IT'S A NANO WORLD

FALL 2009

IT’S A NANO WORLDMANIPULATING MOLECULES

TO CHANGE OUR LIVES

EVOLUTION AND ITS LINKTO DISEASE

YIDDISH MAKES A COMEBACK

NEW MEDIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

STUDENTS GIVE BACK

FROM THE TOP

IN THIS ISSUE

News and Briefs ........................................................................................3Donor Impact ............................................................................................8

Alex Goren, President-ElectJacob Shochat, A Life of GivingSumner White, Supporting BGU Through CGAs

First Person ..............................................................................................11Gaza War Victim and BGU Professor Tells Story

Education and Research..........................................................................12Disease and EvolutionPreserving Yiddish CultureIt's a Nano WorldSocial Media in the Middle East

Community Outreach ..............................................................................22Open Apartments, Open Hearts

Regional News ........................................................................................24

ON THE COVER: Graphic rendering of atom molecule by Chepe Nicoli

AMERICAN ASSOCIATES BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV1430 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 100181-800-962-2248 • [email protected]

PresidentCAROL D. SAAL, CA

Executive Vice PresidentDORON KRAKOW

Immediate Past PresidentLIS GAINES, NY

First Vice PresidentALEXANDER GOREN, NY

Vice PresidentsMARTIN BLACKMAN, NYLLOYD GOLDMAN, NYBEN GUEFEN, TX

TreasurerARTHUR HESSEL, D.C.

SecretaryMICHAEL ZEIGER, NJ

Assistant SecretaryFREDERICK SIEGMUND, NY

Regional Offices:

GREAT LAKES REGION 250 Parkway Drive, Suite 150Lincolnshire, IL 60069 • (847) 325-5009

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NORTHWEST REGION 240 Tamal Vista Blvd., Suite 260Corte Madera, CA 94925 • (415) 927-2119

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WASHINGTON/BALTIMORE REGION4800 Hampden Lane, Suite 200Bethesda, MD 20814 • (240) 482-4844

Executive Editor: RONNI STRONGIN

Writer and Editor: NATALIE CANAVOR

Contributing Writer: PATRICIA GOLAN

Associate Editor: TRACIE KURLAND

BGU Photographer: DANI MACHLIS

Graphic Design: RD DESIGN

Send comments to: [email protected]

Dear Friends,

It has been my honor and privilege to serve as president of AABGU and to support what I believe isthe most remarkable educational community in the world. I am delighted topass the baton to my good friend, Alex Goren, who assumes the helm at theend of September.

I have totally enjoyed the experience of the last four years and am proud ofhow much BGU––and AABGU—have grown. The past year saw an unprece-dented growth of the student body and BGU researchers are publishing inmore renowned journals and are forging more international collaborations thanever before.

This issue of Impact reflects that growth in a number of ways. This edition’sfeatures showcase so many ways in which BGU is leading not only in scienceand technology, but in ways that improve the hopes of people everywhere andmatter to Jewish life worldwide.

Our centerfold story presents the dawning era of nanotechnology, and howBGU specialists from many disciplines are coming together to solve today’smost urgent problems. Their work with particles that measure as small as onebillionth of a meter staggers the imagination.

BGU’s focus on multidisciplinary research is attracting top scientists andscholars to Israel in many departments, and the principle is effective for thehumanities, too. You will see this particularly in reading about the work of thebrand new Center for Yiddish Studies and the cross-cultural media experimentthat brings bloggers together from all over the Middle East.

I thank you for sharing this adventure in what can be achieved when wework together.

Wishing you a happy New Year,

Carol D. Saal, President

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“RENEWABLE ENERGY— that’s theeffect returning to BGU always has on me,” declared BGU Board ChairmanRoy Zuckerberg at the Board ofGovernors’ opening plenary session.

BGU is indeed a leader in developing renewable energy sources (and there was a symposium on thesubject), but, as Zuckerberg explained,the “renewable energy” he was refer-ring to was the vitality and inspirationhe draws from the annual gatheringsin Beer-Sheva.

It was a small but very enthusiasticAmerican delegation, who took advan-tage of the more intimate atmosphereto get to know one another and tomeet with as many researchers andstudents as they could.

STRENGTH OF CONNECTIONIn the 2008-2009 academic year, theBGU community was confronted bysome of the most difficult challengesit has faced in its nearly 40-year history. From the global financialmeltdown resulting in painful budgetcuts, to the frightening missile attackson Beer-Sheva during the war inGaza, BGU's friends, students andemployees were called on to cope in

unprecedented ways. And cope theydid in those trying times.

“If there is a silver lining to whathas happened,” BGU President Prof.Rivka Carmi told the participants, “it isin rediscovering the strength of the

BGU connection inside the Universityand around the world when it isneeded most.”

Carmi’s comments were echoed byBeer-Sheva’s new mayor RuvikDanilovich: “What is exceptional isyour faith,” he declared. “It’s no smallthing to come over during this contin-uing economic crisis, yet you continueto come and support us. You are ourtrue friends.”

DANCE THE NIGHT AWAYThe Student Evening is the annual special occasion when students andAssociates are able to get together.Sponsored by AABGU donors AileenWhitman of Pennsylvania and Art and Edie Hessel of Washington, D.C., the evening is always the most popular event of the Board ofGovernors’ Meeting, and this year was no exception.

“There was such a lovely ruach(spirit) in the hall,” commentedAABGU President Carol Saal followingthe event. “The kids always danceand invite people up to dance withthem. I danced too—it was wild!”

Saal, together with the UnitedKingdom’s BGU Foundation TreasurerEric Charles, energetically conductedthe annual auction to raise funds for student projects and programs.

“We were worried the auctionwould be less successful than previousyears because there were far fewerattendees,” Saal acknowledges. “In theend I was overwhelmed by theresponse of the small group, and thefact that we got funding for 90 percentof the projects.”

“The Hebrew language is my pas-sion and my devotion and the fire inmy bones,” declared Prof. EmeritusAmos Oz, one of Israel’s best-knownauthors and political voices, duringthe festive event marking his 70thbirthday. The tribute to Oz’s literarycareer and his role as an educator at

BGU included a musical rendering of his novel, The Same Sea, by singerRonit Ophir.

Oz, the incumbent of the S.Y.Agnon Chair in Hebrew Literature,joked to the audience that the “concentrated dose” of complimentshe has been receiving during the on-going birthday celebrations havebeen like “reading an obituary. Youhave ruined my motivation to die.”

SECRET OF SUCCESSSeveral bright, young researchersinspired delegates with their tales of“returning home” after post-docs andlucrative offers in the U.S. and abroad.They explained why they chose toreturn to Israel and, in particular, whythey came to Ben-Gurion University.“If you want to plant something small,and have it grow bigger, this is theplace to do it,” declared Dr. Eli Lewis,diabetes expert in the Department ofClinical Biochemistry.

More than 100 people took advan-tage of the chance to see firsthand the Molecular and Cellular ObesityLab, the Weiss Family Laboratory forNanoscale Systems, the Earth and

NEWS AND BRIEFS

39TH ANNUAL BOARD OF GOVERNORS’ MEETING

Continued on Page 4

Roy J. Zuckerberg, BGU Board of Governorschairman, giving remarks upon receiving anhonorary doctoral degree

“It’s no small thing to come overduring this continuing economiccrisis, yet you continue to come and support us. You areour true friends.”

—RUVIK DANILOVICH,MAYOR OF BEER-SHEVA

Planetary Image Facility and the Labfor Human Factors in Road Safety.

At the Guilford Glazer School ofBusiness and Management, lecturersand MBA Honors students presentedsome exceptional projects, andexplained why Israel is likely toemerge from the current globalfinancial crisis stronger than before.

They were treated to a special lecture by Roy Zuckerberg: “Let me

tell you what made Goldman Sachs so successful.” Offering advice to the students on the traits of outstandingemployees, he cited, “loyalty, team-work, energy and integrity. And be a good listener.”

That evening Zuckerberg againshared his experiences with the BGU family—this time in a far moreformal setting as he accepted an honorary doctoral degree in a stirringoutdoor ceremony. Five other extraordinary leaders also receivedBGU’s highest honor: Dr. MohammedAl-Hadid, president of the JordanianRed Crescent Society; actress GilaAlmagor; artist Dani Karavan; historianProf. Anita Shapira; and Chairman of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Prof. Bernhard Vogel.

During his address Zuckerberg,who among his many contributions to BGU helped create the world-renowned Zuckerberg Institute for

Water Research at the Jacob BlausteinInstitutes for Desert Research, recalledhow former BGU President AvishayBraverman persuaded him to becomechairman of the Board of Governors.

“I told him I was too busy,” herelated, to which Braverman retorted:“‘This is not about how busy you are;

this is about a country that needsleadership and an institution that needsleadership, so don’t tell me how busyyou are!’ That answer convinced methere was no way out. It’s been anexciting adventure, and I feel this uni-versity has given me a great deal morethan I have given it,” he concluded. �

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BOARD OF GOVERNORS’ MEETINGContinued

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Credit: Photo Campus

NEWS AND BRIEFS

THE ARRIVAL of the High Holiday season in Jewish tradition is a timeof reflection. We look back on the preceding year and consider our livesand deeds against the backdrop of the events that shaped us. The Hebrewyear 5769 was certainly eventful.

It witnessed what has beendescribed as the most significantworldwide economic decline sincethe Great Depression. Companieswhich had long been householdnames and which had dominatedtheir industries, like General Motorsand Bear Stearns, crumbled under its weight. The worst of the Ponzischemers literally made tens of billions of dollars disappear while damaging our sense of trust in advisors and financial institutions.

5769 saw war with Hamas inGaza. Three years after Israel’s unilat-eral withdrawal from the region, anextraordinary concession to a swornenemy in an unparalleled reach forpeace, Hamas rained missiles acrossthe border, shattering the lives of tensof thousands of Israelis. And as Israeltook steps to protect the citizens ofSderot and throughout the region,Hamas broadened its radius of attack,and for the first time in 60 years missiles rained down on Beer-Sheva,Netivot and Ashdod.

5769 witnessed the increasingspecter of hatred spewing forth fromthe leaders of Iran, North Korea,Venezuela and from Al Qaeda’s lead-ership hunkered down across theglobe. We saw major political changein Pakistan, the Russian invasion ofGeorgia and a coup d'état in Honduras.

But, 5769 was also a year of hopeand opportunity. Elections held inboth the United States and Israelbrought new parties to power, andgreat expectations accompanied highhopes in both countries. Followingnearly eight years of war, democraticelections were held in Iraq and agrowing sense of security among itscitizens allowed U.S. and coalition

troops to begin their withdrawal frommajor cities.

At Ben-Gurion University, 5769 was a year of pride and achievement.BGU scientists moved closer to a curefor diabetes that will free sufferersfrom the need for insulin injections.They unlocked the mysteries of the blood-brain barrier in pursuit of preventing the onset of post-traumaepilepsy. In theonly country in theworld to see itsdeserts recede inthe last century,they hosted the United NationsConference onCombatingDesertification atSede Boqer, attend-ed by hundreds ofresearchers from 60 countries. Theytook the latest solar energy researchto market in the form of new photo-voltaic cells, which may transform the future of the energy industry.And, BGU remained the #1 destinationamong aspiring undergraduate studentsin Israel.

During the rocket attacks in January,BGU’s students, faculty and staff volunteered in the community andremained by the sides of their neigh-bors most in need. AABGU launched a successful emergency campaign, andthe University emerged from the warunbowed and more determined thanever to continue its quest to build theNegev and anchor the future for thesouthern half of Israel.

5769 was a tough year, but we canbe very proud of the part we playedin it. May 5770 bring with it increasingstrength and achievement for Ben-Gurion University and for the peopleof Israel. May it be a year of growth,renewal and prosperity. And may weall be inscribed in the Book of Life.

Wishing you all a shanah tovahu’metukah—a happy, healthy andsweet New Year. �

LOOKING AHEAD BY DORON KRAKOWEXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

1. A group of delegates visited the WeissFamily Laboratory for Nanoscale Systems,where they received a take-home slide of thename of the facility in gradually decreasingfont size. They would need a microscope toread the smallest letters.

2. Sandra and Aventura Vice Mayor Billy Joel

3. Harold Vinegar, the former chief scientist ofShell, and his wife Robin unveil the refurbishedFounders’ Wall, where theirs is among thenewest names. The Vinegars recently madealiyah and Harold is teaching geology at BGU.

4. Friends, delegates from AABGU’s NorthwestRegion and Prof. Rivka Carmi gather for theIta and Eitan Dayan Garden dedication inmemory of Jacob Dayan’s parents (Jacob andRiki Dayan are 2nd and 3rd from right).

