Using Brazilian procedure, Israeli doctors save Filipino newborn in Jerusalem

 (Photo: Hadassah Hospital)

By Judah Ari Gross - March, 29, 2018

Originally appeared here in the Times of Israel

Dr. Julius Golender is used to being asked for help by East Jerusalem’s Red Crescent Hospital, since the medical center lacks a pediatric cardiology ward — his area of expertise.

But when he received an urgent call last month, it was clear that “this was a complicated case,” he said.

On February 14, a Filipino baby boy, Francis Joseph, was born at the Red Crescent Hospital with a rare and serious heart defect, which threatened to kill him within hours if it went untreated.

The baby needed a complicated and risky open-heart surgery known as the Jatene procedure, which the East Jerusalem hospital did not have the necessary facilities to perform but which was possible in Golender’s Hadassah Hospital in the capital’s Ein Kerem neighborhood.

Could he help out?

The baby was born with a condition known as transposition of the great vessels, or TGV, in which his arteries were not properly connected to his heart and, in his case, the openings to the heart chambers were also malformed. They were so small that they were preventing his blood from being pumped throughout this body. Read More

2,000-year-old rare coins discovered in Jerusalem cave

(Photo: Eilat Mazar/Hebrew University)

By Rebecca Stadlen Amir - March 27, 2018

Originally appeared here in Israel21c

A trove of rare bronze coins, the last remnants of a four-year Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire, has been discovered in a cave near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

During the digs at the Ophel excavation site, led by Hebrew University archaeologist Eilat Mazar, dozens of coins as well as broken pottery vessels, jars and cooking pots were found dating back to the Great Revolt period (66-70 CE).

It is believed that these 1.5cm bronze coins were left behind by residents of Jerusalem who hid in a 7-by-15-meter cave for four years during the revolt – from the Roman siege of Jerusalem until the destruction of the Second Temple and the city of Jerusalem. The coins are well preserved, which Mazar says is because they were only in use for a short time.

The majority of the coins are from the final year, known as “Year Four” (69-70 CE). While coins from the earlier years of the revolt were inscribed “For the Freedom of Zion” (in Hebrew), those from Year Four were inscribed “For the Redemption of Zion.”

“A discovery like this — ancient coins bearing the words ‘Freedom’ and ‘Redemption’ — found right before the Jewish Festival of Freedom, Passover, begins is incredibly moving,” Mazar said. Read More

Israel Collective NFL Players Champion Israelis with Disabilities

By Jonathan Weber Rosen - March 26, 2018

Originally appeared here in the Jerusalem Post

A delegation of 30 football players from the National Football League came for a special visit to the Shalva National Center in Jerusalem on Sunday March 25. 

The Shalva National Center is an all-encompassing campus with a range of services for disabled individuals and their families from infancy to adulthood. 

The delegation of the 30 NFL players consisted of both retired and current players, including a number who wore the coveted Super Bowl Ring. The delegation consisted of sports heroes such as Tyson Alualu of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Don Carey of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Michael Pierce of the Baltimore Ravens, Miles Killebrew of the Detroit Lions, Warrick Dunn, who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Atlanta Falcons, Tommie Harris of the Chicago Bears and coach Jim Caldwell. Read More

Israeli soccer star posts photo with Iranian team captain

By TOI Staff - March 19, 2018

Originally appeared here in the Times of Israel 

The captain of Iran’s national soccer team posed for a photo with an Israeli soccer star, an offense unlikely to go unpunished in a country that bans its athletes from competing against Israelis.

Israel’s Maor Buzaglo posted the picture with Ashkan Dejagah on his Twitter account Sunday.

“In soccer the rules are different and there is one language without prejudice and wars. The captain of the Iranian team and I prove another way is possible,” wrote Buzaglo.

The picture was snapped in London, where Dejagah plays for the city’s Fulham soccer club and where Buzaglo was receiving medical treatment for his injured knee. Read More

Alley Runners helps marginalized kids strive for the pros

By Abigail Klein Leichman - March 18, 2018

Originally appeared here in Israel21c 

Israeli businesswoman and avid “social jogger” Shirith Kesher didn’t set out to form Israel’s largest youth athletics club. She only wanted to prove to a friend that lack of opportunities was the reason so few girls from Israel’s Ethiopian community were competing in running sports. Her friend insisted the reason was lack of interest.

