Having taken care of all of our last minute purchases, laundry and packing, the KIP Israel crew headed to the Kelley School of Business to begin our adventure.
After one year of planning, preparation, coursework, contacts, development and energy, today we are jetting off to realize the fruits of our labor.

Currently in Toronto with half of our flying behind us (measured by number of flights, not distance and surely not time), we are excitedly anticipating our arrival in Israel.

Our first day begins in the evening after a long wait aboard a plane, though I know we will all be curious to venture out and see what Israel is about and take in the new sights around us.

Whether we think of it as an undiscovered country, a Promised Land, a Holy Land or the Land Flowing with Milk & Honey...in a matter of hours we will arrive to celebrate a new chapter of our learning and adventures.

This trip has heightened expectations and much anticipation; we seek to surpass the already high level of enthusiasm and provide a new world of experiences for our classmates that has not yet been met...only in Israel.

IQ: Israeli Queers

I’m psyched! According to Out Traveler, Tel Aviv “is packed with the kind of "we're here, we're queer" vibe more typically found in Sydney and San Francisco than in one of the most conservative regions in the world”.

I first learned of the Israel’s friendliness to LGBT people through film, particularly the movie Yossi & Jager (trailer, Wikipedia). It’s about two IDF soldiers on patrol in winter (Snow in Israel, who knew?) who struggle with their closeted relationship at work and with their families. The IDF is actually well ahead of the U.S. military by allowing gays to serve openly in the military since 1993. Ivri Lider sings the sound track to Yossi & Jager, and is one of a number of top gay artists performing in Israel, the U.S. and Europe.

I even came across an article showing that a gay Israeli dating site has been around for over 10 years! J-Date has nothing on Atraf.

My Lonely Planet guide has some great club and bar ideas. Can’t wait to check them out!

Abulafia Bakery: A Microcosm of the Middle East

Meet Sa'id Abulafia. Israeli Arab, 28 year old lawyer and business manager for his family's namesake bakery and the founder and president of the Tel Aviv Sabres football team.

Hear Sa'id talk about his background and initiatives in Jaffa.
We'll meet with him at the Arab Jewish Community Center to learn more about his views as an Israeli Arab and his efforts to build coexistence in Israel.

Visit Israel21c to view the full article.

A Message from Shorashim

Dear KIP Students,

Shorashim is very excited to facilitate your journey to Israel. We promise you an unforgettable experience in which you will see the sights and sounds of the land and learn about the entrepreneurial spirit that thrives in Israel.

We have provided your Leadership Team with links to articles and websites of the companies that you are visiting and information about the speakers to distribute to you.

If you would like further information on any place or more cultural, historical and religious visits on your itinerary, or would like resources on the political situation in Israel, please do not hesitate to email me: Sharna@shorashim.org

I apologize for not being able to visit last week. I was really looking forward to it. If you have questions that you wanted to ask me in person, please send me an email or call my office: 312-239-8428.
Have a wonderful trip!

Sincerely,

Sharna Marcus
Program Director
Shorashim

When you aren't packing for the trip...

Make sure to watch Fight Quest:Israel on March 5th at 8 PM on Discovery HD!

The Israeli military is one of the most highly trained and skilled forces in the world and their secret weapon is Krav Maga. In this episode, Jimmy and Doug train with the Israeli military and learn the secrets of this murderous fighting style.


It looked really interesting, and you may be able to learn some self defense techniques!

Purim Celebration!

During our last class before our trip, we were able to learn about Purim, the Jewish celebration commemorating the deliverance of the Jews from Haman who planned to kill them. The holiday is celebrated with:

• the reading of the Megilla (ours graciously by Director of Student Services)
  
• the giving of food to charity, we all brought in canned food
  
• the wearing of masquerade masks
  
• the eating of traditional foods
  

We ended the session by eating Hamantaschen cookies (which I got to help make this weekend!) It was a great opportunity to learn about the culture of Israel before our trip and give us more of a rounded view of the country. I am really looking forward to our trip, and so glad I have been able to have this experience!

