October 23, 2013
While in Israel to lecture across the country and to visit family, Dr. Yaron Brook, rated by YNET as one of the top 100 most influential Israelis living abroad, spent time in Ariel and the greater Samaria region on October 23, 2013 to learn firsthand the realities of the region and to forge new connections at Ariel University.
Dr. Brook is president of the Ayn Rand Institute and lectures internationally on economics, international affairs, the war on Islamic fundamentalism, and the moral case for Israel. Originally from Haifa, he and his wife visit Israel periodically to see family, taking the opportunity to share ideas that flow from Ayn Rand’s famous novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Recently, the Ayn Rand Institute set up a branch in Israel to spread her philosophy of rational self-interest, reason, and capitalism.
Boaz Arad, Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Center in Israel, joined Dr. Brook for lunch at Café Café, followed by a meeting with Prof. Alexander Bligh, the director of the Middle East Research Center at Ariel University. They discussed forums for them to exchange ideas and scholarship.
Around the meeting at the University, Dr. Brook was treated to a tour of Ariel and the Samaria region, including a visit at an electronics factory at the Barkan Industrial Park, to see how creative activity can unite Palestinians and Israelis towards mutual respect and benefit. Dr. Yaron Brook visited the up-and-coming tourist sites in Samaria, the fruit of creative individuals, including the Givot Olam dairy farm in Itamar and the Har Bracha Winery, including lookouts that illustrate the geopolitical significance of these areas to Israel’s security.
We thank Dr. Brook and Boaz Arad for their interest in Ariel University, Ariel, and the Samaria region and look forward to having them back.