Monday, August 10, 2020
Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism
This past Thursday, I saw a disturbing email in my inbox from the President of USC, Carol Folt. In her message to the USC community, Ms. Folt addressed the resignation of Vice President of Undergraduate Student Government, Rose Ritch, from her position in student government. Ms. Ritch, who is Jewish, was subjected to months of antisemitic attacks and cyber-bullying due to her support for Israel’s existence and her identification as a Zionist. Impeachment proceedings were initiated against Ms. Ritch by students who felt “unsafe” on campus by the idea that a Zionist Jew would head their student government. Never mind that Ms. Ritch is a strong advocate for social justice.Bari Weiss, Rose Ritch resign after harassed over their Jewish identities
In a July 7, 2020 letter to the USC administration, The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law gave heart wrenching examples of the abuse, harassment and pure hatred Ms. Ritch had been subjected to. In asking the administration to stop the impeachment proceedings because they clearly violate Ms. Ritch’s Civil Rights, the Brandeis Center pointed out that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism provides “guidance for understanding when anti-Israel and anti-Zionist expression becomes targeted, intentional, discriminatory harassment and intimidation of Jewish students.”
In other words, the USC administration was reminded that it is not enough to pay lip service to the evils of of Antisemitism so long as you are not killing Jews and taking their property, while giving tacit and sometimes overt support to Jew hatred in the form of anti-Zionism.
In her resignation letter, Ms. Ritch called out USC for not doing enough to protect her from scathing attacks for identifying as a Zionist. “I am grateful that the University administration suspended my impeachment proceedings, but am disappointed that the university has not recognized the need to publicly protect Jewish students from the type of antisemitic harassment I endured.”
I am proud of Ms. Ritch for her courage in publicly outing anti-Semites who hide behind the cloak of anti-Zionism. Ms. Ritch is highlighting an issue that unfortunately is not unique. “The sad reality is that my story is not uncommon on college campuses. Across the country, Zionist students are being asked to disavow their identities or beliefs to enter many spaces on their campuses.”
THE ATTACKS on Ritch are part of the broader corrosive influence of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that has permeated the mainstream of progressive consciousness. By suggesting that Ritch’s support for a Jewish homeland would somehow render her “unfit for office or justify her impeachment” in effect resurrects the oldest of Dreyfus Affair level antisemitic tropes that call into question the primary loyalties of Jews who hold public office and “holding Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government.”Israel’s finger-prick blood test startup Sight nabs $71 million to expand scope
Political disagreements have always fueled the fabric of intellectual debate and especially on a college campus. Yet in Ritch’s case, labeling her Zionism as racism effectively silenced her voice in the debate and rendered her fair game to be canceled under the guise of political correctness, which bends far toward the side of the anti-Israel narrative.
What we are witnessing is a collective silencing of those who do not hold these toxic antisemitic views by those who do, ironically similar to the voices of moderate Islam squelched by the voices of extremism. Throughout modern history, intellectual curiosity and a sense of civic responsibility to repair what was broken in society were pursuits identified with both the college campus (think Berkeley of the ‘60’) and the printing press (thing Enlightenment). Yet, what we are seeing on college campuses and in the press is a narrowing of the acceptable definition
of “woke” consciousness, where membership is qualified by an asterisk that Jews need not apply.
Our nation is at a crossroads with an upending of long-held beliefs, practices and even social institutions being questioned and redefined to fit the zeitgeist of the current political climate. We are not exempt from these vital conversations, nor should we shirk from necessary inward introspection as we strive to repair a world so broken by racism, elitism and discrimination.
