is helping restore the but she says she doesn’t “feel” like a blind from departure to destination did not differ woman. Raised in the Ramat Aviv Gimmel Judaism.” Jewish dimension for the country’s young person. significantly, meter readings and actual neighborhood of Tel Aviv, what is known as Hillel: the Foundation for Jewish Campus generation – a dimension she inherited from “Most of my life has been spent in the payments were significantly lower when the Israel’s “Beverly Hills,” she now devotes her Life, established its first branch aimed her mother’s American side. community of ‘seeing’ people,” she explains. passenger was blind. “It seems as if the taxi time to advancing a variety of causes that primarily at Israelis, at BGU in 2003. The This is a void Orshalimi tries to fill with “From the time I was born, my parents drivers were less inclined to overcharge the range from Bedouin rights to feminism and organization is rooted in the United States her work in Hillel and the Conservative decided that I would be treated like a blind passengers than the ‘regular’ ones!” conservative Judaism. and its first two branches in Israel were movement’s youth group. Yet her Judaism regular child and learn in a regular school.” she concludes. It’s not easy for a 23-year-old woman to mainly focused on offering services to isn’t strictly religious and traditional – it also And indeed, that is just what she Maharabani is uncertain whether she put all these parts of an identity together. American students studying in the country. has an inextricable social component, part did, above all with determination. would find similar results in other countries. “But at Ben-Gurion University, I’ve found my The organization’s popularity at BGU brings of which is feminist. Maharabani recently received her Masters “I spent some time in the United States place,” says Orshalimi. “It’s me.” close to 3,000 students to its activities. She has found herself working closely in Business Administration (MBA), with a when I was in high school and I noticed Orshalimi has a connection to American The advent of Hillel on Israeli university with female Bedouin students as part of her specialization in marketing. She received two very contradictory tendencies: one is Jewry through her mother who was raised campuses was, argues Orshalimi, a way to overall commitment to advocate on behalf her undergraduate degree from the that there is much greater accessibility for in Detroit, where Orshalimi has spent a counter Israeli complacency about Jewish of the Bedouin community. Department of Management at the Guilford disabled persons, including the blind, in the lot of time. “I loved going to shul in the identity, that is, the commonly held notion Around 200 BGU students and professors Glazer School of Business and Management. US than in Israel. But on the other hand, the United States,” she says, adding that this here that Judaism is alive and well only in attend the various Bedouin-related activities, In addition to a tutor, she relied upon people in New York were very unhelpful to love of Judaism is something she missed the Jewish state, while in the Diaspora, it’s says Orshalimi. friends and teachers to read what was strangers, including those with disabilities. in her childhood environment in Israel, and dying. Orshalimi insists that Israel has a lot It’s not surprising that she plans to return written on the blackboard, and family People are a lot more helpful in Israel. something she, by joining Hillel at BGU, is to learn from the Diaspora about keeping to the US next fall as a Ph.D. candidate in members read textbooks at home. “I’m lucky So…I don’t know how my test case with taxi trying to communicate to the University’s Judaism alive. women’s studies, her ultimate goal being to have an excellent memory and I was also drivers would have turned out in New York.” student body. “The founding of the State of Israel to return to Israel and devote herself to the able to write into a special Braille typewriter,” After earning her Masters degree, “The kids I grew up with in Ramat Aviv ended the connection with Judaism for fight against sexual harassment. “It’s part she says with characteristic modesty. Maharabani trained as a Life Coach, a Gimmel don’t know how to say Shma Yisrael, a lot of people in this country,” she says. of who I am,” she says – part of the process Born and raised in Beer-Sheva, profession that helps people determine they’re not familiar with the Book of Esther By involving students in learning Jewish of self-discovery this young woman from Maharabani’s path to BGU wasn’t always and achieve personal goals. “I coach a lot by from Purim,” she says. “When you go on texts, in learning what Judaism has to Ramat Aviv Gimmel went through in a new- easy, but was helped over the years through telephone,” she says. “People seem to prefer the March of the Living in Poland, the kids say to modern women and in fostering found community at BGU. technological innovations, encouraging that mode of communication, as it saves from Israel are the only ones who don’t social justice for minorities – “the stranger” teachers, and the support of friends and time.” family. While she was still in high school, “I have a great listening ability,” she says, a special scanner was developed that explaining how she compensates for lack of converts written texts into Braille, enabling sight. “I don’t need to see body language, her to “read” textbooks instead of hearing I feel it. In fact, I think that seeing the way them. Another technological innovation people dress or how they look only creates of the time was a special laptop computer an illusion of reality and gets in the way with a “Braille screen” attached. “That of really understanding who they are. I was a real breakthrough because it could understand the essence of the person, convert regular text into Braille on my own under all the layers and disguises. That’s computer,” she says. what makes me a successful life coach.” When it came time to present a subject Maharabani is also working at the for her Masters thesis, Maharabani decided University as an instructor’s assistant to to carry out research inspired by her own Dr. Hila Riemer in the Department of experiences. “Honesty and Helping Behavior Management while she considers her future. – Testing Situations Involving Temptation Maharabani says she’d like to have a to Cheat a Blind Person,” describes the family and children, and also a career. reactions of actual vendors and service “I enjoy my coaching work, but academia providers faced with the opportunity to take beckons me as well. My dream is to combine advantage of a blind person. my people skills with academia in the One of the test situations involved two teaching field. My motto is and has always people ordering taxi rides from identical been: ‘If you will it, it is no dream’.” points of departure and destination; one passenger was sighted while the other was

20[21] In Case of Emergency Dr. Dagan Schwartz

At 10 p.m. on Oct. 7, 2004, two impossible. Everything needs to be and Arabic for 18 students. The suicide bombers crashed their car organized and in place beforehand, so curriculum will give the Jordanians into the Hilton Hotel in Taba, Egypt, that there can be a coordinated effort.” both in-depth academic knowledge very close to the Israeli-Egyptian A decorated veteran of the Israel and hands-on experience that will lead border, just south of Eilat. A few Defense Forces (last year he was to a Bachelors degree in Emergency hours later, there was another suicide awarded a Certificate of Merit for his Medicine. “We will be working with What is effective bombing in the Sinai desert resort role in the air-evacuation of wounded Jordanian hospitals on this program,” is to develop local area of Ras a-Satan, some 50 km to soldiers during the Second Lebanon he explains. “Third-year studies will the south. In all, 38 people died and War in 2006), Schwartz served until take place in hospitals and then with resources, preparing 185 were injured in the bombings. recently as the director of paramedic actual emergency services in Jordan. the local population The nearest medical facility to the education and was the assistant medical The skills they acquire in this program sites was Yoseftal Hospital, a small director of Magen David Adom (the will help the Jordanian paramedics or people who are hospital in Eilat, a few kilometers from Israeli national EMS) for eight years. He respond to everyday medical close by. If you have Taba, on the Israeli side of the border. confidently claims to personally know emergencies as well as to disasters.” In the pandemonium immediately every paramedic in the country. Schwartz directs the Faculty of an ambulance driver following the bombings, bewildered “Luckily in Israel we haven’t had Health Sciences’ undergraduate degree across the border 30 Egyptian officials barely loosened experiences of incidents of huge mass program for paramedics – the only border-crossing regulations, allowing casualties, such as an earthquake where academic course in emergency medicine minutes away, he only a trickle of Eilat rescue workers there are hundreds of thousands of in the country, which is, he says, the can help into Taba. injured,” he says, adding that through main reason he decided to come to Dr. Dagan Schwartz, a reserve force of bitter circumstances, Israelis BGU five years ago. This year, Schwartz Lieutenant Colonel flight physician in have become experts in the field of what oversaw the creation of a Masters enormously. I find teaching really fun.” They can talk, move and breathe. the patient, treat him with IVs, shock, the Israeli Air Force’s airborne Rescue he terms “small mass causalities,” as the program in emergency medicine. One of his biggest concerns as Some dummies can even imitate heart whatever is needed, and to efficiently use and Evacuation Unit, was drafted that result of wars and suicide bombings. What drew Dagan Schwartz into an educator of emergency medicine attacks or breathing difficulties, such as the members of the team. At the end of night and participated in the airborne Schwartz is skeptical about the cost- emergency medicine? “In the army is patient safety. According to US simulating only one functioning lung. the scenario they watch a video of what transportation of victims from Eilat to effectiveness of rescue missions carried I became a medic and eventually a statistics, medical errors are the seventh “This is really very close to reality and happened, actually observing how they Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv. out by teams flown into scenes of combat medic course commander. leading cause of death. “In the past, the the dummies are getting better all the performed. This is a wonderful teaching He experienced first-hand the confusion catastrophes around the world. “What That’s when I found it really medical community was always very time,” says Schwartz, adding that such tool.” that delayed the evacuation of the is effective is to develop local resources, fascinating.” At the time that Schwartz closed regarding debate on medical centers have been proven to decrease Schwartz’s wife Rama is a pediatrician injured by almost a full day. preparing the