100 years of innovation turns Israel into an agricultural leader

By Abigail Klein Leichman - September 6, 2022

If the Israeli cow is the world champion milk producer, if Israel has superior wheat for pasta and bread, if tomatoes grow year-round and citrus fruits are peelable and pit-free — we can thank Yitzhak Elazari Wilkanski.

This agricultural scientist, who immigrated to Ottoman Palestine in 1908 from Lithuania and changed his last name to Volcani, established the Agricultural Experiment Station at Ben Shemen in 1921. This was the forerunner of the Volcani Center Agricultural Research Organization, the research arm of Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture since 1952.

The center’s logo is seven species encircled by a biblical verse describing Israel as “A land of wheat and barley and grapevines and figs and pomegranates, a land of oil olives and dates.”

Read More: Israel21c

Ingathering of the exiles? Extremely rare First Temple-era papyrus repatriated

(Photo: Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority)

By Amanda Borschel-Dan - September 7, 2022

The hunt for additional Dead Sea Scrolls has taken archaeologists and adventure-seekers all over the Judean Desert. But the successful quest for a recently repatriated First Temple-era papyrus letter took the head of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Theft Prevention Unit to a much more unlikely location — Montana.

This 4-centimeter-high, 5-centimeter-wide (1.5 inch x 2 inches) fragment joins only two other known contemporary papyrus fragments inscribed with early Hebrew in the Land of Israel to date.

The treasure hunt ended earlier this year after the IAA’s Eitan Klein located the owner of the exceedingly rare papyrus in the fittingly nicknamed Treasure State.

Read More: Times of Israel

Back to school with healthier air thanks to Israeli device

By Abigail Klein Leichman - September 1, 2022

Aura Air, an Israeli air-purifier, is being installed in thousands of American classrooms and school buses as the academic year begins, underwritten by federal Covid relief funds for school districts across the United States.

The purifiers have already been placed in many schools and universities in New York, Maryland, California, South Carolina, Florida, Washington, Mississippi and Massachusetts.

Aura Air’s award-winning patented technology filters and disinfects indoor air through a unique four-stage purification process that captures and kills 99.9% of viruses, bacteria, germs, and allergens.

Read More: Israel21c

A Bethlehem boutique hotel is changing perceptions of disabled Palestinians

(Photo: Ahmad Gharabli / AFP)

By Rosie Scammell - September 1, 2022

BETHLEHEM (AFP) — In the heart of Bethlehem, in the West Bank, Palestinians with intellectual disabilities are front and center at a new boutique hotel welcoming guests from across the globe.

Showcasing their skills at the hotel is intended to make Palestinians with disabilities more visible and overhaul perceptions within the community, where they are often stigmatized.

The hotel is located near the Church of the Nativity, one of the most important sites in the Holy Land, where Christians believe Jesus was born and crowds of pilgrims stroll early on a hot summer morning.

“Slowly, slowly, we (can) change the idea in the whole society, in the whole world, because here in Bethlehem we receive guests from the whole world,” said Mahera Nassar Ghareeb, the community leader of Maan lil-Hayat, an organization that supports Palestinians with intellectual disabilities.

Maan lil-Hayat (Together for Life), which was founded in 2009, is just weeks into its hotel venture in a restored 19th-century house.

Read More: Times of Israel

Israeli schools ready for influx of Ukrainian, Russian immigrants as opening nears

By Judah Ari Gross - August 31, 2022

Dima can count to 10 in Hebrew. He knows how to say “yes” and “no” and “what’s that?” but his vocabulary is fairly limited beyond that. This week though, he will start first grade at Yitzhak Sadeh Elementary School in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam.

“He doesn’t speak Hebrew fluently yet, but he’s picking it up quickly,” his mother, Yulia Pizh, told The Times of Israel last week, speaking in Russian through a translator.

Six-year-old Dima is one of the more than 1,311 Ukrainian immigrants who will enter the Israeli school system at the start of the academic after they fled to the Jewish state due to the Russian invasion of their country, according to the Education Ministry.

Read More: Times of Israel

Explore the nearly 2,000-year-old Jewish metropolis of Usha in the western Galilee

By Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am - August 27, 2022

In the year 132 CE, Jews in the Land of Israel rebelled against the tyranny of the ruling Romans. When the war ended in 135 CE, the result was a massive loss of life and property.