However, it is incumbent upon us to root out the misguided and misinformed ideology that has led to the resignation of these two powerful and important voices, and to decry all antisemitic rhetoric at every occurrence with a zero-tolerance policy. After all, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?” (Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14)
Israel’s Sight Diagnostics, the startup that has received a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nod for its finger-prick blood test device, said it has raised $71 million in funding from investors to expand global operations and detect a greater array of diseases, including COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.How techies used Bluetooth’s most annoying trait to build Israel’s new COVID app
Investors in the Series D funding include Koch Disruptive Technologies, the venture arm of US multinational Koch Industries, Inc; Longliv Ventures, an arm of the Hong Kong based CK Hutchison Holdings and Israeli VC fund OurCrowd, the company said in a statement last week.
The new round brings Sight’s total funding to more than $124 million, the company said.
The company’s Sight OLO blood analyzer device uses machine vision to analyze blood and to provide results for a complete blood count test (CBC) from just a drop of blood in minutes, the company says. A complete blood count test — which counts red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets in a patient’s sample — is one of the most basic, informative tests a doctor can conduct.
To use Sight’s product, the physician or nurse pricks the patient’s finger or draws blood through the vein, and places a drop of blood into a disposable plastic cartridge that is inserted into the OLO, which looks like a small home printer. The machine, equipped with a camera, takes thousands of images of the millions of cells within the sample and measures 19 different blood parameters in minutes. Software developed by the firm based on the machine learning algorithms analyzes the images and provides lab-grade results in a printout or via email.
Ronen and Pinkas told The Times of Israel they developed a system for Bluetooth messages to be sent between users’ phones, which can be used to generate quarantine alerts if relevant — but without the government getting anyone’s personal data.
At the crux of the design is the biggest complaint of people who use Bluetooth headphones, namely that the signal fades when you are more than a few steps away from your device.
Pinkas said that if people are close enough to a carrier for their phones to exchange Bluetooth signals of the highest quality, they are within proximity that epidemiologists want them to know about, while if the distance is greater, epidemiologists don’t care.
He said that relying on Bluetooth, rather than the tracking methods that the Shin Bet uses, can keep many people out of unnecessary quarantine.
“The problem with tracking currently done by Shin Bet is that it uses cellphone signal data that isn’t precise in terms of location and doesn’t know what floor you’re on in a building, so if there’s a carrier in a mall, it can lead to many people who were nowhere near him or her being quarantined,” he said.
With their app, every user sends out a special Bluetooth signal every five minutes that is logged by any other HaMagen users who are within two meters. The phone keeps a record of these messages — without any information to identify the user who transmitted them.
If an Israeli citizen tests positive for coronavirus, they have no legal requirement to reveal that they use the app. But if they choose, they can ask the Health Ministry for a code that will upload all the Bluetooth messages they transmitted — without information to identify them — to the ministry server.
Judea Pearl: A Lesson for Seth Rogen (and All Jews) on Early Zionists and Arabs
Seth Rogen’s interview on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, and his heartbreaking confession about how he was “fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life,” have sent many of us to wondering who his teachers were. In particular, his now famous: “they never tell you that ‘Oh, by the way, there were people there,'” has alerted us to a possible deficiency in Jewish education.Frank Sinatra to Seth Rogen – how did it go so wrong?
Don’t get me wrong, I do not believe for a second that Rogen was actually told Eretz Israel had no people there. He simply knew how delighted his host and audience would be to hear this intriguing fantasy of naïve, misinformed Jews migrating to a land they made-believe to be empty. So, as a professional “Jewish storyteller,” he delivered the bounty.
What the podcast does reveal, unfortunately, is that the general public, including some sloppily informed show hosts, can still fall for the century-old myth about Zionists believing Eretz Israel to be empty of people. Evidently, the true story of what early Zionists knew about the Arab population in Eretz Israel and how they planned to coexist and collaborate with that population, has not taken firm roots in public consciousness.