5. Lloyd Goldman, AABGU vice president,dances the hora with President Prof. RivkaCarmi and students at the annual StudentEvening.

6. Lis Gaines, AABGU past president, was joined for dinner by her granddaughter, whois serving in the IDF.

7. AABGU President Carol Saal and board member Ellen Marcus

8. Zoom Fleisher with Edy and Sol Freedman at the Chairman’s Ball

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NEWS AND BRIEFS

A generous couple from Northern California hasannounced a challenge grant for supporters ofwomen’s health issues, research and activities in theNegev region. They will provide up to a maximum of $100,000 toward an endowment benefitting BGU’sCenter for Women’s Health Studies and Promotion.

While donations in any amount will be appreciated,the couple has agreed to forfeit the naming of the fund to a person who, or foundation that, matchestheir contribution.

The Center for Women’s Health Studies promoteshealth and awareness among the women of the Negevthrough community health services, training programs,curriculum development and research. It emphasizes

healthy behavior, disease prevention and early detection,and hosts local, national and international conferences.

The Center’s director, currently Prof. Julie Cwikel ofthe Charlotte B. and Jack J. Spitzer Department ofSocial Work, will use the interest from the endowmentto meet priority needs. A pioneer in social epidemiolo-gy, Prof. Cwikel is studying the connections betweensociety and health, and is using that knowledge to promote better women’s health. For more information or to make a donation, please

contact Daphna Noily at AABGU, 240 Tamal VistaBoulevard, Suite 260, Corte Madera, CA 94925, (415) 927-2119, [email protected] or the regional director of your local region. �

ZENITHSOLAR, an Israeli start-up company, launched its first “solarfarm” near Tel Aviv in April, based on concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems developed by Prof. DavidFaiman, chairman of the Departmentof Solar Energy and EnvironmentalPhysics at BGU’s Jacob BlausteinInstitutes for Desert Research.

Faiman says the new system willharvest more than 70 percent of incom-ing solar energy (as compared to indus-try norms of 10 percent to 40 percent).

“By concentrating solar energy to a level 1,000 times more intense thannatural sunlight and taking advantageof the higher efficiencies at which solarcells operate under these conditions,

only minute amounts of expensive PV materialare necessary to produce large amountsof power,” Prof. Faimanexplained.

Faiman believes that systems such asZenithSolar’s will eventually be able tooperate economicallywithout the need forsubsidies.

“Israel has the capa-bility to become theleading country in thepromotion of alternativeenergy technologies,”

said Israel’s President Shimon Peresbefore cutting the ceremonial ribbonwith the help of children fromKibbutz Kvutzat Yavne, where the

half acre farm is located. “As I standhere looking at this solar farm, I feelgreat pride in my heart that such asmall country has such great minds.”

Speaking at the ceremony, BGUPresident Prof. Rivka Carmi said,“Ben-Gurion University is proud to be a partner in positioning Israel atthe center of the world in developingunique solar energy technologies.”

Roy Segev, chief executive officer and founder of ZenithSolar explained,“The potential for this technology to provide low-cost, accessible energyfor customers around the world isenormous. Our system is simpleenough to be applicable in almostany situation, whether it is industrial,commercial, residential or related to eco-tourism. There is currently no other comparable technologyavailable in the world.” �

Israel’s President Shimon Peres with children ofKibbutz Kvutzat Yavne during the ribbon cuttingceremony. BGU President Prof. Rivka Carmi isfar right and ZenithSolar CEO Roy Segev is leftof Mr. Peres.

Prof. David Faiman at the launch of the solar“farm”

BGU TECHNOLOGY USED IN FIRST SOLAR ENERGY FARM

CHALLENGE MATCH ANNOUNCED TO BENEFIT NEGEV WOMEN

THE AABGU YOUNG ProfessionalsIsrael Experience brought 13 individu-als from across the United States toexplore the Negev. The week-longtrip in March provided the profession-als with a unique desert adventure,while they learned how BGU isadvancing Israel and the world.

From the moment participants gath-ered at JFK Airport, strong friendshipsbegan to form. “We knew we had adynamic and warm group who wouldmake the trip memorable and amaz-ing,” said Daniel Dubrow of NewYork.

On the first day, the tour guidedrove the mission attendees into theRamon Mahktesh. Through a reenact-ment, much like spilling water on asandcastle, they learned how thelandform is not actually an impactcrater, but rather the world’s largesterosion cirque or makhtesh.

During this introduction, the participants realized the crucial rolethe Negev desert plays in both Israel’shistory and its future. This empha-sized the formidable task BGU has infulfilling the government issued mandate to develop the Negev. In thesubsequent days, they would witnesshow BGU faculty addresses this

challenge through water, agriculturaland medical research.

The young professionals experiencedsome extraordinary desert weather,from sandstorm to rainstorm, whichIsraelis humorously thanked them forbringing. The flash floods witnessedin Ein Avdat put the magnitude of thestorm in perspective. Nearly all of theregional annual rainfall accumulatedin this one downpour.

The Negev visit would not be com-plete without touring the Sede Boqercampus with Prof. Avigad Vonshak, director of the Jacob Blaustein Institutesfor Desert Research. Tamar Hubermanof New York said, “We saw how fishgrow in the desert and stood in aweunder the world’s largest solar dish.The ingenuity on display at BGU tookour breath away.”

As the group headed north to theMarcus Family Campus in Beer-Sheva,they enjoyed an inspirational visit to the Open Apartments Program.Participants learned first hand fromstudents how they live and volunteerin the impoverished communities ofthe city (see pg. 22).

At sunrise the next day the grouphiked Mount Masada, where an arche-ology doctoral student gave a tour.Participants wandered through theruins, visited the synagogue, saw themosaics and frescos, and learned theremarkable story of how the Zealotsfought off the Romans. After the longmorning, a relaxing float in the DeadSea and a healing Dead Sea mineral mudbath were the perfect ways to relax.

In Jerusalem, an informative walkingtour of the Old City whet everyone’sappetites for exposure to the city’smodern day offerings. Venturing to the

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NEWS AND BRIEFS

Israel Experience participants enjoy a mud bath at the Dead Sea

BGU GARNERSPRESTIGIOUS AWARDSFOR ARCHITECTURE AND ENVIRONMENTALEXCELLENCETWO BUILDINGS on the Marcus FamilyCampus designed by Raquel Vert, of Los Angeles-based Vert Architects,were awarded first prize in two different categories in the “Best Projectof the year 2008/9 Competition.”

Vert Architects received the prestigious prizes for outstandingarchitectural design of the DeichmannBuilding for Community Action andthe Spitzer-Salant Building for the

Department of Social Work, whichform a single complex at BGU.

The complex also received the YuliOffer first prize for “AdvancingArchitecture in Israel,” a prize awardedto the top three projects submitted forall categories. The European Union

competiton is the most prestigiousand influential architectural contest inEurope and Israel.

BGU’S JACOB BLAUSTEIN INSTITUTESfor Desert Research (BIDR) won the CleanTech 2009 Excellence Awardin the category of OutstandingAcademic Institution in the Field ofEnvironmental Studies.

The award was presented atCleanTech 2009 – the 13th AnnualInternational Summit and Exhibitionfor Environmental Quality, RenewableEnergy, Infrastructures and WaterTechnologies. The conference tookplace at the Israel Trade Fairs andConventions Center in Tel Aviv. �

AN EYE-OPENING ISRAEL EXPERIENCE

Continued on Page 31

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ALEX GOREN leads an international life.He spends most of his time in

the U.S. and considers himselfAmerican, but also feels “spirituallyItalian,” having been raised in thatcountry. He is often in Israel wherehis daughter and two of his grand-children live, and spends quite a bitof time visiting other family membersin Canada. And, with his brotherJames, Alex—formerly vice chairmanof the New York and ForeignSecurities Corp.––operates an interna-tional money management and investment firm, Goren Brothers.

Alex’s relationship with BGU alsohas international roots. In the 1970s,his family owned a very large spin-ning mill in Israel, run by Alex’sfather and his maternal grandfather, a textile expert.

“When my grandfather was gettingtoo old to run that kind of firm,” Alexsays, “he decided to sell it, and askedfor help from Pinchas Sapir, who atthe time was Israel’s finance minister.After a while Sapir came back andsaid, ‘I have a client who’ll pay agood price. The other side of the coinis that you’re going to give me all the money, because we’re building a university in the Negev.’”

How did the family react? “Wethought it was a very good idea. My father was happy to be rid of theproblem and the money seemed to begoing to a very good cause. Of course,Sapir came back and said it wasn’treally enough, so we created a familyfund to help pay for the building.”

That fund became the Cukier,Goldstein-Goren Foundation—whichbears the name of Avram (Dolphy)Goldstein-Goren, Alex Goren’s father,and Mordechai Meir (Max) Cukier, hisgrandfather, the textile expert. Since1972, the Foundation has generouslysupported BGU and numerous othereducational, cultural, health and socialwelfare projects around the world.Alex serves as president.

In addition to funding the Cukier,Goldstein-Goren Building that is home to the Pinchas Sapir Faculty ofHumanities and Social Sciences, the

Foundation established an undergrad-uate loan program that recently trans-formed into a scholarship endowment. Further, because Alex’s father hadalways been interested in Jewish history and studies, the Foundationfunded and dedicated the Goldstein-Goren International Center for JewishThought. The Center offers a numberof advanced study scholarships, runsinternational conferences and awardsthe prestigious Goldstein-Goren BookAward every three years for the bestbook on Jewish thought publishedduring that period.

Currently, the Gorens just finalizedthe naming of the Avram and StellaGoldstein-Goren Department ofBiotechnology Engineering with a new generous gift.

Alex feels that the disposition togive is part of his family heritage.“We’ve been brought up in ourfather’s and grandfather’s traditionalways, to contribute to worthy thingsand fill charitable needs.”

Are his three children continuingthe tradition? “I hope so,” he says.“They seem to be on the right track.We do feel if we’re fortunate enough

to have done well there’s a duty ingiving back.”

Alex is married to Brooke Kroeger,director of NYU’s Arthur L. CarterJournalism Institute and a notedauthor. Although his schedule is splitbetween running his business and the Foundation, plus skiing, tennis,music, reading and doing the dailycooking (specializing in Italian), he also gives time to BGU. This toohas family roots.

Alex was living in Israel in the1970s when his uncle—a BGU boardmember who lived in Canada—decided to cut back on his traveling.Alex took his place on the board andbecame very active.

“It was very exciting,” he says of BGU’s early days. “The University was small and there were alwaysfinancial challenges.” He recalls whenthere were only a few broken-downbuildings in a sea of dirt. “Now it’s a gorgeous campus with a lot ofworld-class departments. It’s reallybecome a great university on an international level.”

Alex is first vice president ofAABGU and has chaired numerousboard committees. He takes the reinsof leadership of the organization atthe end of September.

“Being involved in BGU gives a lot of satisfaction,” he says.“Personally, I think that in the short to medium term view, it’s the mostimportant university in Israel becausethe Negev is the natural place forexpansion. The future of Israel’sgrowth is the Negev and BGU is rightthere in the middle of it. And everycenter that wants to have culture and science needs a great universityin its midst.

“I believe everyone should givewhat they feel comfortable giving. If someone is very busy, money iswelcome. But if people have something to contribute from theviewpoint of experience, giving thetime is also very important.

“I think BGU is an extremelyimportant institution to support. Forus, it was a very good investment.” �

DONOR IMPACT

ALEXANDER M. GORENNEW YORK, NY

AABGU PRESIDENT-

ELECT

JACOB SHOCHAT’S mellifluous voicecarries the inflections of three coun-tries: Lithuania, where he was bornand grew up, Israel, where he livedand worked as a young man, and theUnited States, where he has residedsince 1980.

Describing his early years, Jacobsays his experience under communismin the former Soviet Union confirmedWinston Churchill’s claim that theinherent virtue of socialism is equaldistribution of miseries.

“The former Soviet Union was an anti-Semitic place and the anti-Semitism came from both directions,from the top and from the bottom,”says Jacob. “In many instances, thiskind of hostile environment helps youto become a stronger person. It mademe spiritually stronger and helped me to part with any illusions aboutsocialism.”

Jacob’s parents, who lost many family members to the Holocaust,managed against great odds to sendhim and his sister to college. He studied electronics and graduatedfrom a local university in 1970. A year later, at age 24, he was able to immigrate to Israel with his parents.

He found an entirely new life. “Israelwas a wonderful place. We received a very warm welcome and the absorp-tion period included learning a newlanguage, serving in the army and finding a job.” He enjoyed all of it.

“There was suddenly this feeling of freedom. It translates into speakingwhat’s on your mind without fear—without constantly being on guard thatyou might say something that mightbe misinterpreted by a neighbor orfriend or informant.”

