Israeli President Reuven Rivlin at the Great Synagogue in the city of Tbilisi, Georgia, on Jan. 10. (photo by Haim Zach / IGPO via Ashernet)
At the Great Synagogue in Tbilisi, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin spoke about the history of Jews in Georgia, and the close ties that have existed over the years between Georgia and Israel. He said the connection “is good, yet we must do more.”
He noted, “The Jewish heart, the close bond with the Jewish community here, adds extra special essence to the ties between the two countries. Just this last Shabbat, we read in the Torah of Judah, who was ready to be held as a guarantee in place of his brother Benjamin. The mutual responsibility is the secret of the strength of the people of Israel, so it was in the past and so it is today. Jews in Israel and around the world have a responsibility for each other, we are one people. We will do all we can to perpetuate and to preserve the warm bond with you and with the Georgian people, and I am certain we will succeed.”
Earlier in the day, Rivlin met with Irakli Kobakhidze, chair of the Georgian parliament.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu examines arson damage in Beit Meir. (photo from Ashernet)
Last week’s wave of fires across northern and central Israel is estimated to have caused, so far, some half a billion shekels in damage, and total projections are higher. Several thousand homes have been either destroyed completely, or partially destroyed in the infernos.
In many cases, the fires have been set deliberately. Drones equipped with UV detection equipment filmed several instances of arsonists setting fire to brushwood around the Jerusalem region and in the north near Haifa, and several suspects have been arrested. Matters have been made worse by the fact that the winter rains have not yet started and the forests are very dry. Also, the temperatures have been higher than usual in most parts of the country.
Several countries, including the United States, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus and Turkey, have sent fire-fighting aircraft to Israel to assist in getting the fires under control. The Palestinian Authority also sent firefighters to assist the Israeli teams to control the infernos.
On Nov. 27, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu toured one of the worst-affected areas, just west of Jerusalem, in Beit Meir. The prime minister saw at least 10 homes that had been destroyed and many others showing serious fire damage, making even those uninhabitable.
JNF Canada has started an emergency campaign, every dollar of which will go to rehabilitation and clean-up efforts. For more information, visit jnf.ca or call 604-257-5155.
(photo from Israel Antiquities Authority via Ashernet)
Described by Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archeologists as “extraordinary,” a jug estimated to be some 3,800 years old – seen here being restored in an IAA laboratory – was found by high school students taking part in a Land of Israel and Archeology matriculation stream excavation. This excavation is part of a new training course offered by IAA and the Ministry of Education, which seeks to connect the students with the past and help prepare the archeologists of the future. The jug, which is from the Middle Bronze Age, was found in Yehud (near Ben-Gurion International Airport) at a site being examined prior to planned construction of residential buildings. Also found, in addition to the jug, were items such as daggers, arrowheads, an axe head, other vessels, a churn for making butter, sheep bones and what are very likely the bones of a donkey.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin lays a wreath in memory of the victims of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack at the Chabad House. To Rivlin’s left is First Lady Nechama Rivlin. (photo from Israel Government Press Office via Ashernet)
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and First Nechama Rivlin participated in a Nov. 21 memorial ceremony for victims of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack at the Chabad House – Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, Bentzion Kruman, Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, Yoheved Orpaz and Norma Rabinovich.
Also at the ceremony at Taj Palace Hotel were Chennamaneni Vidyasagar Rao, governor of Maharashtra state of India, other senior state officials, leaders and members of the Jewish community, and members of the business and academic delegation who accompanied the president on his state visit to India.
“As we stand here, we say clearly that terror will never win…. Our values of democracy and freedom are strong and we will defend them with all our might,” said Rivlin. He added, “We must act and work together: to share intelligence and best practices, to keep our peoples safe, to protect our borders, our towns and cities. India and Israel stand shoulder to shoulder in this fight. This is our duty to the memory of the victims, and will be the legacy we leave for future generations.”
Assistant Professor Avi Schroeder of the Technion faculty of chemical engineering and the Technion Integrated Cancer Centre. (photo by Ashernet)
Technion researchers in Haifa have developed a new technology for determining the suitability of specific anticancer drugs to a specific patient – before treatment begins. The study, just published in Nature Communications, was led by Assistant Professor Avi Schroeder of the Technion faculty of chemical engineering and the Technion Integrated Cancer Centre. The researchers packed miniscule quantities of anticancer drugs, as well as placebo packages (which contained no drugs), inside dedicated nanoparticles they developed, which have the ability to flow in the bloodstream to the tumor. Attached synthetic DNA sequences served as barcode readers of the activity in the cancer cells. After 48 hours, a biopsy was taken and the anticancer drugs were found mainly in dead cancer cells – that is, they had killed them – while the placebos were found mainly in live cells – that is, they had not killed the cells. A comparison between various anticancer drugs also found differences in effectiveness.
A 1,200-year-old gold coin fonud at Kfar Kama. (photo by Israel Antiquities Authority via Ashernet)
Two teenage students from the lower Galilee, Dor Yogev and Ella Dicks, who were participating in an Israel Antiquities Authority dig in nearby Kfar Kama, found some ancient coins. Included in the find was a 1,200-year-old gold coin inscribed in Arabic and mentioning the name of Muhammad and monotheism. The find shows that the people who lived at the location were there at the early Islamic period in the 7th and 8th centuries. The location of the dig, Kfar Kama, is the home of the Circassian community. The Circassians are a Sunni Muslim community closely allied with Israel; they participate fully in Israeli life, including their young men serving in the Israel Defence Forces.