local population or finished medical school, there was errors,” says Schwartz, who set up medical errors and also create an who specializes in emergency medicine at As a member of the professional people who are close by. If you have an no residency program in emergency the sophisticated Center for Medical atmosphere where procedures can be Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petach team that subsequently analyzed how ambulance driver across the border 30 medicine in Israel, so he did his initial Simulation at the Leon and Mathilde discussed. Tikvah. The couple has three children. that Sinai rescue operation functioned, minutes away, he can help,” he says. residency in pediatrics. He then went Recanati School for Community The Center is used to train paramedic “We’re very close professionally.” Schwartz, Chairman of BGU’s Depart- Towards this end, he has had a key on to do his residency in emergency Health Professions, the only university- teams, who must be able to work Does Dr. Schwartz ever lose his ment of Emergency Medicine at the role in the development of unique medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, at Mt. affiliated center of its kind in the together. Usually there are at least three cool? “Rarely,” he replies. “I imagine Leon and Mathilde Recanati School cooperation with the Jordanian Sinai Hospital. country. in a team: the physician, the paramedic if I weren’t calm, I wouldn’t have gone for Community Health Professions, Emergency Medical Services to From teaching medic courses in the “Medical simulation allows people to and a volunteer. “We give them the into emergency medicine. It’s got says he understands today that “trying establish a three-year academic army, to teaching paramedic courses make mistakes without causing damage, actual equipment they will be using in crazy hours. You have to like it: the to create cooperation in the midst program in emergency medicine tailor- at Magen David Adom, to his current and to learn from their mistakes,” he the field. They go into a room where stress, the adrenaline; you have to be of an emergency situation is almost made for Jordanian paramedics, to be position at the University, Schwartz says explains. there is an instructor and either a able to function well under stress.” taught at BGU. he has always loved teaching. “I enjoy it The stars of the simulation center dummy or an actor, and they’re told, for Starting in March 2009, the planned are extremely sophisticated dummies. example, ‘this is a 55-year-old man who course will offer instruction in English has had chest pains since yesterday.’ They have to ask questions, examine 22[23] SOUVENIRS Repressed Historical and Personal Memory in the Works of Israeli and Polish Artists

A ground-breaking exhibition juxtaposed Israeli and Polish artworks to highlight the similarities and differences reflecting the joint historical legacy of the two countries, while addressing the more abstract questions of how people process memory and commemoration. Named Souvenirs, the exhibition examined the dual meaning of these items – as a memento from a specific place or time, or as a relic from the past that has unrelated, but significant meaning. In the latter case, a souvenir gains a new life and produces a narrative that may be linked to its Yair Garbuz, Hora Parents, 2006, central panel of the triptych A Life of Rattle, 2006, Haim Maor, Untitled (mother’s blouse), 1994, Krzysztof M. Bednarski, I, Bruno Schulz, 1982, installation, 86 x 62 x 32 cm “origin” in a distant and vague manner, but which mixed media on plywood, 160 x 120 cm, courtesy of Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv cotton blouse and light box, 15.5 x 50 x 70 cm, artist’s collection is nonetheless intense and moving. The opening of the exhibition was accompanied by an international conference that attracted scholars and historians from around the world who examined the question of personal and historical memory according to psychology, history, theology, literature and the arts. The two projects were made possible by collaboration between the University’s Department of the Arts and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw and was one of the highlights of the Polish- Israeli Season, 2008-2009, with the support of Yifat Lajst, Rynder’s Dream, 1982, the Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies video installation, 25 mins, without a soundtrack and Diplomacy and the Polish Institute. Contemporary Israeli and Polish artists reworked inherited or acquired objects, words, tunes, Sara Katz, Benjamin, 2006, oil on canvas, 43.5 x 55 cm, artist’s collection photographs and other memorabilia.

Curators: Teresa Śmiechowska, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw; Prof. Haim Finkelstein and Michal Na’aman, scar let pain ting, 1997, masking tape and oil paint on canvas, Prof. Haim Maor, Department of the Arts, 130 x100 cm, artist’s collection Ben-Gurion University of the Negev 24[25] A Culture of Understanding Dr. Michal Krumer-Nevo & Dr. Gidi Nevo

Dr. Michal Krumer-Nevo and In her research, Krumer-Nevo focuses “People in poverty are experts on Dr. Gidi Nevo both deal with on the issue of poverty as economic poverty,” she says. “When we ask them narrative, or the telling of stories. inequality. She deals not only with the about the welfare or housing systems, Krumer-Nevo, a faculty member material aspects of poverty, but with we can learn a lot about how to improve of the Charlotte B. and Jack J. Spitzer its symbolic features. “People living in these systems and make them more just.” Department of Social Work, treats the poverty are perceived as fundamentally Krumer-Nevo’s views are grounded subject of poverty by getting the story different from the non-poor, as having in the concept of a democratic notion from the source: the people, particularly no strengths, agency or insight, thus they of knowledge. “Everyone, educated women, who know what poverty is from are effectively excluded from the public or uneducated, has knowledge. In a their daily experiences. In contrast, discourse,” she states, adding that this democracy, each citizen should be Gidi Nevo, of the Ben-Gurion Research is reflected not only in the inequitable treated as having legitimate knowledge,” Institute for the Study of Israel and distribution of wealth and property, she contends, adding that “recognition Zionism in Sede Boqer, uses a range but also in unequal opportunities for and respect for this knowledge allows of Hebrew texts to illuminate the story housing, education, work and personal of the Jews over the last two centuries, safety. The aim of her work, says culminating in the establishment Krumer-Nevo, is “to bring the voices of a Jewish state. While these fields and knowledge of people who live on the differ, they have overlapping areas that margins of society into the public debate. sometimes unite the researchers in joint “Very often academic research People living in efforts. focuses on the individual or family poverty are perceived Married for 22 years and the parents pathologies of people in poverty, as if of two boys, Michal and Gidi share they are responsible for their situation,” as fundamentally a personal narrative as well. Like all says Krumer-Nevo. “This is a superficial different from the and analyze situations holistically, rather couples, they deal with the pressing picture of the causes of poverty. The than using measurements and statistics. day-to-day issues of housekeeping and forces that play the dominant role in non-poor, as having Established in 2000, the Center provides family life. At the same time, they are the phenomenon of poverty are not the no strengths, agency support to qualitative researchers from academics, pursuing the truths and behavior or attitudes of people living in various disciplines around the country. revelations of their respective fields, poverty, but the overall social milieu that or insight, thus one to perceive them, not as carriers of Under its auspices researchers develop youth, the youngsters were taught basic and occasionally entering the other's denies them social opportunities. they are effectively pathologies or as mere victims, but as novel, qualitative and culture-sensitive movie-making skills, then assigned to territory. In her book, Women in Poverty: people who understand the limitations methodologies, conduct related research make their own documentaries. “We sometimes act as each others’ Gender, Pain, Resistance (in Hebrew), excluded from the of their circumstances and who resist and disseminate project results. “The kids captured what it is like to critics and editors, though we deal Krumer-Nevo presents the life stories public discourse their deprivation.” The Center’s projects probe wide- grow up in their neighborhoods. They with different disciplines,” says Gidi of 13 women. Through her subjects’ In addition to teaching and research ranging subjects, including girls “at-risk”, interviewed their parents, peers and key Nevo. “We may transfer texts between experiences, she attempts to identify within the Spitzer Department of Social domestic violence in the Ethiopian figures in the community and portrayed ourselves, read each others’ work and how social ills are manifested in their Work, Krumer-Nevo is Chairperson immigrant community and the “identity their day-to-day world,” says Krumer- fight over a word or an idea.” daily lives, how the women resist their of the Israeli Center for Qualitative wounds” of immigrant youth from the Nevo. “This helped them to develop predicament and what they think about Research of People and Societies Caucasus. critical awareness, understand their own society and how to overcome poverty. (ICQR). The Center, founded by ICQR also organizes community lives and gain basic leadership skills. Prof. Lea Kacen, strives to understand activities. In one visual ethnography project focused on new immigrant 26[27] “In eight years we’ve succeeded in corruption, self-importance, vanity and Woody Allen, whose fictional world, he making a real home for qualitative irrationalism, he explains. “Different maintains, can be linked to those created methodology in Israel,” says Krumer- eras generate different targets. In both by Sholem Aleichem and S.Y. Agnon. Nevo, explaining that qualitative the Enlightenment and the Zionist “Allen’s film Crimes and Misdemeanors methodology has enabled her to period, however, orthodox Jews came is a critique of bourgeois Jews in the combine her two areas of interest: under attack as being irrational, corrupt United States, just as Agnon’s A Simple narrative and social reality. and mystical (the Hassidic branch), or Story targets those in Eastern Europe,” Dr. Gidi Nevo also loves narratives. overly stringent, suffocatingly cloistered says Nevo. “Both artists dissect this He concentrates on Hebrew culture and divorced from esthetic values and world; that is their strength as critics.” as expressed in Israeli and Jewish romantic ideals (the Lithuanian one).” Looking ahead, Nevo would like literature, movies and popular music. Nevo cites as a contemporary example to research the link between “high” In his forthcoming book, The Seat of the Ephraim Kishon, who, consistent with or “elite” Hebrew culture, such