Maryland-Israel School Water Exchange

The Maryland-Israel Sister State Committee is currently sponsoring a virtual exchange program between a school in Rockville, Maryland, and an ORT School in the Negev, Israel. Following up on the success of the prior Maryland-Israel Water Conference, the Committee’s Student Chair established the exchange with the assistance of the Maryland Secretary of State and Friends of Israel Sci-Tech Schools. Input for the project protocol and objectives came from the Maryland Secretary for the Environment and his team.

Working with water professionals from the Izaak Walton League (IWLA), up to 60 students from the two schools are conducting tests for nitrate, phosphate, dissolved oxygen, pH, chloride, turbidity, and temperature. From fall 2022 to spring 2023, the students are periodically monitoring fresh bodies of water, including lakes, reservoirs and streams, and submitting their data to the Clean Water Hub database. In Israel, the students are testing springwater, floodwater and the Dead Sea.

The program includes joint Zoom sessions with IWLA staff, who provide instruction on water quality and monitoring, as well as assistance analyzing the data collected and compiling conclusions regarding the water quality in Maryland and Israel. Follow-on testing and monitoring for “forever chemicals” is also planned.

For questions and press materials, please contact the Committee’s Student Chair at kate@mdisrael.org.

Previous Programs

Exhibits from Israel

Remembrance and Rescue:

A Commemoration of Liberation of Auschwitz

In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Maryland-Israel Sister State Committee presented a pair of exhibits from Israel at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington in Rockville, Maryland, during the period of January 12 - February 23, 2020. Produced in partnership with the Israeli-American Council, the Bender JCC, and the Embassy of Israel, the program features exhibits on loan from the American Society for Yad Vashem and IsraAID.

Exhibits

• The first exhibition featured photographs taken by the American photographer Norman Gershman and personal rescue stories of Muslim-Albanian families who saved Jews and were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.
  

• The companion exhibit was a selection of images and stories documenting recent rescue and relief efforts performed by Israel for communities suffering around the world due to natural disasters. Photos and resources were provided by IsraAid. Production of the exhibit panels was generously sponsored by Spectrum Printing and Graphics of Rockville, Maryland.

Objective
Throughout the month that the exhibits were available, the Committee scheduled groups from schools, synagogue, interfaith associations and other institutions to tour the exhibits and attend short lectures about the exhibits' subject topics. Tours and lectures were conducted by Marlene Yahalom, Director for Education at the American Society for Yad Vashem (ASYV), and periodically by fellows from the IsraAid agency.

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• ARE YOU part of Maryland’s “One Water” approach to integrated management?

• DO YOU KNOW that Israel is the world’s leading country in water innovation? (Israel successfully reuses 83-90% of its water every year, using technology and policy that protect threatened water supplies.)

• On October 10, 2018, we met to establish Maryland-Israel partnerships that will ensure Maryland’s water sustainability and security.

The October 10 Conference built upon the October 8-9 Global Water Reuse, Food and Health Workshop. Workshop registration was separate and by invitation only.