The Israel News Agency covered the historic arrival of US President George W. Bush for Israel's 60th birthday celebrations. The Israel News Agency covered the historic arrival of US President George W. Bush for Israel's 60 birthday anniversary celebrations. President George Bush attended the Facing Tomorrow Peace Conference in Jerusalem, Israel. President Bush is greeted by Israel President Shimon Peres, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other dignitaries.(less)
Facing Tomorrow, the first annual conference of Shimon Peres' presidency took place in Jerusalem, Israel, May 13-15, marking Israel's milestone 60th anniversary, at the International Convention Center.
World leaders both Jewish and non-Jewish, thinkers and doers, artists and scientists, rabbis and entrepreneurs including the next generation of leadership will take part in the Facing Tomorrow Israel 60 Birthday event.
The Facing Tomorrow Israel 60 Birthday Conference examined what the future holds for the global community, the Jewish people and the State of Israel. It also focused on Jewish and Israel contributions to humanity.
Attending Facing Tomorrow Israel 60 Birthday conference participants includeed: former British PrimeMinister Tony Blair; French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner; formerPresident of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev; former US Secretary of State, Dr.Henry Kissinger; former Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Havel; President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili; Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, Ambassadors MartinIndyk and Dennis Ross, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman and Professor Alan Dershowitz.
Business luminaries such as Google founder Sergey Brinn, Mark Zuckerman, founder of Facebook, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch and Ratan Tata, Chairman, the Tata Group also attended.
Honorary Chairs of The Israel President's Conference are: Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson. Sheldon Adelson is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer ofthe Las Vegas Sands Corporation, Miriam Adelson heads the Dr. Miriam andSheldon G. Adelson Drug Rehabilitation Clinics in both Tel Aviv and LasVegas. Yair Green, attorney-at-law, will serve as Co-Chair. Elliott Broidy,Chairman of Markstone Capital Group, is heading the Conference's Benefactor Committee.
The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI) is developing the Facing Tomorrow Israel 60 Birthday conference program. Ambassador Dennis Ross serves as the Chairman of the Board of JPPPI, Professor Yehezkel Dror is its Founding President, and Avinoam Bar-Yosef is the JPPPI's Director-General.
The Conference's steering committee is headed by Israel Maimon, former Israel Cabinet Secretary.
Eyal Arad, co-Chairman of the Euro Israel Group, will serve as spokesman.
Charley J. Levine, CEO of Lone Star Communications, is managing the conference's international media relations and public relations.
Kissinger at Israel Facing Tomorrow Conference: Timetable Needed to Combat Global Nuclear Threat
By Ora Koren, Haaretz Correspondent
In an address at the "Facing Tomorrow" presidential conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger warned that the nuclear threat facing Israel is in fact a global danger, and urged the international community to forge a specific timetable to combat it.
Kissinger spoke before an audience of world leaders and dignitaries, saying that one of the major global shifts today is the rise of fundamentalism and radicalism. Compounded by the rise in nuclear weapon development, he said, this shift represents a historic turning point.
The Nobel Prize laureate added that the Iranian nuclear threat, besides threatening to destroy Israel, is also an existential threat to the world and must be addressed internationally. He explained that as long as a nation is capable of developing nuclear weapons in defiance of the United Nations Security Council and major world powers, then nuclear capability will consequently spread into many other nations. He stressed that when groups such as the Security Council voice objection to nuclear weapons development, they must do so with specific instructions and a defined timetable, otherwise, the situation will only deteriorate.
Kissinger also addressed the issue China's economic growth and the threat it poses to the U.S. hegemony on the world economy, saying that the issue must be addressed from the vantage point of future cooperation, rather than strategic competition. The world has changed, Kissinger said, and the theories of foreign relations that were valid in the past are now also changing. He cited the cooperation between the European nations within the framework of the European Union as an example of such successful cooperation.
The former secretary of state also addressed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, saying that it required both sides to be very brave. He added that it was impossible to move forward unless both sides know that a peace agreement is not the end of the road, but rather a starting point for future processes.
It is imperative to maintain the kind of cooperation that Shimon Peres is cultivating, he said.
In conclusion, Kissinger said that it was the joint interest of many world nations to prevent the rise of fundamentalism and to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Kissinger added that another international goal was for world nations to cooperate in efforts to advance the research into renewable energy sources and the protection of the environment while raising awareness for new technologies. He said that these were the challenges of tomorrow and that Israel could play an important role in facing them.
The Israel News Agency interviews Israel Maimon, former Cabinet Secretary to Israel Prime Minister Arik Sharon and Ehud Olmert and today Chairperson of the Presidential Facing Israel Conference in Jerusalem.
US President George W. Bush and several other political and world Jewish leaders attended Facing Tomorrow.
On Israel 60th Birthday Bush Tells Iran, Syria, No Appeasement On Terrorism
Photo: Joel Leyden / Israel News Agency
By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency
Jerusalem ----- May 17, 2008 ....... US President George W. Bush will leave Saudi Arabia this morning for Egypt after having visited Israel for its 60th birthday celebrations.
Upon his historic arrival at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport, Bush stated: "Israel is our strongest friend and ally in the Middle East. Our two nations both faced great challenges when they were founded. And our two nations have both relied on the same principles to help us succeed. We built strong democracies to protect the freedoms given to us by an Almighty God."
President George W. Bush was greeted by Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israel President Shimon Peres, several other Israel dignitaries and an Israel Defense Forces 50-person strong orchestra in a colorful and warm red carpet welcome.
Bush was told by Peres: "Welcome to the new Israel: Three thousand years old, and going on sixty."
Bush spent three days in Israel visiting the Facing Tomorrow Conference, the Knesset and Masada before flying off yesterday for Saudi Arabia.
Just hours before Bush's Blue and White Air Force One arrived in Israel, a Grad type rocket produced in Iran and launched from Gaza slammed into a shopping mall in the southern Israel city of Ashkelon.
Fourteen civilians were wounded. Three people suffered severe wounds, two were moderately injured and five suffered light injuries.
Two women and a young girl were seriously wounded, Magan David Adom reported. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
Ashkelon is a port city of 120,000 people located about 10 miles north of the Gaza Strip. The Iran rocket which hit the shopping mall was only one of at least 20 Katyusha-type rockets to have rocked the city.
Israel President Shimon Peres responded by saying that it was Hamas' actions in Gaza and Hezbollah's in Lebanon which are holding up the establishment of a Palestinian state. Shimon Peres, the winner of a Nobel Peace Price, went on to remind the world that Israel could have been living in peace with a Palestine state if the Palestinians would have accepted a state back in 1948. But rather than living in peace with the Jewish population which has a historic roots going back to the first and second temples in Jerusalem, Masada and Gamla, the Palestinians chose to join invading Arab armies with the promise of taking all Jewish land.
"As Iran calls for wiping Israel off the map, inciting hate and violence against the Jewish people, those in Teheran are actually delaying the establishment of Palestine and keeping children in Gaza in poverty," said one participant at the Facing Tomorrow Conference in Jerusalem. "Iran is doing exactly the same thing that Arab leaders did with the minds of those Arabs who lived here in 1948, giving them false hope of securing all the land and keeping these people in poverty. It is not Israel which is oppressing the Palestinian people today, it is Iran and Syria."
This is President George Bush's second trip to the middle east in five months, and his second to Israel as president.
After leaving Israel yesterday, Bush visited Saudi Arabia, where he and his delegation addressed the high price of oil. Many in the President's delegation questioned leaders in Saudi Arabia about their neglect in assisting Palestinians who live in poverty while those in Saudi Arabia eat caviar, drive Rolls Royce and fly off to their homes in France, England and the Caribbean for vacations.
Jewish leaders in Israel appeared more concerned about the quality of life for those living in Gaza and the West Bank and truly advocating the establishment of Palestine in contrast to those in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria.
Many Jewish leaders at Israel 60th birthday Facing Tomorrow Peace Conference in Jerusalem, including Israel UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman, ADL Director Abe Foxman, Sir Ronald Cohen and advertising giant Maurice Levy stated that Israel is ready to assist in investing in a state named Palestine. But that any investment in a future entity called Palestine could only be realized when terror organizations such as Iran backed Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah which call for Israel's total destruction, lay down their weapons.
"As Iran calls for wiping Israel off the map, inciting hate and violence against the Jewish people, those in Teheran are actually delaying the establishment of Palestine and keeping children in Gaza in poverty," said one participant to Facing Tomorrow Conference. "Iran is doing exactly the same thing that Arab leaders did with the minds of those Arabs who lived here in 1948, giving them false hope of securing all the land and keeping these people in poverty. It is not Israel which is oppressing the Palestinian people today, it is Iran and Syria."
George Bush used his interviews in both Israel and Saudi Arabia to criticize Hamas which controls Gaza and opposes recognition of Israel as a country.
"Their vision is to destroy Israel," Bush told Israel reporters. "How about a vision that says we want to coexist with Israel so we can raise our children in peace? Now, I'm sure, people say, 'Bush, oh man, he sounds hopelessly idealistic.' But the truth of the matter is, in order for peace to be secure, it's that kind of idealism that has got to prevail."
In his speech to the Knesset, Bush spoke about his visit to Masada and repeated the Israel pledge, saying, "Masada shall never fall again."
At the same time President George W. Bush predicted that Israel's 120th birthday would find it alongside a Palestinian state and in an all-democratic neighborhood free of today's oppression, restrictions on freedom and extremist Muslim movements.
During a speech to the Knesset, the Israel parliament, Bush limited his mention of Palestinians to just one sentence. "The Palestinian people will have the homeland they have long dreamed of and deserved, a democratic state that is governed by law, and respects human rights, and rejects terror," he said.
The President stated his opposition to negotiating with “terrorists and radicals,” and, invoking Nazi Germany, rejecting “the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”
Shortly after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, then Israel Prime Minister Arik Sharon warned the United States not to "appease the Arabs at Israel's expense." Sharon made reference to the catastrophic consequences of European democracies appeasing Hitler prior to World War II, specifically citing the Munich Pact of 1938 which ceded Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland to Germany: ''Don't repeat the terrible mistakes of 1938, when the enlightened democracies in Europe decided to sacrifice Czechoslovakia for a comfortable, temporary solution. Israel will not be Czechoslovakia.''
Bush began his speech declaring with a broad and warm smile:"Yom Atzmaut Sameach," or "Happy Independence Day." President Bush denounced anti-Semitism "in all forms," and stated that "Israel has a right to defend itself".
In reaction to the speech, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said: "Bush's recognition of Palestine as the national homeland for the Jews is a very dangerous act of discrimination and racism, obliterating the right of return for Palestinians and establishing a genocide at the expense of Palestinian rights." He added: "We want to tell Bush, Israel is not going to survive another 60 years. Israel's end is drawing closer, and it will take less than 60 years to achieve it."
"Some people suggest that if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away," said Bush. "This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of our enemies, and America rejects it utterly. Israel's population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America stands with you."
Bush's trip to Egypt follows a one-day visit to Riyadh, where he met King Abdullah and secured a promise of a Saudi Arabia increase in oil output in response to his repeated appeals for help in easing record world oil prices
President Bush will meet Egypt President Hosni Mubarak and Afghan President Hamid Karzai as well as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas today. Bush will meet with Jordan King Abdullah, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Iraq officials on Sunday at an international economic forum.
The above text was edited and SEO optimized for the Internet by Joel Leyden.
Joel Leyden of the Israel News Agency interviews Abe Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) at the Israel 60th birthday Facing Tomorrow Conference in Jerusalem, Israel. Facing Tomorrow was coordinated by Israel President Shimon Peres and attended by Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, US President George W. Bush, dozens of world leaders and respected dignitaries in the Jewish world.
Joel Leyden of the Israel News Agency interviews Maurice Levy, Chairman and CEO of the Publicis Advertising and PR Group. Levy was a speaker at the 60th Israel birthday Presidential Facing Tomorrow Conference in Jerusalem. Facing Tomorrow was coordinated by Israel President Shimon Peres and attended by Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, US President George W. Bush, dozens of world leaders and respected dignitaries in the Jewish world.
Levy speaks about Israel's PR and discusses solutions for improving Israel's global image.
The Israel News Agency covered the historic arrival of US President George W. Bush for Israel's 60th birthday anniversary celebrations and the Shimon Peres Facing Tomorrow Conference in Jerusalem, Israel. President Bush is greeted by Israel President Shimon Peres, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other dignitaries.
80 U.S. Jews to join President Bush in Israel for Facing Tomorrow Conference
US President Bush will be joined by more than 80 American Jewish friends, donors and leaders during the Facing Tomorrow Conference marking Israel's 60th anniversary.
Bush departs Tuesday for a three-day visit to Israel. The visit will include receptions, tours of historical sites and a speech to the Knesset.
Jewish donors to Bush's two presidential campaigns comprise about two thirds of the list. Others include Jewish politicians, leaders of major U.S. Jewish groups and longtime friends.
Included in the delegation are Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino magnate who is the sixth richest man in the world, a top philanthropist for Jewish causes and a major donor to the Republican Party; Howard Friedman, the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee; Gov. Linda Lingle, the Republican governor of Hawaii; Ronald Lauder, the World Jewish Congress president; June Walker, the chairwoman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; and Matt Brooks, the director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
Hours before the arrival of US President George W. Bush, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday evening that "real progress" has been achieved in the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, and that "understandings and agreements have been reached on important matters, although not on all issues."