as the Scornful: The Rhetoric of Hebrew Satire his personal philosophy, attacked “notoriously inaccessible” Agnon and (in Hebrew), Nevo traces Hebrew satire the socialist establishment of Labor- Natan Alterman, with performers such from the Jewish Enlightenment (1770s Zionism. “Writing in the 1950s, Kishon as Israeli singer Ehud Banai and the to 1880s) to the present. He examines eloquently expressed socio-economic Cameri Quintet. “This would make for several important “way-stations” during sentiments that later came to be some interesting dialog,” he muses. the last 200 years. embodied in such policies as those In addition, Nevo believes that even Nevo starts with the early 19th century of Margaret Thatcher in the United “low” culture, in the form of soap operas writer, Joseph Perl, who wrote anti- Kingdom, Ronald Reagan in the United and reality TV, is a subject ripe for Hasidic satire. “This brilliant parody States and Benjamin Netanyahu in study. “You can carry out revealing and was on an equal footing with anything Israel,” he posits. interesting research on vulgarity,” he written by Jonathan Swift,” claims Nevo, Nevo points out that the Holocaust argues. who also explores Sholem Aleichem, changed the direction of Jewish satire. “Zionism has had many achievements,” says Nevo. “I believe that some of its most impressive Writing in the 1950s, Kishon eloquently accomplishments lie in the area of expressed socio-economic sentiments that culture. The dynamism and vibrancy here make Israel a crazy cauldron of later came to be embodied in such policies culture.” as those of Margaret Thatcher in the UK, Together with Hebrew University colleague Deborah Gilula, Nevo is Ronald Reagan in the US and Benjamin currently working on a ten-volume Netanyahu in Israel edition of the political verse of Natan Alterman, whom Nevo considers the most influential poet in Israeli culture. Ephraim Kishon, Hanoch Levin and “After the destruction of Eastern The collection will include an extensive Doron Rosenbloom. Elsewhere, Nevo European Jewry, there were voices that introduction, historical background and examines the offbeat Israeli comedy reacted very negatively to traditional indices and reflect pre-State and Israeli group HaChamishia HaKamerit satire aimed at the Jewish shtetl. Critic history from the 1930s to the 1960s. (“The Cameri Quintet”), which he Abraham Kariv, for example, claimed Together, Michal and Gidi are maintains, "introduced Hebrew satirical that by portraying shtetl Jews as planning to teach an interdisciplinary performance into the post-modern miserable, impotent and repellent, these course on social problems and protest world.” satires did injustice to the light and in Israeli literature, film and music. Gidi According to Nevo, “Verbal weapons warmth of shtetl life,” he says, adding refers to BGU as “young and energetic,” have always been a central part of that the Holocaust figures in satire which perfectly suits him and Michal. the Enlightenment movement, which today. Several Cameri Quintet skits “We love the atmosphere and students in encouraged self-criticism.” are critical comments on what it views this dynamic place. There’s a great feeling While every satirical work has its own as manipulation of the memory of the on campus. It’s very much alive, and particular object of criticism, repeated Holocaust. we’re happy to be part of it.” themes are ignorance, hypocrisy, While Nevo deals essentially with Hebrew works, he draws a parallel with the work of American Jews, for example Handbook of Biosensors Visionaries and Dreamers: The Israel Since 1980 (2 Volume Set) and Biochips Story of the Founding Fathers Guy Ben-Porat, Yagil Levy, Shlomo of Anesthesiology in Israel Robert S. Marks, et al, editors Mizrahi, Arye Naor and Erez Tzfadia Wiley – Interscience, 2008 Gabriel M. Gurman Cambridge University Press, 2008 In cooperation with Lior Granot Biosensors are small devices that give a Over the last quarter century, a radical Ben-Gurion University of the Negev demographic, economic and political signal (electronic or optic) in response Press, 2008 to a specific event that occurs on the transformation has been taking surface of the device. The developms Anesthesiology is one of the youngest place within Israel, where people are ment of biosensors technologies fields of modern medicine. Almost beginning to ask some fundamental started in the 1980s and now has sixty years after the creation of the questions about the country they live applications in a number of core Israel Society of Anesthesiologists in and what it means to be an Israeli. research areas within biomolecular and (1952), a book containing the stories This book, written by Dr. Ben-Porat, bioanalytical sciences. Their success of the founding fathers of the professs Dr. Levy, Dr. Mizrahi and Prof. Naor of sion in this country has been written the Department of Public Policy and and edited by Prof. Emeritus Gabriel Administration at the Guilford Glazer On the M. Gurman, M.D. of BGU’s Faculty of School of Business and Management, Health Sciences, a past president of together with Dr. Tzfadia from Sapir the Israel Society of Anesthesiologists College, probes the changing nature of Bookshelf and a former chairman of the Division Israeli society over the last twenty-five of Anesthesiology at the Soroka years. It considers the deep rifts in that is demonstrated by their application Medical Center. The book was written society caused by ethnic, cultural, class in a growing number of interdisciplinsa in collaboration with Lior Granot, a and religious divide. It is an informed ary fields such as the diagnostics of young poetess and a BGU alumna, and informative account of the political diabetes and the monitoring of nitrous who interviewed pioneers of Israeli and economic changes and how gases in the atmosphere. With contrisb anesthesiology and their families. privatization has undermined the butions from Dr. Marks of the National These founding anesthesiologists welfare state. It questions the role of Institute for Biotechnology in the were highly dedicated to their patients the military in light of the wider social Negev and other experts in the field, and their profession. Printed in a and economic changes. Finally, and the book provides an essential referes bilingual edition – Hebrew and English crucially, it asks whether new political ence, underpinning many of the applisc – it reflects the fact that modern initiatives can offer a realistic alternast cations used in medical diagnostics, anesthesia today is a universal professs tive to the inadequacies of recent environmental control and pharmasc sion, practiced more or less in the governments. This is an informative ceutical and food industries. It presents same way in every country. It describes account of Israel’s recent past and the an invaluable addition for those in the endless efforts of anesthesia’s challenges it faces in the twenty-first both academia and industry. founding fathers in Israel to bring century. this profession to a level accepted all over the world. It includes stories, memories, facts, personal opinions, successes and failures – in short, the lives and struggles of the pioneers of Israeli anesthesiology in the second part of the last century. 28[29] The Jews of Libya: Israel’s Materialist Militarism Reinventing Project Coexistence, Persecution, Management: The Diamond Yagil Levy Resettlement Lexington Press, 2008 Approach to Successful Growth and Innovation Maurice M. Romani The book examines the theoretical Sussex Academic Press, 2008 aspects of Israeli society, politics- Aaron J. Shenhar and Dov Dvir In 1948, 36,000 Jews lived in Libya. military relations in general and the Harvard Business School Press, 2007 Today, none do. Born in Libya, linkage between Israel’s war/peace No organization can survive today Dr. Roumani, a political scientist and policies and the social structure of the without successful projects. Projects Chairman of the J.R. Elyachar Center military in particular. It looks at the are the drivers of innovation and for Studies in Sephardi Heritage, gives changes in Israel’s military policies, change. They make organizations a comprehensive account of the last from the moderation expressed in better, stronger and more efficient. decades of this vanished community. the Oslo Accords and the unilateral Yet, in the field of business strategy, The book investigates the transformats withdrawal from Lebanon to the project management has been largely tive period in the history of the Jews Al-Aqsa Intifada and the collapse of overlooked. The fact that most projects of Libya (1938–52), a period crucial the Palestinian Authority. From here still fail suggests that conventional to understanding Libyan Jewry’s it moves back to the disengagement project management does not meet evolution into a community playing from Gaza and again moves forward current business needs. Drawing on significant roles in Israel and Italy and to the Second Lebanon War. Dr. Levy, high-profile examples such as the in relation to Qaddhafi’s Libya. In 1911, who teaches in the Department of Chunnel, the Denver International the Italian army conquered Libya. As Public Policy and Administration Airport and the Sydney Opera House, anti-Semitism grew in Italy during the at the Guilford Glazer School of Prof. Dvir, Chairman of the Department fascist period, anti-Jewish incidents Business and Management and in of Management in the Guilford Glazer increased in Libya, and as the Axis the Division of Military and Security School of Business and Management, oriented its foreign policy toward the in the Department of Jewish History, together with Prof. Shenhar from Arabs, Rome imposed anti-Semitic examines how these upheavals have the Stevens Institute of Technology, race laws on both Italy and Libya. impacted policies, outlining how the illustrates the problems that hinder Libyan Jews were interned in local shift in the social composition of the success. More importantly, they introsd labor camps, deported, and, in some combat field units from reliance on duce the “Diamond Approach”. This cases, transferred to the Bergen-Belsen the secular Ashkenazi middle class new model is the first of its kind for concentration camp. These war-related to religious and peripheral groups, managing projects for business results, calamities and violent expressions of resulted in zigzagging management of rather than just meeting time and Libyan pan-Arabism culminated in military policy, between restraint and budget goals. The four bases of the mass migration to Israel in the period show of force, between the pressures “Diamond Approach” provide a new 1949–52. By focusing on key socio- of the market society and the interests framework and a common language to economic and political dimensions of the military and the belligerent talk about project management. With of this process, the author reveals the proclivities of the groups that serve these tools in hand, one can present capacity of Libyan Jewry to adapt to within it. a case in a simple, smarter way, ask and integrate into new environments the right questions and select the without losing its unique and historical right management approach before traditions. committing to a new project or