Category: Featured
Israel is selling snow?!
Posted on July 21, 2008 | View Comments
Anyone who’s been to Israel knows that catching a glimpse of snow is rare, and even a welcomed treat. Come to think of it, I’ve never even met anyone in Jerusalem who owns a shovel. Perhaps a longing to play in the snow has pushed IDE Technologies to become a major player in the man-made snow market.
First Tracks , an online ski magazine reports that IDE Technologies , based in Tel Aviv, is introducing unique refrigeration technology to produce man-made snow. The ice technology was originally developed for seawater desalination in the most unlikely place – the hottest, your-face-will-melt-right-off, beach city of Eilat in southern Israel.
So what makes Israel’s snowmaker so much better than the rest? It works regardless of the season or air temperature, ensuring ski resorts can open up the slopes for an early ski season, and obviously early profits are not far behind.
Existing snowmaking technologies spray tiny water droplets into the air, which freeze into crystals before reaching the ground. Such technologies depend upon ambient temperatures being at or below freezing, depending on humidity. IDE’s snowmaking facilities produce large quantities of snow regardless of air temperature.
If you’re interested in getting your own snowmaker, it’ll only cost you a mere $2 million. Now paying the ski resorts doesn’t seem quite as expensive, does it?
[photo by: bevcraigwhite ]
Street and Graffiti Artist in Israel – Profile of AME72
Posted on October 4, 2007 | View Comments
A few weeks ago we published our first article in a series on the graffiti and street art scene in Israel. Today we are interviewing one of Tel Aviv’s most popular street deviants, AME72, who is well known for his loveable little Lego character that seems to pop up everywhere around Tel Aviv.
We’ll take a look at how long he’s been doing it, why, where and what he’s working on at the moment. Read more»
AT&T buys its first Israeli company
Posted on October 2, 2007 | View Comments
AT&T is buying its first Israeli company: Interwise, a web conferencing solutions company. The price: $121m. While this may seem like a windfall for Interwise, it’s not really a great deal for the company’s investors, who’ve poured nearly $100m into the company in 5 financing rounds over 13 years. According to Haaretz.com, some shareholders won’t even cover their original investment. You win some, you lose some. Read more»
Dancing to the Stars
Posted on September 30, 2007 | View Comments
When Sally Anne Friedland got THE phone call in the summer of 2005, she hit payola. Artistic director and choreographer of Israel’s Dance Drama Company (DDC), Friedland was being invited to present her troupe at a prestigious Manhattan dance event – an invite she says resulted from a chance, New York layover the year before. Read more»
Shake it up for Sukkot
Posted on September 25, 2007 | View Comments
Yet another Jewish holiday is upon us, and this time it’s Sukkot. The practices related to this week of celebration are probably among the strangest offered by Judaism: we build wobbly huts that have leaves or twigs as roofs, and eat and sleep in them for seven days. We also make sure to shake a combination of palm fronds (whatever they are), myrtle (whatever that is), hyssop (ditto), and etrog (obviously). Read more»
Israeli Graffiti 101: the definitive guide and glossary
Posted on September 18, 2007 | View Comments
Is street art – graffiti? Is graffiti – art? Or is it all just fancy vandalism?
These are the questions that face “street artists,” and their audience of viewers. Spray cans spell vandalism for most, while a paintbrush represents the artiste. But we all know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; so can beautiful graffiti be considered art?
The Israeli street art scene is particurly developed. Visitors to Disengoff Square in Tel Aviv are privy to the names and swear words plastered on the benches. Read more»
People of the Book learn ESL at Geula home-learning store
Posted on September 17, 2007 | View Comments
In a sure sign of Jerusalem’s changing economic and demographic reality, a new self-learning center for English as a Second Language opened recently in Geula – the first such business in the country catering to haredim (ultra Orthodox) seeking to master the lingua franca of the modern world, and thus increase their employment and earning potential.
The curriculum at Self Access English Learning Center, located at 16 Malchei Israel Street in the heart of Geula, has been designed to meet the cultural sensitivities of the Ultra-Orthodox, says the business’s founder Laurin Lewis. Read more»
Shana tova – happy New Year from israelplug!
Posted on September 12, 2007 | View Comments
Tonight is the beginning of the Jewish New Year holidays. Rosh Hashana is a two day holiday during which we pray, eat and enjoy time with friends and family. This year, the holiday extends into Shabbat (Saturday), making it a three-day holiday. So we will not be posting any material here on israelplug until Sunday.
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy New Year, and may we all be blessed with a year of peace, health, happiness and prosperity!
Shana tova – happy New Year! Enjoy the apples and the honey!
Miriam Schwab, Editor
Dancing Camel puts Israeli Beer on the Map
Posted on September 7, 2007 | View Comments
Funny Camel, Serious Beer – that’s the motto of Dancing Camel brewery, Israel’s only microbrewery, that will be releasing a special pomegranate beer this year for the Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) holidays.
David Cohen, Dancing Camel’s founder, was living the Jewish-American dream. Born and raised in Brooklyn, David was a CPA with his own firm, a house in the burbs, 3 kids, and even the family dog. But Cohen had a dream, and wanted out of what he terms the “suburban white collar lifestyle.” Cohen dreamed of opening a microbrewery in Israel which would enable him to combine his two great loves – beer and the holy land. Since visiting Israel at the age of 20, Cohen had always imagined himself returning to stay. Now, more than 20 year later, he has finally made it happen. Read more»
At the Elvis Diner, fans still get all shook up 30 years after the death of The King
Posted on August 31, 2007 | View Comments
While Elvis Presley checked out of this world’s Heartbreak Hotel 30 years ago on August 16, 1977, Israel’s diehard Elvis fans are still all shook up about The King. On that date here in Israel, nine Elvis impersonators including two women assembled at the Pundak Elvis (Elvis Diner) here, a truck stop and shrine just off the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem expressway 10 km west of the capital, for a day-long celebration of the life of a man they revere as a proud blue suede Jew. Read more»
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