Israel, Palestinian Authority join forces vs. coronavirus

(Photo: Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

By Abigail Klein Leichman - March 18, 2020

Viruses know no boundaries.

To assure the best possible healthcare during the coronavirus crisis, Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) are working in close coordination, says Major Yotam Shefer, head of the International Department of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

“In the last three weeks, COGAT and the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria, in collaboration with the Israeli Ministry of Health, have been working to aid the Palestinian Authority in dealing with the outbreak of the coronavirus,” Shefer told reporters on a conference call earlier today.

Thus far, Israel has delivered 400 medical kits and 500 protective equipment kits to PA healthcare and security workers specifically for the coronavirus epidemic.

Read More: Israel21c

Stuck at home, Jerusalem neighbors join in balcony sing-a-long

By Jessica Steinberg - March 16, 2020

It was a spontaneous singalong from the balconies of a Jerusalem block on Sunday evening, as musician Ran Yehoshua led his neighbors in a round of “Bashana Haba’a” (Next Year), the classic Israeli song of hope amid crisis.

Yehoshua had his guitar in hand and amplifier plugged in, and brought his neighbors out to their balconies on their cul de sac in the neighborhood of San Simon.

His street, Ben Tabai, is ringed by apartment buildings, and many of the 1970s-era block apartments have balconies overlooking the interior street.

“We’re really a village on this block,” said Yehoshua, who lives at 8 Ben Tabai.

Read More: Times of Israel

Rappers 'walk where Jesus walked,' make 'a new sound' in Israel

By Caleb Parke - March 11, 2020

A group of rap artists toured Israel a few months ago, dropping new bars and getting baptized where Jesus did 2,000 years ago.

In September, hip hop artist Derek Minor brought the 116 Clique, a group of Christian rap artists, to the Holy Land to "walk where Jesus walked" and put together a recently released short film on YouTube called "A New Sound in Israel Vol. 2."

Watch the video HERE.

Read More: FOX News

Israeli company develops rapid diagnostic kit for coronavirus

By Abigail Klein Leichman - March 1, 2020

Israeli company BATM of Hod Hasharon announced that its biomedical division has developed a diagnostics kit to detect coronavirus from saliva samples in less than half an hour.

CEO Dr. Zvi Marom tells ISRAEL21c that the test is compatible with the current hospital-based method for diagnosing COVID-19, reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) – a type of gene sequencing that takes about eight hours.

Read More: Israel21c

In further sign of detente, Israel attends anti-terrorism conference in Morocco

(Photo: Moroccan Royal Palace via AP)

By Raphael Ahren - March 6, 2020

In yet another indication of warming ties between Jerusalem and some Arab countries, an Israeli official this week actively participated in an anti-terrorism conference in Morocco.

The name of the Israeli official who attended the so-called Warsaw Process Counterterrorism and Illicit Finance working group in Marrakech on Wednesday and Thursday cannot currently be published, due to security reasons.

Read More: Times of Israel

Israel reveals Eurovision 2020 entry, and it’s pretty cool

By Naama Barak - March 5, 2020

Israel has unveiled its entry to the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest. Called “FekerLibi” – Amharic for “My Beloved” – the song will be performed by 19-year-old singer Eden Alene.

In an apparent attempt to engage as many Eurovision viewers as possible, most of the song’s lyrics are in English, with a few notable lines in Hebrew, Arabic and Amharic.

The song was written and composed by Doron Medalie, the man behind Eurovision 2018 winner “Toy,” together with celebrated musician Idan Raichel.

Alene, a Jerusalemite whose parents made aliyah to Israel from Ethiopia, was chosen to represent Israel in the contest following her win on the reality show “The Next Star to the Eurovision.”

Read More: Israel21c

Israel: The One Middle East Country With True Religious Freedom

By Rami Dabbas - March 2, 2020

Christians would rather stay out of the Middle East’s raging conflict, but they invariably become the most prominent victims. Even in the region’s quieter countries, Christians face routine persecution. And it’s been that way for millennia.

Syria: Although many Christians were indigenous to the land, over the centuries countless numbers were forcibly converted to Islam. Pockets of native Christians remain in what’s known as the Assyrian Church. Today, the Syrian regime punishes any Muslim who converts to Christianity.

Jordan: Often portrayed as the most moderate of Arab Muslim countries, Jordan still legally prohibits Muslims from converting to Christianity, and forbids Christian men from marrying non-Christian women. Christians in Jordan, while they are free to worship in churches, must submit to various aspects of Sharia law.

Egypt: Egypt has by far the largest Christian population of any country in the Middle East, but that hasn’t helped them in terms of quality of life or national influence. Egypt’s Coptic Christians are prohibited from holding certain high-level government positions, and are routinely discriminated against in society. For instance, many sports clubs will not admit Christians unless they convert to Islam. Young Christian women are often kidnapped and forcibly converted, with little or no intervention by the authorities, and the destruction of Christian property more often than not goes unpunished.