program. New Media and Innovative The Heart is a Mirror: Functional and Evolutionary Technologies The Sephardic Folktale Ecology of Fleas: A Model for Tal Samuel-Azran and Dan Caspi Tamar Alexander-Frizer Ecological Parasitology Ben-Gurion University Press, 2008 Wayne State University Press, 2007 Boris R. Krasnov The need to optimize new forms of Since their expulsion from Spain in Cambridge University Press, 2008 communication in the information 1492, Sephardic Jews have managed Fleas are one of the most interesting society underscores the centrality to maintain their Jewish faith and have and fascinating taxa of ectoparasites. of media research, training and developed a uniquely Judeo-Spanish All species in this relatively small order education. This book, compiled by culture wherever they settled. Among are obligatory haematophagous Dr. Samuel-Azran of the Department the important cultural ties within these (blood-feeding) parasites of higher of Communication Studies and Sephardic groups are Judeo-Spanish vertebrates. This book examines how Strategic Manager of the Burda Center folktales, stories that have been passed functional, ecological and evolutionary for Innovative Communications and down from generation to generation, patterns and processes of host-parasite Prof. Caspi, Chairman of both the same either in the distinct language of the relationships are realized in this department and the Burda Center, group (Ladino), or in other languages, particular system. As such it provides presents cutting-edge studies on the such as Hebrew. Based on a corpus an in-depth case study of a host- interaction of emerging technolosg of over four thousand stories told parasite system, demonstrating how gies with economic, political, legal, by the descendants of the Spanish fleas can be used as a model taxon for social and cultural systems. Advances Diaspora, Prof. Alexander-Frizer of the testing ecological and evolutionary in new media technologies have Department of Hebrew Literature, hypotheses. The book moves from allowed users unprecedented control incumbent of the Estelle S. Frankfurter basic descriptive aspects, to functional of the media platforms to which they Chair in Sephardic Studies and issues and finally to evolutionary are exposed and the content they Chairperson of the Moshe David Gaon explanations. It extracts several general consume. Indeed, media users have Center for Ladino Culture, examines principles that apply equally well never been spread so thin across the folk narratives of Sephardic Jews to to other host-parasite systems, so it platforms. As demassification increases, view them both in relation to universal appeals not only to flea biologists but the practices of media users change. narrative traditions and the traditions also to “mainstream” parasitologists Toffler’s vision of the roles of content of Jewish culture. She investigates the and ecologists. This is the first book producers and consumers blurring and relationship between folk literature and to deal with the functional and merging as “prosumers” has become group identity via the stories’ connecst evolutionary ecology rather than the a reality in the age of social networks, tion to Hebrew canonical sources, their descriptive ecology of fleas. It not only virtual worlds and virtual communities. historical connection to the land of provides an up-to-date review of flea Users are creating their own communist origin, their treatment of prominent bionomics, but also includes references ties and even their own knowledge family members and historical events, to a variety of Russian and Chinese sources, and these grassroots activities and their connection to the surroundis sources, making little-known, valuable affect the strategy of big corporast ing culture in the land of the Spanish research available to the Western tions that cannot ignore such trends. Diaspora. scientific community. The authors examine recent trends in innovative communications and their influence on society in an attempt to improve the construction of new media projects. 30[31] Animal Imagery in the Weaving Tradition and The Screen in Surrealist Art Book of Proverbs Modernity: Bedouin Women and Thought Tova L. Forti in Higher Education Haim Finkelstein Brill, 2008 Kathleen Abu-Saad, Tamar Horowitz Ashgate Publishing, 2007 Any treatment of the figurative and and Ismael Abu-Saad This book by Prof. Haim Finkelstein of symbolic function of animal imagery Robert H. Arnow Center for Bedouin Studies the Department of Arts studies the in biblical literature requires special and Development Research Unit manifestation of space in Surrealist attention to its contextual meaning Negev Center for Regional Development, 2007 theory and philosophy, and in the and cultural evaluation. This book aims Since the late 1960s, the Bedouin in the paintings and writings done in the to demonstrate how this is particularly Negev have undergone a rapid urbansi framework of the Surrealist Movement. true of the Book of Proverbs, in which ization process. Given the Bedouin’s It introduces the “screen” as an imports faunal imageries serve as a didactic family-centered cultural, social and tant spatial paradigm that clarifies means for delving into the more economic traditions, it has been easier and extends the understanding of obvious truths of human behavior. for Bedouin men than women to make Surrealism as it unfolds in the 1920s. The book focuses on the zoological, the transition into the modern Israeli Extending the discussion of the literary and conceptual aspects labor market. Bedouin Arab women in concepts at stake for Surrealist visual of animal imageries in Proverbs. higher education are exposed to many art into the context of film, literature Discussions of each animal’s characst differing, yet intersecting worlds. This and criticism, this study sheds new teristics introduce analyses of the book, by doctoral candidate Kathleen light on the way “film thinking” permeas accompanying imageries’ relationss Abu-Saad, together with Prof. Emerita ates Surrealist thought and aesthetics. ship to their literary setting and their Tamar Horowitz and Prof. Ismael Abu- Finkelstein examines the concept of rhetorical function within the worldsv Saad of the Department of Education, the screen as emblematic of a strand view of Proverbs. In her book, Dr. Forti, provides insight into the complex of spatial apprehension that informs a member of the Department of Bible, personal, academic, political and the work of young writers in the Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern social worlds of these young women 1920s, such as Robert Desnos and Studies, makes a methodological – primarily through their own words Louis Aragon, and the way the spatial contribution toward understanding the and voices. The authors examine character of the serial films of Louis didactic function of Proverb’s animal educational and political practices and Feuillade intimated to the Surrealists imageries by offering an ongoing cultural beliefs confronted by young a related mode of vision. The dialects three-pronged analysis: Zoological Bedouin, including dealing with the tics informing Surrealist thought with identification and literary perception of problems of identity amongst the regard to the surfaces of the real the animal in the Bible; Hermeneutic students at Ben-Gurion University. (with walls, doors and windows as dynamics between the specific animal Arab/Muslim women are characterized controlling images), are shown to be simile and its literary adaptation; and as silent and silenced by an oppressive at the basis of André Breton’s notion rhetorical function of the animal culture and religion. But are they really of the picture as a window. The main imagery within the conceptual framews silent? This volume provides an opports aesthetic and conceptual issues that work of the Book of Proverbs. tunity to listen to the voices and see come up in the consideration of the strategies of these path-breaking Breton’s window metaphor lay the women. It provides a foundation for groundwork for an analysis of the work understanding the impact of higher of Giorgio de Chirico, René Magritte, education on their lives and society. Max Ernst, André Masson, and Joan Miró. Shock Wave Reflection The Globalization of Israel: King of the Road: Phenomena McWorld in Tel Aviv, Jihad in From Bergen-Belsen to the Gabi Ben-Dor Jerusalem Olympic Games Springer, 2007 Uri Ram Shaul P. Ladany This book provides a comprehensive Routledge, 2007 Gefen Publishing House, 2008 state-of-the-knowledge description Awarded the Yonathan Shapiro Prize Originally published in Hebrew, King of shock wave reflection phenomena for the best book in Israel Studies of the Road is the autobiography of from a phenomenological point of for the year 2008, this book focuses view. Prof. Ben-Dor, incumbent of the Shaul Ladany, Prof. Emeritus of the on the impact of globalization on Department of Industrial Engineering Dr. Morton and Toby Mower Chair contemporary Israel. As well as and Management and a world record- in Shock-Wave Studies and Dean of presenting a concise and originally the Faculty of Engineering Sciences, argued introduction to Israel, Dr. Ram, holding race walker. The Belgrade- gives an introduction to oblique of the Department of Sociology and born survivor of the Holocaust and the shock wave reflections, presenting Anthropology, frames his analysis in a Black September attack on the Israeli the two major well-known reflection broader discussion of Israeli history and team at the 1972 Munich Olympic wave configurations, namely, regular social currents, focusing in particular Games, Ladany has pursued his dual (RR) and Mach (MR) reflections, the on two defining – and conflicting – career interests with remarkable corresponding two- and three-shock contemporary trends; one toward intensity, devoting his life both to the theories, their analytical and graphical advanced liberal democracy with a solution and the proposed transition sport of race walking and to the field cosmopolitan edge, and the other of industrial engineering. One of the boundaries between these two reflecst toward ethno-religious traditionalism tion-wave configurations. The book greatest race-walkers in history, Ladany and rejection of the secularism associas still holds the world record in the also gives a description of the reflects ated with market driven globalization. 50 mile walk and the Israeli national tion phenomena in steady, pseudo- The cosmopolitan, hi-tech driven steady and unsteady flows. Here, the city of Tel Aviv represents the former record in the 50 km walk. He began his possible specific types of reflection trend, and Jerusalem – a city increasis athletic career as a marathon runner, wave configurations are described, ingly dominated by orthodox Jews but turned to walking in the early criteria for their formation and terminast – represents the latter. The book is one 1960s. In 2007, he was awarded the tion are presented and their governing in a series that looks at how nations International Olympic Committee’s equations are solved analytically and and regions across the world are prestigious Coubertin medal, and in graphically and compared with experims navigating the tumultuous currents of mental results. The resolution of the 2008, the Israeli Industrial Engineering globalization. Ram applies Benjamin Association honored him with its Life well-known von Neumann paradox Barber’s “Jihad versus McWorld” thesis and a detailed description of two new Achievement Award. Ladany’s autobios to contemporary Israel and its place in ography is packed with insider inforsm reflection-wave configurations – the the world. Guderely reflection (GR) and Vasilev mation on the life of a long-distance reflection (VR) – are also given. The athlete and fascinating anecdotes from book concludes with a detailed listing the author’s life. of the most relevant scientific papers and research reports that have been published so far in the field of shock wave reflection phenomena. 32[33] The wild ass, mentioned in the Biblical In previous projects, Bar David books of Job, Jeremiah and Psalms, concentrated on the delicately beautiful and depicted as wagon-pullers and Persian Fallow Deer, the subject of her chariot-drawers in the arts of ancient Ph.D. dissertation. Eventually, she played Sumer and Ur, has lived in the near east On the Wild Side a key role in the deer’s reintroduction for as long as recorded history. This into the northern Galilee region of Israel. rich legacy nearly came to an end in In addition, Bar David studied buffalo recent times, when hunting and habitat movement in South Africa’s Kruger destruction threatened the animal nearly Dr. Shirli Bar David National Park and explored the effects to extinction. of shrinking habitat on salamanders in Twenty years ago, in a highly succ- Israel’s Carmel Forest. cessful project, conservationists began “My goal is to develop scientific reintroducing the Equus hemionus or methods based on my own and others’ the Asiatic wild ass, also known as the experience, data and quantitative onager, to the Negev region. methods. I understand the importance Dr. Shirli Bar David, a researcher at of scientific tools – without them we the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert just base our management on intuition. Research at Sede Boqer, is taking part That’s not enough,” she explains. in a follow-up project with onagers, Likewise, Bar David sees research checking the status of the current wild as a tool for change. “We want to share ass population, who are the descendents our information and conclusions, not to of the re-introduced “founder” animals. leave them within the walls of academia They were the first animals to be as some kind of theoretical exercise. reintroduced to the region as part of a Part of my responsibility is to deliver my comprehensive plan to return the native findings to the decision-makers,” she wildlife. Having quickly adapted to their gene flow and ecology genetics, all in a says. “The Ministry of Environmental surroundings, the wild asses can now desert setting. Protection supported the Persian Fallow be spotted during the summer months Bar David is approaching this project Deer project and received our sum-m congregating around water sources in from several angles. The onagers, re- Turning the public’s eye to a specific ecosystem – maries. Appropriate government bodies the Ramon Crater and Nahal Paran. introduced to nature at two Negev loca-t and the species contained within – helps engender also received our conclusions from the In the winter, they disperse over a very tions since 1982, were closely monitored salamander research. large area. for more than a decade. Since 1995, the support for conservation Asked whether a conservation Onagers are slightly larger than population has continued to increase how these factors affect movement pat-t biologist can be optimistic these days, donkeys and more horse-like. Despite naturally: the animals move around terns and choice of habitat. ago. Now they will collect data on the population geneticist, Prof. Alan Bar David sits back and thinks. “We the fact that their legs are shorter than the Negev and their foals are born in Along with biological data, Bar David, current population and compare them Templeton of Washington University in have to believe we can do something,” horses’, they run faster than any other the wild. Current herds, however, have in collaboration with Prof. Yohay Carmel to the founders’ profile. From this, says St. Louis. “My questions are similar to she replies. “For my doctoral studies, horse or ass, reaching and maintaining not been officially tracked. Aside from of the Technion and students, will Bar David, “We will be able to determine his,” says Bar David. “They are ecologi-c I developed a model predicting the speeds of up to 70 km (45 miles) per rangers’ random observations, the employ the Geographical Information the genetic processes taking place, and cal, evolutionary questions concerning future of the Persian Fallow Deer, based hour. animals’ goings-on are largely unknown. System (GIS), a tool that connects can establish the current population’s the genetic processes occurring in the on the Galilee’s current landscape and A conservation biologist who arrived Bar David is determined to uncover computer systems to geographical maps structure.” reintroduced population.” development plans.” She submitted at the Institutes in 2003 as a post- what’s happening with the roughly 150 in order to capture, manage, analyze Wild asses live in herds of a few indiv- According to Bar David, the wild ass the projections to the Ministry of doctoral student, Bar David has received animals that now comprise the herd. She and display all forms of location-linked viduals in a “fission-fusion” population can serve as a flagship species, one that Environmental Protection, which is now the financial backing and technical and her colleagues have been developing information. structure, meaning that members are not attracts public awareness to conserva-t re-considering the original plan. infrastructure needed to establish the what’s known as a “habitat selection Bar David will also try to shed light always in the same herds, and group size tion issues due to their vulnerability, “Firm findings,” continues Bar David, Conservation Genetics Laboratory. model” or “species distribution model” on the evolutionary processes at play and structure may change. attractiveness or distinctiveness, like the “can provide the basis for constructive There, she will explore questions of to understand the species’ status in con-n in re-introducing populations. She Bar David is working on this project giant panda of China, the Indian tiger or opposition.” spatial ecology, population structure, nection with natural elements such as and her team have DNA – the “genetic in collaboration with the well-known the leatherback sea turtle. Turning the water sources and landscape parameters, fingerprint” – from blood samples of public’s eye to a specific ecosystem – and as well as human-induced factors founder animals introduced 20 years the species contained within – helps including roads, settlements and military engender support for conservation. zones. Primarily, the model will examine 34[35] Prof. Dan Sadot has a passion for no longer ivory towers. They now see by mass production and more sophistic- speed. Chairman of the Department the great importance of establishing cated data transmission methods, as has of Electrical and Computer cooperative efforts with industry.” already been done in the cellular world. Engineering, Sadot's research This shift, he continues, has Having earned his undergraduate focuses on the next generation of brought about “a new perspective on and advanced degrees at BGU in high-speed optical networks – for real needs that will help solve real electrical engineering, Sadot went on industry as well as the home. technological problems. This will to complete two years of post-doctoral He examines optical tunability – that yield not only theoretical solutions, study at Stanford University, returning is, the plausibility of new methods of but practical strategies using readily to BGU in 1995 to establish the Optical optical communications. Looking at accessible, though loosely applicable, Communications Laboratory. the current state-of-the-art technology, information to solve problems. The connections between the Sadot and his colleagues try to adapt “In other words,” he clarifies, University and industry are vital for innovative methods of communications “we must suit research to the actual both, he says. By underwriting research, to classical means, using advanced demands of different industries.” For industry both prevents a brain drain modulation formats rather than “just example, Sadot and his colleagues from the University, and reaps its own turning the laser light on and off.” work with the Israel Defense Forces, rewards. “One of BGU’s main resources He served until recently as Vice-Dean whose specific needs include tunnel is its human brain power. We have of Research and Development at the identification, remote explosives and excellent people who are often attracted Faculty of Engineering Sciences. This optical encryption of high speed data. by industry. It can be hard to hold reinforced for him the importance of For the army, optical network experts them,” says Sadot. “One way to solve fast-tracking the academia-industry also work toward solutions for next- this is by cooperating with industry. connection. Now he has turned his generation intelligence, like the concept Much of our research demands heavy sights on the commercial side of optical in which sensors are dispersed like dust funding. Companies can offset these communications and optical networks. particles into the atmosphere. Sadot costs by supporting our equipment, labs To bring his findings to market, explains that such a futuristic-sounding and students, while the students can together with B.G. Negev Technologies, project would involve managing a huge work with them on cooperative projects. the University technology transfer network, delivering micron-sized units This arrangement benefits all involved.” company, Sadot created the start-up that would yield a picture. “This is an Incidentally, according to Sadot, company, MultiPON. Comprised entirely new type of information,” he industry prefers BGU graduates to of eight people who conduct summarizes, “a whole new world.” those of any other Israeli university. research in the University’s Optical Sadot is also engaged in research As the University requires that even Communications Laboratory, the projects related to the more prosaic undergraduate students submit hands- company is mandated to deliver high world of home communications. on engineering projects, alumni bring speed data over a low speed (and He focuses on overcoming practical know-how to the marketplace. low cost) infrastructure. This means the cost barrier of new optical “We get excellent feedback about our transmitting, say, 10 gigabits of data technologies. The lab’s raison d’être graduates from industry,” he says. over a 2.5 gigabit infrastructure. is to introduce low cost “passive With a passion for speed, Sadot The company has already raised optical networks” into the home. loves to ski, windsurf and above all, $1.5 million in seed money and has “Eventually, every home will be ride fast motorcycles. Not by chance, a prototype in hand. According to equipped with this method,” forecasts he served in the Air Force, about Sadot, several prospective customers Sadot, adding that in Japan, 20 million which he quips, “The speed of light is are anxiously awaiting the demo, homes use it already. Due to their high the fastest thing, after all.” In light of adding, “This is a win-win arrangement costs, passive optical networks have the speed of it, the parallel between between industry and academia.” not yet caught on in Israel or Europe, Sadot’s work and hobbies is obvious. Establishing ties to industry repres- though Sadot is convinced that its Whether racing motorcycles or sents a change in approach that is taking adoption is just a matter of time. unraveling the mysteries of advanced It’s All About Speed place throughout Israeli academia, “This is a breakthrough, which offers communications, it’s all about speed. comments Sadot. “Our universities are the great advantage of real time image and video applications that demand Prof. Dan Sadot Our universities are no longer ivory towers. a great amount of bandwidth.” He believes that the present high cost of the They now see the great importance in network will eventually be overcome establishing cooperative efforts with industry

