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In the 29th Mar 2015 edition of Israel’s
good news, the highlights include:
·
Israeli scientists have discovered a
new way to combat specific brain diseases.
·
Two of the many examples of Israeli
Arab and Jewish kids studying and playing together.
·
The worldwide demand for Israeli cyber
security products and skills.
·
Israeli satellite technology is
mapping forests across the planet.
·
Israel’s unemployment rate has reached
an all-time record low.
·
110 Ukrainian Jews make exodus to
Israel in time for the festival of Freedom.
·
The launch of IsraelActive.com
– my brand new on-line database of Israel’s positive news.
·
Last week’s JPost Israel Good News
descriptive summary. Click here for “The
Water of Life” (fast-loading version, no adverts). Also published on the Jerusalem
Post, IsraelSeen,
San
Diego Jewish World and United
With Israel websites.
·
Click here to see the newsletter on Jewish
Business News, IsraelSeen,
Ruthfully
Yours, Janglo,
and United
With Israel with extra features on health,
coexistence,
technology
and trade.
Page Down for more details on these and
other good news stories from Israel.
Thank You Michelle and other readers for sending me links to so many of
these positive news articles.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Brain disease
mechanism discovered. Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University and the University of
California have discovered a new molecular mechanism in a mutant gene that
governs how ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) attacks motor neurons. They have also identified that the protein
MIF inhibits this mechanism. The
discovery is also relevant to other neuro-degenerative diseases.
BrainTech 2015. (TY Michelle) Here is a
roundup by “neurotech entrepreneur” Yannick Roy of the first day of Israel
Brain Technologies’ BrainTech 2015 Conference in Tel Aviv. The speakers focused on the main joint
‘brain initiatives’ being conducted around the world.
Israeli
nanotechnology explained. TY Israel21c for a fascinating discussion of how Israeli
scientists are engineering the tiniest parts of matter to make life better for
millions of people around the world. Applications
include a tiny robot transporting drugs to a cancer cell in your body; or
artificial retina to restore lost sight.
A study, not to be sniffed at. (TY Nocamels.com) One of
the more unusual studies by scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute has
uncovered that humans imitate one of the habits of dogs; by sniffing the odor
of someone they meet. They do this by
subconsciously sniffing their own hand after shaking the other person’s.
Device to prevent heart failure. (TY Michelle) Israel’s
Vectorious Medical has raised $5 million to take its miniature wireless
hemodynamic monitoring sensory implant into human trials. The device measures and reports left atria
pressure - a reliable early indication of cardiac deterioration, which
medication can treat.
An even bigger heart. Israel’s SHL Telemedicine
specializes in providing remote diagnosis and monitoring services for patients
suffering from chronic heart failure (CHF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease (COPD). Its second German
acquisition in two years is GPH, which monitors 10,000 heart patients.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
63.5% Israeli-Arab election turnout. Nearly two-thirds of
Israel’s Arab population voted in the recent Israeli elections. http://www.jpost.com/Israel-Elections/Arab-sector-turnout-for-recent-elections-reached-635-percent-polling-data-shows-394878
PA & Israeli girls
study animal welfare together. 40 girls from Jericho and Beit Shemesh
participated in an event called "New Spring – New Hope," at the
Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel. They visited animals and listened to a
lecture in Hebrew and Arabic about the importance of treating animals kindly.
Baseball for all. (TY David Levy) The Israel Association of
Baseball (IAB) launched Baseball
for All (Baseball Le’Kulam), the first ever program to teach Jewish and
Arab Israeli children to play baseball.
28 sixth graders from Modiin and Ramle learned about baseball as they
also learned about one another.
Israel’s medical diplomacy in action. The parents of children
awaiting heart surgery by surgeons of Israel’s Save A Child’s Heart (SACH) are
nervous, because being in Israel at all is a big risk for someone from Syria,
Iraq, or Jordan. And every Tuesday children from Gaza, Judea & Samaria
arrive for surgery and check-ups.
India’s PM tweets in Hebrew. (TY Greg) Relations between
India and Israel have improved so much since India’s new Prime Minister
Narendra Modi was elected. After
Israel’s elections, Mr Modi tweeted in Hebrew, “Mazel tov, my friend Bibi
@Netanyahu. I remember our meeting in New York last September warmly.”
In Vanuatu, everyone loves Israel. IsraAID workers discovered
that the residents of the tiny islands of Vanuatu love Israel and called the
Israelis “a light unto the nations”.
IsraAID distributed over 40 tons of rice, flour and drinking water to
residents of the Tongoa and Mataso islands that were devastated by Cyclone Pam.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The world leader in cyber security. (TY Michelle) To coincide
with CyberTech
2015 in Tel Aviv, here is a link
to the inside story of how the best and brightest Israelis go from the
army’s elite cyber security unit to launch innovative startup companies. And this
article explains why Israeli cyber security will continue to be a driving
force in the Israeli hi-tech ecosystem.
Even Chinese on-line shopping giant Alibaba
is investing in it.
Cyber security
for Portugal. Israel’s CyberGym has signed a NIS 45
million deal with the Portuguese electricity company Energias de Portugal (EDP)
to plan, build, and maintain a cyber-defense training facility. CyberGym is
jointly owned by the Israel Electric Company and Israeli IT company Liacom
Systems.
UK announces 3 joint Israeli cyber
Uni ventures.
(TY Michelle) Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office responsible
for cyber security, announced 3 UK-Israel academic collaboration ventures that
will receive cyber research funding.
They link UK’s universities of Bristol, Kent and UCL with Israel’s Bar
Ilan and Haifa.
12 young science geniuses. Twelve teenagers won the
top prizes in the Intel-Israel Young Scientists Competition in Jerusalem. Their projects covered medicine,
mathematics, linguistics, music, anthropology and satellite technology. The twelve will travel to finals in Pittsburgh
and Milan and receive academic scholarships.
Hundreds of schools in tech contest. Hundreds of Israeli middle
and high schools are participating in the biggest programming contest in
Israeli history, with prizes totaling NIS 100,000. Israel’s Center for
Educational Technology wants students to learn to write code, using CodeMonkey - an Israeli interactive
computer game.
Brainihack 2015. The winning project at
this year’s Brainihack
in Tel Aviv, Emochat, used
a Neurosteer Brain Computer Interface device to interpret another person’s
emotions based on their brain activity. So no need anymore to see facial
expression or hear voice tone.
Microsoft’s
opens new Haifa R&D center. 24 years after selecting Haifa for its first
Research & Development center outside the US, Microsoft is inaugurating a
new R&D center in the city. The new
building will cover 7,500 sq.m, houses 150 engineers and allows Microsoft to
expand by hiring dozens more.
Multinational
cooperation week.
The Israeli R&D centers of Motorola, Microsoft, Marvell Technology,
Deutsche Telekom, Citibank, Kodak, and GE are holding their third Weekathon in
three years to develop new products together.
Each company is sending up to 5 senior programmers to develop “the next
big thing”.
The most
popular national pavilion. (TY Michelle) The crowds flocked to the
Israel pavilion at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Here is a roundup of some of the innovative
Israeli products and apps on show.
Magisto
revolutionizes Facebook. Magisto, an Israeli video storytelling platform with more than 55
million registered users, is a key part of Facebook’s newly launched Messenger
Platform. Using Magisto’s patented AI technology, EmotionSense, text and photos
are transformed into a video with music, motion and special effects.
Real-time road-traffic information. (TY Michelle) Israel’s
Decell Technologies provides historical and predictive road-traffic information
captured from smartphones and GPS-enabled car systems in Tel Aviv, Vienna,
Prague, Warsaw and Bratislava. Decell
has just been acquired by US-based AirSage.
Transforming the forestry industry. Israel’s Intelescope Solutions utilizes drone
and satellite imagery to produce an accurate inventory of a forest. Forestry companies in the US, Canada,
Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Indonesia, India, and China utilize services
from Intelescope, which just raised $8.3 million of funds.
Where to go
next with your smartphone? (TY Michelle) Israel’s Deeplink.me has
launched AppWords - a mobile search and ad platform that uses keywords to
trigger relevant content between one app and another. E.g. after finishing booking with a theatre tickets app, you
receive “bids” for your custom from your restaurant apps.
Citi launches
tech challenge in Jerusalem. (TY David Levy) International banking giant
Citi has launched the Citi Mobile Challenge in Europe (London & Warsaw),
The Middle East (Jerusalem) and Africa (Nairobi). Developers can win $100,000 and Citi support by building
innovative solutions based on Citi’s digital platform.
Israeli
scientists calculate Saturn’s “day”. (TY Geoff) Scientists at at Tel Aviv
University have solved the mystery of Saturn's days, determining that one day
on the planet lasts 10 hours and a little more than 32 minutes – seven minutes
shorter than originally calculated.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Economy improves. The Bank of Israel's
Composite State of the Economy Index increased by 0.25 percent in February
2015. Reasons included increased house
building, trade revenue and job vacancies.
Also a surge in purchases of new cars, due to reduced taxes. And (TY Michelle) investment in Israeli
hi-tech is surging ahead.
http://www.thestreet.com/video/13090967/israeli-economic-director-sees-no-let-up-in-high-tech-investments.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUH0Et9P3SM&app=desktop
Unemployment is at the
lowest ever level.
Israel’s unemployment rate in February fell dramatically from 5.6% to
5.3% - the lowest adjusted rate ever recorded by Israel’s Central Bureau of
Statistics.
Israel Dealmakers Summit. About 250 Israeli startups
and leading investors are taking part in the Israel Dealmakers Summit in New
York. The summit is focusing on digital
media, cleantech, Web infrastructure, medical equipment, big data and cloud
computing. And (TY Michelle) Venture
capitalists are
eager to attend.
“Startup Nation” index. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
and BlueStar Indexes on Tuesday launched a “Start-up Nation Index” that will
track Israeli tech companies listed both locally and internationally. The BlueStar Israel Global Technology Index
(BIGITech) comprises 57 companies, with a total share value of $75 billion.
“Doing good, while doing well.” Impact Investing
Israel has a mission to motivate investors and startups to develop real
tangible and measurable benefits to mankind.
It organized Israel’s first Impact
Investing Conference, primarily for investors, but showcasing 11 Israeli
startups that can improve the health of society.
Watch this cyber-security company. Israel’s Sentrix has been
named Network World / CIO as one of the 10 young cyber-security companies to
watch in 2015. Sentrix protects
websites against attack by innovative technology called “cloud replication and
attack surface reduction” - acknowledged as a game changer.
Global leader in kids educational games. (TY Michelle) An excellent
interview of Sagi Schliesser, CEO of Israel’s TabTale. Founded in 2010 to make
kids games and education apps, it now publishes a game every week on iOS,
Google Play, Amazon, and Windows. Its 350 games have been downloaded 600
million times.
Frutarom acquires more flavor. Israel’s Frutarom
Industries has bought Belgian flavors company Taiga International. It is Frutarom’s sixth acquisition since the
start of 2014.
Facebook hire more Israelis. (TY Michelle) Facebook
Israel will be hiring 40 new employees - 30 for its R&D center and 10 for
marketing. It is Facebook’s first
recruitment drive since purchasing acquired Israeli startup Onavo in late 2013
and turning it into its Israeli R&D center.
Shopping for Israeli startups. Jonathan Wall, e-commerce
director at UK’s Shop Direct, is in Israel to meet 15 Israeli startups, and
hopes to find technology solutions to help increase his annual £1.7 billion
sales of 50 million products to five million customers. (I featured Shop
Direct’s link with Israel’s Cimagine
last year.)
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Enjoy spring flowers in the Galilee. TY Chana & Shmuel of Galilee
Green and Villa Rimona, for sending their video of the rare wild iris and other
spring flowers on Mount Gilboa in the Galilee.
Golden Boy. Israel’s entry for the 2015 Eurovision Song
Contest is Nadav Guedj singing “Golden Boy”.
Simcha girls in TV quarterfinals. My good friend Leonie
Lachmish and her daughter Yahala reached the quarterfinals of the Israeli
Musical Family series on Israeli TV.
Although they didn’t win, the jury loved their performance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uWl5nLhNI0
THE JEWISH STATE
Heaven’s ambassador. South Africa’s Chief Rabbi
Warren Goldstein gave a fitting tribute to Yehuda Avner, who died last
week. Ambassador Avner, advisor and
speechwriter to five Israeli Prime Ministers, brought “kindness, faith and
justice to a world which so desperately needs these Torah values now more than
ever.”
Good Deeds Day. A record number of Israeli
volunteers organized 10,000 projects for Good Deeds Day on 24 March, such as
cleaning up beaches, neighborhoods and distributing food to the needy. Acre
opened a new park that offers unique and challenging activities for hundreds of
youths with special needs, alongside their families.
110 Ukraine Jews make
Passover exodus.
A special refugee rescue flight sponsored by
the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFJC) has brought 110
Ukrainian Jews on their aliyah trip home to Israel. It was the third flight sponsored by IFJC since December,
totaling 560 Jews from Ukraine alone.
Yad Sarah produces large-font Haggada. In addition to providing
equipment to bring the disabled home for Passover, Israel’s largest volunteer
organization, Yad Sarah has released a 67-page, Hebrew-language Passover
Haggada in extra large type so those with vision problems can follow the
text. It is available for download at www.yadsarah.org.il/images/stories/pdf/hagada.pdf
Charoset-flavored ice cream. One of the Kosher for
Pesach flavors of ice cream produced by Vermont USA-based Ben and Jerry’s is
“Charoset” - one of the items on the Passover Seder plate. It is available only
in Israel. The flavor debuted in 2012
when described as “vanilla-based with apples and cinnamon, and lots of
walnuts.” http://www.bustle.com/articles/71377-charoset-flavored-ben-and-jerrys-ice-cream-exists-in-israel-and-yes-its-kosher-for-passover
A Technion Passover miracle. (TY Myer) Here is a video
of how students at Israel’s Technion Institute put together a “moving” account
of the Passover story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baQfqoZrEvI
IsraelActive is launched. I have great pleasure in
launching IsraelActive.com
- my brand new on-line database of positive news stories from Israel. Now you easily search 7000 news articles
about the beneficial work that Israel is doing on every subject and in every
part of the world. Thanks to Jake
Binstein who built IsraelActive.
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In the 22nd Mar 2015 edition of Israel’s
good news, the highlights include:
·
New Israeli electronic lenses
automatically focus on what you are looking at.
·
After the highest election turnout
in 16 years, Israel has a record number of women lawmakers.
·
Israeli aid workers are already
saving lives in the devastated islands of Vanuatu.
·
Israeli water experts are helping
to build floating desalination plants in Norway.
·
An Israeli company exports salt
to Russia.
·
The Batmitzvah girl in the
Copenhagen tragedy finally celebrated in Jerusalem.
·
Last week’s JPost Israel Good
News Special Feature. Click here for “What
is Israel fighting for?” (fast-loading version, no adverts). Also on IsraelSeen
and United
With Israel.
·
Click here to see the newsletter
on Jewish
Business News, IsraelSeen,
Ruthfully
Yours, Janglo,
and United
With Israel with focus on health.
Page Down for more details on these and
other good news stories from Israel.
Thank You Michelle and Hazel again and to many others for the links to
many exciting news stories.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Electronic lenses that help you see straight. Israeli start-up DeepOptics
has developed electronic multifocal lenses. Using sensors, they detect what the
eye is focusing on as well as the viewing distance - adjusting the power of your
spectacles to ensure that whatever is being looked at comes into focus, whether
near or far.
Safe robotic syringe.
The robotic dispensing system from Israel’s RescueDose makes the
preparation and administration of liquid medication safer by adding accurate
doses automatically and minimizing human contact. RescueDose is already used to dispense
radiation treatments for cancer patients.
http://www.israel21c.org/headlines/dont-touch-that-syringe/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii9F5kxlrDU
Sound
analysis of sleep disorder. The term “sound asleep” is very appropriate
to the discovery by Ben Gurion University researchers of a simple, cheap way to
evaluate sleep disorders. Using their
innovative breath sound analysis (BSA) algorithm, patients with sleep quality,
snoring and sleep apnea problems can be analyzed easily.
UK
and Israel to tackle dementia. A delegation of senior British scientists and
companies is in Israel, to work with Israel on dementia. They are following up
on December’s joint meeting of the British Neuroscience Association and the
Israel Society for Neuroscience in Eilat.
Link
between weaning and diabetes. Researchers at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem have discovered that the pancreatic cells of some young mice fail to
produce insulin in response to glucose during the transition from mother’s milk
to calcium-enriched food. It may explain
why some children develop Type 1 diabetes.
http://new.huji.ac.il/en/article/25747
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1534580715000258
Israel
has the brains to solve brain problems. Great praise from US congressman Chaka Fattah
– the man in charge of appropriating federal money for science and medical
research and development programs.
Fattah, was a keynote speaker at BrainTech 2015 event in Tel Aviv. Per capita, Israel leads the world in
neuroscience.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
A win for democracy. Following the highest turnout (71.8%) since
1999, the next Knesset will contain a record number of women (28) and 17 Arabs. The 23% of female MKs compares to 20% in the
US. The turnout amongst Israeli-Arab
voters was particularly high.
Jerusalem’s
photos of the day.
Arab and Jewish girls pose together at the start of the Jerusalem
marathon. (Photo credit to Sharon Altshul - www.rjstreets.com) Also see the varied voters at Israel’s
election (TY Hazel)
Top
priority. (TY
Hazel) Israel’s President Reubin Rivlin held a soccer event at the presidential
residence, inviting children and soccer stars from around the country to
participate in an effort to raise awareness against violence and racism. http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sports/Watch-President-Rivlin-plays-soccer-with-youth-at-residence-393718
“Israel
is a safe haven for Christians.” Newsletter readers already know the truth of
that statement. Now it has been incorporated into the “Shalom Declaration”
circulated by UK Christian organizations.
The declaration is expected to be signed by more than 800 Christians at
a gathering in London, UK later this month.
Bedouin
Arabs and the JNF.
If the New York Times won’t publish the response to its false
accusations about the JNF, please read it here.
