April 2012 Archives

Thousands attend March of the Living in Auschwitz to honor Holocaust victims

This year, American veterans that participated in the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz also joined in the annual march commemorating the memory of Holocaust victims.

Thousands of youth from Israel, the United States and other countries marched Thursday between Auschwitz and Birkenau, the two parts of Nazi Germany’s most notorious death complex, to honor the millions killed in the Holocaust.

Israel Police officers marching through the gates of Auschwitz - Photo by: Reuters

Some 10,000 Jewish youths from Israel and 30 other countries participated in a three-kilometer march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the two sections of the largest concentration camp complex during World War II.

Category: Jewish News | Tags: Holocaust

First Synagogue Inaugurated in Basel in Over 80 Years

The Feldinger Chabad Jewish Centre is first synagogue in the city since 1929.

A synagogue has been dedicated in Basel for the first time in more than 80 years.

The Feldinger Chabad Jewish Centre is the first synagogue inaugurated in the city since 1929.

Rabbis and government officials were present at the opening ceremony.

The inauguration of the centre was supported by Sami Rohr, one of the most notable philanthropists to Chabad-Lubavitch causes worldwide.

Mr. Rohr was born in Berlin but escaped Germany prior to the outbreak of World War II. His parents were sent to a refugee camp but their 16-year-old son, found refuge with Shlomo Zalman and Recha Feldinger, a Jewish couple living in Basel. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: Chabad

No compensation for Gaza businesses damaged in raid

Court deems state not liable for chicken coops destroyed in 2006 air attack on terrorist tunnels.

Israel is not liable to pay damages to two Gaza companies whose property was demolished during a July 2006 IDF aerial raid on the southern Gaza Strip, the Beersheba District Court ruled on Wednesday.

Gaza Tunnel Destroyed - Photo: REUTERS

The air force conducted the raid on July 16, 2006, to destroy the infrastructure of a tunnel intended to be used to carry out terrorist attacks in Israel. Three days later, on July 19, 2006, the IDF bulldozed the tunnels. The army said it carried out these military actions to prevent terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Gaza

Jordanian prince, Egypt’s mufti visit Temple Mount

King Abdullah’s cousin, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, pays visit to Jerusalem holy place together with Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa. Israeli officials: It’s important to let Jordanians come here

Royal visit to Jerusalem – The cousin of Jordan‘s King Abdullah, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, arrived on Wednesday for a visit at Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

He was likely accompanied by the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, a top Egyptian Islamic cleric, who wrote on his Twitter account that the symbolic visit was in solidarity with the Palestinians’ claim to east Jerusalem. He prayed in the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, during his two-hour visit. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Israel Jordan

‘Tamar gas may be available before April 2013’

Noble Energy CEO tells PM Netnayahu that he would make every effort to meet and even beat April 2013 target date for Tamar gad field production

The Energy Ministry is claiming that Noble Energy has not supplied the ministry with essential data pertaining to the production of natural gas in Israel.

In a meeting held on Monday between Energy Minster Uzi Landau and Noble Energy CEO Charles Davidson who is currently visiting Israel, ministry officials laid out a list of claims regarding the company’s recent actions.

Tamar may be operational next year - Photo Illustration: Shutterstock

Davidson and Noble Energy Director of Eastern Mediterranean Operations, Lawson Freeman also met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his office. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: energy, gas

Israeli airline Arkia stops flights to Stockholm over security inspections

Swedish capital’s international airport refuses to allow Israeli methods of security inspections dictated by the Shin Bet security service; easyJet set to launch a new line between Tel Aviv and Manchester in November.

Arkia has to stop flying to Stockholm because the Swedish capital’s international airport now refuses to allow Israeli methods of security inspections dictated by the Shin Bet security service, TheMarker learned yesterday. Thus, Stockholm’s airport joined those in Malmo, Sweden and in Copenhagen in refusing to allow Israeli security inspections, which involve ethnic and personal profiling, extensive questioning and selective inspections based on the perceived degree of risk to security.

Category: Israel News |

Essay: How the Sinking of the Titanic Changed Israel Forever

The children that lost their lives that April 15th were never to grow up and have families of their own. Men and women were widowed, lives changed forever.