Israel President Shimon Peres opens the Facing Tomorrow conference in Jerusalem, Tuesday. Photo: GPO
Speaking at the gala opening of the presidential Facing Tomorrow conference in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary in Jerusalem, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert termed the discussions with the PA "highly serious and significant."
"There is some real progress, and some important understandings have been reached in important areas, though not in all areas," he said.
This was the first time, diplomatic officials said, that the prime minister had publicly characterized the talks in such an upbeat fashion.
Last week, after Olmert met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, it was Olmert's spokesmen - not the prime minister himself - who said the talks were progressing significantly, leading some to charge that the Prime Minister's Office was merely trying to deflect attention from the Talansky affair with positive diplomatic news.
Olmert's assessment Tuesday came the same day Quartet envoy Tony Blair unveiled a package of measures to allow Palestinians greater movement in the West Bank and help the Palestinian economy grow in a way that he said would be consistent with Israeli security. Among the measures are the removal of four checkpoints, the upgrade of seven others, and the relocation of another to a less intrusive position.
President Shimon Peres speaks to the press at the opening of the Tomorrow Presidential Conference at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said both Olmert's positive assessment and Blair's announcement were timed for Bush's visit, and were an attempt to show progress and momentum in the diplomatic process.
The officials said the Americans had originally wanted some kind of memorandum of understanding spelling out what had been agreed upon to be signed between the PA and Israel during Bush's two-day visit, but that this did not pan out.
Although Bush's visit will be largely ceremonial, including an address to the Knesset, participation in the presidential conference and a trip to Massada, he will also be spending a great deal of time with Olmert, during which time the diplomatic process with the Palestinians is expected to loom large.
Olmert is scheduled to meet Bush shortly after his arrival on Wednesday, accompany him to Massada on Thursday morning and dine with him on Thursday night. Diplomatic officials said that in addition to the Palestinian track, all the other major issues now on the agenda - Iran, Syria and Lebanon - would be discussed.
During his speech at the Facing Tomorrow conference on Tuesday night, Olmert said he hoped an agreement would be reached that would be gradually implemented and linked to the road map peace plan.
"That agreement will ensure the future of Israel as a Jewish state, with the full backing of the US and the international community," he said, adding that it would win acceptance of the Arab world.
"A peace agreement with other Arab countries is also very important to our future," Olmert said, in a possible reference to Syria. "It is obvious that to open a promising horizon for Israel's tomorrow, we have to make all efforts to moderate, and also to dismantle and remove, the grave security threats clouding our skies."
Blair, meanwhile, said that the steps Israel and the PA agreed upon could begin to change the reality on the ground, something he said was critical in giving "credibility" to the diplomatic process.
Blair said the four checkpoints slated for removal were the Kvasim checkpoint and Halhoul bridge roadblock, both near Hebron, the container checkpoint south of Ma'aleh Adumim, and the Shavei Shomron checkpoint in Samaria. The checkpoint by Beit El is to be relocated.
The first of the checkpoints is to be removed this week, and the others over the next few weeks. Blair said these changes would "significantly free up" north-south traffic in the West Bank, as well as traffic to the east. He pointed out that at this point, the freeing-up of traffic would not be westward, in the direction of the Green Line.
Blair said the changes would be done in a phased manner, and that it was an "indication of change I hope will come."
"For Palestinian statehood to be possible in the eyes of Palestinians, there must be hope that the occupation will, over time, be lifted," Blair said. "For Palestinian statehood to be possible in the eyes of Israelis, there must be hope, over time, that the security of Israel will be improved and not harmed by the way the Palestinians run their territory."
This package, which Blair hammered out in negotiations that extended over weeks and continued until Tuesday morning, was the first tangible result of his efforts since being appointed the Quartet's envoy in June. Blair is scheduled to meet with Bush on Thursday.
Blair, at a press conference at his headquarters in the capital's American Colony Hotel, said that the centerpiece of the package was a 360-sq. km. area in and around Jenin - a land mass he said was larger than the Gaza Strip - where the Palestinians were to be given increased security authority and where a number of economic and social projects would begin. Among the projects slated for the area is a German-funded industrial park.
He said that this area would be a "pilot," and if the formula worked there, it could be reproduced elsewhere.
In addition, Blair said Israel had agreed to let the Palestinians develop certain parts of Area C, the area that, under the Oslo Accords, comprises some 60 percent of the West Bank, but for which Israel retains some administrative and all security responsibility.
"It has been a long-standing grievance felt by Palestinians that they have been unable to improve or develop Area C," Blair said. He added that it was extremely important the Palestinians get a chance to develop the Jordan Valley.
Blair's plan was panned by Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. He said he opposed the removal of the checkpoints, which had been placed in strategically sensitive areas where more security was needed.
These checkpoints were put up after numerous shooting attacks by Palestinians against Israelis civilians and soldiers in Judea and Samaria, he said.
Israel President Shimon Peres opens the "Facing Tomorrow" conference in Jerusalem, Tuesday. Photo: GPO
Dayan accused the government of bowing to international pressure at the expense of Israelis' lives. In a letter he wrote last week to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Dayan said that any diplomatic steps had to bear in mind the safety of the more than 270,000 Israelis who lived in Judea and Samaria.
"We won't agree to any measure that endangers lives," Dayan wrote.
All journalists wishing to cover the Facing Tomorrow Conference in Jerusalem, Israel must have valid and current press cards issued by the Government Press Office.
Due to a lack of physical space, journalists may be denied access to events. Charley Levine, Facing Tomorrow Conference spokesperson, advises all journalists to arrive early at the events to insure entry.
The Jerusalem, Israel police department has completed its preparations for the "Facing Tomorrow" conference opening in the capital today, under the auspices of Israel President Shimon Peres. Dozens of heads of state and former and current world leaders will attend the three-day conference, including U.S. President George W. Bush, who is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.
Some 14,000 police officers will provide security for the high-level delegations coming to Facing Tomorrow.
Jerusalem police yesterday published a list of roads that will be closed off intermittently as the various delegations make their way through the city. Police officials promised that the movements of some 30 heads of state and world leaders would not interfere with traffic in Jerusalem, since roads will be closed for only a brief time while the VIPs' motorcades pass, with a police escort to clear a path.
However, major traffic disruptions are expected to snarl Jerusalem when Bush arrives tomorrow. Roads around Givat Ram will be closed to traffic at 10 A.M. Bush is scheduled to land at 11:30 A.M. at a helipad constructed for the purpose at the Givat Ram stadium. His motorcade will set out for the King David Hotel at 11:55 A.M, traveling along Ruppin Street, to Ramban Street, Agron Street, and from there to the hotel.
Later in the day, traffic will be barred along the route leading from the hotel to the President's Residence and the prime minister's official residence nearby, where Bush is scheduled to pay an early-afternoon visit.
Any vehicles parked along the president's motorcade route will be towed to the Teddy Stadium parking lot.
Bush will be accompanied on his two-day visit by his wife, Laura. The first lady will tour Jerusalem, but her schedule has not been finalized. As of now, she is expected to visit the Western Wall tunnel and a facility caring for children.
Police yesterday recommended using only public transportation this week.
Updated information about street closures can be obtained by calling the police hotline number 1-700-50-20-30, or visiting the police Internet site www.police.gov.il.
Jerusalem, Israel went on high alert ahead of the visit by US President Bush and other international dignitaries.
Israel police deployed 8,000 personnel in the capital Tuesday and began redirecting traffic away from the city center as part of a "C" security alert, one level below that declared for emergency situations.
The measures are in preparation for the international "Facing Tomorrow" conference, which is being held in Jerusalem between Tuesday and Thursday in honor of Israel's 60th Independence Day and under the auspices of President Shimon Peres.
President George W. Bush, the most distinguished guest, arrives on Wednesday. Also attending will be dozens of other heads of state, entertainment figures and leaders in the fields of communications and technology.
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."
- Albert Einstein
From SHIMON PERES President of Israel
Dear Participants,
We are gathered in Jerusalem to think together about ‘Tomorrow’. We wish for a better tomorrow for Israel, the Jewish people and the world. We think about tomorrow not passively - but with imagination, vision, and in no small measure - chutzpah. We are in need of this kind of presumptuous and non-conformist thinking, the kind that seeks to shape the future.
Across the millennia, the exhortations of the prophets of Israel have echoed in our hearts. The prophets envisioned a future of humane peace and social justice. Through their fervent faith, they encouraged us to shape a better tomorrow. The prophets have instilled in us - and the whole world - great inspiration, and taught us to rise up against evil and to never accept wrongdoing. They have also given the Jewish people an impatient temperament, a disinclination to rest on its laurels or settle for what is. They have given us the drive to change and strive for a better, more just future.
The history of the Jewish people oscillates between acceptance and rebellion - between the tragedy of a helpless people at the mercy of a cruel fate and the resurgence of that same people to take control of its fate and shape for itself the tomorrow it once only dreamt about.
The establishment of the State of Israel after two millennia of exile is a remarkable expression of the weaving of history by humans. This chutzpah - of the refusal to accept things as they are - has its roots to the early dawn of the Jewish people. More than three thousand years passed between the time of Moses and that of Herzl, but in those two gigantic crossroads on the path of the Jewish journey through history we find the same people - a people that has taken control of its fate to emerge from slavery to freedom, and shape its national vision and human mission.
These enormous turns of history are made by humans. They teach us the extent to which all things are foreseen; yet the choice is given. Tomorrow does not await us locked and pre-determined. Tomorrow calls upon us to shape it. It presents us with empty pages and invites us to write on them the histories of tomorrow.
The future awaits our decisions, our inventions, our dreams and our imagination. Facing Tomorrow will look closely at the trends and developments that are mapping the future, and serve as an incubator for some selected proactive responses. Participants will be charged with examining, confronting, and responding to three intertwining futures: the global tomorrow, the Jewish tomorrow, and the Israeli tomorrow.
Each “tomorrow” - Jewish, Israeli, and world - will be examined through a set of three critical lenses: The leadership necessary to navigate the challenges ahead, the values that are meant to guide our journey, and the creativity required to embrace the new and keep pace with a rapidly changing world. We wish for a conference that not only ‘talks’ but also drives action. We seek to encourage practical initiatives intended to positively shape our future.
In honor of the Conference, gathered in Jerusalem is a unique group of people: leaders who hail from a wide variety of fields and courses: policy, science, economics, culture, art, religion and thought. These leaders are unlike each other but they share a common trait - they are determined to shape tomorrow. They are not content to settle for things as they are. They possess the courage to create the new.
If the role of historians is to explain how yesterday was shaped, our challenge is to show the path to shaping tomorrow. We must extend our understanding of the trends that will influence the face of tomorrow. We must be humble but courageous: Humble - to accept that not all trends can be shaped and changed and that sometimes our only choice is to be well-prepared; Courageous - to insist that where change is possible, we should act, steer, innovate and make the difference between what could be to what should be.
In all my years, I have been party to many dreams. The ones that became reality had one thing in common: they were all blessed with the proper mix of imagination, will, and compassion. I am quite sure that all three of these very human qualities will be abundantly evident at this conference, and will afford it the intellectual fertility, curiosity, and enthusiasm any meaningful consideration of tomorrow requires.
With very best regards, Shimon Peres, President of Israel
Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Honorary Chairs President’s Conference 2008
Dear Participants, We are pleased and honored to welcome you to Facing Tomorrow, a conference of landmark significance.
While we join together here, in Israel’s eternal capital, our beloved City of Jerusalem, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence, the occasion also serves as an appropriate time to contemplate and confront the many challenges facing our people, our homeland, and the world we share.
Facing Tomorrow provides the perfect venue for the best and brightest in such fields as academia, science, economics, religion and government to come together to discuss the important issues facing us as we look to future anniversaries and future generations.
Your challenge will require a comprehensive examination of many complicated issues. No question is too insignificant to be asked or too small to be ignored. You will need to be frank and open and challenge each other, as well as the status quo to be truly successful. If any group of people can accomplish such an ambitious task, it is certainly the formidable group of participants who have assembled for this conference. You have our utmost confidence, and we are certain you will make great strides during this time together. Good luck, and thank you so much for your participation in this important conference.
Sincerely, Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Honorary Chairs, President’s Conference 2008
DENNIS ROSS Chairman, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council Jewish People Policy Planning Institute
Dear Participants,
On behalf of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, the professional body responsible for organizing the content of the conference and developing its findings, I would like to welcome you to Jerusalem. The next few days will provide much food for thought as we contemplate the main theme and challenges of Facing Tomorrow, the title of the conference.
I am particularly grateful to those who were first assembled last summer and whose ideas and suggestions have done so much to shape the JPPPI’s preparation of this very special convocation. As we gather at a time of Israel’s 60th anniversary, we also have President Shimon Peres’ charge very much in mind: concentrate our energies more on addressing the future than the past.
Over the next few days, we will be discussing an extraordinary array of challenges and opportunities that confront the Jewish people, the State of Israel, and the international community and its ongoing development. For us, the measure of this conference will be the ideas it generates that can, over time, be translated into creating new realities.
Sincerely, Dennis Ross, Chairman Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council Jewish People Policy Planning Institute
ISRAEL MAIMON Chairman, President’s Conference Steering Committee 2008
Dear Participants,
Welcome to Jerusalem.
The President of the State of Israel, Mr. Shimon Peres, has charged me with a task I felt privileged to perform: to lead a team of wonderful people dedicated to assisting him in the realization of yet another dream - organizing the Conference Facing Tomorrow in Jerusalem.
