Israeli researchers develop new method for detecting Tuberculosis

(Photo: Alain Grillet/Flickr)

By Jerusalem Post Staff - August 6, 2021

An easier method of detecting Tuberculosis infections has been discovered by scientists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, they announced in a statement on Friday.

The Israeli researchers created a color-changing patch designed to be attached to the skin. Simply, if the patch turns red, the person is infected. If it turns green, they are not.

The new polymeric patch developed at the Technion works by detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air, trapped above the skin’s surface. These VOCs, associated with Tuberculosis infections, are analyzed by the patch.

If the VOCs, along with the person's smell, match with the profile of someone infected with Tuberculosis, the infection can be easily found in the body.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Restored Violins Played by Jewish Musicians in Holocaust Showcased at Virginia Museums, Concerts

(Photo: Violins of Hope)

by Shiryn Ghermezian - August 6, 2021

A collection of restored violins that were previously played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust are currently being showcased at three museums in Richmond, Virginia.

The “Violins of Hope” collection includes more than 60 instruments that have been restored. They went on display Wednesday at the Virginia Holocaust Museum, the Black History Museum and the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. All the museums have different violins, and they will be featured through Oct. 24.

Richmond Symphony musicians will perform with some of the violins at concerts on Sept. 9 and 10 at Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and St. Mary’s Catholic Church, a local CBS news affiliate reported. Lectures and educational programs will also be held to teach people about the violins and the Holocaust.

Read More: Algemeiner.com

Rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram wins Israel’s 3rd-ever Olympic gold

(Photo: Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP)

By TOI Staff - August 7, 2021

Rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram won Israel’s third-ever Olympic gold medal on Saturday, beating out tough competition to take the top spot on the Tokyo 2020 podium and ending over two decades of Russian dominance in the sport.

Ashram is the first Israeli woman to win a gold at the Olympics.

“It’s what I dreamed of for all my life,” Ashram said after the win.

“It’s an amazing feeling to stand in this place, at this time, on the podium and in first place,” said the 22-year-old gymnast who has now been picked to carry the flag at the closing ceremony.

Read More: Times of Israel

Azerbaijan opens first trade office in Israel to boost economic ties

(Photo By: Nati Shohat/Flash90)

By: Luke Tress - August 2, 2021

Azerbaijan has opened a trade office in Israel, its first official mission in the Jewish state, to boost economic ties between the two countries.

Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov inaugurated the office in Tel Aviv with Azerbaijan’s Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov. The pair discussed the economic relationship between the two countries, Israeli investments in Azerbaijan, increasing mutual trade and boosting tourism.

Jabbarov also met with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin and Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman.

He said that the Jerusalem-based venture capital firm OurCrowd had signed a memorandum of understanding with an Azerbaijani investment company to “attract investments in startup projects and transfer best practices of leading Israeli companies to our country.”

“The new area of cooperation will contribute to the establishment of an innovative ecosystem in our country,” Jabbarov said.

Read More: Times of Israel

Paralymic Swimmer To Rep RightHear, An Israeli Accessibility App for the Visually Impaired

(Photo By: Courtesy)

By: NoCamels Team - July 29, 2021

Navigating the world – literally – can be hard enough on its own, especially in new or unfamiliar environments and spaces. For those with blindness and visual impairments, such undertakings can feel doubly challenging – even if they are Olympic athletes. Last week, Becca Meyers, a deaf-blind Paralympic swimmer was forced to withdraw from Team USA just five weeks before the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo because she was told she had to navigate the city and the Olympic Village alone.

It’s these kinds of situations and stories that emphasize the urgent need for more inclusion and accessibility for those with disabilities. Israeli startup RightHear, the developer of a navigation app for the blind and visually impaired, has been working for six years to make that inclusion a reality.

And this week, the company is announcing a new partnership with Australian Paralympic swimmer Matthew Levy as its first brand ambassador.

Levy is a Paralympic medalist with six Olympic medals to his name, including two gold medals in the 4×100 m freestyle relay (one each at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and the 2012 London Paralympics). Born 15 weeks premature, Levy has cerebral palsy and vision impairment. He’s currently gearing up for Tokyo, his fifth Paralympic Games.

