Where R U Jacob?

Here at isRealli, we receive lots of material from people all over the world, and we do our best to give them all a platform to share their work and creativity with you, our readers. We received this video last week, and well, I guess Jacob says it best:

In January 2003 I came to Israel for ten days with a Taglit-birthright israel trip. It was my first time in the country in six years. In July 2003 I came for about 2 weeks and my eyes were opened to the possibilities of a life in Israel. In September 2003, on the eve of Rosh Hashana, I walked into the Jewish Agency’s office in NY and picked up the necessary aliyah paperwork. Taking ten days to ponder my decision, I handed in the completed forms on the eve of Yom Kippur. December 22, 2003 I left my birthplace of New York City and flew to my people’s homeland of Israel. At first I had a difficult time explaining my life-changing decision but slowly came to terms with its meaning and became more and more confident merely telling people I moved for Zionism.

Now, on the eve of my three year anniversary in Israel,…

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We’re Emerging!

When you read about all the remarkable technological developments and inventions coming out of the tiny country of Israel here at www.isrealli.org, it starts to make sense that the country was named by ‘The Economist’ this week as one of the five fastest growing emerging markets in the world, over the past 20 years. High five!

Here’s the story:

“The Economist”: Israel in top 5 emerging markets
Israel has risen 12 places to become the world 36th largest economy.
Zeev Klein

In its latest emerging markets survey, “The Economist” notes that Israel has been one of the five fastest growing emerging markets in the past 20 years. Israel has risen 12 spaces from the world’s 48th biggest economy in 1980-84 to 36th biggest economy in 2001-05. “The Economist” ranked economies by size on the basis of their five-year average GDP in current dollars, and compared the rankings of 1980-84 with 2001-05.

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Podcasting History

First there was music – ipods and the like holding hundreds of songs that you could slip into your pocket and listen to anywhere, anytime. Then there were videos – I’ve started to get used to seeing people sitting on the subway watching TV on their pocket-sized video ipods. Finally, the next breakthrough in personal entertainment technology has arrived: history lessons.

Ok, not what you were expecting. But Yaron Abramowitz of Ankori high school in Tel Aviv thought otherwise. With his students’ pre-college exams coming up, he was looking for a good way to help the average students get ahead and perhaps make things easier for those who have a hard time sitting down for hours going through textbooks and notebooks. So he branched out into the medium his students seemed to work with best: mp3s. Abramowitz, noting that the vast majority of his students walked around with mp3 players, took on the task of recording lessons, summaries, and entire book chapters as mp3s so that his students could study anywhere, anytime.

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Peres on Internet Obstetricians

I’ve always argued that putting together this blog was a bit messy. All the pushing and cajoling, the heavy and often synchronized breathing, the sweating and screaming, and of course, all that blood. But if what Peres says is true, and we are midwifes of a new generation, than does that mean that someone had romance with my computer?

Here’s info on the conference where this was recorded.

Borat, Israeli?

Most of you are probably well-acquainted by now with Borat Sagidayev’s new movie, and even if you haven’t seen it, you’ve probably heard something of his less-than-politically-correct perception of the Jews.

See what happens when he gets interviewed by an Israeli reporter…in Hebrew (with subtitles).

Below is a story about the Israeli response to Borat from www.7online.com:

Israelis Dig ‘Borat,’ Jokes In HebrewJERUSALEM

December 14, 2006 - Like moviegoing masses around the world, Israelis have crowded theaters to watch the hit spoof “Borat.” But they are laughing for another reason: They actually understand what the anti-Semitic, misogynist Kazakh journalist is saying.

Few realize that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s wacky comedic creation, Borat Sagdiyev, is not speaking Kazakh or even gibberish, but rather Hebrew, the biblical language of the Jewish people.

The 35-year-old British comedian is no stranger to Israel. He is an observant Jew, his mother was born in Israel and his grandmother still lives in Haifa. In high school, he belonged to a Zionist Jewish youth group, Habonim Dror, and upon graduation spent a year working and studying on a kibbutz, or collective farm, in northern Israel. He has since returned for several visits, his Hebrew is excellent and his understanding of Israeli culture superb.

The irony of a Hebrew-speaking anti-Semite is not lost on the admiring Israeli audience, which has made the movie a huge hit here.

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Riding Blind

Growing up, I found something very appealing about the idea of riding “a bicycle made for two”. Whether it was the romance of it, or just the cool factor, I wanted to try it out.

My parents were not particularly fond of the idea, and never opted to rent one from the bike rental place near the park. Eventually, I was old enough to rent my own, and I have to tell you, the experience of riding it was nothing like what I had dreamed.

