Thursday, March 2 * Shlomo Wollins, publisher and editor of The Israel Reporter will speak as an eyewitness to outrages at Amona at the weekly Root & Branch lecture evening at 7 p.m. at the Israel Center, 22 Keren Hayesod Street, Jerusalem. NIS 25 non-members NIS 20 members, life members gratis, students NIS 10. * "The Black Hole in the Center of the Galaxy" a lecture in Hebrew by Dr. Tal Alexander of the Weizmann Institute, will take place at 6 p.m., in Canada Hall, the Hebrew University Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram. It is one of a series of lectures on the universe sponsored by the Hebrew University Authority for Community and Youth. No admission fee. For further details, call: (02) 658-6256. * The Bachar Reforms: the day after is the theme of a conference that will look at the impact of the reforms on both employers and employees. Speakers at the event at the Sheraton City Tower, Ramat Gan will include Labor Party chairman Amir Peretz and Prof. Avishay Braverman, President of Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Among the other speakers will be representatives of the Finance Ministry, the Israel Manufacturers Association, insurance and investment companies, etc. For details and registration call Haaretz Conferences (03) 512-1195. Friday, March 3 * A symposium on Mathematics, Assessment and What Lies between Them will be held from 8:15 a.m. at the Herzliya Center for the Performing Arts, 15 Jabotinsky Street. Keynote speaker will be Prof. Yehuda Schwartz , MIT and Harvard Graduate School who will speak on The Assessment of Mathematical Understanding & Skills - both necessary and neither one sufficient. For details and registration, call: (03) 646-0176. Sunday, March 5 * A conference on the Status of Women in Israel is being held under the joint auspices of the Ministry for Science and Technology, Bar Ilan University and the National Council for the advancement of Women in Science and Technology.The day-long conference beginning at 9 a.m. Feldman Congress Building, Bar Ilan University will deal with topics such as leadership, family and what lies between; and the goals of the haredi woman beyond being fruitful and multiplying. Speakers will include well-known female figures from academia, the haredi community, the media and the political arena. * The Use of Video for Research and Application in Early Childhood Education is the topic of a conference to be held in Hebrew from 9:30 a.m.- 3 p.m., in the Litwinsky, Senate Hall, the Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus. For further details: videokenes@gmail.com * Miniaturization in the Service of Science and Technology, a lecture in Hebrew by Prof. Micha Asscher of the Hebrew University Institute of Chemistry, will be delivered at 5 p.m., in the Wise Auditorium, the Hebrew University, Edmund J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram as part of the "Why?" series of lectures and musical programs for the general public of the Hebrew University's Authority for Community and Youth. No admission charge. For further details, call: (02) 658-6256. * The foreign policy of Turkey's Islamic Government will be discussed by Dr. Gamze Gungormus Kona, an Istanbul strategist, at 5 p.m. in the Beck Auditorium, Bar Ilan University. * American and Israeli politicians, diplomats, economists, military officers, media personnel, academics, et al will get together for three days at the AIPAC Policy Conference at the Washington Convention Center. Among the subjects tabled for discussion are: How to defeat terrorism and achieve Middle East stability; What would nuclear Iran mean to the world? Fighting efforts to delegitimize Israel; the future of Israel's economy; Israel and the media; and The peace process: What happens next? Monday, March 6 * Ten Years of the Free Trade Agreement Between Turkey and Israel - a seminar in English in memory of ambassadors Yehuda Millo and David Granit, sponsored by the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations of the Hebrew University and the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem, from 2 - 8 p.m. Participants include officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Davis Institute and Turkish officials. For further details, call: (02) 588-2312 * From Welfare to Work, Privatization and Citizens Rights is the subject of the - annual Dr. Arnulf M. Pins Lecture in English to be delivered by Prof. Yehezkel Hasenfeld, School of Public Policy, the University of California, Los Angeles. For further details call:(02) 588-1477. * The second annual international update symposium on Clinical Neurology and Neurophysiology will be held at the Metropolitan Hotel, Tel Aviv. The symposium will focus primarily on stroke treatment and management of cerebrovascular disease and medical and surgical treatments of epilepsy. For details and registration, contact ISAS International Seminars (02) 652-0574 Tuesday, March 7 Tel Aviv University in conjunction with Netvision Institute for Internet Studies will host a seminar on: The Internet, Genealogy and the Jewish People. Speakers include internationally acclaimed expert on Jewish genealogy, Dr. Sallyann Amdur Sack, editor of Avotaynu together with an online panel from abroad. The seminar will be held from 3 p.m. - 7:15 p.m. in the Trubowitz Building in the Faculty of