Read More: NoCamels

Israel captures gold in gymnastics, bronze in judo

(Photo By: Screenshot)

By: Abigail Klein Leichman - August 1, 2021

Israel won its second-ever Olympic gold medal today in the Tokyo Olympics, as artistic gymnast Artem Dolgopyat, 24, bested Spanish and Chinese competitors in the floor exercise competition.

This is Israel’s second Olympic gold medal in history and its first in gymnastics. Gal Fridman won a gold medal in sailboarding in the 2004 Athens Games.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett congratulated Dolgopyat. “Thank you Artem! You have made blue-and-white history! This is a source of enormous pride and great excitement for the entire people of Israel. ‘Hatikva’ has been played in the gymnastics arena in Tokyo and the flag of Israel is flying high.”

Read More: Israel21c

Top social media platforms fail to act on reported antisemitism, study finds

(Photo By: Chris Delmas/AFP)

By: Stuart Winer - August 2, 2021

Social media platforms are mostly not acting against antisemitic content even when it is flagged by users, according to a new report.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate, a UK and US nonprofit organization, said that over a six-week period earlier this year it used official complaint systems to report hundreds of incidents of anti-Jewish hatred it found on the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok platforms, but 84 percent of the time nothing was done about it.

The findings show a “serious and systematic failure to tackle antisemitism,” the Center for Countering Digital Hate said in a statement accompanying its Failure to Protect report, which was released Friday.

“This is not about algorithms or automation; our research shows that social media companies allow bigots to keep their accounts open and their hate to remain online, even when human moderators are notified,” said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the CCDH, in a statement.

“No one has a fundamental right to have an account on a social media platform to bully Jews or to spread hatred that we know can end in serious offline harm,” he said.

Read More: Times of Israel

Winning judo silver in Tokyo, Iranian defector Mollaei dedicates medal to Israel

(Photo By: AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

By: Amy Spiro - July 27, 2021

Saeid Mollaei, a former Iranian judoka now representing Mongolia, took home the silver medal in the men’s 81-kilogram division, losing the gold to Takanori Nagase of Japan.

It was the first Olympic medal for Mollaei, two years after he left his native Iran, revealing that his national team coaches had ordered him to lose in the semifinals of the 2019 World Championships in Tokyo to avoid facing Israel’s Sagi Muki in the final. Mollaei subsequently moved to Germany and then acquired Mongolian citizenship.

Mollaei told the Israeli Sports Channel that he was thankful for the support he’s received from Israel over the years.

Read More: Times of Israel

3 women receive kidneys in Israel-UAE organ exchange, 1st with Arab state

(Photo By: Courtesy of Sheba Medical Center)

By: Nathan Jeffay - July 28, 2021

An Israeli woman has donated a kidney to a recipient on Abu Dhabi, in a first-of-its kind arrangement that will bring a kidney from the United Arab emirates to a different Israeli woman.

At 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday, doctors at Sheba Medical Center removed a kidney from Shani Markowitz, 39. The surgery went smoothly, and the organ was raced to Ben Gurion Airport in a special cool box, to be flown to Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, a woman in Abu Dhabi underwent surgery and her kidney is en route to Israel, for a woman at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. The husband of the Rambam patient is giving a kidney to Markowitz’s mother, via a surgery at Rabin Medical Center. And Markowitz’s kidney has gone to the mother of the Abu Dhabi donor.

Read More: Times of Israel

With new national record, swimmer Gorbenko makes history to reach Olympic final

(Photo By: Amit Shisel/Israel Olympic Committe)

By: TOI Staff - July 26, 2021

Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko made history and set a national record in the 100-meter backstroke Monday, on her way to clinching a chance to compete for an Olympic medal in the event. She also qualified for the semifinals in the 200-meter individual medley — her strongest event.

Gorbenko, 17, raced in with a time of 59.30 seconds, enough to clinch fourth place in her heat, and eighth place among all 16 swimmers competing in the event, good enough to put her in Tuesday’s final in an event that isn’t even her strongest.

