Top bloggers from around the world will converge on the Sammy Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya for the first annual Blogference.
By GREER FAY CASHMANSunday, July 1
A FOUR-day conference on Islamic Fundamentalism and Sufism - their continuities and confrontations through modernity and globalization, will be held in the Aviva and Sammy Ofer Observation Gallery of the University of Haifa beginning at 5 p.m. Speakers will include several Muslim academics.
TOP BLOGGERS from around the world will converge on the Sammy Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya for the first annual Blogference. Overseas participants represent the faces of the ever-changing media world - and they're coming to Israel to meet with their counterparts and leading members of academia. "Blogference" is being sponsored by some of the world's biggest names in technology. For further details log into http://www.blogference.nana.co.il. The two-day event will host cyberspace celebrities such as: Om Malik - creator of the technology blog, GigaOM, with a monthly audience of 500,000. Ranked as one of the top 50 blogs in the world; Garrett M. Graff - the first blogger to be invited to the White House press briefing; Micah Sifry - co-founder & executive editor of the Personal Democracy Forum, which focuses on the dynamic relationship between technology and politics; Andrew Michael Baron & Joanne Colan - creator & host of the popular video-blog "Rocketboom;" and Kent Alan Nichols & Douglas Shrine - hosts of the "Ask a Ninja" video blog - winner of the 2007 Webby Film & Video awards. The Blogference's first day will consist of panels lead by IDC Herzliya's experts. The topics to be discussed will be: Blogging as a Political Tool, The Psychology of Blogging and The Impact of Blogging on Journalism. The second day will be broken down into workshops designed to satisfy specific interests such as "What Makes a Popular Blog?," "Podcasting," "Developing Low-Cost Video Production." A total of 17 workshops are being offered. Blogference is being held in conjunction with Israel 21c and is co-sponsored by Nana/Israeblog, Microsoft, Google, TheMarker Caf , Giza VC, the World Jewish Congress the CO-Il's, icast and Blink it. Registration is mandatory for all journalists. To register, e-mail your details to pr@idc.ac.il. For further information, contact the IDC Herzliya Communications Office: Jeremy Ruden - Deputy Spokesman/Foreign Press Officer (09)-960-2754/317 Fax: (09) 951-6696 Email: PR@idc.ac.il.
STEP WEALTH Management will conduct its third seminar, this time on philanthropic strategies. Prof. Eliezer Jaffe of The Israel Free Loan Association will speak on establishing charity trusts; Doug Goldstein, CFP of Profile Investment Services will discuss how to ensure that philanthropic objectives are achieved; Jeff Broide CPA, of Broide & Co., will reveal the Israeli tax implications of donations, while Michael Brody CPA, of Feldman Brody & Co., and Philip Stein CPA will respectively disclose the UK and US tax implications. The seminar will be held at 6 p.m. Reservations are essential. For registration and venue details, call (02) 992-1519 or info@anglocapital.com. Cost is 35 NIS per person, STEP members free of charge.
Monday, July 2
THE NATIONAL Women's Conference on the Challenge of Family Unity will be held at the Knesset Tower Hotel, Jerusalem from 9:30 a.m. Participation fee for the all-day event is NIS 200 including lunch and refreshments. For further details and registration, call Rachel at (052) 566-5654 or the Tzohar Office at (08) 915-2270.
THE SECOND France-Israel Binational Conference on Neuromodulation in High Brain Functions will be held in Bordeaux, France, under the patronage of French Minister for Higher Education and Research Valerie Pecresse. More than 100 leading French and Israeli researchers - among them biologists, physicians, psychologists, physicists and mathematicians - investigating brain functions and dysfunctions will be among the participants. Topics will deal with learning, memory, motor control and processing of sensory information by the central nervous system. The conference has been organized by a number of French and Israeli institutes of higher learning, and in addition to its specific purpose will also act as a forum to express clear-cut opposition to British, French and other European attempts to boycott Israeli academic institutions, which conference participants and the organizations and institutions they represent regard as an unacceptable violation of academic freedom. For further details, contact: David Hansel (054) 5410-0218; david.hansel@univ-paris5.fr or log into the conference Web site www.inb.u-bordeaux2.fr/siteneuro2/pages/UniteINB/5227Cazalets/France_Israel_07.php.
