Prague Journal

Friday, November 5, 2004.

After my afternoon meeting with Eva at VŠE, I met Nicki, whom I haven’t seen since 1998 when we both left Prague. She’s been back here since 2001 and has worked at several of the English-language colleges here and is now the head of the Office of International Academic Program for Charles University’s CERGE program, developing and managing the international academic exchange programs. CERGE-EI is a joint program between Charles University (Prague’s oldest and most prestigious university) and the Academy of Sciences (ASCR), which was established in 1992 as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, a non-university basic research public institution. The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education of Charles University (CERGE) was founded in 1991 as an American-style Ph.D. program in Economics taught entirely in English. In 1992, the Economics Institute (EI) of the Academy of Sciences was created as an economics research institution, seeking to carry out topical research of the highest international standards. Currently, ASCR has three scientific divisions, namely the Division of Mathematics, Physics, and Earth Sciences, Division of Chemical and Life Sciences, and Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, in addition to a network of sixty research institutes and five supporting units staffed by a total of 6400 employees, of whom slightly over one half are university-trained researchers and PhD. scientists. The ASCR institutes are also involved in education by providing courses at the graduate level and supervising doctoral programs. The Head Office of the Academy and forty research institutes are located in Prague, the remaining institutes being situated throughout the country. The Academy is an independent institution which formulates its own policies, advises the state on major issues of its R&D policy, administers national as well as international research programs, and promotes cooperation with both applied research and industry to foster technology transfer and exploitation of scientific knowledge. http://www.cas.cz/
Nicki first came to Prague in 1993. Prague is a small town, so she knows several people I know or know of, and is a good connection to some of the places that have changed personnel, none of whom I know currently. The expat community is not as large or cohesive as when we were here in 1997, so Nicki is one of few Americans I know from seven years ago. However, as much as the city has changed, talking with Nicki was as if we had seen each other last week.
The evening Kabalat Shabbat Service at Bejt Praha had an unusually large group, most of whom were students from a NFTY (North American Federation of Temple Youth, an affiliate of the Union for Reform Judaism) study tour from Israel. The 25 students came from more than 20 states, including a young man from Denver (again, Jewish geography at work). Rabbi Narrowe is back in Sweden, so Petr led the service. The voices of the young people singing filled the synagogue and we all schmoozed at length after the Kiddush.
Howard invited us to dinner at his house, a splendid refurbished flat in Old Town. He and Marketa were gracious hosts, serving us a lovely kosher meal with wine from a Spanish winery in which Howard had recently had partial ownership. Even more enjoyable than the meal was the conversation which began with reminiscences of our mutual days in Madison, Wisconsin, during the Viet Nam era. Howard had been in the Israeli army during the 1967 war and had also served in the US army. After living in Israel, he went back to Madison to finish school and then returned to Israel (aliya) where he was City Attorney under Ted Kollek, then Mayor of Jerusalem. The conversation veered to other subjects, mostly concerning US politics, but also Czech politics and culture, American culture and perceptions abroad.

posted by JWinn @ 10:22 PM