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Empowering female entrepreneurs; Eco-friendly power for satellites; Samaria Film Festival; and much more!
by: Michael Ordman
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
A platform to eliminate all viruses
Hebrew University startup ViroBlock has reported preliminary success of its platform for rapidly generating anti-viral therapies. Its channel blockers inhibit proteins expressed by current and emerging viruses, including COVID-19 and variants, influenza, Zika, West Nile, Hepatitis B and more.
https://www.pharmiweb.com/press-release/2022-06-27/viroblock-a-hebrew-university-startup-announces-preliminary-success-of-its-anti-viral-drug-platform-in-new-study
EU funding for cardiac implants
Israel’s Restore Medical (see here previously) been awarded a €2.5 million grant by the European Innovation Council (EIC). Restore Medical is conducting human trials of its ContraBand implant to treat Congestive heart failure. 1,093 global companies applied for EIC funds; only 74 received them.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rjejifvqq
New skin for old
Scientists at Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus and Israel’s Technion Institute reversed the aging of skin cells by grafting aged human skin in lab tests. The skin rejuvenated – even generating new blood vessels and improving age-related biomarkers. It represents a breakthrough for research into aging.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-710319
Wake up and smell the coffee
After last week’s article about dogs sniffing to detect cancer (see here) this article summarizes many of the Israeli innovations related to scents and odors.
https://www.israel21c.org/why-scent-is-the-next-frontier-for-technology/
Breakthrough prostate cancer therapy
Israel’s Alpha Tau Medical (see here previously) has successfully treated a patient with aggressive prostate cancer using alpha-radiation – injecting a radioactive isotope into the tumor. Alpha DaRT (Diffusing Alpha-emitters Radiation Therapy) destroys a tumor by breaking its DNA.
https://nocamels.com/2022/06/israeli-researchers-use-breakthrough-tech-to-treat-prostate-cancer-for-first-time/
Ready for anything
Israeli emergency medical organization Magen David Adom has established a new center at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, designed to simulate real-world emergencies. 23 senior MDA paramedics recently received training there and there are plans to train 100 more over the next few months.
https://www.jns.org/mda-paramedics-gain-hands-on-experience-in-new-emergency-training-course/
Force for good
In Israeli hospitals, the Israel Outpost of the 501st Legion villains of “Star Wars” are actually a force for good, bringing joy to sick children. They also perform at events to raise money for sick children. Watch them pay a visit to Safra Children’s Hospital in Israel’s Sheba Medical Center.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Empowering female entrepreneurs
Israeli NGO Yozmot Atid empowers women from Israel’s geographical, social, and economic periphery. Its training program helps some 1,000 women each year start businesses and become financially independent. The NGO took dozens of senior Israeli executives on a tour of the businesses.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/s19tsjevu
No more building of chicken cages
Israel is among the first countries in the world to ban chicken cages for egg-laying hens and to move to non-cage systems. Israel’s new regulations also include providing regular care for chickens and bans on the practice of induced molting and beak trimming.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355425
A school for coexistence
Jalal Toukhi trained as a lawyer in Tel Aviv municipality and has a Social Studies master’s from Al-Quds University. He is the first Israeli Arab to be principal of an Israeli school. The Ajyal school in Jaffa has 150 teachers from all sectors and religions, is one of the best in Israel.
Apple for Israelis & PA Arabs
Apple’s R&D centers in Herzliya and Haifa currently employ 2,000 Israeli engineers working on Apple M1 chips and depth sensing camera. Apple also has 60 Palestinian Arab engineers at its Apple hub in the new PA city of Rawabi, run in partnership with PA company, ASAL Technologies.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/bypitho59
Muslim EMT rescues Jewish Ukrainian refugees
United Hatzalah’s Khaled Hardan, a Muslim volunteer paramedic from Wadi Ara in northern Israel, flew to Warsaw to help ensure Jewish Ukrainians could undertake the journey to Israel. Khaled said, “I am happy that I was part of the team that was able to bring them to Israel.”