Serving in the Israeli Army was grat-ifying: “I did not any longer have theterrible feeling of being a defenselessJew. I was in the army when the YomKippur War broke out, and rememberhow empowering it was to feel thatnow we can defend ourselves.”

The job he subsequently found waswith Elscint, a technology companythat became a major producer ofadvanced medical imaging equipment.

When in 1980 the firm began market-ing its products in the U.S., Jacob wasgiven the opportunity to move thereas a company representative based inNew Jersey. A decade later he decidedto establish his own business.

Dynamic Imaging became a highly successful producer of PictureArchiving and CommunicationsSystems (PACS), which Jacob describesas digital technology that allows radiol-ogy departments to create a soft copyenvironment and work more virtually.After 16 years of growth, the businesswas acquired by General Electric. Almost immediately, he got involved in several tech startup companies in Israel, which he considers “an out-standing environment for technologydevelopment.”

Jacob’s involvement with BGUbegan on a very personal level.“A close woman friend unfortunatelydied at a young age from breast cancer, and all her relatives lived inBeer-Sheva. I decided the best way to memorialize my friend would be to establish a scholarship in her nameat BGU. After that I found out what awonderful institution it is and decidedto get involved on a larger scale.

“I’m convinced that it’s not just aplace that became one of the world’s

leading universities, but that it has ateam of the most dedicated, deter-mined people, at both the Universityand AABGU.”

Many BGU students have sincebenefited from the Victoria ItinScholarship Fund. Jacob has gener-ously supported major equipmentpurchases for the BiochemistryDepartment and the Brain ImagingResearch Center (BIRC), includingfunding for the salary of a neurolo-gist. He was a generous donor to the BGU-Negev Emergency Fund, and through that effort participated in the purchase of a much neededMRI machine for the BIRC. His latest commitment and the most generousto date is funding for the ShochatFamily Library for Science andTechnology, to be constructed on the Marcus Family Campus.

Moreover, Jacob serves on theAABGU national board of directors,and the Philadelphia chapter board ofdirectors, where he is a leader of itsHealth Sciences Resource Committee.

His magnanimous generosity will be recognized when Jacob is the guest of honor at the annualPhiladelphia Chapter tribute gala onNovember 15, 2009.

Why does Jacob think BGU matters?Perhaps because of the challenges hehad to face in his own early life, headmires the uniqueness of BGU’sachievement.

“It’s hard to imagine that in a desertyou can build this kind of oasis, andthat it’s all been done since the 1970s.In almost every field it’s involvedwith, BGU is on the world-class level.It’s the best monument to people’sdetermination and know-how, and tothe Jewish spirit.

“I’m a strong believer in somethingelse Churchill said––‘we make a livingby getting. We make a life by giving.’In my own case, life was basicallygood to me and I feel you shouldshare good fortune. Giving is an art:You have to find worthwhile causes.After 11 years of association with BGUand AABGU, I can’t think of a betterplace or a better cause.” �

JACOB SHOCHATMAHWAH, NEW JERSEY

MAKINGA LIFEBY GIVING

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DONOR IMPACT

“EDUCATING ISRAEL’S JEWS is what’simportant,” says Sumner T. White.“Without education you’re lost.”

In line with this conviction, Sumnerhas been a generous supporter ofBGU for many years and has purchasedseveral charitable gift annuities (CGAs)from AABGU, providing income forboth the University and for himself.

Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts,Sumner graduated from BentleyCollege and also studied business andfinance at Northeastern University. He then enlisted in the military andbecame a Korean War veteran. “I grewup in the Army,” he says, “andenjoyed it.” He left after five yearsand was faced with choosing a career.

Sumner’s mother was experiencedin handling money, having run, “forfun,” an unregistered, neighborhoodmini-bank called an uxie, which gavepeople the chance to save smallamounts and borrow money in case ofemergency. “She advised me, go intoinsurance; all our insurance friendshave money,” he recounts. “Bingo!”

A second fortunate piece of advice came his way soon afterwardwhen Sumner had lunch with a dental student.

“He said the people he knew needed a good insurance man, andan electric light bulb lit up in myhead. There were plenty of medicaland dental schools in Boston and I was allowed to go into the dorms. I spent 30 years in those institutions.People knew me for four years andwhen they left I told them ‘I’m as faraway from you as a telephone call.’

“So I insured people all over thecountry. They trusted me. When theywere hustled, they said they werealready insured.

“Nobody had developed that market. I would never have succeeded without that luncheon.”

Sumner White is a life member ofthe Million Dollar Roundtable, a highlyselective club that consists of the top

echelon of life insurance agents. Hebuilt one of the largest clienteles ofphysicians and dentists in the country,serving 5,000 clients, and in 1979 was lampooned live on stage by theHarvard Medical School—a memoryhe cherishes. He was also recognizedby the industry as “number one in the world for selling and marketingtechniques for young professionals.”

“I had a wonderful career out ofnothing,” is the way Sumner describes it.

His immediate success put him in aposition to invest, and here too hemade good choices. “I asked myself,what does this country need? Commu-nications, electricity. So I bought tele-phone companies, electric utilities. I became financially independent andable to give money away.”

This seemed natural to Sumner,who believes in taking care of people—family, friends, good causes.

“It’s a marvelous feeling to give outmoney and help people. I give frommy heart,” he says, “and I’m charita-ble both to my family and charities. If you have money it’s wonderful togive it away while you’re still alive.”

People should be educated to give,he feels, as he was through his mother’s charitable activities and theexample of generous family members,who gave even if all they could affordwas candy. His advice to others? “Justwrite a check.”

Sumner loves Israel and has visitedBGU several times, and was there forthe recent groundbreaking of the newAdvanced Technologies Park. “BGU isunbelievable!” he thinks, and is alsoexcited by “how the city [Beer-Sheva]is growing in all directions.”

Sumner says he is a happy lifelongbachelor. For years he split his timebetween Boston and Florida, but haslived in Ft. Lauderdale fulltime for the past 20 years. He glories in his19th floor apartment with a huge terrace and 20-mile view. And he hasmaintained his reputation as a pre-miere party-giver. In Boston, he threwparties in Kenmore Square, whichdrew up to 800 people every otherSunday night—“all of whom had tobe properly dressed,” he recalls.

Florida is less formal: “No jacket ortie here,” he says, and likes the casualdress code at the dinner parties heattends several times per week and of the frequent dinners, luncheonsand large parties he gives. “I enjoyentertaining and spending the money;I enjoy life,” he says.

Does Sumner White, who will be80 in October, have a personalfountain of youth? He notes that bothhis parents lived full long lives andwere never ill. “So it runs in the family;we’re healthy. And I eat a lot of tomatoes—maybe there’s somethingin them that keeps me young.” Theremay be something to that. But that’s a topic for a future Impact article.

Or perhaps attitude accounts for hisbon vivant spirit, and also the successhe attributes to luck. “I’ve alwaysbeen a happy person with a goodoutlook,” he says. “Always happy and content.” �

SUMNER T. WHITEFORT LAUDERDALE, FL

A HAPPYMAN,HAPPYTO GIVE

DONOR IMPACT

10 I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9

DR. RACHEL BARKAN, a member of the Department ofBusiness Administration at the Guilford Glazer School ofBusiness and Management, was seriously wounded when aGrad missile fell in Beer-Sheva this past winter only a fewfeet away from her car.

“I had just come back from a sabbatical year at FuquaSchool of Business at Duke University, with several projectsnearing publication and others still in different phases ofwriting, analyzing or data collection. It was a wonderful year,a second honeymoon with science. I was full of energy andenthusiasm. There was so much to do.”

Things changed abruptly that afternoon on Jan. 15, 2009.“I spent the first 24 hours after the attack in surgery and

intensive care due to the missile shards in my stomach andintestine. Once my life was out of danger—thanks to theprofessionalism of my doctors at Soroka University MedicalCenter—the major issue had become my leg and foot whichwere severely damaged.

“This will require a long and labor intensive process thatwill hopefully end with my gaining full mobility, if not theathletic lifestyle and shapely legs that I had before this happened,” she relates.

Ironically, her professional expertise includes risk taking andthe erosion of safety measures due to negligible probabilitiesof catastrophes. This is part of her greater area of research thatspans decision-making theory and organizational behavior.

“Just before leaving the office that day we were talkingabout the small probability of being hit by a missile, asopposed to a car accident,” she explains. “But, of course,there is a huge difference between the greater theoreticaldiscussion of probabilities and the reality of being that .00001percent that is actually affected.”

It is impossible not to acknowledge this coincidence. Shenods knowingly, and stresses that unlike the participants inher studies who ignored safety measures because of thenegligible probabilities, she actually followed the instructionsof the Home Front Command.

“I parked my car and was about to get out and lie on the ground, but the missile came before I managed to openthe door. In a sense I was lucky, as the car took most of the hit. The shards had to go through it before getting to me. I probably would not have survived the hit otherwise.”

She tries not to analyze the situation too much. “Manypeople become completely focused on the unanswerablequestion of ‘why me?’ I try really hard not to do that.

“As someone who believes in statistics I have to tellmyself that it was a random event, that it was not a messagefrom the universe, that ‘stuff happens’. I try to adopt an outside perspective, where nothing is personal; every eventhappens with some probability,” she explains, soundingmore like a lecturer than a victim.

I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9 1 1

FIRST PERSON

During the Israeli war with Hamas in January, AABGUlaunched the BGU-Negev Emergency Fund to provideimmediate emergency funds to the University during its time of crisis. In a brief emotional address at theBoard of Governors’ Meeting in May, Dr. Rachel Barkan,an expert in decision making and behavioral economicswho was struck by a missile, expressed her deep gratitude to the AABGU and University community forits support. These are her remarks:Being hit by a missile defies imagination. Looking atthe scars, experiencing the pain, I am shocked—timeand time again—I was hit by a missile. A part of medied. A part of me lives.

Thinking about that day, those moments, I am still amazed that I found the strength to get out of thecar, and even more so, that I was able to recall and say Prof. Aviad Israeli’s phone number before losingconsciousness.

I am lucky and blessed to have Aviad’s friendship,and it so happens that Aviad specializes in crisis management—both as a researcher and in real life.

Aviad triggered a supportive network of men and women—dear friends—members of the BGU community. All of them rose to the occasion.

When my parents arrived at Soroka hospital afterthree hours of a tormenting drive in the dark—bothmeanings apply—they were embraced, not with bigtitles and academic positions, but by people.

The president was simply Rivka, the dean—Arie, the chair—Ayala, and so many others. There is something so Jewish and so Israeli about arranging anapartment for them to stay in, making beds, loading afridge with food day in and day out, supporting them,embracing them with love.

While I was sleeping—so to speak—Ben-GurionUniversity was a family. Thank you.

WHILE I WAS SLEEPING


WHAT HAPPENS when you cross abackground in archeology with a fascination for genetics?

You get Dan Mishmar, a molecularbiologist whose offbeat approach togenetics is producing new insightsinto how species mutate, and how anumber of complicated diseases mayconnect to human evolution.

Dr. Mishmar came to BGU in 2004,holding a joint position with theNational Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev (NIBN) and theDepartment of Life Sciences, wherehe is a senior lecturer and researcher.He had studied arche-ology as an under-graduate, becominginterested in humanevolution. “This ledme to a critical deci-sion point,” he says,“whether to continueand study physicalanthropology andinvestigate humanevolution via ‘stonesand bones,’ or studyhuman genetics.”

Genetics won. Heearned an M.Sc. and then a Ph.D. inthe field under the supervision of thehuman geneticist Prof. BatshevaKerem at The Hebrew University. For postdoctoral work, Mishmarjoined the lab of Prof. Douglas C.

Wallace, a renowned expert special-izing in mitochondrial genetics at the University of California-Irvine. “We were the first to show thathuman genetic variation in the mito-chondria was shaped by natural selection,” he says.

These studies set the stage forMishmar’s current research. Now hiswork is generating interest within the international scientific community,and earning his team prestigious publication credits.

Mishmar is identifying the associa-tion between common genetic varia-

tion in humans andsusceptibility to dis-eases including type 2diabetes, cancer andschizophrenia. Hispremise is that muta-tions in our DNAoccurred over thousands of yearswithin the frameworkof Darwinian naturalselection. That is, ourancestors responded toenvironmentalchanges, such as cli-

mate shift, with mutations thatincreased their chances of survival.But today, these same mutations pre-dispose us toward certain diseases.

Mishmar focuses on the role ofmitochondria, which are organelles,

or small particles within cells, that are inherited only from the mother. They are the cells’ powerplants, generating energy, and are essentialto every cell’s survival and our abilityto perform the functions of living.Mitochondria’s role in the emergenceof new species has been investigatedrecently, but the idea that they areresponsible for our susceptibility toillnesses startles many.

