Category: Miscellaneous
CNBC Breaking News: Kosher Ka-ching
Posted on October 18, 2007 | View Comments
24/6 Kosher vending machines that sell hot dogs, mozarella sticks, knishes and other kosher goodies are making headlines across America. Hot Nosh founders Doron Fetman and Alan Cohnen are planning to roll out 2000 kosher vending machines over the next two years. This is a dream come true for many observant American Jews drooling over their company’s cafeteria food but know they should just wait till they get home. As if the idea weren’t cool enough, these Brooklyn boys got Ruby Azrak, founder of Phat Farm and friends with Beyoncé, to fund their initiative. I wonder if these guys were inspired by the French Fry vending machine that I spotted 5 years ago on Rehov Hillel in downtown Jerusalem? Watch the video to learn more… and help me make the connection to Fiddler on the Roof?!
Israeli money makeover: Goodbye 5 agurot, Hello 2 shekel coin and plastic bills
Posted on October 9, 2007 | View Comments
In an effort to make our pockets even heavier, the Bank of Israel has decided to stop circulation of the 5 agurot, sure to be a collector’s item, (roughly equivalent to a penny), and add a 2 shekel coin to the shiny array of Israeli coins. Now it’s America’s turn to shed the antiquated copper version.
Compared to US dollars, Israel’s shekel bills have always been a colorful sight, making spending money a pleasure since it doesn’t feel like real money. And now, those bills will look even more fake, thanks to a new protective plastic coating that will be applied to the 20 shekel bill. Now we’re talking, money that doubles as an umbrella for the upcoming winter months, and as Haaretz points out, a replacement for missing monopoly money.
October Israel Entrepreneur and Networking Scene out of control
Posted on October 1, 2007 | View Comments
It used to be that during Sept-Oct-Nov, the whole country would shut down in anticipation of the holidays, then shut down for the holidays, and then shut down to recuperate from the holidays. Projects would be delayed, ulpans would be cancelled, and work would be optional. But things have changed, and thanks to Facebook and new networking websites, there is more going on this month than fingers to count on, so here’s the list. Maybe we’ll even see you at a few of them. Read more»
Israel rocks the tennis and mini-tennis world
Posted on September 25, 2007 | View Comments
Against all odds, Israel’s national tennis team has earned itself entrance to the Davis Cup‘s World Group in 2008, for the first time since 1994 (that’s 13 years!). Bloggers point out that the big hero was Dudi Sela when he defeated Fernando Gonzalez in an unbelievably tense match. For more details on the game, see Ynet.
In other tennis-related achievements, Israel’s Special Olympics team will be going to Shanghai in early October to compete in a variety of sports, including table tennis with silver medalist Meir Abramov. Says the Jerusalem Post, “Table tennis player Meir Abramov, 21, who represented Israel in Ireland and came home with a silver medal, told Peres: ‘It was the most thrilling experience of my life. I never thought that I would ever be chosen to represent Israel.’”
Only in Israel: E-mailing G-d@Gmail.com
Posted on September 6, 2007 | View Comments
So far, it’s only been faxes, letters, and personal deliveries at Jerusalem’s Western Wall. But, in tech savvy Israel, God’s Gmail account seems to be on the horizon. According to Ynet, the Kotel (Western Wall) has a personal assistant, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, who attends to all the Kotel’s needs from delivering faxed or sent prayer notes to the Kotel, to clearing out the prayer notes to make room for new ones. Read more»
New online falafel game: stressful but addictive
Posted on August 29, 2007 | View Comments
Every tourist who has been to Israel can answer the question: Where is the cheapest falafel in Jerusalem? The answer is Melech HaFalafel (The Falafel King). But could these falafel-eaters ever truly understand the exhausting days experienced on the other side of the counter? A new falafel game, spotted on The Hummus Blog allows people to try serving falafel to increasingly hungry and angry customers. Make sure to serve them before they are forced to beat you up.
Mossad helped bring Bulgarian nurses home from prison in Libya
Posted on July 31, 2007 | View Comments
Five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor were held in Libya since 1999. They were sentenced to death after being convicted of deliberately infecting 438 children with the HIV virus. The sentence was then changed to life in prison. All six consistently pleaded innocence.
The Mossad put Bulgaria in touch with people who were able to influence the situation for a positive outcome. Read more»
Best Friends: Israel and State of Georgia Law Enforcement
Posted on April 23, 2007 | View Comments
Thank goodness this made headline news in Lincoln County, Georgia or else we might never have found out about such a cool program. The program is called GILEE – Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange. According to their website, GILEE was founded in May 1992 (how did it take so long for us to find out about this?) with the following objectives:
1. To enhance inter-agency cooperation between State of Georgia law enforcement agencies and the police force of the State of Israel.
2. To offer an educational professional program to senior Israeli law enforcement officials in Georgia, primarily in the area of community policing.
3. To offer an educational professional program to senior Georgia law enforcement officials in Israel, primarily in the areas of counter-terrorism and drug interdiction.
Basically, Georgia trades its knowledge of community policing for Israel’s knowledge of counter-terrorism and drug crime prevention. The program is still very active – as we note the upcoming visit of a Lincoln County Sheriff soon to arrive in Israel.
Liviu Librescu: Holocaust survivor. Hero. Admired lecturer. Great Specialist in Aeronautics. A true loss.
Posted on April 18, 2007 | View Comments
There are so many ways to describe Liviu Librescu, the heroic professor at Virginia Tech who barricaded the classroom doorway to save his students’ lives during Monday’s shooting tragedy. Librescu was an Israeli/Romanian engineering and math lecturer who survived the Holocaust and later escaped communist Romania. After finding out more about this man, I started to see his name over and over again, and couldn’t ignore the words jumping out from his name – ‘Libre’ which means ‘free’ in Spanish and French, and ‘Rescu’ short for ‘rescue’. It’s not often that someone’s name describes their life story.
An inspiring man:
When Romania joined forces with Nazi Germany in World War II, the young Librescu was interned in a labor camp, and then sent along with his family and thousands of other Jews to a central ghetto in the city of Focsani, his son said. Hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews were killed by the collaborationist regime during the war.
Librescu, who was 76 when he died, later found work at a government aerospace company. But his career was stymied in the 1970s because he refused to swear allegiance to the Communist regime, his son said, and he was later fired when he requested permission to move to Israel.
In 1977, according to his son, Israel’s then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin personally intervened to get the family an emigration permit, and they left for Israel in 1978.
Librescu left Israel for Virginia in 1985 for a sabbatical year, but eventually made the move permanent, said Joe Librescu: “His work was his life in a sense.”
… At the university, people placed flowers on a table holding his picture and a lit candle. “We remember him as a great specialist in aeronautics. He left behind hundreds of prestigious papers,” said professor Nicolae Serban Tomescu.Librescu, who specialized in composite structures and aeroelasticity, published extensively and received numerous awards for his work. He received a doctorate from the Bucharest-based Academy of Sciences in 1969, and an honorary degree from the Bucharest Polytechnic University in 2000.
He also received several NASA grants and taught courses at the University “La Sapienza” in Rome and at the Tel Aviv University in Israel.
Laurie Copans, “Holocaust survivor saved students’ lives” Yahoo News, April 17, 2007
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