A research project that I undertook in 2008, sifting through the Hebrew and Yiddish press of 1917-1937, brings that story to public view. It describes two endogenous national movements claiming ownership of the same piece of land — one aspiring for co-ownership and coexistence, the other adamant on sole ownership and exclusive existence. I reprint this story below, partly to counter Rogen’s fantasies, and partly in the hope of seeing this chapter of Jewish history become part of American education:
Many Arab officials and Israeli “New Historians” describe early Zionist attitudes toward the Arab population of Palestine as dismissive or arrogant. Books and pamphlets from the time tell a different story.
Ben-Gurion: Our Arab Brethren
During World War I, Israel’s future first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, spent three years in New York, exiled from Palestine “for conspiring against Ottoman rule.” He devoted most of his time to organizing the He-Halutz youth movement with Yitzhak Ben Zvi, but he also published, a few months before issuance of the Balfour Declaration, an interesting treatise: “On the Origin of the Falahin,” (“Leverur Motsa Ha’Falahim,” Luach Achiezer, New York, 1917, pp. 118-27, reprinted in Anachnu U’Shcheneinu (Tel Aviv: Davar. 1931), pp. 13-25) the Arab peasants in Palestine. In this work, Ben-Gurion, the scholar and historian, argued that the falahin are descendants of Jews who remained in Palestine after the Roman expulsion and who later converted to Islam:
If anything measures the decline of our culture, it’s the distance between a colossus like Frank Sinatra to a Seth Rogen.How The Political Behavior Of Black And Jewish Americans Became Their Cultural Identity
A generation apart, and that’s the story.
It’s the story of a Hollywood that once cheered for Israel, but now, alas, Seth Rogen and company.
It’s the story of America in the dumps when it dumps on Israel. Strangest thing. But that’s how it is…and the sorry results are in.
Hand it to the Democrats for lousing it up for both our countries.
America was fun while it lasted.
I trust you know the details on Rogen. If not, please brush up on this, because I do not feel like going into it again. Garbage in, garbage out.
But this: Have you ever heard a Frenchman dispute French people the right to live in France? Never. I could go on country to country in this vein, but you get the point.
You also get Seth Rogen, a Jew, complaining about Jews living in Israel. How we keep getting this type, I don’t know. But they do replicate.
They don’t make movies like “Exodus” anymore, nor “Cast a Giant Shadow,” and this book they changed completely, and this book never had a chance.
We could chalk it up to 2020…a year when everything’s gone wrong, or gone Hollywood.
But that would be a mistake because once upon a time Hollywood was Israel’s best friend.
Sinatra tops a star-studded galaxy which featured Marlon Brando, Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni and a cast of thousands who joined up with Ben Hecht and Hillel Kook first to sound the alarm at the gathering storm of the Holocaust, and next to rush to the aid of the fledgling Jewish State.
Sinatra was a tireless hero for the Jewish people…and Sinatra was connected to the big, the bad, and the beautiful. Sinatra was king.
There is much now in our field of vision—contemporary populism, the racial identity politics of the Democratic Party since Obama, and cultural shifts within and without the Jewish community—that will undoubtedly affect that mainstream. We may ask what will happen, for instance, as the contemporary left rejects the classical liberalism Wald describes in favor of racial dispensations that have Jews making atonement for their white privilege.130 Jewish and pro-Israel organizations call on Facebook to block hatred
Such shifts are not purely external to the liberal Jewish community, but have become widespread in the synagogues, supplemental schools, and summer camps of mainstream American Judaism. These shifts will no doubt become more pronounced as younger Jews, influenced by left-wing activist networks and products of the K-12 and college institutions that have been hostile to classical liberalism for several generations now, move into leadership positions.
Yet those Jews who defect from the Democratic Party will not constitute a political realignment on the part of the mainstream, because by doing so they will thereby be Jews with an identity different from that mainstream. Politics, as a Jewish activist once said, is downstream from culture.
Returning to White and Laird, they see the future as likely to erode the level of Democratic Party loyalty among black Americans as a result of the weakening social force of black institutions and the increase of social integration. They observe that digital social spaces (e.g., Black Twitter) may reproduce to some extent the sort of sanctioning force of those traditional social relations, but note as well that such virtual spaces also “offer black conservatives a means of expanding their social networks.”
