U.S. Forest Service PPR Water day girl smallrovides JNF with Grant for World Water Monitoring in Jewish Schools

Pen-Pal Program for U.S. and Israeli Students Kicked off This Year

Contact: Jodi Bodner • JNF Director of Communications • 212-879-9305 ext. 221 •jbodner@jnf.org

October 5, 2006 -- New York, NY -- For the fourth year, Jewish National Fund (JNF) has received a grant from the U.S. Forest Serviceto provide water monitoring kits to hundreds of American Jewish schools and schools in Israel so they can participate in World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD), an international effort to educate the public about the importance of water and water quality.

For the first time, JNF is launching a pen-pal program to connect U.S. schools to students in Israel. With a common program, they will share their results and compare water sources between Israel and the U.S. and use it as a springboard for communication  throughout the year.

Begun in 2002 as a program of the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the International Water Association (IWA) along with other global partners, WWMD is coordinated during the weeks surrounding October 18, the day designated as the focal point of the celebration each year to correspond with the anniversary of the U.S. Clean Water Act.

“Water is a basic human right, the essence of life, and no matter who you are or where you live, clean, pure water is essential for drinking, hygiene, agriculture, commerce, and recreation,” said Ronald S. Lauder, president of JNF of America. “It is essential that we teach our children about the importance of water quality and by partnering with Israeli schools, we are providing a link to the Jewish homeland.”

WWMD offers communities around the world a chance to positively impact the health of rivers,lakes, estuaries, and other water bodies. In 2005, 47 countries with about 45,000 participants tested four key indicators of water quality: temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity.

“The message is simple,” said Robbie Savage, founder of WWMD. “The demands for clean water are many, yet there is no more water on the planet today than there was when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. It is critical that individuals become aware of the ways in which they can impact water quality.”

This international program brings together students from around the world to collect data from September 18 - October 18 and enter it into a global database on http://www.worldwatermonitoringday.org/ by December 18.

The Forest Service grant helps JNF provide kits to 200 schools in Israel and up to 75 schools in the U.S. In the week before actually testing the water quality, teachers provide students with advance information making for a more meaningful experience.

“This is our first year participating in the program, and so far it has been a terrific experience,” said Mary Corton, a science teacher at the Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School in Baltimore,MD. “Each morning, three 2nd graders come down to observe the weather and air temperature to coordinate with their water and weather science unit. Then, three 4th graders come with me to a pond that we have here on our Lower Schoolcampus to test the water. We are going to track the water quality of the pond daily until Oct. 18, with each student in the 4th grade taking their turn at testing.  Our Judaic teachers will be coordinating the religious aspects and have found the JNF primer a great resource.” 

The grant also enabled JNF to produce a special edition of its children’s New Leaf and Growing Up! newsletters, which are devoted to water and water monitoring; 60,000 of each were distributed this year.

Schools that participate in this program need one or more water monitoring kits (depending on number of classes and students). Each kit allows 50 individual tests.

 “The wonderful kits we received from the U.S. Forest Service enabled each of the students to check most efficiently the details required for the study,” said one of the Israeli students who participated in the program last year. “With the aid of the test tubes we were able to find out the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, without which no life exists. The sophisticated thermometer, also part of the kit, helped us understand the tremendous damage hot sewage causes by flowing from industrial plants into the rivers. Nature’sdelicate balance is disrupted by man and causes the death of vegetation and fauna in their natural habitat.”

School participation is a two-step process. First, schools must register with JNF at www.jnf.org/waterkits to receive their FREE kits. Once a school has registered with JNF for the kits, they must also register to participate in the water monitoring program by clicking on the http://www.worldwatermonitoringday.org/ link. Schools must be registered by October 18 and results can be recorded until December 18.

Upon completion of participation, all schools will receive special recognition from JNF and the United States Forest Service.

Captions: Top: Taking the water to be tested from a nearby stream.

Bottom: Testing the water back in the classroom.

 # # #

Jewish National Fund (JNF) began in 1901 collecting coins in blue boxes to purchase land and return the Jewish people to their homeland. In over 109 years, JNF has evolved into a global environmental leader and become the central address for partnering with the land and people of Israel. JNF has planted 250 million trees; built over 1,000 parks and recreational areas; constructed security roads; educated students around the world about Israel; created new communities so that Jews from around the world would have a place to call home; discovered new means of growing plants under arid conditions, bringing green to the desert; and built over 200 reservoirs and water recycling centers, increasing Israel’s water supply by 10%. Today, JNF is supporting Israel’s newest generation of pioneers by bringing life to the Negev Desert, Israel’s last frontier. 

A United Nations NGO, JNF sponsors international conferences on desertification, shares afforestation techniques, and funds research on arid land management. JNF is a registered 501(c)(3) organization and continuously earns top ratings from charity overseers. For more information on JNF, call 888-JNF-0099 or visit www.jnf.org.