36[37] Food for Thought

and 1979. The first group of 66 people Dr. Nir Avieli was picked up by an Israeli ship after their SOS signals had been disregarded by ships from East Germany, Norway, between the Zionist ethos of working Japan and Panama. Not only given a the land and the contemporary reality safe haven, the refugees were ultimately of cheap foreign labor. “The truth is growing crops and raising livestock,” granted full citizenship. Many found that Thais do not eat dogs. Indeed, with he says. “Food is feeding the country’s their livelihoods as cooks in Chinese time, the myth has dissipated, after optimism, both symbolically and physivc restaurants in Israel. “They became serving its purpose.” cally.” ‘Chinese cooks’ because the only asset Laden with significance – personal, Avieli spent 1999-2000 doing fieldwv they had was their oriental look, and in national and religious – food has far- work in Vietnam, and since then has Israel, it turned out to be more profitva reaching meaning in our daily routines returned every year for several months able to be Chinese. Paradoxically, while and our holidays. For example, he to the small town of Hoi An located in many Chinese restaurants in Israel are emphasizes that the Passover Hagada, Central Vietnam. Nowadays, his wife owned by Vietnamese, there is not a which all Jews read at their Seders, lends and children accompany him on these single Vietnamese restaurant in the symbolism and significance in every field trips. country. For most Israelis, Vietnam bite. The Vietnamese people make politiv means ‘war’ and not one of the world’s ical statements through their food, best cuisines.” states Avieli. “Because of the Vietvn Closer to home, Avieli examines The chefs’ namese regime, you can’t openly critiv Israel’s country-wide Independence icize the government,” he explains, Day barbeque, questioning why the answers related adding, “At all levels – on the street, barbeque (“mangal” in Israeli slang) has to class, gender, in the home, at a festival – people are become the preferred national choice of able to express their political opinions celebration. religion and through what they serve and eat.” According to the anthropological social tensions, Food is not only used to express theory of food, “meat represents power, political views, but to make distinct and eating animal flesh is an act in not the ingredd social statements. Elements like prestv which people consume and incorporate dients of their tige, hierarchy and social competition the animal’s strength. But in Israel, this at the Beer-Sheva market play a central role in the festive meals of is done as a mass act on Independence recipes Hoi An. For example, a show of excesvs Day,” says Avieli. He concludes that the Anthropologist Dr. Nir Avieli is sive food, mostly in the form of animal holiday’s apparently traditional BBQ Says the anthropologist, “Eating is interested in food. Not only in its protein, is a manifestation of the wealth reveals cultural narratives that characvt natural, we all do it, but we don’t think nutritional value, preparation or taste, of Jerusalem. As a final project for Today, Avieli’s particular sphere and power of those offering the feast. terize the current Israeli-Jewish-Zionist enough about its implications.” Avieli is but what it says about people. To explore a course on Israeli society, he intervv of research is the role of food in Vietnv Likewise, guests may restrain themvs identity: the tension between power adamant that in addition to examining the development of societies and viewed top Israeli chefs (who, he notes, namese culture. Arriving in Vietnam selves from heartily eating to save face and weakness and between the desire food under a natural science microvs cultures, anthropologists commonly “weren’t the superstars they are today”), in 1992 as a tourist, he fell in love with and make a culinary statement about to control a space and the reality of the scope, the time has come to look at it study religion, language or social and asked what was specifically Israeli the place, explaining, “Vietnam is lush, themselves: I am well fed, satiated, and ongoing struggle over this area.” through the looking glass of the social structures. These are important aspects about their cooking. Not one of them beautiful and blessed with lots of nice hence, well-to-do. Avieli intends to investigate aspects sciences. of life, holds Avieli, but certainly no answered the question in gastronomvi people.” The war came to an end in Avieli has contacts with the Vietnv of food and power in Israel, such as food less important to who we are than what ical terms, but rather responded in 1975, and now, he believes, the country namese community in Israel. in relation to the military or to foreign we eat. the language of sociology. The chefs’ is looking ahead and moving toward Comprised of some 100-150 people, workers. For example, he cites what he The only anthropologist in Israeli answers related to class, gender, religion greater prosperity. “As a result of peace, this diminutive population arrived in calls the “widespread myth” that Thai academia to research food, Avieli and social tensions, not the ingredients more resources have been freed up for three groups as refugees between 1977 migrant workers, who do agricultural became interested in the field while he of their recipes. This fascinated Avieli, work throughout the country, eat dogs. was a student at the Hebrew University and made him think about the wide- Avieli argues that this myth evolved reaching consequences of cuisine. during the mid-1990s as a way to ease the tension created by the friction 38[39] at Abraham’s Well In the Path of God Dr. Yaniv Belhassen

Since the early days of Christianity, predominantly evangelical Christians the Holy Land has attracted Christians who are driven by a commitment to who seek to follow in the footsteps of Israel. Christian Zionists believe that Pilgrimages to Jesus. In recent times, pilgrimages have the return of the Jews to the Holy Land also become attractive to conservative – the establishment of the State of Israel Israel can be seen as evangelicals in America who see in 1948 – constitutes the fulfillment of social and cultural tourism as a means for celebrating biblical prophecies, a signifier of the and supporting the State of Israel, second advent of Christ. “Their affinity forces that maintain economically and morally. with the State of Israel, and with the the evangelical Dr. Yaniv Belhassen of the Jewish people more generally, flows Department of Hotel and Tourism from this particular interpretation of the subculture Management of the Guilford Glazer Scriptures and of history,” he explains, School of Business and Management adding that their support takes many focuses his research on the ideological, forms, one of which is tourism. “This political and cultural features of type of tourism has become a central pilgrimages. For evangelical Christians, platform through which this ideology is he says, the religious journey to the Holy manifested, reinforced, consumed and Land is an essential element of their shaped,” says Belhassen, who lecturers culture. “Pilgrimages to Israel can be in the Hotel and Tourism Management seen as social and cultural forces that Program at the University’s Eilat maintain the evangelical subculture,” he Campus. explains. “For evangelical Christians,” he says, It was a chance encounter on a bus “the religious journey to the Holy Land in Illinois that ignited Belhassen’s has become a cohesive cultural force in fascination with evangelical Christians their community and in the American and with the significance pilgrimages interdenominational fundamentalist leisure activity, laden with symbolism. a significant factor in Israel’s tourist One such group is the Palestinian development of the Eilat campus, where hold for them. Upon his arrival at sub-culture. Evangelicals, like their “Therefore,” argues Belhassen, revenues. In 2004, the Knesset organization Sabeel, which defines itself there are currently 600 students. “The the University of Illinois at Urbana- secular neighbors, enjoy disposable “understanding evangelical tours established the Christian Allies Caucus as an “ecumenical grassroots liberation campus has just completed its 6th year Champaign for his post-doctoral studies, income and leisure time, which are both to Israel requires a systematic to cultivate grassroots evangelical trips to theology movement among Palestinian of operation. There is an atmosphere he and his wife were overheard speaking prerequisites for the development of understanding of the theo-political Israel. Christians.” of pioneering in teaching in a young, Hebrew by the bus driver, an evangelical tourism. As churchgoers, it is natural principles that guide the organizers and In a forthcoming journal article, Although Eilat is not a natural draw intimate, campus,” he states. Christian who had just returned that they seek to incorporate elements in the participants in these tours.” Belhassen points out that pilgrimages for Christian pilgrims, he says, “They “Hotel and Tourism Management from what he called a “humanitarian their travel experiences related to their These pilgrimages often have a to Israel have become the arena for do come to see the Red Sea, which is is one of the campus’ focal programs, pilgrimage” to Israel. Through the religious belief,” states Belhassen. Many strong humanitarian component, he competition between rival ideologies associated with the biblical Exodus, as can be expected from its location. driver, Belhassen met the Midwestern scholars who study the relationship says, “which is linked to their religious within the evangelical movement. and stop in Eilat on their way to Petra, Students choose the campus because couple who organize pilgrimages to the between conservative evangelicals and worldview. For example, evangelicals “Those who disagree with the Christian in Jordan. According to one version of they know that in Eilat, they can actually Holy Land from East-Central Illinois the State of Israel stress the theological volunteer in absorption centers because Zionist ideology also understand the end-of-times theology, after the second start their career in tourism while and who became the prime subject of aspects, particularly regarding their they believe they are seeing the hand political ramifications – potential and coming of Jesus, some of the Jewish studying,” he explains. his examination of the phenomenon of vision of the end-of-time. Belhassen has of God in the gathering of Jews from actual – of tourism in the Holy Land, people will flee to Petra to escape the “The best part of living here is seeing evangelical tours to Israel. broadened this analysis by considering throughout the world.” and are working to counteract the coming events.” the beauty of the desert and the Red Sea Belhassen refers to the Illinois groups cultural, social and political forces at Not surprisingly, the Israeli Ministry itineraries and the ideologies developed Belhassen lives in Eilat and sees a on a regular basis,” he adds. he studied as “Christian Zionists,” work as well. of Tourism actively encourages by Christian Zionists.” natural fit in teaching tourism in a The Christian Zionist commitment to these pilgrimages, which constitute tourist city. He considers himself as Israel makes pilgrimages a powerful being on the “ground floor” in the 40 [41] Cell Divisions and Inhibitions Dr. Leah Gheber