The conference is multifaceted and thus represents the myriad challenges facing Israel, the Jewish people and the world in general on the exciting path towards the future. We tried to structure the conference in a manner that would allow participants to take their own course of exploration and interaction with the fields which most appeal to them.
You will find among conference participants leading figures in all walks of life, including many young people. One of the primary aims of the conference, and one which I care about in particular, is bringing the younger generation into the discussion on our future. After all, these extraordinary young men and women are our future leaders and it will not be long before they lead their nations, their people and the world into the realm of tomorrow.
My years as Government Secretary have brought me into the fold of some of the most consequential issues facing Israel and the Jewish people. I have learned how much responsibility each of us shoulders for the future of our country and our people. I am convinced that the President’s Conference will serve as testament to this responsibility and will contribute to the prosperity of the State of Israel and the Jewish people as part of the world community.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the contributors whose generosity, kindness and love of Israel and of the Jewish people have allowed this conference to become a reality. I would also like to thank all my colleagues and partners in organizing the President’s Conference, who have done their utmost to make sure the conference is a success. I wish us all a fruitful and challenging conference.
Sincerely, Adv. Israel Maimon, Chairman President’s Conference Steering Committee 2008
PLENARY SESSION: PRESIDENTS DISCUSSING TOMORROW EXHIBITION HALL 16:30 - 18:00 TUES MAY 13, 2008
The rapid pace of globalization has increased interdependency among our world’s inhabitants. Modern communications and the Internet have reduced geographical distance to nanoseconds. The world is becoming a global village; yet nation states strive to maintain their independence and individual identity. Is the global tomorrow a scene of ever-increasing cooperation or ever-deepening conflict? What national and global future is envisioned in different parts of the world? The presidents who have come to the conference represent a wide variety of continents, peoples and cultures. In this session, they will present their visions for tomorrow.
With the participation of the President of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres and moderated by Jacques Attali, President, PlaNet Finance.
SCHEDULE
18:00 - Reception and Gala Dinner (Entrance Hall). 19:45 - Opening Event: Towards Tomorrow (Ussishkin Hall). The opening event is a tribute to the vision and achievements of the state of Israel and the Jewish people in shaping the Israeli, the Jewish and the global tomorrow over the past 60 years. The event will also represent the enduring commitment of Israel and of the Jewish people to continuously give of themselves, their values and their innovation.
SPEAKERS Shimon Peres , President of the State of Israel Ehud Olmert , Prime Minister of Israel Elie Wiesel , Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Greetings: Uri Lupolianski , Mayor of Jerusalem
The prophets of Israel have taught us to rise up against evil and never countenance wrongdoing. They have given us the drive to make a difference and strive for a better, more just future. They have inspired us and set us on our mission - to live our lives with purpose, to live our lives facing tomorrow. This event is dedicated to the vision of tomorrow and the wondrous people blessed with the unrelenting urge to break conventional norms and the courage to create something new. These are people who by sheer force of their thought, innovation and imagination carry us - Israel, the Jewish people and the whole world - into fascinating new realms, into a better tomorrow. The opening event is about the visionaries who have created, and still create, a better world: a world of breakthroughs, ideas, innovations, perseverance and faith - faith in the notion that one can influence reality and bring about a better future. This belief has always been ingrained in the Jewish people.
USSISHKIN HALL 19:45 - 21:30 TUES MAY 13, 2008
SPEAKERS MORNING PLENARY SESSION: FACING TOMORROW NOON PLENARY SESSION (I): TOMORROW THROUGH THE EYES OF NOBEL LAUREATES Moderator: Dennis Ross, Chairman of the Board and the Professional Guiding Council, Jewish People Policy Planning Institute Bernard-Henry Levi, French Public Intellectual and Philosopher Abby Joseph Cohen , Senior Investment Strategist, Goldman Sachs Henry Kissinger , Former U.S. Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Amos Oz, Writer Participation of Nobel laureates from all around the world has been made possible through the generosity of Mr. Daniel Abrahams.
USSISHKIN HALL 08:45 - 10:15 WED MAY 14, 2008 TEDDY HALL 12:30 - 14:30 WED MAY 14, 2008
Throughout the President’s Conference we will explore the trends that are shaping tomorrow and initiatives meant to affect it. Discussions will revolve around three mutually reinforcing spheres: the “Global Tomorrow”, the “Jewish Tomorrow” and the “Israeli Tomorrow”. This session will provide an overview of these three central conference elements.
The Jewish people has been blessed with many Nobel laureates. In fact, one in five laureates is Jewish. An impressive representation of this distinguished group is here with us at the President’s Conference. We have asked the laureates to present us with their views on the greatest challenges humanity faces on the road leading to a better tomorrow. NOON PLENARY SESSION (II): GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON TOMORROW - A EXHIBITION HALL 12:30 - 14:30 WED MAY 14, 2008 SCHEDULE SPEAKERS A SPECIAL EVENT: SIXTY YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP - ISRAEL AND THE U.S.A
18:30 - Reception and Gala Dinner (Main Lobby). 20:00 - Sixty Years of Friendship: Israel and the U.S.A (Ussishkin Hall). This Event will pay tribute to the 60-year history of the wonderful friendship between Israel and the U.S.A, with the participation of various artists and musicians. George W. Bush, President of the United States of America Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel USSISHKIN HALL 20:00 - 21:30 WED MAY 14, 2008
This is the story of a unique friendship between two nations, bound by shared values and traditions. Throughout Israel’s 60 years of existence, from the eve of independence to the present day, the U.S.A has stood by Israel’s side in every respect. The foundation for this unshakeable alliance may not be readily apparent to an outside observer. After all, one nation is a superpower - the other a small country. They are located on different continents and their peoples speak different languages. One was founded through the visionary force of idealists who strove to create a just and worthy form of government in a new world, while the other represents the age old desire of an ancient people to return to its historic homeland. Yet despite these palpable differences, when Israelis and Americans look at one another, they see something of themselves on the other side.
Former and current heads of state will share their views of the challenges facing their countries and the world on the path to a better tomorrow.
SPEAKERS MORNING PLENARY SESSION: THE REVOLUTION OF THE INTERNET AND THE NEW MEDIA
Moderator: Yossi Vardi, Internet Entrepreneur and Investor Sergey Brin, Co-Founder and President, Technology, Google Inc. Maurice Levy, Chairman and CEO of the Management Board, Publicis Groupe Rupert Keith Murdoch, Chairman and CEO, News Corporation Terry Semel, Chairman and CEO, Windsor Media
USSISHKIN HALL 08:45 - 10:15 THU MAY 15, 2008 The Internet and the new media influence our lives in many respects. With a hand on the mouse - every Internet user is in charge. They are free to go on fascinating voyages, make discoveries and even create new worlds. The social, cultural, psychological, political and economic implications of this age of the Internet and the new media are taking form before our very eyes. Tomorrow’s society is dependent on the Internet and mass-communications, and guided by them. Where is it all going? How will future developments in this field further affect our lives? Are there perils along with the blessings? SPEAKERS NOON PLENARY SESSION (I): PATH BREAKING LEADERSHIP Moderator: Shai Agassi, Founder and CEO, Project Better Place Sanjaasuren Oyun, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mongolia Leslie H. Wexner, Chairman and CEO of Limited Brands; Chairman of The Wexner Foundation
TEDDY HALL 12:30 - 14:30 THU MAY 15, 2008 Conference participants include leaders and pioneers from various fields: statesmanship, science, economics, culture, religion, and philosophy. All these leaders share one particular tendency - they are all bent on shaping tomorrow. They are characterized by an urge to challenge the status quo; they have the courage to create the new. In this session we will listen to several path breakers who have made a difference or are in the process of making it.
Moderator: Haim Yavin Ehud Barak , Deputy PM and Minister of Defense Tzippi Livni , Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Eli Yishai, Deputy PM and Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Benjamin Netanyahu, Leader of the Opposition USSISHKIN HALL 17:00 - 18:30 THU MAY 15, 2008 Key Israeli leaders will present their vision for the future of Israel. What are the practical scenarios we can and should aim for? What are the obstacles we should expect, and how are we to overcome them?
NOON PLENARY SESSION (II): GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON TOMORROW - B EXHIBITIONS HALL 12:30 - 14:30 THU MAY 15, 2008 Former and current heads of state will share their views of the challenges facing their countries and the world on the path to a better tomorrow. Closing Remarks: Israel Maimon, Chairman, President’s Conference Steering Committee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Acknowledgments: Zeev Bielski, Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization Conference Conclusion: Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel
WRESTLING WITH CREATION Modern medicine makes use of stem cells as building blocks for the renewal of damaged tissue. This breakthrough is already applied to the treatment of neurological degenerative diseases as well as to renew insulin manufacturing and cardiac tissues. Scientists wish to employ stem cells for the purpose of healing and life extension, but will they also allow cloning peculiar creatures or altering the very nature of existing ones? Where are developments in stem cell technology and the medical mastery of life’s “prescriptions” taking us? How does one balance revolutionary cell therapy with its ethical implications?
Moderator: Michel Revel - Professor, Weizmann Institute of Science; Co-founder of Interpharm, producer of the Interferon medication; Chairman, Bioethics Advisory Committee of the Israel Academy of Science; Member, International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO; Recipient of The Israel Prize for medical research and the Michael Landau Prize for Biotechnology.
Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor - Professor, Director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Rambam Health Care Campus; Head of the Stem Cell Center of the Faculty of Medicine, Technion; President, Israel Stem Cell Society; Recipient of the Michael Landau Biotechnology Award for scientific achievements. Jonathan Leor - Professor, Director, Tel Aviv University’s Neufeld Cardiac Research Institute in Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel; Specialist in heart attack treatment, in particular cardiac regeneration, cell transplant, tissue engineering and genetic therapy.
PARTICIPANTS Ben Reubinoff - Professor, Director, Hadassah Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Center; Director, Department of Gynecology and The Goldyne Savad Institute of Gene Therapy, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem. Shimon Slavin - Professor, founder of the first center for bone marrow transplants in Israel; Advised and assisted in the establishment of bone marrow transplant centers around the world; Founder, International Center for Cellular Therapy in Tel Aviv. Evan Snyder - Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School; Director of the Stem Cells and Regeneration Program, Burnham Institute for Medical Research. Irving Weissman - Professor, Director, Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine; Director, the Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center; Member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of Amgen, DNAX, and T-Cell Science; Co-founder of SyStemix, StemCells, and Celtrans (now Cellerant). OREN 1 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 10:45
PARTICIPANTS IS JEWISH CIVILIZATION THRIVING OR DECLINING? Thinking of Judaism as a civilization affords a fascinating historical perspective. The Jewish people represent a great and rich civilization. Yet many civilizations have risen and fallen over the course of history. Are their stories a cautionary tale for contemporary Jewish life? Is it possible to draw lessons from the histories of vanished cultures in order to avoid their fate and ensure the well being and prosperity of the Jewish people in years to come? Moderator: Sami Friedrich - Chairman of Shaldor Strategy Consulting; Member, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI. Yehezkel Dror - Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Hebrew University; Founding President of JPPPI; Member of the Club of Rome; Member of the Winograd Commission, which investigated the Second Lebanon War of 2006; World-renowned expert on governance, strategy and policy planning. Shmuel Eisenstadt - Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Hebrew University and Senior Fellow at the Van Leer Institute; Sociologist and social and political thinker; Recipient of the Israel, Holberg, Planck and Rothschild Prizes. Judit Liwerant - Professor, Head of Graduate School of Political and Social Science, the National University of Mexico; Member, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI. Betty Rojtman - Professor, Katherine Cornell Chair of Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Published several books on French literature and Jewish hermeneutics. Shalom Solomon Wald - Doctor, Senior fellow at the JPPPI and author of a major study on the Jewish people’s relationship with China; former senior staff member at the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry of the OECD and head of OECD’s Biotechnology Unit.
OREN 2 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 10:45
PARTICIPANTS Moderator: Hagai Golan - Chief Editor, Financial Paper Globes. Abby Joseph Cohen - Senior Investment Strategist and President, Global Markets Institute, Goldman Sachs. Jacob A. Frenkel - Professor, Chairman and CEO of the Group of Thirty, and Vice-Chairman of AIG; Former Governor of the Bank of Israel; Former Professor of Economics, University of Chicago and Tel-Aviv University; Recipient of the Israel Prize for Economics. Eric Maskin - Co-winner, along with Prof. Leonid Hurwicz and Prof. Roger Myerson, of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences; Professor of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University. Dominique Strauss-Kahn - Professor for Economics; Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; formerly, Finance and Economics Minister of France. Cheng Xiwei - Former Deputy Chairman of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China; one of the leading figures formulating the Chinese economic policies, as well as policies in the field of science and technology.
THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD ECONOMY Recent years have seen the engulfing trends of globalization and economic integration yield an extraordinary rise in private wealth, along with staggering gaps in income between rich and poor. What kind of global economy would result from the confluence of present trends such as the rise of Asian powers, potential economic crisis in the U.S., rising oil prices, growing awareness of global warming and looming geopolitical crises? Who will be tomorrow’s economic leaders and what principles ought to guide them?
OREN 3 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 10:45 THE CHALLENGE OF JEWISH-ARAB COEXISTENCE IN ISRAEL Israel's declaration of independence represents Israel's commitment to democratic values of political and social equality. However, the practical application of these principles is an enduring challenge for Israeli society - the challenge of coexistence as Israelis. How can we shape an Israeli tomorrow in which Jewish and Arab citizens live together in cooperation and mutual respect?
