ISRAEL AND JGEN

Towards a Sustainable Future for Israel:
An Environmental Leadership Seminar for Students and Young Professionals
June 6-16, 2004

Israel was born of the Zionist dream to reconnect the Jewish people with the land of Israel. Viewing Israel through environmental eyes offered over 30 students and young adults a unique opportunity to get beyond the superficial newspaper and television headlines, and to explore how the “Zionist dream” has been played out in more than 50 years of sovereignty over the physical landscape. During the seminar, the participants traveled the length and breadth of the country examining the relationship between people and place, enjoying Israel's beautiful natural environment and exploring what a sustainable future for Israel and the world might look like.

Some highlights of the trip included:

• A trip to the Jerusalem forest with an activist from Green Course, a country-wide student environmental organization which boasts more than 4,000 volunteers, who explained the issues of development in Jerusalem;

• An environmental clean-up at the National Park at Nitzanim Beach near Ashqelon attended by over 150 North American Birthright participants;

• A visit to the Dead Sea which including a modern environmental history of the area and explanation of the current reasons why the Dead Sea is “dying”;

• A day learning about urban environmental issues in Tel Aviv topped off with a learning session with Eilon Schwartz, director of the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership. Utilizing Jewish text, Eilon discussed the History of Nature in the Zionist Movement, bridging the idealism of connecting the Jewish people with the land of Israel to the development of the modern Israeli environmental movement;

• Tour of the Hula Valley with Yochanan Darom of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, who explained the restoration of the Hula Swamps, and the significance of the area in inspiring some of the first stages of Israeli environmental activism decades ago.

The Birthright Trip was considered to be a great success by all the participants and has become an annual JGEN event.