Eileen and Ira Ingerman, of Atlantic City, who recently endowed the Ginsburg-Ingerman Student Overseas Program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. Tom Friedman was right – the world IS flat. And getting flatter every day. The most recent example for me is my trip to Tunisia. When I arrived on the island of Djerba last month, I sent an email to my friend Jerry Sorkin, whose suburban Philadelphia-based TunisUSA travel agency arranges dozens of group visits to this beautiful North African country at the northernmost tip of the African continent.

I had no idea that Jerry was already back in Tunisia, as my husband and I had just had dinner with him a few weeks earlier. But he responded instantly, and he was installed with his large group at a nearby hotel in Djerba, getting ready to go to the ancient synagogue of La Ghriba for the Jewish holiday of Lag B’Omer, for the ceremonies and festival.

Ben-Gurion University President Rivka Carmi, M.D. (left), with Bonnie Squires, of Ventnor, at Dr. Carmi’s lecture in Djerba, Tunisia. So I took a taxi over to see him, where he was traveling with 45 members of the American Associates of Ben Gurion University in the Negev, several from Los Angeles, as part of their celebration of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the university. The president of Ben Gurion University, Rivka Carmi, M.D., a noted geneticist, was with them, as she was going to deliver a lecture on Djerban Jews and the research she has been doing on the recessive gene which causes Fragile X Syndrome.

President Carmi is the first female president of an Israeli university, and before that she was the first dean of an Israeli medical school.

I suddenly recalled a conversation I had had a few months ago at a family birthday party. Ira Ingerman, married to my former sister-in-law Eileen, (Atlantic City residents) had told me that he and his long-time business partner, Stanley Ginsburg, had recently endowed the Ben Gurion University of the Negev Overseas Student Program, which offers scholarships to American college students to spend either a semester or a year at Ben Gurion. And the university, in gratitude, had re-named the program to honor the donors.

Ira and Eileen had taken 24 members of their family to Israel recently to attend the dedication of the Ginsburg-Ingerman Overseas Student Program, to visit the home of the late Israeli leader David Ben-Gurion, and to have several meetings with President Carmi.

As soon as I mentioned my connection with the Ingermans, President Carmi was delighted and invited me to stay for her lecture.

As a geneticist, Dr. Carmi has studied the Tunisian Jews of Djerba who have migrated to Israel and settled in a moshav in the Negev. She calls this very close-knit community “genetic isolates” and says they have been able to trace back the Djerban Jewish genomes thousands of years. Because of the in-breeding, however, the recessive gene which causes Fragile X Syndrome, a special kind of mental retardation, has caused the Djerban Jews, who only represent two to three per cent of the world’s Jewish population, to have 26% of the Fragile X Syndrome children.

And Dr. Carmi also pointed out that, unlike other recessive genes which are exactly the same from generation to generation, the Fragile X Syndrome gene changes with each succeeding transmission and becomes stronger and thus more damaging.

Israel has created a genetic test for Fragile X Syndrome which is offered free to Tunisian Jews now living in Israel, and the incidence of the condition has been reduced radically. Dr. Carmi is trying to make inroads with the Jewish community remaining in Djerba, but they are even more insular than the ones who migrated to Israel. But she is working on the project.

With the annual arrival of 5000 to 6000 Jewish Tunisian pilgrims on the island of Djerba for the festival of Lag B’Omer at the ancient synagogue La Ghriba, the Tunisian government welcomes them with open arms.

To make sure that peace and security reign during the weeks of the festival and the influx of Jewish pilgrims for the holiday, the Tunisian government has 3000 police and security officers on duty in Djerba and around the country. The cost of the security operation probably exceeds the income generated by the thousands of former Tunisian residents who stay at hotels, eat at restaurants, and shop in Houmt Souk, the huge shopping area on the island.

At the actual Lag B’Omer procession, the Chief Rabbi of Tunisia, plus visiting Chief Rabbis from other countries (this year’s group included the Chief Rabbis of France, Portugal and England), plus the governor of Djerba, and various officials from the Tunisian government in Tunis, come to the synagogue to exchange proclamations, pledges of friendship, and praise for Ben Ali, the president of Tunisia. After touring Tunisia, the American Associates of Ben Gurion University were traveling to Israel, to attend the Board of Governors meeting, visit the campus, and then visit other Israeli cities.

And I was able to report back to Eileen and Ira Ingerman, at a family celebration a few days after my return, that their connection to Israel has now reached Tunisia as well.

Bonnie Squires is a columnist based in suburban Philadelphia and can be reached at www.bonniesquires.com.