Read about its Wadi Atir project; about efforts to calm Bedouin children
under fire from Hamas terrorists; care for disabled Bedouin at JNF-sponsored
ALEH Negev and much, much more.
More
PA Arabs can work in Israel. (TY Hazel) Palestinian Arab men over 55 and
over 50 no longer need a permit to enter Israel from Judea and Samaria to work.
Married men over the age of 22 can also now apply (previously only married
Palestinian Arab men over 24 who had children could work in Israel).
Gazans
pray in Jerusalem.
(TY Hazel) Two hundred Gazans travelled in buses to Israel via the Erez
crossing, to Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (as reported in the Arab press)
Social
business winners.
(TY Michelle) The goal of Israel’s B the Change Competition is to
promote startups to improve quality of life for millions of marginalized people. So look out for these winners - ESCO
(supports startups) KitchenBug,
MobileODT (affordable healthcare), Tulip Winery and VoiceITT (for
speech-impaired).
Israel
opens Lithuanian embassy. Israel has opened its first embassy in
Lithuania. The embassy is in the capital
Vilnius (Vilna) where Jews comprised a quarter of the population before WW2. Israel’s first ambassador to the Baltic nation
is Amir Maimon. Lithuania’s embassy in
Israel opened in 1992.
Israel sends aid team to Vanuatu. A multi-sector emergency response team from Israel-based
IsraAID has arrived on the remote islands of Vanuatu, devastated by Cyclone Pam. After meeting government officials and UN
agencies in the capital Port Vila, IsraAID started distributing water and rice
and more Israeli aid is coming.
(Info from IsraAID’s Shachar Zahavi)
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Israeli
university joins International energy consortium. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev will be
part of an international academic, research and corporate consortium to create
a Ph.D. program on thermal energy storage (TES) technologies. TES heats or cools a storage medium so that
the stored energy can be used later.
Altair
extends battery life on 4G devices. Israel’s Altair Semiconductor has developed a
new chipset that will help the LTE batteries that power 4G devices to run with
10 times less power and half the cost of using current LTE technology. Current 4G devices include smart meters and
alarms and many more are in development.
Tech
to repair the world. The first ever TOM (Tikkun Olam - repair the
world) Maker event took place in Nazareth. It focused on helping people with
special needs to integrate better in the community - find a job, to sit with
friends in cafes, stroll the streets etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz7Jo
V5hiNU http://www.tomtlv.org/?page_id=780
Australia
receives Israeli research delegation. Assistant Minister for Defense, Stuart Robert
met with a defense research delegation from Israel to discuss areas of mutual
interest including science and technology.
Israelis
get smarter phones.
Israelis bought 2.85 million smartphones in 2014 – a rise of 19% on
2013.
Stop texting and start Gliding. Read more about the instant
video messenger from Israel’s Glide and watch this demo of how easy and
practical it is to use.
Israeli technology for Norwegian desalination. (TY Michelle) Norwegian
company, EnviroNor, is recruiting Israeli expertise to provide the
water-processing technology necessary for its project to convert secondhand oil
barges into floating desalination and wastewater treatment plants.
Security
for water. Jerusalem’s
regional water & wastewater utility, Hagihon, has placed itself at the
forefront of the cyber protection arena with a breakthrough project. Even if an employee does something
unauthorized, like using an unrecognized USB flash drive, the system will send
out an alert.
Restoring
Beer Sheva’s river.
(TY Roberta) Untreated wastewater from Palestinian Arab towns has been
polluting the Besor-Hebron-Be’er Sheva River for decades, thanks to
international water laws. Now a 3-year
project has been agreed between Israel, the PA and the Bedouin community to
clean up the river.
How
Israel solved its water crisis. (TY Michelle) An excellent short article
describing how, faced with severe drought and a full-blown water crisis, Israel
made itself self-reliant by investing $4 billion between 2002 and 2010 to develop
water technology that keeps its population and industries alive. And the innovations continue.
Korea
learns Israeli pest control. South Korea’s Minister of Agriculture, Lee
Dong-Phil visited Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu's "BioBee" factory to learn
about natural solutions to the global decrease in the wild bee population.
BioBee is one of the global leaders in biological pest management, natural
pollination and Medfly control.
U.K.-Israel
science partnership is booming. Sir Mark Walport - chief scientific adviser
to the British Government - says that Israel and the UK are scientific
superpowers, working together on neuroscience, stem cells, nanoscience and
water science. In 2015, hundreds of Israeli researchers will work in U.K.
universities.
Weeding
with technology.
Israeli biotech Evogene is using its PointHit platform to analyze
molecules in weeds and identify key plant macro-molecules responsible for
essential biological processes in weeds. By targeting those processes,
herbicides can be developed that will be more effective in killing weeds.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Exporting
Israel’s Venture Capital success. (TY Michelle) Israel’s financial ecosystem took
off in 1993 thanks to the venture capital firm Yozma and its founder Yigal
Erlich, Chief Scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Industry and Trade with a
US$100 million Government investment.
Yozma is now expanding into Asia.
The
most shared website on Facebook. (TY Michelle) Israel’s PlayBuzz has raised
$16 million to expand its quiz games, lists and poll website
internationally. Founded by Shaul Omert
(son of an ex-Israeli PM) Playbuzz has grown to more than 80 million unique
users, with more than half of its traffic coming from Facebook.
Keeping
worthwhile businesses going. (TY Michelle) Israeli
startup FundBox lends money to small businesses who are struggling with their
cash flow. After uploading a company’s
invoices and checking for fraud, Fundbox pays the company now, instead of it
having to wait 60 or 90 days for the purchaser’s money.
Israel exports salt to Russia. Israel’s Salt of the Earth has reported significant
sales growth in the Russian salt market in 2014. The company also expects to
double salt exports to Russia in 2015.
Salt of the Earth supplies high-quality sea salt to tuna and salmon processing
plants in Russia’s Vladivostok and Korsakov regions.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
From
Toledo to Jerusalem. (TY Rafi) A 22-minute history (with music) of
the Sefardi Jews told by Yehoram Gaon, considered one of the best Israeli
singers.
The
official app for Chelsea soccer fans. Israeli-developed
sports info app InPlay announced that it would work with UK football club
Chelsea to customize content and communities for fans, helping them to engage
and access more information about their team.
THE JEWISH STATE
Copenhagen Bat Mitzvah girl celebrates in Israel. Hannah Bentow celebrated a second
Bat Mitzvah in Jerusalem, exactly a month after her Bat Mitzvah celebrations
were tragically cut short by a terror attack outside the Copenhagen synagogue. Hannah’s mother said, “Here, in Israel, we
had a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Hanna's Bat Mitzvah in a different
environment, which is much more relaxed and safe.”
1200
attend Aliya event in NYC. More than 1,200 people flocked to the Crowne
Plaza Times Square for aliyah-related seminars and workshops. They received
professional advice from shippers, accountants, financial planners, insurance,
healthcare, real estate, universities and more.
150315
In the 15th Mar 2015 edition of Israel’s
good news, the highlights include:
·
An Israeli-developed Nitric
Oxide treatment can treat cystic fibrosis.
·
EU envoys visiting Gaza have
praised Israel’s humanitarian efforts.
·
Israel’s Fansino won “Best App
of the Year” at the Mobile World Congress.
·
An Israeli company is to build
North America’s largest automatic parking system.
·
Israeli technology will connect
rural Peru to broadband Internet.
·
14 outstanding Israelis will
light Israel’s Independence Day torches.
·
Last week’s JPost Israel Good
News Special Feature. Click here for “What
do Palestinian Arabs need Israel for?” (fast-loading, no adverts). Also on IsraelSeen,
San
Diego Jewish World and United
with Israel.
·
Click here to see the
newsletter on Jewish
Business News, IsraelSeen,
Ruthfully
Yours, Janglo,
and United
With Israel with focus on medical,
tech,
culture
and business.
Page Down for more details on these and
other good news stories from Israel.
Thank You Michelle again for the links to many exciting news stories.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Treatment for cystic
fibrosis.
Israel’s Advanced Inhalation Therapies has been granted Orphan status by
the US FDA to complete the development of its nitric oxide (NO) treatment for
cystic fibrosis. The NO gas boosts the
body’s immune system, improves blood flow and circulation and kills bacteria,
viruses, parasites and fungi.
Stem cell treatment fights radiation
sickness.
Stem cells from Israel’s Pluristem have been used in clinical tests to
successfully treat bone marrow failure following total body exposure to high
doses of radiation.
Treatments in Silicon can target cancer. Scientists at Israel’s
Technion together with MIT and Harvard have discovered that chemotherapeutics,
delivered in tiny silicon containers with nano-sized holes are able to destroy
malignant tumors, whilst avoiding adverse effects on healthy tissue.
Brain neurons study can help fight
Alzheimer’s. Tel Aviv University researchers
discovered that neural networks in the brain preserve memories better than
individual neurons. This new understanding may lead to a breakthrough in
treating debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Pill balloon to control your appetite. Israel biomed company Tulip
Medical has successfully completed its first clinical trial of its pill that
expands in the stomach, inflates like a balloon, and creates a sense of
fullness. The pill was safe with no side
effects. The next trial will test the
pill in an inclusive weight-loss program.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Triplets in Uniform. May, Chen and Shir maybe
triplets, but Shir was born brain-damaged.
19 years later, May and Chen joined the IDF. Thanks to the JNF-supported
Yad Layeled Hameyuchad's "Special in Uniform" program, which
integrates young people with disabilities into the IDF, Shir wasn’t left out.
The vital work of autistic volunteers. Interpreting satellite
images from Israel’s satellites requires long hours of concentration and
constant attention to detail. Volunteers
with autism provide a “win-win” situation for those who previously faced a
bleak future.
Arab
chairman of Israeli elections. Only in Israel could an Israeli-Arab be the
Chairman of the Election Committee. (Video
credit to Sharon Altshul - www.rjstreets.com)
Arabs
and Jews study space science together. The Moona outer space research center in the
Israel-Arab town of Majd Al-Kurum has attracted about 50 Jewish and 50 Muslim
high school students. They attend courses in robotics, drones, 3D printing,
electronics and other technologies related to outer-space exploration.
The
Israeli-Arab at the top of Apple. This article about Apple CEO Tim Cook’s visit
to Israel focuses in on Israeli-Arab Johny Srouji, Apple’s vice president for
hardware technology.
EU praises Israel’s
work for Gaza.
European representatives praised Israel's actions over the past few
months to promote reconstruction in Gaza and ease the humanitarian crisis in
the Strip. They complimented Israel's cooperation with the UN, Israel's
doubling of the water supply to Gaza and the ease on export restrictions from
the Gaza Strip to Israel, the West Bank and abroad.
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/2015/03/eu-praises-israel-slams-pa-and-arabs-on.html#.VP0iC44pqSo
Syrian boy fitted with prosthesis. A 13-year-old Syrian boy who
was seriously injured by a mortar in the Quneitra region three months ago as a
result of the ongoing civil war in Syria was brought to Israel for surgery and
fitted with a prosthetic leg that will allow him to walk again.
Israeli-Australian sustainability
course.
Israel’s Ben Gurion University and Australia’s Monash University have
established the Monash Ben-Gurion Seed Fund to support joint research and
education programs in the areas of Sustainability, Social Inclusion and
Entrepreneurship.
Royal
visit to Israeli aid workers. (TY Hazel) Prince William met relief staff
from the Israeli humanitarian group IsraAID while he was in Japan recently,
visiting areas hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Best App at Mobile World Congress. Israelis Haran Wolfovitz
Yaffe and Omri Erez, developers of the app Fansino, won the 2015 Mobile Premier
Awards “Best App of the Year” at Spain’s Mobile World Congress, the largest
cross-platform app showcase in the mobile industry and attended by around
70,000 people.
Israeli Innovation in San Diego. The Cal-Israel Innovation
Expo beginning 8th May in San Diego will showcase Israeli technologies and
advance opportunities for students with internships, scholarships and jobs.
Israeli sensors for Intel 3D system. Intel has chosen Israel’s
Tower Semiconductor to provide the infrared sensor for one of its new 3D
imaging solutions. Tower’s unique sensor
is a 3.5um global shutter very fast pixel that allows high quantum efficiency
at near infrared light.
Water
technology for Kenya. Kenya’s Governor of Embu County received a
delegation of Israelis who will introduce technology to revolutionize
agriculture in the arid parts of Embu which have fertile soils.
A radical new catalyst. Technion scientists have
developed the alpha hydrogen nitroxyl radical – a new stable class of chemical
that encourages other chemicals to react together without being affected
itself. This has major implications for
chemical and medical industries including plastics, agriculture, biochemistry
and antibiotics.
Singapore and Israel do tech together. (TY Israel21c) Since 1997,
140 joint Israeli-Singaporean industrial R&D projects have been supported
and facilitated through the Singapore-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation
(SIIRD) - a product of Israel’s Office of the Chief Scientist and Singapore’s
Economic Development Board.
Building the largest
automatic parking lot. Israel’s Unitronics Systems has won a $24
million contract to build a robot-operated parking system for one of the
world's leading hotel chains. With 1,400
parking places, it will be North America’s largest automatic parking system. It
can park 3 cars in a single conventional space.
Israeli technology for electric cars. The Advanced Driver
Assistance Systems developed by Bar-Ilan's Professor Eli Kolberg, will be
integrated into the US electric cars built by Electric Vehicle Evolution
(EVE). The systems will reduce risk of
collisions, provide vital data and are a step closer to autonomous vehicles.
BGU research with Arizona Uni. Ben Gurion University and
Arizona State University have signed a joint research agreement. The two universities will cooperate in Cyber
security, Homeland security, Nanotechnology, Robotics, Community medicine,
Space and remote sensing and Sustainability.
PayPal
to start Israeli tech hub. (TY Michelle) Internet
payments giant PayPal has bought Israel’s CyActive to kick-start a larger cyber
security hub in the country, including potentially more acquisitions. CyActive’s “biology-inspired” algorithm
predicts and counters cyber-attacks.
PayPal bought Israel’s FraudSciences in 2008. http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/10/paypal-confirms-acquisition-of-cyactive-plans-to-open-new-security-hub-in-israel/
https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/PayPal-Forward/PayPal-Establishes-New-Security-Center/ba-p/956298
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Stay at an Israeli hotel – in London. Israel's Fattal Hotels Ltd.
is opening its first UK hotel. The company has leased the Holiday Inn Heathrow
Airport in London for 25 years and it will open on March 16 as part of Fattal's
Leonardo hotel chain. Fattal is in talks
to open more hotels in the UK.
Connecting rural Peru
to broadband.
Israel’s Gilat Satellite Networks has won a $286 million contract for
telecommunications infrastructure in Peru.
Gilat will connect the remote rural regions of Huancavelica, Ayacucho
and Apurimac, including about 600 public institutions, to broadband services.
Israeli innovation comes to B.C. The Vancouver Israeli Tech
Club (ITC) is connecting British Columbia’s technology sector to its Israeli
counterpart. Over 200 entrepreneurs,
business leaders, researchers, trade officers, investors and officials from
Israel and B.C. attended an ITC conference at Simon Fraser University. http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Opinion+Israeli+innovation+comes+British+Columbia/10855274/story.html
Turning
the Internet into a language course. (TY Michelle) I reported about Israel’s
Lingua.ly in 2013 when it launched its desktop software that provides students
with suitable Internet articles in the language they are studying. Lingua.ly launched its Android smartphone app
in April and has now raised $1 million of funding.
Quiet
trade with Indonesia. (TY Michelle) Although Indonesia is the
largest Muslim country and has no official diplomatic relations, annual trade with
Israel is around $400-500 million, almost 88 percent of which is Indonesian
exports. Indonesia exports commodities to Israel while Israel sends back mostly
high-tech products.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Michael
Douglas wins Genesis Prize. (TY Size Doesn’t
Matter) US actor Michael Douglas is returning to Israel in June to receive the
2015 Genesis Prize, for his contribution to contemporary Jewish culture. Douglas said that he will donate his prize
money to projects that promote inclusiveness in the Jewish community.
Israeli wins Euro triple jump medal. Hanna Knyazyeva-Minenko
became the first Israeli woman to win a medal at the European Indoor
Championships on Sunday, finishing the triple jump final in third place with a
new national record of 14.49 meters. Her
next target is August’s World Championships in Beijing, China.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sports/Knyazyeva-Minenko-wins-historic-medal-in-Euro-indoors-393338
THE JEWISH STATE
Israel honors
groundbreaking Israelis. (TY Hazel) Fourteen outstanding Israelis have
been chosen to light the ceremonial torches at Israel's official Independence
Day ceremony at the Mount Herzl national cemetery in Jerusalem. They include hi-tech developers,
entrepreneurs, top women achievers and aid workers. One of them, Lucy Aharish, is the first
Hebrew-speaking Arab anchor on Israeli television.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4634723,00.html
https://il.newshub.org/arab-israeli-tv-host-chosen-to-light-independence-day-beacon-answers-critics-13158028.html
Hundreds
attend Jerusalem Aliya fair. Nearly 1000 young French Masa participants
gathered at the Jerusalem Theater to learn about their options if they make
Aliya. Most Masa students emigrate. In
France, the Jewish Agency holds two information seminars a day, whereas a year
ago it held only one a month.
150308
In the 8th Mar 2015 edition of Israel’s
good news, the highlights include:
·
Innovative Israeli chemotherapy can
treat ovarian and brain tumors.
·
Disabled kids will use
Israeli-developed harnesses to “run” the Jerusalem marathon.
·
An Israeli industrial battery has no
chemicals and can be recharged unlimitedly.
·
The River Jordan will be much cleaner
with the opening of a new wastewater plant.
·
Technology from Jerusalem’s Hebrew
University launched 9 new companies last year.
·
See how the festival of Purim was
celebrated in the Jewish State.
·
Last week’s JPost Israel Good News
descriptive summary. Click here for “Far
Out Miracles From Israel” (fast-loading version, no adverts). Also on Jerusalem
Post, San
Diego Jewish World and United
with Israel.
·
Click here to see the newsletter on Jewish
Business News, Israel
News Zone, IsraelSeen,
Ruthfully
Yours, IsraPundit, Janglo,
and United
With Israel, featuring medical
and global
impact.