Read More: The Algemeiner

Lost 1,000-year-old Hebrew Bible found on dusty Cairo synagogue shelf

(Photo: Yoram Meital)

By Amanda Borschel-Dan - February 24, 2020

In July 2017, Israeli historian Yoram Meital stumbled upon a handwritten 1028 CE biblical codex that was lying abandoned on a dusty shelf in a Cairo synagogue. Wrapped in simple white paper of the sort one finds on tables in cheap eateries, at 616 pages, the Zechariah Ben ‘Anan Manuscript is one of the era’s most complete and preserved examples of the “Writings,” the third and concluding section of the Hebrew Bible. It had been lost to scholars for almost 40 years.

Read More: Times of Israel

FDA Clears Israeli-Developed Standing Robotic Wheelchair UPnRIDE For US Distribution

By NoCamels Team - February 27, 2020

UPnRIDE Robotics announced on Thursday that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its Robotic Standing Wheelchair for marketing and use across the United States. The UPnRIDE will become available to wheelchair users and the elderly in the US, the Israeli company said.

The FDA gave UPnRIDE initial clearance in September. The device provides users with safe and functional mobility in a standing position in almost any environment, indoors and outdoors, the company says. It is suitable for most wheelchair users, including paraplegics, quadriplegics, the elderly and people suffering from MS, ALS, CP, stroke or TBI.

Read More: NoCamels

Why the future of agriculture lies in Israel’s desert

(Photo: Dr. Ram Fishman)

By Abigail Klein Leichman - March 2, 2020

Farmers in arid areas of India need no convincing that the climate is changing under their feet. Their income is drying up along with their groundwater wells, forcing many to give up farming.

As these kinds of situations become more common, help is coming from Tel Aviv University’s Nitsan Sustainable Development Lab directed by Ram Fishman, an expert on smallholder farmers and climate change.

His team assesses agriculture, water and energy problems in rural Asia and Africa and finds Israeli technologies to solve them.

“Many farmers around the world look to Israel as a model of how to manage and flourish in conditions of water scarcity and a hotter, drier climate,” Fishman tells ISRAEL21c.

Read More: Israel21c

Israeli cycling team to make history competing in UAE Tour

By Brian Blum - February 26, 2020

In a sign of warming ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Israel’s only professional cycling team will compete in the UAE Tour, becoming the first Israeli team to participate in the Middle East’s top cycling race.

The Israel Start-Up Nationteam arrived in Dubai this week in preparation for the race, which begins on Sunday.

The bridge-building began almost immediately when the Israeli team entered the Al Qudra Cycling Park for training. After some initial shock expressed by other cyclists upon seeing the team logo, some waved and even asked for selfies, said 23-year-old Israeli rider Omer Goldstein.

“Until recently, it would have seemed like an unrealistic dream,” Goldstein said. “This is the victory of sports and being here is proof of that.”

Read More: Israel21c

Israeli scientists generate water from air, even in the desert

(Photo: The Technion)

By Naama Barak - February 24, 2020

Drinking water shortages is one of the big problems facing humanity in the coming years: according to the World Health Organization, by 2025 half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas.

With this arid forecast in mind, researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology recently developed a prototype system that produces water from the air. Unlike existing water-from-air generators, the Technion system is based on a two-stage cyclic process. First, it separates moisture from the air using a highly concentrated saline solution, and then it condenses the vapor under sub-atmospheric pressure conditions.

“Our technology turns water into a commodity as it enables water to be produced anywhere in the world, without being dependent upon existing sources of liquid water,” explained the Technion’s Prof. David Broday, who developed the prototype together with colleague Prof. Eran Friedler.

“Existing technologies work simply as ‘reverse’ air conditioners, by cooling the whole air mass entering the system in order to condense the moisture,” said Friedler. “This ‘direct cooling’ approach is energetically inefficient, since such systems waste much of their energy requirements on cooling about 97 percent of the air volume, which is non-condensable.”

Read More: Israel21c

Israeli Arabs and Jews work together to boost Arab education

By Abigail Klein Leichman - February 2, 2020

One of 12 children born to Bedouin parents who could not read or write, Aulfat Abu-Laban Altouree always felt the Israeli Arab education system was lacking.

So, after growing up in the mixed cities of Lod and Ramleh, she earned a degree in formal and informal education from Beit Berl College.

During a course on alternative educational approaches, she visited a Waldorf school in Karkur near Haifa. Waldorf schools are based on anthroposophy, an educational philosophy integrating academics, arts and practical skills. This was the answer she’d been seeking.

“When I left Karkur, my heart stayed there,” she says.

After attending an anthroposophy seminar, Abu-Laban Altouree became convinced that Waldorf schools could transform Arab communities — if only teacher training could be adapted for their own language and cultural context.

Putting that dream on hold, Abu-Laban Altouree meanwhile started a program at a Lod community center to fill in educational gaps for Arab women who had married young and didn’t finish high school.