On a chilly night in the mid-Atlantic, the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic 100 years ago cemented itself as the most iconic maritime incident in history. Everyone from historians to pop-culture junkies know about the Titanic. Over 1,500 people lost their lives, but like a butterfly effect, there’s no telling how many lives were affected in some way or another. The children that lost their lives that April 15th were never to grow up and have families of their own. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News |

Innovative and Poignant Poster Marks Holocaust

Bezalel Academy graduate Dorielle Rimmer Halperin has produced a haunting poster in honor of her grandparents, who survived the Shoah

Yom Hashoah Poster

Dorielle Rimmer Halperin, Bezalel Academy, With Permission

In honor of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day, the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem has produced an innovatinve and poignant poster.

Dorielle Rimmer Halperin, the Bezalel graduate who created the poster, said the poster was dedicated to her grandparents – David and Esther Rimmer – who survived the Holocaust, as well as their family members who did not.

“This was an exciting challenge for me,” said Rimmer, who graduated from Bezalel in 2003. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: Holocaust

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Jerusalem hospital shows off vaccine that destroys cancer in 2 shots.

Early human test results suggest a vaccine can train cancer patients’ bodies to seek out and destroy tumour cells.

The therapy, which targets a molecule found in 90 per cent of cancers, eventually could provide an injection that would allow patients’ immune systems to fight off common cancers including breast and prostate cancer.

The first results of trials in people, at the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem, suggest the vaccine can reduce levels of disease. The human work is so preliminary it has yet to be published in a scientific journal.The scientists behind the vaccine hope to conduct more extensive trials to prove it can be effective

against a range of cancers. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News |

Israeli universities received NIS 1.5b. for R&D

2008-2009 figure rose over 5 percent from the previous year, according to Central Bureau of Statistics.

Psychology building in Bar-Ilan University - Photo by Avishai Teicher

Research expenditures at the universities granted by outside sources and intra-university grants – excluding funding from the universities’ budgets – totaled NIS 1.5 billion shekels during the last recorded 2008-2009 academic year, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The CBS relied on data from the Science and Technology Minister’s National Council for Research and Development.

Announced on Tuesday, the figure rose over 5 percent from the previous year, in which research using “special financing” reached NIS 1.45 billion.

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News | Tags: universities

Netanyahu among Time’s 100 most influential people

Prime minister described as ‘iconic’ leader who deserves credit for drawing world’s attention to Iranian threat

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

Netanyahu. 'The right leader for Israel' - Photo: Haim Tzach

Netanyahu was described as an “iconic, strong and determined leader who has excelled during a lifetime of service to the state of Israel.”

“Bibi’s accomplishments and service as a soldier, a diplomat, an economic reformer who took on the difficult and politically perilous task of challenging the status quo, and a two-time Prime Minister rank him among the world’s great leaders,” it was stated. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Benjamin Netanyahu

Bono’s note found at Israeli hotel: ‘Hope is like a faithful dog’

U2 front man, who paid a surprise visit to Israel earlier this month, leaves a poetic note in the guestbook at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel.

U2’s front man Bono surprised Israeli passers-by earlier this month with his sudden visit to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

U2 singer Bono - Photo by: AP

On Wednesday, BuzzFeed published the note Bono left behind at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, which consists of a poem about how “hope is like a faithful dog,” and his sketch of “a dog called Hope.””In Jerusalem, hope springs eternal,” the poem read.

“Hope is like a faithful dog, sometimes she runs ahead of me to check the future, to sniff it out and then I call to her: Hope, Hope, come here, and she comes to me.

Category: Israel News | Tags: Jerusalem

Ariel Mayor: IDF Commanders Lack Courage

Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman slammed IDF chief Benny Gantz charging he lacked the courage to deal with foreign anarchists

Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman on Wednesday sent a scathing letter to IDF chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon protesting the dismissal of Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner from his post as commander of the Jordan Valley Brigade.

“I, sir, protest the decision to dismiss the deputy commander which indicates that the IDF and Defense Minister’s aim was to stop criticism.

“The decision did not address that Palestinians and foreign citizens came to provoke us in Israeli territory and Judea and Samaria. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: IDF

Semiconductors from human proteins?

It’s weird, but it works: Award-winning Israeli research uses blood, milk and mucus proteins to build next-generation technology.

Grad students Netta Hendler, Elad Mentovich and Bogdan Belgorodsky with their invention. – Photo courtesy of Tel Aviv University

Making a silicon semi-conductor involves carving a sheet of the element silicon, kind of like carving a sculpture out of rock. It’s the most common method of making transistors for everything from cellular phones to computers. But silicon is expensive, inflexible and environmentally problematic.

What if it were possible to make transistors from ordinary materials simply by coating them with readily available proteins — for instance, human blood, milk or mucus?

Category: Innovations & Discoveries | Tags: technology