Page Down for more details on these and
other good news stories from Israel.
Thank You Michelle for many of the links.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Ovarian cancer
treatment works for brain tumors too. I reported in Mar 2014 that Professor Dan
Peer of Tel Aviv University had developed chemotherapy using nano-particles to
target ovarian tumors. It has now been
engineered to target Glioblastoma multiforme - the most aggressive of brain
cancer.
Israeli snack prevents peanut allergy. Long ago, UK Professor
Gideon Lack discovered that hardly any Israeli infants developed peanut
allergy. Now his new study has proved
that the reason is the common practice of feeding Israeli children the peanut
snack Bamba. It reverses conventional
“wisdom” of avoiding peanuts.
Helping premature babies to hear. Without mentioning he is
Israeli, the BBC
World Service featured Dr Amir
Lahav who has proved that the sound centers in preemies’ brains grow
quicker when played recordings of their mothers’ voice. So follow Dr Lahav’s fascinating
journey from the IDF, to volleyball coach, to musician, software designer,
neuroscientist and Harvard pediatric professor.
Israelis are among the world’s
healthiest eaters.
A new study in February’s The Lancet Global Health Journal places the
diet of the average Israeli the 9th healthiest out of 187 countries
surveyed. The study, led by Dr Fumiaki
Imamura of the University of Cambridge, covered 4.5 billion people.
Understanding irregular heartbeats. Researchers at Israel’s
Weizmann Institute have revealed the detailed mechanisms that control the
beating of the heart. Heart disease can
cause individual heart filaments to lose synchronization. Replacing diseased cells in a structured
manner can re-establish a regular rhythm.
Microlabs in space. (TY Michelle) Israeli
innovations in space include SpacePharma’s laboratory that fits in the palm of
your hand and will orbit in a nano-satellite, allowing scientists to conduct
experiments and watch them happen on their smart phones.
Boost for ALS and diabetes treatment. Israel’s Kadimastem’s
recent news includes success in pre-clinical
tests of its stem cell treatment for ALS.
The technology also induces pancreatic cells to produce insulin and
Kadimastem has begun
research with Ramot, Tel Aviv University’s technology transfer company.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Israeli maternity hotels. Hospitals across Israel
have opened top-notch maternity hotels to help new mums and babies rest and
recuperate after the birth.
Disabled kids train
for Jerusalem marathon. 20 dedicated Jerusalem police officers are helping residents of
ALEH to train for the Jerusalem marathon on 13 March. ALEH provides
comprehensive care to children and young adults with severe impairments. Some will be using the Israeli-developed
Upsee mobility harness.
How a Catholic Filipino became an IDF
soldier.
Aaron comes from a Catholic family, originally from the
Philippines. He was born and raised in
Herzliya and knew from a very young age that he wanted to take part in
defending the country. He has just
completed advanced IDF training in the Nahal Brigade.
Coexistence through "the beautiful
game".
Jews, Circassians, Muslim and Christian Arabs all play together at the
Maccabi Haifa-Nahalal youth football academy in Northern Israel’s Jezreel
Valley. The soccer squad consists of 13
year-old players, from city and countryside.
One team with one aim - to enjoy the game.
Mohammed Zoabi completes IDF prep
program.
Mohammed Zoabi, cousin of anti-Israel MK Hanin Zoabi, has just completed
Gadna, a program that gives Israeli high school students a basic introduction
to the IDF. “Today I feel proud. Proud to be Israeli, proud to be an Israeli
Muslim joining the army in less than two years.”
Palestinian Arab earnings. A survey conducted by the
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, funded by the European Union, shows
that Palestinian Arabs who work in Israel or Israeli settlements are paid more
than double the wage of those employed by the Palestinian Authority and triple
those working in Gaza.
Doubling Gaza’s water supply. Israel is to increase water
supplies from 1.3 to 2.6 billion gallons to help ease the ongoing water crisis
in Gaza.
Training Indian farmers. (TY Michelle) Details of
some of the 30 agricultural centers of excellence that Israel is in the process
of opening in India. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/israel-plans-to-set-up-30-centres-of-excellence-in-india-to-train-farmers/article6923728.ece
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Unlimited recharging. Israel’s Chakratec develops
kinetic batteries with a mechanical flywheel to provide smart storage with
unlimited charge/discharge cycles and no polluting chemicals. Chakratec has just won Ben-Gurion University’s
Clean Technology Business Plan Competition.
http://www.chakratec.com/
The State’s highest honors. The Israel Prize in Life
Sciences Research went to Weizmann’s Professor Zelig Eshhar for his
breakthrough approach to treating diseases, particularly cancer. Another Weizmann Professor, Shimon Ullman
won the Mathematics and Computer Science Research prize for his artificial
intelligence work.
The coolest startup office in Israel. Take a tour round the
office of Israeli video messaging startup Glide, located at the Jerusalem
Technology Park.
Apple seeks Israeli chip technology. (TY Michelle) The Wall St
Journal reports that Apple is advertising in Israel for silicon and
semiconductor design and testing engineers.
It also notes that Johny Srouji, Apple’s Vice President of hardware
technologies, is an Israeli Arab from Haifa.
The smartwatch designed by Israelis. No Camels has revealed that
two
Israelis are responsible for designing the latest generation of Pebble Time
smartwatches. Itai Vonshak is head of
product and UX and Liron Damir is head of design. The company has raised over
$14 million in just six days on Kickstarter
– a new record.
US grant for Israeli agriculture
research.
Aiming to boost crop yields of plants like chickpeas and soybeans, the
Hebrew University’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and
Environment has been awarded a $789,000 grant from the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID).
Building microchip tools with New York. (TY Michelle) The State
University of New York is partnering with Israel’s Office of the Chief
Scientist to develop critical
tools for the semiconductor industry.
New joint Italian-Israeli science labs. Italy and Israel have
established a neurology and brain laboratory in Tel Aviv, a solar laboratory in
Sde Boker, a health sciences laboratory at Ben Gurion University, and a physics
and magnetism laboratory at the Weizman Institute. A joint outer space
laboratory has also been founded.
Turn your smartphone into a tricorder. (TY Michelle) The optical
filters developed by Israel’s Unispectral can identify an object’s
hyperspectral signature – its unique chemical fingerprint. Applied to a smartphone camera, the data can
be used to determine the object’s chemical components. Like a Star-Trek tricorder.
Wastewater plant
refreshes River Jordan. Israel’s Water Authority has opened a new treatment facility for
wastewater from the city of Tiberias.
The NIS 120 million-shekel project brings an end to a situation in which
raw sewage flow was endangering the vitality of the Jordan River.
Saving Australia’s water. (TY Michelle) I featured Israel’s TaKaDu in January. Here is a more detailed report about the
billions of liters of water that TaKaDu’s unique leaks and faults detection
technology is saving in Australia’s parched states.
Grow more, water less. Israel’s CropX has
developed an advanced adaptive irrigation software service, increasing crop
yields whilst saving up to 25% of the water and energy used in irrigation of
large fields. Three sensors placed in
the ground send readings into the Cloud and CropX determines where to irrigate.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Israeli economy is stable. International credit rating
agency Standard & Poor's affirmed its 'A+/A-1' long- and short-term foreign
and local currency sovereign credit ratings on the State of Israel, with a
stable outlook. The forthcoming
elections are not expected to undermine prudent public finances and government
debt control.
Tel Aviv – the world’s 3rd best tech
city. Tel
Aviv is the third best place in the world for technology business, according to
a new report by property consultants Savills. The scores were measured
according to five metrics: business environment, tech environment, quality of
life, talent pool and property affordability.
Trade with China. (TY Michelle) Israeli
exports to China have risen from $1 billion in 2010 to over $3 billion last
year. Half are electronic components,
chemicals, or medical products. But the
biggest rise was IT services.
And with Japan. (TY Michelle) In 2014,
trade between Japan and Israel rose by 9.3% to $1.75 billion and there has been
a recent surge in Japanese investments in Israel in a variety of hi-tech
fields. (Writer Ohad Cohen heads
Israel’s foreign commercial service, with 40 trade offices operating in more
than 50 countries.)
Talk Talk partners with LivePerson. UK telecom giant Talk Talk
has selected LiveEngage from Israel’s LivePerson to deliver its new chat
service for customers requiring fast, on-line, real-time assistance.
Meerkat – a side project that took off. (TY Michelle) The Wall St
Journal features a story about an Israeli startup that switched its main
product when its co-founder built a new mobile application in eight weeks.
Hebrew U launches 9
companies.
Yissum, the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, founded nine new companies in 2014 on the basis of technology
originating at the university.
Israel had most UK IPOs in 2014. (TY Atid-EDI) More Israeli companies had new
listings on the London Stock Exchange in 2014 than from any country outside of
the UK itself. Two (Matomy Media and
Barak Capital) floated on the main market and seven more on the AIM secondary
market.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Holon Women’s festival. This year’s Woman’s
Festival in Holon begins on International Woman’s Day – March 8. 2015 is also the 75th anniversary of the
founding of Holon, so the festival program takes in 75 different slots across
all kinds of fields of interest and the arts.
Indonesian pianist prodigy visits
Israel.
11-year-old jazz pianist Joey Alexander performed at the Red Sea Jazz
festival in Eilat. A Christian native
of Moslem Indonesia, which has no diplomatic relations with the Jewish State,
Joey managed to obtain the three visas necessary to enter Israel.
New Biblical zoo. One of its goals of the
Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh is to bring Jews back in
touch with biblical wildlife, such as lions, leopards, bears, vultures,
crocodiles, and hippos. “Be bold as a
leopard, light as an eagle, swift as a deer, and strong as a lion to do the
will of your Father in Heaven.”
THE JEWISH STATE
“Israel is Good.” Governor Mike Huckabee
knows the difference between good and evil.
Please watch his speech at United With Israel’s event to celebrate 3
million supporters. (This newsletter
editor appears in the video clip at exactly 1 minute, holding his trusty
PC-Notebook.)
They may not be who they say they are. As Israelis prepared
costumes to celebrate the Jewish festival of Purim, children at one Israeli
school produced a fancy-dressed message to publicize Safe Internet Week.
Purim in Israel. I hope you enjoy these
scenes of the festival of Purim being celebrated all over Israel.
150301
In the 1st Mar 2015 edition of Israel’s
good news, the highlights include:
·
Israeli scientists have isolated a
safe virus that eliminates antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
·
Nigeria has praised Israel for helping
it counter Boko Haram.
·
Lufthansa are using Israeli-developed
Taxibots to tow their aircraft and save fuel.
·
Israel and Jordan have signed an
historic water agreement.
·
Israel’s IronSource is now a
billion-dollar company.
·
An amazing video showing Jerusalem’s
mayor apprehending a terrorist.
·
Last week’s JPost Israel Good News
descriptive summary. Click here for “Israel
Educates for Life” (fast-loading version, no adverts). Also on Jerusalem
Post, IsraelSeen,
San
Diego Jewish World and United With Israel.
·
Click here to see the newsletter on Jewish
Business News, Israel
News Zone, IsraelSeen,
Ruthfully
Yours, IsraPundit,
Janglo,
and United
With Israel (featuring medicine,
technology,
culture
and global
impact).
Page Down for more details on these and
other good news stories from Israel.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
A virus that kills
resistant bacteria infections. Researchers from the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem have isolated (from Jerusalem sewage) a “safe” virus EFDG1, which can
kill the bacteria infections associated with up to 33% of root canal
treatments. EFDG1 eradicates even
antibiotic-resistant strains of the bacteria.
BrainTech 2015. The international
conference BrainTech 2015 in Tel Aviv, beginning 11th March, features
neuroscientists, entrepreneurs, senior executives, investors, startups and
decision-makers who will explore challenges, discover promising projects,
create partnerships and accelerate innovation in brain technology.
http://itrade.gov.il/us-dc/2015/02/16/startup-nation-brain-nation/ http://conference.israelbrain.org/
Monitoring
mental illness by smartphone. Israel’s LifeGraph has developed a
smartphone-based platform for monitoring mental illness. LifeGraph detects changes in a patient’s
sleep, social communication, mobility and speech. It provides psychiatrists
with innovative insight into the behavioral patterns of the patient.
The nose-to-brain express route. A major problem in treating
mental illness is in overcoming the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) with effective
medication. Israel’s SipNose has
developed an innovative nasal delivery device platform that can penetrate the
BBB and provide fast, non-invasive treatment to patients.
Opening up the inner workings of the
brain. As
Tel Aviv prepares to host the 2015 BrainTech conference, Professor Henry
Markram (formerly of Israel’s Weizmann Institute) outlined the goals and
activities of the Human Brain Project, of which he is co-director.
Fooling the malaria parasite. Back in Dec 2012 I reported
how Dr Ron Dzikowski at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem had discovered the
genetic reason why malaria was so difficult to treat. Now Professor Dzikowski and other HUJ scientists have used
the discovery to disrupt the parasite’s defense mechanism.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Making nature accessible. During Jewish Disability
Awareness Month, please read this special blog by Raz Rutman about accessible
hiking trails in Israel. Raz, a
wheelchair user since age eight, is doing his national service with the
non-profit LOTEM, dedicated to making Israeli nature accessible to people with
special needs.
Safer Internet for kids. On Feb 8, the Ministry of
Education launched the Annual National Week for Online Safety Education in
Israel. Throughout the state
educational system, students engaged in classroom and online activities to
increase Internet safety awareness, reduce potential risks, and deal with harmful
online incidents.
Israel moves water pumps into Gaza. Israeli authorities helped
alleviate flooding in Gaza from recent rains by transferring four pumps from
the Palestinian Authority into the Gaza Strip.
(Contrary to AFP fake report)
Israeli aid for Iraqi children. Israeli aid organization
IsraAid has been helping Kurdish, Yazidi and Christian refugees in northern
Iraq who have escaped Islamic State rule.
IsraAid founding director Shachar Zahavi said the goal now was to help
provide a schooling framework for the children.
Last chance for Iraqi infant. This heart-wrenching story
describes how Iraqi Christian refugees, escaping from IS, finally reached
Israel where their baby daughter Maryam can be treated for her hole in the
heart.
Hispanic media tour Israel. Top U.S. Latino Media and
Entertainment leaders have been visiting Israel in a pioneering initiative to
explore joint ventures, scout location sites, and share best practices with
their Israeli counterparts.
Israeli help is
crucial for Nigeria. A Nigerian government spokesman has stated that Israel has been a
crucial and loyal ally in the fight against the radical Islamic terrorist group
Boko Haram. He said that Nigeria’s
Israeli partners have used their experience fighting terrorism to provide
Nigeria with the required training and support.
Countering cyber threats in Azerbaijan. (TY Michelle) Israel is
helping the government of Azerbaijan defend itself against a growing number of
cyber security attacks.
Helping Canada release its
‘entrepreneurial genie’. (TY Michelle) Canada’s universities recently convened a meeting
of innovation leaders from Israel, Germany and Canada to share insights into
their respective national innovation systems, with an eye to strengthening the
Canadian system.
The “Israel-Ukraine Tech Bridge”. (TY Michelle) Despite its
current problems, the Ukraine wants to become a Startup Nation like
Israel. A new joint program, entitled
“Israel-Ukraine Tech Bridge,” has started with a series of conferences offered
in Kyiv (Kiev) by top representatives of the Israeli tech community.
Rwanda strengthens ties with Israel. (TY Michelle) East African
nation Rwanda's ICT Chamber announced that it has selected Israel to strengthen
business ties and study best practices in business, innovation, workforce
development and promote investment. Israel was Rwanda’s “country of choice”.
Uni votes to invest in Israel. Yes it’s not a
misprint. “Invest”, not “divest”. The Student Government Association of the
University of Georgia on Tuesday passed the first college resolution this year
calling for the school to invest more in its relations with Israel. It is the
third such resolution ever to be passed.
Academic conference to take place in Tel
Aviv. The
21st Association of Young Legal Historians is to be held in Tel Aviv, beginning
1st Mar - the first time in 20 years that the conference will convene outside
Europe.
Kosovo seeks Israeli recognition. Kosovo’s former
foreign minister Enver Hoxhaj, speaking at the Israel Council on Foreign
Relations, said that the rise of the State of Israel was seen as a model for
Kosovo in its struggle for independence and expressed admiration for the
achievements of the Jewish state.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The future of long-distance
relationships.
The latest youtube from Israel’s Glide shows how their video messaging
technology can really enhance the lives that people share together – even when
they are apart.
Natural remedies for pests. Israel’s Bio-Bee plant in
Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, Israel, is leading the operation to eradicate Israel’s
infestation by the Asian palm weevil.
Bio-Bee is importing 42 billion harmless nematode worms from Germany,
which kill the weevil’s larvae. It is
also using special odor traps from Spain.
Safe filtration technology. The National Sanitation
Foundation International (NSF) has certified the major product lines of
Israel’s Amiad Water Systems. NSF
evaluated that the water produced by Amiad’s automatic self-cleaning screen and
microfibre technology is safe for human consumption across the USA and Canada.
Technology to rehabilitate at home. Israel’s Meditouch manufactures innovative physical therapy
solutions for hospital, primary and home care use. Meditouch’s wearable movement biofeedback devices and dedicated
rehabilitation software are used in clinic and at home to motivate patients to
exercise and improve movement. The
system has been adopted by the Kennedy Krieger Rehabilitation hospital in
Baltimore.
TaxiBot starts towing
Lufthansa jets.
Lufthansa has commenced operations with the Taxibot towing system
developed by Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.
Lufthansa said that TaxiBot could save up to 2,700 tonnes of fuel at
Frankfurt Airport per year, plus reduce noise and exhaust emissions.
Israeli technology for UK sport. (TY Hazel) Future Israel -
an initiative of Israel's Economic & Trade Mission to the UK - is bringing
over a group of 20 Israeli companies with solutions and technologies for the
British sporting establishments including broadcasters, arenas and sports
clubs.
Touchfree smartphone wins $1million
prize. (TY
Michelle) A disabled individual can operate the Israeli-developed Sesame Enable
smartphone simply by moving their head.