https://unitedwithisrael.org/muslim-paramedic-helps-rescue-jewish-refugees-after-russian-invasion/
Ending discrimination against women
By a majority of 115, the United Nations General Assembly elected Israel to its Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan was “proud to see more Israeli women leading & promoting women’s rights across the globe”.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355445
Disaster aid for Afghanistan
Israel’s IsraAID is working with local partners to provide humanitarian relief to victims of the magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Eastern Afghanistan. It plans to provide essential items such as bandages, sterile syringes, gauze, suture kits, tourniquets, pain killers, antibiotics, and basic medication.
https://www.jns.org/israaid-to-supply-essential-medical-relief-items-in-wake-of-afghanistan-earthquake/
IDF warning prevented cyberattack on US power plants
The deputy chief of IDF Unit 8200 said that his intelligence agency warned the United States of attempts to hack the country’s power plants in time to thwart the cyberattack. The IDF spotted the attack on the US while they were defending Israel’s water systems
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-710691
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Israel Mobile Summit
After two years of virtual events, 2,000 industry experts returned to Expo Tel Aviv for the Israel Mobile Summit, part of Israel Mobile Week. Some interesting new Israeli apps include Simplify (to overcome the fear of flying) and CR8 (to specify who and where to date).
https://nocamels.com/2022/06/mobile-summit-app-innovative/
https://simpliflyapp.com/
World Bank praises Israel’s fiber rollout
An study by the World Bank praises Israel’s rollout of hi-speed fiber-optic Internet. 60% of Israeli households now have fast Internet access. The Communications Ministry plans to meet again with the World Bank in September to share its deployment model with other countries.
https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/tech-and-start-ups/article-710518
World class nano-scientist
Professor Jacob Sagiv of Israel’s Weizmann Institute is the first Israeli to win the international Kavli award, for astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience. Prof. Sagiv shared the Nanoscience prize, with 3 USA colleagues for their pioneering work on self-assembling monolayers on solid substrates.
https://www.jpost.com/science/article-708497
Solar-powered diamond production
Israel’s Lusix (see here previously) has launched “Sun Grown Diamonds” – the world’s first 100% solar powered lab-grown diamonds. Lusix’s whole operation is now fully powered by a dedicated 30-megawatt solar farm situated in southern Israel.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220608006179/en/%C2%A0LUSIX-Unveils-Sun-Grown-DiamondsTM
Atomic clocks for all occasions
Israel’s AccuBeat (see here previously) has been supplying the U.S. Air Force with its atomic clocks for 20 years. It outfits Israeli Air Force jets and Israeli Navy submarines, UAVs and is building the Ultra Stable Oscillator for the European Space Agency’s JUICE mission to Jupiter’s moons.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rkvuhqofc
Safety device for bikes and scooters
Israel’s Autotalks (see here previously) has developed ZooZ2 – a device installed on the handlebar of bikes and scooters. It warns riders of potential collisions with vehicles, plus alerts all V2X (Vehicle to Everything) equipped vehicles about the existence of the rider.
https://auto-talks.com/techcrunch-autotalks-wants-bike-makers-to-buy-its-v2x-device-for-micromobility/
Safer ships
Another Israeli maritime safety startup, Captain’s Eye, has developed an AI-based system that detects unusual events on ships in real-time, such as smoke and leakage, security breaches, unsafe crew behavior, and other anomalies. It can prevent property, physical, and financial damage that might occur at sea.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rkdxrrdq9
Eco-friendly power for satellites
Israel’s Space Plasmatics (see here previously) uses solar power to heat up eco-friendly propellant into ionized plasma gas for maneuvering nanosatellites in space. The startup uses patent technology that originated at Israel’s Technion Institute and tested (see here) on Eytan Stibbe’s recent mission.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/h1s2m5r95
Turning desert into fertile soil
Isha Foundation’s Sadhguru spoke to 4,500 in Tel Aviv on the 48th day of his 100-day journey to Save Soil. He said, while the rest of the world had witnessed degradation of fertile land, Israel was one nation that had been busy transforming desert into fertile, agricultural fields.
https://www.news18.com/news/india/israel-leading-innovation-in-agri-tech-turning-desert-into-fertile-soil-says-sadhguru-in-tel-aviv-5147107.html
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-710201
Why food tech in Israel will change our future
Israelis have unlocked the secrets of cellular plant biology, taking active ingredients from plants to develop supplements that the body needs to survive and thrive. Hear from Professor Uri Lesmes at Israel’s Technion Institute, and then from the co-founders of Israel’s Bioharvest.