“The concept that the same princi-ples that drive evolution toward theemergence of new species govern theemergence of diseases is new,”Mishmar explains. “A clinician looksat the genome of a tumor, or otherdisease, and compares it to the normal population, looking for newmutations that do not occur there. I assume the mutations are alreadypart of the population and have had a survival function. When these samemutations reoccur in the correct environment, they can cause disease.”

Looking at disease as an evolution-ary process is hard for clinicians toabsorb, Mishmar knows, but hebelieves in the idea’s potential.

“If we better understand how evolution moved, we can understandthe genetic basis of many, many complex disorders. Since mitochon-dria play a central role in disease, ifwe understand how they work andthe way they changed our ability to

1 2 I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9

EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

DISEASE THROUGHA DARWINIAN LENS

Dr. Dan Mishmar, molecular biologist

survive in different conditions inancient times, we can understand themechanics of the disease.

“And we’ll understand a lot aboutthe way certain people develop diseases and others have a lower tendency toward those same diseases.This may help us ease the lives of patients. I think it can lead to newways of curing diseases, or even aprevention approach.”

Mishmar’s own biggest surprisecame from his work with cancer, inthe context of a collaborative effortwith his graduate student, IliaZhidkov, and another BGU scientist,Dr. Eitan Rubin, a bioinformaticsexpert. Analyzing the mitochondrialgenomes (DNA sequences within the mitochondria) of 98 different unre-lated individuals, Mishmar and his col-leagues found that combinations ofmutations tended to occur in tumorsin precisely the same DNA buildingblocks that changed during evolution.

The resulting article earnedMishmar’s team the cover spot of aprestigious journal called GenomeResearch earlier this year. “We show,strikingly, that evolution repeateditself in cancer,” Mishmar comments.“Mutations that accumulated duringthousands of years of human evolu-tion have reoccurred in mutationalcombinations in tumors.”

Mishmar’s lab uses a combinationof research approaches, includingpopulation genetics: analyzing theDNA sequence of large populations to compare individuals and find variations. Using statistical methods,

the researchers look for associationsbetween variations in the mito-chondria DNA and susceptibility todiabetes.

Schizophrenia, too, is seen as a complex disorder caused by the

interplay of genetics and the environ-ment, and the lab is trying to isolatethe genetic component—difficultbecause multiple components areinvolved. The lab also uses molecularbiology techniques, such as growingcell cultures to look at the effects of mutation on cell survival.

Mishmar is happy to be at BGU: “I got exactly what I wanted. BGU is a wonderful environment to workin, the best for me, because I don’tsee a lot of places where you caneasily collaborate with peers. Here it happens frequently.”

One current collaborative project,a study of genetic diversity inchameleons, came about through achance meeting in the elevator with aBGU ecologist, Dr. Amos Bouskila.He also continues to collaborate withhis postdoctoral mentor, Prof. Douglas

C. Wallace at UC Irvine, as well aswith other researchers at Yale, and inSweden and China.

“All the projects I am involved in,”he explains, “aim at deciphering thefunctionality of common genetic vari-

ants, their role in disease susceptibili-ty, but also their role in the emer-gence of high energy demandingtraits during evolution, such as flightcapability in bats.”

Mishmar says he’s an armchairarcheologist these days, and misses thefieldwork. He teaches basic geneticsand is offering a new class in humangenetics and genomics. Unsurprisingly,students find the field exciting:Mishmar has had to decline a numberof applications to work in his lab.

“I like to teach very much and findit very satisfying when studentsunderstand and ask questions aboutthe data that are almost novel.

“And with the research, I like bestwhen students come to my lab anddon’t do what I tell them. It’s extreme-ly satisfying when they bring newideas—this is why we are here.” �

The illustration demonstrates the interaction between the mitochondrial DNA and the nuclear DNA (“cross talk”) and its importance for evolution.

I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9 1 3


“If we better understandhow evolution moved, we can understand thegenetic basis of many,many complex disorders.”

— DR. DAN MISHMAR

“FOR YIDDISH it’s the 11th hour,” saysProf. Moshe Justman, dean of theFaculty of Humanities and SocialSciences. “People with living memoryof it as a spoken language in EasternEurope aregrowing olderand fewer.Every year wepostpone preservingthis culture,we losesomething.”

Moreover,the leadingscholars inthe field areretiring, without leaving a cadre ofyoung scholars ready to take theirplace. It adds up to “a terribletragedy,” Justman says, “becauseYiddish culture is a treasure withintrinsic value, and because it’s soimportant to understanding our culture today.”

Justman, a professor of economics,has a personal background inYiddish: His grandfather was aYiddish journalist and author, and hisfather had a deep affection for thelanguage. Thus he was fully sympa-thetic to the idea of creating a majorcenter for Yiddish studies at BGU.The idea had resurfaced periodicallyfor years but not come to life, in partbecause it was difficult to find aneminent leader for such a center.

But recently, Justman took up thesearch again. He called to ask theadvice of Prof. David G. Roskies, aninternationally known scholar andauthor of Yiddish studies who teachesat New York’s Jewish TheologicalSeminary (JTS). It was a fortuitousconversation––“a miraculous story,”in Prof. Roskies’ words.

“Moshe told me how 20 years earlier BGU began working to make

its economics department one of thebest in the country by bringing inexactly the right people. And nowthey would like to do the same thingwith Yiddish. I was blown away,

though notcompletely surprised—I knew thetime to buildsomethingnew forYiddish inIsrael is now,and knewabout theexceptionalDepartment

of Hebrew Literature at BGU. I couldsee all the synapses connecting—theright time, the right place.”

A month later, Roskies visited BGU.“When I saw what the place hadbecome I was completely sold.”Beginning with thespring semester thisFebruary, Roskieswill split his yearbetween the JTSand BGU, runningthe Center forYiddish Studies.

“It’s important tounderstand that thisisn’t about peoplespeaking Yiddish,”says Justman. “I don’t think theuniversity willrevive the languageall of a sudden. It’s about under-standing and preserving Yiddish culture, especially high culture in EasternEurope—literature, the theater, thepress, poetry––primarily between1860 and 1940. The university is the

place to do this.”It is fitting for the new Center to

be part of the Department of HebrewLiterature, Justman notes, becauseYiddish has been a missing piece ofits Diaspora cultural studies, andbecause many leading Hebrew writerswere steeped in Yiddish culture andwrote in that language.

“The culture is hardwired byYiddish but we don’t realize thatsome of the things we say or do arerooted in it. A lot of this goes on inour collective subconscious and bringing it to the fore helps us under-stand our own culture better.”

Because Yiddish culture was a coreelement of the Ashkenazi Jewish identity, Roskies observes, it makessense that widespread interest hasbegun to develop.

“When you go looking for who youare and where you come from, yousee first that secrets of the past areencoded in that other language. Youheard it from your grandparents but it had always been devalued and you assumed it had nothing to tell us.Now suddenly in the 21st century, itholds out a certain promise, to unlock

something aboutwho you are.”

To Roskies, whocustomarily spendstwo months per yearin Israel, the growinginterest signals acoming of age forthe country. Yiddishhas carried the stigmaof the Holocaust and persecution fromthe ‘old country’ fordecades. Its use wasfurther discouragedby government cam-paigns to establishHebrew as thenation’s dominant,unifying language.

However, ModernHebrew has been

shaped by Yiddish to a remarkabledegree, Roskies says, in its cadenceand irony, and how the two

ISRAELIS PRESERVETHEIR YIDDISH ROOTS

1 4 I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9


The cover of Prof. Roskies’ newest book, anaward-winning memoir of his mother thatcontains a CD of her singing Jewish songs

Prof. Moshe Justman Prof. David G. Roskies


languages play off against each other.Having grown up studying “bookish”Hebrew in a Yiddish day school, he noticed on his first visit to Israelhow many colloquial expressions hadcome from Yiddish. “But 99.9 percentof Israelis had no idea of that!”

How Hebrew and Yiddish interact

is at the heart of the Jewish sensibility,Roskies explains. Jews had two languages: Yiddish, the spoken vernacular, and the high status reli-gious scriptural tradition of Hebrew. “At times the discrepancies betweenwhat God promised and what yousee in everyday life are pretty great. Parody is a way of living with that.”

This idea is embodied by SholomAleichem’s character Tevye, Roskiespoints out. “In this great literaryinvention, a simple salt-of-the-earthmilkman tempers his speech with

snippets fromthe liturgy, playing withmisquotes, parodying them.Sholem Aleichembased it on whathe heard. Theplay betweenbiblical promiseand everydayreality is builtinto Yiddish folk speech.”

One ofRoskies’ long-standing dreamsis to team-teach

a course on Yiddish-Hebrew parodywith BGU’s professor and author HaimBe’er, which he hopes to be able todo in two years. More immediately,he plans to organize a day of study devoted to the place ofYiddish at BGU,inviting colleaguesfrom every depart-ment to converseon what Yiddishcould mean to their fields andhow it can inter-face with them.

“I know how toreach out and buildconstituencies,” he says. “If I caninterest andintrigue people indifferent areas,then we can figureout ways to worktogether.”

The overarchinggoal is to turn BGUinto the center of Yiddish studies in Israel by creating an academic fellowship of Yiddish scholars already working in the field. “We’re strongerthan people realize, but there’s noumbrella organization,” Roskies says.“We’ll bring everyone together tobrainstorm: What can be done that no one can do individually; what can

we accomplish by pooling resources?”He hopes, too, to train his successor

so someone is in place for the longterm, along with a cadre of graduatestudents.

Prof. Justman hopes that the Center will fulfill its role, preservingthe heritage of Yiddish literature and culture, by reaching out to larger audiences. The big picture includespublishing scholarly works andclassics, organizing conferences, cata-loging and analyzing the tremendousoutput of the Yiddish press in EasternEurope, and perhaps even revivingthe Yiddish theater tradition and publishing popular plays and songs.

With Roskies as a bridge, BGU and the JTS have begun meeting to explore potential collaborations. “We see this as a first step in a partnership,” says Justman, “initiallythrough Jewish literature, with a faculty and student exchange

program, and perhaps in other gradu-ate study fields later.”

“All of it together is a dream cometrue,” Roskies says—“the interest inYiddish, the Center, the institutionscoming together—and that it’s hap-pening in the worst economic climatein living memory is even more mirac-ulous! It’s a very Jewish scenario.” �

“The [Israeli] culture is hardwiredby Yiddish but we don’t realizethat some of the things we sayor do are rooted in it...bringing it to the fore helps us understand

our own culture better.”— PROF. MOSHE JUSTMAN

I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9 1 5

“The May 1st Parade of Di Yunge.” New, modernist Yiddish poetry group Di Yunge (The Young Ones) follow their muse: death. 1911 (Der groyser kundes). Courtesy of Edward Portnoy

“This Year’s Procession In The Radical Synagogues.” Illustrates people representing Zionism, socialism, rightists and leftists. Mocks large numberof political splinter movements in Jewish life. 1921 (Der groyser kundes).Courtesy of Edward Portnoy

BGU RESEARCHERS ARE TALKING to atoms.

“It’s not only because the interna-tional scientific community sees it asone of the most promising areas oftechnological innovation and humandevelopment. The great appeal forIsrael is that with nanotechnology, theonly thing that counts is brainpower:no need for natural resources or vastterrain—only the human mind.”

These are the reasons that BGU isinvesting hugely in state-of-the-artnano equipment and facilities,explains Moshe Gottlieb, FrankelProfessor in the Department ofChemical Engineering and head of theinterdisciplinary Ilse Katz Institute forNanoscale Science and Technology(IKI). Established in 2000, the IKI isnow leaping forward with a cadre ofhandpicked young researchers and asoon-to-be finished cutting-edge facili-ty that took years to plan and build.

Combined with the University’sstrength in many fields that relate tonanotechnology, BGU is positioned to take a leading role in researchidentified by Israel, and the U.S. too,as high priority.

Investigation into “nanotech” dates

back to the 1990s, but as basic sciencestarts leading to practical applications,interest has been accelerating, Prof.Gottlieb says. He compares the out-

look to that of microelectronics andthe Internet decades ago, when scien-tists were excited by the possibilitiesand eager entrepreneurs began to cre-ate an Internet-linked world.

“Here, too, Israel excelled,” hesays. “To be an Internet powerhouse,all you needed was imagination andboldness.” But there is a crucial differ-ence, he explains. While Internetinnovation might take only a fewhundred dollars and a phone line,nanotechnology requires highlysophisticated equipment and speciallyenhanced laboratories. The Israeligovernment, the Negev Foundationand the Yeshaya Horowitz Associationfunded the new $20 million buildingand some major equipment, and several American supporters con-tributed generous amounts, but thescientific infrastructure still needsdevelopment.