The smartphone has just won the $1 million top prize in the Education
category of the Verizone Powerful Answers Award.
Building starts on Med Sea research
labs. Haifa
University and the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute
laid the cornerstone of the new deep-sea research labs for Haifa’s
Mediterranean Sea Research Center. The
lab will develop underwater robots, vehicles, optics, acoustics and propulsion
systems.
Talking the same language. (TY Michelle) The new
Empath app from Israeli startup Beyond Verbal recognizes human moods, attitudes
and emotional characteristics from human voice intonations in real-time. Beyond
Verbal has registered 18 scientific discoveries and a battery of patents for
enabling machines to recognize human emotions.
Saving the Dead Sea. Israel and Jordan have
signed an historic agreement to implement the Red Sea-Dead Sea rescue pipeline
project. The $800 million agreement
authorizes the construction of a 65 to 80 million cubic meter capacity
desalination plant in Aqaba, Jordan that will produce fresh water to benefit
both nations.
Don’t waste a second to launch your
apps.
Israel’s Impris has launched “Super Launcher for Android”. Now you can open your favorite smartphone
apps without even looking at the screen.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Unemployment down to 5.6%. The percentage of
unemployed Israelis aged 15 and over in the workforce fell to 5.6% in January,
from 5.7% in December. The unemployed
rate between ages 25-64 fell to 4.8% in a growing workforce. More people are now employed in full time
jobs.
Lighting up NASDAQ. (TY Michelle) SolarEdge,
founded by five veterans of the IDF 8200 Intelligence Corps, has applied for a
NASDAQ listing that will value the company at around $500 million. SolarEdge’s technology maximizes the energy
collected by solar panels and has been installed in 73 countries.
Startup investing for the public. Israeli startup Exit Valley
has launched a “crowdfunding” investment platform. It allows private individuals to invest as little as NIS 1000 in
a startup company. If the startup fails
to reach its target funding within a fixed time period, all monies are returned
to the individuals.
India’s matchmaking with Israeli
businesses. (TY Michelle) The purchase of Israel’s Panaya by India’s Infosys
is just the beginning. When Israeli
startups engage with Indian companies it gives cutting-edge technology for
Indian companies and wider market access for products developed by Israeli firms.
So it’s a win-win situation. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/461679/israel-focus-big-plank-panaya.html
Another billion-dollar
Israeli company. (TY Michelle) After only 5
years, Israeli startup IronSource’s latest round of funding values the app
delivery company at over $1billion.
Every day IronSource’s software installs over 7 million applications
onto desktops and mobiles.
Apple’s boss comes to Israel. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook opened
Apple’s new offices in Herzliya. He
also met Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
Alongside Cook for the trip was Johny Srugi, Apple’s Vice President of
Hardware Technologies - a graduate of Technion, Israel’s Institute of
Technology.
Learn the secret of Israeli success. (TY Michelle) The Israeli
business school Lahav Executive Education is part of the Recanati Business
School at Tel Aviv University. Lahav
offers its international students some of “the secrets behind ‘Jewish genius’
and Israeli success” as a pre-eminent “start-up nation”.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Look down to see 3000 years of history. The Kishle building
adjacent to Jerusalem’s Tower of David shows a unique timeline. Its excavation
reveals a treasure trove - layer upon layer of history, back to the First
Temple.
Jerusalem’s market swings at night. (TY Size Doesn’t Matter)
One night every year in mid-winter, Machane Yehuda, Jerusalem’s main outdoor
market, changes its face. The lanes fill up with diverse crowds: fun-seekers
and cultural mavens who take the regular shoppers by surprise.
Gregory Porter to perform in Israel. Gregory Porter, winner of
the 2014 Grammy for the best vocal jazz album - Liquid Spirit, makes his
Israeli debut in March. Porter is a unique jazz singer who tells stories with
his caressing baritone voice and presents an evening of jazz, soul and blues.
European Chess Championship has a
stunning opening.
248 international chess stars from 33 countries, including 112
grandmasters, enjoyed “the best opening ever” of the 2015 European Chess
Championship in Jerusalem. Mind reading
magic acts and percussion performances replaced the normal boring speeches.
THE JEWISH STATE
Jerusalem’s Shemitta Park: An Experience
in Jewish Values. (TY Ilene) In Israel, every 7th
year is “Shemitta” when the land “rests” and its population becomes more
spiritual. Religious leaders,
politicians, soldiers and children discovered more at Jerusalem’s Botanical
Gardens newest attraction – its Shemitta Park.
Israel’s “gold coast”. Scuba divers have
discovered the largest trove of gold coins ever found off Israel's
Mediterranean coast. Members of a
diving club in Caesarea uncovered nearly 2000 gold pieces dating back more than
1000 years. The Israeli Antiquities
Authority said the find was "so valuable that it's priceless".
Jerusalem mayor
tackles terrorism – personally. Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat stopped a terrorist,
who had seconds earlier committed a stabbing in Tzahal Square. Barkat - an ex IDF paratrooper - saw the
incident, got out of his car and when his bodyguard convinced the attacker to
drop his knife, Barkat wrestled him to the ground. http://www.timesofisrael.com/watch-jerusalem-mayor-pins-down-terrorist/
150222
In the 22nd Feb 2015 week’s edition of
Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
·
An award-winning Israeli website
provides individually tailored medical advice.
·
The BBC praises an Israeli
surgeon’s reconstruction of an injured Syrian’s face.
·
Israel is producing vast quantities of
desalinated water at the lowest cost in the world.
·
10% of all Israeli high-school
children attend a Sci-Tech school.
·
Israel’s economy experienced a huge
boost in the final quarter of 2014.
·
An Israeli terror victim has married
the hospital visitor who helped him recover.
·
Last week’s JPost Israel Good News
descriptive summary.
Click here for “A
Green and Pleasant Land" (fast-loading version, no adverts). Also on Jerusalem
Post and San
Diego Jewish World.
·
Click here to see the newsletter on Jewish
Business News, IsraelSeen,
Ruthfully
Yours, Janglo,
and United
With Israel.
Page Down for more details on these and
other good news stories from Israel. My
thanks to Michelle for the links to more than a dozen of the articles -
highlighted by “(M)” below.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Winning medical
advice. (Israel21c) Israeli
startup Medivizor uses patent-pending technology to find the most essential
information applicable for each individual’s medical situation. Medivizor won 4 prestigious competitions in
2014, was highlighted by Forbes and is recommended by doctors to their
patients.
A traffic-light pacemaker. (M) A joint Israeli-UK
project is testing whether a pacemaker emitting pulsating blue and yellow light
can be used to regulate the beating of newly implanted heart tissue generated
by stem cells. Also interesting because
the UK’s Independent newspaper rarely includes any positive Israeli news.
ReWalk makes miracles possible. (M) Here’s a rare positive
Israel article from CNN. It describes
the exoskeleton from Israel’s ReWalk that is changing the lives of
paraplegics. People previously confined
to wheelchairs can now walk upright once again. (Stop video after 2 minutes.)
Turning darkness into light. (Israel21c) Ben-Gurion
University is hosting “Light and Blindness” - a full-day exhibition of
research-and-development activities in Israel designed to improve the quality
of life for people with visual impairment.
It includes a startup contest and the opening of a trail for the blind.
Boost for ice treatment to destroy
tumors.
Israeli biotech IceCure Medical has received $21 million of funds from
Epoch Partner Investments to speed up the sales and distribution of its
IceSense3 cryoablation system to treat breast cancer. IceSense3 uses extreme cold to destroy targeted tumors in less
than 15 mins, with no pain.
$9 million donation to fight cancer. Philanthropists Laura and
Isaac Perlmutter have pledged $3 million to finance six joint cancer research
projects between NY University and Israel’s Technion, plus a further $6 million
to establish a state-of-the-art research facility focusing on cancer
metabolomics at the Technion.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Taking inclusion to a larger level. (Thanks to Nevet – www.broaderview.org) A report about two
IDF bases where “special” soldiers with disabilities perform important
jobs. IDF service helps integrate the
disabled into society and the workforce.
It also educates and changes the attitudes of IDF personnel without
disabilities.
Israeli-Arabs flourish at Technion. (M) As the Bloomberg
journalist admits, “Here’s a little-told success story:” Israeli Arabs, women
in particular, have made huge strides over the past decade at the Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology, better known as Israel’s answer to MIT.
BBC applauds Israeli
op on Syrian’s face. (Thanks to Eli) The BBC describes the amazing reconstruction work
that Israeli surgeon Yoav Leiser of Haifa’s Rambam hospital performed on
Mohammad – a Syrian farmer whose face was shattered in an attack by a Syrian
warplane. A rare positive Israel story
from the BBC. Also a report (thanks
Michelle) on the $10 million plus spent by Israel in the last 18 months
treating 1500 Syrians.
UN-Israeli workshop on renewable energy. The UN Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE) and Israel’s Agency for International Development
Cooperation (MASHAV) organized a workshop to teach successful renewable energy
practices and energy efficiency technologies to 23 experts and policymakers
from across Eurasia.
Hong Kong students experience Startup
Nation. (M)
50 Hong Kong university and secondary students got the chance to see firsthand
the secrets to Israeli entrepreneurial success, thanks to a six-day trip
co-organized by the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) and Li Ka Shing
Foundation.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The most efficient
desalination plant in the world. (M) Israel’s new Sorek desalination plant is
now at full capacity, producing 627,000 cubic meters of drinking water daily.
With the lowest rate of energy consumption in the world, its water is the
cheapest of any large-scale desalination plant.
Washington to host US-Israeli cyber
security conference. The Israel Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) will
hold its 5th annual Defensive Cyberspace Operations & Intelligence
Conference and Exhibition in Washington, DC, April 27-28, 2015. This is the
first INSS cyber conference to be held in the US.
Israel establishes Cyber Defense
Authority.
Israel’s cabinet has approved the establishment of a national cyber
defense authority which will have overall national responsibility for cyber
defense. It will also operate an a
Cyber Event Readiness Team to strengthen the resilience of organizations and
sectors in the economy.
The importance of technology and
education.
(M) Graduates of Israel Technion have won 4 Nobel Prizes and have either
founded or are managing two-thirds of the Israeli companies on NASDAQ. Technion’s President Peretz Lavie describes
why Israel’s foremost technical institute has been so successful.
Israeli Sci-Tech
schools.
100,000 Israeli kids - 10 percent of all Israeli high school students
(Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze) - attend a Sci-Tech school. The Sci-Tech network builds curricula based
on the demand for professionals in various Israeli industries, and it currently
has 18 industrial vocational schools.
Israeli cleantech in Germany. Nine Israeli cleantech
companies attended Leipzig’s Green Ventures Forum – Germany’s leading B2B
platform in the cleantech arena. Thanks
to the Israeli Economic Office in Berlin and Israel NewTech, Israeli companies
held over a hundred meetings with companies from over 30 countries.
Technion’s new hi-tech student lab. Israel’s Technion and
Microsoft have together built a development lab that resembles that of a
startup company. Students can develop
innovative technologies that will add to the “Internet of Things” –
Internet-enabled devices and applications to rival anything a hi-tech company
can design.
Your TV interacts with your smartphone. (M) Israel’s Applicaster
lets you watch a program on your TV set whilst interacting with the program and
its characters on your smartphone.
Applicaster has released more than 100 mobile apps for 36 broadcasters,
including Fox International and Mediacorp.
Israeli technology with every diamond. (M) If you’ve got a diamond
on your finger, there’s an 80% chance it’s been touched by Israel’s
Sarine. (Stop the automatic video sequence
at the end of the Sarine clip)
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
GDP up 7.2%; exports
up 7.3%.
Israel's economy expanded at its fastest rate in almost eight years in
the fourth quarter, with overall GDP growing an annualized 7.2 percent,
following previous estimates of 3.3%.
The recovery was seen in all segments – exports, Government spending,
investment and business GDP.
New car deliveries up 23%. Israeli demand for new cars
is a key indicator of economic optimism.
So the 23% rise in deliveries in Jan 2015 compared to Jan 2014 (itself a
record month) was significant. http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-highest-ever-monthly-car-deliveries-1001006986
An all-Israeli cyber takeover. Israel’s strength in cyber
security was evidenced when Israel’s SuperCom acquired Israel’s PreVision. SuperCom’s NASDAQ share price has risen
1600% in two years.
Aiming to transform London’s banking. (M) 15 Israeli financial
technologies startups will showcase their innovation to UK finance leaders in
London on March 2-5. The 15 won their
places in the 2015 TeXchange Fintech challenge, organized by the UK Israel Tech
Hub at the British Embassy in Israel.
The Rhode Island – Israel partnership. (M) Rhode Island has
followed the path set by its New England neighbor Massachusetts and developed
strong business relationships with the Startup Nation. Latest joint projects include R-I Hospital
with Israel’s Timocco and Crawford HPC with Israel’s Softwheel.
Israeli business leaders open London
Stock Exchange.
(M) Sorry - I missed this originally. On 17 Nov 2014 a delegation of CEOs/CFOs
from Israeli companies formally
opened the day’s trading on the London Stock Exchange. https://twitter.com/ukinisrael/status/534344480158388224
Infosys to buy Israeli auto-tech company. (M) India’s giant IT
company Infosys is acquiring Israel’s Panaya Inc for $200 million in cash. Panaya was among the top 100 global tech
start-ups in 2009. It provides
automation technology for companies such as Mercedes Benz, Sony and Unilever.
http://indianexpress.com/article/business/companies/infosys-to-buy-israeli-start-up-for-200-million/
Apple’s new Israeli offices. (M) Take a look inside
Apple’s new offices for its 800 employees in Herzliya. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook is scheduled to open
the offices this week.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Seven species book wins international
award.
Chana Bracha Siegelbaum’s book “The Seven Fruits of the Land of Israel”
has just received two prestigious Gourmand Awards for 2015. Chana delves into the mystical and medicinal
properties of Israel’s seven Biblical food crops, while also offering pages of
wholesome recipes.
Raining chocolates in Tel Aviv. The 3-day Tel Aviv
Chocolate Festival featured chocolate shwarmas and kebabs, to chocolate
jewelry, sculptures, chocolate sushi-making and even a chocolate spa. 20,000
attended.
Israeli glass on display. Tel Aviv’s Eretz Israel
Museum is displaying the works of 62 Israeli glass artists. They range from tiny and intimate objects to
large sculptures, from wall hangings to floor and ceiling works, and from
room-size installations to conceptual works.
Night-surfing in the Med. (Thanks to SDM) About 40
Israeli surfers took part in a night-surfing competition in the Mediterranean
Sea off Ashdod, southern Israel. Gil Beach is one of the best places to catch
waves in Israel and Ashdod set up special lights there for night surfing
several years ago.
THE JEWISH STATE
Bulgaria terror victim
weds woman who helped him recover. Daniel Fahima, was critically wounded in the
Burgas, Bulgaria terror attack two years ago, which killed five other Israeli
tourists. He has just married the woman who sat by his bedside while he was in
the hospital, helping him get through a long period of recovery.
Borrow the book at the bus stop. A reminder that Israel’s
bus stop libraries are still operating and expanding - such as the new library
at Emek Refayim in Jerusalem. Borrowed
books can be returned to any branch.
Adversity inspires entrepreneurship. (Thanks to Israel21c) It
was a chance in a million that Tel Aviv married couple Michael and Jessica
would both develop Type 1 diabetes after the birth of their first child. They
used their “misfortune”, however, to help them found the popular diabetes
on-line magazine “ASweetLife”.
Above and Beyond. “Above and Beyond”,
screened at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival, is the story of Israel’s Air
Force. Produced by Nancy Spielberg
(sister of Steven), it tells of the miraculous events involving volunteers who
risked their lives in order to secure a Jewish homeland. Highly recommended.
Leading lost Jews to the Promised Land. A detailed profile of
Michael Freund, founder of Shavei Israel - an organization dedicated to
returning to Israel, people with a tradition that trace their ancestry to Jews
exiled from the Jewish homeland. http://tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/189072/becoming-moses
The land of blue and white. The colors of the Israeli
flag have been replicated in the recent weather of the Jewish State. Blue skies earlier in the week turned into
dense white clouds, precipitating rain into blue rivers and lakes. And then white snow enveloped the country
from the Golan, to Jerusalem and the Negev desert.
150215
In the 15th Feb 2015 week’s edition of
Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
·
Israeli textiles impregnated with
nano-particles kill bacteria in hospitals.
·
An Israeli NGO gives trauma counseling
to workers treating Ebola victims.
·
An Israeli startup has launched a
personal system to grow crops without soil.
·
A new Israeli solar energy plant will
generate solar power 20 hours a day.
·
Israel’s NICE Systems and Intel Israel
exceeded billion-dollar earnings in 2014.
·
United With Israel celebrates 3
million supporters.
·
Last week’s JPost Israel Good News
descriptive summary.
Click here for “Version
2 of the Startup Nation” (fast-loading version, no adverts).
Also on Jerusalem
Post, San
Diego Jewish World and United
With Israel.
·
Click here to see the newsletter on Jewish
Business News, Israel
News Zone, IsraelSeen,
Ruthfully
Yours, IsraPundit,
Janglo,
and United With Israel.
Page Down for more details on these and
other good news stories from Israel.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Preventing hospital
infections.
Another Israeli company is countering the risk of contracting infections
in hospital. Nano-Textiles coats hospital textiles (bed linen and clothing)
with nano-particles of Zinc and Copper oxides that kill even
antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Nano-Textiles plans to raise $3 million on Wall Street.
More good news for brain tumor patients. (Thanks to Israel21c) Here
is a new report about the TTFields scalp device from Israel’s Novocure that
slows the growth of brain tumors.
(Previously reported in Nov 2014).
New devices to diagnose pneumonia. (Thanks to Israel21c) Two
Israeli startups have received Israeli Government grants to develop their
products for diagnosing pneumonia.
RespiDX’s Respimometer has sensors to measure breathing. NanoVation-GS’s stick-on patch has a film
with a nano-sensor to measure respiration.
Accurate injections. Israeli biotech SteadyMed
has developed a disposable patch pump delivery system to administer medicines
safely and accurately into the body.
SteadyMed plans to raise $55 million on NASDAQ.