Groundbreaking water recycling
Israel is to be the first in the world to pipe desalinated water into a natural lake – the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). After much testing, the NIS 900 million, 15km pipe effectively will, by next year, connect the lake to five desalination plants on the Mediterranean coast.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-be-1st-in-world-to-pipe-desalinated-water-into-a-natural-lake-the-galilee/
Life-changing technology
The winner of the 5th annual Women’s Hackathon at the Jerusalem College of Technology was “EasySurf,” a mechanism that enables seniors to have easier access to modern-day technology. Second was a flying defibrillator and third place was a camera that detected babies left in a car.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355345
Never stop developing
Israel’s Wilco has developed an upskilling platform for software developers. Developers join a game-like experience designed to accelerate their professional growth. Engineers go on quests that challenge them to navigate complex life-like scenarios while utilizing real tools and technologies.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/r1vp1jckc
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
The digital Shekel
The Bank of Israel has published the outline and main insights from its first technological experiment of the digital shekel project. The BoI reported that it had established distributed ledger technology (DLT) infrastructure on the cloud and applied a Quorum blockchain based on Ethereum open-source platform.
https://www.boi.org.il/en/NewsAndPublications/PressReleases/Pages/20-6-22.aspx
Boosting economic peace
Just over three decades after the Madrid Peace Conference, the city hosted the first Madrid and The New Middle East Business Summit. It comprised some 200 business delegates, who came to promote investment and trade relations between the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Spain.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355356
$880 million for climate-tech development
The Israeli government has approved the implementation of a NIS 3 billion program to promote innovation in climate-tech. Its 5-year plan aims to double the number of startups in this area to 100 and vastly expand the number of related venture capital funds.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/h1jrfzlq9
VC fund for Reichman graduates
Reichman University in Herzliya is setting up a venture capital fund that will invest mostly in startups founded by its graduates. Investors have already committed $30 million, to be allocated to pre-Seed and Seed investments in startups founded by students, even during their studies.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hjnxuukq9
Inaugural Emirates airline flight
The UAE’s largest airline Emirates made its first scheduled passenger flight to the Jewish state. 335 passengers flew from Dubai to Tel Aviv on a Boeing 777 “Gamechanger,” which, according to Emirates, features the world’s only fully enclosed first-class private suites with virtual windows.
https://www.jns.org/inaugural-emirates-airline-flight-to-tel-aviv-takes-off-from-dubai/
Women, wine & whiskey
Tal Tauber Gottesdiner is the founder of HaShizra (The Stem), a community that empowers women in the Israeli wine, culinary and spirit industries. Over 260 women joined HaShizra in its first year and it now has over 900 members. HaShizra events are open to both women and men.
https://www.israel21c.org/sisters-are-doing-it-for-themselves-in-israels-wine-industry/
https://www.hashizra.com/english
Building a safe partnership
Japanese construction and mining giant Komatsu has signed a partnership agreement with Israeli AI construction safety startup INTSITE (see here previously). INTSITE’s technology helps prevent accidents and improves efficiency by identifying anomalies and bottlenecks during mining work.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/ryk3w9w9c
Making ADAS affordable
Israel’s Hailo (see here previously) is linking up with the R-Car systems-on-chip from Japan’s Renesas to make high performance ADAS technology more accessible in cars of all types. Hailo’s CEO said that its “AI will play a major role in making our roads safer”.
https://ai.hailo.ai/hailo-renesas-for-adas-av
Glamping in Israel
Several companies provide tourists a view of Israel and its landscape outside of hotel rooms. Gag Eden is located on the roof of Jerusalem’s Clal Center. It also has a campsite in Jerusalem’s Peace Forest. Others include Glamping Israel and Glow Camping. Booking.com and Airbnb also provide options.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-glamping-an-israeli-tourism-growth-sector-gets-in-tents/
Israeli dairy to produce no-cow milk products
Israel’s Central Bottling Company (CBC – a.k.a. “Coca-Cola Israel”) has signed a 10-year agreement with Israel’s leading cultured milk production company Remilk. CBC subsidiary Tara Dairy will use Remilk’s proteins to manufacture and market no-cow yogurts, cheeses etc.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/almdqv8av
Investment in Israeli startups to 3/7/22:
Gloat raised $90 million; Cyolo raised $60 million; Incredibuild raised $35 million; Konnecto raised $21 million; Cordio Medical raised $18 million; Helios.dev raised $5 million;
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT`
White Night is back
After a two-year break due to Covid, Laila Lavan (White Night) returns to Tel Aviv – an all-night celebration from dusk to dawn. It features music concerts on the beach promenade, street theater and dance performances, sidewalk stalls offering street food from burekas to tapas, and all-night shopping.