They also express a concern worth attending to, that “if whites’ level of racialized social constraint both within and outside the South reaches anything approximating that of blacks, greater polarization and heightened racial conflict in America will take hold more broadly.” I disagree this is the polarization we are seeing in the Trump era, and would argue that, if anything, Trump is functioning as a scrambler of the politics of racialized social constraint, which becomes a concern for Democrats and white elites more broadly. But time will tell.
Meanwhile, they end by imagining the plight of a black conservative in the voting booth this November. He considers casting his vote for a Republican and then possibly having to admit doing so to his friends and family. Given the “social rewards of conformity,” they write, “supporting the Democratic candidate is almost certainly the least costly option.”
The fate of American democracy may ride on that “almost.”
A coalition of nearly 130 Jewish and pro-Israel organizations from around the world has appealed to Facebook to step up enforcement against hate speech on its platform and has reached out to Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Orit Farkash-Hacohen to help lead the charge.The NAACP’s Failure to Deal With Rodney Muhammad’s Antisemitism
“We need the State of Israel to stand with us,” the coalition told Farkash-Hacohen.
The coalition is urging Facebook to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism at a time when they said online antisemitism is the most acute form of hate speech they experience today.
The coalition argues that this definition “provides an effective, neutral and nuanced tool to protect against incitement to hatred, inside and outside the social network.”
“I am pleased that more than 100 pro-Israel organizations have approached me to address this important issue,” Farkash-Hacohen said. “I welcome the initiative and call on more bodies and organizations to join the clear demand for change.”
Farkash-Hacohen is already a leader in the battle against growing online hatred.
Last May, just after she took up her new role, the minister asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to suspend the account of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In his tweets, Khamenei had likened Israel to a cancerous tumor that must be destroyed – statements that violate Twitter’s policies. She said Twitter’s failure to suspend Khamenei’s account highlights the dual morality that the microblogging network follows.
Imagine the following scenario: The regional director of a mainstream Jewish organization in a city that is home to sizable Jewish and black communities starts sharing ugly, racist caricatures of African-Americans on social media. In a speech at a local synagogue, this same person denounces the influence of African-Americans on our broader culture as “Satanic.” Then, when this outrageous behavior becomes the subject of media attention, that individual refuses to resign from their post and even retains the backing of their organization.Philadelphia Mayor Calls on Antisemitic Local NAACP President Rodney Muhammad to Resign
You can’t seriously imagine something like this because it wouldn’t happen outside of an alternate universe. The core ethics of every American Jewish organization would be utterly violated by such expressions of naked racial hatred, and the person responsible would be suspended immediately, and most likely fired. That is how it should be.
Unfortunately, the inverse version of this imagined example is all too real. In Philadelphia, the local president of the NAACP, Rodney Muhammad, has offered only a grudging semi-apology, alongside an adamant refusal to step down from his post, after a grotesquely antisemitic image that he shared on his Facebook page garnered wider attention. In the two-week long furor that followed, the NAACP remained mum on Muhammad’s provocations at the same time as Pennsylvania’s governor, its attorney general, and local black and Jewish leaders were calling on Muhammad to do the right thing and step down.
Last Thursday, the NAACP finally broke its silence. In a statement that was emailed to the Philadelphia Tribune, its national spokeswoman, Austyn Ross, relayed that the organization’s national leadership was “saddened and deeply disappointed by the harm caused by Mr. Muhammad’s actions” and that Muhammad “now recognizes the offensive nature of the imagery and post.”
“Hate speech has no place at the NAACP, and such language and imagery are reprehensible,” Ross said in the statement.
