Hasbara Canada

CFJS Hasbara kicked off 2008 with a great start. We had a delicious breakfast at the Marina hotel overlooking the Mediterranean. The fellows were fortunate enough to be hosted by the Interdisciplinary Centre (IDC) in Herzliyah, Israel’s leading academic institution in the field of counter-terrorism. The speakers included one of the foremost experts on radical Islam Dr. Isaac Kfir, who elaborated to the fellows on the geopolitical situation in the Middle East today. We also heard from Jonathan Davis, the VP of IDC and Dr. Ely Karmon who also expanded on the threats to Israel and the status of Lebanon. After enjoying lunch at the IDC’s cafeteria our group moved on to visit the Weizmann Institute where they were treated to a display of Israel’s environmental innovations.

The fellows were given a tour of the centre and valuable insights on all of Israel’s advancements, this will allow them to present a different perspective of Israel on their campuses. From their we traveled to the Wolfson Hospital where we learned about the important humanitarian efforts Israel has and continues to engage in around the world. The fellows heard from representatives of Save A Child’s Heart (SACH) and the founder of IsrAID, Shachar Zahavi. Both of these are Israeli humanitarian organizations that work to better our world. The fellows got a first hand look at what SACH does when they visited the group home of children who were brought to Israel to undergo lifesaving heart procedures. We then returned to the bus after a very informative day to drive back to Jerusalem.