Crowdfunding helps solve rare disease
mystery.
Crowdfunding - funds from a large number of individuals over the
Internet – have enabled researchers at Tel Aviv University to conduct Whole
Exome Sequencing and identify the genetic mutation responsible for mental
retardation and severe developmental delays in children.
Joint medical research with UK. The Britain Israel Research
and Academic Exchange partnership (BIRAX) has pledged £3.2 million of funding
for eight joint stem cell research projects to develop therapies for diabetes,
heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, liver disease and Multiple Sclerosis. UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the
research “has the potential to change the lives of hundreds of millions of
people.”
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Taking care of teens at risk. (Thanks to Janglo) The
organization Crossroads, Jerusalem says it “takes teens off the streets and
then puts them back on the street with an entire team behind them”. The team is running the Jerusalem marathon to
raise funds for its Jerusalem center and new programs in Modi’in and Beit
Shemesh.
Ethiopian orphan fulfills dream of
becoming IDF officer. Worku Abiy arrived in Israel as an orphan at the age of 15,
appearing in the documentary “Take Us Home”.
Exempt from the IDF due to medical issues, he volunteered, and got
exceptional basic training scores. Abiy
later applied for and completed an officer’s course.
Ebola Heroes. Israeli humanitarian
organization IsraAID has set-up a program entitled “Ebola Heroes”. It provides psychosocial training to health
workers, teachers, burial teams, policemen, social workers etc., so they can
treat Ebola cases, while tackling the devastating effects of fear, trauma,
extreme stress and stigma.
Israel hosts international seminar for
judges. A
4-day international seminar for judges took place in Haifa recently. It focused on the central role of judges in
combating human trafficking. Supporters
included the UN, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and
the International Organization for Migration.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Personal hydroponics. Growing crops on water used
to be only available to big industry.
Now Israel’s Flux has developed a device that lets individuals and small
businesses install hydroponics on rooftops, in school gardens, basements and
even in restaurants. Flux’s product was
demo’d at Israel’s Cann Tech conference.
http://www.fluxiot.com/ http://www.israel21c.org/headlines/israels-first-canna-tech-event-draws-a-crowd/
5 research projects for joint US-Israeli
funding.
The MIT-Israel-BGU Seed Fund recently approved five joint research
proposals involving scientists at MIT and at Ben Gurion University of the
Negev. They cover water technology,
spinal cord treatment, tomato seeds, online student training and photocurrent
spectroscopy.
A new kind of security. (Thanks to Michelle)
Israel’s Team8
is developing novel
solutions for the cyber security industry.
Once it generates an idea, it helps launch a startup to build the
solution and then moves on.
A truly Green Ride. Israel’s Green Ride has
launched the INU – an electric scooter that makes commuting much easier. It folds automatically, recognizes its owner
and has a range of 40km at speeds up to 25km/hour.
Solar power both day
and night.
Tel Aviv-based Brenmiller Energy will establish a 10-megawatt solar
power station in Dimona, capable of generating electricity from solar energy
for an average of 20 hours a day on a typical summer’s day. This is four times as many hours than any
previous Israeli solar field.
Goggles that enhance reality. Israeli start-up RideOn has
developed augmented reality goggles that superimpose a computer-generated image
into the user’s view. Direct-to-eye
display technology positions the transparent display directly over the eye,
eliminating the need to look away or refocus in order to read the data.
Speeding up the mobile Internet. The CODS Mobile Edge
Computing platform from Israel’s Saguna Networks increases mobile network
speeds while reducing network congestion.
Saguna has just received funds from Akamai Technologies and SoftBank
Ventures Korea to help it expand in Asia, North America and Europe.
Developing alternate fuels with Italy. Through the Israel Fuel
Choices Initiative (IFCI), Israel has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), Iveco (a Brand of CNH Industrial) and Magneti
Marelli (FCA Group) for co-operation in the development of natural gas based
technologies.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Budget surplus. Israel’s Ministry of
Finance announced a 5.3 billion-shekel budget surplus for Jan 2015. Tax revenues were 2.3% higher than for Jan
2014 and have been growing by 4-5% each month.
Reinforcing the rain in Spain. A delegation of
11 Israeli water companies visited Spain, presenting technology such as
filtering and purification to infrastructure companies. They impressed one Spanish multinational,
Abengoa, which employs 26,000 employees in 80 countries.
Huge demand for Israeli hi-tech jobs. Impressive success in
Israel’s high-tech industry boosted demand for employees by 12% in 2014,
compared with 2013. Salaries of mobile
developers rose by 10-30%.
A billion-dollar
Israeli company.
2014 earnings for Israel’s NICE Systems reached $1.0124 billion, up from
$950 million for the previous year.
NICE specializes in data and voice security and analysis.
Intel Israel exports
$4.3b.
Intel Israel's exports totaled $4.25 billion in 2014 (up 10% on 2013)
accounting for about 4% of Israel's total exports of goods and services in
2014. Intel is spending around $800
million upgrading its factories in Kiryat Gat and $1.87 billion per annum in
purchases from Israeli suppliers.
Israel Aerospace wins cyber security
contracts.
(Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) has won two
cyber-security contracts worth tens of millions of dollars. IAI develops advanced cyber solutions for
intelligence, protection, monitoring identification and accessibility.
Innovators meet Dealmakers. The Israel Dealmakers
Summit 24-25 Mar 2015 in New York City promises thousands of global
entrepreneurs, innovators, dealmakers and investors. It features world-class
speakers and networking in the areas of Digital Media, Mobile & Wireless,
CyberSecurity, Life Sciences and much more.
Tel Aviv encourages start-ups from
abroad. Tel
Aviv has 1,515 high tech companies that employ 43,000 workers. Now, Tel Aviv municipality subsidiary Global
City is giving incentive packages to entrepreneurs from abroad in order to add
knowledge, diversity, and become global - thus strengthening the economy.
Microsoft buys Israeli digital pen
company.
Multinational software giant Microsoft has bought Israel’s N-trig for an
estimated $200 million. N-trig has
developed a chip for a digital pen and computer screen interface.
Use an Israeli app to hail a UK taxi. UK readers will soon be
able to use Israeli taxi app GetTaxi in seven UK cities. GetTaxi has been operating in London for 3
years and is expanding to Edinburgh, Liverpool and Manchester immediately. It
will also launch in Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow in the next few months. GetTaxi has also launched an app for
smart-watches running the Android Wear operating system.
Apple CEO to inaugurate new Israeli HQ. Apple boss Tim Cook is
coming to Israel to formally open Apple Israel's new headquarters in Herzliya
Pituach. Apple’s Israeli development center will house 800 Israeli employees,
mainly from Apple’s purchases of Anobit, PrimeSense and from hiring ex-Texas
Instruments staff.
Sodastream announces healthier
beverages.
Israel’s Sodastream is launching new lines of products made of all
natural flavors and ingredients, less sugar and no preservatives. The reduced calorie, zero calories, nutritional
supplements and lightly sweetened water series will be launched this spring,
initially in Israel.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Opera at Masada. The Israeli Opera announced
its fifth Masada Opera Festival in June, featuring “Tosca” by Giacomo Puccini
and “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff, to be performed at the base of the historic
mountain.
New stamps. (Thanks to Jacob Richman) Israeli stamps
issued in Feb include the Philippine rescue of Jews from the Shoah, Ariel
Sharon, Chess and Winter flowers.
Bringing shakshuka to Manhattan streets. Israeli friends Josh
Sharon, Solomon Taraboulsi and Gabriel Israel have launched The Shuka Truck,
serving shakshuka, the spicy Middle Eastern egg-and-tomatoes dish, on the
streets of Manhattan. It contains
free-range organic eggs, Israeli spices and is certified Kosher.
Tel Aviv is a top 10 Oceanfront City. (Thanks to SDM - Size
Doesn’t Matter) Tel Aviv was chosen by National Geographic as one of the top
ten-oceanfront cities in the world. It
highlights plenty of room for beach bathing in this modern Israeli city and the
vibrant gallery, café, and restaurant scene at the historic port of Jaffa.
THE JEWISH STATE
36 bereaved girls hold batmitzvot in
Jerusalem.
The Jewish welfare organization Colel Chabad hosted a bat mitzvah
celebration for 36 girls who have lost a parent. Most of the parents died from
illness or terror attacks.
Righteous gentile’s grandson finds his
home is in Israel.
Coss Weber is head physiotherapist at the Alyn hospital pediatric and
adolescent rehabilitation facility in Jerusalem. Coss was born in a Dutch
village - the grandson of a Righteous among the Nations, a person who risked
his life to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Alongside Bnei Menashe: A personal journey. Laura Ben-David accompanied
250 members of the Bnei Menashe tribe of Northern India as they made their
journey to Israel that they had dreamed of doing for nearly three millennia.
Starlings return to the Jewish State. After a long absence, short
distance migrant starlings have started to return to Israel, a phenomenon that
experts find difficult to explain.
Watch a flock of synchronized starlings (known as a “murmuration”) form
spectacular sights of dancing clouds in the skies of southern Israel.
http://www.jpost.com/Not-Just-News/AMAZING-VIDEO-A-flock-of-starlings-form-spectacular-flyover-in-Israels-sky-389818 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btC2OmiSR0s
3 million are united
with Israel.
United with Israel (UWI), the world’s largest grassroots pro-Israel
community, is celebrating three-million supporters. The occasion will be marked in Jerusalem on Feb 18 and broadcast
across the world. Founder Michael
Gerbitz said, “we’ve been able to connect with millions of people – many in
some of the most anti-Semitic countries – who are proud to stand united with
Israel”.
150208
In the 8th Feb 2015 edition of Israel’s
good news, the highlights include:
·
Israeli-developed stem cells can
rebuild muscles after an operation.
·
Two young Israeli-Arabs have developed
an app to treat ADHD.
·
Five years after the earthquake,
Israelis are still helping Haiti to heal.
·
The Israeli-developed cancer
breathalyzer is to be built into a smartphone.
·
Microsoft and IBM “launch” 16 new
Israeli startups.
·
Jerusalem is exhibiting 100 clay
tablets describing Jewish life 2500 years ago.
·
An Ethiopian Jewish immigrant to
Israel has her first baby – at 56.
·
Click here to see the newsletter on Jewish
Business News, Israel
News Zone, IsraelSeen,
Ruthfully
Yours, IsraPundit,
Janglo,
and United
With Israel.
Page Down for more details on these and
other good news stories from Israel.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Building muscle after hip
replacement.
Israel’s Pluristem Therapeutics has announced that the improvement in
muscle force of hip-replacement patients treated with its PLX-PAD cells was
40-times better than those who received a placebo.
The tiniest pump for diabetes and
Parkinson’s.
(Thanks to Israel21c) Israel’s TouchéMedical is developing the world’s
smallest, cheapest and smartest patch pump, for patients of all ages with
diabetes, Parkinson’s and other chronic conditions.
Making it easier to remember your meds. Israel’s MediSafe is
opening an office in Boston. It will
help market MediSafe’s medication reminder app, which up to now has been
promoted mainly by world of mouth.
Despite this, the app has been downloaded 1.3 million times and is used
regularly by hundreds of thousands.
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2015/01/israeli-startup-medisafe-raises-6m-for-move-to.html?page=all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seE6rCZGm2Q
“MEDinISRAEL – The heartbeat of Medical Innovation.” Representatives from 60 countries will attend Israel’s MEDinISRAEL
conference from 23-26 March. They will
join 120 Israeli medical device companies and biotechs to discuss and
demonstrate Israel’s latest developments in medical innovation.
Two Israeli-Arabs develop app to treat ADHD. Aziz Kaddan and Anas Abu
Mukh began degree courses at Haifa University when they were 16 years old. They were just 19 when they thought up
Myndlift - an app that teaches ADHD children and adults to concentrate by using
their brainwaves to display a bright image.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Israel’s “Lego man” tells of Ezer
Mizion’s kids.
Maor Cohen is known in Israel as the Lego man. Three years ago Maor went to Israeli cancer charity Ezer Mizion
to donate some Lego to young cancer sufferers.
But seeing children with sick parents reminded him of his early
life. So Maor stayed, and the Lego sets
just grew.
Female cancer survivor becomes IDF
officer.
Rotem Chiprut made aliya and joined the IDF as a lone soldier, only to
discover she had cancerous cells in her thyroid gland. Following surgery and treatment she
completed her officer’s training and has now been promoted to 2nd lieutenant.
Give your heart out. 90% of jewelry manufacturer
YVEL’s employees arrived in Israel from 20 countries. YVEL also trains
Ethiopian Jews in all jewelry crafts.
It is now supporting the latest campaign by Israel’s Save A Child’s
Heart (SACH) to raise funds for performing free heart surgery to children from
developing countries.
Haiti – five years on. (Thanks to Israel21c) Five
years after the devastating earthquake, Israel has not abandoned its work in
Haiti. Humanitarian organization
IsraAID is running a medical facility, an agriculture program, a youth empowerment
center and a gender violence prevention program for Haitian women.
Clean water for Tanzanian school. Students from Tel Aviv
University have built a 48,000-liter rainwater harvesting and advanced
filtration system that provides 400 school kids and staff at Nkaiti Secondary
School in Minjingu, Tanzania with safe drinking water. It will stop the children growing up with
skeletal deformities.
Solar energy to Rwanda. Israelis have helped
install the largest solar field in East Africa. Gigawatt Global, with its Israeli R&D center Energiya Global,
has built an 8.5 Megawatt facility in Kigali, Rwanda, at the Agahozo-Shalom
Youth Village, a kibbutz-style orphanage for victims of the 1994 Rwandan
Genocide.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Detecting cancer with
the SniffPhone.
The NaNose cancer breathalyzer technology developed by Professor Hossam
Haick of Israel’s Technion will soon be installed in a mobile phone - to be
called, appropriately, the SniffPhone. Using a tiny smell-sensitive sensor, the
phone will be able to detect cancer on a users’ breath.
Music
Messenger is an instant hit. Israelis invented the first instant
messaging system ICQ. Now the Israeli
startup Music Messenger allows friends to send music to each other. Recent investors include some major players
and celebrities from the music industry, some who have never before worked with
an Israeli company.
How the Cornell Technion is developing. Whilst the new 2
million-square-foot Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island is being
constructed, its 2nd semester is underway in temporary offices provided by
Google. Graduates from the two-year program will receive dual degrees from the
New York and Israeli schools.
Israel is one of world’s most innovative
countries.
(Thanks to Michelle) Depending on which report you read, Israeli
innovation is rated 3rd in the world by the World Economic Forum and 5th by
Bloomberg.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Microsoft’s graduate
startups.
(Thanks to Michelle) 11 startups graduated from the Microsoft Ventures
cybersecurity and medical accelerator program in Herzliya.
IBM’s graduate
startups.
IBM’s Alpha Zone accelerator for start-ups has just held its first
graduation ceremony. The five startups
had 24 weeks of access to IBM professionals to help them to “go global”. One startup, EGM, has developed a smart
meter that IBM will be selling around the world.
Connecting Israel to Asia. (Thanks to Michelle) Startup East is the first Israeli – Asian
accelerator aiming to connect startups in Israel and East Asia. In addition, it
is launching a startup adventure Boot Camp program in Israel for Asian
entrepreneurs, students and graduates.
Don’t leave the site. Jerusalem-based startup
Curiyo subtly persuades users to stay on a particular website. It places links
to text on a site that tempts the user to click in order to discover useful
information. But those links don’t take
the user to an external site. Curiyo
has just raised $1 million of new funding.
Find out if your website really
“clicks”.
Israel’s ClickTale provides companies with analyses of the success (or
otherwise) of their websites. It shows
how users behave when they use the site – does it generate enough
business? ClickTale has just raised $35
million of new funding.
Samsung
invested in 8 Israeli startups in 2014. Korean giant Samsung’s revenue from TVs last
year was little changed from 2013.
That’s why it is seeking Israeli startups – in order to explore new
business areas.
Intel
buys German company and gets more Israeli developers. Intel’s 10,000 Israeli
employees will be joined by 100 staff from the Israeli development center of
Germany’s Lantiq. Intel acquired
Lantiq, which previously bought Israel’s Matalink – a developer of wireless
communications solutions.
New
factory in China’s Israeli “silicon valley”. Israeli automotive electronics company
Taditel has established a new production plant in China. The plant is located
in the CI3 industrial incubator initiative in Changzhou, Wujin Economic Zone
(WEZ).
Israel – the bridge for China’s “Silk
Road”. This
article focuses on Israel’s pivotal role in providing China with outlets to
both the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
http://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/chinas-emergence-middle-eastern-power-israels-opportunity/
Two fruitful acquisitions. Appropriately, on the
Jewish New Year for trees, Israel’s Fruitarom announced it was buying two
foreign companies. Spain’s Ingrenat
produces natural plant extracts. The
UK’s FoodBlenders manufactures savory solutions for the food industry.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
By the rivers of
Babylon.
Jerusalem’s Bible Lands Museum is exhibiting a never-before showcased
collection of one hundred 2500-year-old clay tablets, detailing the life of
Jews exiled from Judea by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar in 586
BCE. The Al-Yahudu tablets even contain
the family name Natanyahu.
Raise your glasses at kosher wine
festival.
The fourth annual Jerusalem Kosher Wine Festival takes place on 11-12
Feb. More than 40 wineries will be
exhibiting their products at the International Convention Center. In addition, some of Israel’s top chefs will
be giving sessions on cooking with kosher wine.
Enjoy the Winter Noise. (Thanks to Janglo)
Jerusalem’s Shaon Horef is a series of Monday night (loud) music events
throughout February. Wander into the
Machane Yehuda market to hear what’s happening.
Or the Jewish “Voice”. (Thanks to Janglo) The new
TV series, Hakol Haba (The Next Voice) is a religious version of “The Voice” or
“A Star is Born” (Kohav Nolad).
THE JEWISH STATE
Wounded Israelis learn to ski. The initiative of Mendel
Mintz, the Chabad rabbi of Aspen, Colorado, has setup Golshim L’Chaim-Ski to
Live. The program brings wounded
Israeli veterans and victims of terrorism to Aspen to learn how to ski - and
boost their spirits.
