MEADVILLE, Pa. – Sept. 4, 2008 – Rabbi Michael Cohen, special projects coordinator with the Arava Institute in Israel, will present a free public lecture, titled “Water, Health and Conflict in the Middle East,” at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14 in the Patricia Bush Tippie Alumni Center at Allegheny College. An informal discussion will follow the lecture.
“The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies is one of those rare phenomena in the Middle East: an organization that brings together Arabs and Jews to work together for peace and environmental protection,” said Professor of Environmental Science Eric Pallant, who as a Fulbright Scholar began working with the institute in 2001. Pallant has created and expanded a number of educational and research collaborations with the institute in the years since.
“We are fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with environmental rabbi Michael Cohen as well as two of his students, a Jewish student from Israel and a Palestinian Muslim, who are coming to Allegheny to discuss their experiences.”
Cohen clearly shares the sentiment.
“We've had a long, fruitful relationship with Allegheny students and faculty,” he said. “This visit represents a natural extension of our friendship.”
In addition, as a guest speaker at Allegheny's ecumenical chapel service at 11 a.m. in Ford Chapel that day, Cohen will share a Jewish perspective on the Exodus story.
Cohen is a graduate of the University of Vermont, where he received the university's History Award. He received ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
Cohen was a founding faculty member of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies located on Kibbutz Ketura and has served as the executive director of the Arava Institute North America. At the institute he works on Palestinian student recruitment, development and other projects. Cohen recently completed a novella titled “Einstein's Rabbi.”
Cohen's presentations are the first public events scheduled as part of Allegheny's Year of Health, a campus-wide effort to explore various aspects of how health intersects with our lives on a personal, community and global scale.
For more information about Rabbi Cohen's visit, call 332-2870. To learn more about the Year of Health at Allegheny, visit www.allegheny.edu/yearofhealth.