A letter of introduction, written and signed by the Rambam (Maimonides) in the 12th century, which is part of the Discarded History exhibition that will be opening in April 2017 at Cambridge University.Visitors will be able to see a small fraction of the more than 300,000 manuscripts and fragments that were originally found in the geniza, or storeroom, of Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, or Old Cairo, in Egypt. Some of the items are more than 1,000 years old and, among them, are accounting records and parts of responsa and observations by some of the greatest Jewish theological minds, such as the Rambam, Isaac Luria and Joseph Caro. (photo by Edgar Asher with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library)
Israel Antiquities Authority’s new 36,000-square-metre, three-level National Campus for Archeology of Israel, designed by architect Moshe Safdie to descend like excavation strata, is still under construction. (photo by Ardon Bar Hama, Israel Antiquities Authority, via Ashernet)
Located on Museum Hill in Giv’at Ram between the Israel Museum and the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, the facility will allow the public to see some of the tens of thousands of archeological items presently being held in store rooms and to watch, through windows, conservation being carried out on a variety of national treasures. Twenty-six donors, together with a significant contribution from the state, made it possible to go ahead with the $105 million project, which is expected to be complete in about a year’s time.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu kisses Adel Banita’s 2-year old son on the forehead in Hadassah Hospital on Oct. 5, 2015. Netanyahu was visiting Banita, who was stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist in Jerusalem’s Old City. Her husband, Aharon, 22, died later of his injuries. (photo from Ashernet)
The Jewish year 5776 could be probably best described as a year of diplomacy and terror. Despite the toll of death and misery being inflicted by radical Islamic terror groups around the world, Israel this past year has been relatively quiet in so much as it has not had an outright war with its neighbors. Terror, however, has been present, with the knife and automobile being the weapons of choice to inflict fear and mayhem on the long-suffering citizens of Israel.
Radicalized, mostly young, Arab terrorists have been responsible for murdering or seriously injuring innocent men, women and children by stabbings or ramming their vehicles into groups of people, usually standing at bus stops or hitchhiking posts. Death and injury have also been caused by throwing large stones at passing cars in the West Bank. In several instances, firearms have been used by terrorists to kill people enjoying an evening out. On Aug. 17, a terrorist from the West Bank shot dead four people and injured a further six individuals at a restaurant in Tel Aviv. Perhaps the most outrageous attack was the murder of 13-year-old Hallel-Yaffe Ariel as she slept in her bed in her home in Kiryat Arba on June 30.
The year has been marked by intensive diplomatic activity, particularly as far as the African continent is concerned. Major countries, such as Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda, played host to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu this past summer. Their leaders have also visited Israel and trade agreements were signed. One African leader said the visit of the Israeli prime minister to Africa was to “reset Africa’s diplomatic relations with Israel.” Many African countries are anxious to use Israeli technology for water management and agricultural development. It is also worth noting that many African nations have also been victims of radical Islamic terrorism.
Israel’s Mediterranean neighbors were not forgotten this past year. Mutual interests of both energy and security have brought Greece, Israel and Cyprus closer. Greece and Israel have conducted military exercises in each other’s country, and the three countries are working together to maximize the natural gas deposits that have been discovered in the eastern Mediterranean.
Despite the tensions in the Middle East, beneath the surface, much is happening between Israel and its neighbor Jordan. Perhaps the most significant long-term change is the soon-to-be-completed Jezreel Valley railway project. Apart from the advantage for Israelis living in the north and working in the Haifa area, the new rail link will enable Jordanians to have a Mediterranean trade outlet, via Haifa. The only link to the sea for Jordan at present is at Aqaba on the Red Sea.
Another project between Israel and Jordan concerns the rapid evaporation of the Dead Sea. Already the lowest point on earth, the sea level is getting lower every year. Also, the annual replacement of water from rivers in the north does not reach the Dead Sea. This river water is being used for agriculture and domestic purposes. In principle, the two countries have agreed to build a water feed from the Gulf of Eilat to the Dead Sea. On the way, the flow of water would power generators to produce electricity.
As regards her other neighbors in the region, the terrible humanitarian crises being played out in Syria and Libya have once again demonstrated that Israel will never turn her back on those in need. As thousands of refugees have been pouring onto some Greek islands via Turkey to escape the unrelenting wars in the Middle East and North Africa, Israel’s aid organizations and medical teams have been on hand to offer help and expertise.
Among other happenings during the year, another state-of-the-art submarine was delivered during the summer from a German shipyard to augment Israel’s submarine fleet. And, finally, former prime minister Ehud Olmert was sent to prison after being found guilty of corruption and bribery. The positive side of this? The rule of law is the same in Israel for all of its citizens.
Buzz Aldrin addresses the 2016 session of the International Space University at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. (photo from Technion via Ashernet)
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon; he was followed by Buzz Aldrin, while the third member of the team, Michael Collins, orbited the moon in the expedition’s command module.
On July 26, Aldrin addressed the 2016 session of the International Space University at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. Aldrin serves as chancellor of the ISU and, at present, the ISU’s summer program is being held at the Technion.
“We were given an opportunity to land on the moon, and the opportunity became a landmark event that changed the history of mankind,” said Aldrin in his lecture. “Four hundred thousand people were involved in the success of this mission and a half billion people were watching us making history,” he added. “When we returned from there, we were greeted as heroes, but the world cheered not only us but what we represented – conquering the impossible.”
Looking beyond the moon, Aldrin would like to see humans having a permanent presence on Mars by 2040 – to this end, he founded the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute in Florida.