Tues, Oct 16th.  We attended a Fulbright orientation meeting at the United States – Israel Education Foundation (USIEF) office in Tel Aviv were we met the United States Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shapiro.  Ambassadors can be either career foreign service officers (FSO) or political appointees. Shapiro is the later; appointed by Obama.  He was impressive – he spoke at length extemporaneously, graciously acknowledged the Fulbright staff by name, and spoke passionately about the U.S. need for a Jewish, democratic, secure, State of Israel.  I was so impressed that I’m going to put his picture in our blog:

U.S. Ambassador to Israel.  His actual title is “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.”  Check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Ambassador_to_Israel

After the Ambassador, we heard security briefings, travel warnings, etc. from State Department Security Officers.  After a nice lunch, we headed out on a Fulbright-sponsored excursion with approximately 20 other Fulbrighters and Judy Stavsky, the Fulbright Deputy Director.  The group was a mix of faculty (~5), post-docs (~10) and graduate students.  We visited the Ein Gedi Botantical Garden and had a jeep ride through the Negev desert with Bedouins!  More on that in the next post.