The modern State of Israel is almost the
same size of Wales
and is smaller than Lake
Michigan and Kruger
Safari Park. Yet this tiny
state produces more innovations and performs more humanitarian activities than
countries that dwarf it in size and population. Here are just some of Israel’s amazing achievements in the
lead-up to this year’s festival of Passover when we celebrate the events over
3000 years ago that created the nation of Israel.
“Now you shall see what I
will do to Pharaoh”, says the good book; so it is appropriate that during “Save
Your Vision Month” scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute had the
vision to publicize their many projects for treating eyesight problems. They
include glaucoma medication, photon analysis, brain imaging and even sensory
whiskers. In another sense,
neurobiologist Professor Israel Nelken at the Hebrew University may have taken
“Hear O Israel” as inspiration for the work that led to his team’s discoveries
about the
brain’s response to sounds. The
research, published in the journal “Neuron”, could lead to the development of
better hearing aids.
The Angel of Death takes a vacation when
Rabbi Elimelech Firer is around.
Nicknamed “The Phenomenon”, Rabbi Firer never received a formal medical
education but reviews hundreds of patient reports a day and has diagnosed
diseases that professional medical staff missed. He founded "Ezra Lemarpeh" to supply patients with
treatments and facilities that Israel’s National Health Service cannot provide. He is now working to build a new Medical Rehabilitation
Center in Sderot.
In Egypt, the troubles of the Children of
Israel began when “A new King arose who did not know Joseph”. So it was vital that, on his pre-Passover
visit to the Jewish State, US President Obama was shown a selection of the best
of “Israeli
Technology for a Better World”.
From Sa’id Haruf (one of 600 Arabs working for Intel Israel) he then
heard first hand about Maantech – Israel’s hi-tech “finishing school” that helps
Israeli-Arabs integrate into Israel’s hi-tech scene. Finally, he learned about Jewish history
when he received a gift of a microchip that had been fashioned by scientists
from Israel’s Technion Institute. They
had engraved nano-sized versions of the US and Israeli declarations of
independence onto the gold-plated chip and affixed it to a
Jerusalem stone seal dating to the Second Temple Period (1st century
BCE to 1st century CE).
Israelis may not be able to split the sea
or turn it into blood, but they are world leaders in water technology. Israel’s Amiad
Water Systems has won a contract to help Colombia clean its industrial
water by supplying and maintaining a pre-filtration solution at one of the
South American country’s desalination plants.
And Ben Gurion University of the Negev has announced a partnership with
the University of Chicago to collaborate on new water
production and purification technologies for deployment in regions of
the globe where fresh water resources are scarce. I often imagine that if modern Israelis had watched Egyptian
soldiers drowning in the Red Sea they would have gone back to save them. Last week Israel Defense Force medics treated
four more wounded Syrians after they approached the Israel-Syrian
border seeking medical attention. Two
were seriously wounded and were evacuated to an Israeli hospital for further
treatment.
Israeli Nir Goldshlager certainly prevented
a “sea”
of problems for Facebook, when he uncovered a major security flaw. Then
when Facebook fixed the breach, Nir earned a place in their “hall of fame” when
he discovered another flaw in the “corrected” code. Meanwhile, Israel’s Skycure used its “tree
of knowledge” to alert Apple Corporation to the news that their iPhone
customers could be eaten alive.
Skycure’s CEO and co-founder Adi Sharabani showed that a cyber attacker
could steal sensitive information (including the victim’s exact location) and
even control victims’ phones – e.g. quietly changing their GPS destination
while driving.
Passover is all about passing on Jewish
history to the next generation and there has been much recent news regarding
equipping Israeli children with hi-tech skills. For example, the Amal network of technical high schools held a
nationwide online detection and hacking race at Cisco’s R&D center in
Netanya. The goal is to equip
a new generation of top-tier computer experts with the expertise to benefit
Israel and successfully compete in cyberspace.
In another story, Netanya students three top prizes at the Intel-Young
Scientists competition. Victor
Isserov of the Shai Agnon School was joint first with his project on the
quantum characteristics of ions and the development of quantum computers. Victor will represent Israel in the EU
science competition in Prague in September.
Finally, please watch this new video showing the work of Israeli
start-up “Young Engineers” that won Amir Asor the “Youth Business International
Entrepreneur of the Year” award from Britain's Youth Business International
non-profit organization. Children use
kits such as LEGO to grasp the principles of software engineering.
As we conclude these festive highlights, I
wonder if you were lucky to see
a fiery object in the skies, just to the right of the setting sun. Dr. Igal Patel, chairman of the Israeli
Astronomical Association, says it was the comet Panstarrs C/2011 L4. But Passover is when Elijah is predicted to
return in his fiery chariot to announce the final redemption - so ……
…. if you see him in passing, please
wish him a Happy Passover.
Michael Ordman writes a free weekly
newsletter containing Good News stories about Israel.
For a free subscription, email a request to
michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com
