Hadassah Chicago-North Shore Summer Camp 2023 - Celebrating Israel's 75th Birthday

Wednesday July 12: Hadassah Medical Organization, a Light onto the Nations with Barbara Sofer

Barbara Sofer, Hadassah’s Israel Director of Public Relations and Communications, will highlight Hadassah's medical innovations from the first 75 years. A former volunteer, she has been a member of the National Board, the Executive Committee, and National Vice President of Hadassah.

*Optional Dinner at 6 pm. Dinner selection available during registration.

Wednesday July 19: Israeli Life Reflected through Cinema

Cindy Stern, Executive Director of the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema, and past president of Gibora, will highlight examples of Israeli Life Reflected through Cinema.

Wednesday July 26: Drawing water with joy, How Israel's water influences the world

Session 1

Dr. Daniel Aschheim (PhD), Deputy Consul General of Israel to the Midwest, will speak about Israel, Jews, and the diaspora.

Session 2

Aaron Packman, Director, Northwestern Center for Water Research and Co-Director, US-Israel Collaborative Water-Energy Research Center (CoWERC), will be speaking on his research on water and the role Israel plays in the world's water supply.

Barbara Sofer

Barbara Sofer is a prize-winning journalist, author, and inspirational speaker who also serves as the Israel Director of Public Relations for Hadassah. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with an MA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Barbara has written six books, contributed to others, and writes a popular weekend column for the Jerusalem Post. Her most recent book is A Daughter of Many Mothers, the story of Holocaust survivor Rena Quint.

As the Israel Director of Public Relations for Hadassah, Barbara has witnessed and documented the daily effort to create an island of peace and sanity within Jerusalem's biggest medical center. She has worked with top-tier media, including 60 Minutes and Nightline in formulating programs that show Israel in a positive light. She contributed to the Emmy winning CNBC program, Jerusalem ER, and has appeared on Good Morning America 7 New Wonders of the World series as an expert on the spiritual uniqueness of Jerusalem.

Aaron Packman

Professor Aaron Packman is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Director of the Center for Water Research at Northwestern University. Professor Packman holds a joint appointment at Argonne National Laboratory as a Senior Fellow in the Northwestern-Argonne Institute of Science and Engineering. He is the U.S. Director of the U.S.-Israel Collaborative Water-Energy Research Center (CoWERC), managed by the Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD) and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Israel’s Ministry of Energy, and the Israel Innovation Authority. Professor Packman is an internationally recognized expert in water resources, surface-groundwater interactions, and biological and biogeochemical processes in aquatic systems. His research team is working to solve a variety of problems, including nutrient pollution, urban flooding, ecosystem degradation & restoration, and waterborne disease transmission. He currently serves on the Leadership Team of the Smart Great Lakes Initiative, as well as its Science, Technology, and Innovation team. Packman has received numerous awards and honors, including Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering, the Huber Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Career Awards from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering and Science from the California Institute of Technology.

*All attendees will be required to sign a Hadassah Event Participation Release to attend Hadassah in-person events. There will be no exceptions to this policy.