For this seminar, six elected officials from San Diego County traveled to Israel to examine the country’s clean-tech advances and to foster mutual understanding in other areas. The program exposed leaders, including a State Senator, to Israel’s emerging technologies, urban planning, and social welfare programs. The guests, who were accompanied by seven Jewish lay leaders from the San Diego community, met with their counterparts in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. A highlight of the seminar was a visit to San Diego’s sister city, Sha’ar Ha’Negev, in which participants visited Ibim- a youth village made up of new immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, Argentina, and Ethiopia.