https://www.israel21c.org/white-night-tel-aviv-music-dance-films-food-till-dawn/
Samaria Film Festival
The Samaria Regional Council will host its first film festival beginning July 3. 25 movies will be screened over the course of four days in venues throughout the area. It is financed by the Samaria Cinema Fund, which has supported some 70 movies filmed in Judea and Samaria in the last 3 years.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2022/06/21/samaria-to-kick-off-regions-first-ever-film-festival/
32 things to do with kids in Israel this summer
You shouldn’t run out of ideas with this Israel21c guide!
https://www.israel21c.org/top-32-summer-activities-for-kids-in-israel-2/
Israel reaches European under-19 soccer semifinal
Israel’s youth soccer team made history by qualifying for the semifinal of the UEFA under-19 championships, the furthest an Israeli squad has ever advanced in the contest. They will now participate in the under-20 soccer World Cup, which is to be held next year in Indonesia.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-israeli-under-19-soccer-team-reaches-european-semifinal/
Israel’s unprecedented success in judo
Israel won nothing in its first 10 Olympic games. medal. But at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, judoka Yael Arad won a silver medal and dedicated it to the 11 Israeli athletes murdered in 1972. It inspired Israeli judokas to win six of Israel’s total of 13 Olympic medals.
https://honestreporting.com/when-did-israelis-become-so-good-at-judo-the-unexpected-rise-of-israel-in-international-sport/
THE JEWISH STATE
Christian tours of the Jewish State
Hundreds of young Christian adults are scheduled to arrive in Israel this summer for the largest Passages tour since the start of the pandemic. College and graduate students from across the US come to Israel to connect with their biblical roots and get to know the modern Jewish state.
https://www.jpost.com/j-spot/article-710281
Conversations on Zionism
Jun 5th’s webinar in JNF’s series on Zionism features Fleur Hassan Nahoum – Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem. She speaks about being a woman in power, the Bedouin, Jewish, Arab, and Druze women she works with, and the strong Emirati women in the UAE-Israel Business Council she founded.
https://jnf-usa.force.com/s/lt-event?id=aBH6T0000019iR4WAI (webinar registration link)
https://www.youtube.com/zionismstudios (previous webinars in the series)
Jewish Studies Zionist Network
The new group “Jewish Studies Zionist Network” comprises scholars and educators in the field of Jewish Studies who “affirm that Zionism is a legitimate movement for the national self-determination of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland.” I hope they use my newsletter material.
https://israel-academia-monitor.com/2022/06/30/new-jewish-studies-zionist-network-is-taking-a-stance/
https://jsznetwork.weebly.com/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-YlnODOO_-YZC_XneRPnjGNOPnFQZzN7/view
Rabbi and Gabbai of the Year
Israel’s Barkai Center for Practical Rabbinics gave its 2022 Rabbi of the Year award to Rabbi Yonah Meshulam HaCohen Fodor of the Beit Yehuda Synagogue in Beit Vagan, Jerusalem. Two Gabayim tied for Gabay of the Year, and Lod’s Ramat Eshkol community won Community of the year.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355749
https://www.israelrabbis.org/en/
Sderot continues to develop
Despite attacks from nearby Gaza, the 30,000 residents of the Israeli city of Sderot are not abandoning their homes. See these photos of parks, lakes, yeshiva, animal therapy center, Founder’s Museum, music center, hi-tech businesses, as well as some brightly decorated bomb shelters.
http://rjstreets.com/2022/06/26/sderot-more-than-missiles/
The miracle of life
Holocaust survivors Shimon and Susanna Lifshitz donated an ambulance to Magen David Adom after making Aliyah. Their grandson Avraham, a senior EMT for MDA, recently delivered a baby girl in the same ambulance. Grandfather Shimon said, “it’s for moments like this that we donated the ambulance”.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355718
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