Conference Scene

Residents of Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood will assemble in the Avi Chai Building on the corner of Keren Kayemet and King George Streets to learn about the proposed new zoning ordinance that, if implemented, may seriously affect the value of their properties and the quality of their environment.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Sunday, March 11 RESIDENTS OF Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood will assemble in the Avi Chai Building on the corner of Keren Kayemet and King George Streets at 6 p.m. to learn about the proposed new zoning ordinance that, if implemented, may seriously affect the value of their properties and the quality of their environment. The meeting will be attended by the architect(s) of the plan, and municipal representatives. Many residents are disturbed by the proposal to establish a parking lot on the green slopes facing the Greek Monastery. Aside from destroying trees that are more than 35 years old, implementation of the plan will create serious traffic problems in what until now has been a quiet neighborhood. THE NETANYA Academic College will honor industrialist Stef Wertheimer, Taxation Authority chief Yossi Bachar and Harel Insurance chairman Yair Hamburger at a Man of the Year ceremony at the Tel Aviv Hilton. Keynote speakers at the event, which commences at 7 p.m., will be Housing and Construction Minister Meir Sheetrit, NAC President Zvi Arad, deputy NAC President Prof. Sinai Deutsch and Uriel Lynn, president of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce. Monday, March 12 SHALVA, THE Association for Mentally and Physically Challenged Children in Israel, will host a conference under the heading Advancing Hope. The conference, to be held from 8 a.m. at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, is designed to give families of children with special needs fresh hope about the progress that some of these children can make through the use of new techniques. For further details, call: (02) 651-9555 ext. 101. PROF. DARRELL L. Bock of the Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas , will lecture on The Newest Gospels: Hype, History and the Media, with specific emphasis on The Da Vinci Code and the Media. This is the first in a series of five lectures by Prof. Bock that will take place over a three-day period. The above-mentioned lecture will be held at 5:45 p.m in Conference Hall B of the Zlotowski Student Center at Ben-Gurion University under the auspices of the Deichmann Program for Jewish and Christian Literature of the Hellenstic-Roman era. AN ALL-DAY conference at the Tel Aviv Hilton, hosted by the Netanya Academic College will deal with issues such as Flaws in Capital and Government, Taxes, Banking and Society. Tuesday, March 13 DR. SUFYAN Abu Zayda the former minister for prisoners' affairs in the Palestinian Authority and Brig. Gen. (RES) Shalom Harari, the former consultant on Palestinian affairs to the Defense Ministry, will discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the aftermath of the Mecca Agreement between Hamas and Fatah. Their views will be presented within the framework of the Memri Discussion Forum, which will convene at 7:30 p.m. at Yad Ben Zvi, 12 Abarbanel Street, Jerusalem. For further information, call Ezra: (052) 333-8004. THE GUEST speaker at the Ambassadors' Forum of the Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy at Ben-Gurion University will be Dr. Harald Kindermann, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, who will speak on Germany, Israel and the Middle East. The event at 12 noon will place in the Minkoff Senate Hall on the BGU campus. AN INTERNATIONAL three-day conference on Germany in Jerusalem will be held at Mishkenot Shaananim, Jerusalem, opening at 6 p.m. The conference will deal with Jerusalem's German architectural heritage, German explorers of Palestine in the 19th century, Jerusalem as depicted by German artists, Evangelical activities, and offshoots of all the above. The conference will be conducted in Hebrew and German with simultaneous translations. For information and tickets, call: (02) 629-2212. HUMAN RIGHTS and the rights of sick people in law, in medicine and in accordance with the Halacha is the theme of a conference to be held by Ono Academic College at Yad Sarah, 124 Sderot Herzl, Jerusalem, with the participation of leading judicial, medical and rabbinic figures. The conference begins at 5 p.m. For further details, call: (02) 644-4484. Wednesday, March 14 PROFESSOR LESTER Salamon of John Hopkins University will be the keynote speaker at the 10th Dead Sea Conference on Third-Sector Studies. His topic will be: "Are we moving towards a three-sector society?" Conference participants will include Minister Designate for Social Welfare Isaac Herzog, MK Nadia Hilou and Raanan Dinur, director general of the Prime Minister's Office. The two-day conference will take place at the Daniel Hotel on the Dead Sea. For details and registration, call (03) 613-3340 ext. 217. THE INSTITUTE for Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture in the Faculty of Humanities at Tel Aviv University will host Prof. Justin Cammy of Smith College who will speak on "When Yiddish was young - the forgotten voices of Yung Vilna 1929-1940." The lecture will take place at 4:15 p.m. in room 496 of the Gilman Building. AUSTRALIAN AMBASSADOR James Larsen will address the English Speaking friends of Tel Aviv University on Australia and the Middle East. The lecture will take place at 6:15 p.m. in room 003 of the Naftali Building on the TAU campus. THE ISRAEL Academy of Sciences and Humanities will host Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry, Prof. Yuan Tseh Lee, who will speak at 8 p.m. on Energy, Environment and the Responsibility of Scientists. The lecture will take place at the IASH complex, Albert Einstein Square (off Jabotinsky Street) Jerusalem. For details call: (02) 567-6204. ARAB CITIZENS of Israel - Vision and Reality is the title of the symposium to be hosted by the Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy at Ben-Gurion