An Update on Past IAEJ Conferences and Workshops

IAEJ, with the hard work of volunteer Michal Ben-Chorin, formed The Ethiopian PublicAwareness Plenum with the goal of increasing Ethiopian community involvement in public dialogue, and to raise awareness within the general Israeli public of the achievements of the community.

IAEJ understands that the community’s image depends upon its representation in the media and in the public sphere. The Plenum therefore seeks to bring together Ethiopian professionals and academics from a wide spectrum of fields, to represent the progress that Ethiopian-Israelis are making; to present those achievements to the media and to the general public. Towards that end the Plenum acts as a forum for discussion in which Ethiopian professionals and academics may formulate a unified stance on the issues that face the community today.

The Opening Conference for the Plenum was held on 24/2/04 at the Tal Hotel in Tel-Aviv.There were 85 participants from the Ethiopian professional and academic communities and speakers included writer on social affairs Gabi Smadar from news channel Arutz 2; and Dr. Itzik Saporta, member of the Management Faculty at Tel Aviv University and social activist for democracy in Israel. The conference was a positive beginning for the new Plenum. Future meetings and activities are currently being planned.
National IAEJ Conference on Inequality in Education
April 28, 2004

IAEJ held a conference of approximately 200 participants in conjunction with the release of ournew 32-page report on “Ethiopian Immigrant Student Integration in Elementary Education. “Participants included parents, educators, policymakers and government officials, community leaders, social workers, NGO workers, students, media representatives and academics.