The
Jerusalem Post included two reports on the events of 5777 in its 20th September
edition. Gill Hoffman wrote “very little of significance actually ended up
happening in Israel” so he described the Top 10 stories that didn’t
happen. Amotz Asa-el struggled to find a
“Person of the Year” – there was “no celebrity thinker, captivating artist or
high-flying statesman”.
I
would like to challenge these rather negative articles by providing a summary
of just a few of the many hundreds of positive events of the past year. Most of these news articles appeared in the
Jerusalem Post. Where appropriate, I will name the exceptional people involved.
Tishri-Cheshvan
5777 / Oct-Nov 2016:-
Readers
will know about IsraAID’s relief work after recent Hurricanes Harvey and Irma
and Maria, but may have forgotten that IsraAID’s Navonel (Voni) Glick and
Yotam Polizer were organizing volunteers back in 2016 to help Haitian
survivors of Hurricane Matthew. IsraAID has since helped survivors of the Italian
earthquakes, refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos,
Sierra
Leone, Peru,
Yazidis in Iraq
and more.
In
November, the IDF announced that Avraham
Yitzhak will be the first colonel of Ethiopian descent in IDF history
when he becomes chief medical officer of the IDF Southern Command. Yitzhak came
to Israel in 1991, graduated in medicine at Ben Gurion University and was the
first Ethiopian-Israeli combat doctor.
Kislev-Tevet
5777 / Dec-Jan 2016:-
Israel
received rare recognition from the BBC in December, when (after protest for
their initial snub) BBC
News finally interviewed Weizmann Institute’s Professor
Avigdor Scherz, co-developer of the globally acclaimed TOOKAD prostate
cancer treatment. Also in December, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began
his series of global trips to improve Israel’s international relations and
bilateral trade by visiting two Muslim countries - Azerbaijan
and Kazakhstan.
He subsequently visited London,
Singapore,
Australia,
West
Africa and of course, the USA
and the UN. In January the PM announced that Member of
Knesset Ayoub
Kara would become the first lawmaker from Israel’s Druze community to
serve as a cabinet minister. In his previous role as Deputy Minister of
Regional Cooperation, Kara was instrumental in setting up Israeli help for
Syrian refugees in Syria,
Israel
and Jordan.
Also in January, Israel’s leading crowdfunding organization OurCrowd, founded
by entrepreneur Jon
Medved, hosted Israel’s largest investment event with over 6,000
attendees. Most of OurCrowd’s portfolio of 110 startups were on view.
Shevat-Adar
5777 / Feb-Mar 2017:-
In
February new judges chosen to sit on Israel’s Supreme Court of Justice included
a Christian Arab, George
Kara, and Yael Vilner - the first orthodox Jewish woman to get a
permanent seat on Israel’s highest court. In the same month Dr. Michal
Kaufmann of Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital performed cochlear
implant surgery on 16 Palestinian Arab deaf and mute children to allow them to
hear for the first time in their lives. Then
in March, Israeli scientists announced one of the biggest
breakthroughs in cancer treatment when they used derivatives of
Phenanthridine to make tumor cells self-destruct in the most resistant and
incurable cancers. Also in March Intel
purchased Israel’s Mobileye, founded by Ziv
Aviram and Amnon Shashua, for $15 billion. Mobileye continues to be
managed in Israel and expand through partnerships with Fiat-Chrysler
and China’s Yutong
and Nio. Another Israeli company,
SodaStream, led by David Birnbaum,
unveiled its new packaging in March. It includes a picture of the Israeli flag,
accompanied by the caption: "This product is made by Arabs and Jews
working side by side in peace and harmony."
Nissan-Iyar
5777 / Apr-May 2017:-
One
of April’s highlights was when Israeli President Rivlin invited Arab teacher Jehan
Jaber to his Jerusalem residence, to praise her for teaching Hebrew to
Arab elementary school children. The video of Jehan
teaching catchy song “Geshem, Geshem Metaftef” (“Rain, rain is dripping”) went
viral, with over two million views. In May Yehiel
Tal, CEO of Israel’s CollPlant,
which has been developing collagen-based bio-ink, made a major
announcement. He said that CollPlant is now
“working with several large international companies, with the aim of
collaborating in the development of organs and tissues printing.” Meanwhile, Israeli
NGO Innovation: Africa, founded by Sivan
Ya’ari, publicized its work installing solar power systems to provide
electricity for Africans to pump water, illuminate homes and power medical
centers. Sivan’s 8-year-old daughter then visited Uganda to see her
mother’s work at first hand.
Sivan-Tammuz-Av
5777 / Jun-July-Aug 2017:-
In
June, researchers at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, led by Professor
Benjamin Rubinoff, transplanted retinal pigment cells from embryonic
stem cells to prevent five sufferers of retinal degeneration from going blind.
In the same month, Jerusalem Rabbi
Dov Benyaacov-Kurtzman setup the UK National Emergency Response, Resilience
and Treatment Program for Stress and Trauma. Its first work was with the
victims of the Manchester UK bombing. In July Eli
Beer, founder and President of United Hatzalah, explained his
organization’s revolutionary model of life-saving at the largest dedication of
emergency vehicles in Israel’s history. Later, in August
United Hatzalah despatched its Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit to
Houston, Texas.
Ellul
5777 / Sept 2017:-
In
September, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny
Danon took up his new position as Vice President of the 72nd Session of
the UN General Assembly (GA). Earlier in the year, as chair of the United
Nations Legal Committee, Danon increased respect for Israel at the UN. He saw two
Israeli-sponsored resolutions
passed by the GA and arranged a co-operation agreement with United
Nations Women - the world body’s institution for the empowerment of
women. He even organized a UN
event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Israel’s reunification of
Jerusalem. Then just before this Rosh Hashana as the presiding GA chair, he
proudly invited
Israeli PM Netanyahu to speak to the General Assembly.
In
fact, it was a Very Good News Year.
Michael
Ordman writes about positive news stories from Israel. www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
and a searchable archive www.IsraelActive.com