OREN 4 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 10:45 PARTICIPANTS Moderator: Nazir Majali - Writer and journalist, daily columnist for the London based Asharq Alawsat Newspaper; commentator for several Arab news channels; publicist with Israeli daily paper Haaretz; Member of the editorial board of Eretz Acheret magazine. Amal El-Sana - Director of AjEEC - Arab- Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation. Shawki Khatib - Mayor of Yafiah; Chairman of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee. Raleb Majadele - Israeli Minister of Culture, Science and Sport. Josie Mendelson - Personal Representative and Special Project Officer, Alan B. Slifka Foundation; former Co-Director, Hand in Hand - Center for Jewish/Arab Education in Israel; Founder and Director, Arab/Jewish Kindergarten at the Jerusalem YMCA. Yitzhak Reiter - Associate Professor of Middle Eastern studies at the Department of Political Science, Ashkelon Academic College and the MA program of Conflict Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Senior Fellow of both the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace and the jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies where he chairs projects on Jewish-Arab relations in Israel. Yona Yahav - Mayor of Haifa.
PARTICIPANTS IS THE GEOPOLITICAL ARENA NEARING A TIPPING POINT? The international system is roiling with potentially revolutionary trends such as the ascent of Asian powers, a resurgent and assertive Russia, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, international terrorism, the emergence of nonstate actors, the militancy of radical Islam, economic uncertainty and global climate change. How do we face a geopolitical arena that is becoming increasingly complicated? Can the international system - possibly teetering on the verge of collapse - be stabilized? Moderator: Elizabeth Weymouth - Journalist and Senior Editor, Newsweek Magazine. Shlomo Avineri - Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Hebrew University; Former Director-General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry; Recipient of the Israel Prize for Political Science; Historian and theoretician, world-renowned expert on the political thought of Marx and Hegel. Stuart Eizenstadt - Former White House Chief Domestic Policy Adviser; Former U.S. Undersecretary of State and Undersecretary of Commerce; Former U.S. ambassador to the EU; Partner at Covington & Burling. SCHWARTZ HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 10:45 Dominique Moïsi - Founder and Senior Adviser at IFRI (French Institute for International Relations); Editor-in-Chief of Politique Etrangere; Professor at the College of Europe - Warsaw. Dennis Ross - Former U.S. Special Middle East Coordinator; Chairman of the Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI; Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Ma Zhengang - Professor, President of China Institute of International Studies (CIIS); Former Vice-Minister of the Foreign Office of the State Council and Ambassador to the UK. PARTICIPANTS WRITERS DISCUSSING TOMORROW Distinguished writers from around the world discuss the future of creativity, the future of literature and the future in general. Moderator: Rana Werbin - Editor-in-chief of Hebrew literature at the Yedioth Books Publishing House; previously, an actor, translator, journalist and literary critic (winning the Bernstein award for literary criticism in 2005); Lectures at the Open University in Tel Aviv and has hosted her own television program on the world of Arts and Culture. Na’im Araidi - Lectures on Literature, Hebrew and Education at the Gordon College of Education; General Director of the Center for Arab Children’s Literature in Israel; received the 1990 Senate of Paris Award and a Ph.D from Bar-Ilan University for his thesis on Uri Tzvi Greenberg’s poetry. Nathan Englander - chosen by New Yorker Magazine as one of the best twenty young authors in America; currently living in New York and teaching in Columbia University; his story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges became an international bestseller and earned him a PEN/ Faulkner Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Jonathan Safran Foer - Author of the international bestseller Everything Is Illuminated, which was hailed as the Debut of the Decade, and translated into thirty five languages. The novel won numerous awards, including the Guardian First Book Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Prize; His second novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close also became an international bestseller. Judith Katzir - Award-winning author; published two collections of stories and novellas, two novels and two children’s books; currently, editor at Hakibbutz Hameuchad/Siman Kriah Publishing House and teaches creative writing. Nicole Krauss - Author of the international bestseller The History of Love which won France’s Prix du Meilleur Livre etranger and Amazon’s #1 Book of the Year, and was short-listed for the Orange, British Book Award, Medicis and Femina prizes; Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages. Erri De Luca - Best-selling author, divides his time between writing, studying and doing social work; He published his first novel Non ora, non qui at age forty; Since then, he has written more than thirty books, novels, essays and translations. This panel was organized with the kind assistance of the jerusalem International Writer’s Festival - Mishkenot Sha’ananim. ESHKOL 2 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 10:45
PARTICIPANTS WHAT DOES THE SCIENTIFIC TOMORROW HOLD IN STORE? Scientific developments influence every aspect of our lives: health, energy, economics, transportation, family life and communications. But not all scientific breakthroughs and the ensuing technological developments benefit humanity; the development of weapons of mass destruction is testimony to this bitter truth. Our era is characterized by ever increasing rates of change and development. Adapting to the new horizons science offers us is often difficult and raises complex ethical issues. What does the scientific tomorrow hold in store for us? Moderator: Susan A. Greenfield - Baroness, Peer of the British House of Lords; Scholar of the Physiology of the Brain; Author of books on the brain and human cognition. Ilan Chet - Professor at the Hebrew University; former President of the Weizmann Institute of Science; laureate of, among many others, the Israel and Wolf prizes; a world leading microbiologist specializing in pesticide reduction by using biological control of plant disease and cloning genes into plants to induce resistance. Yehuda Bronicki - Chairman and Founder, Ormat Technologies, Inc., a leading geothermal power supplier; Member of the Board of Directors, Weizmann Institute of Science. Hermona Soreq - Professor, Dean, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Hebrew University; Scholar of Genetics and Molecular Biology; Recipient of honorary titles from the Universities of Stockholm and Erlangen-Nuremberg; Recipient of the Ministry of Health, Landau Biotechnology and Teva awards. ESHKOL 3 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 10:45 PARTICIPANTS A LONGER LIFE, MORE COMPLICATED PROBLEMS
Modern medicine has extended life expectancy, with further improvements on the horizon. These developments exacerbate existing problems and raise complex new medical and social challenges: providing public health to an aging population, dealing with the failings of the body in old age, keeping aging minds keen and alert and improving learning and memory at an advanced age. While our lifespan is mostly on the rise in the West, the developing world is still struggling to provide treatments for deadly diseases and epidemics. What remedies does modern medicine provide for these challenges?
Moderator: Rafi Hofstein - Doctor, CEO of Hadasit, a company specializing in the development of drugs for the treatment of infections, primarily in cancer patients; Previously served in various executive positions in the life sciences industry and in the field of technology transfer in medical research. Ruth Arnon - Doctor, Developer of blockbuster drug Copaxone; Deputy Chairman, Israeli Academy of Science; Member, International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO; Recipient of the Israel Prize, the Rothschild Prize in Biology and the Wolf Prize in Medicine. Etienne Emile Baulieu - Professor at the Collège de France; Former President, Academie des Sciences de France; Foreign Associate, National Academy of Sciences (US); President, MAPREG Biotech Company; Recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Medical Research. Nakhle Bishara - Doctor, risk management director at the Holy Family Hospital in Nazareth; former general director of the Hospital in Nazareth; Chairman of Ibhat, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting a culture of research in society. Yuval Cherlow - Rabbi, Head of Yeshivat Ha-Hesder Petach Tikva; Co-founder of Tzohar Foundation; Member, the Israeli committee on the national list of health services; Member, the Helsinki Committee for biomedical research involving human subjects. Howard Fillit - Founding Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Aging; Professor of geriatrics, medicine and neurology, Mount Sinai-NYU Medical center; Recipient of awards and honors for achievement in research and practice in Alzheimer’s disease. Swami Avdheshanand Giri - Hindu religious leader. Hermona Soreq - Professor, Dean, the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Hebrew University; Scholar of Genetics and Molecular Biology; Recipient of honorary titles from the University of Stockholm, Erlangen-Nuremberg; Recipient of the Ministry of Health, Landau Biotechnology and Teva prizes. OREN 1 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 15:00
PARTICIPANTS JEWISH EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY: IS IT IMPORTANT? “Train a child in the way he should go”, the Book of Proverbs tells us [Proverbs (22:6)]. But that piece of advice is easier said than done. Jewish education is crucial to Jewish survival, but what should it teach and to whom? What values form the core of Jewish education, what mix of the particular and the universal? How crucial is Hebrew? Can the age of ipods, distance learning and video sharing become a golden age of Jewish education? Do Israeli schools have a role to play in global Jewish education? Once the larger questions are resolved - who will pay for Jewish education in the future and how? Moderator: Alan Hoffman - Director, Education Department, Jewish Agency; Former Director, Mandel Institute, Hebrew University; Former Director, Melton Center for jewish Education, Hebrew University. Yitzhak Devash - business entrepreneur and social activist. David Landau - member of the editorial board of Haaretz, and until recently served as editor of the paper; currently, working on a biography of Ariel Sharon. Suzanne Last Stone - Professor of Jewish Law at Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, NY; Member, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI. Scott Shay - Former Chair, Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal of UJAFederation; Author of Getting our Groove Back: How to Energize American jewry. Barry Shrage - President, Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston. Einat Wilf - Doctor, Fellow at JPPPI; Author of Back to Basics: How to Fix Israel’s Education System (at no extra cost); former foreign policy advisor to then Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
OREN 2 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 15:00 PARTICIPANTS
CAN ISRAEL’S GDP PER CAPITA JOIN THE PREMIER LEAGUE OF WORLD ECONOMIES? Israel has world-class inventors and entrepreneurs. Its economy has exhibited extraordinary dynamism and creativity even in the face of dif- ficult external and internal challenges. Can the Israeli economy make another major leap to become a world-class economy? Can its GDP per capita reach the level of the world’s wealthiest countries? Can the incredible achievements of its hi-tech sector be sustained into the future and replicated in other sectors of the economy? Moderator: David Brodet - Former Director General of the Ministry of Finance; Chair of the Board of Hadassah. Yehudit Bronicki - CEO and President of Ormat Technologies, Inc., a leading geothermal power supplier. Eli Hurvitz - Chairman and Former CEO, Teva; Former President of the Manufacturers Association of Israel; Former Chairman of Bank Leumi. Guy Rolnik - Editor of The Marker, the economic newspaper of Haaretz. Avia Spivak - Professor of Economics at Ben- Gurion University; Former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Israel; Specializes in Macroeconomics and Monetary Theory, Pensions, Economics of Uncertainty and Insurance; Senior Fellow at the Van Leer jerusalem Institute. OREN 3 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 15:00
PARTICIPANTS HOW CAN THE JEWISH PEOPLE STRENGTHEN ITS FRIENDSHIP WITH THE CHINESE GIANT
We may be on the threshold of the Asian Century and are witnessing the steady rise of China. The Chinese Giant is gaining dominance in the global economy and expanding its role in the geopolitical arena. The Jewish people and China represent two of the world’s oldest, most enduring and complex civilizations, but their histories, lacking the common bond of Biblical tradition, have rarely overlapped - for better or for worse. What does it take to build a meaningful relationship of engagement and cooperation between the Jewish people and China? Zhang Ping - Teaches Chinese at the Faculty of East-Asian Studies, Tel Aviv University; Graduate of Tel Aviv University; Translated and published Mishnaic and Talmudic texts in Chinese. Marvin Tokayer - Rabbi in Great Neck, Long Island; Former Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Japan; published several books and visits China annually to keep in touch with all major Judaic study centers. Shalom Solomon Wald - Doctor, Senior fellow at the JPPPI; Author of a major study on the Jewish people’s relationship with China; Former senior staff member at the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry of the OECD and head of OECD’s Biotechnology Unit. Fu Youde - Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies at Shandong University; Director of the University’s Center for Judaic and Interreligious Studies. Zhong Zhiqing - Associate Professor, Institute of Foreign Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing; translated and published modern Hebrew authors in Chinese.
OREN 4 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 15:00 PARTICIPANTS WHY IS THE “NEW MIDDLE EAST” NOT HERE, YET?