What do human beings and the single “I’ve never regretted that decision, differential sensitivity to the drug and cell fungus known as baker’s yeast Gheber says, “because chemistry how we can make cancerous cells more (S. cerevisiae) have in common? No, this is a broader field that gives you sensitive to this inhibitor.” is not a joke, but a scientific riddle that excellent tools that can be applied And here’s where our yeast cells with may hold the secrets of a cure for cancer. towards biochemistry and cellular their two-hour life cycles are so helpful. Human cells use the same molecular and molecular biology – tools you “It is much, much easier to perform events to divide their chromosomes don’t acquire if you only study the basic research on simple yeast cells than (DNA) during mitosis (cell division) life sciences.” She would find her on human cells. Yeast have fewer genes, as yeast cells. According to researcher background in chemistry to be so it’s easier to uncover which genes Dr. Leah Gheber, a lecturer in the invaluable in later years of research. control mitosis. We also know how to Departments of Clinical Biochemistry Gheber has the unusual distinction manipulate yeast genetically to induce and Chemistry, this fact has been of of being a member of two departments mutations and even to delete a whole great help in studying the mechanisms that are in separate Faculties: the gene. We can then apply biophysical and regulation of cell division. Faculty of Health Sciences, where tools to the yeast cell and study mitosis Gheber, who has several highly she teaches in the Joyce and Irving and mitotic Kinesin-5 motor proteins in competitive Israel Science Foundation Goldman Medical School, and the a comprehensive and interdisciplinary and Bi-National Science Foundation Faculty of Natural Sciences, where manner, which would have been grants to her credit, came to Israel with she teaches in the Department of impossible in any other cell type,” she her family during the very first wave of Chemistry. explains. aliyah from the former Soviet Union in “It’s true that being a member of two Gheber grew up in Beer-Sheva 1974. Ten years old at the time, Larisa, Faculties means that I work harder, but where she and her husband Levi as she was called then, already knew I love it,” she exclaims. “Overall, I find and their three children live today. that she would be a scientist when she it beneficial: I interact with a broad Dr. Levi Gheber is a researcher at grew up. “My mother had worked as variety of scientists and I am able to structure known as the mitotic spindle, the Department of Biotechnology a biochemist in a lab, but never had recruit students for my research with that pulls the chromosomes apart at the Engineering and BGU’s National the opportunity to get her doctorate different perspectives and different right time. Institute for Biotechnology in the degree. I knew that I, too, wanted to skills. The chemistry students are more But, she explains, chromosomes a very important group of molecular Negev (NIBN). wear a white coat like her in a lab, but I quantitative, while those from the cannot move along the microtubules on We also know how motors in mitosis, particularly in “Of all the universities in Israel, was determined to be a ‘real’ scientist,” health sciences are more descriptive and their own; they are moved by molecular to manipulate yeast humans. In cancer cells – that is, cells I think that BGU is the most Gheber recalls today. also have more experience in biological motor proteins (enzymes) from the which continue to multiply endlessly accommodating, placing both But although she knew she wanted approaches. It creates a very nice kinesin family. “Like microscopic car genetically to induce – the level of Kinesin-5 motor proteins spouses in academic positions. to be a biologist when she began her synergistic mix.” engines, these motor proteins attach mutations and even to is too high. Thus a potential anti-cancer This is something that Levi and undergraduate studies at BGU, veteran Gheber’s basic science research to the chromosomes and drag them drug was discovered in a Kinesin- I truly appreciate,” she says. Prof. Yossi Levi advised her to study interest focuses on understanding along. I study these motors in order delete a whole gene 5 inhibitor. “If we can inhibit the chemistry first, which she did. She then the process of mitosis, by which a cell to understand how they function and abnormal level of Kinesin-5 motor went on to earn her advanced degrees in divides its chromosomes into two how their activity is regulated during proteins, then we can halt the abnormal biophysical chemistry. identical groups, to be later transferred mitosis.” cell proliferation,” Gheber explains. to two progeny cells. This process Kinesin-5 motor proteins, which are “The problem is that not all cell types happens when the chromosomes the primary subject of her research, are are sensitive to the Kinesin-5 inhibitor, interact with filaments (called so I am researching why there is microtubules) that are organized into a

42[43] Climate expert Dr. Yossi Ashkenazy learned from them. “Glacial-interglacial dunes can advance several meters alter it. They have found that weak winds doesn’t advocate abandoning strategies oscillations, more commonly known a year. “This is what has happened will not suppress vegetation. Increased for countering global warming – like as ice ages, have been the most drastic in parts of Africa and the Arabian wind power, however, will produce driving less or limiting the use of electric climate changes in the past million Desert, where dunes have buried more stress on the vegetation. In strong appliances. He does, however, regard years or so. By studying them, we can houses and roads,” says Ashkenazy. “In winds, the vegetation is destroyed. doomsday scenarios with great caution. learn what factors can cause the climate the Kalahari Desert, stable dunes are “If the damage is already done, even “We must be responsible and system to reach such extreme states and covered with crust and vegetation.” if the wind weakens, the dune will acknowledge the limitations of our existii we can try to isolate the anthropogenic, He points to the clear difference remain bare,” says Ashkenazy. “This is ing models,” says Ashkenazy, a physicist or man-made, factors, from the natural between dunes in Egypt and Israel to an almost irreversible process; the dune who simulates climate systems through variability factors,” Ashkenazy explains. illustrate this process. On the Egyptian cannot recover naturally even if the mathematical modeling in order to There is no one accepted theory side, Bedouin goat and sheep herds eat wind returns to its original strength. understand their dynamics. “There is a that explains the phenomenon of ice the vegetation and trample the biogenic We have devised a mathematical gap in perception between scientists and ages. One says that they are related to crust, exposing the sand and allowing it model and will try to create other the general population, who sometimes “insolation,” meaning solar radiation to move. In contrast, no herds wander scenarios and answer more questions take vague findings at face value.” received on the earth’s surface, he the southern dunes of the Nitzana area, about this phenomenon,” he says. While Ashkenazy acknowledges that continues. “While we know that the and the half centimeter-thick crust In other projects, Ashkenazy, who climate models have proven successful earth’s orbit is elliptical, this ellipse is not there prevents the sand from moving. has several highly competitive Israel in explaining phenomena like El Niño, constant, as the angle of the earth’s main Ashkenazy has devised a simple Science Foundation and Bi-National the Gulf Stream and deep ocean axis of rotation is always changing. This model to check how vegetation cover Science Foundation grants to his circulation, he adamantly declares change affects the sunlight falling on on dunes affects movement. “You need credit, has been studying mechanisms that “We are still not able to predict the earth, and ultimately, the climate.” a critical cover of vegetation to hold the underlying the formation of sea ice, the climatic future, and such predicit According to the other approach, sand in place,” he explains. “Sufficient as well as the seasonal cycles at the tions might even be impossible.” the glacial-interglacial oscillations vegetation cover prevents wind from equator. “As in other fields, this is “The models now used are still not can exist even without variation reaching the ground and moving the an interdisciplinary approach. I’m developed enough to predict what will in insolation. Ashkenazy, who is sand. If the vegetation is sparse, the interested in interdisciplinary science,” happen in another hundred years,” collaborating with Prof. Eli Tsiperman wind will still reach the ground.” he says. “In my post-doctoral research, says Ashkenazy. “There are models of Harvard University and Dr. Zezi In this project, Ashkenazy and his I collaborated with physicians from that are designed to reproduce the Gildor of the Weizmann Institute colleagues take one climate variable and Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. We made current state of the climate system. on the ice age research project, uses models about mortality in connection These models assimilate measured state-of-the-art general circulation with heart disease. As a physicist, I can data and provide uniform coverage models to resolve this debated question. apply the techniques of statistical physics of continuous climate variables. Moving from the freezing to the and modeling to other natural sciences.” However, even these ‘re-analysis’ sizzling, Ashkenazy also focuses on the Looking