The Arava Institute is a teaching and research center in Israel that prepares future Jewish and Arab leaders to cooperatively solve the region’s environmental challenges. Jordanian Osama Suliman and Israeli Maya Negev will share their experiences of reconciliation through shared environmental concerns. They are joined by the North American Director, Michael Cohen. www.arava.org

The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies has hosted over 400 students from around the world, including Israeli Jewish, Israeli Arab, Palestinian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Tunisian, European and American students. By living and learning together, Arava Institute students learn to solve the most vexing issues related to co-existence and the environment — because nature knows no borders. www.arava.org

Rabbi Michael Cohen is a founding faculty member of The Arava Institute, where he works on Palestinian student recruitment, development, and other projects for the Arava Institute and its U.S. non-profit support organization, Arava Institute North America . He two classes: Genesis As a Key to Environmental Thought and Moses: A Study of Leadership and Environmental Wisdom.

Osama Suliman was born in Kuwait, and moved to Jordan after the beginning of the 1991 Gulf War. He received his BA in Economics from the University of Jordan in 2001. When asked why he chose to study at the Arava Institute, he explained “this year provides me with an opportunity to learn about local and global environmental issues, but more importantly, it provides me the rare opportunity to live and study in an Israeli community, which I love.”

Maya Negev grew up in Jerusalem. She worked as a guide and counselor for the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel before living in a field school for three years. She then traveled the world and finally settled in London, where she studied for her BA in literature, philosophy and journalism, at the University of London. Maya returned to Israel to pursue her MA degree in Environmental Studies. Her research topic is environmental literacy in a multicultural society.