Author: rjstreets

Facing Tomorrow, Part 2

rjstreets

‘New Media for a New Tomorrow’, moderated by Yossi Vardi,

 was the title of the last morning plenary of the

Israeli Presidential Conference, ‘Facing Tomorrow.’

This conference was indeed supportive of the new media.

Bloggers were invited to a special session

with Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on Wednesday.

On Thursday the blogging sessions were in a larger venue, where first

Natan Sharansky told us how it took years in the former Soviet Union

to build a network.

  As he spoke of  “pioneers of change”, bloggers were typing quickly,

demonstrating the speed and power of the internet in spreading his words.

Next,  President Shimon Peres

arrived in the interview area,

where the crowd had grown considerably.

 President Peres spoke on his view of education and the future,

then took questions from the audience,

before posing for a photo with Jimmy Wales and some of the bloggers.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who also spoke at an opening event

on social innovation and the importance of “neutrality,”

 was the last speaker.

In the blogger session, he mentioned that the annual

Wikipedia convention is to be held in Haifa this year

 and how the Hebrew version of Wikipedia is growing.

He then answered questions.

Safety of the internet, truth on the net, “neutrality’ of information,

 securing, accessing and sharing information, and social innovation

were all topics discussed at this conference.

My question remains…

How do we get “neutrality'”  in the Arabic reading and speaking world,

when the Arabic information on Wikipedia

  denies any right of the Jews to the Wailing Wall?

 

Securing universal truth of information has to be a priority.

 

See The Real Jerusalem Streets Facebook Page

for Blogger Session Album with more photos

Facing Tomorrow, Part 1

rjstreets

With 7 plenary sessions, 30 panels, with 4 special sessions for bloggers,

even with several clones it would have been impossible to attend

  most of the events of the Presidential Conference “Facing Tomorrow”.

 However, President Shimon Peres attended many sessions,

as did thousands of others who filled  the halls of the International Convention Center.

In-depth analyses have been written in the press, but most people who were trying

to get to all the end-of-school-year events may not have had the time to read them.

So The Real Jerusalem Streets will offer a quick convention overview.

On the first night,

 Israeli author Amos Oz,  Bernard-Henry Levy of France, and Tony Blair of England

spoke the to an audience where electronic devices were the norm

and political opinions were to the of extremes of right and left.

Laptops were visible in the audience for the morning plenary entitled

‘Looking Towards Tomorrow-Trends, Challenges and Decisions.’

Participants were Abby Joseph-Cohen, Niall Ferguson, Amos Yadlin, and

Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks who called the new anti-Semitism a virus

that is hard to control and spread by the internet.

 Tzipi Livni concluded the panel which could be heard and seen in the lounge

where drinks and food were on sale and networking was the main event.

A VIP lounge provided free drinks and delicious food,

the lemon meringue pie was said to have been really special.

However, Jerusalem water, unflavored, unchilled, and unaltered 

was all that was provided free for the regular attendees of the convention.

 ‘Thin Ice: Criticism vs. Loyalty in Israel-Diaspora Relations’,

with participants Jeremy Ben-Ami, Daniel Dayan, Diana Pinto, Fania Oz-Salzberger

and Rabbi Eric Yoffe and moderated by Shmuel Rosner, was standing-room only.

 

Also, ‘My Visions of Jerusalem’ attracted an over flow crowd,

American Malcolm Hoenlein spoke eloquently in English about the right of all Jews

to be concerned and involved with Jerusalem and her future.

Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat was the last speaker at this session.

 Another session in the same time slot was entitled, 

 ‘Israel and America-Has the Love Cooled?’.

It was moderated by Ethan Bronner and

 included such big names as Itamar Rabinovich, Robert Wexler, Ruth Yaron,

and Americans Elliot Abrams and Martin Indyk as panelists.

 ‘Where is the Global Economy Heading?’ was the evening plenary,

   moderated by Stanley Fisher.

As Larry Summer was speaking, I was heading toward the door–

enough politics and economics for one day. 

 Glad I left early or I would have missed this view on the way home…

from one of the Jerusalem streets.

 

More photos will be posted on The Real Jerusalem Streets Facebook page.

Facing Tomorrow, Opening Acts

rjstreets

The Israeli Presidential Conference 2011, ‘Facing Tomorrow’

held in the Jerusalem International Convention Center,

officially started in the evening  of June 21, 2011.

For the first presidential conference, US President George W Bush

was among the world leaders in attendance.

Streets were closed, and no one could avoid the commotion.

This year the presidents of Israel, Dominican Republic and Macedonia

just did not draw the same level of attention from the real streets.

However, photographers packed into a special opening press conference 

to get photos of international Columbian singing star

Shakira and her meeting with President Shimon Peres.

Peres spoke first, quoting from her songs, calling her an ambassador

  of young people and praised her for raising her wonderful voice.

In his opening remarks, President Peres called her “Sharika;”

everyone laughed–too bad I keep repeating the mistake. 

Shakira was presented with a special necklace

that required some help put on.

By establishing schools in poor rural areas, Shakira began a program

to break the cycle of poverty and violence

through education in her native Columbia.

As a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador,

her message of the positive effects of early education is commendable;

perhaps we should add, as long as that education done not include teaching hate.

The evening plenary was held in the large auditorium,

where the Shakira interview

was projected on two large screens, one on each side of the stage.

Shakira did not sing, but repeated her earlier message on education.

Her shoes were not very practical for the Jerusalem streets,

but her stay was brief so there was not much time for strolling around.

American comedian Sarah Silverman was the next act.

She came across bright and witty in her interview.

She tried to talk of a better tomorrow by using solar power.

Her responses to questions were quick and clever,

without any vulgar language… and the audience loved it.

 

1000 pictures over three nights and two days has taken hours to edit.

It was impossible  to get down to one post of twenty photos;

it was easy to get too many good pictures of just Sharika,

NO… Shakira!

 More photos  on The Real Jerusalem Streets Facebook Page.