Determination is high, Gottliebsays. “To be in the forefront of scien-tific development, BGU cannot affordnot to be part of this game. Nanotech-nology goes way beyond even theInternet in potential implications,because it will affect health, medicine,energy, all the way to everyday com-modities—almost every aspect of life.”

1 6 I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9


Top Illustration: Carbon nanotubes and polymersfrom the work of Prof. Rachel Yerushalmi-Rozen

MANIPULATING MOLECULES:HOW NANOSCIENCE ISREVOLUTIONIZING TECHNOLOGIES

Prof. Moshe Gottlieb, director of the Ilse KatzInstitute for Nanoscale Science and Technology


I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9 1 7

WHAT IS NANOTECH ABOUT?Essentially, nanotechnology is aboutsize. While scientists come at theresearch from a wide range of per-spectives, from chemistry and physicsto materials engineering and biology,the focus is on manipulating the structure of materials at incrediblysmall sizes, in dimensions comparableto those of some large molecules such as proteins. This is nanoscale.

The basic unit, the nanometer, isone billionth of a meter. There aremore than 25 million nanometers inan inch. One human hair ranges from15,000 to 180,000 nanometers(depending on its color).

Such a scale defies the imagination,and is becoming familiar territory tonanoscientists only because of break-through equipment such as the scanning probe tunneling microscope,optical spectroscopy, fluorescence-based single particle tracking andother devices that bring research tonew frontiers of knowledge.

Why are researchers so fascinatedwith this nano world? Because whenany material on that scale is investigat-ed, it behaves in totally different waysthan larger pieces of the same material.

“As you go below some criticaldimensions, there are physicalchanges in the properties of materi-als,” explains Prof. Yuval Golan of theDepartment of Materials Engineering.“Even with something simple, likecolor, the change has far reachingconsequences. If you want to make

a light-emitting device, like a laser, forexample, just by changing the size ofthe material, you can change the colorof the emitted light.”

Materials on the nano level canbecome transparent instead of opaque,combustible instead of stable, chemi-cally active instead of inert, and act asconductors instead of insulators. Nano-materials can also be amazingly strong.

While nanomaterials have alwaysbeen produced naturally (like volcanoemissions or DNA molecules) and by man (smoke), scientists are nowworking feverishly to understand their characteristics and how theyinteract with each other and with biological systems.

They are also experimenting with controlling the production and designof materials to pave the way for useful applications.This is a “bottoms-up approach:”assembling mole-cules in certainways (or causingthem to self-assemble) to produce materialswith new desirablecharacteristics––as opposed to the traditional way of manufacturing,which starts withlarge pieces of amaterial and typi-cally ends up with substantial waste.

The specific potentials are mind-boggling: thin plastic sheets that canconvert light into electrical energy...incredibly small transistors to powercomputers...lightweight materials ofunprecedented strength...membranesfor filtering and desalinating water...nanostructures that can diagnose diseased cells and deliver drugs.

“Nanotechnology will be of greatimportance in developing solutions to our century’s major challenges,”Gottlieb says. “We’re trying to map theareas where we have a critical mass of researchers and can make a

meaningful impact.” These includealternative energy, biological/medicalapplications and methods to reduceman’s impact on our environment––for example, by water treatment orrecycling the polluting ash producedby coal into useful products.

“Of course, we are still very much at the science stage,” Gottlieb continues. “We have great hopes andexpectations, but in order to developthe technology, you first have todevelop the science. It still will takesome work to move industry to actually develop the products. This is where we are now.”

To enhance the scientists’ capabilities,a new group of research fellows hasbeen recruited to act as the Institute’s“human infrastructure.” They arehighly educated people dedicated

to developing techniques for usingthe very advanced equipment, keeping it updated and helping individual researchers use it produc-tively. The fellows will run eight service labs. A nanofabrication facilityis also available to build devices that are way beyond the ordinaryworkshop’s scope.

Some of the 29 faculty membersfrom nine different departments thatcomprise the core of the IKI willmove into the new building. Otherresearchers will stay with their currentlaboratories, but will benefit from the

A fabricator working in the “clean room” of the Weiss Family Laboratoryfor Nanoscale Systems

“We are blessed with verygood students. That’s amajor and critical factor, to have good people to dothe work and push theresearch forward.”

—PROF. YUVAL GOLAN


18 I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9

central services, seminars and oppor-tunities to collaborate more efficiently.

As Prof. Iris Visoly-Fisher, a nanoresearcher and senior lecturer in the Department of Chemistry says,“Having all the equipment and expertssitting in the same place will be a huge

improvement, and certainly will elevatethe level of nano research. And it willhave a psychological meaning. We’llhave a physical center to go to, tomeet in and the experts who help mealmost daily in the same place.”

“The new facility will be a milestonein the development of nanotechnologyat BGU,” Golan agrees. “I’m reallyconfident that it will position BGU wellfor this extremely competitive research.”

And, says Gottlieb, the Institute iscritical to another long-range goal:attracting more of the brightest andbest young faculty members by pro-viding the collaborative opportunitiesthey value.

EXPLORING THE NANOSCALEProf. Rachel Yerushalmi-Rozen of theDepartment of Chemical Engineeringis interested in how the properties ofnano materials differ from larger mate-rials, how imposing different dimen-sions on them affect their propertiesand the interface between materials.

“It’s fun and fascinating,” she says.“Things really become different whenyou come down to smaller dimensionsand we haven’t explored this region

thoroughly—so many things are waiting for us there.”

In practical terms, she believes in 10 or 15 years we’ll use nano structures regularly. “When we findcorrelations between structure and the properties we’re looking for,instead of a cook-and-look process,we can design-engineer. We’ll have a route to lead from theory all theway to final materials that will exhibitinteresting properties.”

For 11 years Yerushalmi-Rozen has worked with structures called carbon nanotubes, which were accidentally discovered in 1994 by aJapanese microscoper. Carbon singlewall nanotubes are cylindrical structures that are one nanometer indiameter with a length that can bemany microns. There are also multi-wall nanotubes, cylinders withincylinders, which are larger.

Nanotubes occur naturally whenyou burn organic material like lampoil, Yeruashalmi-Rozen says, butbefore their official discovery, no one had noticed or made use of them. “Nanotubes are excitingbecause they have the best properties,” she explains. “They’re the best conductors, the strongest and toughest material and the mostflexible. They conduct heat very welland can be integrated into othermaterials, probably including polymers.”

Nanotubes can also be used tomanipulate molecules. Yerushalmi-

Rozen has found that when carbontubes are mixed in a controlled way with a collection of molecules dissolved in water, “the nanotubes tell the other molecules how toarrange themselves.”

Because they are still too expensivefor the plastics industry, whichrequires very cheap materials, applica-tions thus far are limited. Nanotubesare added to plastics to produce verystrong and lightweight tennis rackets,and have been used as tiny probesfor measuring on the atomic scale.

But the long-range prospectsinspire Yerushalmi-Rozen. Theyinclude plastic solar cells that can beused to coat the roof of a house forgenerating electricity; cheap dispos-able electronics; plastic materials toreplace silicon in transistors; and

drug-delivery systems. Making space-craft lighter and stronger, and improv-ing their energy storage and life support systems are other potentialoutcomes of this technology.

CREATING A NEW ENERGY FUTUREProf. Iris Visoly-Fisher joined BGU’sDepartment of Chemistry in 2007 as a senior lecturer and head of theMolecular Optoelectronics Lab. She has a goal: to make alternativeenergy practical. She believes thatbasic research on the fundamentalproperties of molecules and theirstructure will help this happen.

The photovoltaics, central to solarenergy, for example—the systems usedto convert sunlight into electricity—now depend on silicon semiconduc-tors. “The way solar cells are madetoday uses very expensive machineswith high temperatures and pollutants.

“We’re pushing towardthe edge of knowledge in every field we look at.”

—PROF. RACHEL YERUSHALMI-ROZEN

Prof. Yuval Golan’s scanning electron microscopeimage of isolated nanocrystals shows effect ofchemical solutions being deposited on semicon-ductor films.

Prof. Iris Visoly-Fisher’s topographic image ofhybrid photovoltaic material taken with an atomicforce microscope. Image is 100 x 100 nanometers.

I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9 1 9

You can stretch traditional chemistryonly so far with silicon,” she points out.

“We’re trying to mix things in aglass and build new materials basedon organics like plastic that will below cost, flexible and lightweight. It’sthe essence of nano—we’re looking atthe single building block so everymolecule goes to the address we setfor it, and we can direct our nanobuilding blocks where we want them.”

Ultimate success will mean not onlyinexpensive solar energy, but alsohuman-scale products such as portabledevices to replace batteries that canbe carried in a purse.

“We want to push the chemistry todevelop materials that are cheap,clean, easy to work with and better—it all goes together,” Visoly-Fisher says.

The chance to work with BGU’sextensive array of alternative energyspecialists, especially scientists in thesolar energy center, is a big plus forher. “Unlike other universities thatdeveloped an interest in the field onlyrecently, BGU has been working onthis for 20 years and it shows,” sheobserves. Combining nanotechnologyinterests with energy research givesBGU a chance to make a real differ-ence, she believes.

And she values the collaborativeatmosphere that in fact attracted her to the University. “The fact that thereare a lot of young researchers in mydepartment and the nano instituteappealed to me. People to talk to whoshare your interests and the way youthink—that’s very important to me.And it works.”

TALKING TO ATOMSThe Atom Chip Laboratory that Dr. Ron Folman heads is focused onnanotechnology’s most extreme frontier: the atom itself, one-tenth thesize of a nanometer. This researchfalls under the umbrella of “quantummechanics.”

Although atoms have been “known”for some 2,500 years since the ancientGreeks hypothesized their existence,only recently are we able to “commu-nicate” with them in complex ways,

thanks to new instrumentation andunderstanding.

Dr. Folman was recruited five yearsago by the Department of Physics,and by IKI, to establish the AtomChip Lab. It was—and remains—the only such lab in Israel, and is one of about 30 located in premiereinstitutions around the world.

Folman also developed and headsthe Weiss Family Laboratory forNanoscale Systems, a nanofabricationfacility that makes atom chips for theAtom Chip Lab, for BGU researchers,for researchers in other parts of theworld and for the high-tech industryin Israel.

“When things are extremely smalland isolated from their environment,they behave in very strange ways––different from the laws of naturewe’re used to,” Folman explains.

“For example, a particle can be in two places at once. And if two particles interacted in the past, andare separated by light-years, whensomeone manipulates one—tries tomeasure it, perhaps—the other particle instantly knows and changesits behavior.” This phenomenon iscalled “entanglement.”

Seemingly bizarre characteristicslike these provide a base for newkinds of technologies and applica-tions: super-accurate measurement

of time, highly accurate navigation systems, secure communications, new brain scanning equipment andother medical instruments. But mostof all, what excites scientists is theprospect of quantum computing.

Computers could becomeincredibly fast, Folman explains, byexploiting the atom’s ability to be in more than one place at a time. Super computers are probably 10 to20 years into the future, Folmanthinks, but other applications arealready happening, such as quantumcommunications for secure bankingtransactions.

He describes the research as learning a whole new language, sopeople can communicate with atomsin increasingly sophisticated ways and get answers back from them. (His business card—suggested by students—reads, “We talk to atoms.”)Part of the challenge, he explains, isin maintaining the atom’s all-importantisolation, while at the same time interacting with it so it does what iswanted, and in effect, reports back.

Working on this smallest-of-allscales doesn’t limit Folman’s vision forboth the research lab and the nanofabfacility. “My goal is not only to bringcutting-edge science to the Negev, butto eventually attract high-tech indus-try, creating jobs that will lure strongcommunities to come here.” �

An atom chip provides the interface between thenano world and the outside “normal” world.Ultimately, this means the ability to make smallerand more complex devices to further probe nature’ssecrets and advance human technological goals.

Dr. Ron Folman next to a vacuum chamber where atoms are isolated, as required for quantum features to dominate their behavior


A YEAR AGO, “Twitter” was a newway for young people to communi-cate, and other generations were onlystarting to acknowledge its potential.But in June, along with other socialnetworking media like Facebook andYouTube, Twitter transfixed the worldas the basic tool by which Iranian citizens connected with each otherand with the world.

As the government preventedreporters from covering the protestsand shut down the traditional channels,a torrent of Twitter messages kepttelling the story in short urgent blasts,amplified by jarring eyewitness videos,much of it shot on cell phones.

Within a few days that most tradi-tional medium, The New York Times,was wondering whether digital mediawould be the means for transformingthe Middle East.

