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Date: January 27, 1999
Consul General of Israel to Speak on the Israeli Peace Process
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Ambassador Shmuel Sisso, the consul general of Israel in New York, will give a talk titled ``The Role of the Peace Process in the Upcoming Israeli Elections,'' at Princeton Universityís Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs on Wednesday February 17, at 4:30 p.m. in Robertson Hall, Bowl 1.
Ambassador Sisso, a native of Morocco, emigrated to Israel with his parents at the age of five in 1952. He interrupted his studies at the Hebrew University in 1972 to fight on the southern front of the Yom Kippur War, then went on to earn a law degree in 1976. He launched his political career in 1978 as a city councilman in his hometown of Kiryat Yam, and was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected with 81 percent of the vote in 1993.
During his term as mayor, Kiryat Yamís population grew by 50 percent, largely due to the absorption of approximately 20,000 new immigrants. Then-Mayor Sisso oversaw several large-scale municipal projects, including the construction of 3,000 new housing units and the establishment of a technical college, an acclaimed musical conservatory, and a high-technology scientific greenhouse. His efforts earned him many awards, including the Environment Ministry's National Prize and an Education Ministry award for increasing the rate of graduation from high schools.
Ambassador Sisso has also been a member of the Prime Ministerís Advisory Committee on Social Policy, the National Council for the Prevention of Road Accidents, and the Association for the Promotion of Secondary Education. He has traveled abroad as an envoy of the foreign ministry and of the Jewish Agency, and as a guest of the United States Information Agency Forum for Young Leadership.
His talk is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.