EVENTS, SPEAKERS WILL SHOWCASE ISRAEL’S INNOVATIONS, HUMANITARIAN AID, DEMOCRACY AND ENVIRONMENT

Universities: Rutgers, Columbia, NYU, Baruch, Queens and Yeshiva

(New York, NY) — StandWithUs, the Israel education organization is kicking off a innovative week-long series of events “Not Just Hummus Week,” celebrating Israeli innovations, humanitarian aid, democracy, and the environment beginning November 2. Events are being organized by student leaders and SWU Emerson Fellows from Rutgers University, Columbia University, New York University, Baruch College, Queens College and Yeshiva University. http://notjusthummus.com/

“Not Just Hummus Week” speakers include Aryeh Green, Director of Media Central in Jerusalem, and the former senior policy advisor to Minister Natan Sharansky, Israel’s minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs; Gabriella Shalev, Israel’s UN Ambassador; Avi Melamed, founder of Mikdam, a strategic consulting company on Arab affairs who worked in intelligence and counter terrorism in the West Bank and Member of the Israeli Knesset Effie Eitam.

Presentations will be made by Jewish Heart for Africa, a non profit organization that brings sustainable Israeli technologies to rural African villages and “Save A Child’s Heart” (SACH), Save a Child’s Heart (SACH), an Israeli-based international humanitarian project that provides pediatric care for children in developing countries who suffer heart disease and to create centers of competence in these countries.

Frequent SWU speaker, Middle East Columnist and Terrorism Expert Micah Halpern, author of the new book: THUGS is also scheduled. Halpern was the CBS-2 TV commentator on terrorism during 9-11. He is Israel columnist for AOL and writes a weekly syndicated column on foreign affairs, the Middle East and terror. He contributes commentary and religious viewpoint for network television including CNN, ABC and TLC.

A unique Israeli Entrepreneurs event in technology and business start-up will take place at NYU & Baruch College. Speakers are: Yori Lavi, founder of OpTier, a market leader in Business Transaction Management Domain; Yaron Samid, founder and CEO of Novadea, a privately funded consumer web startup incubator; Nir Yosha, Senior Sales Engineer for NexNine, a remote support automation startup and Founder and CEO of Gelena LLC – A Monitoring and Remote Support consulting firm.

The events at NYU, Yeshiva University, Rutgers University and Columbia Universities are organized by the StandWithUs Emerson Fellows. In its third year, the Emerson Fellowship selects and trains student leaders to run Israel education events on their campuses. www.emersonfellowship.com

“We hope to make ‘Not Just Hummus Week’ an annual event,“ predicts Dani Klein, StandWithUs Campus Director, North America. “This is an exciting opportunity to introduce Israel away from the conflict and educate about its’ tremendous contributions to the world. Many people do not know that Israel is at the forefront of technology, environmental and medical research, humanitarian aid and has collaborated with universities and institutions worldwide to bring its innovations abroad.”

He adds, “”We’d like to thank Alexander Fischman, StandWithUs’ Emerson Fellow at Yeshiva University for helping to create this initiative.”