Read More: Israel21c

New antiviral masks from Israel may help stop deadly coronavirus

(Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

By Abigail Klein Leichman - January 28, 2020

As the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, two Israeli companies are finalizing development of revolutionary antiviral reusable facemasks.

“Israel has technologies that can support controlling this epidemic,” says Liat Goldhammer-Steinberg, CTO of Sonovia in Ramat Gan.

More than 100 people are reported dead from complications of Wuhan coronavirus, dubbed 2019-nCoV.

The virus is spread by air and direct contact. The World Health Organization reports approximately 4,200 cases of infection since December 31. Most of the cases are in China. A few have been confirmed in 15 additional countries.

Because there is no vaccine or treatment for 2019-nCoV, personal protective equipment is an important way to combat the transmission of the virus and avoid a pandemic.

Read More: Israel21c

Most American adults don’t know 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, survey finds

 (Photo: Jewish Chronicle/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

By Ben Sales - January 22, 2020

(JTA) — Half of American adults are unaware of basic facts regarding Nazism and the Holocaust, including the number of Jews who were killed and how Nazis came to power.

Those are some of the findings of a new study by the Pew Research Center released on Tuesday, about a week ahead of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The study asked nearly 13,000 respondents, Jewish and non-Jewish adults and teenagers, four questions about the Holocaust.

Most knew that the Holocaust took place between 1930 and 1950, and that Nazi ghettos were areas of cities where Jews were forced to live. But only 45 percent knew that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. About 12 percent each thought that the number was lower or higher, and 29 percent did not know the answer. Among the teens, only 38 percent knew the number of Jews killed.

Read More: JTA

Jerusalem zoo sends aid to animals injured in Australia fires

(Photo: AP/David Mariuz)

By Israel Hayom Staff - January 7, 2020

Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo has donated medical supplies to aid animals in Victoria, Australia, in the wake of the devastating wildfires raging there.

The wildfires, fueled by drought and the country’s hottest and driest year on record, have been raging since September, months earlier than is typical for Australia’s annual wildfire season. So far, the blazes have killed 25 people, destroyed 2,000 homes and scorched 13 million acres of land, also killing upward of 480 million animals.

Read More: Israel Hayom

City of David archaeologists say 2,000-year-old central Jerusalem market found

(Photo: Kobi Harati, City of David archive)

By Amanda Borschel-Dan - January 6, 2020

A rare Second Temple measuring table was recently discovered in the City of David, and it is causing archaeologists to identify an ancient Jerusalem square as the city’s 2,000-year-old central market, according to Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Ari Levy.

In conversation with The Times of Israel on Monday, Levy said the stone table would have belonged to the market’s manager, or agoranomos, who was in charge of the weights and measures of commodities traded in the shuk.

The measuring table was found in a broad paved central square still undergoing excavation, alongside dozens of stone measurement weights. The sum of the parts has led the IAA archaeologists to conclude that this area of the Stepped Street, a paved 2,000-year-old pilgrims’ path that connects the Siloam Pool with the Temple Mount, would have served as ancient Jerusalem’s main market.

Read More: Times of Israel

New Yorkers flock to massive rally against anti-Semitism in wake of attacks

(Photo: Jeenah Moon/Getty Images/AFP)

By TOI Staff - January 5, 2020

Tens of thousands of people converged on lower Manhattan Sunday morning for a massive march against anti-Semitism in the wake of a series of violent incidents aimed at the city’s Jewish community.

Coming from as far away as Cleveland, Ohio, and Boston, Massachusetts, the protesters came together in Foley Square prior to the planned march across the Brooklyn Bridge to Columbus Park, where they were set to show their solidarity with those targeted in attacks in Monsey, Jersey City, and Brooklyn.

“Proud to be setting out with fellow Bostonians to march with our brothers and sisters in New York today,” tweeted Marc Baker, the head of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston.

A second rally was being held concurrently outside the headquarters of the Jewish Agency for Israel in downtown Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted his support for the New York rally.

Read More: Times of Israel

Christian Israeli community growing slowly, besting Jews in matriculation grades

(Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

By TOI Staff - December 23, 2019

While Christians remain a small minority in Israel, their numbers are growing slowly and their educational achievements rival those of the majority Jewish population, figures released this week by the Central Bureau of Statistics reveal.

Some 177,000 Christians live in Israel, or roughly 2 percent of the population, according to the CBS data, released in honor of the Christmas holiday on Wednesday.

Read More: Times of Israel

Archaeologists find table where Ark of Covenant once sat - report

(Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority)

By Donna Rachel Edmunds - December 20, 2019

A 3,100-year-old temple uncovered near Beit Shemesh may hold a link to the Ark of the Covenant, archaeologists have said.

The archaeological site at a tel on the outskirts of Beit Shemesh, 20km west of Jerusalem, which has been under excavation since 2012 has now recently yielded a fascinating discovery: a stone table, which echoes Biblical narratives of a slab on which the Ark of the Covenant is said to have been placed.

Read More: Jerusalem Post