Law, on the TAU campus. The lecture is free of charge but registration is required at: niis@post.tau.ac.il. Wednesday, March 8 * With Purim just around the corner, scholars are starting to take a closer look at the Book of Esther in an attempt to find the connection between Esther's adventures in the city of Shushan and the Perpetual Struggle of the Jews Against Their Enemies. Prof. Avigdor Shinan, of the Department of Hebrew Literature, the Hebrew University, will discuss the subject in Hebrew as part of a series of lectures entitled 'Evolution of the Scrolls' at 6 p.m., Club Room, Friends of the Hebrew University, 46 Jabotinsky St., Jerusalem. For further details, call: (02) 563-2387 * A New Anti-Semitism - The Case of Great Britain, is a timely symposium to be held in English, with the participation of Prof. Gideon Shimoni, the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, the Hebrew University; Ms. Brenda Katten, chair of the Israel, Britain & Commonwealth Association; and Prof. Robert Wistrich, head of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, the Hebrew University at 6:30 p.m., Maiersdorf Faculty Club, Room 405, the Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus. For more details, call: (02) 588-2494. * Indian Ambassador Arun K. Singh will be the guest speaker of the English Speaking Friends of Tel Aviv University at 6:15 p.m. The address by US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones has been rescheduled for three months later than originally agreed, to June 7. Thursday, March 9 * Root & Branch will host a memorial evening for Ka'are Kristiensen to mark the 86th anniversary of his birth. Kristiensen who died last year, resigned from the Nobel Prize adjudicator's committee rather than be party to having the prize awarded to Yasser Arafat. The lecture in his memory will be delivered by Moshe Aumann, who was for many years a senior member of the Foreign Ministry and who is an expert on Christian-Jewish relations. His topic will be: Who's Afraid of the Church? Christians, Jews and Israel. The lecture will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Israel Center, 22 Keren Hayesod Street, Jerusalem. Members NIS 20, non-members NIS 25, life members gratis, students NIS 10. Sunday, March 12 * Dr. Christopher Grunenberg, director Tate-Liverpool will be one of the guest speakers at Shenkar College's third annual two-day conference on looking at central and peripheral regions in Israel. Grunenberg will speak about Liverpool: A real periphery? The Tate Liverpool is the UK's largest modern art gallery outside London. The conference which is being held at the Tel Aviv Museum of Contemporary Art, brings together academics and arts professionals from around the world to join in panel discussions that will look at relations between urban centers and peripheral towns. For details and tickets, call: (03) 611-0005. Monday, March 20 * The future of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the Jewish people; Government and private investment in Jerusalem to enhance the status of the capital; the economic development of Jerusalem; the dialogue between the IDF and the religious Zionist community; the redefinition of the value of settlement; disengagement or uprooting; the place of the religious woman in the modern world are just some of the subjects tabled for discussion at the three-day Jerusalem Conference, taking place at the Regency Hotel, Jerusalem with the participation of rabbis, academics, politicians, army officers, representatives of the business community, communications experts and others. For further details and registration call: (03) 918-5588. Wednesday, March 22 * Natural gas in Israel: Is the dream becoming a reality? Keynote speaker at a conference at Blue Prime, Gan Oranim, Tel Aviv will be Erhan Cetinok, CEO Zorlu Energy who will talk about the natural gas market in Turkey. For further details and registration, call: (03) 561-6600. Thursday, March 23 * The Kosher World conference and expo will open at the Anaheim Convention Center, California. Launched two years ago, Kosher World gives producers of kosher food products access to ever wider markets in addition to enabling restaurateurs, caterers, hotel food buyers, supermarket managers, etc. to see what is new in kosher food. Jews are not the only people interested in kosher food. Muslims and Seventh Day Adventists also prefer to buy products with kosher certification. Manufacturers of parve (non-dairy, non-meat) products have also discovered a huge market among the lactose intolerant. For further details and registration, contact: Penton Lifestyle Media, a division of Penton Media, 1401 Pearl St., Ste. 200, Boulder, CO, 80302, USA. kosherworld@penton.com Wednesday, March 29 * Metuna, the organization that works towards the prevention of road accidents, is holding its seventh conference and the third in memory of Anthony Harris at the Dead sea Meridien Hotel. Titled a "Thinking out of the Box" conference, it invites participants to share their thoughts on how to prevent road injury by changing attitudes. For full details of the program and registration, contact the Metuna office (09) 884-4667 or metuna@netvision.net.il.

Conference Scene

Shlomo Wollins, publisher and editor of The Israel Reporter will speak as an eyewitness to outrages at Amona.