1000 Israeli kids pick excess fruit for
Tu’Bishvat.
On 4th Feb, in honor of Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish holiday that marks the
new year for trees, thousands of Israeli youths volunteered with Leket Israel’s
Project Citrus Rescue by picking excess fruit remaining on trees in people’s
private gardens, in order to donate it to the poor.
The Arabs who support Israel, and why. Great articles by Fred
Maroun - an Arab Canadian. Included is
a long list of other Arabs, non-Arab Muslims and former Muslims who also
support the democratic Jewish State.
http://fredmaroun.blogspot.co.il/2014/08/my-support-for-israel.html http://fredmaroun.blogspot.co.il/
Miracle baby for
Ethiopian immigrant. Following years of struggling to conceive, a 56-year-old Kiryat
Malachi woman gave birth to her first child, a healthy boy. Tami came on Aliya from Ethiopia during
Operation Solomon in 1991. She has nine
brothers and always dreamed of having her own child.
150201
In the 1st Feb 2015 edition of Israel’s
good news, the highlights include:
·
Israeli researchers have identified
pro-cancer and anti-cancer white blood cells.
·
Israel has provided extra funds to
train Israeli-Arabs in hi-tech.
·
Israeli surgeons have been repairing
the cleft pallets of children in Vietnam.
·
An Israeli company is embarking on a
huge micro-irrigation project in India.
·
Overseas firms spent almost $1 billion
on Israeli startups in just one week.
·
150,000 will take part in the Tel Aviv
Marathon and accompanying races.
·
Click here to see the newsletter on Jewish
Business News, IsraPundit,
Janglo,
Israel
News Zone and United
With Israel.
Page Down for more details on these and
other good news stories from Israel.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
There are good and bad
white blood cells. Hebrew University of
Jerusalem researchers have discovered that neutrophils (a form of white blood
cell) contain many different subtypes. Some of these prevent cancer and others
promote it. It opens avenues for therapies that increase anti-tumor neutrophils
and limit pro-tumor ones.
Graft-vs-Host disease treatment gets
boost. The
European Medicines Agency (EMA) has granted Israeli biotech Enlivex “orphan”
status for its ApoCell treatment to prevent Graft-vs-Host Disease. It will speed up development of the Israeli
innovation that stops rejection of transplanted cells and bone marrow.
Researching Autism with Japan. A team of Israeli and
Japanese researchers has embarked on a project to discover how autistic
spectrum disorder develops in the brain. It follows the conference “Advances in
Brain Sciences”, jointly hosted by the Weizmann Institute of Science and
Japan’s RIKEN Brain Science Institute.
Norwegian charity prize for Israeli
cancer expert.
(Thanks to Israel21c) Norway’s largest charitable organization, the Olav
Thon Foundation has chosen Tel Aviv University cancer geneticist Professor
Yosef Shiloh as one of the two recipients of its very first international
medical research award.
350,000 people to benefit from new
medicines.
Israel’s Health Council has added an additional 73 medicines and
technologies into the Government’s subsidized “Health Basket”. The changes will benefit 350,000 Israelis at
a cost of NIS 324 million.
Mapping the brains of the blind. Scientists at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem are studying brain activity of blind people in order to
shed new light on how our brains can adapt to the rapid cultural and
technological changes of the 21st Century.
Already they have found that reading Braille utilizes “visual” areas of
the brain.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Integrating minorities
into hi-tech. Israel’s Economy
ministry has awarded NIS 10 million to two organizations, Tsofen and ITworks,
for the training and integration of Arab, Druse, and Circassian academics into
the hi-tech sector. It will help narrow
the social and economic gaps between population sectors in Israel.
Haredi women – a market sector all their
own.
Technically skilled Haredi (ultra-orthodox) women are carving out a new
sector in the Israeli entrepreneurial space.
The Jerusalem “hub” of the organization Temech, helps connect them to
professional resources, to employment opportunities or to start their own
businesses.
And the first Haredi women’s political
party. For
the first time in Israeli political history, a political party led by Haredi
women is to run in the March 19th Israeli elections. The party to be named “Bizchutan” (“in their merit”) will be led
by Ruth Kuliak, a social activist who has worked to promote the advancement of
women.
More protection for consumers. (Thanks to Janglo)
Amendments to Israel’s Consumer Protection Law went into force on 1st Jan,
strengthening consumer rights. They
enforce existing laws with short-timescale fines and add new laws to ban undue
pressures to make purchases. You can
also now take your own food into cinemas!
New program to get Israelis on their
bikes.
Israel’s Environment Ministry is to provide $1.6 million for local
authorities to encourage commuters to use public transport or bicycles in
congested Israeli cities. It includes
new bicycle rental stations, cycle paths and a subsidized station taxi
service. Jerusalem will get a “biker’s
app”.
Nice photos from home and abroad. (Thanks to Israelicool) Two
photos aptly fit this “inclusive and global” section. The first is of an Arab girl in hijab, a Jewish man in black hat
and a female Israeli soldier waiting to cross a Jerusalem street. Then Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird
took a lovely photo at Davos.
Bringing a smile to
Vietnamese children. Two surgeons from Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center - Omri Amudi and
Zach Sharony - have just returned from participating in “Operation Smile” in
Vietnam. They performed free reconstructive surgery on children for cleft lip,
cleft palate and other facial deformities.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Send video messages from your
wristwatch.
Israeli start-up Glide has developed video texting that is so fast, you
be watching the video the other side of the world before your friend has
finished recording it! And now, Glide
is putting that technology onto smart watches.
Remember Dick Tracey’s watch? It’s been superceded.
Ecological makeover for Tel Aviv bus
station. The
Onya Collective is turning Tel Aviv’s massive concrete bus station into a
blossoming center for urban ecology.
This includes hydroponics, growing plants without soil, under special
LED lights. Gardens grow lettuce and strawberries using drip irrigation from
the air-con system.
China-Israel innovation cooperation. (Thanks to Michelle)
Beijing hosted the first meeting of the China-Israel government innovative
cooperation joint committee. Chinese
Premier Li Keqiang and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both sent
their congratulations.
Micro-irrigation for
India.
Israeli water company Netafim has been selected to partake in a $60
million micro-irrigation project in the Indian state of Karnataka. The project will span 12,000 hectares, help
6,700 farmers in 22 villages, increase crop production and save 50 percent of
their water consumption.
A Digital Upgrade at the Tower of David
Museum.
(Thanks to Michelle) Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum is introducing a
new digital initiative. Position any mobile device over the view and an
audiovisual guide, using IDF mapping technology, will identify and explain
landmarks within the frame.
You won’t need this in Israel. Israeli Shalom Koresh has
invented a new invisible kippa (skull cap) made from artificial hair called
“Magic Kippa.” It is for Orthodox Jews in Europe where recent terrorist attacks
against the Jewish communities have left many afraid to go out in public
wearing a kippa.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Government deficit far lower than
expected.
The Israeli Government’s 2014 deficit was NIS 29.9 billion (2.8% of GDP)
compared to its budget of NIS 31.1 billion.
This is despite an unplanned NIS 7 billion cost of fighting Operation
Protective Edge.
Over $900 million for
Israeli startups in one week. Acquisitions and investment into Israeli
startups in a seven-day period in January amounted to over $900 million. Amazon bought Israel’s Annapurna Labs for
$370 million. Harman paid $200 million for Red Bend Software. Dropbox bought CloudOn and Microsoft,
Equivo. And take a look at The Economist’s
infograph showing Tel Aviv as the world’s no. 2 startup ecosystem.
17-year-old head of Israeli startup. (Thanks to Israel21c)
17-year-old Iddo Gino heads RapidPay, a year-old company providing a mobile
payment platform for customers without a credit card. Iddo studies at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa and hopes to
obtain a degree in computer science at the Open University next year.
Direct flights to China. China’s largest private
airline, Hainan, is to commence flights between Tel Aviv and Beijing. Hainan will operate three return flights a
week, on the days that El Al does not fly to Beijing. The new service reflects increased business ties between China
and Israel and a 76% rise in Chinese tourists since 2012.
Chinese set up second $100 million
investment fund.
The founders of Chinese holdings giant Tencent and social network Renren
are putting up cash for a new $102 million fund – the second to invest in
Israeli startups. The new fund will
cover financial technology, the Internet of Things, mobile development, and
robotics.
Canada strengthens cooperation with
Israel (thanks to www.sizedoesntmatter.com) The
Foreign Ministers of Israel and Canada have signed a Joint Declaration of
Solidarity and Friendship that they said would increase collaboration on
diplomacy and trade development.
Water desalination for Texas. Israel’s IDE Technologies
is expanding throughout the USA by opening a new office in the State of
Texas. Regular newsletter readers may
recall IDE’s desalination facility in San Diego.
Dropbox opens Middle East hub in Israel. Dropbox has acquired
Israel’s CloudOn, a startup that offers a service for creating and editing
documents on mobile devices. Dropbox
will use CloudOn’s Herzliya office as a new hub in the Middle East.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Israeli food is “yummy”. A new Taglit tour of Israel
concentrates on the culinary delights of Israel. Participants (mostly chefs) learn about Israeli cuisine, meet
Israeli chefs and visit organic farms in the desert, boutique wineries and
markets. A participant described it as
a "bonding experience with the land through food"
Israel Space Week. During its annual Space
Week Israel launched an “out of this world” website on Israeli activities
related to space. There were also 25 free activities including observations of
Jupiter, workshops for building satellite and space vehicle models, planetarium
shows, an intergalactic light show and much more.
Jewish Capoeira in Tel Aviv. Ultra Orthodox Jew Micky
Hayat belongs to the Abada Capoeira training group near Tel Aviv Port. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that
combines dance, acrobatics and music. Micky teaches over 200 students, while
seeking to promote martial arts in the ultra orthodox sector in Israel.
“The largest sports
event in Israel’s history.” The 2015 Tel Aviv Marathon on Feb 27th has
attracted 40,000 runners. 110,000 more will take part in the half-marathon, the
10km and 5km races and the hand-cycle race.
THE JEWISH STATE
Israel’s Social Media Ambassadors. The International education
non-profit StandWithUs has launched its “Social Media Ambassadors” program.
University students will be trained to use multiple platforms such as Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, and more, to educate the public at large about the reality
of Israel.
“The most diverse Jewish community in
the world”.
Nachalot is one of the most popular neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Sephardim, Ashkenazim, Hassidim, secular,
non-Jews, everyone lives together.
Students and tourists make it part of the essential Jewish experience.
Israel’s first female spiritual advisor. In the Bible there was
Deborah and in Talmud times there was Bruriah.
Today, the Efrat Community has Jennie Rosenfeld – the first woman in the
history of the State of Israel to fill the role of manhiga ruchanit – spiritual
advisor.
“Awed by pluralistic, diverse Israel.” During a San Diego State
University non-Jewish student’s visit to Israel he saw a Christian church, a
Jewish synagogue, and a Muslim mosque all within a block of each other and
heard the Muslim call to prayer in Jaffa.
It left him determined to stand up for the democratic Jewish State.
150125
In the 25th Jan 2015 edition of Israel’s
good news, the highlights include:
·
Jerusalem exhibits a Jewish doctor’s
vaccine from 1892 that saved millions of lives.
·
Israel funds the training of
Palestinian Arab farmers.
·
Johnson & Johnson and Takeda have
started a biotech incubator in Israel.
·
2014 saw a massive increase in
international investment into Israeli companies.
·
Japan used a huge jumbo jet to bring
hundreds of businessmen to Israel.
·
For the first time, an Israeli has won
a European speed-skating gold medal.
·
Israel is bringing home from Argentina
the plane that rescued Jews from Iraq in 1947.
·
Last week’s JPost Israel Good News
descriptive summary. Click here for
“Israel is Getting it Together” (fast-loading version, no adverts). Also on Jerusalem
Post, IsraPundit
and San
Diego Jewish World.
·
Click here to see the newsletter on Jewish
Business News, IsraelSeen,
IsraPundit, “Ruthfully
Yours” and United
with Israel.
Page Down for more details on these and
other good news stories from Israel.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Jerusalem displays
Jewish-developed cholera vaccine. Dr Waldemar Haffkine, a Russian-Jewish
microbiologist, developed the cholera vaccine in 1892. Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum is now
exhibiting one of the original ampoules of vaccine. Dr Haffkine also developed a vaccine for plague and was knighted
by Queen Victoria in 1897. Sir Waldemar
donated his extensive personal archive to the National Library of Israel.
ALS treatment trial shows success. Israel’s
Brainstorm has announced positive final results from its phase 2a clinical
trial of NurOwn cells in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients used on
14 subjects at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. Nearly all subjects experienced clinical benefit.
Good results for Fabry Disease
treatment.
Israel’s Protalix Biotherepeutics reported good results in its trials of
its PRX-102 treatment for the genetic disease Fabry’s. Even a low dosage had an average 78.8%
decrease in the effect of pain on the patients' functioning.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-protalix-jumps-on-positive-fabry-disease-trial-results-1000999518
Teva launches a generic painkiller. (Thanks to Atid-EDI)
Israel’s Teva has launched the first FDA-approved generic equivalent to
Celebrex (Celecoxib) Capsules in the US.
Celebrex is used to treat arthritis, pain, menstrual cramps, and colonic
polyps.
The fruitful way to conceive. Israel’s Fruitful Way Ltd.
has pioneered a new, natural fertility and conception toolkit for couples who
are trying to get pregnant. It includes a unique, science-backed dietary
supplement, scientifically mated with a sophisticated fertility app.
Israeli science saves 5-year-old girl. A 35-year-old study by
Israel’s Professor Raphael Mechoulam convinced Denver-based physician Dr. Alan
Shackelford to use synthesized cannabidiol or CBD to save 5-year-old Charlotte
Figi who suffered 300 epileptic fits a week.
Dr Shackelford immigrated to Israel in 2012.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Beer
Sheva – a “City of Tomorrow”. Beer-Sheva is one of seven locations
worldwide included in the Global Technology Emerging Markets study by Brandeis
International and T3 Advisors of emerging, up-and-coming hubs that technology
and life sciences companies should consider as they evaluate their global
location strategy.
Israeli Christians who fight for Israel. A UK reporter finally
realizes that there are Christians in Israel who identify with the Jewish
State. (However, he falsely defines
what a Jewish State is.)
Israeli-Turkish relations requires a
woman’s touch.
Israel has appointed Amira Oron as head of its embassy in Ankara. Oron has been serving as the head of the
Egypt Department at the Foreign Ministry. Israel recently appointed seven new
top women foreign diplomats including Einat Shlain, Israel’s ambassador to
Jordan.
Israeli support to
Palestinian Arab farmers. The Israeli government has donated 300,000 shekels to five
Palestinian Arab farmers to upgrade their strawberry facilities. In addition 30 Palestinian Arab farmers came
to Israel to study strawberry cultivation.
Annually, Israel funds 1200 Palestinian Arab farmers to study in Israel.
Water for India – out of thin air. (Thanks to Michelle)
Israel’s Water-Gen is to bring its pioneering air-to-water technology to India,
where more than 50% of the urban poor (over 150 million) are not connected to a
water supply.
Israel adopts Grand Challenges Canada. (Thanks to Nevet – www.broaderview.org) Israel’s new “Grand
Challenges Israel” program is modeled on Grand Challenges Canada. Israel’s
Avigdor Lieberman and Canada’s John Baird unveiled ten Israeli innovation
projects, addressing cancer, malaria, aquaculture, wheelchairs etc.
Japan to partner
Israel technology.
Flying out of Tel Aviv last week I passed by the Japan Airlines 747 that
brought in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his large delegation of Japanese
businessmen. Abe and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presided over a "Japan-Israel Business
Forum" to promote mutual connections.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
A technology innovation leader. Frost & Sullivan have
awarded their prestigious Global Technology Innovation Leader Award to Israel’s
Windward. The award reflects Windward's
unique technology, which is bringing cutting edge innovation to one of the last
'wild west' frontiers: ships navigating the world's oceans.
Horizon
2020. Ben
Gurion University’s Dr. Natalie Elia and Dr. Eyal Arbely were awarded a
European Horizon 2020 ERC Starting Grant for their project, “Quantitative
Nanoscale Visualization of Macromolecular Complexes in Live Cells using Genetic
Code Expansion and High-Resolution Imaging”.
(Don’t ask!)
Another
Israeli R&D center. (Thanks to Michelle) Teradata – the US giant data analytics
company, has bought Appoxee - an Israeli startup aimed at publishers and
developers that want to send out messages to increase user engagement in their
apps. Appoxee will become Teradata’s
research and development center.
Biotech incubator
opens.
Johnson and Johnson, together with Takeda and OrbiMed have launched
FutuRx in Rehovot’s Weizmann Science Park.
Its first start-up is Hepy Biosciences, which is developing a tumor
enzyme inhibitor. The second, XoNovo, is developing a treatment that targets a
protein implicated in Alzheimer’s.
Israel’s water graduates are on a crest
of a wave.
Delegates at Kinneret College’s first water conference learnt about the
work of its BSc graduates in Water Industry Engineering. One breakthrough project is the extension of
a wastewater system under Israel’s main Tel Aviv highway, undertaken without
disrupting traffic.
Cambridge University funds Israeli
scientists.
The Blavatnik Family Foundation has set up a new multi-million pound
investment fund for Israeli scientists to pursue post-doctorate research at
Cambridge University. Three Israeli
scientists are now furthering their research in engineering, genetics and
physics at Cambridge.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Huge investment in
Israeli innovation. (Thanks to Michelle) The Israel
Venture Capital (IVC) Research Center reported that Israeli venture
capital funds attracted $914 million in 2014, up 68 percent on 2013. Israeli companies raised $2.1 billion with
US Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in 2014 - up from $360 million in 2013.
Israel
exhibition pavilion opens in India. (Thanks to Stuart Palmer) The Israel
pavilion entitled “Israel Innovation in India” opened at Vibrant Gujarat 2015,
exhibiting the ongoing Indo-Israeli cooperation and showcasing advanced Israeli
technologies in the fields of agriculture and homeland security.