Only two Israeli swimmers before her have ever reached an Olympic final: Eitan Orbach in Sydney 2000 (who finished in 8th place) and Yaakov Toumarkin in London 2012 (7th place). Gorbenko is the first woman to reach that stage.

Read More: Times of Israel

After 49 years, Israeli victims of 1972 Olympic massacre honored at Tokyo opener

(Photo By: Courtesy)

By: TOI Staff and Agencies - July 23, 2021

Forty-nine years after the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, Friday’s opening ceremony for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics included, for the first time, an official commemoration of those who died in the terror attack.

Tributes were paid to those lost during the pandemic and throughout Olympic history. The Israeli delegation that was killed at the Munich Games was specifically mentioned. A moment of silence was offered inside the stadium, alongside a dance performance honoring the dead.

“In particular we remember those who lost their lives during the Olympic games,” the announcer said. “One group still holds a strong place in all our memories and stands for all of those we have lost at the games: the members of the Israel delegation at the Olympic Games Munich 1972.”

Read More: Times of Israel

Israel officially launches direct flights to Morocco

(Photo By: Courtesy)

By: Zev Stub - July 25, 2021

Direct flights between Israel and Morocco began Sunday, seven months after the two countries officially signed an agreement to normalize relations.

El Al and Israir both launched their first flights to Marrakesh on Sunday with a ceremony marking the historic flights.

Jerusalem and Rabat agreed to normalize relations last December following the Abraham Accords. The agreement followed similar ones with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Ben & Jerry’s board in dispute with owners Unilever over remaining in Israel

(Photo By: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images North America/AFP)

By: TOI Staff - July 20, 2021

A statement Monday by Ben & Jerry’s that it will no longer distribute its products in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory” but will remain in Israel was released by the company’s owner, Unilever, without consulting with the ice cream maker’s board — which had intended to put out a different statement that made no mention of committing to continue doing business with the Jewish state, Ben & Jerry’s chairman Anuradha Mittal told NBC News.

While many companies and countries have differentiated between Israel and its settlements in the West Bank, a complete boycott of Israel by a major Western company has been almost unheard-of in recent years.

Mittal said the board had been pushing for years to stop selling its products in settlements and intended to release a different statement from the one Unilever put out. NBC, which reviewed the intended statement, said it made no mention of remaining in Israel and focused on Ben & Jerry’s commitment to social justice causes.

Read More: Times of Israel

Where Arab and Jewish teens learn tech skills together

(Photo By: Moona)

By: Abigail Klein Leichman - July 20, 2021

Moona — a Space for Change began in September 2014 as an extracurricular program where Jewish and Arab Israeli high school students get acquainted while learning technologies related to space exploration –robotics, drones, 3D printing and electronics.

Since then, Moona has expanded and added advanced vision and IoT technologies to the curriculum, plus job-specific training for young adults (not necessarily in space technology) in coordination with high-tech businesses looking to hire.

Read More: Israel21c

From gymnastics to judo, Israel primed to strike Olympic gold in Tokyo

(Phot By: Courtesy of Israel Baseball/via JTA)

By: Amy Spiro - July 16, 2021

When the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics kicks off next Friday night, 89 athletes will proudly march under the Israeli flag.

It’s the largest Israeli delegation to the Olympic Games in history, nearly double the previous high of 47 athletes at the 2016 Games in Rio. That jump is fueled largely by the 24 members of Israel’s first-ever Olympic baseball team. But the 2020 Games — held in 2021 after a year-long COVID delay, but not renamed — also mark Israel’s debut in surfing, archery and equestrian sports.

Read More: Times of Israel

Archaeologists find part of Jerusalem’s wall destroyed ahead of 9th of Av

(Photo By: Kobi Harati/City Of David)

By: Rossella Tercatin - July 14, 2021

A section of Jerusalem’s city wall built some 2,700 years ago and mostly destroyed by the Babylonian army in 586 BCE was uncovered by archaeologists in the City of David National Park, the Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Wednesday.

The massive structure – some 5 m. wide – was built on the steep eastern slope leading to the city, just a few dozen meters away from the Temple Mount.

