Israeli team aims to restore sense of touch to those with nerve damage

(Photo By: Courtesy Tel Aviv University)

By: Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman - July 12, 2021

A team of Tel Aviv researchers has developed a new technology to restore the sense of touch for people with damaged nerves.

The technology, developed by Dr. Ben M. Maoz from Tel Aviv University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, together with Dr. Amir Arami from the Sackler School of Medicine and the Microsurgery Unit in the Department of Hand Surgery at Sheba Medical Center, involves a tiny (half a centimeter by half a centimeter in size) sensor that can be implanted on a damaged nerve and connected to a healthy nerve. The implant, made of two small pieces of insulating material, generates static electricity by friction, meaning that it does not require any electricity or batteries.

Each time the limb touches an object, the sensor is activated and conducts an electric current to the functioning nerve, which recreates the feeling of touch.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Five-letter inscription inked 3,100 years ago may be name of biblical judge

(Photo By: Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority)

By: Amanda Borschel-Dan - July 12, 2021

Inked 3,100 years ago during the era of the biblical judges, an extremely rare five-letter inscription discovered in the lush Judean foothills could be a missing link in the development of Early Alphabetic (also known as Canaanite) writing used during the 12th-10th centuries BCE.

If correct, this would be the first hard evidence of a name from the biblical stories of the judges that is on an artifact contemporary to the period.

The inscription was published Monday as part of the second issue of the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology (JJAR) — a new open-access online journal — edited by Bar-Ilan Prof. Avraham Faust, Hebrew University Prof. Yossef Garfinkel, and Hebrew University researcher Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu.

Read More: Times of Israel

Coalition brings Israeli water technology to Hard Rock community in Navajo Nation

(Photo By: Courtesy)

By: JNS - July 8, 2021

The Israeli company Watergen has implemented a pilot project, installing a GEN-M water generator at Rocky Ridge Gas & Market (RRGM) in the Hard Rock community of the Navajo Nation.

It was facilitated by store owner Germaine Simonson, Tó Nizhóní Ání (TNA), StandWithUs, Bright Path Strong (BPS) and 4D Products & Services (4D), in coordination with Arlando Teller, former Arizona state representative and current deputy assistant secretary for tribal affairs for the U.S. Department of Transportation. Arizona State Rep. Alma Hernandez (LD3) assisted with the launch of this joint effort as well.

Watergen’s innovative technology creates high-quality drinking water from the air. This project aims to address the lack of access to clean drinking water within the Hard Rock community. According to recent estimates, nearly 10,000 families across Navajo Nation lack access to running water.

Read More: JNS

Israeli expertise brings closure to Surfside disaster in matter of days

(Photo By: United Hatzalah)

By: Felice Friedson/Steven Ganot/Maya Margit/The Media Line - July 9, 2021

The operation to search for survivors and bodies in the rubble of the collapsed Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside, Florida, a suburb of Miami, has been ongoing for two weeks. Sixty-four people have so far been confirmed dead and 76 are officially still missing. (Additional bodies have been recovered but authorities have yet to add them until their families are notified.)

On Thursday, June 24, at roughly 1:25 am Eastern Daylight Time, the 12-story building collapsed suddenly, with some reports stating that long-term degradation and structural issues were to blame for the incident.

By Friday, an Israeli task force was onsite, sifting through the upper layers of rubble in 12-hour shifts. The Israeli government conveyed offers of help from the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command search and rescue team, which has become a world-leading expert after assisting in many other disasters around the world.

The IDF’s National Search and Rescue Unit, along with members of the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit of United Hatzalah, an Israeli emergency medical services organization, arrived in Surfside on Sunday morning. With them were volunteers from ZAKA, the Israeli emergency response organization that specializes in gathering body parts for Jewish burial. It was known that many Jewish residents, including 20 Israelis, were among the missing.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Facebook rolling out Holocaust education materials in 12 languages

(Photo By: Olivier Douliery/AFP)

By: Ben Sakes - July 8, 2021

Facebook is expanding its efforts to combat Holocaust denial by directing users to Holocaust education materials in 12 languages, including Arabic, Russian and German.

