September 1st, 1998

CONFERENCES

The first award ceremony of the Rieger-Jewish National Fund for Environmental Studies was held at TAU, awarding fellowships for 1998 to 18 graduate students from all Israeli Institutions of Higher Education. Moderator was Prof. Touvia Miloh of the Department of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer at TAU's Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, and the Israeli representative on the Program Committee. Greetings were delivered by Dr. Miriam Haran, Chief Scientist of the Ministry of the Environment, and by Zevi (Ze'ev) Kahanov, National Representative of JNF-KKL, Israel. The Fund was established by the late Dr. Norbert Rieger of Santa Barbara, CA, USA.

The Israeli-Japanese Symposium on "Fish Culture -- Advances in Research" was held at TAU, organized by Prof. Zvi Yaron of the Department of Zoology at TAU's George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. The Symposium was sponsored by the Norman and Rose Lederer Chair of Experimental Biology, of which Prof. Yaron is the incumbent; the Department of Reproduction, National Center of Mariculture, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, Eilat; and the Department of Aquatic Bioscience, University of Tokyo, Japan; and was supported by the Japanese companies Aqua, Ajinomoto and Space Line. Guest lecturers from Japan were Prof. Makito Kobayashi and Prof. Young-Chang Sohn of the Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan.

The third conference of the Research Project for Human-Animal Interaction entitled "Animals and Society" was hosted by the Department of Zoology at TAU's George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. Lectures were delivered by Dr. Rami Bar-Giora, Director of the Ilan Youth Treatment Center, Jerusalem; Dr. Zvi Sever of the Ministry of Education, and veterinarian Dr. Ehud Snapir. The conference was moderated by TAU's Prof. Joseph Terkel who heads the Project.

TAU's Faculty of Management--The Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration held a Founders' conference of the Faculty's Alumni Association. Greetings at the conference, moderated by Faculty Dean Prof. Israel Zang, were delivered by Managing Director of I.D.B. Holdings and Chairman of Clal (Israel), Mr. Leon Recanati and the Club's Founders Committee Chairman, Gil Peretz, Director-General of the International Business Library. A lecture entitled "The Trade at the NY Stock Exchange - The NASDAQ Case" was delivered by Prof. Yakov Amihud of TAU and NYU. The new Picture Tel-Video Conferencing System, donated by Mr. Kurt Lion of Switzerland, was used for the first time for a video conference with Mr. Megan L. Byrne, Assistant Dean and Director of Alumni Relations at the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Chicago, Ill, who advised live from Chicago on establishing the Recanati Association.

The Multimedia Learning Laboratory of the Hebrew Studies Unit donated by Dan Sandel and the Sandel Family Foundation of Malibu, California, was inaugurated in the presence of the Sandel family and friends. Greetings were delivered by Rector Prof. Nili Cohen, Director of the Hebrew Studies Unit Edna Lauden, and Head of the Special Program Division Prof. Zehava Solomon. A response was delivered by the donor Dan Sandel.

TAU's Faculty of Management--The Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration held the Fourth Annual Accounting and Finance in Tel Aviv 1998 Conference, sponsored by Clal Israel and Bank Hapoalim, and held under the auspices of the Max and Steffi Perlman Chair in Financial Economics; the Goldreich Chair of International Banking; and the Maurice and Gertrude Deutch Chair for Research in Finance and Accounting. Among the participants were researchers from universities in Israel, the US, Europe and Jordan. The Conference was organized by TAU's Dr. Eli Amir of the Faculty's Accounting Program and Prof. Eli Berkovitch of the Finance Program.

The 28th course of the International Postgraduate Training in Medicine at the School of Continuing Medical Education, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, held its graduation ceremony hosting Prof. Joshua Shemer, Associate Director-General of the Ministry of Health, who delivered a lecture entitled "Health Care Technology Management - Medical, Ethical and Social Dilemmas." Dr. Alvaro Candanedo of Panama responded on behalf of the training physicians. Greetings were delivered by Dean Prof. Menahem Fainaru, and Program coordinator Dr. Ron Maymon.

ABROAD

Based on an idea developed at TAU, an international symposium "Wagner and the Jews" was held within the framework of the Bayreuth Festival, in Bavaria, Germany under the auspices of Prof. Roman Herzog, the President of Germany. The symposium was directed by Prof. Ami Maayani of TAU, Prof. Dieter Borchmeyer of the University of Heidelberg and Prof. Susanne Vill of the University of Bayreuth, sponsored by the Richard Wagner Foundation, Bayreuth; the Howard Gilman Israel Culture Foundation; the Ministry of the Interior; the Bavarian Ministry for Education, Cultural Affairs and the Arts; and the city of Bayreuth. The lectures, delivered by academic members of TAU, German and American universities, reflected opposing views on Wagner's anti-Semitism , on its reflection in his works, on his impact on Nazism and on the issue of performance of his work in Israel today. Opening remarks were delivered by TAU President Prof. Yoram Dinstein; Prime Minister of the State of Bavaria, and the Bavarian Minister of Education, Cultural Affairs and the Arts Mr. Hans Zehetmair; Mayor of Bayreuth and director of the Richard Wagner Foundation Dr. Dieter Mronz; Ambassador of Israel to Germany Avi Primor; Chairman of the Central Council of the Jews in Germany Mr. Ignatz Bubis; and director of the Bayreuth Festival Wolfgang Wagner.

Prof. Gedeon Dagan of the Department of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer at TAU's Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, was awarded the 1998 Stockholm Water Prize by King Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden, at a ceremony held in the Stockholm City Hall. The prize was awarded in conjunction with the Stockholm Water Symposium and the Stockholm Water Festival.

Tali Kimchi, a graduate student of the Zoology Department at TAU's George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, under the supervision of Prof. Joseph Terkel, was invited as the sole Israeli participant to the 1998 Gordon Research Conference entitled "Electric and Magnetic Fields in Biology and Medicine -- Sensory Perception, Self Organization, and Therapeutic Applications," which was held at New England College, Henniker, New Hampshire, USA. The subject of her presentation was "Magnetic Compass Orientation in the Blind Mole Rat."

Prof. Noam Sheriff, the newly elected Head of TAU's Samuel Rubin Israeli Academy of Music, conducted his symphony composition Revival of the Dead, at a concert held within the framework of 50th anniversary celebrations of the State of Israel in Melbourne, Australia.

The Victoria Chapter of the Australian Friends of TAU and the Sephardi Association of Victoria co-sponsored a gathering of international psychologists at the 56th Annual Convention of the International Council of Psychologists and the Jewish Museum of Australia in Melbourne, at the Museum. Lectures were delivered by TAU Professors Malka Margalit, Associate Head for Research at TAU's School of Education, Roberta Milgram and Noach Milgram of TAU's School of Education. Greetings were delivered by Dr. Sandra E. Silverberg Neil, President-Elect of the International Council of Psychologists, and Chair of the event and by Mr. Abe Monester, Q.C., President of the Victoria Chapter of the TAU Friends Association.

COMING EVENTS

The Howard Gilman International Conference "Crossing the Pindus and the Apennines -- Communication, Confrontation and Cultural Interchange along Main Roads of Greece and Italy in Antiquity and Late Times," will take place in Greece and Italy on September 1-11, 1998, directed by Prof. Israel Roll of the Department of Classics, Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities.

The Fourth Annual TAU North American Conference will take place in New York on October 8-11, 1998. Registration: AFTAU N.Y. FAX (212) 687-4085.

OBITUARIES

TAU mourns the passing of Mr. Isaac Oren, Honorary Member of the TAU Board of Governors and Honorary Fellow of the University.