During the heyday of the Oslo Process some foresaw the emergence of a “New Middle East” in which conflict and mistrust would be replaced with mutual cooperation and shared economic development. However, the “New Middle East” has yet to materialize. Will the “New Middle East” be even less stable and more dangerous than its predecessor? Will it be a Middle East of violent radical Islam, a near nuclear Iran, instability in already-nuclear Pakistan, a shaky Iraq, tenuous stability of moderate Arab regimes, badly lagging economies and an insolvable Arab-Israeli conflict? Can certain policies be put in motion to yield a different future and provide a light at the end of the tunnel? Moderator: Itamar Rabinovich - Professor, renowned scholar and historian of the modern Middle East; Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. and chief negotiator with Syria; Former President of Tel Aviv University. Aharon Ze’evi Farkash - Major General (ret.), former Chief of Israeli Military Intelligence. Dore Gold - Doctor, President, jerusalem Center for Public Affairs; Former Israeli Ambassador to the UN; Former member of the Israeli negotiating team with the Palestinians; Scholar of international relations. Edward Luttwak - Doctor, Senior Advisor, Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC; Strategist, military historian and advisor to several governments and ministries of defense around the world. Steven Spiegel - Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Middle East Development (CMED), UCLA. SCHWARTZ HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 15:00
PARTICIPANTS GROOMING THE FUTURE LEADERSHIP OF ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE The challenges facing the Jewish people in Israel and around the world call for leadership of the highest order. Israel’s leaders must navigate a relatively young country, not lacking in domestic problems, through the turmoil of a dangerous region. Diaspora Jews are spread around the world in numerous communities and their leadership is confronted with complex challenges while lacking any formal authority. What is the desired profile of tomorrow’s best Jewish leaders? Is it possible to locate and groom the future leaders of Israel and the Jewish People? Moderator: Benjamin Ish-Shalom - Professor of Jewish Thought, Scholar of Jewish Philosophy; Founder and Rector of Beit Morasha College. Yehezkel Dror - Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Hebrew University; Founding President of JPPPI; Member of the Club of Rome; Member of the Winograd Commission, which investigated the Second Lebanon War of 2006; World-renowned expert on governance, strategy and policy planning. Erez Eshel - Head of the Ein Prat Academy for jewish Leadership; Co-founder of the network of secular preparatory military academies, which train Israeli youth for leadership positions in both military and civilian life; Lecturer in political philosophy. Morlie Levin - Executive Director of Hadassah; Member, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI. Shalom Saada Saar - Professor, teaches Leadership at MIT and the University of Vienna; his work focuses on developing leadership in public and business organizations; coaches executive and public officials on enhancing their leadership skills. Leslie H. Wexner - Chairman and CEO of Limited Brands; Chairman of the Wexner Foundation, a philanthropy that focuses upon the development of Jewish leadership in North America and Israel. ESHKOL 2 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 15:00 PARTICIPANTS
HOW CAN ISRAEL PRESERVE ITS POSITION OF LEADERSHIP IN THE REALM OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH? The world-class achievements of Israeli scientists are taken for granted by the Israeli public. Can we be so sure of them in the future? Does the decline in the measurable achievements of Israeli students in certain areas portend an end to Israel’s leading position in the scientific world over the next few decades? Can we put a stop to the Israeli brain drain? What other obstacles threaten the ability of Israel’s scientific community to excel? What else needs to be done so that our scientists continue to perform so well in the world league of science? Moderator: Yair Green - Senior advocate, active for many years for the promotion of academic and cultural institutions in Israel; involved with the Yeshaya Horowitz Association, which contributes significant funds for the purpose of scientific and medical research in Israel; Established the Green Foundation for Enhancement of Higher Education and Studies, which allocates scholarships to eligible students in Israel; a member of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Israeli Government Council for Higher Education and of the Boards of Directors of Ben Gurion University and the Weizmann Institute of Science; Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance. Yitzhak Apeloig - Professor, President of the Technion and Head of the Technion’s Chemistry Department; World-renowned leader in computational chemistry, organosilicon chemistry and organic chemistry. Henri Atlan - Professor Emeritus of Biophysics in Paris and Jerusalem; Director of the Human Biology Research Center and Scientist in Residence for Philosophy and Ethics of Biology at Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem; Director of Research in Philosophy of Biology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. Rivka Carmi - Professor, President, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Former Director of the Genetic Institute in the Soroka Medical University Center; Her research focused on clinical and molecular analysis of hereditary diseases in the Negev Bedouin population and includes more than 120 scientific articles in medical genetics. Maxine Fassberg - CEO, Intel Israel; Vice President of Manufacturing Technology and Production, Intel Inc.; Chemist. Roger Kornberg - Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry (2006); Professor of structural biology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Martin Perl - Nobel Prize in Physics Laureate; Former Chair of the High-Energy Physics Faculty and current Professor, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. ESHKOL 3 HALL WED MAY 14,2008 15:00
PARTICIPANTS TOMORROW’S MEDICINE Modern medicine has improved public health, though large disparities persist in the level and quality of healthcare provided in different regions of the world. The human genome project and the better understanding it afforded of the human body and the immune system has revealed the causes of a long list of diseases and provided clues for new treatments. What are the key questions on our quest for better health? Which tomorrow will modern medicine provide us? Moderator: Michael Sela - Professor, President and Former Head of Immunology Department, Weizmann Intitute of Science; world-renowned expert in immunology whose researchcontributed to the development of Copaxone, the medicine used for treatment of Multiple Sclerosis; Recipient of the Israel Prize, the Rothschild Prize and the Wolf Prize. François Gros - Professor Emeritus, College de France and the Pasteur Institute; Permanent Secretary, French Academy of Sciences; prominent researcher in molecular genetics; Recipient of many distinguished awards. Yoram Reiter - Professor, Dean, Faculty of Biology, Technion; Researcher in cancer immune therapy; Senior advisor to biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries in Israel and around the world. Howard L. Weiner - Professor in the Department of Neurology at the Brigham and Women Hospital and Harvard Medical School; Recipient of 2007 MS Society/American Academy of Neurology Jon Distal Award for his contribution to the field of immunotherapy. Yosef Yarden - Professor, Dean of Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science; Secretary of the National Council for Research and Development; Recipient of several distinguished awards, including the EMET Prize in Biochemistry and the MERIT award for the development of experimental strategies for the targeting of cancer.
OREN 1 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 17:00 PARTICIPANTS JEWISH IDENTITY: UNRAVELING OR RENEWING? We live in a time of self-defined identification, in which identity is neither automatic nor coerced. The range of multiple identities, at times complementary and at times competing, spans religion, nationality, race, gender and ideology. How does this affect the sense of belonging to the Jewish people and the sense of obligation to Jewish life, culture and history? Is Jewishness as a personal choice actually a source of strength?
Moderator: Sergio DellaPergola - Senior Fellow, JPPPI; Scholar of Jewish demography; Professor at the Harman Institute for Modern judaism, Hebrew University; Shlomo Argov Chair for Israel-Diaspora relations. Yehudah Amital - Rabbi, Founding Dean of Yeshivat Har Etzion and of the Meimad movement; Former Minister in the government of Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Eliette Abecassis - French novelist, poet and intellectual; teaches Philosophy. Rachel Fish - Ph.D student in Jewish history at Brandeis University; Jewish student activist. Joseph Kanfer - Chairman of the Board of Trustees of United jewish Communities and past Chair of UJC’s Jewish Renewal and Renaissance Pillar. Chaim I. Waxman - Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Jewish Studies, Rutgers University; Senior Fellow at JPPPI; specializes in the sociology of religion and ethnicity, with particular focus on the sociological study of Jews and Judaism. Leon Wieseltier - Literary editor of The New Republic; Author of Kaddish.
OREN 2 HALL WED MAY 14,2008 17:00 PARTICIPANTS BLUE, WHITE AND GREEN: IS A GREEN ISRAEL POSSIBLE? The early Zionists sought to re-attach the Jewish people to their land and to nature. Yet years of economic development, industrialization and failed policies have wrought great environmental damage. Israel has dressed itself in concrete and become more urbanized; its population has become highly dense and its ecological environment has deteriorated. Is a green Israel still attainable? Is it possible to reverse the damage, improve the quality of the air we breathe and clean up our water without undermining Israel’s growth? Moderator: Miriam (Miki) Haran - Doctor, Ono Academic College; Former Director General of the Israel Ministry of the Environment. Tzipi Iser - Israeli Attorney; Executive Director of Adam Teva Va-Din, an environmental advocacy group. Dov Khenin - Member of Knesset, Chairman of the Knesset’s Social-Environmental Lobby. Dani Rabinovitz - Professor, International Relations, The Porter School of Environmental Studies, Tel-Aviv University; Former Chairman of Life and Environment, the umbrella organization of Israel’s environmental groups. Yossi Rosen - Chairman of BAZAN, Oil Refineries Ltd.; Chairman of Reshet-Noga Ltd.; CEO of Ofer Ships Holdings Ltd.; Former CEO of Israel Corp. Alona Schaefer (Karo) - Israeli Attorney; CEO of Life and Environment, the umbrella organization of Israel’s environmental groups.
OREN 3 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 17:00 PARTICIPANTS FOREIGN POLICY: STRATEGIC DILEMMAS AND MORAL CONSIDERATIONS Is foreign policy the expression of cold interests and self-serving calculations, or can it reflect moral values? Are states that define themselves and their interests in terms of their commitment to justice, human rights, democracy and fair play truly guided by these values? Is there some balance to be struck between the real and the ideal? Does Israel as the Jewish state have a special commitment to follow a moral foreign policy? Moderator: David Harris - Executive Director, American jewish Committee. Gabriella Blum - Assistant Professor, Harvard Law School; Scholar of international relations and law. Irwin Cotler - Member of the Canadian Parliament; Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Canada; Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI. Alan Dershowitz - Professor, Harvard Law School; Leading American trial attorney and human rights advocate; Strong activist for Israel and Jewish issues; Author of numerous best-selling books. Efraim Halevy - Director, Shasha Center for Strategic Studies; Former Director of the Mossad; Former Chairman, National Security Council; Former Ambassador of Israel to the European Union. Václav Havel - Former President, The Czech Republic; Playwrite; Soviet-era dissident and human rights activist. Mortimer Zuckerman - Editor-in-Chief, U.S. News & World Report; Former Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American jewish Organizations. OREN 4 HALL WED MAY 14,2008 17:00
PARTICIPANTS STRONG ON PROCESS, WEAK ON RESULTS: LESSONS LEARNED FROM PEACE NEGOTIATIONS Long years of attempts at resolving the Israeli- Arab conflict afford us a unique perspective on a wide range of negotiating styles and settings: bilateral, multilateral, “back channels”, “Track II” diplomacy, international and regional conferences, special envoys and more. What relevant lessons can would-be peacemakers today draw from this history? What is the necessary blend of leadership, creativity, courage, vision and negotiating skills at the bargaining table? Moderator: Ehud Yaari - Well-known Israeli commentator and expert on Middle East issues; Senior analyst of Israel-Arab relations for Israel’s Channel 2 News. Yaacov Amidror - Major General (ret.), Vice President, Lander Institute Academic Center; former Commander of IDF Staff and Command College; former head of IDF Intelligence Analysis and Assessment; Member, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI. Martin Indyk - Director, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution; Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs. Daniel C. Kurtzer - Professor, Chair in Middle East Policy Studies, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University; former U.S ambassador to Egypt and Israel; Veteran peace negotiator. Isaac Molho - Israeli attorney; Chief Negotiator to the peace process and personal envoy under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Member, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI. Dov Weissglass - Israeli Attorney; former Director of the Prime Minister’s Office and Chief Advisor to Prime Minister Sharon; former Chairman of Bezeq.
SCHWARTZ HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 17:00 PARTICIPANTS JEWS AND MUSLIMS: IS RELIGION AT THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM OR THE HEART OF THE SOLUTION? Radical Islam threatens to turn the Israeli-Arab conflict into an existential religious struggle. For Hamas, Hizbullah, Al-Qaeda and Iranian extremists, the struggle is not for an independent Palestine living side by side with Israel, but for the elimination of the infidel Jewish presence in the heart of the Muslim world. The hostility of radical Islam to the Jews has spread beyond the Middle East to Diaspora communities. Advocates of inter-religious dialogue argue that if religion is at the heart of the problem, it should also be at the heart of the solution. Is this so? Moderator: Dov Maimon - Doctor, Fellow at JPPPI; Expert in Jewish theology and in interreligious dialogue; Former business strategic development professional. Nimer Darwish - Founder of the Islamic Movement in Israel; Spiritual leader of the southern faction of the Islamic Movement; Chairman of Adam Center for Religious Dialogue. Michael Melchior - Rabbi, Member of Knesset and Chairman of the Education, Culture and Sports Committee. Samuel Rene Sirat - Former Chief Rabbi of France; Professor Emeritus, Rashi Institute for Religious Sciences. David Rosen - Rabbi, Chairman of International Jewish Committee on Inter-religious Consultations (IJCIC); Director of Department for Inter-religious Dialogue, American jewish Committee. Emmanuel Sivan - Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Senior Fellow at JPPPI; Scholar of Islamic history and thought and of modern religious movements. Abdurrahman Wahid - Former President of Indonesia; Senior Advisor and Board Member of the Liberty for All Foundation. ESHKOL 2 HALL WED MAY 14,2008 17:00
PARTICIPANTS A JEWISH STATE: WHAT IS ITS CONTENT? WHAT IS ITS MEANING? After millennia of Jewish statelessness and 60 years of statehood, we still don’t know what a Jewish state can and should be. How ought the State of Israel’s Jewish identity be reflected in the public sphere, in matters of state and religion, in the vision that guides its leaders, in the spheres of law, social welfare policy, education, foreign policy, the commitment to Diaspora Jews and coexistence with Israel’s non-Jewish citizens? Moderator: Yaakov Neeman - Professor, Israeli Attorney; Former Minister of Finance and Justice, Government of Israel; Member, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI. Yokhi Brandes - Writer and Lecturer on the Bible; Founder of the Yediot Achronot series judaism Here and Now. Mohammad Darawshe - Director of external relations at the Abraham Fund, a foundation promoting coexistence between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens. Ruth Gavison - President, Metzilah Center for Zionist, Jewish, liberal and humanist thought; Member, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI; Member of the Winograd Commission, which investigated the Second Lebanon War of 2006; Co-author of the Gavison-Medan Covenant. Israel Harel - Former general secretary of the Yesha Settlement Council; Editor of Nekuda; Journalist, Columnist for Haaretz. John Ruskay - Doctor, Executive Vice President and CEO of UJA-Federation of New York; Member, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI. Bambi Sheleg - Founder and editor-in-chief of Eretz Acheret, a journal that explores the interrelationship of Jewish and Israeli identity and values. ESHKOL 3 HALL WED MAY 14, 2008 17:00 PARTICIPANTS EDUCATION IN ISRAEL: HOW TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM, RATHER THAN ESTABLISH ANOTHER COMMITTEE? Israel is blessed with world-class universities while Israeli high school students are falling behind in worldwide reading comprehension tests. This record falls substantially short of the legacy of the “people of the book”. If left unattended, the education crisis in Israel will wreak havoc in all fields requiring scholastic excellence. If the education system continues to produce mediocrity, the relative advantage that has sustained Israelis as the “few against the many” could evaporate. Is our next move simply to establish yet another committee? Moderator: Shay Piron - Rabbi, Co-founder of Yeshivat Hesder - Petach Tikva; member of Tzohar rabbinic organzation. Talal Alkrinawi - Mayor of Rahat. Shimshon Shoshani - Doctor of Education, CEO of Taglit; Former Director General of the Ministry of Education. Karen Tal - Principal, Bialik Rogozin Campus, Tel-Aviv. Yuli Tamir - Professor, Minister of Education, Government of Israel. Einat Wilf - Doctor, Fellow at JPPPI; Author of Back to Basics: How to Fix Israel’s Education System (at no extra cost); Former foreign policy advisor to then Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Moshe (Bogi) Ya’alon - Former IDF Chief of Staff; Senior Fellow, Shalem Center. OREN 1 HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 10:45
PARTICIPANTS HAREDI JEWS IN ISRAEL: LIVING TOGETHER WHILE LIVING APART Despites estimates suggesting that the Haredi (ultra-orthodox) society in Israel is weakening and might even disappear altogether, the community has actually grown in number and displays obvious vitality and sophistication. IS the community increasingly becoming integrated with mainstream Israeli society while maintaining its own distinctive way of life? How did this development come about and where will it lead? Will Israeli society succeed in preserving the delicate balance that allows the Haredi community to live alongside mainstream society while at the same time keeping its distance? Moderator: Dudi Zilbershlag - Haredi Advertiser, journalist and publisher; Chairman, Meir Panim; Chairman, Koah Latet. Adina Bar-Shalom - Founder of a Haredi College for Women. Yossi Beilin - Doctor, Member of Knesset. Moshe Gafni - Rabbi, Member of Knesset. Nissim Leon - Doctor, Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar-Ilan University and a researcher of Haredi society. Uri Lupolianski - Mayor of Jerusalem; Founder of Yad Sarah, an Israeli non-profit provider of services to the sick and elderly.