Better Place Debuts Electric Car Test Drives

At a sleek office space on Israel's coastal plain, Better Place is debuting the features of its battery-powered cars to Israel's public...and getting them ready for a roll-out throughout the country.

Hear Better Place Founder/CEO Shai Agassi speak about his vision for the future, along with US Undersecretary of State, Jacob Lew.

Archaeologist sees proof for Bible in ancient wall

It amazes me that there are still discoveries like this today.

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM – An Israeli archaeologist said Monday that ancient fortifications recently excavated in Jerusalem date back 3,000 years to the time of King Solomon and support the biblical narrative about the era.

If the age of the wall is correct, the finding would be an indication that Jerusalem was home to a strong central government that had the resources and manpower needed to build massive fortifications in the 10th century B.C.

That's a key point of dispute among scholars, because it would match the Bible's account that the Hebrew kings David and Solomon ruled from Jerusalem around that time.

Continue reading AP Article

Israel Ice Dancing

I was able to see brother and sister team Israeli Ice Dancing Sasha & Roman Zaretsky compete in the Original Dance competition last night. They performed to Hava Nagila, which is a traditional Jewish folk song. It was a great performance, they were able to move from 21st to 10th. Watch their performance last night here

And make sure to watch for them tonight during the last Ice Dance competition, the Free Dance.

Jerusalem of Gold

To prepare to ascend to the Jerusalem hills, one must appreciate the mixed fabric of cultures that makes Jerusalem what it is today.

As historical geographer Dr Doron Bar states, there are many cities throughout the world that hold a special religious significance. Only Jerusalem, though, is holy to many faiths. Listening to his brief overview on Jerusalem (link above), one can make out the ambient sounds of muezzin in a typical Jerusalem afternoon.

The following are three distinct personalities who offer 10 seconds on what Jerusalem means to them, courtesy of Jerusalem.com, a great site for learning about the history of Jerusalem and complete with nightlife recommendations.

Educating voices for Israel

Recently, we were awarded a grant by The David Project to support our initiative to Israel.  Abby Sloane from the David Project came from Boston to sit through our class and network with students.  We had team presentations which were informational on industries like Agriculture, Defense, High Tech, Sustainability and Life Sciences.
Following class, Abby treated us to dinner at Samira's to educate us more on the David Project and its misson and initiatives.  To be honest, prior to my participation in this class, I had no idea the magnitude and severity of nonprofits like the David Project but after listening to Abby, I realized these organizations are very necessary.

More importantly, I realized the implications of our class on our small community in the Kelley School.   Our students will become pseudo ambassadors for those unfamiliar with Israel.  Our experiences have the ability to have a multiplier effect on our network, reaching to hundreds of others who would have not understood the Israeli dynamic. The majority of our students have never been to Israel and prior to our trip, had not planned on going there anytime soon.  It is a win/win chance to provide students with the opportunity to consider Israel as an option for business while also educating them on Israel's history and the story of its inhabitants. 

Our hope is that KIP Israel 2010 will be the inaugural trip for MBAs at Kelley.  We believe that a solid way to increase advocacy for Israel as a state is to teach non-Israelis about the business climate and opportunities within the country.  From Life Sciences to Renewable Energy, leading innovative changes are born in Israel.  We hope that the David Project and the Kelley School are able to forge a strong relationship and find more projects to work on together in the future. 

SHALOM!

ISCAR: An advanced Israeli business with a social conscience

One of the firms we will visit on our upcoming Israel excursion is ISCAR, a precision tools manufacturer and the only major investment (almost $5b) outside the US by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway.

Aside from this marked distinction, ISCAR offers an interesting quality not displayed by most other businesses. Its founder, Stef Wertheimer, sought to develop the company in an area situated near Israeli Arab villages in order to spur the inclusion and development of Israel's Arab minority.

As the article in Israel21c contends, Wertheimer's work is monumental for building a peace of coexistence and understanding between Israel's populations, all through the establishment of economic opportunities.