“So I established a team for girls at a school for immigrants in South Tel Aviv, and by the end of the year we had a great team of 20 girls,” says Kesher, founder of Alley Runners (Ratzei Hasimta in Hebrew).

“The boys wanted it as well so we opened a long-distance running group with 40 kids and won some championships in Israel. Once we succeeded, we hired Yuval Carmi, a professional coach.”

That was six years ago. Today, the nonprofit Alley Runners has about 70 runners in its senior track and 100 junior runners, aged 14 and 15.

The program is active in five schools in Tel Aviv and one in Or Yehuda, while another chapter is forming in Beit Shemesh. Most, but not all, the participants are Ethiopian Jews who immigrated to Israel in the last five years. Some are African refugees, a few are native Israelis. Read More

Israeli Startup Aims To Bring Health Tech To The World’s Most Remote Areas

By Ido Levy - February 27, 2018

Originally appeared here in NoCamels

Over 3 billion people of the world’s population of 7.6 billion live in rural areas, 90 percent of them in Asia and Africa, according to United Nations estimates. The two continents have the most lower and middle-income countries (LMIC), which the World Bank defines as states with a GNI (Gross National Income) per capita of $1,005 or less and between $1,006 and $3,955, respectively.

One of the major challenges many of these countries face is access to healthcare, where hard-to-reach rural areas bear the brunt of the inequality. In some cases, even where health clinics are relatively accessible, they often offer lower quality care compared to those in urban areas.

While the UN, the World Health Organization (WHO), and other international bodies have called for better policies and funding to drive change in access to healthcare, innovation also has its role. One Israeli startup is stepping up to the plate to bring high-quality digital health tools to the less developed areas of the world, with the motto “where you live shouldn’t determine whether you live.” Read More

Nurturing joint Israeli-Palestinian agro-businesses

By Abigail Klein Leichman - March 13, 2018

Originally appeared here in Israel21c

On the first day of a pilot program pairing Israeli and Palestinian farmers interested in joint agricultural ventures, each population sat warily on opposite sides of the room.

Though all had agreed to be part of the trailblazing training program held at the Galilee International Management Institute (GIMI) on Kibbutz Mizra, significant social and linguistic barriers stood in their way.

“The biggest challenge was to overcome the notions we have of the ‘the other,’” says Silvana Nahmad, director of European and Mediterranean Affairs at GIMI. The program was funded by the European Union and developed in cooperation with a foundation that prefers not to be identified.

To be considered for the program, applicants had to have at least a bachelor’s degree in agriculture or a related field, such as water management, and a willingness to work together over a period of two years to launch businesses growing and exporting olives or dates, two of Israel’s largest crops.

Nahmad chose 10 Israeli participants and the partnering foundation chose 15 Palestinian participants, mostly between the ages of 23 and 50. Their initial seminars at GIMI last November focused on both the agricultural and business aspects of the future joint ventures. Read More

In Jerusalem’s Old City, futuristic hi-tech illuminates ancient biblical past

(Photo: Naftali Hilger)

By Renee Ghert-Zand - March 12, 2018

Originally appeared here in the Times of Israel 

King David made a big, bold and bright return to Jerusalem Sunday evening at an advance showing of the Tower of David Museum‘s new Night Experience.

The biblical leader who reigned over the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah three millennia ago comes to life again on the inner walls of the ancient citadel next to the Old City’s Jaffa Gate.

The Tower of David is a fitting backdrop for this spectacle where visitors are drawn in as images excitingly pop off the ancient stones — thanks to cutting-edge laser and sound technology.

Although the warrior-poet lived a thousand years before any part of the citadel was constructed, his name has been associated with it since the Herodian period, based on the writings of Jewish historian Josephus Flavius. Archeological evidence indicates that David actually established is the City of David in the Kidron Valley, an area outside the Old City walls and south of the Temple Mount in what is today the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

At the new Tower of David spectacle, a 45-minute narrative of the king’s mythical life begins with the arrival of his great-grandmother Ruth the Moabite to Bethlehem. It continues through to the height of his reign, making stops along the way at key scenes familiar to Bible readers. Read More

Arab Israeli women make inroads in education, job market, study says

(Photo: Gary Aidekman)

By Shoshanna Solomon - March 4, 2018

Originally appeared here in the Times of Israel 

Arab Israeli women are gradually managing to close the educational and employment gaps with Jewish Israeli women, a new study shows, but the researchers say still more work needs to be done.

