Conference Circuit

"An Army that has a State" is the provocative title of a two-day conference at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, 43 Jabotinsky Street.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Sunday, June 4 Reciprocal Relations Between Religious and Civil Courts in Israel is the subject of a symposium to be held in the auditorium of the Hecht Museum on the University of Haifa campus from 9 a.m. Participants will include Rabbi Eliahu Ben Dahan, the director of the Rabbinical Courts, retired Supreme Court Judge Zvi Tal, Supreme Rabbinical Court judge Dayan Avraham Sherman, as well as other active and retired judges, rabbis, lawyers, and academics with expertise in rabbinic and civil law. For registration and further information call: (04) 824-9537. The Israel National Highway Company in association with Haaretz Conferences will hold a symposium on Building Israel's Infrastructure, a long-term program which is part of the government's plan to encourage economic growth through the development of inter and intra city highways throughout Israel at an investment of NIS19.5 billion. The project is a cooperative venture between the public and the private sectors. The symposium begins at 9 a.m. and will be held at Avenue Conventions Center at Airport City (near Ben Gurion International Airport) in the presence of Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz. To register call: (03) 512 -1195 or (03) 513-2471. On Trains and Traffic Jams - a lecture in Hebrew by Prof. Ilan Salomon of the Hebrew University Geography Department: one of the "Why?" series of lectures of the Hebrew University Authority for Community and Youth will be held at 5 p.m., in the Wise Auditorium, of the Hebrew University Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram. Admission is free of charge. Further details: (02) 658-6256. Robin Woodhead, chief executive of Sotheby's Europe and Asia will participate in a panel discussion at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art on Art Restitution at the Turn of the 21st Century. The symposium begins at 6 p.m. Other participants include Larry Kaye, a partner in Herrick Feinstein, New York, Shauna Isaac, Historic Data Consultant Swift-Find, London, and Yehudit Shendar, senior art curator, Art Department, Museum Division, Yad Vashem. An international conference on Ethnicity and Nationalism in Divided Societies: Conflicts and Accommodation will be held in Auditorium 496 of the Gilman Building on the Tel Aviv University campus. Organized by the Steinmetz Center for Peace Studies in conjunction with the Daniel Abraham Center, the conference beginning at 3:30 p.m. will deal with Ethnicity and Nationalism in a Global Era and with Nationalism Today. The sixth three-day Conference on Homo-Lesbian Studies at Tel Aviv University will feature Prof. Kendall Thomas, co-director of the Center for the Study of Law and Culture who will speak on If There is Such a Thing: Race, Sex and the Politics of Enjoyment in the Killing State. The conference will begin at 6 p.m. in the Hoffein Auditorium in the Trubowitz Building. Monday, June 5 An Army that has a State is the provocative title of a two-day conference at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, 43 Jabotinsky Street. The first session beginning at 9:45 a.m. is devoted to the role of the security sector in states in continuous conflict. Other sessions will deal with the security sector's impact on policy-making; and the security sector's impact on identities and the public discourse The annual George A. Keller lecture in memory of Amina Margalit will take place at 6 p.m. in the Yona Auditorium of the Gilman Building of the Tel Aviv University campus. The lecture will be delivered by Prof. Giacomo Luciani of the European Institute who will speak on The Linkage between Economic and Political Reform in the Middle East. Hamburger, Evron & Co. in conjunction with Schwarz, Kelwing, Wicke, Westpfahl will hold a symposium on real estate investments in Germany at the Dan Hotel, 99 Hayarkon Street, Tel Aviv between 9 a.m.-1 p.m. For details and registration call: (03) 607-4040. Tuesday, June 6 The festive opening of a conference on 'Piyut Today' featuring musical presentations and greetings by Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar at 7:30 p.m. will take place at the Atzmaut-Mexico Auditorium, the Hebrew University, Mount Scopus. A conference on the topic will be held the following day, Wednesday, starting at 10 a.m., in the auditorium of the Rabin Building on the Mount Scopus campus. For further details call: (02) 588-3962. Wednesday, June 7 The General Assembly of Hadassah Israel will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Judean Guest House, Givat Messuah, Jerusalem. Keynote speaker will be Bronfman Prize laureate Professor Alon Tal, an expert on environmental affairs, who will veer from the usual subject of water and soil and will talk about the Zionist world. Tal came to Israel as a participant of Hadassah's Young Judaea Year Course. During the program, Tal met his wife Robin, one of the founders of "Cup 'O Joe," and made aliyah. Today Tal is one of Israel's leading environmental activists and founder of "Adam Teva V'Din"- The Israel Union for Environmental Defense. The Scroll of Ruth - a lecture in Hebrew by Prof. Avigdor Shinan, is one