Dr. Tal Azran of BGU’s HubertBurda Center for Innovative Commu-nications observed events closely.“What was surprising is the extent towhich people could actually commu-nicate and in this respect challengethe government,” he says. “What’snew, too, is that this is horizontalcommunication, people commu-nicating directly with eachother, not the traditional verti-cal top-down model.”

Azran was also surprised that theIranian governmentdidn’t manage tostop the new mediaas thoroughly as,for example, theChinese have.“Usually thegovernmentwins, but now thepeople are

actually winning in many ways. It’simportant how much the social mediahelped create a global public opinionfor the Iranians. You can see that in Israel—we don’t communicate with Iran but the images are all overthe newspapers and social networks, so we feel the Iranians’ pain and sympathize.

“Bloggers actually fed the main-stream media. So blogging itself is thebig story.”

On the other hand, the governmentdid manage to block a lot of opportunities for communication anddid suppress the rebellion. “At theend of the day technology has itsboundaries,” Azran says. In short, the issues are complicated, includingthose linked to the uncharted andunpredictable territory of new media.

Exploring these issues in the “cool”environment of academia

is the Burda Center’smission.

THE BURDA CENTERIn itself, the Center’s origins suggesthow fuzzy the old barriers are growing: between traditional mediaand new media, between countriesand people.

Housed in the Department ofCommunication Studies since 1999, it is funded by Germany’s HubertBurda Foundation. Dr. Burda, a media

magnate who built his empire on traditional media (sewing magazines),identified Israel as being “of enormousimportance to Europe in the domainof the new media,” and specificallywanted to promote German-Israelicollaborations.

The Center holds international con-ferences such as “Cool People in theHot Desert,” which draws high-techspecialists, entrepreneurs and scholars

to BGU every two years. It publish-es books on media and brings

major media figures in tospeak. Last year Riz Kahn,

well-known host of an Al-Jazeera English TV show,

attracted an audience of 300.

THE GOOD NEIGHBORSEXPERIMENTThe Burda Center also sponsorsresearch on the emerging world ofdigital communications. One specialproject is a Web site called GoodNeighbors (gnblog.com), which forthree years has given bloggers from

CAN ENEMIES BECOME‘GOODNEIGHBORS’?MIDDLE EAST MEETS SOCIAL MEDIA

Dr. Yael Kaynan


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BGU's Good Neighbors' Blog (gnblog.com) is aforum for peaceful exchange among bloggers fromthe Middle East. During the Iranian election scandal, some put their lives on the line to report.


I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9 2 1

all over the Middle East a forum toexchange ideas and information.

“It was initiated because of the special circumstances we live in,” saysDr. Azran, who is the Burda Center’sstrategic manager and a lecturer in theDepartment of CommunicationStudies. “We wanted to bring togethersome of the leading bloggers from allthe countries––Jordan, Lebanon, Syria,Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Palestiniansand Israel—to test a psychologicalidea, the contact hypothesis: Whenpeople who are supposed to be ‘the other’—the enemy—meet on apersonal and equal level, will theylike each other better? We wanted tosee if it happens online.”

The idea originated with Dr. YaelKaynan, who arrived at BGU fouryears ago as a senior lecturer andapplied for a project grant. “My fieldof study is psychology, relationshipsand group dynamics on the Internet,so the project combined a lot of inter-ests,” she says. “How do people relateto conflict situations? How do weforge bonds with our neighbors? Thequestions became very personal whenI moved here.”

Kaynan actively recruited bloggersknown in their own communities anda good number initially agreed tocontribute. Like many blog platforms,Good Neighbors is also open to com-mentators from anywhere who want

to join the conversation.Getting and maintaining broad rep-

resentation was a challenge. Kaynanwas unable to recruit a blogger from

Gaza, for example, but did convince aWest Bank Palestinian to take part.Some groups, like the Bedouins sheapproached, were reluctant to post inEnglish, which is required, eventhough they speak the language well.

And of course, participants must haveInternet access. This is surprisinglywidespread in Palestinian territories,Kaynan says, but not in countries withlarge percentages of very poor people,like Egypt. Iran, Azran notes, has longhad a strong blogging culture.

Local political pressures againstparticipating in the project can beintense. In Syria interacting withsomeone from an enemy country isagainst the law, and the Lebanesehave lately been heard from less oftenand similar reasons are suspected.Most of the bloggers post secretly,identifying themselves only by country and using online names suchas Big Pharaoh, Free Cedar and Yaser.

Maintaining the site logistically isnot simple. “It takes a lot of resourcesbecause hackers constantly try to takeit down,” notes Azran, “so it needs alot of security, especially during war.”War takes a toll on participation aswell. The recent war in Gaza cost thesite nearly a third of its regular blog-gers, Azran says.

Despite all the obstacles, the site islively and opinions are presented in aserious, civilized and often passionatetone. Postings about the Iranian upris-ing had an on-the-scene urgency. One

participant from Iran, Elinor, had previously been blocked from accessing the Internet but was able to blog about her insights on the unfolding situation, prompting otherbloggers to express concern for hersafety. A video shot in Vanak Squaretestified vividly to the Iranian protes-tors’ anger, frustration and bravery.

Other comments provided informa-tional tidbits and personal reactions.One, from “Ibraheem,” a Lebanese,read in part:Ending war in the human experi-

ence requires more than watching television and disapproving; or feelingshocked or hopeless or politicalactivism. It requires a change of consciousness. Until you change theconsciousness of war in yourself––the consciousness of enemies, allies,villains and righteousness––you willcontinue to create wars.

At more peaceful moments, GoodNeighbors’ exchanges are of a moreeveryday nature, about local concerts,for example. Kaynan thinks this information, too, contributes overtime toward new attitudes, demon-strating common interests.

The site’s value is as a naturalisticstudy, she says. “There are no con-trols, unlike a lab setting, where youcan control everything. When you put it out you see what’s happeningwith individuals and how they relate, with all the things going on in thereal world—like war.”

The results can surprise. Azranrecalls that during the civil war betweenHamas and Fatah, “commenting on theLebanese refugee camp, some Fatahpeople said Israel treated people betterthan the Lebanese, a discourse that isvery rare to hear.”

Kaynan found a set of Palestinianinteractions personally enlightening.“Many people tend to look atPalestinians as having uniform views,but I learned that there was a widevariety of views and factions, and different beliefs about ‘one state’ versus‘two states.’ So I saw that they’re notso different from the Israelis in having

The Facebook.com Iran page gave voice to Iranian protesters.

Twitter allowed Iranians to share electionprotest atrocities with the world.


FOR MANY BGU students, the universi-ty experience is more than just study-ing, career preparation and social life.

To Mohamed Abu Saelek, a phar-macy major who grew up in aBedouin village, it’s showing kids froma low socio-economic background likehis own that they too can go to col-lege and plan for a successful life.

For Nadav Shem-Tov, an electricalengineering student, it’s getting

involved with very unfamiliar culturesand being part of a community where“everybody knows everybody and it’slike one big family.”

And to Shir Varon—an MBA Honorsstudent headed for a business career—it’s a chance to “build bridges betweenpeople and be part of something thatis greater than me.”

The three are among 100 BGU stu-dents who participate yearly in OpenApartments, a unique BGU programnow in its 31st year of operation. Theprogram bridges the university worldand its surrounding communities by

actually making students part of theneighborhoods.

In exchange for free rent, they livein underprivileged areas in Beer-Shevaand dedicate at least eight hours perweek to improving the lives of theresidents in some way. They may givecourses in community centers, tutorchildren, arrange parties, paint walls,make household repairs, or just listento their neighbors’ problems. They

also adopt families and are available24 hours per day, every day.

“These communities have many very poor immigrants and unemployedpeople, and the University seems faraway from their natural life,” explainsVered Sarousi Katz, who directs theCommunity Action Unit of which OpenApartments is a part. “Our studentsshow that the University can be veryclose to the community without beingjudgmental or patronizing. They’ll doanything to help, to be there for them,but see their neighbors as people whocontribute to their lives, as well.”

Candidates for Open Apartments arecarefully screened through an inter-view process and workshop, Sarousiexplains. “It’s a demanding thing, notlike putting in four hours and thengoing home. It needs a special studentwho knows how to live together withpeople and communicate.” Each neigh-borhood has a coordinator to helpwith problems, as well as oversightfrom the program’s general coordina-tor, Ilan Kalgrad.

Coming from a wide range of back-grounds and educational interests, thestudents reflect Israel’s own diversity,Sarousi says.

Nadav, the electrical engineeringstudent, says that he was initially afraidof meeting people from cultures unlikehis own. “In my first student years I didn’t manage to know anybody elsedifferent from my own friends andfamily. I didn’t know how to speakwith other people before, how tobehave,” he says. “But I wasn’t an out-sider very long—every time you’re inthe street it’s like you know everybody,no matter what the age. The neighbor-hood people are very supportive, likeone big family. It’s a lifestyle I didn’tknow before.”

Nadav works with children, runningactivities, playing games and organizing holiday events. He also teaches math to several adults.

STUDENTS OPEN THEIRAPARTMENTS AND THEIR HEARTS

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

22 I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9

Six student participants in the Open Apartments program: Shir Varon, Shmuel Boanish, Keren Green, Nadav Shem-Tov, Mohamed Abu Saelek and Libat Apolet

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9 23

Shir, the MBA student, also grew up in an area “totally different” fromBeer-Sheva and sought a new experi-ence. “When I was interviewed, Iknew everyone was saying they want-ed to contribute, and I wanted to dothat too, but to tell the truth, I alsowanted to be part of a community, to belong to a place. And I wanted to experience a life that I know existsin Israel but wasn’t familiar with.”

Nevertheless, the reality broughtsurprises. “At the beginning, coming to the neighborhood was a shock—the social, cultural and economic gap was a hard adjustment. But onceyou cross the chasm you learn a lotabout society and yourself,” says Shir.

Shir gives a lot of time to middleschool teenagers. “I like when theycome to cook, watch TV or just talk.I help with their homework. I thinkevery time we meet it’s a good time,though sometimes it can be hard.” Thereare especially satisfying moments, likewhen a boy he helped with a schoolproject called to say he got an “A.”

Shir hopes eventually to become a business executive, and because ofOpen Apartments he will look for acompany that is strongly involved involunteer activities. “I think that espe-cially in this country, we need to findbridges between people, and some-times there is just a lack of experiencebetween residents in the middle ofIsrael and places like Beer-Sheva.”

Keren Green says that she’s beencounseling children “all my life” andwhen she came to BGU, knew imme-diately that the program was for her.Compared to working in Tel Aviv

area camps, the kids are not easy.“They have a lot of problems. They come from broken homes; their parents don’t have much money orare sick – you can see that on thekids; they tell you. You try to makethem open to you, try to make themfeel better, you talk to the parents andinvolve other people who can help.”

She helps elementary-schoolers withhomework in an after-school center,where she also does arts and crafts.“It’s nice to get them off the streets andfind them something to do—they loveit,” she says. But there are momentsof truth, like “when you open therefrigerator and there’s nothing init...They need more help, a lot of it.”

A management and political sciencemajor, Keren’s long-range ambition isin fact to help: “This is just a begin-ning to what I’m planning to do. I’llwork in a Jewish agency, raise money,whatever I can think of to help.”

Shmuel Boanish is a 26-year-oldpolitics and philosophy major and washappy to discover the Open ApartmentsProgram. “I find it really impressive that you can come as a student and dosomething in the community, and it’sreally important to me. It’s somethingthat no other university in Israel does.”

In addition to teaching children’s artcourses twice a week, Shmuel adopteda family from Ethiopia that has experi-enced more than its share of problems.The mother has been hospitalized in a coma, and her husband, who is outof work, spends much of the day withher. There are eight children.

“They are in my place or I am intheirs,” Shmuel says. “I come homeand they come to play on my comput-er; I help the older daughter with herEnglish; I work with their social work-ers. The five-year old had a birthdayand her parents weren’t there—but wecelebrated with cake and presents. Inever saw a kid, or a family, so happy.

“It’s not like a work connection, it’s part of my life. This experiencewill stay with me, and the family will;they are like my family to me.”

Shmuel plans to get a seconddegree and then hopes “to do some-

thing for Israel”—perhaps run a largecommunity organization, or perhapsbecome an ambassador. “The OpenApartments experience will shape myfuture for the better,” he believes.

And then there is Mohamed, whogrew up in a Bedouin village. Heworks in a community center and runsa computer club. Kids came withoutknowing how to turn on the computer,he reports. “Now they know Word,Excel; they send messages to eachother and are exposed to new areasnot possible before.”

The family he adopted is from Gaza,and came to Israel because they hadcooperated with Israel and were indanger. Mohamed is teaching themHebrew. “They have no language, a verybad socioeconomic situation, seriousidentity problems and very big difficul-ties integrating here,” Mohamed says.