Probably the steepness of the area preserved the structure from destruction during the Babylonian conquest – a vivid account of which is offered in the Bible – since the invading army likely accessed the city from an easier path.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Gov't to deduct NIS 597m. from Palestinian Authority over ‘pay for slay’

(Photo By: Reuters/Mohamad Torokman)

By: Lahav Harkov - July 11, 2021

The security cabinet on Sunday authorized the deduction of the amount the Palestinian Authority pays terrorists and their families from the taxes and tariffs Israel collects for the Ramallah-based government.

The deduction came to NIS 597 million, which the National Bureau for Counter-Terror Financing in the Defense Ministry reported was the sum of PA funds that went to indirect support for terrorism in 2020.

PA funding for terrorists has increased since 2019, when it totaled NIS 517.4m.

The cabinet authorized that it had read the report, and the Finance Ministry may begin deducting one-12th of the sum each month, according to law.

The PA pays convicted terrorists and the families of those killed while committing acts of terrorism a monthly sum. The living terrorists receive more, depending on their prison sentence. That means the greater the severity of the crime, i.e., the more Israelis killed and wounded, the more they receive each month.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Blind man’s brain learns to ‘see’ through his ears

(Photo By: Amir Amedi)

By: Abigail Klein Leichman - July 13, 2021

Israeli neuroscientists trained a 50-year-old man, blind from birth, to recognize objects using a sensory substitution algorithm called EyeMusic.

Developed by Prof. Amir Amedi, founding director of the Baruch Ivcher Institute for Brain, Cognition & Technology at IDC Herzliya, EyeMusic converts visual stimuli into “soundscapes” — sound units that convey information about geometric shapes.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the man’s brain before and after he learned to recognize soundscapes revealed that neural circuits in his brain had formed “topographic maps” previously thought incapable of forming after infancy.

“The human brain is indeed more plastic during infancy, but it maintains an enormous potential for reprogramming throughout a person’s life,” said Amedi, who did groundbreaking research into sensory substitution devices at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before joining IDC in 2019.

Read More: Israel21c

2,000-year-old ‘Freedom to Zion’ coins found in biblical heartland

(Photo By: Tal Rogovsky)

By: Rossella Tercatin - July 13, 2021

Two coins dating back some 2,000 years were found in the Binyamin region of the West Bank during an archaeological survey conducted by Bar-Ilan University, the university and the Binyamin Regional Council announced Tuesday.

The coins date back to the period of the Jewish revolts against the Romans.

The area is located in the northern part of the Judean Desert.

“We conducted the survey about a year ago with a group of my students,” said Dr. Dvir Raviv from Bar-Ilan, who led the initiative. “We had heard about antiquities looters active in the area, and especially in a cave near Wadi Rashash. I visited the cave and I saw pottery sherds and potential for interesting findings.”

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Antisemitism Up Over 900 Percent on Social Media Giant TikTok, Finds University of Haifa Study

(Photo By: Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

By: Benjamin Kerstein - July 12, 2021

Anti-Semitic activity on the hugely popular social media app TikTok has skyrocketed over the past year, a new study by the University of Haifa revealed.

TikTok has 1.2 billion users and is used predominantly by young people, with over 41% of users between the ages of 16 and 21. At the same time, the enormous number of users and minimal content moderation has helped lead to a proliferation anti-Semitic, racist, extremist, and neo-Nazi activity.

The Haifa study found that problem is getting steadily worse, with a shocking 912% increase in anti-Semitic content over the past year.

This included a 41% increase in anti-Semitic posts and a 1375% increase in usernames with anti-Semitic connotations — such as @holocaustwasgood or @eviljews.

Anti-Semitic content found by the study included videos of users giving the Nazi salute; stereotypical images of Jews; Holocaust denial or minimization; and texts like “I have a solution, a final solution.”

Even when TikTok attempted to counter the trend, such as by posting an educational video on Holocaust Memorial Day, the content was immediately targeted by huge numbers of anti-Semitic comments.

The Haifa study called TikTok “an ideal virtual home for hate speech and extremist content” due to its professed desire to be “raw, real, and without boundaries.”

Read More: Algemeiner