This should be an exciting visit to an entrepreneurial firm that introduced a new dimension to solving the conflicts of the Middle East

Israeli Agriculture

As part of our coursework for KIP we were divided into teams to learn about various Israeli industries so we could be informed and ask good questions when we are on our trip. My team chose agriculture as we would be visiting Netafim, the world's leader in irrigation solutions.

Cooperative farming comprises over 80% of Israeli primary agriculture, with 900 communities and 435,000 ha of land. These collective communities, called kibbutz, are economically sustained by agriculture in which members share in cultural, social and educational activities. The most well-known kibbutzes were established in the late 1940s, Kibbutz Hetzerim, Beer Shiva & Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael. Both have moved from being agriculturally driven to now include sophisticated multi-industry operations. Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael is the largest kibbutz in the country with 1400 members and has moved into plastics(Plasson Industries with sales of over $100M) and owns 12 marketing, production and manufacturing companies. Kibbutz Hetzerim, Beer Shiva launched Netafim, that has grown into a $300M a year irrigation manufacturer.

As Israel has limited resources, innovation and research and development have really propelled the country's agriculture. Constrained water supplies and grazing land has lead the country to develop drip irrigation and feeding techniques of herd animals. The Ministry of Agriculture's Agriculture Research Organization carries out 75% of the country's R&D. The scientists work closely with farmers to implement techniques in the field quickly. Advances have also been made in plant & animal genetics, blight control, machinery and automation. The country's export of agriculture and technology have now outpaced their agricultural produce exports.

Israel's Jaffa oranges became very popular in the 1960s and the became a trademark for Israel. Their primary exports were to Europe due to its close proximity. However, the fruit's popular became to decline much like Israel's overall impact of agriculture. Percentage of Agricultural GDP declined from 11% to 2.6% between 1950 and 2007. Exports decreased from 60% to less than 2% of total exports in this time period as well. The impact on employment has also decreased as many Israelis are moving into service based industries. However, in 2009, agriculture was a $5.3 billion industry.

It has been truly fascinating to learn about agriculture in Israel and learn about its changes. I am really excited for our stay in a kibbutz and to visit Netafim to learn more about it first hand.

Let "Nature" take its course ...

As I am sitting here procrastinating from doing my M511 Regression Analysis and case write-up (he he he) ... I start reading a New York Times cover story on generic drug makers.  Honestly, the article is incredibly timely considering our infamous Core Strategy Professor Idalene Kesner lectured on Teva Pharmaceuticals yesterday. 

Teva has such an interesting backround, once a very small pharma company in Israel, with lots of competition and deciding on whether to become a chemical or pharmaceutical company, is now the leading generic manufacturer of pharmaceuticals.  Anyway, the article is uber interesting because it talks about Big Pharma companies having to choose markets where Teva does not dominate in order to capture market share!!!!  

Click on the link to read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/business/16generic.html

Politics Anyone?

No preparation for a trip to Israel is complete without a general understanding of the political environment in which Israel participates. Prior to the classroom session, we were asked to read a few articles by Richard Baehr, who writes for the American Thinker. Although many of the ideas seemed a bit fundamentalist in nature, it was important for us to understand the way many Israelis see the middle east, the United States, and Obama.

Once we entered the classroom Monday evening, Professor Alvin Rosenfeld (Professor of English) offered his perspectives. Here are a few of the topics he touched on:

• Differences between the two Arab populations
• Importance of military service to creating a level of discipline and work ethic
• Changes in US-Israeli relations now that the Obama administration has taken over. Example: Obama has visited 20 countries including many in the Middle East, but not Israel
• Americans are embraced in Israel even if the government is not
• Viewpoints of the Likud and Labour parties, including who their allies are within the US
• Connections or lack there of between Isreal building settlements and Iran becoming nuclear
• Relationships with other countries in the world, including India, China, and Europe

As Americans, we believe we have many political questions -- health care reform, immigration, cap and trade, multiple wars -- but it's difficult to compare them to major near term impact isues like Iran becoming nuclear.

Only 4 more week until we head off. I can't wait to hear firsthand accounts regarding many, if not all, of these items.