Worst hit was Judea, which had almost fully recovered after the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE and was full of rabbis, synagogues, cultural centers, and a myriad of Jewish towns and villages. After the war, it was totally devoid of Jews and Jewish life.

Roman edicts issued after the war forbade Jews from even approaching Jerusalem, and Jewish rituals, including circumcision, were banned on pain of death. As a result, the entire structure that had held the Jews together for centuries collapsed.

Read More: Times of Israel

Luxurious 1,200-year-old estate discovered in Negev Desert

By Abigail Klein Leichman - August 29, 2022

A 1,200-year-old luxurious rural estate, the first of its kind ever found in the Negev, was exposed in archeological excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The dig was funded by the governmental Authority for the Development and Settlement of the Bedouin, prior to the expansion of the Bedouin town of Rahat. To their surprise, the archeologists came across a unique vaulted complex overlying a three-meter-deep rock-hewn water cistern.

The four-wing building, dated to the Early Islamic period (8th-9th centuries CE), was constructed around a central courtyard.

One of the wings encompasses a hall with a marble and stone floor and walls decorated with frescoes (paintings on damp plaster) finely colored in red, yellow, blue and black.

Read More: Israel21c

Magdala Stone Comes Home to Israel's Galilee: 'A Crossroads of Jewish and Christian History'

By Julie Stahl - August 23, 2022

JERUSALEM, Israel – A unique stone from an unearthed synagogue where Jesus could have prayed has returned to its home in the Galilee and the Magdala stone is expected to be a special draw for visitors.

Deemed by experts as one of Israel’s most important discoveries, the Magdala stone spent years with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and then went on an international tour with showings in New York and Rome.

“I, myself, with some other workers here, put [the stone] in the truck that [removes] it from the site. So, I said, ‘Bye, see you soon’ to the stone in the beginning of January 2010. So, to see the stone coming back today is a big joy,” said Father Juan Solana, Director of the Magdala center.

Dozens gathered recently at the Magdala Center Hotel for the return of the Magdala Stone.

Read More: CBN

The Israeli doctors saving the faces of children in Africa

By Diana Bletter - August 25, 2022

Israeli oral and maxillofacial surgeons Oded Nahlieli and Michael Abba have performed complex procedures on dozens of children in the Republic of Equatorial Guinea on the African West Coast since 2014.

On their most recent trip, they trained local doctors to use a remote surgical collaborative system developed by ORVizio, an Israeli startup headed by Abba.

ORVizio allows surgeons in Israel to guide complex surgeries anywhere, in real time.

Read More: Israel21c

Ethiopian Israeli painter preserves her past for the future

By Diana Bletter - August 24, 2022

If you’d expect Nirit Takele’s artist studio to be splashed and splattered with paints a la Jackson Pollack, think again.

The room is neat, dabs of colors on small pieces of paper hanging on the wall like Post-it notes, and stacks of acrylic paints lined up according to color like orderly vertical rainbows.

Takele, who says she’s 37 or 38 (“I have to check, after I reached 30, I sometimes get confused!” she said, smiling), is an Ethiopian-Israeli artist who does emotional, vivid paintings that make you want to keep looking at them.

During my visit, I noticed a woven basket typical to Ethiopia. She explained that she uses it to make injera, fermented Ethiopian bread, “if I have time, which is almost never.” It takes three days for injera to develop its special sourness, but when she eats it, she feels healthier.

The story of how she and her family came to Israel sounds like a fusion of folktale, grueling journey, and dream.

Read More: Israel21c

In first, Israeli plane flies over Saudi airspace to non-Gulf destination

By Tobias Siegal - August 23, 2022

The first-ever Israeli commercial flight over Saudi airspace to a non-Gulf destination departed after midnight on Tuesday, with the new route shortening the duration of the flight by 20 minutes.

Arkia Airlines flight IZ611 departed Ben Gurion Airport after 1:15 a.m. and was scheduled to land in the Republic of Seychelles off the coast of East Africa six hours later.