His own experience was not dissim-ilar. He became a BGU student as aresult of the University’s access pro-gram called “Promotion of Accessibilityto Higher Education for Negev Pupils,”which brings Jewish and Bedouin chil-dren to the University every Friday.

He takes his status as a role modelseriously. “I like giving emotional andpsychological support to the children

and family—it makes me feel like I make a real difference in their lives.The program made me more ambi-tious. I want to be a better person andhelp people who come from the samebackground I do to become betterpeople and get a higher education. I believe that to create a better society,everybody should be doing this.”


24 I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9

REGIONAL NEWS

GREAT LAKES

Ernie Simon, ChairLarry Goodman, Honorary ChairJudy Rosen, Director(847) [email protected]

Harriet Winer, AABGU’s vice president of development,visited the Great Lakes community and met with theregion’s new local leadership.

Paul Goodman, national and regional board member,

participated in the Young Professionals Israel Experience in March and extended his stay to visit BGU’s Sede Boqercampus.

“Developing the personal relationships with the professors and seeing their work in the lab and in the fieldreally gives me a strong connection to the University,” saidPaul. He and his family are longtime supporters, but thiswas Paul’s first visit to BGU. We know he’ll be back!

Co-sponsored by seven community organizations, thesuccessful environmental symposia held in Chicago attractednew community leaders, AABGU supporters, Governor’soffice personnel and many new BGU friends.

FROM THE DESERT, SUN AND SEA…FOR THE WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL SYMPOSIAA series of environmental symposia featuring BGU Prof. David Faiman, Prof. Avigad Vonshakand Dr. Nadav Shashar were held in the Great Lakes, Greater Texas, Mid-Atlantic andWashington/Baltimore regions in the spring.Each expert discussed his research and the wayshe is helping to green the environment— in Israel and the world.

PROF. FAIMAN, chair of the Department of Solar Energyand Environmental Physics at BGU’s Jacob BlausteinInstitutes for Desert Research (BIDR), explained how his new technology is helping to create affordable solar energy (see pg. 6). Dr. Shashar, head of the BGU DolphinReef Laboratory in Eilat, discussed his collaborative workwith Jordanian professors and students to restore naturalreef environments in the Red Sea. Prof. Vonshak, directorof the BIDR, shared the Institutes’ research and experi-mentation with water purification, alternative energy andecological and environmental conservation.

Two additional special guests were part of the GreaterTexas symposia. Mark Kapner, senior strategy engineer atAustin Energy, discussed environmental engineering andpolicy and Austin’s GreenChoice program, the nation’sleading renewable energy marketing program, during theAustin symposium. Lorin L. Vant-Hull, professor emeritusof physics at the University of Houston, spoke about hiswork with solar energy projects for 30 years during theHouston symposium.

The events, many of which were co-sponsored withcommunity partners, attracted large audiences of currentAABGU supporters, regional leaders and new Universityfriends. �

Top: Profs. Faiman and Vonshak and Dr. Shashar are welcomed by receptionhosts and Philadelphia Chapter Chairs Mona and David Zeehandelaar.

Bottom: Dr. Shashar with Ray Daniels and AABGU Treasurer and D.C.Chapter Chair Art Hessel

REGIONAL NEWS

I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9 25

GREATER FLORIDA

Carolyn Yasuna, Associate Director(561) [email protected]

An enthusiastic and committed contingent of SouthFlorida residents traveled to the University in May to participate in BGU’s 39th Annual Board of Governors’Meeting and celebrations. Among the group were Board of Governors’ member Edy Freedman and her husband Sol Freedman, Sandra and Billy Joel, Joel Reinstein and Jenny Cohen, Board of Governors’ member Lyon Roth, and Palm Beach Gardens philanthropist Zoom Fleisher, a first-time BGU visitor.

Associate Director Carolyn Yasuna and Zoom met withprofessors at BGU’s Marcus Family and Sede BoqerCampuses. Zoom, a retired entrepreneur and mechanicalengineer, was particularly enamored with Professor Eran Sher, of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and his students. After viewing and discussing a variety of innovative experiments in Sher’s Internal CombustionEngine Lab, Zoom addressed the students about his experiences in creating, growing and managing a successfulmetal fabricating business for 40 years.

BGU founders and longtime leaders Edy and SolFreedman joined Zoom to tour the Jacob BlausteinInstitutes for Desert Research and hear Professors AvigadVonshak and Eilon Adar discuss the critical issues of watermanagement and sustainability.

Prior to their BGU visit, Sandra and Billy Joel traveledthroughout northern Israel with close friends Sylvia andJerry Herman. Once the Joels introduced their friends tothe University, the passion was infectious, evidenced

by the Hermans’ generous gesture of a founder’s gift in support of the Open Apartments Program.

A series of parlor meetings and intimate opportunities to meet BGU professors is currently being planned for the upcoming winter season.

Zoom Fleisher, Carolyn Yasuna, Edy and Sol Freedman in Sede Boqer

Zoom Fleisher (right) and Prof. Eran Sher

Dr. Nadav Shashar of the Department of Life Sciences, Regional BoardMember Jody Schmidt and David Schmidt

Rabbi Jeffrey Weill of Temple Beth-El; Prof. David Faiman, chair of theDepartment of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics; Regional DirectorJudy Rosen

REGIONAL NEWS

26 I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9

GREATER TEXAS

Sandra and Steven Finkleman, ChairsDeborah K. Bergeron, Director(713) [email protected]

Dinner Chairs Lisa Lepow Turboff and Stephen Friedmanplanned a superb 8th Annual Gourmet Kosher DiningExtravaganza, which was held in the Omni Houston Hotel’snew ballroom. Excitement was in the air in anticipation ofdishes from six of Houston’s top chefs.

Participating chefs were Amici’s Bruce McMillan, Carmelo’sCarmelo Mauro, Mockingbird Bistro’s John Sheely, Mark’sMark Cox, Polo’s Signature’s Adam Puskorius and OmniHouston Hotel’s Dean Sprague. The chefs created a uniqueaward-winning kosher dining experience for a crowd of over 300. The “Men of the Evening” presented their

charisma, charm and great food in grand style. Haya and Jacob Varon were the evening’s recipients

of the David Ben-Gurion Leadership Award for their

GREATER NEW YORK

Lite Sabin and Jessica Sillins, ChairsKevin M. Leopold, DirectorWendy Clarfeld, Associate Director(212) 687-7721 [email protected] • [email protected]

As part of an ongoing lecture series, the region hostedDr. Eli Lewis of the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the Bentley Hotel’s Rooftop Lounge. Dr. Lewis discussedhis recent advances in diabetes research, which allows a transplanted group of healthy islets to survive in thepatient, thereby eliminating the need for otherwise necessarydaily insulin injections. The audience appreciated his down-to-earth explanations of diabetes, the methods of treatmentand his team’s research.

Prof. David Roskies led a “class” on the poetry and life ofAvrom Sutzkever and also illustrated the mission and visionof BGU’s new Center for Yiddish Studies, which he willestablish and head as of February 2010. In addition, Dr. AmirShapiro of the Department of Mechanical Engineeringbrought his robots from his Robotics Lab and demonstratedtheir potential for improving crucial industries, including military and defense, medical and agriculture. Both of theseevents took place at the JCC of Manhattan.

On October 28, the region will present AABGU’sHumanitarian Awards to Leonard Litwin, Jeffrey Gural, Jane Gural-Senders and Barbara Gural for their exemplarycommitment and contributions toward Alzheimer’s treatment. Prof. Alon Monsonego of the Department ofMicrobiology and Immunology will be the featured speaker,and will discuss his holistic approach to the disease, andhow he is approaching completion of a vaccine that is

ready for Phase 1 human testing.We are delighted to report that the Israel Experience

mission was a tremendous success. Over a dozen youngprofessionals explored the Negev and BGU’s campusesduring the weeklong trip in March (see pg. 7).

Regional Board Member and Dinner Chair Lisa Lepow Turboff, 2009 DavidBen-Gurion Award recipients Haya and Dr. Jacob Varon and Regional Board Member and Dinner Chair Stephen Friedman at the Eighth AnnualGourmet Kosher Dining Extravaganza in Houston

Top: Regional Co-Chair Lite Sabin with Oscar and Miriam Zanger at theBentley Hotel for Dr. Eli Lewis’ diabetes lecture; Bottom: Young professionalsand their children enjoyed the wonder of Dr. Amir Shapiro and his robots

REGIONAL NEWS

I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9 27

MID-ATLANTIC

Jack R Bershad, Regional ChairMona & David Zeehandelaar, Philadelphia Chapter ChairsConnie & Sam Katz, Philadelphia Chapter Vice ChairsClaire Winick, Director(215) [email protected]

The Philadelphia chapter participated in the Israel Bonds“Evening of Honor” community gathering in April. ShirleyTauber was named AABGU’s honoree.

Over 80 people attended the spring environmental symposium breakfast featuring Professors David Faiman,Avigad Vonshak and Dr. Nadav Shashar. The scientists captivated the audience at the event co-sponsored by Har Zion Temple, and later addressed Negev Forum guestsat the home of Mona and David Zeehandelaar.

A cocktail reception in June featured the installation of chapter officers. AABGU Executive Vice President Doron Krakow was the speaker. Sam Greenblatt served as installing officer and Mona and David Zeehandelaar accepted the chapter chairmanship. Also inaugurated and in attendance were new Vice Chairs Connie and Sam Katzand a complement of talented and committed chapter and region associate chairs.

Jack R Bershad, Mid-Atlantic regional chair, who accepted the role of planned giving campaign chair, hosteda luncheon meeting in June. Estate planning professionalEllen Estes presented a program to enlighten chapter officers about the many advantages of planned gifts.

Members of the region’s Tomorrow’s Leadership andNegev Forum gathered for a program on the Ethiopianexperience at a reception hosted by Pam Stein, newlyappointed to the leadership team of Tomorrow’s Leadership.

In September, a brunch will be hosted by Roslyn andCharles Epstein, featuring the installation of new chairs ofthe chapter’s Health Sciences Resource Committee.Outgoing founding chairs Dr. Alton Sutnick, and Dr. StanleyTauber of blessed memory, will be honored, and newest

members Drs. Donald Balaban and Robert Zikpin will bewelcomed to the position.

Anticipating an exceptional annual community tributedinner, the region announced that Jacob Shochat will be theNovember 15, 2009 guest of honor.

AABGU’s Austin environmental symposium speakers: Prof. David Faiman,Austin Energy’s Mark Kapner, Prof. Avigad Vonshak, Dr. Nadav Shashar,Regional Director Deborah Bergeron

Cathy Miller and Rabbi Eliseo Rozenwasser of Har Zion Temple; Prof. AvigadVonshak; Ernest Scheller, Jr., then-Philadelphia Chapter Chair; Dr. NadavShashar; Harriet Soffa, member of BGU’s Board of Governors; Prof. DavidFaiman; Regional Director Claire Winick and Dr. Steven Moskowitz of HarZion Temple at the environmental symposium

New Philadelphia Chapter Chairs David and Mona Zeehandelaar and outgoing chair Ernest Scheller, Jr. (center)

contribution to the Houston community, Israel and Ben-Gurion University. Honorary committee members Anita and Roberto Eigler, Marla and Stewart Feldman, Raquel andJacobo Goldberg, Vela G. and H. Fred Levine and Beckyand Joe Williams were among presenters on a tribute video dedicated to the Varons.

Mark your calendars for February 24, 2010 for the 9thAnnual Gourmet Kosher Dining Extravaganza.

REGIONAL NEWS

28 I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9

NEW ENGLAND

Max Schechner, PresidentMark Goldman & Ralph Kaplan, ChairsHarriet Winer, Vice President of Development(800) [email protected]

On June 17, the New England Region hosted the 26thAnnual Night at the Pops at the Boston Symphony Hall. The concert, “A Richard Rodgers Celebration,” featured the Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellows andwas conducted by KeithLockhart. The event waschaired by Lauri-JoKotzen and Shirley Spero.Funds were raised forBGU’s Open ApartmentsProgram, a unique community outreach venture. BGU studentslive rent-free in disadvan-taged neighborhoods in exchange for weeklycommunity service (see pg. 22).

As AABGU looks toimprove its outreach and increase its revenue while minimizing expenses, streamlining operations under asevere economic climate has become a priority. The con-tinuing recession and its growing impact on philanthropyhave compelled AABGU to make some adjustments,including the closure of the New England regional office.The professional infrastructure and donor development is now being conducted out of New York’s national office by Boston resident Harriet Winer, vice president of development.

AABGU acknowledges the long and successful history of the region and is enormously appreciative of the dedication and hard work of its professional staff and layleadership and remains committed to the donors and leaders of the New England Region. We are grateful foryour long-term support and look forward to a continuingpartnership.