DOZENS OF successful young Jewish innovators, whose activities touch the Jewish people, are gathering this week for a four-day summit meeting, believed to be the first of its kind, which will take place in Jerusalem under the banner of "The ROI Global Summit for Young Jewish Innovators." ROI is a partnership between The Center for Leadership Initiatives, which was founded by philanthropist Lynn Schusterman; and Taglit-birthright Israel. Hundreds of Jewish innovators from all over the world, including Israel, competed for the right to participate in the summit which is fully subsidized by Schusterman. After an intensive screening process, 120 applicants from 23 countries were chosen on the basis of their success in implementing projects on local and global levels. Schusterman's concept is to promote innovation in the global Jewish community, while developing the participants' managerial and innovation skills and exposing the participants to each other, thus fostering contacts and promoting extraordinary networks of collaboration. During the summit, participants will divide into five tracks: Service - Tikkun Olam [repairing the world], Environmental Activism, Content delivery, Programs for Youth and Israel Advocacy. For further details, log into www.roi120.com.
• THE ANNUAL Israel Medical Convention will be held at the Jerusalem International Convention center - Binyanei HaUma, with the participation of Israel's foremost medical experts as well as leading figures from the Health Ministry including Minister Ya'acov Ben Yizri. Topics to be discussed include: Israel's status as a destination for medical tourism; medicine and economics; the physician as a double agent who strives to uphold professional responsibilities in an era of conflicts of interest; management of health funds under conditions of uncertainty; ethical dilemmas in determining the contents of the health basket; economic considerations on the part of the central players in the health system; the future is now: technological and scientific innovations which are changing the face of medicine; personal physicians; computerized medicine; emergency medicine in the palm of your hand; is the media good for medicine; the significance of the Hippocratic oath in the 21st century.
Wednesday July 4
THE WELLNESS Community, a cancer support group that believes that unity is strength, is conducting a series of summer cooking courses under the direction of clinical dietician Limor Ben Haim and chef Eilat Barak. The course includes lectures on a healthy diet and how to infuse a tantalizing taste into healthy meals. Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. For further details and registration, call Tammy or Maggie at (03) 731-5097.
Sunday, July 8
THE FIFTH annual International Conference in Israel organized by Kolech, the Religious Women's Forum, will be held at the Pavilion Conference Center, Jerusalem, under the heading "To Be a Jewish Woman." Plenary sessions will deal with Alternative Rabbinic Courts - an alternative or more of the same?; Moot Court or Let the Oppressed Go Free; Women and Halacha - the Vision and the Reality; Women Making Movies. Other subjects to be discussed in workshop sessions: Women entangled in Rabbinical Bureaucracy; Israel's tough attitude towards converts; Romance in the face of a pre-nuptial agreement; A community on trail - the influence of women's activity in the synagogue; The necessity of the Mehitzah; Women, the economy and making a living; From economic exclusion to economic empowerment. For further details and registration, call 1-800-350-320.
Tuesday, July 10
AMONG THE growing professions in light of various economic changes in Israel are those of pension agents and financial consultants specializing in pensions. A conference for people in these categories organized by Haaretz Conferences and sponsored by various insurance companies dealing with major pension schemes, will be held at the Dan Panorama Hotel, Tel Aviv, and will focus on market volatility, long-term savings in an era of pension consumerism, fears and promises, how to know which is the best pension scheme; managing pensions; new trends, etc. For further details and registration, call Elinor (03) 512-1748 or (03) 513-2471.
ETAI (ENGLISH Teachers' Association of Israel) will hold its Annual National Conference at the David Yellin College of Education, Jerusalem. The theme of the two-day conference is "Wheels of Change," encompassing a broad range of topics, as they pertain to English teachers. Featured speakers will be James Kennard (Australia), Gail Weinstein (US), Karen Love (New Zealand), Judy Steiner (Israel), Richard Curwin (US), Penny Ur (Israel) and Emily Budick (Israel). Admission will be charged at the door. For further details, call the ETAI office: (02) 500-1844.
THE INAUGURAL Policy Conference of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute will take place at the Mount Zion Hotel, Jerusalem, with the participation of major Jewish leaders, decision makers from all over the world and leading experts and thinkers on issues of geopolitics, Jewish identity, community and leadership. The conference will work to fashion broad strategic concepts for the Jewish people in light of the dangers it faces and the opportunities with which it will be presented in the coming years. For further details, contact JPPPI spokesman Arik Puder (052) 582-0820.
Sunday, July 15
ONE OF the mightiest blessings ever on the House of Israel will be recited by hundreds of priests (Cohanim) in the course of an international conference of Cohens and Levis that will take place over a four-day period in Jerusalem. In addition to hearing lectures on the duties and obligations of Cohens and Levis, participants will engage in Temple-oriented field seminars and hear lectures on genealogy and genetics related to the status of the Cohen and proof that he really is one. For further information, call: (02) 626-0632.
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