OREN 2 HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 10:45 PARTICIPANTS HISTORIC DECISIONS IN ISRAEL: A MATTER FOR ISRAELIS OR FOR JEWS AT LARGE? Israel considers itself the homeland of the Jewish people. Before and since its inception, it has benefited from the moral and material support of Diaspora Jews. Should this support translate to influence on Israeli decision making? Do Diaspora Jews deserve a say in Israel’s public discourse? Should they take part in key decisions made in Jerusalem which are close to their heart (such as ‘who is a Jew?’, conversion, territorial concessions, and the future of Jerusalem)? Moderator: Steve Hoffman - President of the Cleveland Federation; Former CEO of United jewish Communities; Member, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI. Pierre Besnainou - President, Fonds Social juif Unifie (FSJU); Founder and President, AMI; Former President, European Jewish Congress. Zeev Bielski - Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization. Arye Carmon - Doctor, President, The Israel Democracy Institute. Alan Dershowitz - Professor, Harvard Law School; Leading American trial attorney and human rights advocate; Strong activist for Israel and Jewish issues; Author of numerous best-selling books. Isaac Herzog - Minister of Welfare & Social Services and Minister of Diaspora, Society and the Fight Against Anti-Semitism, Government of Israel. Malcolm I. Hoenlein - Doctor, Executive Vice President of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Ronald Lauder - President of the World jewish Congress; Former U.S. Ambassador to Austria.
OREN 3 HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 10:45
PARTICIPANTS INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY IN ACTION What is more exciting than unleashing human creativity? How can we encourage innovation and breakthroughs on our path to tomorrow? This panel will feature theories alongside practical examples: ideas made real. Moderator: Dov Lautman - Founder of the textile manufacturing company Delta and former Chairman and President of the company; Former President of the Manufacturers Association; Recipient of the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement. Zika Abzuk - PBI manager, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Cisco; initiated the Cisco Networking Academy Program in Israel and the Palestinian Authority; Initiated and managed the Neta program aimed at preparing youth for participation in the twenty first century economy. Ami Ben Bassat - CEO of StartupSeeds, which helps bright technology-oriented kids implement their ideas; Writer and Blogger. He will introduce the young innovators: Tal Dromi, Anton Steshin and Ido Tal, and their developments. Hans Rosling - Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute; Director, Gapminder Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden.
OREN 4 HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 10:45 PARTICIPANTS THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL INSTITUTIONS: TOWARDS AN EFFECTIVE WORLD GOVERNMENT OR THE COLLAPSE OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM? Many of the challenges facing humanity today are transnational: global warming, infectious diseases, drug and human trafficking and international terrorism, to name just a few. Is the current system of international institutions suited to dealing with these issues, or is comprehensive reform required in the way these institutions operate? Will they exhibit determined action, initiative and leadership or will they unravel? Moderator: Dan Gillerman - Ambassador of the State of Israel to the UN and Vice President of the UN General Assembly for the Western Bloc. Gabriella Blum - Assistant Professor, Harvard Law School; Scholar of international relations and law. Joschka Fischer - Former Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister of Germany. Terje Larsen - President, the International Peace Institute. Natan Sharansky - Senior Fellow, Shalem Center; Former Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Minister in several Israeli governments; Former Soviet dissident and prisoner of conscience. SCHWARTZ HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 10:45
PARTICIPANTS THE JEWISH PEOPLE: IN NEED OF A GOOD PUBLICIST How are Jews viewed in the world today? Many non-Jews have prejudicial perceptions of Jews even though they have never met one in person. How tightly are Jews and Israel linked in the public mind? Are Jews regarded differently in different parts of the world? Can the Jewish people positively influence their image, and is it necessary to engage in such an effort? Moderator: Ruth Yaron - Veteran diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Brigadier general (ret.), former chief IDF spokesperson; Senior fellow at JPPPI. Abraham Foxman - National Director of the Anti-Defamation League. Stanley B. Greenberg - Doctor, Chairman and CEO of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research; American pollster and opinion analyst; Former chief pollster for President Bill Clinton. Maurice Levy - Chairman and CEO of the Management Board, Publicis Groupe. Linda Lingele - Sixth elected Governor of the State of Hawaii; the first woman to lead the Aloha State. Moshe Theumim - Chairman of Gitam/BBDO.
ESKHOL 2 HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 10:45 PARTICIPANTS TRUE EQUALITY FOR WOMEN IN ISRAEL: WHAT WILL IT TAKE? Golda Meir and women soldiers notwithstanding, gender equality in Israel still has a very long way to go. The obstacles are institutional, social, religious and cultural and manifest themselves in discrimination in the workforce and underrepresentation in Israel’s political establishment, among other areas. What can be done to achieve equality sooner rather than later? Moderator: Merav Michaeli - Television personality and feminist activist. Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder - Doctor, Lecturer in Ben-Gurion University and Sapir College in the Negev; Author of Excluded and Loved: Life stories of the Educated Bedouin women in the Negev, published by Magnes. Marit Danon - Director of the Authority for the Advancement of the Status of Women in the Office of the Prime Minister. Tova Hartman - Professor of Education, Hebrew University; Founded Shira Hadasha - the halakhic egalitarian community of Jerusalem. Morlie Levin - Executive Director of Hadassah; Member, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI. Gideon Sa’ar - Member of Knesset, Former Chairman of the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women. ESHKOL 3 HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 10:45
PARTICIPANTS HOW DO WE TRANSLATE MEDICAL INNOVATION IN ISRAEL INTO SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS? Israel is a small country brimming with creative minds that never cease to generate new patents. How can breakthrough ideas be turned into profitable businesses? The panel will report initial findings from a systematic effort to turn Israeli medical innovations into successful businesses. Moderator: Glenn Yago - Professor, Director of the Israel Center at the Milken Institute and Director of Capital Studies; an authority on financial innovations, capital markets, emerging markets and environmental finance; former professor at the State University of New York. Shlomo Ben-Haim - Professor; Entrpreneur; Investor in medical devices and biotechnology; Founder of Biosense. Rafi Hofstein - Doctor, CEO of Hadasit, a company specializing in the development of drugs for the treatment of infections, primarily in cancer patients; Previously served in various executive positions in the life sciences industry and in the field of technology transfer in medical research. Eli Opper - Doctor, Chief Scientist, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor; Previously, a partner with Giza Venture Capital and deputy director at Rafael. Manuel Trachtenberg - Director of National Council for Economics; Professor of Economics in Tel-Aviv University; Head of the Technion research program in science, technology and economics. Dan Vilenksi - Entrepreneur, Former Chairman of Applied Materials - Israel.
OREN 1 HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 15:00 PARTICIPANTS EUROPE, ISRAEL AND THE JEWS Europe is pondering its future: between deeper European integration and the preservation of individual national identity, the accession of Turkey, relations with Washington and Moscow, integration of the Muslim immigrant communities and other weighty issues. How will developing dynamics in Europe impact the future of Jewish communities on the continent? What characterizes the triangle of relations between Europe, the Jewish communities in Europe and Israel, now and in the future? Diana Pinto - Independent Writer and Consultant; Director, Ford Foundation Project, Voices for the res publica. Shmuel Trigano - Professor of religious and political sociology at the University of Paris, X-Nanterre; President, Observatoire du Monde juif; Founder and Editor, Pardes Magazine. Lord Weidenfeld - Philanthropist, columnist and founder of Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Moderator: Oded Eran - Doctor, of Political Science; CEO, World jewish Congress; Former Ambassador of Israel to the European Union; Former Ambassador of Israel to Jordan. Sir Ronald Cohen - Chairman of The Portland Trust; Co-Founder and Former Chairman of Apax Partners. Joschka Fischer - Former Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister of Germany. Lorna Fitzsimmons - CEO, the Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre (BICOM); Former Member of Parliament of the UK. OREN 2 HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 15:00
ISRAEL AND THE DIASPORA: ALIYAH AND THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP Israel is a Jewish state, home to many non- Jewish citizens, while Diaspora Jewry is a voluntary community. The identification of Jews in both communities is in constant flux. Do current trends necessarily widen the gap or is it possible to cement relations between Israel and the Diaspora? What can be done to bring two geographically separate societies together so they can understand each other, share a single Jewish identity and work for common goals? What role does Aliyah play in this relationship? PARTICIPANTS Moderator: Ruth Calderon - Doctor of Talmudic studies; Founder of the Alma Home for Hebrew Culture in Tel Aviv. Tony Gelbart - Chair and Co-Founder, Nefesh b’Nefesh. Aharon Horwitz - Student activist; Co-founder and Director of the PresenTense Institute for Creative Zionism and Co-editor of Blogs of Zion. Jason Lustig - Student Activist; Co-Founder of ImpactAliyah, a start-up providing new paths for Aliyah. Larry Moses - President, the Wexner Foundation. Steven Nasatir - Doctor, President of United Fund; President, Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago; Member, Board of Directors and Professional Guiding Council, JPPPI.
OREN 3 HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 15:00 ROBOTS, GADGETS AND OTHER ANIMALS: TOMORROW’S TECHNOLOGY IN DAILY LIFE Let us examine how tomorrow’s technology will affect our daily life: robots, advanced computers, electronic toys and just plain cool gadgets. PARTICIPANTS Moderator: Yossi Vardi - Pioneering Israeli hi-tech entrepreneur; Partnered in founding more than fifty hi-tech companies, including ICQ; Former Director General of the Ministries of Development, Energy and Infrastructure; Former Chairman of Israel Chemicals. Tomorrow’s gadgets exhibit Dan Dubno - Founder of Blowing Things Up, LLC, providing technology consulting to businesses; Former producer and Chief Technology Officer for CBS News. Robotic percussion instruments exhibit From the Soundscapes exhibition (July 2006), courtesy of the Tower of David Museum of the History of Jerusalem. Yaal Tevet - Co-founder, Experience Design, art and design studio. Roy Roth - Co-founder, Experience Design. David Fire - Composer and programmer of the Soundscapes exhibition. Robots and wondrous machines Getting to know GarageGeeks - a place for people to meet, innovate and build noncommercial projects that might otherwise never come to life. Tal Halozin - Co-founder of GarageGeeks; Chief Technology Officer of Innovid, a startup company developing a platform for embedding creative and interactive objects in internet video. Yuval Tal - Co-founder of GarageGeeks; Vice President of Research & Development at Innovid. Zvika Netter - Co-founder of GarageGeeks; CEO of Innovid; Veteran entrepreneur with fourteen years of experience. OREN 4 HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 15:00
PARTICIPANTS CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS OR CLASHES WITHIN CIVILIZATIONS? The deadly terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the rise of radical Islam have focused the world’s attention on a critical question: Are we in the midst of a clash between civilizations or clashes within these civilizations? Views diverge. What are these clashes about and what will be their implications? What will Islamic civilization look like in the coming decades and what about Iran? And what, if anything, can be done to minimize the damage wrought by these struggles? Moderator: Robert Satloff - Doctor, Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Historian of modern Arabic and Islamic politics. Robert D. Blackwill - Partner at Barbour, Griffith & Rogers; Former Coordinator for Strategic Planning at the U.S. National Security Council and U.S. Ambassador to India; Former Professor at Harvard University. Sima Shine - Former head of the research division in the Prime Minister’s Office; Served in different capacities in the Israeli intelligence community for more than thirty years. Emmanuel Sivan - Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Senior Fellow at JPPPI; Scholar of Islamic history and thought and of modern religious movements. Abdurrahman Wahid - Former President of Indonesia; Senior Advisor and Board Member of the Liberty for All Foundation.