Games are a big business. Israel’s TabTable is one of
the world’s top 10 mobile games publishers with operations in Israel, the U.S.,
China, Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Ukraine. TabTable has just bought Serbia’s Level Bit, developers of
Genesis Rising - the biggest PC game hit by a Serbian company.
Moovit is really moving. (Thanks to Michelle)
Israel’s Moovit has raised $50 million for its mobile app that lets riders plan
trips and avoid obstacles on public transit systems in more than 500 cities
around the world.
Bone-repair company plans NASDAQ IPO. Israel’s PolyPid is
preparing to launch on NASDAQ. PolyPid,
develops an antibiotic coating for safer bone repair. It also has two candidate bone grafting materials and a unique
PLEX (Polymer-Lipid Encapsulation MatriX) mechanism for delivering medicine
into the body.
Microsoft buys another Israeli startup. Software giant Microsoft is
acquiring Israel’s Equivo for at least $150 million. Equivio’s text analysis software summarizes and condenses lengthy
documents. Microsoft plans to integrate
the product into its Office 365 package to boost user productivity.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Boutique revolution puts Israeli wines
on world map.
(Thanks to Israel21c) This AFP news story about Israeli boutique wines
has been reprinted in Malaysia, China, South Africa, Bangladesh, the UK, Sweden
and France. Globes also reports that
Israeli wine sales increased by 10% in 2014.
Now you can fish in Jerusalem. (Thanks to Janglo) Nachal
Refaim Park is a new Jerusalem park between the neighborhoods of Malcha, Givat
Masua and Kiryat Menachem. Jerusalem’s
Mayor, Nir Barkat, found a good place in the park to do some river fishing.
Israel wins European
speed-skating gold medal. (Hot off the press) Israel’s Vladislav Bykanov won gold in the
3000m race of the European Short Track Speed Skating championship. It is the
first time an Israeli has won the competition.
The 26-year-old from Kiryat Shmona beat world champion Viktor Ahn by 500
meters.
“Mortally wounded” Israeli recovers to
launch triathlon.
Ohad Ben-Yishai received critical shrapnel wounds to the head during
Operation Protective Edge. Still in a
wheelchair, Ohad was given a break from his rehabilitation to officiate at the
start of Eilat’s “Ironman” triathlon, in which his father is competing.
THE JEWISH STATE
Safed – one of Israel’s holiest
cities. Surrounded
by the mountains and forests of the green Upper Galilee, Safed (Tzfat) is
world-famous for its winding alleyways and old majestic synagogues, its Artists
Quarter, its musicians, its history of kabbalah and spirituality.
The Modern Day Miracle of Israel. Armstrong Williams writes
an inspiring account of his journey across Israel and the PA territories. His
key sentence is, “When you pause to consider what Israel has managed to give to
the world, despite being under constant fire from its enemies, it is
staggering.”
Historic plane rescued
from scrap yard.
A Curtiss C-46 Commando transport aircraft, used to rescue 100 Iraqi
Jews in 1947, will soon return to Israel after being saved from a metal scrap
yard in Argentina. Operation
Michaelberg was launched when the British denied persecuted Iraqi Jews
permission to enter Israel legally.
US ex-Army amputee volunteers for
Israel. US
Christian Brian Mast, who lost both legs from a bomb-blast in Afghanistan, has
joined the IDF’s Sar El volunteer program.
He puts his pro-Israel attitude down to his upbringing, military
contacts with IDF personnel and warm relations with his Florida Jewish
neighbors.
Don’t judge Israel before you’ve seen
it. Irish
Catholic Belinda Hickey visited Israel for the first time in 2006, when love
for Israel was kindled in her heart.
Now she is a role model in courage as she promotes Israel in the face of
anti-Semitism in Ireland.
150118
In the 18th Jan 2015 edition of Israel’s
good news, the highlights include:
·
Two Israeli biotechs are at the
forefront of a new method for destroying cancer cells.
·
A 16-year-old Israeli girl has just
started medical School.
·
65% of Israel’s Arabs say they are
proud to be Israeli.
·
An Israeli T-shirt monitors your
heart.
·
Drivers can see five times further
with an Israeli night vision system.
·
Israel has discovered another massive
natural gas field.
·
Two Israelis, who escaped Nazi
Germany, celebrate the birth of their 100th great-grandchild.
·
Last week’s JPost Israel Good News
descriptive summary. Click here for “How
lucky is Israel?” (fast-loading version, no adverts). Also on Jerusalem
Post, IsraPundit
and San
Diego Jewish World.
·
Click here to see the newsletter on Jewish
Business News, IsraelSeen
and United
With Israel.
Page Down for more details on these and other
good news stories from Israel.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Trial of new cancer
antibody approved.
Israel’s cCAM has received US FDA approval to commence trials of its
CM-24 monoclonal antibody (mAb) for the treatment of various types of cancers. CM-24 targets CEACAM1, a novel immune
checkpoint protein expressed on a variety of cancer cells.
Israel & USA team
up to fight cancer. Israeli biotech Compugen has enlisted John Hopkins University to
help assess Compugen’s cancer immunotherapy candidates. These new treatments aim to counter the
ability of tumors to highjack “immune checkpoints”, thereby blocking the immune
system’s ability to destroy the tumor.
Effective for detecting lingering cancer
cells.
(Thanks to Michelle) New York City’s NYU Langone Medical Center has
praised MarginProbe from Israel’s Dune Medical, used by surgeons to identify and
help them remove cancer cells on the margins of removed tumors. MarginProbe avoids the need for follow-up
surgery.
90% response to cancer vaccine. (Thanks to NoCamels.com)
Julian Levy, CFO of Israel’s Vaxil Biotherapeutics speaks to NoCamels about
Vaxil’s cancer vaccine, ImMucin, that boosts the immune system and prevents
cancer returning. ImMucin triggers a
response in about 90 percent of all types of cancer.
US approve 360-degree colonoscope. (Thanks to Atid-EDI)
Israel’s GI View has just received US FDA approval for its Aer-O-Scope
colonoscope, for advanced detection of polyps that frequently develop into
colon cancer. GI View is expected to start selling the product in the U.S. in
early 2016.
Spine surgery system wins two awards. (Thanks to Atid-EDI)
Israel’s NLT-Spine has won a 2014 Spine Technology Award from US Magazine
Orthopedics This Week, for its ARC Pedicle Screw System. The company also was included (for the
second year running) in the list of Red Herring Global 100 winners.
Med school at 16.
If Israelis are exceptional people, then Maya Fishman is amazing. Only 16-years old, she has already started
med school at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is on course to become the youngest doctor in the history of
the State of Israel.
What lurks in your lungs? (Thanks to Israel21c)
Professor Elizabeth Fireman of Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center has developed
a highly accurate bio-monitoring technique to detect dangerous particles
inhaled by firefighters, factory workers, dental technicians and kids with
asthma.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Kids can explore the world in 80 words. (Thanks to Atid-EDI) Tel
Aviv’s Wiki-Kids has launched Wikids – apps with friendly text, images and
sound, to help children discover the world independently. Each entry has around 80 words, with no
adverts or links - all certified by the kidSAFE Seal Program and Momswithapps.
Jerusalem opens center to empower new
mothers.
The Jerusalem Municipality is opening a community center to address the
ongoing needs of women during and after pregnancy. It will offer career
counseling to assist mothers on maternity leave to successfully renter the
workforce.
Lalli the lamb gets a new chance of
life. Lalli
the lamb was born with deformed legs and unable to walk. Thanks to Israeli ingenuity and
physiotherapy, she is getting along just fine.
(Video has English subtitles)
Arabs proud to be
Israeli.
(Thanks to Evelyn Gordon) In a
recent survey, 65 percent of Arab citizens said they were either “quite” or
“very” proud to be Israeli in 2014, up from 50 percent the previous year. The majority had faith in the Supreme Court,
Israeli police and in the IDF.
Israel’s top rescue missions –
Leadership and saving lives. An inspirational presentation by Brigadier
General Professor Yitshak Kreiss describing the medical rescue missions
undertaken by Israel's army in recent years.
Leadership, medicine and the personal dilemmas faced when dealing with
humanitarian emergencies.
Journey to the Start-up Nation. During January, students
from seven US Jewish day schools will participate in the first “CIJE-Tech:
Journey to the Start-Up Nation” STEM Education Israel Trip. It will prepare students to innovate,
problem solve and leverage their skills in 21st century Science, Tech,
Engineering and Math.
Chicago reaches out to Israel for
water’s sake.
The University of Chicago has sought out Israel's Ben-Gurion University
to help tackle water scarcity. In
laboratories in Chicago and the Israeli desert, scientists are crafting radical
new approaches that may one day rejuvenate the world's water-starved regions.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Next generation of flash storage –
simply faster.
(Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s Kaminario has set new performance records
for flash storage. It also boasts
reliability, scalability and cost/performance figures that its competitors can
only dream of. Kaminario easily raised
$53million in funds to fuel global expansion.
Scottish Water likes Israeli recycling
technology.
Israel’s Applied CleanTech has successfully completed its first UK pilot
project of its new recycling technology for wastewater at Scottish Water. The system produces a useful material called
Recyllose from sewage while reducing maintenance and power costs.
A shirt that monitors
your heart.
Israeli startup HealthWatch Technologies has developed a washable
T-shirt that can read a patient’s heart rate, blood pressure, cardiac
irregularities, and other vital signs that could be the key to preventing heart
attacks. All data can be transmitted
instantly to your cardiologist, as speed is essential.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-ecg-t-shirt-monitors-hearts-saves-lives/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJvzTWNOlzk http://www.personal-healthwatch.com
Smart low-energy hotels. Israeli startup Phoebus
Energy is to install smart systems in the Fattal chain’s nine Israeli
hotels. The systems will cut the
chain's heating and air-conditioning costs by 50-75%, amounting to NIS 40
million over the coming decade. The lower energy consumption will also benefit the
environment.
Bell Labs (Israel) has big plans. The opening of Bell Labs in
Israel provides an avenue for Israeli PhD graduates to pursue research careers
in Israel. Director of the new branch,
Danny Raz, was until recently a professor in the Department of Computer Science
at Israel’s Technion.
Would a solar panel work for you? It can cost up to $4,000
for a survey to check whether a solar panel on your roof could generate
sufficient solar energy to justify installation. Israel’s SolView uses Google Earth and its automated rooftop
scanning technology to do that instantly.
Safer night driving. (Thanks to Israel21c)
Israeli startup BrightWay Vision has developed “BrightEye” – a unique
night-vision system that gives drivers a clear, panoramic view of the
road. The system uses active-gated
imaging to project images up to 250 meters ahead (5 times further than
headlights) onto the driver’s screen.
Another “doggy” app. Following on the heels of
“Dogiz”, “Oggii”, “Pawly”, “Swifto”, “KelevLand” and “DogTV”, we now have
“Wooof” – a made-in-Israel app, providing a platform for dog owners to get
together online, “trading” photos, recording dog walking routes and even
alerting when a dog inspector is in the area.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Israel discovers
another major gas field. A new huge natural gas field has been discovered about 150 km off
Israel's coast. Seismic analysis suggests that the Royee field contains an
estimated 3.2 trillion cubic feet of gas, making it Israel’s third largest
after Leviathan and Tamar.
Turning viewers into customers. (Thanks to Atid-EDI)
Israel’s Viewbix turns a company’s youtube or vimeo videos into marketing
applications. It integrates interactive
features such as action buttons and email forms into the video itself, allowing
potential customers to communicate directly.
Viewbix has just raised $3million.
AOL invests in Technion research. AOL, the American Internet
and media giant, will be investing $5million in a video research project at the
Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute.
AOL’s R&D center in Israel specializes in developing innovation in
the field of online video.
A healthy acquisition. Israel’s Frutarom
Industries has bought Slovenia’s Vitiva for around $10million. Vitiva’s antioxidants, natural colors and
botanical extracts will enhance Frutarom’s food, health and cosmetic business.
It also brings in a cutting-edge plant, skilled personnel and impressive
R&D capabilities.
Another $8.3million for 11 projects. The Israel-US Binational
Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation has approved $8.3 million
in new funding for 11 projects involving US and Israeli companies. The Israeli firms include BrainsGate,
MobileOCT, ThetaRay, Orgenesis and Softwheel (from previous newsletters).
Kodak wants to buy Israeli startups. Jeff Clarke, the new CEO of
venerable camera-maker Kodak, is in Israel looking to acquire tech startups
that can help rebuild his company as a leader in digital printing.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Hebrew Bibles reunited after 350 years. When filmmaker Micha
Shagrir donated a 1667 Hebrew Bible to Haifa University, staff discovered a
Bible written by the same person already on the library's shelves. An Egyptian Armenian gave Shagrir his Bible
in gratitude for his film about the Armenian genocide.
Israeli short film 'Aya' gets Oscar
nomination.
The 40-minute Israeli film "Aya" has been included in the
final list of nominations for an Oscar in the category of "Best Live
Action Short". Aya follows the
encounter between an Israeli woman driver and a Scandinavian musician who gets
into the wrong car at the airport.
English soccer club appoints Israeli
coach.
(Thanks to Hazel) English Championship Soccer League side Charlton Athletic
has appointed Israeli Guy Luzon as their new head coach. Luzon was previously coach at top Belgian
soccer club Standard Liege.
THE JEWISH STATE
Archeology points to King David. Archeologists have
discovered clay seals in Israel dating from the 10th century BCE – the biblical
dating of the kingdoms of David and Solomon.
The find is evidence of a national government at a time when many
scholars previously believed that there were only backwater chieftains.
“This is your land”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Taglit-Birthright Israel’s 15th
anniversary event said to the youngsters, “In Israel, every Jew can say, ‘I am
a Jew, Je suis Juif,’ out loud and proudly, without fear. Come to Israel. Come
visit Israel. Come stay in Israel. Come make aliyah to Israel. This is your
land.”
100
great-grandchildren. Israelis Michael (92) and Marion (90) Mittwoch have just
celebrated the birth of a new great-grandchild – their 100th. After escaping Nazi Germany, the Mittwochs
immigrated to Israel where they became the first couple to be married at
Kibbutz Lavi. All children and
grandchildren live in Israel.
Ukrainian refugees land in Israel. Two hundred and twenty-six
immigrants, 76 of which are children, landed in Israel on a special flight from
Ukraine. They included dozens of
families of refugees from eastern Ukraine who were made destitute as a result
of the ongoing fighting, and were forced to leave their homes.
A Zionist dream come true. Evelyn Gordon writes about
some of the reasons that European Jews, despite all doors being open to
them, are now choosing Israel to be their future home.
“They will all come to Jerusalem”. Select full screen view to see this amazing
video tour of the highway to Jerusalem. It shows the new road construction in
context with the Biblical sites mentioned along the way.
In the 11th Jan 2015 edition of Israel’s
good news, the highlights include:
·
In a chance discovery, Israeli
scientists have found a treatment to kill deadly bacteria.
·
This week’s newsletter features the
development of four Israeli cancer treatments
·
Israeli surgeons have reconstructed
the jaw of an injured Syrian refugee.
·
An Israeli microphone enhances a
speaker’s voice over any background noise.
·
An Israeli CO2-to-fuel reactor has won
a World Technology Award.
·
Latest IDF recruits include 3 Chinese
Jews and a baby saved from terrorists 18 years ago.
·
Last week’s Israel Good News
descriptive summary. Click here for
“2015 – So what’s new?” (fast-loading version, no adverts). Also on the Jerusalem
Post and San
Diego Jewish World.
·
Click here to see the newsletter on Jewish
Business News, IsraelSeen.com,
IsraPundit and in sections
on United With Israel.
Page Down for more details on these and
other good news stories from Israel.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Anti-inflammatory
treatment may prevent deadly infections. Ben Gurion University researchers have
discovered accidentally that alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT) could prevent deadly
infections in immune system-compromised patients. Lethal bacteria in mice were practically eradicated by AAT
therapy within 24 hours.
Wearable technology to analyze
Parkinson’s.
(Thanks to Israel21c) Intel Israel has developed an advanced analytics
platform for researching the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The system can work with smart watches
linked to a smartphone and can handle 300 observations per second from each
participant.
Teva launches generic antibiotics. Israel’s Teva continues to
help keep down US health costs by launching generic versions of two leading
antibiotics - Zyvox (linezolid), and Nafcillin - injectable antibiotics for the
treatment of severe infections. Teva
also has launched a generic blood-pressure treatment.
Nano-particles to attack cancer. (Thanks to Israel21c) Israel’s Quiet Therapeutics has developed
“GAGomers,” a new class of nano-particles (coated with glycosaminoglycan, or
GAGs, a polysugar) that specifically target tumors and blood cancers based on a
biomarker expressed on malignant tissue.
Success in antibody cancer therapy. Israeli biotech Compugen
has announced positive initial experimental results for the first two of five
of its candidate antibody cancer therapy (ADC) treatments. ADC therapy uses antibodies to target
proteins present at high levels in cancer cells, releasing a toxic payload to
kill the cells.
Early detection of colon and uterine
cancer. A
breakthrough by researchers at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem will
allow early detection and possible prevention of colon and uterine
cancers. They have discovered a genetic
mutation that can identify at-risk patients.
Leukemia treatment gets boost. The US FDA and the European
Medicines Agency have awarded Israel’s stem cell therapy developer Gamida Cell
orphan status for its NiCord leukemia treatment. NiCord treats acute
lymphoblastic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma and
myelodysplastic syndrome.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Tablets let bedridden kids “attend”
school.
Samsung and Israeli e-book firm E-vrit have teamed up to enable
long-term hospital patients keep up with their classmates. Children at Israel’s
Schneider hospital will receive a Samsung tablet, including E-vrit’s software
and e-books, connected to the hospital’s learning center.
IDF helps PA combat the snow. Following a request by the
Palestinian Authority, Israeli Defense Forces have been helping to clear snow
blocking roads to the PA city of Ramallah.
Other specific incidents included helping to clear flooding in Tulkarem
and helping a Palestinian Arab push his taxi out of frozen mud.
Israeli surgeons reconstruct
Syrian’s jaw.