In a statement ahead of the flight, Arkia’s chief pilot Din Gal said, “Tonight, an Arkia plane will become the first Israeli licensed plane to fly over Saudi Arabia — not to Dubai, but to the Seychelles. The route will go through Jordan in the area of the Dead Sea and turn left to Petra, continuing along Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea shores. From there, it will continue on its regular route through Eritrea…We soon hope to see shorter flights to India and Sri Lanka.”

Read More: Times of Israel

Inscription points to Sea of Galilee site as St. Peter’s home, say researchers

By TOI Staff - August 11, 2022

An inscription found at an excavation near the Sea of Galilee strengthens beliefs that the site was a church built over the home of Saint Peter and his brother Andrew, two of the first disciples of Jesus, archaeologists said.

Researchers believe the building is the lost Byzantine period Church of the Apostles located in the biblical village of Bethsaida.

Archeologists from the Kinneret Institute for Galilee Archeology at Kinneret College and Nyack College, led by Prof. Mordechai Aviam and Prof. Steven Notley, said Wednesday that the inscription in a mosaic floor uses a common term for Peter, strengthening their theory that they have correctly identified the location.

It begins with the donor’s name, “Constantinos the Servant of the Messiah,” and then uses a Byzantine phrase, the “Head and Leader of the Heavenly Messengers,” that refers to Peter, the first disciple of Jesus.

Read More: Times of Israel

Israel steps up humanitarian aid as Ukrainian war intensifies

By Abigail Klein Leichman - August 21, 2022

The humanitarian aid experts at Israeli nonprofit IsraAID are used to disasters, but even they admit that what is happening in Ukraine is exceptional.

“The Ukraine crisis is a record-breaker in terms of its scale,” says Michal Bar, IsraAID’s director of emergency programming and operations.

“We’re seeing the highest number of refugees since the Second World War. This is unprecedented,” she adds.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. In the six months since then, some 5,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and 12.5 million displaced — about 6.3 million internally and 6.2 million outside Ukraine.

The war rages on, continuing to wreak destruction on Ukraine and its 44 million citizens, and severely disrupting the world’s food, energy and financial markets.

Right from the start, Israeli aid organizations rushed to respond, but as IsraAID CEO Yotam Polizer acknowledges, Ukrainian needs are growing urgently even as the world’s attention to their plight fades.

Read More: Israel21c

Ukraine refugees, Israel youth shaken by war find relief at ‘Hallelujah’ summer camp

By Jacob Rivkin - August 20, 2022

An unconventional summer camp project this month in Israel has welcomed campers who have been shaken by the effects of war, bringing together youth from Ukraine and southern Israel and elsewhere to bond and cope with trauma on Israel’s coast.

“Camp Hallelujah,” an international summer camp founded by the youth movement Habonim Dror, drew participants to its beachfront campground outside of Haifa for its third annual leadership summit this year. Nearly 600 campers from across Israel and abroad joined, among them Ukraine refugees and children from towns on the Gaza border, all bonding in spite of language barriers and enjoying the Israeli summer.

The camp’s efforts are part of the larger “Project Hallelujah,” which has brought children from Europe, South America and other areas to the international camp in Israel in recent years, among other cross-cultural projects throughout the country.

Read More: Times of Israel

For Ukrainian refugees in Israel, Gaza operation rekindles still-smoldering trauma

(Photo: Gil Cohen-Magen Gil / AFP)

By Melanie Lidman - August 19, 2022

On Friday, August 5, Liudmyla Matrenin walked down the street in Ashdod to borrow some eggs from her friend. Both women are Ukrainian refugees, living in the coastal southern Israeli city for the last few months after escaping the fighting that broke out back home in February.

“I was walking to her house, and I remember I looked up into the sky, and I saw something that looked like a firework,” Matrenin recalled. “But then I thought, why would there be fireworks during the day?”

It was the start of Operation Breaking Dawn, a 66-hour operation in Gaza during which more than 1,100 rockets were fired toward Israel. The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip said 49 people were killed there, though Israel claims at least 16 of those deaths resulted from failed rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group that fell inside the Strip.

