January 31, 2007

(San Francisco, CA) – Alon Tal, leading Middle East environmentalist and founding director of the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, will be in San Francisco next week to discuss Israeli and global environmental issues.

Tal was awarded the prestigious Charles Bronfman Prize in 2006 for his tireless efforts to advance the environmental movement in Israel and the Jewish world. The prize awards $100,000 and celebrates the vision and talent of an individual or team whose humanitarian work has contributed significantly to the betterment of the world. Tal used most of the prize money to establish the Tal Fund, a grassroots ecological initiative in Israel. The Tal Fund works in conjunction with the Jewish National Fund.   

Tal is an associate professor of environmental policy at Ben-Gurion University and has received faculty appointments at Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University in Israel. He has also held positions at Harvard University and the University of Otago in New Zealand. 

In addition to his esteemed academic roles, Tal has been a principal leader in several Middle East environmental organizations. Currently, Tal is chairman of the committee for sustainable development on the international board of the Jewish National Fund, and he was the representative for Israel’s Foreign Ministry at the November 2006 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Tal also co-founded EcoPeace, the first regional environmental initiative, now known as Friends of the Earth Middle East. In 1998 he was elected chair of Life and the Environment, ’Israel’s umbrella group for environmental organizations. Under his leadership the group grew from 24 to 80 member organizations.

In 1996 Tal established the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a graduate studies center in which Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian students join environmentalists from around the world in an advanced interdisciplinary research program. In 1990 he established the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, an environmental advocacy group that has emerged as one of Israel’s most prominent environmental NGOs.

A published writer, Tal is the author of Pollution in a Promised Land —An Environmental History of Israel (University of California Press, 2002).

Alon Tal is scheduled to speak at the following locations; all events are open to the public:

• Tuesday, February 6, 7:30 p.m.

Palo Alto Jewish Community Center, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto

• Wednesday, February 7, 7:30 p.m.

Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California Street, San Francisco

The Jewish Community Federation is the central organization for fundraising, planning, outreach and leadership development for Jewish communities in San Francisco, the Peninsula, and Marin and Sonoma counties. In fiscal year 2006, the Federation’s annual campaign allocated $18.3 million to some 60 agencies providing social services, educational and cultural programs in the Bay Area, in the U.S., Israel and elsewhere in the world. In fiscal year 2006, the Federation’s Endowment Fund, with assets exceeding $1.8 billion, provided more than $203 million for a variety of grants, seed projects and emergency needs. For more information, call 415.777.0411 or visit www.sfjcf.org.

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