of the series of lectures on The Evolution of the Scrolls sponsored by the Jerusalem Friends of the Hebrew University. The lecture commences at 6 p.m. in the Jerusalem Friends clubroom, 46 Jabotinsky Street. All proceeds go for scholarships at the Hebrew University. For further details call: (02) 563-2387. The Begin Heritage Center and the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies will co-host a two-day commemorative conference to mark the 25th anniversary of the bombing by Israel of the nuclear reactor in Iraq. The event will open at 6 p.m. at the Begin Heritage Center, Jerusalem. For further details call Hadasa Greenberg-Yaacov (057) 579-1608. US Ambassador Richard Jones will address the English Speaking Friends of Tel Aviv University on US Public Diplomacy for a New Era. The lecture, which is the last in the series for the current season, is held in conjunction with the Department of Political Sciences in the Faculty of Social Sciences together with Abba Graduate Studies in Diplomacy will begin at 6:15 p.m. in Hall 003 on the ground floor of the Naftali Building of the TAU campus. The Jewish Community Vienna (IKG), together with other prominent Austrian organizations, will honor the memory of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal by helping to establish a Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) which will be dedicated to research, documentation and information regarding anti-Semitism, racism and the Holocaust, including the prehistory of these phenomena and their consequences. As part of this project, there will be a two-day conference in Vienna on June 7 and 8, 2006 under the title 'The Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal for Holocaust Studies.' Well-known scholars from the US, Israel, Poland, Germany and Austria will discuss issues relating to Holocaust research (in German and English). Participants include David Bankier, Omer Bartov, Peter Black, Wlodzimierz Borodziej, Christian Gerlach, Atina Grossmann, Isabel Heinemann, Raul Hilberg, Bertrand Perz, Tom Segev and Michael Wildt. The conference will be organized by the IFK International Research Center for Cultural Studies www.ifk.ac.at and the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna (IFZ) www.univie.ac.at/zeitgeschichte Detailed information on the conference which will be relayed live via internet and on the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) project is also available at www.vwi.ac.at. Monday, June 12 The annual Business Travel conference organized primarily for CEOs and CFOs will be held at the Hilton Hotel, Tel Aviv from 9 a.m. and will be addressed by representatives of various airlines as well as Carlson Waglit Travel which is hosting the conference. Participation fee is NIS180. Clients of Ophir Tours are exempt from payment. Registration is solely via internet http://www.reg.co.il/c.w.t Tuesday, June 13 Are Jews still part of the same tribe? A public forum with audience participation will discuss renewed solidarity within Israeli society at the Feldman Congress Center, Bar Ilan University at 3 p.m. The event is under the auspices of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Wednesday, June 14 The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University in conjunction with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's program for Jewish-Arab cooperation will host a symposium on The Arab Minority in Israel and the 17th Knesset Elections: Beginning of a New Era? The symposium will take place from 2 p.m. at the Malka Brender Hall of Justice, Trubowitz Law Building on the TAU campus. Several Arab academics from Israeli institutions of higher learning will be among the speakers and will discuss issues such as: Dilemmas of Arab Leadership During the Elections; Boycotts of the Elections in the Arab Sector; and the Arab Choice of Media in the Elections. There will be simultaneous Hebrew/English translations. Tuesday, June 20 The Caesarea Rothschild Institute and Dept. of Occupational Therapy (Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Studies) will hold its 4th Annual Virtual Reality (VR) three-day Symposium at the University of Haifa with presentations related to applications of technology to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Psychiatry and Psychology as well as neuro-rehabilitation, autism and pediatrics. Further details and the registration form may be found by going to http://cri.haifa.ac.il/events/2006/vr/vr.shtml or e-mailing lirt@research.haifa.ac.il or telephoning (04) 828-8391. Wednesday, June 21 Ben Gurion University of the Negev Faculty of Health Sciences Moshe Prywes Center for Medical Education will host the annual international symposium in memory of Prof. Moshe Prywes on The Global Impact of Malaria. The symposium will commence at 9 a.m. in the Joyce Goldman Auditorium, Faculty of Health Sciences on the BGU campus. Sessions will deal with the care of patients with malaria, a student's perspective of malaria in Africa, the history and eradication of malaria in Israel; malaria in Israel travelers; the impact of malaria on Africa and strategies for its eradication; international efforts and new initiatives to combat malaria and other related subjects. For further information contact the Moshe Prywes Center for Medical Education (08) 647-7415 or fax: (08) 647-7633.