Read More: Times of Israel

Lost for decades, 3 minutes of pre-Holocaust life becomes a full-length documentary

(Image courtesy of Family Affair Films, © US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

By Jordan Hoffman - August 17, 2022

NEW YORK — In 1938, David Kurtz, a Polish-born Jew who came to the United States as a child, took his wife on a “grand tour” of Europe. A successful businessman, he brought along with him a brand new movie camera.

In between typical stops like Paris and Rome, he visited Nasielsk, the small village where he had grown up. Nasielsk had a significant Jewish population (over 40 percent of the town) and a thriving community. The day he visited, people were out in full force, eager to show off due to the novelty of the camera.

Kurtz shot a little over three minutes of footage, trying to capture the buildings of his youth, but the people — fortunately, in retrospect — kept getting in his way. Then he packed up and went to his next destination. The film lingered in storage for decades, untouched.

Read More: Times of Israel

Israel and Turkey to restore ambassadors in full renewal of diplomatic ties

(Photo: Haim Zach/GPO)

By Ash Obel - August 17, 2022

Israel and Turkey announced a full renewal of diplomatic ties on Wednesday, following a recent phone conversation between Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Lapid hailed the development in a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office as “an important asset for regional stability and very important economic news for the citizens of Israel,” adding, “We will continue to strengthen Israel’s standing in the world.”

As part of the upgrade in ties, both countries are slated to soon exchange ambassadors and consuls general, though no timeline was provided.

Read More: Times of Israel

Israel wins gold in team marathon event at European Athletics Championships

(Photo: Ina Fassbender/AFP)

By TOI Staff - August 15, 2022

Israel took gold Monday in the men’s team marathon event at the European Athletics Championships in Munich, an extraordinary success coming 50 years after the massacre of Israeli athletes in the same city.

Israel’s Marhu Teferi also won a silver medal in the individual runners’ competition, while fellow Israeli Gashau Ayale picked up the bronze.

Along with Teferi and Ayale, who are both Ethiopian-born Israelis, the other members of the gold medal squad were Omer Ramon, Yimer Getahun and Girmaw Amare.

Read More: Times of Israel

Israeli hospital to perform life-saving surgeries on children from Chad

By Itamar Eichner - August 10, 2022

A special Israeli delegation came home recently from the African country of Chad and brought with it several children who require life-saving heart surgeries in order to have the kids treated in one of Israel's leading hospitals.

The delegation was the first to visit Chad after former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the renewal of diplomatic relations with the country in 2019 following 50 years of diplomatic freeze.

The children arrived with the cooperation with Menomadin Foundation, MASHAV - Israel's official international development cooperation program, and Israeli Flying Aid, a non-profit, volunteer-based, non-governmental organization (NGO) that delivers life saving aid to communities affected by natural disasters and human conflict.

The children will undergo heart surgeries at Israeli hospitals since the treatment they require is unavailable in their country.

One of the children set for surgery is 14-year-old Abderman, who has been waiting for seven years to undergo treatment for his condition. “We’ve been praying for years for this surgery,” Abderman’s mother told Ynet. “His life is in danger because of the issue in his heart that prevents him from living like a normal boy. We didn’t think we’ll get the medical help for my boy specifically in Israel. He can now get his life back.”

Read More: Ynetnews

Israeli archaeologist find where the Romans breached Jerusalem's walls - IAA

(photo credit: Yoli Schwartz / Israel Antiquities Authority)

By Aaron Reich - August 7, 2022

The positions of the Roman army's ballistae used in their attack on Jerusalem may have been found thanks to archaeological evidence and calculations made by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The findings come on Tisha Be'av, the Jewish fast day that mourns, among other things, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans during this invasion.

Background: When Romans took Jerusalem

The Roman Empire was the pinnacle superpower of the ancient world and firmly dominated the entirety of the Mediterranean Sea.

Its army, too, was the powerhouse of the era, enforcing the empire's will on its conquered and subjugated lands.

The imperial legions were vast, strong in number with a vast number of flexible tactics and formations at their disposal, along with their signature innovations and weaponry, such as the ballista.

It was with this might that the Romans, in an army led by Pompey the Great, would ultimately conquer Judea, ruled at the time by the Hasmonean Kingdom, in 63 BCE — which was technically before the birth of the empire and was actually in the tail-end of the Roman Republic.

Read More: Jerusalem Post