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Dean Family Fellowship Nurtures Entrepreneurs
L OCA L
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
DANIEL DEAN KNOWS
something about taking
intelligent risks. The Bala
Cynwyd-based management
consultant and executive was
a founding principal of PREIT
Capital Advisors, and serves as
the managing director of Real
Property Capital.

Taking intelligent risk has
been his professional life.

It ’s t hat sensibi l it y,
combined with a long-nurtured
love for Israel and its inhabi-
tants, that brought Dean to the
Arava International Center for
Agriculture Training, an inter-
national agricultural school in
a small Israeli town on the
border with Jordan. It’s also
what brought the Dean Family
Fellowship to life.

At AICAT, students from
developing countries are
brought to the Israeli town of
Sapir to further their studies
in agriculture and agronomy.

Working in the harsh condi-
tions of the Arava, a typically
dry region in southern Israel,
students gain the skills to
bring change back to their
home communities, according
to Hanni Arnon, executive
director of AICAT since 1994.

The hope is that those students
— and their successes — will
go on to become ambassa-
dors for Israel in their own
countries. Dean’s grandfather, David
Dean, began visiting the Arava
in the 1970s, and it became a
family heirloom of sorts, passed
down between generations.

Dean’s father, Morris Dean, a
1 in 2 Jews is at risk for being a carrier
for 101 preventable Jewish genetic diseases.

Young adults can have an appointment on their own terms.

Screenings are affordable and virtual.

Dr. Chani Yondorf, OB/GYN provides women’s healthcare that honors the traditions of the Jewish
community, while advocating for the screening of Jewish genetic diseases.

Einstein.edu/JGD | 1.800.Einstein
8 APRIL 22, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
Daniel Dean (center) with AICAT
students in October 2019.

Courtesy of Daniel Dean
prominent Philadelphia lawyer,
has supported development in
the Arava for decades through
JNF-USA. When Dean was set to visit
Israel for the umpteenth times
a few years back, his father
asked him to visit the Arava,
just to check in on develop-
ments in the region.

Working with Marina
Furman, J N F - U S A’s
Philadelphia-based execu-
tive director of national
major donor advancement,
Dean arranged to meet with
JNF-USA’s CEO Russell
Robinson. Robinson, Dean
said, directed him toward
AICAT. At first, Dean said, he
wasn’t so sure what to expect
in the small town of Sapir. But
what he saw astounded him.

“Somehow, these young
people find themselves in
Israel learning agronomy
from farmers in some of the
toughest farming conditions in
the world, and I start to hear
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