Past Events
PALM BEACH LUNCHEON HAS MANY STARS
Lev Nelson, a student AJLI sponsored three years ago, confessed to nearly one hundred luncheon guests on March 2, that he woke up terrified during his last year at Brown University. He had majored in geology and had become an active Hillel participant and leader, and now he was graduating, hating to leave the friends he had made without knowing what to do next. He applied for a AJLI scholarship, admitting that his interests were diffuse but hoping that a year in Israel would help him to meld his interests in one direction.. AJLI came to his rescue he said. During the year that he spent at Arava Institute an environmental kibbutz under the auspices of Tel Aviv University, he realized that his interest in the environment and his love of Judaism could be expressed in one goal. His future path would be to become a rabbi who would work to show how Judaism supports sustainability and good use of the earth’s treasures. Lev is now a third year student at the ecumenical rabbinic school of Hebrew College in Boston. He expressed his gratitude to AJLI and the guests for supporting the organization’s work.
Chairs of the event at the lovely Ben Venuto restaurant in Boynton Beach, were Vivienne Irvy and her husband Dr. Louis Ivry. Vivienne introduced the second guest speaker, Professor Robert G. Rabil who has a PhD in Near Eastern and Judaic studies from Brandeis University and has written extensively on the Arab World. His assessment is that today the Middle East is in flux, but that Iran and Syria are tied so closely together it would be hard to make peace with Syria. He said in answer to a question about arms for Israel, that he was at discussions with the U.S. military about new protective arms that the U.S. is developing with Israel. He said the Saudis fear Iran and it was his hope was that there is movement among Middle Eastern nations to have meaningful sanctions in place against Iran if it does not live up to the non-proliferation treaty it signed.
National president, Dr. Martin Kalmanson thanked the speakers and attendees, Karl Zukerman who introduce Zev, and Tina and Morris Horowitz for their help in make this successful event possible. He said AJLI has funded 200 young people like Lev Nelson for study in Israel and urged continued support for this facet of AJLI.