SCHWARTZ HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 15:00 FIXING THE WORLD: MISSION OR PRETENSION? The Jewish world is experiencing a surge of activities aimed at making the world a better place. In recent years, a variety of humanitarian, social justice and ecological projects grounded in the Jewish value of ‘Tikkun Olam’ have served to bolster Jewish identity and to create venues for cooperation between Jews in Israel and the world. Are we engaging in ‘Tikkun Olam’ enough, or are we going overboard with pretentious initiatives? Are we focusing on the world’s problems at the expense of our own? PARTICIPANTS Moderator: Todd Gitlin - Professor of Journalism and Sociology at Columbia University; Member of the editorial board of Dissent; Author of numerous studies of American media, politics and culture. Shmuel (Shmuli) Bing - Activist with Be’Ma’aglei Tzedek, a faith based social justice NGO leading the struggle for the rights of contract workers. Haim Divon - Deputy Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Head of MASHAV (Israel Center for International Cooperation); Served as the Israeli Ambassador to Canada and Ethiopia. Ruth Messinger - President of American jewish World Service; a senior Democratic Party activist from New York. Yehudah Mirsky - Former U.S. State Department official; Fellow at JPPPI; Rabbi and Scholar of Jewish Thought. Carole Solomon - Former Chair, JAFI Board of Governors. Raphi Walden - Professor of Surgery, Vascular Surgeon; Deputy Director, Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer; member of the board of Phsicians for Human Rights. ESKHOL 2 HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 15:00
PARTICIPANTS TO WHAT EXTENT IS JEWISH TRADITION RELEVANT IN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW? Modern times have changed Jewish life and the Jewish experience almost beyond recognition. Yet Jewish life and identity persist and even thrive. How do core modern values such as intellectual openness and personal and political freedom relate to traditional religious beliefs and practices? Does Jewish tradition have the capacity to adapt, renew itself, attract the young generation and contribute to the modern world? Moderator: Jonathan Rosen - General Editor of Nextbook; Editorial Director of Encounter/ Schoken Books; Novelist and essayist. Arie Deri - Former leader of Shas Politicl Party; Former Israeli Minister of the Interior. David Ellenson - Doctor, President of Hebrew Union College; scholar of Jewish intellectual and legal history. Richard Pearlstone - Chairperson, Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency. Norman Solomon - Rabbi and lecturer at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew Studies; Professor of Oriental Studies at Oxford; Founder and Director of the Centre for the Study of Judaism and Jewish-Christian Relations. Yedidia Stern - Former Dean and current Professor of Law at Bar-Ilan University; Senior Fellow at The Israel Democracy Institute; Scholar of Jewish law and democratic theory. Gili Zivan - Director of the Yaacov Herzog Center of the Religious Kibbutz Movement; Scholar of modern Jewish theology.
ESHKOL 3 HALL THU MAY 15, 2008 15:00 ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: ISRAEL AS A GLOBAL FINANCIAL CENTER ADDITIONAL CONFERENCE EVENTS PARTICIPANTS Ronnie Bar-On, Israeli Finance Minister; Prof. Stanley Fisher, Governor of the Bank of Israel; Yarom Ariav, Director General of the Finance Ministry, and Key figures in the Israeli market and the global economy. Participation in the discussion is by invitation only. HADARIM PATIO THU MAY 15, 2008 10:45 The Government of Israel is convinced Israel can be transformed into a global financial center. The invaluable human capital and entrepreneurial spirit characterizing Israel’s economic sector, alongside the wealth of experience accumulated by Israeli investors abroad and their impressive achievements, attest to the vast potential for establishing financial industry as an additional growth engine for Israel’s economy. Israel’s economic leadership intends to set a new financial agenda for the next 10 years. This roundtable discussion will center on the action necessary to achieve this goal while pinpointing specific niches where the relative advantages of Israel’s financial industry can be brought to bear. We are certain the advice and involvement of world-acclaimed Jewish economic and financial experts further enhances this opportunity.
FACING TOMORROW IN MASTER CLASS Some of the guests at the conference will take part in special "master class" sessions with young Israelis. This program is part of a broad effort by the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute to foster young leadership and promote discourse on fundamental issues among Israel's and the Jewish people's future generation. These sessions will be attended by outstanding college and university students from around Israel, as well as young leaders from the economic, defense and social sectors. The program is inspired by the master class model in music teaching, where expert musicians tutor talented young students. MASA An innovative initiative of the Jewish Agency and the Government of Israel. MASA organizes long-term stay programs in Israel for thousands of young Jewish adults from the Diaspora in order to strengthen their Jewish identity and their bond with Israel. The program relies on studies, that reflect the tremendous impact a significant period of time in Israel can have on a young person’s connection to Jewish identity, community and heritage. MASA aims to make the stay in Israel a transformative experience for at least one in five young Jewish adults. The return on our investment in these young people today - an engaged and inspired leadership with the commitment to lead our people into the future. SPECIAL PROJECTS WILL BE SHOWCASED THROUGHOUT THE CONFERENCE The discovery of the Judean Desert scrolls, commonly known as the Dead Sea scrolls, is the most important archaeological discovery of the twentieth century. The expression “The People of the Book” has received further support with the Scrolls’ discovery and publication. The Dead Sea Scrolls opens a window upon one of the important chapters in the history of the two religions, modern Judaism and Christianity. A unique and impressive volume of the Dead Sea Scrolls will be on display throughout the conference. This segment of the scrolls is taken from the book of Psalms and includes the name of God in ancient Hebrew writing. Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority. TAGLIT Taglit-Birthright Israel is a successful and innovative project in the Jewish world, drawing tens of thousands of Jewish students (180,000 from 53 countries so far) to their first educational tour of Israel. The project is meant to strengthen these young adults’ Jewish identity, create a network of support for the State of Israel and reinvigorate Jewish communities in the Diaspora. The program has been able to bring about real change in the attitude of the younger generation of Diaspora Jews towards Israel and has increased the number of students visiting Israel by 2500%. BETH HATEFUTSOTH Beth Hatefutsoth is a unique, modern and world-acclaimed cultural institution. The museum's exhibitions and outstanding archival resources present the story of the Jewish people through the ages and around the world, providing contemporary generations with the key to their own cultural identity and a deeper bond with their people. DEAD SEA SCROLLS
ADVANCE PROFESSIONAL PREPARATORY DAY PRESIDENT’S CONFERENCE 2008 FACING TOMORROW extensive interaction with focus groups made up of leading figures in the fields of planning, philosophy and the arts, as well as professionals, Israeli government officials, leaders of Jewish organizations and the philanthropists who support them. These sessions took place during 2005-6 at Wye Plantation, Maryland, U.S.A. as well as at the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute in Jerusalem. In 2007, 120 of the participants in the process gathered for a joint conference in Jerusalem under the title: “The Future of the Jewish People”, where detailed discussion took place on various geopolitical issues pertaining to the Jewish people, issues of identity and identification, community life and future leadership. The summary of this event is included in the special publication provided to President’s Conference participants by the Institute. On the preliminary day, the day preceding the official opening of the President’s Conference 2008: Facing Tomorrow, the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute is organizing closed working group sessions, part of a continuing process. The purpose of these deliberations is to discuss select issues, which have a bearing on the future of the Jewish people, and to weigh concrete courses of action. The findings and recommendations of this day will serve as important input to the discourse at the conference itself and will be brought to the attention of relevant decision-makers. The sessions are part of an ongoing brainstorming process aimed at developing a comprehensive analysis of the state of the Jewish people today, and at formulating ideas for specific policy alternatives to ensure its well being and prosperity in generations to come. This process included Today’s deliberations are meant to further develop and distil the analysis and recommendations gathered throughout this process in order to aid participants of the President’s Conference as they delve into these complex issues, and thereby contribute to the success of the conference.
The following issues will be discussed at the preliminary working group sessions: Trends in the international arena over the next five years - primary implications for Israel and the Jewish people Affinity of the younger generation in the Diaspora to its Jewish identity Affinity of the younger generation in Israel to its Jewish identity Challenges posed by radical Islam: operative implications for the Jewish people Jerusalem as the core of the Jewish civilization The Annapolis process - potential implications for the future of the State of Israel and the Jewish people Practical implications and potential applications of ‘Tikkun Olam’ Grooming the future leadership of the Jewish people. Insight from this day, as well as the full range of conference deliberations, will be collected and analyzed by the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute and will be made available to the public.
Introduction - Mr. Avinoam Bar-Yosef, Director-General, The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI). The Conference for the Future of the Jewish People-2007 - Dr. Einat Wilf, Fellow, JPPPI. Mega-Trends in the Next Five Years which will Impact on World Jewry and Israel - Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat. The Annapolis Process - Ambassador Avi Gil, Senior Fellow, JPPPI. The Islamist Challenge - Prof. Emmanuel Sivan, Senior Fellow, JPPPI. Jewish Civilization at the Crossroads: Rise and Decline in the Historic Perspective - Dr. Shalom Wald, Senior Fellow, JPPPI. Jewish Identity and Identification of America's Young Jews - Prof. Chaim I. Waxman, Senior Fellow, JPPPI. Jerusalem as the Civilizational Capital of the Jewish People - Prof. Yehezkel Dror, Founding President, JPPPI. Jewish People Leadership for the 21st Century - Prof. Yehezkel Dror, Founding President, JPPPI. The Practical Meaning and Potential Significance of ‘TIKKUN OLAM’ for 21st Century Jewish Life - Rabbi Dr. Yehudah Mirsky, Fellow, JPPPI, with the contribution of Brigadier-General (Res.) Ruth Yaron, Senior Fellow, JPPPI. Jewish Identity and Identification of Israel's Young Generation - Dr. Shlomit Levy and Dr. Hagit Hacohen Wolf, The Hebrew University. Jewish Demography and Peoplehood: 2008 - Prof. Sergio DellaPergola, Senior Fellow, JPPPI. Tomorrow's Crises Today: Frontiers of Scientific Research and Technology in the Coming Decade - Prof. Hermona Soreq, The Hebrew University.
THE PRESIDENT'S CONFERENCE 2008 FACING TOMORROW BACKGROUND PAPERS Medicine Tomorrow: Trends in 21st Century Medicine - Yaakov Naparstek, MD Professor & Chairman of Medicine Department, Hadassah University Hospital. Global Leadership in the 21st Century: The New Ruler - Prof. Yehezkel Dror, Founding President, JPPPI. A Survey of Current and Future Research Directions on the Environment - Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences, Hebrew University. Israel 2028: Vision and Strategy for Economy and Society in a Global World - Mr. David Brodet, Former Director-General, Ministry of Finance; Chairman, board of Hadassah. Accelerating Medical Solutions in Israel: Building a Global Life Sciences Industry - Prof. Glenn Yago, Milken Institute; Mr. Ilan Vaknin, Hebrew University and Koret-Milken Institute Fellows Program and Ms. Ronit Purian Lutkatch, Tel Aviv University and Koret- Milken Institute Fellows Program.
The history of the world is intertwined with the achievements of Jewish philosophers, visionaries, scientists and inventors whose ingenuity transformed the lives of nations and people. These men and women have left their mark on every aspect of life: social thinking, culture, philosophy, religion, science, medicine, industry, technology. Despite these varied realms of achievement, all these people shared a common goal: they all sought a better, more just and more advanced future for all mankind. This proud list of Jewish accomplishment has been reinforced with the establishment of the State of Israel. Since that day, hundreds of internationally acclaimed inventions and innovations were made here and went on to make a decisive contribution in the fields of science, agriculture, medicine and technology - from the cherry tomato to ICQ’s instant messaging, from Netafim’s drip irrigation to Teva’s groundbreaking medication. In its 60th years of existence, a small country, bereft of any substantial natural resources and under permanent existential threat, has turned into a giant of innovation and research that contribute to a better future worldwide. There is no equivalent to this ratio between population size and the impact of ideas here conceived. There is no other nation of comparative size that has been such a font of creative contribution to the world.