The study, by Taub Center researcher Hadas Fuchs, with the assistance of Tamar Friedman-Wilson, shows that the percentage of Arab Israeli women succeeding on the bagrut (matriculation) exam surpasses that of Arab Israeli men, and is approaching that of non-ultra-Orthodox Jewish women. The ultra-Orthodox, with their stress on non-core curricula, traditionally score lower on the exam than their peers.

In addition, there has been an increase in the share of Arab Israeli women pursuing higher education.

Alongside these positive trends, however, some areas still need improvement: Arab Israeli women still mainly pursue careers in the saturated field of education. whereas a much smaller segment studies or pursues work in more lucrative fields such as computers and engineering.

“A more balanced distribution of fields of study and employment among Arab Israeli women would likely lead to better integration into the labor market and is a potential source of growth for the Israeli economy in the coming years,” the Taub Center said in a statement Sunday, released ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8. Read More

On International Women’s Day, Yad Vashem launches two female-focused exhibits

(Photo: Yad Vashem)

By Tracy Frydberg - March 8, 2018 

Originally appeared here in the Times of Israel

In two new Yad Vashem online exhibits, Jewish women in the Holocaust are portrayed in terms of the horrors they experienced — and their courageous responses.

Out in time for the March 8 International Women’s Day, the exhibits uniquely frame Holocaust remembrance through gender.

The first exhibition, “Spots of Light: Women in the Holocaust,” highlights stories of women before, during and after the Holocaust. A collection of individual and communal stories are divided into subjects such as motherhood, love, friendship and faith. They are tied together through testimony from survivors and archival photos and objects.

The second exhibit is a collection of photographed items which had belonged to Jewish women, often used in the Holocaust.

Clicking on each photo leads you to the story behind the object: the rouge used by survivors Rosa Sperling and her daughter Marila (Miriam) to pass the selections in the camps each day, or the cloth case where survivor Hilde Grünbaum kept the sheet music of the Auschwitz women’s orchestra.

Through these photos, the stories of survival and resilience come alive for the online viewer. Read More

Middle East martial arts masters hit the mat for amity

 (Photo: Urvashi Verma/Times of Israel)

By Urvashi Verma - March 4, 2018

Originally appeared here in the Times of Israel 

What do an instructor from Iran who chose the path of peace, a Jordanian who trained in martial arts with the royal family in Dubai, an Egyptian who serves in the karate federation in Iraq, and a Turkish man who promoted karate for women in his country have in common?

They were all participants in the Budo for Peace International Martial Arts Seminar that took place in Raanana last month, marking the fourth anniversary of a gathering of leading athletes who are using the martial arts to promote coexistence, respect, and peace. They hailed from the Middle East, Japan, Australia, and Greece.

The visiting sensei, or masters, conveyed a strong and united message that the trek was not politically motivated in any way but instead a call to promote values of peace among the youth.

“Our purpose is to teach younger generations to know peace better, not by violent means but by doing martial arts and showing the values of respect to one another — most importantly not to hurt one another,” said Mikdat Kahraman, a master martial arts teacher from Ankara, Turkey. Read More

Textile company creates jobs for unemployed Bedouin women

(Photo: Iota) 

By Rebecca Stadlen Amir - February 26, 2018

Originally appeared here in Israel21c

Some of the best projects are born out of a desire for change – at least that was the case with Iota, an Israel-based textile company empowering unemployed women through the art of crochet.

Each one of the company’s rugs, pillows and home accessories is hand-crocheted by Bedouin women from their own homes, providing them with meaningful work and an independent source of income.

Bedouins are an Arab Israeli subgroup, mainly in the south, with their own distinct culture and social norms. Historically, Bedouins lived a nomadic lifestyle, and many still herd livestock. The women traditionally tend to the house and children, resulting in high unemployment and poverty. A 2015 survey showed the employment rate among Bedouin women was just 22 percent, compared to 32% for all Arab women.