The mayor of Philadelphia has added his support to calls for Rodney Muhammad — the president of the city’s branch of the NAACP civil rights organization — to step down from his post over his antisemitic posts on social media.Controversial BDS group to hold 'Days of Resistance' in major cities worldwide
In an email sent to the Philadelphia Tribune just before the weekend, Mayor Jim Kenney said that the board of the Philadelphia NAACP should oust Muhammad from his position.
“In my opinion, it’s time for the Board to move forward by installing new leadership to an organization that has long championed religious and racial tolerance for all Philadelphians,” said Kenney, whose political committee has paid Muhammad $95,000 in consulting fees in recent years.
Slamming Muhammad’s “offensive and hateful messages,” Kenney said he was “deeply disappointed” by Muhammad’s continued refusal to offer a sincere and transparent apology for a Facebook post that incorporated a Nazi-style caricature of a Jewish man.
“I am confident that the Board of Directors will act appropriately, in light of the posts themselves and Minister Muhammad’s refusal to date to acknowledge the pain and division that those messages have caused,” Kenney added.
Despite condemning Muhammad’s actions on social media in a statement last week, the national leadership of the NAACP has refrained from demanding Muhammad’s resignation.
The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which has been accused of highly controversial action involving the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) will be leading "Days of Resistance" in major cities worldwide throughout this weekend.Instagram page shares stories of antisemitism on campus
The protests are slated for Aug. 7 to Aug. 9, timed to mark the 48th anniversary of the death of one of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's senior political bureau officials, Ghassan Kanafani.
Samidoun has planned to hold its protests in at least seven different cities including New York; Vancouver, British Columbia; Manchester, England; Glasgow, Scotland; Copenhagen, Denmark; Gothenburg, Sweeden; and Charleroi, Belgium.
"It is inconceivable that a terrorist group like the PFLP is set to receive a warm welcome in major cities around the world under the pretense of a civil organization," said Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen in a statement released on Wednesday.
Leading up to the protests, the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy updated foreign officials and Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the "Days of Resistance" and Samidoun's ties to terrorism.
In previous instances of Samidoun protests, calls for "Death to America," as well as remarks equating the New York Police Department, the Israel Defense Forces and the Ku Klux Klan, and were heard alongside the waving of PFLP flags.
As mentioned in the ministry's "Terrorists in Suits" report, Samidoun is active in the international arena in calling for the release of PFLP operatives serving time in prison.
A new Instagram account has begun collecting anonymous stories of experiences of antisemitism on campuses across the US in order to "provide a safe space" for Jewish students to speak up against antisemitism on campus.
The Jewish on Campus page has gained over 13,000 followers, and more than 130 stories have been posted since it opened in early July.
The page was made to "provide a safe space for Jews of all backgrounds to speak up against antisemitism on college campuses," according to The Jewish News of North Carolina.
“My hope is to make more students heard on campus,” Zohar Levy, a student at Stanford University and outreach coordinator for Jewish on Campus told The Jewish News. “We are here to tell a story.”
About 800 stories have been submitted, although not all have been published, with submissions coming from hundreds of universities including Columbia, Brandeis, Harvard and University of California Berkeley.
Stories can be submitted by filling out a Google form with a description of the incident, the name of the college or university and whether the institution or university responded. No one involved in the incident or in reporting the incident are named.
Some 17 student volunteers fact check and vet the stories before they're posted, according to The Jewish News.
The first CA ethnic studies curriculum was widely condemned for antisemitism; Jews were portrayed as oppressors with “racial privilege” and Jewish identity was largely erased.@themontano, who wants the FIRST curriculum, responds by telling Jews “sometimes it’s not about you” pic.twitter.com/IjWPwbnm4V
— The Conspiracy Libel (@ConspiracyLibel) August 8, 2020
Daily Mirror calls Palestinian terror supporter a 'human rights defender'
Here’s the text of a short article in the Aug. 7th Ireland print edition of the Daily Mirror titled “Protest over Palestinian man’s arrest”:BBC News again ignores balloon terrorism from the Gaza Strip
PALESTINIAN rights campaigners gathered at Leinster House yesterday to call for the release of a human rights defender.
