Monday July 21, 2008 10:23am

After a long and difficult selection process, the proverbial white smoke has appeared above the Heschel offices and the new group of Fellows - the tenth - has been selected. As with each of the last few years, the standard of applicants has continued to increase. This meant harder work for the selection committee - of 100 applicants they interviewed 60 (!!!) and then had to work that down to the final group of 20.
It is clear that the Fellows program is becoming more and more recognized and sought after. But this is also an indicator that the shift towards sustainability that the Heschel Center is trying to create is accelerating, so that there are more and more leading professionals who are what we call "early adopters" of a sustainability worldview - potential agents of change.
You can see descriptions of this year's group here.
It is, once again, diverse and impressive including:

• a Beduin film-maker and activist
• parliamentary aide to a leading MK
• the Ministry of Housing's head architect
• senior executives from major industrial corporations (including two from Israel Chemicals subsidiaries: Dead Sea Works, ICL Industrial Products)
• entrepreneurs
• academics and activists (including two involved inc onnections between Judaism and the environment)

This is a particularly exciting year, because it is the tenth anniversary Fellows group (see Decade of Success campaign letter).