ahead, Ashkenazy plans to models exhibit large differences in dynamics of sand dunes. His research is continue probing climatic processes in important variables such as precipitation in collaboration with Prof. Haim Tsoar collaboration with specialists from a and winds and thus are not reliable from the Department of Geography and diversity of disciplines. “Ben-Gurion predictions for the future,” he explains. Regional Development, Dr. Hezi Yizhaq University in general and the Blaustein Having completed his Ph.D. in of the Department of Solar Energy and Institutes in particular are a good quantum mechanics at Bar-Ilan Environmental Physics at the Blaustein place to do this,” he declares. “Here, University and post-doctoral research Institutes and Dr. Eli Zaady from the there are experts in ecology, water and in climate studies at the Weizmann Volcani Institute. Their study, which many other fields working right next Institute of Science and the Massachu- includes both experimental and theoretiic door to one another. The Institutes’ setts Institute of Technology, Ashkenazy cal aspects, explores the role of vegetait flexibility allows us to pursue those has now been a member of BGU’s tion and the thin biogenic crust covering subjects that interest us the most.” Department of Solar Energy and From Hot to Cold on the sand in preventing dunes from The setting of the Sede Boqer Environmental Physics at the Jacob shifting. Desert dunes cover some five campus provides fertile ground for Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research percent of global land surface and a this – and other scientists’ – fresh, for four years. Dr. Yossi Ashkenazy substantial part of Africa and Australia. innovative research. In one of his many diverse research Active – or shifting – sands can projects, Ashkenazy addresses questions present a great danger to human concerning the ice ages and what can be settlement in certain areas where the

44[45] A Chemical Reaction The ability to create something totally new, with the potential for changing the lives of large Dr. Lital Alfonta & Dr. Michael Meijler populations, gives me a lot of satisfaction

No one disputes the importance of were happy in Dimona, my parents “It was a difficult transition, coming the chemistry that can make or break picked up and moved the entire family to San Diego with a three-month-old a marital relationship. All the more to Rehovot just so that I could study baby in tow, without family or friends. so when both the husband and wife chemistry,” she recalls. We had to figure most things out on our are chemists by profession. For Drs. While in the army, Lital served as own,” says Michael. “But although it Lital Alfonta of the Department of a lieutenant in the Nuclear, Chemical, was hard at the time, it became a kind of Biotechnology Engineering and Michael Biological and Radiological Defense benchmark for us, which made all later Meijler of the Department of Chemistry, Unit. “I was in charge of training transitions easier in comparison.” sharing daily laboratory experiences special units in such tasks as detecting In addition to his scientific research, strengthens their bonds at home. and decontaminating chemical and Michael, who had been a long-distance And indeed, at first glance they prove biological warfare agents,” Lital runner in Israel, took up a new sport the maxim that opposites attract: a explains. “This coincided with the – surfing. “I love the ocean,” he says native of Dimona, in southern Israel, Gulf War period, making my work wistfully, pointing to the surfboard Alfonta is a bundle of energy who has even more interesting.” After her hanging on the wall of his BGU office as always sought out new challenges, while service, Lital spent the next ten years a reminder of those days. Meijler, a Dutch immigrant to Israel, is at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem After four years in the States, they the competitive long-distance runner, studying chemistry. wanted to move home and bring up pursuing his goals with enthusiastic Michael was born in Holland. His their children in Israel. “We were determination. parents spent the war years in hiding overjoyed,” Lital says, “when we both With an array of advanced degrees with farming families in the Dutch found positions at BGU.” in chemistry between them, Alfonta countryside. Although they remained Michael’s research is in bioorganic and Meijler have been drawn to very in Holland after the war, most of their chemistry, which he explains, “is one different – but compatible – aspects children, including Michael, eventually of the few areas with the potential to of the vast field that is chemistry: moved to Israel. After high school, synthesize completely new bioactive Michael to bioorganic chemistry, Michael spent a year in Jerusalem, molecules.” He has been able to realize Lital to biotechnology engineering, but returned to Holland to complete this potential in the field of quorum an inter-disciplinary area connecting undergraduate and graduate studies sensing, which is the mechanism that electrochemistry and molecular biology in chemistry at the University of bacteria use to communicate chemically in completely novel ways. They are Amsterdam, returning to Israel for to coordinate their behavior. They now both members of the Safra Center his doctoral studies at the Weizmann achieve this by exchanging small for the Design and Engineering of Institute of Science. signaling molecules. Functional Biopolymers that specializes It was during this period that he and In general, bacteria act independently in examining pure “biomimetic” Lital met, at a conference for doctoral of one another, and it is only when a approaches and tools for the design of students. The chemistry was immediate. certain bacterial population threshold functional materials. They married a year and a half later. is exceeded that this kind of group Lital’s love of chemistry started when They were both able to find post- behavior is “activated.” she was eight years old and attended doc fellowships in chemistry at the “One example of the relevance of To combat bioterrorism, we’d want to have a after-school science clubs in Dimona. Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, quorum sensing is the issue of so- But the local high school did not offer California. They arrived in California called ‘super bugs’ in hospitals that sensor that could detect extremely low levels classes in the field. “Even though we with three-month-old baby Danielle. By of pathogens and toxic proteins – even before the time they returned home to Israel, she was four and had a baby sister, people get sick Eden. 46[47] are resistant to antibiotics,” explains biofuels when she did her doctoral studies or fan,” explains Lital. “If we improve our Michael. “Modern medicine fights disease- on the subject of bioelectronic sensors. strategy, we may be able to produce biofuel producing bacteria with antibiotics, but These are small devices that give an cells that can transmit pictures or even resistant strains keep popping up. My electronic or optic signal in response to a operate small robots from the bottom of team works on a different strategy: not specific recognition event. One familiar the ocean or outer space.” to kill the bacteria but to prevent them example is the common glucose sensor And sensors can be combined with from being harmful; that is, to convert for diabetics; the sensor “recognizes” the biofuel cells in a “self-fueled biosensor.” ‘bad’ (pathogenic) bacteria to ‘harmless’ glucose molecule, thus enabling diabetics “Suppose we could combine a biosensor (non-pathogenic) ones by using quorum- to monitor their blood glucose levels. that ‘recognizes’ the glucose molecule in sensing inhibitors to jam the bacterial Other sensors can detect agents in the a diabetic’s blood, with a biofuel cell that signals.” bloodstream, such as antibodies, or toxins produces its own energy?” she continues. Some quorum-sensing regulated and other contaminants in water sources. “Another example would be a self-fueled processes that Michael and his team would Lital’s research focuses on improving biosensor for purifying waste water. The like to disrupt include biofilm formation, the sensitivity of biosensors. “To combat device would ‘recognize’ impurities and which is the gluey substance formed by bioterrorism, for example, we’d want to also generate the energy needed to purify bacteria on medical instruments or even have a sensor that could detect extremely them.” Lital decided to combine her two fields of expertise: sensors/biofuel cells and engineering of proteins and bacteria. Her research aims to modify the biological components of bacteria so that they will be better sensors/biofuel cells. “In order to make them work more efficiently, we are trying to tinker with the genetic makeup of proteins and bacteria. For example, we are trying to dictate the path we want the bacteria’s electrons to go, so that the sensor or biocell device will function efficiently.” Lital and Michael are working together on a project funded by the Israel Science Foundation called “Plugging into Bacteria,” which involves converging technologies. It perfectly fits their common interest, which is to be able to manipulate bacterial behavior in a controlled fashion. In engineering devices such as sensors/ biofuel cells, Lital faces the challenge in human beings. These biofilms often low levels of pathogens and toxic proteins of “connecting” between biological cause infection. “At Scripps, we have had – even before people get sick,” Lital says. components (proteins and bacteria) and success in scrambling quorum sensing- A biofuel cell, on the other hand, is a the inorganic component such as an signals to inhibit Staphylococcus aureus device in which biological molecules are electrode. “The interface between organic in mice, which is becoming increasingly used as a catalyst for the production of and inorganic material is problematic, antibiotic resistant, and Pseudomonas energy. because the enzymes, being proteins, aeruginosa, which causes infections of In other words, bacteria can be used for have insulating properties,” she explains. wounds, especially burn wounds,” says producing energy! “That’s why I collaborate with Michael, an Michael. Such devices would be especially useful organic chemist. While I attempt to dictate “The ability to create something totally in remote areas far from conventional the path of the bacterial electrons, Michael new, with the potential for changing the electrical power, such as the bottom of works on synthesizing appropriate lives of large populations, gives me a lot of the ocean, outer space or even heavily ‘linkers’ to connect the bacteria to the satisfaction,” he declares. contaminated areas. “Today we have inorganic electrode.” Lital first became interested in her small devices that harness energy using Together, they are creating an organic research subjects of biosensors and biological molecules or microorganisms, connection that is much more than the but they only produce very small amounts sum of its individual parts. of energy – enough for a small light bulb Ben-Gurion ASSOCIATES ORGANIZATIONS University

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