Mahmoud Nawajaa is general coordinator of the international movement the Palestinian National Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Committee.
Campaigners called on the Irish government to condemn the arrest and push for his release.
Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign chair Fatin Al Tamimi said the arrest is “yet another attack by the apartheid state of Israel on those who speak out and organise against its crimes.”
Note that the piece, which reads more like a press release from a pro-Palestinian organisation than a news article in a British media outlet, informs readers that Mahmoud Nawajaa, who was arrested by the IDF last week, is a “human rights defender”.
In addition to the fact that referring to a BDS activist as a “human rights defender” is itself extremely misleading, the Daily Mirror fails to mention that his work as an activist appears to have had nothing to do with his arrest.
In fact, even pro-Palestinian outlets (like Electronic Intifada) and NGO’s have conceded that the Sin Bet “alleged that Nawajaa belonged to a “proscribed” organization, had provided services to it, and had communicated with others in order to carry out attacks”. “Proscribed” groups typically refer to outright terror groups, or NGO’s which, in some way, are believed to provide material support for terror groups. The fact that Electronic Intifada provides more information about the charges against Nawajaa than the Daily Mirror is extraordinary.
Further, in researching Nawajaa, we’ve found evidence that he’s expressed support for terrorist groups and deadly terror attacks.
As has been the case in the past, the those events appear to be connected to the transfer of funds from Qatar to the Gaza Strip. Kan 11 reported that the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar had quoted anonymous sources as saying that tensions along the Israel-Gaza Strip border would increase, citing among other things the fact that the monthly instalments of Qatari aid will come to an end this month and the Gulf state has shown no intention of extending it for another half year.Adam Levick interviewed on Neil Lazarus's podcast - discussing media bias against Israel
Ha’aretz reported having been told by a “senior Hamas official” that “the balloons carrying explosives or incendiary materials that have been launched into Israel in recent days are meant to send a message to Israel and to international bodies” and that “payment of $100 to poor families, financed by Qatar, […] was insufficient”.
If BBC audiences are wondering why they have heard nothing about those distinctly transparent threats, the renewal of attacks using incendiary balloons and the fires they have caused, it is worth noting that since such attacks began nearly two and a half years ago, the corporation’s Jerusalem bureau staff have produced very little reporting on the subject of the arson attacks and no coverage at all of the attacks using airborne explosive devices.
Neil Lazarus is an internationally acclaimed speaker and educator on Middle East politics and public diplomacy and, on Aug. 6, CAMERA UK Co-editor Adam Levick appeared on Neil’s podcast to discuss bias against Israel in the British media.BBC Arabic’s mistranslations of an English language BBC article
You can listen here:
Listen to “Is the media bias against Israel in the UK?” on Spreaker.
On June 27th the BBC Arabic website published a translated version of an article by the BBC Jerusalem bureau’s Tom Bateman that had appeared two days earlier in English and which was previously discussed here.Vatican Marks Life of Jewish-Born Saint, Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, Who Was Murdered at Auschwitz
The Arabic version included several statements that were poorly and misleadingly translated from English. CAMERA Arabic submitted a complaint to the BBC but over a month later, has still not received a response.
All translations, emphases and in-bracket remarks are by CAMERA Arabic.
Translation error 1:
In the legend of the West Bank map, the labels “West Bank barrier” and “Projected/Under construction” are mistranslated as “حدود الضفة الغربية” and “مستوطنات تحت الإنشاء أو قيد الإنشاء”, i.e. “West Bank borders” and “Projected/Under construction settlements” respectively. The solid and broken red lines on the map refer to the barrier, neither to borders nor to settlements.