Beginning in January, people who searched in English for information about the Holocaust or Holocaust denial were given a prompt to visit AboutHolocaust.org, a website that provides basic facts about the genocide and provides testimonies by survivors.

By July 13, the site will be available to people who search for those terms in several other widely spoken languages.

Read More: Times of Israel

Tel Aviv team develops RNA ‘missiles’ to directly target cancer cells

(Photo By: Tel Aviv University)

By: Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman - July 1, 2021

A team of researchers at Tel Aviv University has developed a breakthrough RNA-based drug delivery system to target diseased cells that could improve the treatment of blood cancers, various types of solid cancers, different inflammatory diseases and viral diseases – including coronavirus.

“Today, we flood the body with antibodies that, although selective, damage all the cells that express a specific receptor, regardless of their current form,” explained Prof. Dan Peer, TAU’s vice president for Research and Development, who led the study. “We have now taken healthy cells out of the equation that can help us - that is, uninflamed cells - and via a simple injection into the bloodstream [we] can silence, express or edit a particular gene exclusively in the cells that are inflamed at that given moment.”

Read More: Jerusalem Post

An Israeli doctor’s prescription for premium peanut butter

(Photo By: Donna Cohen)

By: Abigail Klein Leichman - June 30, 2021

Israeli kids love peanutty Bamba puffs, but are more likely to have chocolate spread than peanut butter on their sandwiches.

Because peanut butter is such an American classic, Dr. Jason Cohen continued buying American organic peanut butter for his family after immigrating to Israel in 2011 from New Jersey. He’d pack it in his luggage when returning from frequent trips to treat patients at his interventional pain practice in New York.

When Covid halted his travels, Cohen went shopping for an Israeli equivalent.

To his chagrin, he found that Israeli brands mainly use peanuts or peanut powder exported from China.

His inquiries to the Israeli Groundnuts Board revealed that about 70 percent of Israeli-grown peanuts – of exceptionally high quality, by the way — are exported to Europe in the shell.

Read More: Israel21c

Israeli rescue squad provides trauma therapy alongside search efforts

(Photo By: Joe Skipper/Reuters)

By: Zachary Keyser - July 1, 2021

Israeli medical and rescue teams on the ground in Surfside are not only providing assistance to the ongoing search and rescue efforts, but also trauma and crisis therapy to the victims of the condo collapse.

A section of the 40-year-old building collapsed in the middle of the night last Wednesday, causing at least 16 deaths. Though 147 people are still missing, there have been no rescues since early Thursday.

A week after the collapse of the Champlain Towers South apartment complex in Surfside, Florida, the IDF Home Front Command’s search-and-rescue delegation continues to work to find and pull survivors from the rubble.

Accompanying the IDF in its search and rescue efforts is United Hatzalah, who sent a team of psychological trauma experts to assist all the families, not just those who are Jewish, during this difficult time.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Young Arab influencers find common ground with Israelis

(Photo By: Itamar Eyal)

By: Tara Kavaler/The Media Line - June 25, 2021

Twenty-year-old Yousif Mohamed of Bahrain, aka @Yousifmohd2 on Instagram, is one of the first Bahrainis to visit to Israel.

The social media influencer, who lives with his family in the kingdom’s capital city Manama and hopes to work on tourism development overseas, is used to documenting his life over the internet and has braced for the repercussions of posting pictures of himself in Israel.

“I am young, but you’re never too young to want to try and change the world,” says Mohamed.

“I faced a bit of pressure and criticism online probably due to being one of the first Bahrainis to visit Israel, but I think it’s expected that people need some time to open their minds," he says.

“Ignorance can sometimes hinder us and it was because of this that I decided to visit and see things for myself, and I’m really happy that I’ve taken that step.”

Mohamed is one of 25 social media influencers from three countries that recently signed the Abraham Accords who met in Israel to find common ground with Israelis and act as emissaries for peace.