Have you ridden a tandem bike? Mastering the balance between two people is tough, right? And then, didn’t you get the feeling that the other person wasn’t really pulling their weight? It’s like you were doing all the work!

Well! Maybe that was our dismal experience, but for others, perhaps it could be different. Tandem riding offers the opportunity for two riders to co-operate and achieve the goal of riding. Where one of the riders may be impaired, the other can take up the slack.

ISRAEL21C reported on forty-five year old Orli Tal, a computer programmer, devoted bike rider, who also happens to be blind. Seven years ago, she founded the Jerusalem-based Tandem Israel cycling group, to enable other blind riders to take advantage of the sport.

Currently, Tandem Israel consists of 10 blind riders who together with their seeing partners explore the bike roads of Israel.

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Holiday of Holidays

Now that we are officially knee deep into holiday season, we thought that you might like to know about some of the celebrations in Israel. Below is a story from YNET about one of the coolest and most inclusive of all holiday festivities. Enjoy!

Haifa’s annual ‘Holiday of Holidays’ festival is open to participants of every age, faith

Some 275,000 residents - including Muslims and Christians - live in Israel’s third largest city. Inhabitants of the mixed neighborhoods cross the same major intersections and stroll through the same narrow alleyways, and Christmas decorations and Hanukkah candles share shelf space in Haifa’s stores.

In Haifa, no one talks about coexistence. Haifaites simply experience it in their daily lives, and, once a year, they celebrate it.

Each December in Wadi Nisnas, the “Holiday of Holidays” Festival, now in its 13th year, marks the three monotheistic religions’ December holidays: Ramadan, Hanukkah, and Christmas.

Last year, 120,000 celebrated in the culture and crafts festival, thus adding yet another layer to Haifa’s human mosaic. This year, organizers anticipate even greater crowds. In the aftermath of this past summer’s war and the resulting decreased tourism, a decision was made to extend the festival until the end of December.

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Finger Foods

Whenever I travel to a country whose language I do not speak, I get a sense of relief when at a restaurant I am given a menu in English. If not, it becomes a really frustrating experience having to depend on the waiter to tell me what’s on the menu. My frustration ends the moment I return home. But how about the blind people who have to deal with this frustration every time they go to a restaurant?

There’s no reason why they should feel deprived of the pleasure of choosing their own dish especially since Louis Braille devised the Braille system back in 1821. I may be mistaken, and please correct me if I’m wrong, but I haven’t come across many, if any, restaurants with menus in Braille? Recently, Haim Katz, Member of Israel’s Knesset, proposed a bill stating that restaurant chains with five or more branches must have at least 2 Braille menus available.

The article in YNET mentioned that there are 25.000 blind people in Israel. I have to agree with MK Katz when he says that “the fact that most food chains don’t have Braille menus causes discomfort in the blinds’ visits to restaurants, since they become dependent on their escorts or, alternatively, on waiters to read the menus to them. Some would even prefer to give up this experience and avoid going to restaurants because of the discomfort”. Way to go Mr. Katz, but only chain restaurants? Come on Haim, there is only so much McDavids anyone can eat.

Hey Mr. DJ

I’ve heard of a lot of different ideas for targeting at-risk youth – from troubled families, troubled backgrounds, with behavioral problems, etc. – and providing them with a way to get ahead in life. There’s your after-school sports, peer advisor groups, adopt-a-brother type programs, and all of that.

With all due respect to those types of programs, this one is so much cooler.

Introducing Muzik, the first school of music for DJs in Israel, and among the first in the world. Founded in 1997 as the DJ School of Contemporary Music, this Tel Aviv-based program enrolls at-risk youth and other students in a curriculum that teaches them DJ music production and helps them launch a real career in the music industry.

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Café Confidential

Have you ever sat in a café and watched those laptop people, tapping away at their keyboards? Even though I would much rather spend my nights and weekends chilling out at a café, than working at one. There is nevertheless a certain something enticing about that freelance kind of life.

But as with anything in life, there are pitfalls to working in cafes, I believe. Addiction to coffee, overly-easy access to fresh sandwiches and no less importantly, concerns for your laptop’s security.

Well, we may not be able to help with the lox or latte overloads, but when it comes to laptop security, there’s something that can be done.

As reported on Israel 21c an Israeli start-up has developed an innovative new credit-card sized security device that can provide Pentagon-level security to laptops when users access the Internet outside their office, like in cafe hotspots, airports, and hotel rooms.

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