Translation error 2:
The section reading “But President Trump’s plan potentially awards American recognition to Israel for all the settlements and the strategically vital Jordan Valley – before any negotiations with the Palestinians” is mistranslated in the past tense and without the word “potentially”: “لكن خطة الرئيس ترامب منحت اعترافا أمريكيا لإسرائيل بجميع المستوطنات ووادي الأردن الحيوي الاستراتيجي “قبل أي مفاوضات مع الفلسطينيين, i.e. “But President Trump’s plan has awarded American recognition to Israel for all the settlements” etc. The Trump plan, being a plan, has so far not “awarded” to Israel anything.
The Vatican on Sunday marked the life of a Jewish-born saint who was murdered during the Holocaust.Israeli scientist uses microbubbles to explode cancer cells
Highlighted as a “Saint of the Day” on the Vatican News website, St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross was born Edith Stein into a Jewish family in 1891, but became an atheist at the age of 14.
Despite being a woman and a Jew in Germany, Stein extensively studied philosophy and hoped to become an academic. After meeting a friend whose husband had recently died, however, she had a mystical experience in which her “unbelief collapsed.”
After reading St. Teresa of Avila’s autobiography, Stein converted to Catholicism in 1922 and eventually became a Carmelite nun, but remained involved in Jewish issues. As the Nazis rose to power in Germany, she wrote, “I had heard of severe measures against Jews before. But now it dawned on me that … the destiny of these people would also be mine.”
Realizing that because Nazi antisemitism was racial and not religious, she would be a target of it, Stein decided to present herself as a sacrifice, saying, “Every time I feel my powerlessness … to influence people directly, I become more keenly aware of the necessity of my own holocaust.”
As persecution intensified, she fled to Holland, once writing, “I never knew people could be like this, neither did I know that my brothers and sisters would have to suffer like this.” When the Nazis came for her, Stein told her sister, “Come, we are going for our people.” She was murdered at Auschwitz in 1942.
An international team of researchers led by an Israeli scientist has developed a noninvasive technology to kill breast cancer cells, an innovation that in the future could perhaps also be used to treat diseases such as brain cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.Biotechnology Company Roche, Israeli Firm aMoon to Launch Early-Stage Innovation Program
The groundbreaking technique, developed by Tel Aviv University’s Tali Ilovitsh during her post-doctorate period at Stanford University, uses low-frequency ultrasound to burst microscopic tumor-targeted bubbles. Her research was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Microbubbles are microscopic bubbles filled with gas, with a diameter as small as one-tenth of a blood vessel. At certain frequencies and pressures, soundwaves cause microbubbles to act like balloons: microbubbles expand and shrink periodically, and thus allow an increased transfer of substances from the blood vessel to the surrounding tissue,” Ilovitsh explained.
“We discovered that using lower frequencies than those applied before causes microbubbles to expand drastically until they explode. We understood that this discovery can be used as a tumor-treatment platform and started injecting microbubbles into tumors directly.” (h/t Zvi)
Israel-based life sciences venture capital firm aMoon and Swiss biotechnology company Roche have announced a collaborative agreement to launch an early-stage investment program named “StarFinder Digital Innovation Lab.”Beyoncé dons Israeli designers' creations for mega visual album
The program is scheduled to run for the next three years, with three companies set to be selected and receive investments each year. According to aMoon, the program will provide elected entrepreneurs access to global expertise from Roche and aMoon, access to a network of contacts, several hundreds of thousands of dollars in investment with an option for a follow-up SAFE investment, access to studies and deep data, and physical office space at aMoon headquarters in Ra’anana.
“This program will allow us to build exceptional relationships with Israel’s brightest entrepreneurs, as well as take an active and strategic role in building disruptive startups together with Israel’s leading Life Sciences and HealthTech fund,” said Michele Pedrocchi, Head of Global Strategy and Business Development at Roche Diagnostics. “aMoon’s experience and know-how in healthtech investment complements our ability to provide unique market access and expertise to design solutions that are tailored to real market needs in collaboration with our customers globally. This program is a valuable aspect of our digital healthcare footprint and we are excited about the potential of this initiative.”
