Report Preview 2014

After spending a very special time at this year's ISSI, the members of the German delegation have created their report, which will include the scientific papers they have written as well as (some of) the personal experiences they have made.

R. Ulshöfer was so kind as to provide her introduction to the report as a short preview:

Shalom!

This tiny word is Hebrew and means “hello”.

It is just one thing among lots of things that we, the German participants of the Bessie Lawrence International Summer Science Institute (ISSI), learned this summer.

Since 1969, there is an ISSI taking place every year in the Weizmann Institute of Science. To around 80 young students, most of them high-school graduates, from all over the world, it offers the possibility to “work on projects […] alongside professionals, getting hands-on experience in one of today's cutting-edge fields of research” (http://davidson.weizmann.ac.il/en/issi).

When thinking about Israel, the first thing to come to our minds is usually the ongoing conflict between the Jewish and the Muslim inhabitants of this region. We forget about Israel being a place of beautiful countryside, abundant culture, about Israel as the “Holy Land” in which lie the roots of several monotheistic world religions and last but not least: Israel and its importance in scientific research. Everything seems to be clouded by the war between Israeli forces and Hamas. This summer, we experienced the difficulties that come along with the instability of the country. However, at every moment we were accompanied and looked after in such a professional and affectionate way that worry never turned into fear and our good memories outnumber by far the less happy ones. Everybody who has taken part in this program surely envies the people who are going to be participants next year and the years after.

During the program in Rehovot we discovered what especially science can do to attenuate prejudices and misunderstandings between people from different countries: While working together in the laboratories, talking in the Youth Village or Hiking in the desert, we made lots of friends who are all nuts about science. Nowadays, in a globalized world, scientific research can only be successful if we exchange and discuss ideas among all people no matter where they come from and what they may believe. By pursuing this approach, ISSI makes an attempt to connect young people and to make them understand that after all they are not so different from each other and that it is worth to listen to each other.

Maybe like this, the ISSI creates a little bit more “Shalom”, because this tiny word also stands for “peace”.