City Notes: Technion launches program to promote higher education among outstanding Arab students

The program will encourage Arab students to pursue graduate and postgraduate studies, and aid integration into the Israeli labor market.

By TAMARA ZIEVE
A protest in favor of legalizing marijuana. (photo credit: BEN HARTMAN)
A protest in favor of legalizing marijuana.
(photo credit: BEN HARTMAN)
NORTH
Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has launched a program to encourage top Arab students to pursue higher education, in light of a notable decrease in the number of students from the Arab sector dropping out of their studies.
The Technion announced that within eight years the percentage of Arab dropouts fell from 73 percent to 12%. Prof. Joseph Jabarin, the deputy senior assistant to the Technion president, said that accordingly the program was developed after it became clear that university activities to lower the dropout rate among Arab students had been successful.
This was based upon a survey which found that among the excelling students, 56% wanted to continue to advanced degrees, and the majority sought to better their knowledge of the business world and were interested in entrepreneurship. The poll was conducted with the support of Yad Hanadiv, and the planning and budgeting committee of the Council for Higher Education.
The Technion’s multi-year program will encourage them to pursue graduate and postgraduate studies, and will aid their integration into the Israeli labor market; top students will participate in special workshops, tour leading laboratories abroad and receive scholarships.
Prof. Hossam Haick of the chemical engineering faculty told students that for many years the Arab sector has been grappling with survival due to a lack of opportunities. “Now we realized that excellence is the key to a breakthrough. Every employer thinks about his own factory and wants to employ the best of the best,” he said.
“From my experience, excellence is not an easy thing. It depends on consistency, determination and the ability to deal with failure. In order to succeed, we must be able to also cope with failure. And in the future, when you succeed, you will remember how much support you received from the Technion, and you will start to give back to society.”
Man dies in ATV accident in Upper Galilee
A man in his 30s died last Friday after his ATV overturned on a dirt road near Kibbutz Neot Mordechai in the Upper Galilee. Magen David Adom paramedics rushed to the scene and provided him with medical treatment, but after unsuccessful resuscitation attempts pronounced him dead.
CENTER
Young motorcyclist killed in Netanya road accident A 25-year-old motorcyclist was killed in Netanya last week after being hit by a car. United Hatzalah paramedics treated him on the scene, before he was evacuated by an MDA intensive care mobile unit to the city’s Laniado Medical Center.
Doctors at the hospital pronounced the man dead; police launched an investigation into the circumstances of the accident.
TA and St. Petersburg museums launch art collaboration
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, Russia, last week announced the beginning of a collaboration.
According to the announcement, issued by Tel Aviv Museum of Art director and chief curator Suzanne Landau and Hermitage director Dr.
Mikhail Piotrovsky, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art will lend its entire Alexander Archipenko collection to the Hermitage for exhibition as of June 2015, and the latter will lend a selection of its Henri Matisse collection for exhibition in Tel Aviv.
The collection includes Young Woman in a Blue Blouse, a portrait painted by Matisse of his secretary, assistant and favorite model at the beginning of World War II; and Game of Bowls, painted by Matisse in 1908 and part of Sergei Shchukin’s collection before the 1917 October Revolution.
Piotrovsky also announced a Hermitage Foundation gala evening to be held at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in late November, and a preview tour for the Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of this year’s MANIFESTA, the roving European Biennial of Contemporary Art, which will be hosted at the Hermitage New Wing in late June.
“I am honored and delighted by this collaboration with the Hermitage, one of the world’s largest and most important museums,” Landau remarked. “It is part of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s move towards various collaborations with museums worldwide.”
Hundreds take to the streets to call for legalization of marijuana
Hundreds of people turned out at a pro-legalization of cannabis demonstration in Tel Aviv last Thursday night, marking the second protest of this kind in several months. Demonstrators marched from Habimah Square to Rabin Square, shouting, “The people demand medical cannabis.”
The protest preceded an upcoming Knesset vote on a legalization bill proposed by MKs Moshe Feiglin and Haim Katz (both of Likud) and Tamar Zandberg (Meretz).
British ambassador hosts party for queen’s birthday at Ramat Gan residence
British Ambassador Matthew Gould and his wife, Celia, hosted over 600 guests at their Ramat Gan residence over the weekend in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday. The ambassador put on a spread of traditional British food, accompanied by British music. Guests included Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar as well as other MKs, MPs, foreign ambassadors, CEOs and executives.
The theme of the event was universities, and pictures of famous Israelis and British royals who studied at British universities were on display.
Gould highlighted the partnerships and relations between British and Israeli academic institutions, as well as economic and scientific cooperation.
“Part of the job of my team here is to ensure that this positive message is heard, and the voice of those calling for boycotts is not the only voice that is heard,” Gould told his guests. “If we end up accidentally amplifying their voice, then we have ended up doing their job for them – dissuading Israeli students from studying in the UK and ensuring the next generation of British leaders heard firsthand about the Israeli experience.”
The ambassador also alluded to the stalled peace talks and the benefits that a two-state solution would bring to Israel, as well as his hope that a diplomatic solution will be found to resolve the Iranian nuclear threat.
SOUTH
Man killed in Negev road accident; five others injured
A 35-year-old man was killed in an accident involving three vehicles in the Negev last Thursday. The accident occurred on Route 40, next to the Halukim Junction. The man was trapped in the driver’s seat, and paramedics pronounced him dead after failed attempts to resuscitate him.
Five other people were injured in the accident. In the same car as the man, a 30-year-old woman suffered head injuries and was sedated and transferred to the hospital, and a two year old was moderately injured. A 19-year-old man was rescued from a separate vehicle in critical condition, and in the third vehicle, two 25 year olds suffered minor injuries.
Eilat youths honored for contributions to city
Hundreds of Eilat youth lined the municipal swimming pool last week to honor their counterparts for excelling in various fields of activism, in a ceremony that is held every year in the city.
According to the Local website, 34 youths were recognized for their activism, in contributing to the community in 26 different areas – including to Magen David Adom, music, the municipal youth council, community theater, sport and various other leadership, social and educational frameworks.
During the ceremony, the municipal youth council launched a new youth benefit card, which it distributed to all of the event participants.
Speaking at the ceremony, Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevi said: “The city of Eilat is blessed with wonderful youth... The spirit of volunteering and outstanding activism that you carry out with love, each one of you in your own area, are very important elements in the nurturing of your personalities, and a source of pride for our city.”
Following the ceremony, the honorees enjoyed a show put on by local youth bands, dinner and a night swim.