NORTHWEST

Sonny Hurst, PresidentDaphna Noily, Director(415) [email protected]

A women’s leadership forum is being developed to bring together an elite group of San Francisco Bay-areawomen who have demonstrated a deep connection toIsrael and hold leadership roles. The inaugural SteeringCommittee meeting was hosted by Roselyne (Cissie) BGU President Rivka Carmi and Roselyne (Cissie) Swig

Top: Pops Co-Chair Lauri-Jo Kotzen with Marjorie and Max Schechner

Left: Norm and Carol Tasgal at the Pops

Bottom: Lenie and Richard Fraiman; Mel and Bea Fraiman

REGIONAL NEWS

I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9 29

SOUTHWEST

Ruth Flinkman, Campaign ChairPhilip Gomperts, Director(310) [email protected]

Lottie Marcus celebrated a special birthday in LagunaBeach in February. AABGU board member Ellen Marcus,Ellen’s husband Harvey Malyn and her daughter JenniferKaplan were accompanied by Regional Director PhilipGomperts. Lottie and husband Howard were also joinedby a number of other friends and relatives.

In July, the region hosted three Robotic Future events,which featured Dr. Amir Shapiro of BGU’s Department ofMechanical Engineering and head of its Robotics Lab.

Swig in her beautiful home. BGU President Prof. RivkaCarmi was the featured guest. Future plans include a two-day overnight retreat in Sonoma County, a symposiumdevoted to important issues specifically impacting womenand ultimately convening a series of international women’sconferences at BGU.

Jacob (Coby) and Riki Dayan dedicated a garden in memory of Jacob’s parents Eta and Eitan Dayan duringBGU’s 2009 Annual Board of Governors Meeting in May(see pg. 4). Dayan family members came from far and near,joining AABGU delegates and BGU dignitaries and faculty for the dedication.

In July, the region co-sponsored a lunch and learn program with the JCRC in San Francisco, featuring Prof. Jim Torcyzner from McGill University who spoke about thepossibilities of building a real peace between Israel and

Jordan. He specifically cited BGU’s new Israeli-JordanianAcademic Emergency Medicine Program, co-sponsored by the Jordanian Red Crescent.

Suse Smetana, a generous donor from the region, hasprovided additional funding for a new fully equippedMobile Eye Clinic which will travel to outlying regions ofthe Negev, providing eye screenings and medical care for immobile residents.

Diane Glazer with Amir and Chaya Shapiro

The Prof. Daniel E. Koshland Jr. Promenade at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research was dedicated this spring in the presence of the late scientist and benefactor’s son and daughter. Left to right: Prof. Raymond Dwek,FRS, longtime friend; Dr. Douglas Koshland; BGU President Prof. Rivka Carmi;and Phlyp Koshland

The Northwest Region and AABGU family mournthe loss of Charlotte Spitzer, who died surrounded by her immediate family in Seattle in July. Togetherwith her late husband Jack, her generous support ofthe Charlotte B. and Jack J. Spitzer Department ofSocial Work and the Spitzer-Salant Building for theDepartment of Social Work ensured the department’sestablishment and continued development, allowing itto become one of the finest academic programs inIsrael and a major player in serving the communitiesof the Negev. May her memory be a blessing.

Photo: Wolfgang Motzafi-Haller

REGIONAL NEWS

30 I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9

WASHINGTON/BALTIMORE

Edie and Art Hessel, Washington D.C. Chapter ChairsKeren M. Waranch, Director(240) [email protected]

World-renowned author, poet and BGU creative writingProfessor Etgar Keret was in Washington, D.C. in March fora presentation sponsored by the Washington D.C. JewishCommunity Center’s Nextbook author series. SeveralAABGU supporters attended this humorous and informativepresentation.

The region organized two well attended environmentalsymposia in May. The events were co-sponsored by severalother organizations to expand the community of friends andsupporters in the area.

Several VIPs attended the Washington, D.C. event, including the wife of the new ambassador to Israel, SallyOren. The attendees at the Baltimore symposium were amixture of long-time generous supporters, including Tobyand Mort Mower and several members of the Blaustein family, and new friends of the University.

The region is proud to announce the recent hire of BGUalumna Rediet Teshome as the new development assistant.An Ethiopian-Israeli, Rediet and her family emigrated to Israelfrom Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1991. After graduation fromBGU, Rediet worked at an absorption center for Ethiopianimmigrants as an education coordinator for 400 students.

While her family currently resides in Jerusalem, Redietmoved to the United States in 2004. In addition to her roleas development assistant, Rediet has been helping theregion by speaking publicly about her experiences as anEthiopian-Israeli and BGU alumna at several local syna-gogues and Hadassah groups.

Please check the Washington/Baltimore regions andevents page at www.aabgu.org to learn about news andupcoming events.

Rediet Teshome speaking about her Ethiopian-Israeli experiences

Dr. Shapiro discussed the lab’s latest research projects and presented fascinating demonstrations of the robots he designed based on animal physiology, including a snakebot and a balancing robot made from LEGOs.

Roy Zuckerberg, chair of BGU’s Board of Governors,hosted the first Robotic Future event at the prestigious LosAngeles Hillcrest Country Club. Regional Campaign ChairRuth Flinkman hosted a large group of friends at her elegant home to experience this captivating program. The third program was hosted in collaboration with theCalifornia-Israel Chamber of Commerce and the Consulatefor Israel in Los Angeles at the Luxe Summit Hotel.

The three programs were very well attended byimpressed audiences. Many attendees expressed sheerdelight and excitement to see the very promising roboticfuture, where BGU is a leader in this field.

Ellen Marcus and daughter Jennifer Kaplan

D.C. Chapter Board Member Anat Bar-Cohen with the wife of Israel’s newambassador to the U.S. Sally Oren at the May 6th environmental symposium

BEN-GURION SOCIETY

Isaac and Carol Auerbach Family Foundation, PA

Dr. Beryl Bearint, Port St. Lucie, FL

Richard and Rhoda Goldman, San Francisco, CA

Richard and Edythe Kane, Sarasota, FL

Leonard Litwin, Great Neck, NY

David and Fela Shapell Family, Beverly Hills, CA

Jacob Shochat, Mahwah, NJ

FOUNDERS

Golda and Gilbert Baker, Houston, TX

Dr. Beryl Bearint, Port St. Lucie, FL

Blanche and Leopold Bustin, Oceanside, CA

In memory of Jacob Feldman, Lafayette Hill, PA

Sandra and Steven Finkelman, Houston, Texas

Norma (Moinester) and Harry Fishbein, Tamarac, FL

Mel and Bea Fraiman, Belmont, Massachusetts

Jane and Stephen Friedman, Sugar Land, Texas

In memory of Yehudit and Aron Friedman, Brooklyn, NY

Elinore and Kermit Greene, Newton, MA

Dr. Gisela Stein Gross and Edward Gross

In honor of Lauren, Philip, Elizabeth & Benjamin Katz

Dr. Israel E. Kirsh, Chicago, IL

Maribeth and Steven Lerner, Lower Gwynedd, PA

Mary Liss and Sydney Sysskind Liss, Tarzana, CA

Dr. Milton and Mrs. Ruth S. Marks, Pawtucket, RI

Goldie Otters, Los Angeles, CA

In memory of Soli Shaio, Beirut, Lebanon

Mildred and Michel Sidorow Family Foundation, PA

Dorothy and Morris Small, Tamarac, FL

In memory of Abraham and Mary Streifer, Kingston, NY

Dr. Harold and Mrs. Barbara Richman, W. Hartford, CT

Silverton Family, Woodland Hills, CA

Lillian and Ralph L. Tallent, Duck Key, FL

Terumah Foundation, Inc.

Haya and Dr. Jacob Varon, Houston, Texas

Robin and Harold Vinegar, Bellaire, TX

Hermine M. Weinberg and Frieda Maslin, New York, NY

Ruth and Amos Wilnai, Palo Alto, CA

Maurice and Sylvia Young, Chicago, Illinois

Maxine and Jack Zarrow Family Foundation, Tulsa, OK

Mona and David Zeehandelaar, Villanova, PA

In honor of our parents – Marla & Robert Zipkin, PA

AABGU salutes our generous supporters whojoined BGU’s prestigiousBen-Gurion and Founders’Societies this year (contributions madethrough April 2009).

I M P A C T | F a l l 2 0 0 9 3 1

ISRAEL EXPERIENCEContinued from Page 7

Machane Yehuda to observe the shopping frenzy in preparation forShabbat, they enjoyed delicious noshing and the buzz of Jerusalem life.

After another delectable Israelimeal following Havdalah, there weremany teary goodbyes as everyonedeparted for their trips home orextended visits in Israel. Since return-ing to the States, participants havemaintained communication through e-mail, Facebook and regional events.

Paul Goodman, a participant fromChicago, summed up the trip: “We inthe U.S. often view Israel through theone-dimensional prism of the Mideastconflict, but a visit to Israel and theamazing people that make BGU a world-class institution opened my eyes inways that I could never have imagined.I intend to return again and again.” �

GOOD NEIGHBORSContinued from Page 21

diverse viewpoints—that was beforethe Hamas political overthrow in Gazaand it was an eye opener.”

Good Neighbors’ reach goes farbeyond its contributors. In one monthtracked, it drew about 5,000 readersfrom 87 countries. Typically between150 and 200 unique visitors read

OPEN APARTMENTSContinued from Page 23

Sarousi feels that the students’ pres-ence for 31 years has helped changethe atmosphere of the neighborhoodsand made them safer and cleaner.People tell her they appreciate thestudents and if they go home for thesummer, the residents wait for them.But mostly, success is measured onestory at a time—a boy who wanted toquit school explaining two years laterthat he changed his mind because ofsomething a BGU student said, a family getting help because a studenthelped them write a letter, a formerlydisengaged youngster inspired to wina school prize.

“We may not be changing theworld in general,” Sarousi says. “Butwe’re doing a lot of good things therethat really make a difference to a lotof people.” �

WHILE I WAS SLEEPINGContinued from Page 11

Her current research topics cover awide range: the inability to stick to achosen strategy simply because thingswork as planned, making people suspicious of their good luck; the differentiation between technical andfunctional aspects of service, showingwhy people tip waiters because oftheir smile rather than their effort. She examines the difference betweeninside and outside perspectives leading to gaps and reversals betweenchoice and advice.

“Going back to the research thatpredates this ‘life-changing event’allows a certain ‘escape’,” she says.

“It is the one anchor in my lifewhere I can be me before the injurytook over.” �

postings daily. Additionally, commentsare picked up and redistributed byother political blogs, further broaden-ing the conversation.

WHAT HAS BEEN LEARNED

“I found that the biggest problem withthe contact theory is that while peoplelearn not to stereotype the peoplethey’re talking to, in many cases theythink of them as exceptions to therule rather than being typical. So theydon’t generalize past the people theycommunicate with,” Kaynan sums up.

“But sometimes the tone softened,moving from very aggressive com-ments to ‘I hear what you’re saying,bro, but I completely disagree.’ Andone reader survey found some prettymajor changes in people’s opinionsand stereotyping—some Lebanese and Israelis became very close, forexample, and showed a high regard, a feeling of being alike.”

On the whole, Kaynan believes that almost all participants experi-enced some movement toward greaterunderstanding, if only baby steps.

“We don’t make shifts in a country,but one person at a time. It takes time to undermine deeply rootedprejudices.” �

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Educating our children…

It’s the tradition that has led to the survival and success of the Jewish people for more than 5,000 years.

Continue the legacy with a CharitableGift Annuity from AABGU.

Our CGA does more than offer youincome for life and a tax deduction; it supports exceptional education and research, as well as sustainabledevelopment of the Negev.

For CGA rates or information about other planned gifts, such as trusts andbequests, contact the regional officenearest you or call 800-962-2248.

Printed on recycled paper.

Travel to Tunisia…Taste Your Way through IsraelAs BGU celebrates its 40th anniversary, join AABGU Tour Chairs Alex Goren and Carol and HarrySaal to Tunisia and/or Israel.

Tunisia and its Jewish Communities: Past and PresentApril 29 through May 5, 2010

Sip, Savor and Celebrate: A Culinary Adventure in IsraelMay 5 through May 9, 2010

40th Anniversary Board of Governors’ MeetingMay 9 through May 12, 2010

Choose one, two or all three options. • Partake in unique North African Lag B’Omer festivities in Tunisia.

• Join a leading Israeli culinary expert who will titillate your sense of taste.

• Commemorate BGU’s special anniversary with inspiring events and outstanding celebrations.

For more information, [email protected] or call 800-962-2248,ext.112 or visit www.aabgu.org.

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IT'S A NANO WORLD