Dateline Palm Springs — When Dr. Michael Berenbaum speaks, the room is silent. He brings good news and bad news.
This sets the tone for striking a delicate balance between conveying the bottom line and well thought-out projections. In different words: It is everything in between that matters.
The space between Dr. Berenbaum’s words resembles the inhale. As the dark ink exhales into print, there is — The Word.
The Word today is that Israel recycles 87 percent of her water. The USA recycles a scant 17 percent. Politics aside, those are interesting contrasting statistics.
California recycles how much did you say?
Who is Dr. Berenbaum?
A renowned Holocaust scholar who served as project director/overseer of the creation of the United States Holocaust Museum, the author of 20 books, his work in film has won Emmy awards and Academy Awards. A professor of Jewish Studies at American Jewish University, he was president and CEO of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which took the testimony of 52,000 Holocaust survivors in 32 languages and 57 countries.
While Dr. Berenbaum’s credits are noteworthy, his extraordinary way of conveying information makes you want to sign up for anything he teaches.
His subtly compelling manner will make you run to the nearest toastmaster class and demand “I will order whatever he is having.”
When Dr. Berenbaum speaks, the room is silent.
Significance of Trees
He was the featured guest last Sunday at the annual breakfast of the venerable 115-year-old Jewish National Fund. The JNF was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in what then was known as Palestine, run by the Ottoman Empire.
JNF’s objective: To make the desert bloom.
The Jewish National Fund, known worldwide for its historic tree-planting in Israel, does a lot of amazing things. For starters, JNF has planted 240 million trees in Israel.
As a child, I was told that one day I would go to Israel and find my tree. That is powerful imagery for a five-year-old.
Every time a JNF certificate arrived in the mail, I knew my forest was growing.
The topic of last Sunday’s presentation was vast, encompassing much more than the trees that I and others have bought over the years.
We will chip away at one of Dr. Berenbaum’s numerous topics, water.
What do 24 million trees, thousands of miles across the sea, have to do with California?
Answer: Israel is a desert. So is California.
California is in a drought. Israel was. But it has solved its drought problem.
(For a rounded background, see “Aided by the Sea, Israel Overcomes an Old Foe — Drought,” The New York Times, by Isabel Kershner, May 29, 2015.)
So what are the relevant questions?
What could this Israel-America, Israel-California marriage look like? While all the bugs — no pun intended — may not have been worked out, desalination is in.
Well, leaders, isn’t that worth looking into?
Israel is a country where the desert blooms and prospers, where the fear of water shortage has been eliminated.
It stands to reason we have much to learn, even more to gain.
What is holding up the process? Who is in charge?