Founded by Shula Mozes, an active social entrepreneur for more than 16 years, Iota aims to support the many women, all over the world, who are unable to work outside of the home due to cultural, religious and geographical reasons. Read More

Israeli, Palestinian Students Reach Elusive Peace Deal

(Photo: Ifat Golan)

By Lidar Grave-Lazi - February 26, 2018

Originally appeared here in The Jerusalem Post

Students at the Eastern Mediterranean International Boarding School (EMIS) have achieved what senior global diplomats have repeatedly failed to accomplish: a peace agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

More than 70 Israeli and Palestinian 11th graders, together with students from 17 countries at EMIS, reached the peace agreement last week in a 24-hour simulation of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The peace-talks simulation was the culmination of a course in peace mediation and conflict resolution that the students have taken over the past few months. It was hosted by the Leon Charney Resolution Center, which is located on the school’s campus.

“This program creates a platform for the students to experience the process of peace-making, to give them the tools of understanding and negotiating. It is an opportunity to empower themselves, to make a difference in their own lives, wherever their lives take them in the future,” said Tzili Charney, wife of the late Leon Charney and the founder of the center.

EMIS is an international high school program that was established in 2014 in Hakfar-Hayarok on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. The school fosters international and intercultural understanding and promotes personal and social leadership through a shared two-year pre-university education and boarding experience. Read More

In find of biblical proportions, seal of Prophet Isaiah said found in Jerusalem

(Photo: Ouria Tadmor/© Eilat Mazar)

By Amanda Borschel-Dan - February 22, 2018

Originally appeared here in The Times of Israel 

The hand of the Prophet Isaiah himself may have created an 8th century BCE seal impression discovered in First Temple remains near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, according to Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar.

“We appear to have discovered a seal impression, which may have belonged to the prophet Isaiah, in a scientific, archaeological excavation,” said Mazar this week in a press release announcing the breathtaking discovery.

Mazar’s team uncovered the minuscule bulla, or seal impression, during renewed excavations at the Ophel, located at the foot of the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The discovery was published on Wednesday in an article, “Is This the Prophet Isaiah’s Signature?” as part of a massive March-June issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review dedicated to its recently retired founding editor, Hershel Shanks.

The clay impression is inscribed with letters and what appears to be a grazing doe, “a motif of blessing and protection found in Judah, particularly in Jerusalem,” according to the BAR article. Read More

Israeli Wheelchairs of Hope donated in South Africa

By Abigail Klein Leichman - February 22, 2018

Originally appeared here in Israel21c

Fifty colorful, lightweight child-sized wheelchairs from Israeli nonprofit organization Wheelchairs of Hope are being distributed to needy disabled five- to nine-year-olds in South Africa through the South African chapter of WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization) and the Israeli Embassy in South Africa.

The inexpensive, low-maintenance wheelchairs were conceptualized by Israeli couple Pablo Kaplan and Chava Rotshtein as a humanitarian mission to help children with disabilities in developing countries. The chairs were developed with the aid of professionals at ALYN Hospital in Jerusalem, a pediatric and adolescent rehabilitation center. Read More

Ethiopian-Israeli coach Dego a deserving Premier League pioneer

(Photo: Udi Zitiat)

By Allon Sinai - February 21, 2018

Originally appeared here in the Jerusalem Post

With his 32nd birthday being celebrated only six days ago, Hapoel Ashkelon’s Messay Dego is the youngest coach in Israeli soccer’s Premier League.

He also holds another distinction, one that in a perfect world would go unnoticed. In our flawed reality though, it would be naïve to ignore the fact that Dego became the first Ethiopian-Israeli coach to guide a team in the top flight this past Sunday.

Not only is that an overdue and noteworthy accomplishment, but also one that has the potential of making a real impact on people’s lives.

Dego is a pioneer and, despite only being at the beginning of his coaching journey, is already an inspiration to so many who share his heritage and skin color, and have had to overcome similar stereotypes.

It wasn’t that long ago that Dego was pulling 10-hour shifts as a cleaning inspector for the Bat Yam Municipality to allow himself to work as a coach at Hapoel Tel Aviv’s youth department later in the day.

