The Heschel Center to receive more than €300,000 of funding from the European Union's LIFE program for a national Agenda 21 training program. The project, which aims to train municipal professionals, public representatives, local activists and mayors and to establish networks to connect them, will develop tools for local sustainability in municipal planning, management and legislation. LIFE is the EU’s financial instrument supporting environmental and nature conservation projects throughout the EU, as well as in some candidate, neighboring and other countries. Its objective is to contribute to the development and implementation of EU environmental policy by financing specific actions.
Read the official grant announcement |
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The seventh class of The Heschel Center’s Environmental Fellows started the program in September.
Two senior physicians who are also public health experts were recruited this year, as part of the Heschel Center’s effort to increase its impact and awareness about the connection between environmentalism, sustainability, and public health. Hi-tech, business and industry are also represented in this year’s record high number of participants (18), who are all, once again, extraordinary people with varied backgrounds and occupations and influential ways of expressing their concern for the environment.
Read more about this year’s fellows |
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Jaime Lerner - architect, international sustainability consultant and former mayor of the most sustainable city in the world, visited Israel as the guest of the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of the Environment, the Porter School of Environmental Studies at the University of Tel Aviv, and the Heschel Center. During his visit, Lerner spoke at a lecture hall brimming with municipal and environmental professionals, government officials, academics, activists and students, about the privilege, the environmental opportunity and the fun that governing a city offers a mayor.
Read about Lerner’s legacy and his city, Curitiba
 Lerner in Israel. Click to read article by Dani Rabinowitz
The Minister of the Environment, Shalom Simchon, visited the Heschel Center in September with a delegation from his office, to meet with NGO representatives and discuss ideas and strategies for the future in light of the record-high budget the Minister secured for his office this year. The meeting was organized by Life and Environment, the umbrella organization for all environmental organizations in Israel.
Ministry of the Environment
Transportation and Environment Policy: Where are we going? The report was launched in October by the Heschel Center and the WorldWatch Institute. Written by Meira Hansen, the report reviews the existing condition and transportation planning in Israel and its shortcomings, brings examples from policy tools abroad, and proposes guidelines for a sustainable transportation policy in Israel. Executive summary (Hebrew only)
Along the Sea is a new marine ecology program established by The Heschel Center’s Green Schools Network in cooperation with EcoOcean, a public non-profit organization that promotes marine research. Docking in the Herzlia port, the EcoOcean research boat is fully equipped with state-of-the-art tools and computers, including a robot for underwater photography, and a system for deepwater monitoring. The educational program, supported by the Ministry of the Environment as well, promotes protection of the Mediterranean, encouraging students to reach out to their schools and communities, while experiencing and researching the sea. Marine biologist Dr. Yael Barki-Getenyu coordinates the program, and conducts teacher training, tours, visits to the boat and meetings with other schools in the program. Eight schools in central Israel have joined the program to date. The Green Schools Network
The Green Globe, Israel’s most prominent environmental prize, was awarded to Heschel Environmental Fellow Stella Avidan, transportation coordinator for the Green Forum of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, who has contributed significantly both politically and in the field to the approval of the Ayalon Park plan in the national committee for planning and construction.
Avidan received the best environmental activist award mainly for her impressive ability to build and coordinate coalitions of citizens and organizations for environmental change that have an impact on the municipal decision-making process. Her activity expands the support for environmental issues in various decision-making circles, said the award committee, and her passion for the subject is profound.
Sun Power, a company dedicated to promoting, creatingand marketing bio-diesel, 
was established by Eyal Biger, a Heschel Fellow. The company, which unites several activists who work to promote awareness of the environmental perils of gasoline and global warming, and the advantages of bio-diesel, offers lectures and workshops, and conducts discussions with academics, government representatives and NGOs, in order to combine existing knowledge and practical options to make Israeli bio-diesel a reality. At the lab and workshop at Ramat Raziel, used frying oil is turned into bio-diesel, and used to power residential heating systems and car engines (see demonstration by Biger in picture on right).
Fellows Accomplishments 
Eilon Schwartz, Director of the Heschel Center,is on sabbatical in Rhode Island, where he is a visiting Professor at the Global Environmental Program of the Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University. He is teaching courses and working on a book on environmental educational philosophy. Eilon will continue to engage in fundraising and vision development for the Heschel Center. Email Eilon if you'd like to set up an appointment |
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