PRESIDENT'S PAGE
This past summer, UB President Robert L. Bogomolny embarked on one of his most interesting activities to date since arriving at the University. On June 21, Bogomolny joined a group of public and private community leaders on the 2005 “Baltimore CEO Mission to Israel,” a weeklong exchange that focused on education and community outreach concerning the successes, challenges and realities of day-to-day life in the region.
Sponsored by the Mercantile Community Foundation and Aegon Transamerica Foundation and organized by The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, the trip brought an impressive group of Baltimore’s prominent leaders in business and government to Israel for high-level meetings with leaders across the country. They met with a formidable contingent of officials, academics, military leaders and others, including Raanan Gissin, senior communication adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon; Khaled Abu Toameh, an Israeli-Arab journalist who writes for the Jerusalem Post; members of the U.S. diplomatic corps; and Israeli political scientists.
The group traveled throughout Israel in less than a week, from the Negev Desert and Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, Ashkelon and Masada, stopping at famed religious, archaeological and historical sites along the way. They saw firsthand key border areas such as The Golan Heights—a plateau that borders Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Syria and an area that has been hotly contested between the latter two countries—as well as the Gaza Strip, a region that has served as a significant factor in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Before heading back to the United States, Bogomolny and his fellow travelers also met with U.S. Army Reservists who were charged with guarding the Israel-Gaza border.
“I feel very fortunate to have taken part in this unique excursion and to have learned firsthand about the opportunities and challenges facing this important part of the world,” says Bogomolny. “The fact that I was in the company of some of Baltimore’s most established and influential leaders made the trip all the more memorable and enlightening.”