Conference Circuit

The two-day Herzliya Media Conference conference will open today at the Daniel Hotel, Herzliya at 8:30 a.m.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Sunday, December 17 The two-day Herzliya Media Conference conference will open at the Daniel Hotel, Herzliya at 8:30 a.m. The event is open to the general public and its purpose is to engage in a constructive dialogue involving government spokesmen, academics and journalists in order to develop a coherent strategy for how Israel positions itself in the media theater. It will also address the broader implications for how other democracies meet the challenges of public diplomacy. It will discuss ways in which large parts of the Arab and Muslim world use the media as a "theater of war," and examine the lessons to be learned from the role of both the Arab and the western media in the second Lebanon War for the Arab-Israeli, as well as larger conflicts. Also under discussion will be the role of cyberspace, and particularly the blogosphere, as a venue both for engaging the MSM, and for shaping a civic response to the challenge represented by Jihadi ambitions. Monday, December 18 Canadian Ambassador to Israel Jon Allan will lecture in English on "Canada-U.S.A. Relations." The 4:30 p.m. lecture will be preceded by a reception at 4 p.m. in Room 403, Maiersdorf Faculty Club, Mount Scopus campus, the Hebrew University. The event is under the auspices of The Halbert Center for Canadian Studies, the Department of International Relations at the Hebrew University, the Israel Association for Canadian Studies and the Canadian Embassy. For further details, call: (02) 588-3367. Wednesday, December 20 A lecture in English on "Lost Tribes of Israel in Afghanistan: The Putative Israelite Origin of Afridi Pathans," will be given by Navras Jaat Aafreedi, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Graduate School of Historical Studies, Entin Faculty of Humanities, Tel Aviv University; Author of Indian Jewry and the Self-Professed 'Lost Tribes of Israel' in India (Raphael Ezekiel Jhirad, Mumbai, 2006) - believed to be the first book to combine study of the Lost Tribes of Israel in India with that of the Indian Jews, and a rare major work by a non-Jew on the subject of the Lost Tribes of Israel. The lecture under the auspices of Root & Branch Association will be held at the Israel Center , 22 Keren Hayesod at 7:30 p.m. Israel Center Non-Members NIS 25, Israel Center Members NIS 20, Students NIS 10, Journalists Free, Israel Center Life Members Free. Thursday December 21 Professor Dr. Dermot Keogh, Head of the History Department, University College Cork, and author of Jews of Twentieth Century Ireland will speak on: "The Delicate Nature of Relations with Israel: Irish European and Vatican Historical Perspective." The event, under the auspices of the Israel Ireland Friendship League in association with the Open University of Israel with the support of the Cultural Division, the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland, will be moderated by IIFL chairman Malcolm Gafson and will be held in the presence of Irish Ambassador Michael Forbes and President of the Open University Prof. Gershon Ben Shakhar at The Open University, Israel, Neudorfer Auditorium, Dorothy De Rothschild Campus, 108 Rehov Ravutski, Ra'anana (university entrance at Ra'anana North Junction) at 7 p.m. Entrance fee NIS 35 includes refreshments and post-lecture Hanukka party. Space is limited. Registration at iiflleague@yahoo.com is required by December 18. Prof. Reem Sari, Caltech University, US, will lecture on "Understanding the Solar System" at 6 p.m. in the Canada Hall, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Hebrew University. The lecture is part of the "Heavens Above!" series of lectures sponsored by the Hebrew University Authority for Community and Youth. Admission is free of charge. For further information, call: (02) 658-6256 or e-mail: outreach@savion.huji.ac.il. Prof. Tom Maniatis, a Harvard professor of molecular and cellular biology with particular expertise in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - A.L.S. will be the keynote speaker at The IsrA.L.S. Research Association conference at the Dan Panorama Hotel, Tel Aviv. The conference begins at 3 p.m. The conference will also feature Israeli experts who will present updates on what has been achieved in terms of medications, treatments and research for what remains a fatal illness. Of the 120,000 people stricken with A.L.S. world wide, 600 are in Israel . The annual A.L.S. mortality rate in Israel is in the vicinity of 150 deaths. The IsrA.L.S. Research Association was founded by A.L.S. victim David Cohen, a Haifa businessman, with the help of A.L.S. sufferers who were looking, if not for a cure, at least for a medication that would dramatically slow down the paralytic development of A.L.S. For further information about the conference, call: (04) 825-2233. The annual national infrastructure conference for air, sea and land traffic will take place at the David Intercontinental Hotel, Tel Aviv from 8:30 a.m. In addition to leading figures representing airlines, ports, shipping companies, bus and train travel, construction companies, the Finance Ministry, etc. there will be a guest speaker from China - Yuan Li, Vice President China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. For further details and registration, call: (03) 512-1748 or (03) 513-2471. Monday, December 25 The annual conference of senior directors of government companies will take place at the Kibbutz Maale HaHamisha Hotel in the Jerusalem Corridor from 1:15 p.m. Keynote speakers will be retired Supreme Court Judge Dalia Dorner who is in high demand in many quarters since her retirement and Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson. Thursday, December 28 The launch of two new books - an anthology of essays by Herut ideolog and MK Yochanan Bader and a memoir of Irgun Commander, Herut leader, MK and minister in the first Begin-led government Haim Landau will be the basis for an evening of nostalgia hosted by the Jabotinsky Institute. Both men are long dead, but left a permanent imprint on the Revisionist Movement. Memories of their deeds, their writings, their speeches and their characters will be revived by MK Reuven Rivlin, former minister Uzi Landau, who is the son of Haim Landau, Dr. Yitzhak Alfassi, Shlomo Nakdimon, Yechiel Kadishai and Yosef Kister. The event which begins at 6 p.m. in the Jabotinsky Museum, 38 King George Street, Tel Aviv, will be moderated by Yossi Achimeir. Tuesday, January 2 The law firm of Eitan Liraz and Partners is hosting a symposium on The Kibbutz in a Modern Era - Strategies for Growth and Financing. The symposium begins at 9 a.m. at the Tel Aviv Hilton and will feature leading members of the Kibbutz Movement, lawyers and financiers who will discuss changes in the kibbutz, new projects, models to emulate, kibbutz sources of funding, kibbutz settlement and the capital market and other related subjects. For additional details and registration, call: (03) 537-7388. Thursday, January 11 The Jerusalem Friends of the Hebrew University will hold a seminar on Magic Mystery and Witchcraft at the Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem .