Israel’s Watergen provides ‘water-from-air’ units to medical facility in Syria

By Ricky Ben-David - May 10, 2022

Israeli water-from-air tech company Watergen has installed one of its water generators at a medical facility in the Syrian province of Raqqa, the former headquarters of terror organization IS, and is set to deliver nine more by the end of 2022, the company told The Times of Israel Tuesday.

The provision of the units is arranged through the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees (MFA), an American organization that works to deliver aid to millions of Syrians displaced by the civil war, through faith-based and secular partners.

A 2021 report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) noted that after more than a decade of conflict and devastation, only 50 percent of water and sanitation systems function properly across Syria. ICRC said that water scarcity in Syria’s northeast, including Raqqa where IS set up its de facto capital for its self-proclaimed caliphate, was especially grave. The group inflicted its brutal rule on the area between 2014 and 2017.

Read More: Times of Israel

Khaled Kabub sworn in as Israeli Supreme Court’s first Muslim justice

(Photo: Lior Ben Nisan/ POOL/ Flash90/ File)

By TOI Staff - May 9, 2022

Judge Khaled Kabub on Monday became the first Muslim appointed to Israel’s Supreme Court. All previous Arab Israeli justices on the 15-member court have been Christians.

Kabub entered the post alongside some 81 other judges who were sworn in to various court positions at a special ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, attended by President Isaac Herzog, Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, and Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

The 64-year-old Kabub, who until now served as vice president of the Tel Aviv District Court, will take the place of retiring justice Neal Hendel.

Read More: Times of Israel

After 800 years, Church of England apologizes to Jews for laws that led to expulsion

By TOI Staff - May 8, 2022

The Church of England on Sunday apologized for anti-Jewish laws that were passed 800 years ago and eventually led to the expulsion of Jews from the kingdom for hundreds of years.

A special service held at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford was attended by Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and representatives of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to mark the Synod of Oxford, passed in 1222.

The synod forbade social interactions between Jews and Christians, placed a specific tithe on Jews, and required them to wear an identifying badge. They were also banned from some professions and from building new synagogues. The decrees were followed by more anti-Jewish laws, and eventually the mass expulsion of England’s 3,000 Jews of the time in 1290.

Read More: Times of Israel

Tree of Life unveils new institution dedicated to ending antisemitism

(Photo: Reuters/John Altdorfer)

By Jerusalem Post Staff - May 5, 2022

Three and a half years after the worst antisemitic attack on US soil, the Pittsburgh Jewish community is announcing the creation of a new national institution dedicated to ending antisemitism. It will be called simply: Tree of Life.

The institution will include a museum, a memorial and a center for education. The museum and memorial will both be dedicated to the 11 individuals from three Pittsburgh congregations who were killed in an attack on the Tree of Life synagogue on October 27, 2018.

The institution will strive to be an incubator for new ideas to counter antisemitism, and against identity-based hate in general. Its founding is rooted in the belief that eliminating antisemitism will reduce other forms of hate as well.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Ukrainian athlete refugees train at Israeli youth villages

By Abigail Klein Leichman - May 6, 2022

Seven elite Ukrainian athletes who fled from their war-torn country with two coaches are continuing to train for competitions in Europe and South America while at their place of refuge: Neurim Youth Village in Israel, run by Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America.

The athletes, who were matched with Neurim through a collaboration between the Israeli Athletic Union and the local municipal authority, will remain at the village until the end of May, when they will fly to Greece for further training.

Veronika, a high jumper, and Tanya, a triple jumper, said the training conditions “are superb at Hadassah Neurim — good facilities, proper and abundant food and [good] weather.”

Read More: Israel21c

Israel celebrates 74th Independence Day with flyovers, barbecues and a Bible quiz

(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

By TOI Staff - May 5, 2022

Israelis hit parks, beaches, nature sites, and other open spaces for barbecues and other festivities on Thursday as the country celebrated its 74th Independence Day.

In an annual highlight on Thursday morning and early afternoon, Air Force aircraft flew over much of the country, a popular and iconic feature of celebrations.

The flyover included F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets; Lavi training aircraft; C-130 cargo planes; a Boeing refueling plane; Black Hawk, Sea Stallion, Panther and Apache helicopters; and Israel Aerospace Industries Heron drones. It will be the first time IAI drones participate in the flyover.

Read More: Times of Israel

Technion signs historic agreement with Moroccan university

(Photo: Nitzan Zohar/Technion Spokesperson’s Office)

By Sarah Levi - May 2, 2022

Israel’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Morocco’s Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) signed a document of academic cooperation in a ceremony at Technion’s Haifa campus on March 31, a first for both institutions.

UM6P focuses on applied research and innovation with an emphasis on African development.

The document was signed by UM6P President Hicham El Habti and Technion’s president, Prof. Uri Sivan, senior vice president, Prof. Oded Rabinovitch, and vice president of research, Prof. Koby Rubinstein.

Evoking the reestablishment of diplomatic ties between Israel and Morocco in December 2020, Sivan addressed the Moroccan delegation with a message of mutual cooperation.

Read More: Israel21c

Moscow, under fire for Hitler comments, says Israel backing ‘neo-Nazis’ in Ukraine

(Photo: Yuri Kochetkov / various sources / AFP)

By Amy Spiro - May 3, 2022

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Israel supports the “neo-Nazi regime” in Ukraine, as tensions between Moscow and Jerusalem ratcheted up following Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s incendiary remarks on the Holocaust earlier this week.

In a statement on Tuesday, Russia accused Foreign Minister Yair Lapid of making “anti-historical statements” that “largely explain why the current Israeli government supports the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv.”

The statement cited “examples of cooperation between Jews and the Nazis” during the Holocaust, noting the Judenrat councils formed in many Jewish communities and those who ran them, “some of whom are remembered for absolutely monstrous deeds.”

Read More: Times of Israel

Israeli hospital in Ukraine aids 6,000 patients in 6 weeks

(Photo: Sheba Medical Center and MFA)

By Abigail Klein Leichman - May 2, 2022

On April 28, Israel’s 66-bed Shining Star (Kochav Meir) field hospital in Mostyska, western Ukraine, completed its six-week mission.

More than 6,000 civilians were treated, 40 surgeries were performed and 21,000 lab tests and 800 diagnostic images analyzed. In addition, several severely ill or wounded citizens were airlifted to Israel for further treatment.

“We succeeded in establishing a civilian field hospital in Ukraine, a thing which six months ago many people in Israel thought impossible,” said Prof. Elhanan Bar-On, director of the Sheba’s Israel Center for Humanitarian Emergency and Disaster Medicine.

“When we came here, there was a lot of uncertainty about our ability to do it, but after six weeks of operation I think all those people understand this is possible and this is necessary.”

Read More: Israel21c

Israel stands in silence in commemoration of the Holocaust

(Photo: Yossi Aloni/Flash90

By Abigail Klein Leichman - April 28, 2022

Israelis across the country came to a two-minute standstill today, to commemorate Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), in honor of the six million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War Two.

At 10am, in an annual ritual, sirens blared out across the country, and people everywhere stopped what they were doing, even driving, to stand still and silent.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is the start of a week with three Israeli holidays that progress from commemoration to celebration: Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron – a memorial day for soldiers killed in Israel’s wars – and Yom Ha’atzmaut – Israel’s Independence Day.

Read More: Israel21c

In groundbreaking step, Muslim delegation participates in 2022 March of the Living

(Photo: Aloni Mor/MOTL)

By David Isaac - April 29, 2022

POLAND—A Muslim group including participants from across the Arab world took part for the first time in the International March of the Living, the annual 1.9-mile walk from the concentration camp at Auschwitz to the extermination camp of Birkenau in Poland to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. The precedent-setting move was the brainchild of Sharaka, an organization of young Israeli and Gulf State leaders formed in the wake of the Abraham Accords.

The 18-member delegation, including social-media influencers, professors and journalists, came from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey and Israel, said Amit Deri, founder and CEO of Sharaka.

Deri said the idea to participate in the March of the Living, which takes place annually on Israel’s Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, came to fruition gradually, starting with a trip in December 2020 for young Arab influencers to Israel, in which they visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the Holocaust.

Read More: JNS

How Israel used innovation to beat its water crisis

By Max Kaplan-Zantopp - April 28, 2022

How did Israel, a country that is more than half desert, frequently hit with drought, and historically cursed by chronic water shortages, become a nation that now produces 20 percent more water than it needs?

Water demand from Israel’s rapidly growing population outpaced the supply and natural replenishment of potable water so much that by 2015, the gap between demand and available natural water supplies reached 1 billion cubic meters (BCM).

Recovering from such a scenario seems highly unlikely, yet Israel managed it by pioneering an unprecedented wealth of technological innovation and infrastructure to prevent the country from drying up.

Read More: Israel21c

He helped save 10,000 Jews from the Nazis; his family only found out 63 years later

(Photo: Adi and Ofer Daliot)

By Yaakov Schwartz - April 27, 2022

Adi Daliot was in his 60s when he found out that his father, Hubert Pollack, helped save over 10,000 Jews in Nazi Germany during the years leading up to the Holocaust.

Sworn to secrecy by his co-conspirator, Jewish Anglo-German philanthropist Wilfrid Israel, Pollack kept his story quiet — even from his family. It was only after Daliot (the family adopted a Hebrew surname after moving to Israel) came across a written account by Pollack in 2002, nearly 35 years after his death, that Pollack’s heroic role became known.

Pollack is to posthumously receive the Jewish Rescuers Citation along with 12 other Holocaust-era heroes on Thursday, which marks Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, at the Forest of the Martyrs in the Jerusalem hills. Six million trees have been planted there in commemoration of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Read More: Times of Israel

Antisemitic incidents in US spiked to record high in 2021, ADL reports

(Photo: Anchorage Police Department)

By Asaf Shalev - April 26, 2022

JTA — The number of antisemitic incidents recorded by the Anti-Defamation League in the United States reached an all-time high in 2021, according to a new report by the group.

The 2,717 incidents identified in news articles by the ADL or reported to the ADL directly in 2021 represent a 34% increase from the 2,024 incidents of antisemitism tallied by the group in 2020. Previously, the 2,107 incidents in 2019 were the highest total since the ADL began publishing annual counts in 1979.

Anything from a slur to a terror attack can be included in the tally. For the second straight year, 2021 saw no fatal incidents tied to antisemitism in the United States, but the ADL counted 88 antisemitic assaults, a 167% increase from the 33 assaults in the 2020 count.

Read More: Times of Israel

Tanzanian teen gets life-saving surgery in Israel thanks to Bat Mitzvah girl

By Jerusalem Post Staff - April 20, 2022

A 15-year-old from Tanzania has received life-saving heart surgery at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, thanks to funds collected by a 12-year-old girl.

In the months leading up to and following her July 2021 Bat Mitzvah, Amelie Anderson, who is from the United Kingdom, raised $18,000 to support the charity Save A Child’s Heart (SACH), quickly surpassing her original goal of $15,000.

Based in Holon, Israel, SACH has saved at least 6,000 pediatric heart care patients who live in countries with limited or no access to medicine.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

Rocks, Hamas flags and chanting: Palestinians and cops clash again on Temple Mount

(Photo: Ahmad Gharabli / AFP)

By Emanuel Fabian and TOI Staff - April 22, 2022

Clashes and unrest broke out Friday afternoon at the Temple Mount following afternoon Ramadan prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. Calm was eventually restored at the holy site.

The rioting came hours after Palestinians skirmished with Israeli police at the flashpoint site in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Several hundred people scuffled with cops, hurling rocks and rioting. Video showed a police drone dropping tear gas to disperse a crowd.

Police said the crowd attempted to attack a locked police post on the Mount with stones. “The march was dispersed using riot dispersal means and it is currently calm in the area,” police said in a statement.

Earlier, tens of thousands of worshipers took part in the main prayers for the third Friday of the Muslim holy month. There were no official turnout figures, but Palestinian and Hebrew media reports estimated 90,000-150,000 worshipers attended.

After the prayers, large crowds waved Palestinian and Hamas flags and chanted slogans in favor of the Gaza-ruling terror group, which had called for a “mobilization” ahead of the prayers.

“We are the men of Muhammed Deif,” they chanted, referring to the notorious head of Hamas’s military wing, wanted by Israel for over 25 years for orchestrating suicide bombings, killings and kidnappings.

Some also shouted about a seventh-century battle in which Muslim forces massacred and expelled Jews from the Arabian Peninsula town of Khaybar. Another chant included calls to violently “redeem Al-Aqsa.”

Read More: Times of Israel

Israeli company funds mental health shelter for Ukrainian women refugees

By Jerusalem Post Staff - April 21, 2022

A number of Israeli organizations set up a shelter this week on the Ukraine-Poland border in order to assist women who escaped the war with Russia and are in need of psychological treatment.

The shelter was founded in a cooperative operation between cryptocurrency company Celsius and the international humanitarian organization TAG. The initiative is being led by Mike Naftali, CEO of a nonprofit named Topaz and former head of an organization that cared for at-risk youth.

Some four million people have exited Ukraine since the fighting began approximately two months ago, many of then women whose husbands were left behind, the shelter's founders said in a statement. A growing number of atrocities are being reported in cities that were occupied by the Russian army, including rape and sexual abuse. In addition, Ukrainian women arriving in new countries are vulnerable and have fallen victim to attempts to coerce them into prostitution or other forms of exploitation.

Read More: Jerusalem Post

German intel agency warns antisemitism is filtering into mainstream discourse

(Photo: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

By AP - April 20, 2022

BERLIN — Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said Wednesday that antisemitic offenses are continuing to rise and those that come to light are only “the tip of the iceberg.”

The head of the BfV agency, Thomas Haldenwang, said it is alarming that antisemitic narratives are sometimes embraced by people in “the middle of German society,” serving as a link between social discourse and extremist ideologies.

He said his agency has seen that increasingly in protests against coronavirus restrictions or over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and, in a few cases, in connection with Russia’s war in Ukraine. The internet serves as “fertile ground” for antisemitism, he added.

Read More: Times of Israel

Israel Successfully Tests New Defensive Laser System

(Photo: Ministry of Defense Spokesperson's Office)

By Julie Stahl - April 19, 2022

Israel has successfully tested a new defensive laser system that experts say will enhance the country’s border protection.

It’s called “Magen Or” – Hebrew for “Light Shield.”

“It marks the first time that a high-power, Israeli-made laser system successfully intercepted various targets, constituting a breakthrough on a global scale,” said Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz.

The system is a joint project of the Defense Ministry and Rafael, a defense technology company,

“The successful tests complete key milestones in the development of what will be the first operational, high-energy laser system in the world. We’ve introduced cutting-edge technologies to intercept a variety of threats in complex scenarios,” said Rafael’s Dr. Ran Gozali.

Brigadier General Yaniv Rotem says Magen Or was able to intercept a variety of threats, including drones, mortars, and rockets.

Read More: CBN

Inaugural direct flight between Tel Aviv and Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh takes off

(Photo: Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

By TOI Staff - April 18, 2022

The first flight on a new direct route between Israel and the Egyptian coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh departed from Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday.

The plane touched down about 50 minutes later in Sharm el-Sheikh, located at the southern tip of the Sinai Pensinula.

The agreement to launch the route was announced last month by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office days before he flew to Sharm el-Sheikh for a trilateral summit with the leaders of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Read More: Times of Israel