Read More: Ynet News

Israeli cyber sleuths protect your heart pacemaker from hackers

(Photo By: CyberMDX)

By: Sara Toth Stub - June 30, 2021

Keeping track of thousands of life-saving medical devices and making sure hackers cannot access them used to be an overwhelming task for John Weller, chief information security officer at MetroHealth, which runs 26 medical centers in Michigan.

Weller brought in Israeli-founded startup CyberMDX to protect the devices along with the lives of the patients that depend on them. Founded by former leaders of Israel’s cybersecurity network, CyberMDX protects millions of medical devices around the world. It provides a centralized system that tracks each of the thousands of different devices used in hospitals and clinics, identifying security gaps and helping personnel quickly locate and fix them before attacks occur.

Read More: Times of Israel

More than 300 attend NCSY’s Gala celebrating champions for Jewish teens

(Photo By: Courtesy)

By: Orthodox Union - June 24, 2021

At its recent Gala, NCSY, the flagship youth movement of the Orthodox Union (OU), feted communal leaders who have invested in programs that have fostered Jewish continuity and identity. More than 300 supporters attended the event in-person, with an additional 300 screens viewing remotely. The guests of honor were long-time supporters, Becky and Avi Katz from Teaneck, NJ. Avi Katz currently serves as the chairman of the Orthodox Union’s Board of Governors and previously was chairman of NCSY.

The event also honored Home Depot Founder Bernie Marcus and hospitality titan Mike Leven as “Champions of the Jewish Future.” Over several decades, both have invested heavily in supporting initiatives geared towards inspiring teens to create stronger connections with their Jewish Identity, Marcus, through his sponsorship of RootOne Initiative, a program that heavily subsidized teens’ trips to Israel and Leven, through his Jewish Future Pledge initiatives and ongoing support of Southern NCSY.

Read More: JNS

Israel providing aid at scene of Florida building collapse, offers rescue team

(Photo by: Consulate of Israel in Miami)

By: Jacob Magid and Agencies - June 25, 2021

Israel is providing food, clothes, medication and other aid as rescue teams continued digging through the rubble of a collapsed condo building home to dozens of Jewish families in a Miami suburb, Israel’s Consul General Maor Elbaz-Starinsky told The Times of Israel on Friday.

In addition to the aid, he also conveyed an official offer for Israel to send the Israel Defense Force’s Home Front Command search and rescue team to assist in the efforts. Elbaz-Starinsky has been in touch with local authorities but said they had not gotten back to him on the proposal.

Read More: Times Of Israel

Israeli camouflage tech makes soldiers ‘invisible’

(Photo By: Maya Margit)

By: Maya Margit/The Media Line - June 15, 2021

Israeli survivability products company Polaris Solutions has developed a camouflage technology that renders soldiers on the battlefield virtually undetectable.

In cooperation with the Defense Ministry, the company recently unveiled Kit 300, an innovative camouflage sheet made out of a material that provides multispectral concealment.

According to Polaris Solutions, nothing else like its camouflage sheet exists on the market today.

“As far as we know, or as far as we saw in other armies around the world, we are very unique,” Asaf Picciotto, co-founder and CEO of Polaris Solutions, told The Media Line. “To establish that, we actually registered a patent on it in many countries around the world.”

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Beautifying Israel, one mural at a time

(Photo By: Israel Innovation Fund)

By: Eliana Rudee - June 24, 2021

Entrepreneur Adam Bellos has a vision for Israel. Zionism, he says, was intended as both a national and cultural revolution, though Israel is often seen through a political lens—both in the Diaspora and in Israel itself—and not enough emphasis is being placed on the cultural aspects.

Cultural works, such as pieces of art made available for public consumption, Bellos told JNS, can redeem the country. Bellos, founder of The Israel Innovation Fund (TIIF), brings the best of Israeli culture to the world through its Hebrew Wallpaper Project (HWP), Wine on the Vine, and What If? Studios.

“The Hebrew Wallpaper Project inspires, employs and beautifies Israel—it beautifies the country through the murals, employs Israelis artists and uses Israeli art to showcase the communities that we are trying to serve,” said Bellos, who dreams of commissioning painted murals all around the country.

Read More: JNS

TikTok: A new playground in Israeli politics?

