IASPS

Quarterly Report
Summer 1999

The Graduating Class

Comments of the President

The Director's Column

A Team for the Millennium

FPZ Update




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Vol. 8, No.3                                    Summer 1999

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The Graduating Class:
Pride and Gratitude

This July, IASPS graduated six IASPS Koret Fellows, five of whom have been with the Institute for three years, and one of whom has been in the Fellowship Program for two years. By now, their names are certainly familiar not only to readers of the Quarterly, but also to readers of their op-eds and the reports of their policy initiatives in the Israeli press, and to policymakers in the Knesset and Congress.

On July 28, a graduation ceremony was held at IASPS/Jerusalem. Program Director Zev Golan and Policy Studies Associate Editor Yossi Laster awarded the six graduates their diplomas. Each of the graduates delivered a short address. Here are some excerpts.

Bar Dadon: "The Institute has wronged us. All the places I am going for job interviews now seem so insignificant. People should age slowly; the Institute put us up front and on high so quickly, nothing can compare anymore....I learned a lot about myself at IASPS, I couldn't have had a better school. I learned what I was able to accomplish and what I am worth."

Amir Etzioni: "The wisest investment I ever made was when I applied for an IASPS Koret Fellowship. My three years here have far surpassed my expectations. Nowhere else could I have gathered such experience. I learned to write, to formulate thoughts, to prepare for meetings and work. And I learned to lecture - and to speak publicly, in English! - even if at first I was not qualified, I learned."

Udi Menirav: "I might have written a piece of research on my own, it is possible, but I never would have received the response that the Institute has achieved, or actual changes in policy. IASPS has taught me how to put ideas at the center of the public policy debate."

Shlomi Shuv: "I wonder where our class will go. I am sure some of my colleagues will assume positions of leadership in Israel. Had I continued my academic studies rather than joining the IASPS Koret Fellowship Program, my whole world today would be accounting. I would never have been exposed to policy work. Now I am able to see things in perspective. I have already been offered a high-ranking job in the public sector, but bureaucrats seem so gray...."

Shiri Winter: "I contracted a disease at IASPS. I used to read the newspaper and pass quickly over things. Now I am in the thick of activity and I know that as an individual I can have an impact. It is difficult to imagine working in a more central, effective place than IASPS. Some places are offering high salaries, but in comparison with IASPS, they just are not interesting...."

Adam Ruskin: "As our Policy Studies are being published at an ever-increasing pace, I see the press reports, I see the influence we have. People read what we write. Our work in some cases has taken years, but it is changing things. Now a new generation of Fellows will devote their lives and souls to freedom."

Also in this issue:

Comments of the President
     Robert J. Loewenberg on the true meaning of aid

The Director's Column
     Alvin Rabushka on Barak's new government

A Team for the Millennium
     Meet the new class of Koret Fellows

FPZ Update
     The latest on the Institute's Free Processing Zone initiative