Avi Danziger, CEO of Roche Israel, said: “Roche is on a mission to transform healthcare delivery through digital solutions and this opens up many opportunities for brilliant entrepreneurs here in Israel. The Roche and aMoon program offers a unique strategic partnership model from concept to global market. StarFinder’s emphasis is on the best of the best talents who can deliver impactful solutions for defined global challenges in healthcare. Roche Global is ranked first in the world among healthcare companies with global investments in R&D, reaching $12.6 billion in 2019.”
Beyoncé has done it again, producing a visual album called Black is King and sending the world into an absolute frenzy.8 incredible Israeli shows you may not have heard of
Which is really good news for the Israeli designers featured in it and whose creations – the word "clothes" won't do them justice – have now reached millions of Queen Bey fans worldwide.
Black is King was recently released as a visual companion to Beyoncé's 2019 album The Lion King: The Gift, a tie-in album for The Lion King remake of that year. The 85-minute musical film showcases the album's songs in one continuous flow and retells the story of the popular Disney movie to include and emphasize messages about racism, oppression and black pride.
Throughout the visual album, Beyoncé goes through a dazzling array of costumes created by both big fashion houses and upcoming designers, as well as outfits by three Israeli designers – local superstar Alon Livne, designer Shahar Avnet and recent Shenkar graduate Avy Amram.
It’s no secret that for more than a decade now, Hollywood has turned toward Israel to look for new show formats that could be well adapted for English-language audiences. Award-winning hit series adapted from Israeli shows, such as HBO’s “In Treatment” and Showtime’s “Homeland,” have helped Israel become the third-largest content exporter in the US over the past decade, just behind the UK and the Netherlands, an incredible and unlikely feat for such a small country, and one that only just introduced commercial television to its citizens as recently as the 1990s.Netafim gets $85m irrigation deal to help Indian farmers grow onions, beans
With the beginning of a tumultuous new decade, there have been some silver linings — it’s pretty clear that Israel is dominating the global television space today. Not even a pandemic can stop Israel from coming out on top.
Successful US series with major Israeli ties — including Netflix’s “Unorthodox” and HBO’s “Euphoria” — received a slew of Emmy nominations this week. “Unorthodox” landed the coveted nomination for best limited series and both shows saw their leading actresses, Shira Haas and Zendaya, nominated alongside major stars.
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Yet when Israeli television is mentioned today, one of two shows usually follows in the conversation: “Fauda” or “Shtisel.” These shows have become bona fide and critically adored hits on Netflix, well before the pandemic. In particular, the global success of “Shtisel,” five years after the show first aired in Israel, has led the beloved series about an ultra-Orthodox family to be renewed for a new season that is currently shooting in Israel.
Netafim, the Israel-based pioneer of drip irrigation systems, said that it has received an $85 million “mega deal” to provide advanced systems to 35,000 farmers in India.
The deal is part of the community irrigation projects the kibbutz-based firm has undertaken in the second most populous country in the world.
The new deal includes three large projects that involve the construction of irrigation systems for 66 villages, 35,000 farmers on 50,000 hectares area (123,500 acres) in the state of Karnataka in India. The projects will be deployed over a period of two years and will include technical and agronomic support for a further five years, Netafim said in a statement.
These new projects are an extension of the Ramthal community irrigation project in the state of Karnataka, which Netafim completed in 2017, and an additional four projects in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which Netafim got in 2018 and which are now being implemented.
Community irrigation methods provide a unique solution for small scale farmers. Creating these communities make it economically feasible to carry out large-scale infrastructure projects, as it binds together a number of farmers and provides them with the advanced infrastructure and technologies needed, even as each farmer benefits from the system that best suits their needs. Without this collaboration, the individual farmer would not possess the knowledge or financial resources to create their own effective irrigation system, Netafim said in a statement on Monday.