A 23-year-old Syrian citizen arrived in Israel for treatment after a
bullet completely destroyed his lower jaw. Doctors at Haifa’s Rambam hospital
implanted a custom-made 3D-printed titanium jaw in a pioneering new operation.
One day after surgery, the patient was eating and speaking.
Israel inaugurates farm in Senegal. The Israeli embassy in
Senegal has inaugurated a drip-irrigated vegetable farm in the city of Fatick.
It is being managed by a group of Senegalese women. The innovative Israeli program has been vital for fighting
poverty in the drought-prone Sub-Saharan African country.
Brazil delegation in Israel to train in
Krav Maga.
Israel’s Kobi Lichtenstein is South America’s guru of 10,000 students of
the Israeli self-defense art of Krav Maga.
There are over 150 Krav Maga centers in the continent. Kobi has brought two Krav Maga missions from
Brazil to train at Masada, in Tiberias and Netanya.
Helping New York tap into Israeli
entrepreneurial ecosystem. (Thanks to Israel21c) Former Israeli paratrooper Lior Vaknin
founded Israeli Startups NYC, which now has a 2000 membership. 200 attended its recent startup pitch night
and panel discussion entitled “How to Build a $100 Million Business.”
http://www.israel21c.org/headlines/importing-israeli-startup-sauce-to-ny/ http://israelistartupsnyc.com/
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Making your voice
heard.
Communications giant Motorola has invested in Israeli start-up
VocalZoom, which has developed an optoelectronic microphone able to
substantially enhance a speaker’s voice over any background noise. The
technology creates a “virtual cube” in space, sensing sound from only within
the cube.
A vegetable garden on your wall. (Thanks to Israel21c) With
limited available space you can still grow sufficient vegetables to feed
yourself wherever you live, thanks to the vertical gardens technology of
Israel’s GreenWall. Around 100 living
walls have been installed in Israel.
Prices start at $800.
Israel’s solar-panel dry-cleaning
robots.
(Thanks to Nevet – www.broaderview.org)
A comprehensive report about the robots, built by Israeli startup Ecoppia. They
clean solar panels in the desert (without water) to keep them in the most
efficient condition.
Sensors to save energy. Ben Gurion University
students have developed a climate-controlled location-based air conditioning
system using real-time sensors with an infrared and depth perception camera. It
activates when a person enters the room, turns off when the person leaves, and
tracks the temperature throughout the location.
Israeli ingenuity on display at CES. Some of Israel’s most
innovative startups are on display at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show
(CES) in Las Vegas. They include ZuTA
Labs’ Mini Mobile Robotic Printer, Lexifone’s language translator and uMoove’s
app that tracks eye movements to detect neurological problems.
Detecting water leaks. Over 30 percent of the
fresh water supplied by the world’s water utilities is lost through leaking
pipes. The systems developed by
Israel’s TaKaDu detect leaks and are saving billions of liters of water all
over the world. And yet there are still
some utilities that believe it’s impossible!
World Technology
Awards winner.
Israel’s NewCO2Fuels (NCF) won the 2014 World Technology Award in the
Corporate Energy category. NCF is
developing a reactor to convert Carbon Dioxide into fuel.
Non-toxic control of insect pests. Israel’s EdenShield uses
natural desert plant extracts that mask the odor of crops and fools insects
that prey on the crops. EdenShield has
just raised over $1million to expand operations.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Israeli diamonds still sparkle. Israel’s exports of
polished and rough diamonds rose by more than $175 million in 2014. Net exports of polished diamonds totaled
$6.269 billion and rough diamonds $3.061 billion.
El Al starts Tel Aviv to Boston service. Israel’s El Al airline has
begun selling tickets for its new route from Tel Aviv to Boston Logan
International airport. Boston is a
popular business destination.
More Israeli firefighting aircraft. Israel’s Ministry of Defense is buying six new firefighting
aircraft to add to its eight-plane squadron.
The US Air Tractor planes will be upgraded and maintained by Israel’s
Elbit Systems.
Water for Taiwan. Taiwan and Israel held a
seminar in Taipei aimed at seeking closer cooperation in the area of water
resources management. Israeli companies
gave presentations of their products and solutions on waste waster treatment,
water quality control and reducing leaks.
Stronger ties with Japan. The Israeli cabinet
approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s program to strengthen economic
ties with Japan. The comprehensive plan involves several areas of government
and the investment of tens of millions of shekels over the next three years.
Chinese invest in new Israeli biotechs. (Thanks to Globes &
CFHU) A Chinese investment company has placed $3million in Integra Holdings –
the biotechnology holdings company of Yissum, the technology transfer company
of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It will fund new biotechs founded by the
Hebrew University.
Buying into Israel’s future. Morton Mandel invests in
Israeli firms as a way of building up the Jewish state. His aim is to “buy more companies that are
not doing well and fix them up” for a better, stronger, healthier Israel. He
also runs leadership-training programs to unlock the talents of the
ultra-Orthodox community.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Restoring Jerusalem’s “Great Synagogue”. Yaakov Stark’s early-20th
Century murals at Jerusalem’s Ades Synagogue (called with affection the “Great
Synagogue”) are a masterpiece of early Zionist art, mixing Arabic calligraphy
with Art Nouveau. This article
describes the battle to save this heritage of Syrian Jewry.
Tel Aviv Port – 4 million visitors a
year. If
you haven’t been to Tel Aviv Port’s entertainment hub along the Mediterranean
Sea lately, watch this new video to see why it’s time for another visit. More than four million visitors each year
enjoy its eateries, coffee shops, stores, clubs and the Friday farmers’ market.
Atletico Madrid has Israeli sponsor. Israeli online trading
provider Plus500 will feature on the back of the shirts of Spanish soccer
champions Atletico Madrid. Plus500’s
platform is based on proprietary technology, is accessible from multiple
operating systems and has been translated into over 31 languages.
THE JEWISH STATE
Kuwaiti Muslim is now an Israeli Jew. After years of being
educated to hate Jews, Mumtaz Halawa was shocked to learn he is Jewish. He
changed his name to Mordechai, moved from Kuwait to Israel and settled in
Jerusalem. 'I feel like Abraham,' he says.
Israeli police rescue faun from
poachers.
As Israeli police were uncovering a weapons and drugs cache in Hebron,
they heard noises and found a baby faun (a protected species) chained up inside
a barrel. The faun was transferred to
the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo for medical treatment. The poachers were arrested.
From China to the IDF. Moshe Li, Gideon Fan and
Yonatan Xue are the first Jews from the Chinese Kaifeng community to enlist in
the IDF. All three were born in the
ancient Jewish community in Kaifeng. They immigrated to Israel some five years
ago and recently completed their conversion and naturalization processes.
Baby Shani is now 18
years old.
Shani Winter was only 6 months old when her mother was killed while
shielding her daughter with her body from a terrorist bomb in Tel Aviv. 18
years later, the policewoman who carried Shani from the wreckage is accompanied
her as she joined the Israeli army.
Jump in – the water is warm! LiAmi Lawrence just made
Aliya and he encourages others to do likewise.
But wait until the snow clears! Wintry weather has covered
Jerusalem and Northern Israel in a white blanket.
“From Time Immemorial” lives on. Former CBS news producer
and renowned author on the subject of the Arab-Israeli conflict Joan Peters has
died at the age of 76 but her unique legacy remains. Her book “From Time Immemorial” analyzes thousands of British
Mandate records that document the true history of pre-state Israel.
150104
In the 4th Jan 2015 edition of Israel’s
good news, the highlights include:
·
Israeli scientists have developed the
basis for an artificial retina.
·
Israeli paramedics saved a Palestinian
Arab baby who suffered a heart attack.
·
Per-capita, Israel is the world’s
largest contributor to the fight against Ebola.
·
An Israeli startup has developed a
portable solar power generator.
·
Israel has made large reductions to
the prices of electricity, water and gasoline.
·
Low cost airline easyJet is starting a
Paris to Tel Aviv service.
·
2014 saw 26,500 new immigrants to
Israel – the highest in a decade.
·
Click here to see the newsletter on Jewish
Business News. Also on Israel
Seen and in sections
on United
With Israel.
Page Down for more details on these and
other good news stories from Israel.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Breakthrough in development of artificial retinas. Scientists at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University have developed a wireless,
light-sensitive, flexible implantable film that mimics the function of the
photosensitive cells in the retina. It could potentially form part of a device
to replace a damaged retina.
Cell analysis system makes first
discovery.
Professor Itai Yanai of Israel’s Technion developed the CEL-Seq cell
analysis method in 2012, identifying the on-off status of each of the 20,000
genes in a cell. It has just been used
to determine embryonic development sequences and could help in understanding
how cancer develops.
3D compass in the brain. Scientists at Israel’s
Weizmann Institute have demonstrated that brains of mammals (including humans)
contain a 3D compass. Microelectrode
recordings revealed that certain neurons activate only when the head is at a
particular 3D angle. It explains
conditions such as vertigo and disorientation.
Parkinson’s treatment trials success. Israel’s NeuroDerm has
announced positive results for its Phase II trials of ND0612H, intended for
severe Parkinson’s disease patients. The results indicate that ND0612H may
provide an effective alternative therapy to current treatments requiring
surgery.
Personalized medical videos. (Thanks to Israel21c)
Israeli physician Dr. Rami Cohen has developed a proprietary platform for
healthcare workers to easily create personalized instructional videos for
patients. Telesofia Medical uses clips
and graphics to generate videos in the time it takes to produce a prescription.
Beit
Issie launches disabilities tech center. On Dec 3rd (International Disabilities Day)
Beit Issie Shapiro – Israel’s leading organization for developing therapies for
disabled children – launched its Technology Consulting Center, to share its
expertise in the field of disabilities and technology. Also, an amazing video.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
World’s first-ever e-storybooks with sign
language.
The new eMotion Stories digital books by Israel’s Eyal Rosenthal, with
English and American Sign Language, are the world’s first interactive bilingual
e-library for parents of children with hearing impairment. They include
Goldilocks, Cinderella, and Three Little Pigs.
200 salons collect hair for cancer
patients.
More than 200 hair salons across Israel took part in the annual
nationwide drive to collect hair for Zichron Menachem Cancer Support in Israel,
in partnership with Pantene Products Israel. Hair salons provided free haircuts
during the three-day marathon from November 24-26.
Bedouin schools flourish in the Negev. (Thanks to
UnitedWithIsrael) 130 Arab teenagers attend the Al-Sayed Technological School
in the Northern Negev. It is one of
eight high schools operating for Bedouin students by the Israel Sci-Tech
Schools Network. “This school is
excellent for us,” local tribe elder Alsyal Saleem said. “It gives the next
generation of our tribe a chance to work thanks to the vocational studies in
the school.”
IDF saves Palestinian Arab baby after he suffers heart
attack.
Magen David Adom and IDF paramedics resuscitated a six-month-old
Palestinian Arab baby after he collapsed at a Jordanian border crossing. The baby was evacuated by IDF helicopter to
Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital, to the delight of the parents.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/01/01/idf-doctor-in-emotional-reunion-with-parents-of-palestinian-baby-whose-life-he-saved/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQvH5Saw5ZA
Israel facilitates new Gaza Coca Cola
plant.
Israel has allowed Gaza to import machinery to equip its first Coca Cola
factory. Israel allowed nine truckloads
from Jordan to reach Gaza for an enterprise it hoped would provide jobs, by the
end of 2015, for hundreds of people in the coastal territory. Gaza already has a Pepsi plant.
IDF soldiers donate lunch to PA kids. IDF paratroopers' hearts
went out to two Palestinian Arab children who approached their post asking for
food. After seeing the kids searching
dumpsters, the paratroopers decided to give them bread, meatballs, fruit,
vegetables, hummus and snacks that they had bought for their own lunch.
Israel has improved Palestinian Arab
health.
(Thanks to Hazel) Evidence-based analysis concludes that Israeli
policies have brought about measurable improvements in Palestinian health and
welfare. See the facts on death rates, life expectancy, mortality (infant,
maternal, perinatal), immunization coverage, nutrition etc.
Israel is the biggest
contributor to the war on Ebola. (Thanks to UnitedWithIsrael) “The U.S. Fund
for UNICEF applauds Israel’s recent pledge of $8.75 million to halt the spread
of Ebola in West Africa. This donation to the UN’s Ebola Response Multi-Partner
Trust Fund represents the largest per-capita investment by any nation in
efforts to combat the virus”.
Israeli aid to the Philippines. This may seem an old
headline, but it relates to the recent Philippines typhoon Hagupit (Ruby). An emergency response team of IsraAID and
IsraAID Philippines (the local partner agency) has been providing medical,
psychological, social and material relief goods in the Can-Avid municipality.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Oxford
Uni launches British-Israeli water initiative. Professor Andrew Hamilton, Vice-Chancellor
of Oxford University, launched the British Council in Israel's Water Research
Initiative, to fund opportunities for researchers from Britain and Israel to
work with researchers in countries facing water challenges.
An
astronaut’s view of Israel. Some crystal-clear photos of Israel from the
International Space Station. It
received over 33,000 likes.
Portable solar power. (Thanks to SDM and NoCamels.com) Israel’s Kalisaya has developed the
KaliPAK – a portable renewable power solution.
It generates solar energy that can be used by campers and trekkers or as
an emergency backup generator in case of natural disasters. Kalisaya is hoping to raise £250,000 on Kickstarter.
KeyBoots finds work for extended holidays. (Thanks to Israel21c)
Israelis enjoy traveling. So it was
natural for Moshik Cohen to develop KeyBoots (a play on words similar to
Kibbutz). Now when backpackers run out
of funds, Keyboots can help them get food and accommodation in exchange for
voluntary work.
The pocket printer is on the move. Here is a new video of the
portable robot printer from Israel’s ZUtA Labs. ZUtA expects to start shipping the printer in June.
TwitterMate – just for the important
messages.
Tomer Simon, a Ph.D. student at Ben Gurion University’s Department of
Emergency Medicine, has developed a system called TwitterMate, a tool for
archiving and classifying information on social media. It records specific hashtags, users or
subjects for later analysis.
Israel’s most outstanding public
building.
Tel Aviv University’s Capsule Building received 1st place (in the public
buildings category) at the Israeli Association of Builders' Excellence Awards.
The building was chosen for its design, quality and compatibility to the local
environment.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Cheaper
electricity, water and gasoline. Israel’s electricity rate is being cut by
9.4% with effect from January thanks to the natural gas from the Tamar
reservoir. Water rates are being
reduced by 10% effective from 1st Jan 2015.
Gasoline prices were also cut by 10%.
Mutual support between Indiana and
Israel. US
State of Indiana’s Governor Mike Pence undertook a nine-day trip to Israel,
which included an “economic development mission to bring jobs and investment to
Indiana.” Governor Pence expressed his
view that support for Israel in the US has never been stronger.
Zaatar chocolate wins international
gold.
Israel’s Ika Cohen shared a gold medal at the International Chocolate
Awards in London. Ika Chocolate’s
zaatar truffle won a joint gold medal in the “flavored dark ganaches and
truffles” section of the competition.
Strengthening Indo-Israeli ties. Experts at the seventh
India Israel Forum – the Indo-Israel Innovation Colloquium in Mumbai – explored
further ties between the two nations in innovation, information technology,
healthcare, water technology, renewable energy, wellness and engineering
sectors.
Making it “easy” to
fly from France to Israel. Low cost carrier easyJet plc will launch a
new direct route between Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport and Paris Charles de
Gaulle airport, starting 30th March 2015.
Ticket prices for the flights on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays start
from 45.99 Euros one-way.
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Sarona - Tel Aviv’s newest leisure and
culture oasis.
Just across from Tel Aviv’s Azrieli towers, the former German Templer
colony of Sarona has been revitalized and landscaped to include playgrounds and
parks. 33 residences dating from 1871
have been renovated and converted into eateries, upscale shops and art
galleries.
Recycling is a “hit” with Israelis. This youtube film promoting
awareness of recycling in Israel by the Tamir recycling corporation has had
almost 900,000 views. No wonder - it
features some phenomenally accurate precision ways to dispose of recyclable
containers and plastic bottles.
Music and food bring peace to Jerusalem. Watch 2000 young Jews and
Arabs gathering together at November’s “Simply Singing” event in
Jerusalem. In addition to the music,
poetry and dancing, two chefs, one Arab-Israeli, the other Jewish-Israeli
worked together to create fusion dishes that reflected both cultures.
But is it art? Jerusalem's annual winter
festival, "Hamshushalayim," which takes place over four consecutive
weekends, includes an unusual exhibition displayed among supermarket
shelves. The exhibition,
"Mivtza" ("sale" in Hebrew), seeks to examine the meeting
between modern art and a familiar daily space.
Hollywood movie of Israeli’s jungle
survival.
US actor Kevin Bacon is to star in “Jungle” based on the true story of
Israeli adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg, who was lost in the Amazon rainforest for
three weeks in 1981. "Back to
Tuichi" was one of Israel’s most popular books in the 1990s. It has been
translated into 15 languages.
THE JEWISH STATE
Underwater
village discovered near Haifa. (Thanks to David and Israel21c) A water well
that may be the oldest wooden structure ever found, and the oldest evidence of
an ancient olive-oil industry, are among the preserved remains of a prehistoric
village discovered underwater by Israeli researchers off the coast of Haifa.
Aliya at highest level
for a decade.
Around 26,500 new immigrants arrived in Israel in 2014 marking a 32%
increase over last year and a ten-year high.
Nearly 7,000 French arrived – more than double the 3,400 in 2013. Immigration from the Ukraine increased by
190% to 5,840 in 2014.
Take the Israel Course. Explore Israel’s past and
future with “The Israel Course” a 7-Part film series designed to reinforce your
understanding of Israel’s history and future. Be pro-active in Israel’s
miraculous narrative. http://www.theisraelcourse.com/unitedwithisrael/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJmja7T2gzw
The great escape. Three rare white rhinos at
Israel’s Ramat Gan Safari took advantage of a dozing guard and an open gate to
explore the safari’s car park.
Fortunately, Rhianna and her friends couldn’t find a suitable vehicle in
which to make a complete getaway. (They
should have chosen a Range Rover or Nissan Prairie!)