(Photo By: Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

By: Avi Grant - June 24, 2021

From across the political spectrum, Israeli politicians are flocking to the social media platform TikTok.

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli and Joint List MK Ayman Odeh are among those who have a significant following on the youth-oriented video-based platform.

TikTok favors short videos from 15-60 seconds long. Initially released in 2016, the app reached two billion downloads in February 2020. The app has exploded into the market, with studies showing most users in Israel are between 13 and 24.

"It has brought the fun factor back to social media," explained Topaz Luk, Netanyahu’s social media manager.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Retired Israeli diplomat finds forgotten Jewish surnames in Alexandria

(Photo By: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)

BY: Benjamin Weinthal - June 21, 2021

Jacob Rosen, Israel’s former ambassador to Jordan, has published the most exhaustive English-language list of lost Jewish surnames from Alexandria, Egypt.

“Alexandria is quite well documented” because of sourcing developed by former members of the community, as well as documentary records, he said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post about his new study.

Rosen first published the list of surnames on the website Avotaynu Online, which conducts “research into the origins and migrations of the Jewish people.”

Read More: Jerusalem Post

In first, Israeli archer to compete in Tokyo Olympics

(Photo By: Courtesy)

By: Michael Bachner - June 21, 2021

Israel will send an archer to the Olympics for the first time ever, as athlete Itay Shanny qualified on Monday for the Tokyo 2020 games, with a stellar performance in the final qualifying tournament held in Paris.

“I’m still trying to process this whole thing,” Shanny told The Times of Israel after the tournament. “This is something I’ve worked on for years and reaching this point is unreal. It’s a great feeling. I managed to shake off the nerves and was focused and precise, like in another world.”

In the sport, contestants shoot arrows at a target 70 meters (some 230 feet) away using a recurve bow.

Read More: Times of Israel

Israeli champ Omer Goldstein to race in Tour de France

(Photo By: Bettini Photo)

By: Abigail Klein Leichman - June 20, 2021

Team Israel Start-Up Nation announced that two-time Israeli national cycling champion Omer Goldstein, 24, will race for the team in the Tour de France.

It will be Goldstein’s first time on the most prominent racing stage in the world.

“I always imagined myself being there in the front, in a mountain stage breakaway, going for it, not really concerned if they catch me or not, as long as I am going full gas and giving it my all,” he said.

ISN’s sports manager, Rik Verbrugghe, said, “Omer is what I call an ‘offensive rider.’ He is always ready to jump on a challenge with absolutely no fear.”

Read More: Israel21c

Israel has already tested a digital shekel cryptocurrency

(Photo By: JPost Staff)

By: Zev Stub - June 21, 2021

Israel has already conducted a pilot test of a digital shekel cryptocurrency, Bank of Israel Deputy Governor Andrew Abir said, perhaps inadvertently, at a recent conference of the Fair Value Forum of IDC Herzliya.

Toward the end of a panel discussion, Abir said the Bank of Israel had already run a digital currency pilot. Another member of the panel seemed surprised and asked: “You have already issued a coin?” Abir responded in the affirmative.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Israeli start-up Beewise is saving honey bees from extinction

(Photo By: BEEWISE)

By: Diana Bletter - June 17, 2021

Albert Einstein reportedly said that mankind could not survive the disappearance of honey bees for more than four years. He understood that bees are the world’s most valuable species. Yet today, studies show that as much as 35% of the world’s bees are dying each year. And if honey bees become extinct, the global food chain will collapse, and Einstein’s reputed words will be eerily prophetic.

Beewise, a start-up company on Kibbutz Beit HaEmek in the Western Galilee, aspires to save the honey bee. It has developed the world’s first – and only – robotic beehive that will help avert the honey bee’s fate.

In the start-up company’s office, founder and CEO Saar Safra, 46, who is soft-spoken and amiable, grew earnest when he talked about the urgent problem of saving the bees. There are eight billion people on the planet and bees pollinate 30% of all the vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts that people eat. To give it more of a visceral impact, Safra said that every third bite you eat depends on the health and productivity of honey bees.

Read More: Jerusalem Post