University. Participants in the symposium will include Jewish and Arab academics, who will discuss issues such as the vision of the future in the minds of Palestinian Arabs living in Israel; the State of Israel, the State of the Jews; and the Dilemmas of the Majority and the Minorities of Israel. The event will begin at 1:40 p.m. in the Minkoff Senate Hall on the BGU campus. For further details, call: (08) 647-2538. Thursday, March 15 NEW TRENDS in Real Estate Investment is the name of a conference to be held at the Dan Hotel, Tel Aviv, from 3 p.m. In addition to presenting a range of investment options and opportunities speakers will discuss legal implications, taxation and other details that impinge upon investments. For registration and further information, call: (03) 512-1748. "THE THREAT of Nuclear War with Iran and Other Current World Events in the Torah Codes" is the theme of the Root & Branch lecture by Professor Eliyahu Rips, Einstein Institute of Mathematics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; member, International Torah Code Society. Professor Rips specializes in geometric and combinatorial methods in infinite group theory. This includes small cancellation theory and its generalizations, (Gromov) hyperbolic group theory, Bass-Serre theory and the actions of groups on R-trees. The lecture will begin at 8 p.m. at the Israel Center, 22 Keren HaYesod, Jerusalem. For further information, call: (02) 566-7787. DIFFERENT TYPES of Health Insurance and Supplementary Services is the subject of a conference to be held at Kfar Hamaccabiah Ramat Gan from 8:30. a.m. The conference will examine new trends in health and supplementary insurance policies and will look at private insurance options in addition to those offered by the various Sick Funds. For full details and registration, call Anat at (03) 671-1911 or 1-700-700-246. Sunday, March 18 A MEGA Internet Convention hosted by The Marker will take place over a two-day period at The Avenue Convention Center, Airport City. The convention will be co-chaired by Yossi Vardi, chairman International Technologies, and Guy Rolnik, editor of The Marker. Among the topics tabled for discussion are: How organizations and businesspeople use on-line communities and blogs to do business; The way Web 2.0 challenges Web 1.0; Is wireless Internet on the verge of rapid growth?; A venture capital view of the risks of investing in Internet startups; and Hottest Internet trends in 2007. For further details and registration, call: (03) 513-3650. THE ISRAEL Cancer Association is hosting a symposium for people with colon cancer and members of their families. The symposium to be held at Kfar Hamaccabiah, Ramat Gan from 9 a.m. will deal with issues as to how colon cancer develops, different methods of treatment, new trends in treating colon cancer, treatment when the illness is in an advanced stage and the possibilities of living a quality-filled existence despite the effects of the illness. For further details and registration, call: Yonina (03) 572-1615, Zahava (03) 571-9576 or Ayala (03) 572-1619. Monday, March 19 THE OPENING address at the three-day Jerusalem Conference at the Regency Hotel will be delivered by Likud leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu. Other speakers listed include Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Jerusalem Post and Makor Rishon columnist Caroline Glick, Prof. Robert Wistrich, head of the Center for Studies on Anti-Semitism, journalist Ben Dror Yemini, plus numerous rabbinical figures, jurists, academics, politicians, communications experts and business people who will discuss issues such as the new anti-Semitism; the strategic threats to Israel's existence; the policy of unilateral withdrawal and realities vs expectations; leadership in crisis; Shabbat with the family in the mall: does public observance of the Sabbath require re-evaluation; Jerusalem's central force as the capital of Israel; educational challenges facing Israel today; conflicting values between the individual and society in general in confrontation with mass communications. For further details and registration, call: (03) 918-5588. WHO IS responsible for social justice in Israel? Is it the State, civil society or the business sector? An attempt to answer this question will be made at the First Haifa Conference on Social Responsibility to be held over a two-day period in the Hecht Auditorium of the University of Haifa. The Social Justice Index and the Jewish-Arab Relations Index will be made public in the course of the conference. For further details and registration, call (03) 512-1748. Wednesday, March 21 Hebron - Home of the Patriarchs - City of Conflict; What's happening on the ground in Hebron? Mustafa Natshe - Mayor of Hebron - and Ofir Feuerstein - B'tzelem - will discuss the situation at the Ambassador Hotel, East Jerusalem, at 3 p.m. Space is limited. Participation may be confirmed with IPCRI by fax (02) 676-8011, phone (02) 676-9460 or via e-mail at david@ipcri.org. Sunday, March 25 THE FIRST in a three-part series of lectures on Jewish Mysticism will be delivered by Prof. Rachel Elior, head of the Hebrew University's Department of Jewish Thought at 6 p.m. The lecture, in English, will take place at the new club room of the Jerusalem Friends of the Hebrew University in the Sherman Building on the Safra campus, Givat Ram. Entry to each lecture is NIS 90. For further details, call: (02) 563-2387 or (02) 563-8227. Tuesday, March 27 INVESTMENT CONSULTANTS representing Israel's leading companies will participate in an investments convention at the Tel Aviv Hilton. For details and registration, call: (03) 513-3651. Friday, March 30 A Gallery Talk by Australian photographer Angela Lynkushka, based on her exhibition Dreaming in English - Portrait from the Jewish Community in Melbourne 1989-2006, will take place at 11 a.m. at the Lady Sarah Cohen Exhibition center at Beth Hatefutsoth. The talk will be in English. Admission is free of charge. The exhibition, which opens on March 27, was developed in cooperation with the Jewish Museum of Australia, Gandel Center of Judaica, Melbourne.