Dego, who was born in Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa and moved to Israel with his family in 1990, would get up at the crack of dawn to ensure the city’s schools were clean ahead of the arrival of the pupils. He worked at the job for two years, with his playing career coming to an end at the age of 27 due to injuries. Read More

Ethiopia adopts Israeli health-ed plan to fight snail fever

By Brian Blum - February 18, 2018

Originally appeared here in Israel21c

More than 80 percent of schoolchildren in the Bench Maji zone of southwest Ethiopia are affected by schistosomiasis, commonly known as “snail fever.” The disease is caused by parasitic flatworms and can infect the urinary tract and intestines.

Schistosomiasis is treatable with medication and changes in infrastructure and behavior, such as the availability and use of clean water and toilets. Getting that combination into rural Ethiopia has been a decade-long challenge for the NALA Foundation.

This week, NALA, which was founded by renowned Israeli immunologist Dr. Zvi Bentwich, signed a three-year partnership with pharmaceutical giant Merck, which has donated more than 19 million praziquantel tablets in Ethiopia since 2007, helping some seven million children to fight the disease. Read More

Film zooms in on 8-year-old amputee from Gaza living in an Israeli hospital

(Photo: Rina Castelnuovo)

By Jessica Steinberg - February 15, 2018 

Originally appeared here in The Times of Israel 

In a documentary now making the rounds of film festivals, an Israeli photojournalist trained her lens on a small Gazan child whose remarkably paradoxical existence reflects the complicated mix of humanitarianism, hatred and bureaucracy that governs relations between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Rina Castelnuovo, who spent 24 years as a New York Times photographer in Israel, devoted four years to closely documenting Muhammed El-Farrah, known as Muhi, an 8-year-old Palestinian boy from Gaza who has spent most of his life in limbo at Tel Aviv’s Tel Hashomer hospital.

The result of that closeup lens is “Muhi — Generally Temporary,” a documentary film in Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles that she co-directed with Tamir Elterman focusing on the quirky, funny semi-permanent resident of Tel Hashomer, along with his grandfather and caretaker, Hamuda Abu Naim El Farrah.

It is a troubling, even devastating film, yet it offers hope in the figure of Muhi, who perseveres despite the amputation of his hands and feet. He scrambles around the hospital with his prosthetic limbs, and holes up with his grandfather in the hospital room that became his home. Read More

Where a Druze Beekeeper, A Jewish Hotel Owner and a Bedouin Mother Talk Shop

(Photo: Wikipedia)

By Diana Bletter - February 7, 2018

Originally appeared here in the Times of Israel 

At a class at Akko Center of Arts and Technology, ACAT, in Akko, Western Galilee, the other evening, I saw the inspiration of the Start-up Nation trickle down to a grassroots level. There were fifteen students, including a Druze beekeeper, a Bedouin mother and daughter who serve homemade meals in their home, and a Jewish woman who operates luxury guest cabins in a small town on the northern border with Lebanon. Studying Entrepreneurship in the Travel Industry, the students were trying to figure out how to reach more customers, use social media, and expand their start-up tourism businesses.

The three-month course is part of the youth and adult learning programs at ACAT. Directed by CEO Naim Obeid, born and raised in Akko, the non-profit art, education and job-training center is under the auspices of Manchester Bidwell Corporation of the United States.

The Corporation, which runs ten centers in the United States, opened its first center outside of the USA in Akko in November 2016. Read More

Ethiopian Israeli teen wins X Factor Israel after wowing with audition

By Rosa Doherty - February 7, 2018

Originally appeared here in theJC.com 

An Ethiopian teenager, who wowed audiences with her version of Demi Lovato’s “Stone Cold,” has won X-Factor Israel.

Eden Alene, 17, from Jerusalem, overcame a difficult childhood to enter the competition and win a recording contract.

The singer’s parents divorced when she was two and she was brought up by her single, Orthodox Jewish mother.

During the competition she talked about being ashamed of her origins, but as she grew up, she said she became proud to be Ethiopian.

A video of Alene’s audition went viral in October.

As part of the performance the aspiring singer explained why promoting coexistence was important to her. Read More