Jewish Organization Israel Trips Missions

Bernard Schoenburg: Quinn Israel trip to key on green issues

The Jewish United Fund is paying the price for what is presented as an educational mission, said Quinn, a spokesman BRIE Callahan. He will visit a company that has developed an innovative process to replace the batteries in electric cars. He will also sign a "sister lakes agreement" between Lake Michigan and Lake Tiberias. He will also attend the formal approval of an exchange agreement between the University of Illinois at Chicago and Ben Gurion University. Penesis, 46, was legislative liaison for the state Environmental Protection Agency before her more recent post as intergovernmental affairs liaison for the governor’s office. She was paid $79,800 annually in that job, officially on the Department of Central Management Services payroll but tasked to the governor’s office via interagency agreement.   She was assistant to the village manager of Long Grove, where she oversaw the environmental impact statement process, and she also worked for Delta Institute, a Chicago-based organization that works to mesh environmental and development concerns. There, she worked on an anti-ozone program called Clean Air Counts. Her job included acquiring grants and doing marketing, as well as working with federal and state agencies and an organization of mayors. Oblinger, 66,  now of Springfield, is an assistant professor at Benedictine University at Springfield, where he teaches history and humanities. He had a single term running Chatham, from 1989-93, and also one four-year term as circuit clerk, from 1992-96. He lost a GOP primary for Congress in 1996 and lost a 2002 race for state representative as a Democrat. He said he’s now “progressively independent,” and says a commission post would help him continue the process of making Springfield “a really nice example of urban living.

Jewish Peace News: A Palestinian woman's response to Israel's ...

Jewish Peace News (JPN) is an information service that circulates news clippings, analyses, editorial commentary, and action alerts concerning the Israel / Palestine conflict. We work to promote a just resolution to the conflict; we believe that the cause of both peace and justice will be served when Israel ends the occupation, withdrawing completely from the Palestinian territories and finding a solution to the Palestinian refugee crisis within the framework of international law.

There are good things to be said about Professor Naomi Chazan, a scholar of contemporary Africa and a former member of the Israeli Knesset (on behalf of the center-left Meretz party). When an extreme right-wing and US funded Israeli student group like "Im Tirtzu" runs a venomous campaign against her, smearing her (in the Israeli public eye) as "Naomi Goldstone-Chazan", it is safe to assume she has been getting some things right. Indeed, signing a petition in demand of an "immediate halt to the attack carried out in Gaza by Israeli forces", just one day after Israel began its "Operation Cast Lead" war on Gaza's inhabitants in December 2008, was not a consensus act in her rather mainstream political circles. Prof. Chazan is also the president of the New Israel Fund (NIF). This self-proclaimed "leading organization committed to equality and democracy for all Israelis" has supported, through funding and consultation, numerous Israeli NGOs whose goals are to promote the rights of various minorities and disenfranchised groups in Israel. In view of all this, local peace activists held high expectations ahead of Prof. Chazan's recent series of talks in Australia on behalf of NIF. Alas, her message to the Australian public and the local Jewish community was a bitter disappointment to many concerned Australians. In spite of NIF's credentials, many grassroots activists for the Palestinian cause have come to regard the fund as a significant part of the problem, and not just a part of the solution. All this is illustrated by Samah Sabawi's lucid critique, which follows. One of NIF's main efforts in the past year has been an aggressive campaign against the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) initiative. Started in 2005 by Palestinian civil society, BDS has already proven effective at several levels. So why does NIF oppose the BDS initiative?

Tourism, diasporas, and space

These trips are organized to Israel only and are especially popular during times ... Most solidarity missions are arranged by Jewish organizations with tour ...

Jewish Lobby in the United States Handbook, Organization, Operations, Performance

KESHER works with organizations like Hillel to create Reform Jewish programs on ... of the Israel Campus Coalition, sponsor Taglit Birthright Israel trips, ...

Living a Jewish Life, Jewish Traditions, Customs, And Values for Today's Families

But for Jews, travel to Israel is different from a trip to Costa Rica or ... rights and Arab-Jewish cooperation—www. nif.org The World Zionist Organization: ...

Ten days of Birthright Israel, a journey in young adult identity

It had become increasingly evident to the Jewish community, particularly in North America, that travel to Israel was an important element of Jewish ...

What We Now Know about Jewish Education

Jewish educational travel now includes youth trips to a variety of destinations, including Israel, Holocaust sites, Western europe, and across North America ...