Having read so many recent stories of
schoolchildren around the world being radicalized by Islamic extremists, here
is a collection of contrasting education-related activities and news articles
I’ve collected over the past few weeks concerning the Jewish State.
I will begin in the Israeli school system
itself. Whereas 100 countries marked Feb 11 as Safer Internet Day,
Israel’s Ministry of Education, on Feb 8, launched Annual National Week for
Online Safety Education in Israel.
Throughout the entire state educational system, students engaged in
classroom and online activities designed to increase awareness for Internet
safety, reduce potential risks, and deal with any harmful online
incidents.
100,000 Israeli kids attend a Sci-Tech
school – that’s 10 percent of all Israeli high school students (including
Muslims, Christians and Druze). The
Sci-Tech network builds curricula based on the demand for professionals in
various Israeli industries, and it currently has 18 industrial vocational
schools. This Bloomberg
report shows how Israeli-Arabs (especially women) continue to flourish
educationally, at Technion Institute of Technology – one of Israel’s top class
higher education establishments.
Technion’s President Peretz Lavie has been
describing the importance of Technology
and Education. Technion
graduates have either founded or are managing two-thirds of the Israeli
companies on NASDAQ. And the trend is
bound to continue with initiatives such as the brand new development
lab that the Technion and Microsoft have built together. It has
facilities that allow students to develop innovative technologies to rival
anything a hi-tech company can design.
They might even eliminate
cancer, thanks to a recent multi-million dollar donation for
educational research into the disease.
Life-changing discoveries continue to be
made at other Israeli establishments of higher education. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have been
receiving large numbers of small public donations (known as “crowdfunding”)
to allow them to conduct DNA sequencing tests. These have identified the genetic mutations
responsible for severe educational developmental delays in children. Meanwhile, researchers at the Weizmann
Institute of Science in Rehovot have embarked on a project with a group of
Japanese scientists to discover how autistic
spectrum disorder progresses in the brain. Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are also
studying the brain – this time those 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.
This led to the discovery that reading Braille utilizes “visual” areas
of the brain. Finally, Ben-Gurion
University hosted “Light
and Blindness” - an exhibition of research-and-development activities
in Israel designed to improve the quality of life for people with visual
impairment. It included a startup
contest and the opening of a trail for the blind.
Two Israeli companies recently reported
achievements with their medical “education” technologies. First, Israel’s
Pluristem Therapeutics announced that its stem cells help to educate
the body to build muscle after a hip replacement. Then Israel’s Meditouch demonstrated its
wearable movement biofeedback devices and dedicated rehabilitation software,
which are used in hospitals, clinics and at home to motivate patients to exercise
and improve movement.
Israel’s medical education programs are making a difference across the globe. According to UK Prime Minister David Cameron, eight joint UK-Israeli stem cell research projects have “the potential to change the lives of hundreds of millions of people.” In West Africa, Israeli humanitarian organization IsraAID has set-up a program entitled “Ebola Heroes” to provide psychosocial education and training to health workers, teachers, burial teams, policemen, social workers involved in treating Ebola cases.
So before the Jewish State is delegitimized
by billions of radicalized individuals, let’s use positive news like this to
re-educate the world about Israel. We
are helped by the international education non-profit StandWithUs, which has
launched its “Social
Media Ambassadors” program. StandWithUs is educating university
students in the use of multiple platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
and more. In another initiative,
Israel’s Technion (again) brought over 50
university and secondary students from Hong Kong to educate them about
Israeli entrepreneurial success.
We also need to educate ourselves so that
we champion those who safeguard the future of the Jewish State. We need to
publicize the message of the non-Jewish student visitor who is “awed
by pluralistic, diverse Israel” and who leaves determined to educate
the world about the democratic Jewish State.
We need to fight alongside people like Irish Catholic Belinda “Don’t
judge Israel before you’ve seen it” Hickey who counters uneducated
bigotry in Ireland.
Finally, here is another piece of good
news. You may have heard already about Israel’s educational bus stop libraries
that are still expanding
locally. Well what do you know? The concept has just been adopted in Istanbul. And guess what? The Turkish media report
proclaims that it was inspired by Israel!
We learn something new every day.
Michael Ordman writes a free weekly
newsletter containing positive news stories about Israel.
For a free subscription, email a request to
michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com