EXHIBITION: TOMORROW’S SPACES The desire for a better future and solutions to the problems of tomorrow in Israel, the Jewish world and beyond is one all conference participants must share. This desire also permeates the tens of thousands of Israeli entrepreneurs, inventors, researchers, scientists and industrialists who stand at the forefront of Israeli innovation. They are the secret of Israel’s success and endurance and the reason Israel is so dear to the entire world, as the cradle of a better future. The Tomorrow’s Spaces Exhibition will provide international exposure to projects now taking shape around the country, which could become the new ideas, products and technologies that shape the face of tomorrow. The panel of judges has selected 60 projects out of the hundreds it reviewed. The choice was not easy. The panel looked at many brilliant and novel ideas developed by tireless entrepreneurs seeking to resolve the world’s problems with that rare combination of both effective and practical solutions. These projects were selected based on the following criteria: the extent of Israeli ideas, developments and technologies involved; innovation; originality; practicability and the impact the project is expected to make in its respective field and beyond. The projects on display provide a glimpse of contemporary “Jewish genius” and Israeli resourcefulness in a wide variety of interests, among them: biotechnology and medical equipment, Cleantech, water and agriculture, high-tech, transportation, computers and communications. In addition, the exhibition includes social projects which contribute to shaping a viable, pluralistic and more welcoming Israeli society. The panel of judges included: Prof. Yitzhak Peterburg - Chairman, Former President & CEO of Cellcom; Former CEO of Clalit Health Services Prof. Israel (Izzy) Borovitch - Chairman of the Board of El-Al Dr. Miriam (Miki) Haran - Ono Academic College Mr. Maiki Yoeli - Deputy Director General, Export Institute Prof. Rivka Carmi MD - President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. All conference participants will receive a catalog portraying each project in the exhibition. An official opening event will take place on the first day of the conference under the auspices of the President of the State of Israel.
WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK THOSE WHOSE GENEROSITY MADE THE CONFERENCE POSSIBLE Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Honorary Conference Chairs, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Yair Green Co-Chair, Conference Committee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Ahron G. Frenkel Co-Chair, Conference Committee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Victor Pinchuk Co-Chair, Conference Committee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Elliott Broidy Chair, Benefactors Committee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Daniel Abrahams Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Udi Angel Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Pierre Besnainou Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Alan Casden Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Ronald Cohen Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Nochi Dankner Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Dan David Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Uri Dori Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 David Franklin Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Menachem Gurevich Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Vladimir Gusinsky Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Yair Hamburger Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008
The Jewish Agency for Israel Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Eytan Rechter, Yosef Grunfeld, Avi Schnur - Kardan Trustees, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Marcos David Katz Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Lev Leviev Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Alexander Machkevitch Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Idan Ofer Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Sami Sagol Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Lenny Sands Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Leslie H. Wexner Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 David Wiessman Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Chaim (Poju) Zabludowicz Trustee, Israel President’s Conference 2008
STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS Israel Maimon, Adv. Chairman, Steering Committee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Avinoam Bar-Yosef Director - General, Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI), Israel President’s Conference 2008 Ambassador Avi Gil Director of Conference Content, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Meirav Catriel-Shtarker Executive Conference Coordinator, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Dr. Einat Wilf Fellow, JPPPI; Steering Committee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Ofra Eshed Foreign Relation Coordination, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Dr. Yehudah Mirsky Fellow, JPPPI; Steering Committee, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Alan Hoffman Director General, Department of Jewish Zionist Education, the Jewish Agency, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Josh Schwarcz Secretary General, Jewish Agency, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Dr. Yossi Vardi Director of Technology and Science Track, Israel President’s Conference 2008. CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS Prof. Raphi Walden Co-Director of Medical Track, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Dr. Rafi Hofstein Co-Director of Medical Track, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Dr. Yossi Bachar Israel President’s Conference 2008 Lior Shilat Israel President’s Conference 2008 Guy Krasny, Adv. Israel President’s Conference 2008 Inbal Hakman Israel President’s Conference 2008 Ohad Roth Israel President’s Conference 2008 Daniel Eisenberg Israel President’s Conference 2008 Michal Stopper-Vax Israel President’s Conference 2008 Barry Geltman Israel President’s Conference 2008 Arik Puder Public Relations, JPPPI, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Lea Weiss, Adv. Legal Adviser of The Jewish Agency, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Ezra Ganor Internal Auditor, JPPPI Asaf Vitman Representative of the President’s Conference Steering Committee to the Finance Committee of the JPPPI Ram Caspi, Adv. Chairman of the Committee that selected the production, press and public relations companies PRODUCTION Yoni Saar “Promarket Group”, Executive Producer, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Shauli Ziv, Peleg Rapaport “Promarket Group”, Line Producers, Israel President’s Conference 2008 Arik Shechter CEO, Edan Hadash, Management of Registration and Hospitality Eyal Arad Co-Chairman of Euro-Israel,Conference Spokesperson Charley J. Levine Manager, Conference International Media Relations Shlomo Harnoy, Dror Mor Sdema Group, Advanced Security Planning and Project Management
THE JEWISH PEOPLE POLICY PLANNING INSTITUTE PARTNERS AND MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL MEETING Sandy Baklor Zeev Bielski as Chairman of JAFI Executive Lester Crown and Charles Goodman on Behalf of the Crown-Goodman Family Jack Kay Hagai Meirom as Treasurer of JAFI Leonid Nevzlin on Behalf of the Nadav Foundation Richard L. Pearlstone as Chairman of the JAFI Board of Governors Charles Ratner John M. Shapiro as President of the UJA Federation of New York Saul Silver as Chairman of the JAFI Budget and Finance Committee Efi Stenzler and Avraham Duvdevani as Chairman and Co-Chairman of Jewish National Found BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND PROFESSIONAL GUIDING COUNCIL Chairman Dennis Ross Members of the Board Ya’acov Amidror Uzi Arad Charles Burson Irwin Cotler Uzi Dayan Sami Friedrich Ruth Gavison Steve Hoffman Arlene Kaufman Morlie Levin Judit Liwerant Isaac Molho Steve Nasatir Yaakov Neeman John Ruskay Suzanne Last Stone Aharon Yadlin Founding President Yehezkel Dror Director-General Avinoam Bar-Yosef Projects Coordinator Ita Alcalay Chairman, President’s Conference Steering Committee 2008 Adv. Israel Maimon Director of President’s Conference Content Avi Gil
ENTRANCE LEVEL PRESS CONFERENCE HALL- ESHKOL 1 2 ESHKOL 2 HALL 3 ESHKOL 3 HALL 4 SCHWARTZ HALL 5 ENTRANCE LOUNGE 6 EXHIBITION HALL 7 MAIN ENTRANCE + INFORMATION AND SERVICE CENTER 1 PINCUS LOUNGE 8 OREN 1 HALL 9 OREN 2 HALL 10 OREN 3 HALL 11 OREN 4 HALL 12 TEDI HALL 13 TEDI FOYER 14 17 16 15 SECOND LEVEL AGAM LOUNGE 15 DULZIN HALL 16 PLENARY HALL - USSISHKIN 17
Schedule Each guest is provided with a personal program of conference events. You may keep track of any scheduling changes on information monitors throughout the convention center. Conference website Plenary sessions will be carried on the conference website www.presidentconf.org.il, operated in cooperation with theMarker magazine. The site will be constantly updated with photos, articles and stories from the conference. The conference will be broadcast live by audio and video to all 3rd generation cellular users through the *22 service. Catering
Light refreshments will be available free of charge throughout the conference. Lunch will be served during noon plenary sessions. Dinner will be served during the receptions preceding main evening events on May 13-14.
GENERAL INFORMATION Language: Plenaries will be simultaneously interpreted in Hebrew, English, Russian and French. Panels will be simultaneously interpreted in English or in Hebrew, depending on the Speaker’s language. Internet access Computers with Internet access will be available throughout the convention center for your convenience. Media services A fully equipped media center will be available in Teddy Hall. Entrance and use of the facility require prior coordination.
Parking and transportation Parking space at the convention center is extremely limited. Free of charge shuttle services for conference guests will be available from nearby ‘HaLeom’ parking lot, where parking is also free of charge. Hotel shuttles Free of charge shuttle services to the convention center and back will be available from our affiliate hotels throughout the conference.
Security procedures Admission to the conference will only be allowed with the participation con- firmation sent to each guest by e-mail. Participants will receive nametags which they are kindly requested to wear at all times during the conference. It is strictly forbidden to bring cameras or firearms into the convention center. You are advised to arrive early and avoid carrying handbags and electronic devices. Electronic information system Information monitors will display announcements, updates and schedules throughout the convention center. Please keep track of this information. Dress code For all events: Business Casual. Tours during the conference We are pleased to offer organized tours for spouses and family members of conference participants in the Jerusalem area, Massada and the Dead Sea. For more information and registration is available at the conference website - www.presidentconf.org.il, or at the registration and information stands at the convention center. The President’s Conference Facing Tomorrow is taking place in the ICC Jerusalem International Convention Center, 1 Shazar Blvd., Jerusalem.
WEDNESDAY MAY 14 2008 TUESDAY MAY 13 2008 Ussishkin Hall (Main Plenary) Plenary Session: “Presidents Discussing Tomorrow“ Ceremonial Opening Event “Towards Tomorrow“ Morning Plenary Session: “Facing Tomorrow“ Wrestling with Creation Is the Jewish Civilization Thriving or Declining? Is the Geopolitical Arena Nearing a Tipping Point? The Challenge of Jewish-Arab Coexistence in Israel The Future of the World Economy Writers Discussing Tomorrow What does the Scientific Tomorrow Hold in Store? Teddy Hall (Noon Plenary) Exhibitions Hall (Noon Plenary) Oren 1 Hall Oren 2 Hall Oren 3 Hall Oren 4 Hall Schwartz Hall Eshkol 2 Hall Eshkol 3 Hall 8:00 - 8:45 HOUR DAY Welcome Dinner Reception Break Registration and Gathering “Tomorrow's Spaces“ Exhibition - Opening Event Registration and Gathering 16:30 - 18:00 18:00 - 19:45 19:45 - 21:30 08:00 - 08:45 08:45 - 10:15 10:15 - 10:45 10:45 - 12:15 15:00 15:30 - 16:15 WEDNESDAY MAY 14 2008 A Special Event: Sixty Years of Friendship - Israel and the U.S.A Noon Plenary Session (I): “Tomorrow through the Eyes of Nobel Laureates“ Noon Plenary Session (II): “Global Perspectives on Tomorrow” - A Tomorrow’s Medicine Jewish Education in the 21st Century is It Important ? A Longer Life, More Complicated Problems Jewish Identity - Unraveling or Renewing? Why is the “New Middle East” Not Here, Yet? Strong on Process, Weak on Results - Lessons Learned from the Peace Negotiations Can Israel’s GDP per Capita Join The Premier League of World Economies? Blue, White and Green - Is a Green Israel Possible? Grooming the Future Leadership of Israel and the Jewish People Jews and Muslims - Is Religion at the Heart of the Problem or the Heart of the Solution? How the Jewish People Can Strengthen its Friendship with the Chinese Giant Foreign Policy - Strategic Dilemmas and Moral Considerations How Can Israel Preserve Its Position of Leadership in the Realm of Scientific Research? A Jewish State - What is its Content? What is its Meaning? Break Break Dinner Reception Break 12:30 - 14:30 14:30 - 15:00 15:00 - 16:30 16:30 - 17:00 17:00 - 18:30 18:30 - 20:00 20:00 - 21:30 12:15 -12:30 Ussishkin Hall (Main Plenary) Teddy Hall (Noon Plenary) Exhibitions Hall (Noon Plenary) HOUR DAY Oren 1 Hall Oren 2 Hall Oren 3 Hall Oren 4 Hall Schwartz Hall Eshkol 2 Hall Eshkol 3 Hall 75 Morning Plenary Session: “The Revolution of the Internet and the New Media” Closing Plenary Session “Israeli Leaders Discussing Tomorrow“ Noon Plenary Session (I): “Path Breaking Leadership“ Noon Plenary Session (II): “Global Perspectives on Tomorrow” - B Education in Israel - How to Solve the Problem, Rather Than Establish Another Committee? How do we Translate Medical Innovation in Israel into Successful Business? Haredi Jews in Israel - Living Together While Living Apart Europe, Israel and the Jews The Future of Global Institutions - Towards an Effective World Government or Collapse of the Existing System? Clash of Civilizations or Clashes within Civilizations? Historic Decisions in Israel - A Matter for Israelis or for Jews at Large? Israel and the Diaspora- Aliyah and the Special Relationship The Jewish People - In Need of a Good Publicist Fixing the World - Mission or Pretension? Innovation and Creativity in Action Robots, Gadgets and other Animals - Tomorrow’s Technology in Daily Life True Equality for Women in Israel - What will it take? Break Break Break Break 08:45 - 10:15 10:15 - 10:45 10:45 - 12:15 12:15 - 12:30 12:30 - 14:30 14:30 - 15:00 15:00 - 16:30 16:30 - 17:00 17:00 - 18:30 8:8:45 Registration and Gathering Ussishkin Hall (Main Plenary) Teddy Hall (Noon Plenary) Exhibitions Hall (Noon Plenary) HOUR 08:00 - 08:45 Oren 1 Hall Oren 2 Hall Oren 3 Hall Oren 4 Hall Schwartz Hall Eshkol 2 Hall Eshkol 3 Hall To What Extent is Jewish Tradition Relevant in the World of Tomorrow?
Joel Leyden, a native of New York, has practiced international public relations, public affairs, crisis communications, reputation management, Web 2.0 and journalism for 25 years.
As an Internet pioneer in Israel, he co-created Israel's first commercial Website - NetKing in 1995.
In addition, Leyden produced the first Website for an Israeli prime minister, established the first condolence website for assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, created the Israel Defense Forces Website, was the first SEO - search engine optimizer in Israel and serves today as both commercial PR / SEO and publisher of the Israel News Agency, Israel's first on-line news organization.
Joel Leyden, the proud father of three children, is a leading father's and children's rights activist in Israel advocating equal access and reforms in Israel's gender bias family court custody laws and public child welfare departments for children of separated and divorced parents in Israel.
Joel Leyden, who has university degrees in journalism, psychology and mass communications, resides in a suburb north of Tel Aviv, Israel and in New York City.
