Conference Circuit

Attitudes of the Jewish community in Israel towards Christianity and the Christian world is the subject of a symposium in Jerusalem.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Pope Benedict 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Pope Benedict 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
Monday, March 16 NEW OPPORTUNITIES for clean energy will be the main theme of the National Energy Conference 2009 held at the Hilton Hotel Tel Aviv, commencing at 8.30 a.m. Participants will include experts from abroad in addition to leading figures from Israel's energy-related industries. The conference which is being held in the shadow of the global economic crisis and the global energy crisis will deal with ways in which to cope with challenges presented by both crises in Israel and around the world, and will also examine the new opportunities for clean energy. Participation is NIS 280, with an NIS 80 discount for members of the Israel Institute for Energy and the Environment. To register, access www.energy.org.il or call (03) 696-4445. TEL AVIV University's Netvision Institute for Internet Studies will host a symposium on Protecting the National Infrastucture - Technology and Content. The symposium will begin at 3 p.m. in the Bar Shira auditorium on the TAU campus. Among the speakers will be former Mossad chief and former MK Danny Yatom who is now the CEO of C.S.G., Avner Ben Ephraim of the Defense Ministry, Chief Military Censor Sima-Vaknin-Gil, and many others. Admission is free of charge but prior registration is required via niis@post.tau.ac.il ATTITUDES OF the Jewish community in Israel towards Christianity and the Christian world is the subject of a symposium to be co-hosted by the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations and the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies at 5 p.m. in the Teddy Kollek Hall of the JIIS, 20 Rehov Radaq, Jerusalem. The symposium will be addressed by religious and lay speakers, both Christian and Jewish. To register attendance call (02) 563-0175. A MEMORIAL evening honoring Lechi activists Akiva and Rachel Bron will be held at 7.30 p.m. at the Jabotinsky Institute, 38 King George Street, Tel Aviv to mark the 100th anniversary of Akiva Bron's birth. THE HARRY S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace will host a seminar on 'Islam: State and Democracy in Asia' with the focus on South-East Asia, Central Asia, and Eurasia Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The seminar will be conducted from 9.30 a.m. - 12 noon, at the Abba Eban Conference Room, Truman Institute, HU Mount Scopus campus. Speakers include Prof. Raphael Israeli, Dr. Giora Eliraz and Dr. Moshe Gammer. RELIGIOUS CONTACTS in the Roman World, is the subject of a seminar to be led by Prof. John Scheid of the College de France at 10.30 a.m. in, Room 5411, Faculty of Humanities, HU Mount Scopus campus. For further details, call (02) 588 3764. Tuesday, March 17 MOETZET YESHA (The Council for Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria) is holding a public information meeting in English for foreign journalists from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. Dani Dayan chairman of the board of Moetzet Yesha will discuss the Council's position with regard to the new government coalition and expectations for construction and development in Judea and Samaria. Yoram Ettinger, former Minister for Congressional Affairs at the Israel Embassy in Washington and member of the American-Israel Demographic Research Group (AIDRG), will be speaking about falsities in commonly accepted fears about demographics in Israel. To register contact aliza.herbst@gmail.com BAR-ILAN University's Dangoor Program of Universal Monotheism in conjunction with the Project for the Study of Religion, Culture and Peace in the department of Political Science, will host a two-day International Conference on Monotheism in Asia. The subject is particularly interesting because much of Asia, especially the southern, eastern and south-eastern regions are dominated by religions which are not monotheistic. The conference which will focus on monotheism and morality will be held from 12 noon in the Mintz Auditorium on the Bar-Ilan University campus in Ramat Gan. THE ANNUAL Eitan Berglass Memorial Lecture under the auspices of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Eitan Berglass School of Economics at Tel Aviv University will be delivered by Professor David Card of the University of California Berkeley who will speak on Immigration and US Wage Inequality. The lecture will take place at 6 p.m. in auditorium 012 in the School of Economics on the TAU campus. GREEN METHODS for cleaning up of chemical waste, is the subject of a one-day conference to be held in Hebrew in the Reichman building at the Marcus Family Campus of Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva. Co-sponsored by Ramat Hovav and BGU, the conference which begins at 10 a.m. will be addressed by experts on ecology, environmental issues, civil engineering, industrial waste, pollution and other related fields. TO MARK the launch of the 3rd volume in the series 'The History of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Becoming Stronger Academically during the National Struggle', a seminar will be held in Hebrew at 2 p.m. in the Senate Hall, Sherman Building, Mount Scopus campus. The seminar will include a tour of the Mount Scopus campus. For further details, call (02) 588 2867, 02-588 2986, e-mail: cherrick@mscc.huji.ac.il THE INTERNATIONAL three-day conference 'Between Coexistence and Divorce: 25 Years of Research and the History and Culture of Polish Jewry and Polish-Jewish Relations', will be held in English at the Hebrew University, Mount Scopus. The presenters will include speakers from Israel, Poland, Germany and the United States. Sessions will deal with 'Medical Practices and their Influence on the Origin of Blood Libel Accusations in the 16th-17th Centuries; the Roman Catholic Church and the Jews, 1945-1965; the Catholic Church and the Jewish Issue, 1945-1989; and Polish Jews as Reflected in Contemporary Polish Literature and the Arts among others. Participants will be greeted by Polish Ambassador to Israel Agnieszka Magdziak-Miszewska and Former Ambassador to Israel and Deputy Director Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr. Maciej Kozlowski. The conference is held under the auspices of the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, the Center for the Research on the History and Culture of Polish Jews and the Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw. For further details, call (02) 588 1480 or (02) 588 2466, Entrance is by invitation only. Full program details are available at http://icj.huji.ac.il/conference/index.htm. Wednesday, March 18 THE ISRAEL Center for Third Sector Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev will host its two-day 12th Annual Conference and 2nd International Conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Subject of the conference will be the Dead Sea on Civil Society between Local and Global: Localization of International NGOs. CONFLICT FROM a different perspective - a symposium honoring the memory of Moshe Zak, former editor of Maariv and a distinguished columnist and contributor to Maariv and The Jerusalem Post will be held from 10.30 a.m. in Building 3A of the Milken campus of Ariel University. Speakers will include Yossi Ahimeir, director of the Jabotinsky Institute, Ephraim Halevy, former head of the Mossad and the National Security Council and currently head of the Hebrew University's School of Public Policy, Haim Gvirtzman of the Hebrew University's Institute of Earth Sciences and Yuval Arnon-Ohana of Ariel University. They will speak about a variety of issues that pre-occupied Moshe Zak in his writings. THE PALESTINIAN Economy and the chances for political peace are the subject of a discussion on Binyamin Netanyahu's economic peace plan in connection with the questions of what can be done to improve the Palestinian economy and will it improve the chances for political peace. The discussion series with IPCRI will be held at 3 p.m. at the Ambassador Hotel, Jerusalem with the participation of Arie Zeif, Vice President Israel Chamber of Commerce and other Israeli and Palestinian speakers. THE RELIGIOUS Kibbutz Movement has joined the battle for road safety and will hold a conference under the title "We behave differently" (a Hebrew wordplay on 'We drive differently'). The conference will be held at Kibbutz Be'er Yitzhak in reaction to the fact that more than 600 members of the Religious Kibbutz Movement have been involved in road accidents. Eli Somer who is in charge of RKM road safety division attributes some of these accidents to the long distances which kibbutz vehicles often travel. The conference will be addressed by experts affiliated with road safety organizations. BAR-ILAN University's Department of Comparative Literature and Department of English will co-host an inaugural conference on 'Philosophy, Religion and Gender Discourses in Early-Modern England'. The conference is a joint effort by Dr. Yaakov Mascetti, of the Comparative Literature Department and Prof. Ellen Spolsky, of the English Department to bring together internationally-recognized scholars in the field to lecture on a variety of topics at annual conferences. The keynote address at the founding conference will be delivered by Prof. Murray Roston, professor emeritus from Bar-Ilan University's Department of English and the University of California, Berkeley, who has published numerous books on early-modern England. FOOD EXPERT Sybil Kaplan, author of "The Wonders of a Wonder Pot" and "Israeli Cooking on a Budget" as well as "Kosher Kettle" and "Who's Cooking at Hadassah College Jerusalem" will speak at Kehilat Moreshet Avraham in East Talpiot Jerusalem at 8 p.m. 'Why is This Seder Different from All Other Sedarim? - An evening of fun food trivia.' Entrance fee is NIS 15 including refreshments. Thursday March 19 THE EMBASSY of the Czech Republic is hosting a conference about education in the Czech Republic, with the aim of promoting the different study programs available to foreign students. The conference will begin at 6.30 p.m. with a lecture on the Czech Republic in the Heart of Europe by Dr. Robert Rˇehák, Cultural attaché at the Embassy who will also talk about scholarships and summer courses of the Czech language. It will be followed by a lecture on the study of Veterinary Medicine by Prof. Dr. Miroslav Svoboda, CSc .of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Science Brno. Prof. Marie Nováková, Medicine Faculty of the Masaryk University in Brno will provide information about the study of Medicine and Dentistry, and Pharmacology studies will be discussed PharmDr. Ing. Radka Opatrˇilová,Ph.D, Pro-dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno. The conference will take place at the Czech Embassy 23 Zeitlin St., Tel Aviv. E-mail registration is required at robert.rehak@gmail.com.