{"id":1056,"date":"2014-01-31T13:19:41","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T21:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=1056"},"modified":"2014-04-27T14:43:48","modified_gmt":"2014-04-27T21:43:48","slug":"surrey-mayor-dianne-watts-visits-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/01\/31\/surrey-mayor-dianne-watts-visits-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts visits Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, centre left, with the delegation in front of the Knesset Menorah. (photo from\u00a0CIJA-PR)<\/span><\/strong><\/address>\n
\u00a0Last April, when Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts announced she planned to turn one square mile in her city centre into a leading centre for medical technology, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Pacific Region, immediately started paying this leader attention.<\/span><\/address>\n

\u201cWhen we heard of her intention to create an Innovation Boulevard, we knew the mayor needed to tap into Israel\u2019s spirit of ingenuity,\u201d said Darren Mackoff, CIJA-PR director. Mackoff and his team helped organize Watts\u2019 six-day trade mission to the Holy Land in December, a delegation that included individuals from the health-technology business sector and representatives from Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia and Kwantlen Polytechnic University \u2013 all of them key stakeholders in Surrey\u2019s Innovation Boulevard.<\/p>\n

In January, just a month after her return home, Watts signed a deal with Israel Brain Technologies, the first international deal of its kind secured since she and Innovation Boulevard co-chair, SFU neuroscientist and professor Ryan D\u2019Arcy, announced the boulevard last year. Israel Brain Technologies, created by Israeli president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, is a neuro-technology consortium. It unites Israel\u2019s academics, neuroscientists and industry leaders under a single umbrella of brain research and innovation.<\/p>\n

The IBT deal will give the City of Surrey access to some of Israel\u2019s top thinkers and the development of innovative, life-saving medical advances, said Mackoff, but it will also give IBT the opportunity to engage in exchanges and partner on specific projects with their counterparts in Western Canada. \u201cThe outcomes of these joint ventures will undoubtedly serve the people of both Israel and B.C. well in the future,\u201d he noted. In a press release, Watts said, \u201cIsrael and Surrey have common health-care challenges and share the goal of setting a new standard in medical care and innovation. By combining our remarkable pool of talents and expertise, I know that Surrey and Israel will together create groundbreaking and life-changing advancements in health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watts\u2019 CIJA-led educational mission included 25 business meetings at Israeli universities, hospitals and centres of innovation, political briefings, tours of Israel\u2019s most significant historic and contemporary sites, as well as a visit to Israel\u2019s northern border with Syria, on the Golan Heights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to gaining a strong understanding and appreciation for Israel and the challenges the Jewish state faces in the region, it was extremely important that Mayor Watts left Israel with tangible collaborative partnerships between the city, trip delegates and their counterparts in Israel,\u201d Mackoff said.<\/p>\n

The blizzard-like conditions in Jerusalem on the mayor\u2019s day of arrival meant CIJA had to do some on-the-ground improvising and move the team to Tel Aviv at the last minute.<\/p>\n

Mackoff traveled alongside the mayor and said she was tremendously moved and inspired by this visit. \u201cThe Jewish and pro-Israel community in Western Canada has a firm friend in Mayor Watts,\u201d he reflected. \u201cShe saw firsthand what Israel is truly about \u2013 a country that has overcome tremendous obstacles to create a thriving democracy which is leading the world in scientific advancements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to personal circumstances, the mayor was unavailable for comment.<\/p>\n

Lauren Kramer<\/b>, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond, B.C. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, centre left, with the delegation in front of the Knesset Menorah. (photo from\u00a0CIJA-PR) \u00a0Last April, when Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts announced she planned to turn one square mile in her city centre into a leading centre for medical technology, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Pacific Region, immediately started paying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[305,306,307,303,304,310,311,4342,309],"class_list":["post-1056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-centre-for-israel-and-jewish-affairs","tag-cija-pr","tag-darren-mackoff","tag-dianne-watts","tag-israel-brain-technologies","tag-kwantlen-polytechnic-university","tag-shimon-peres","tag-simon-fraser-university","tag-university-of-british-columbia"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}