Israel’s unemployment rate hits all-time low of 4.8%
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The unemployment rates in Israel has hit an all-time low, a new report by the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.
The Jewish state’s unemployment rate in May was 4.8 percent, compared to the previous all-time low of 4.9 percent in April and 5.3 percent in March. According to the data, since 2012, the number of unemployed Israelis has decreased by 31.4 percent, from 277,083 to 190,000.
The unemployment rate among Israelis ages 25-64 hit an all-time low of 4.1 percent in May, compared to 4.3 percent in April.
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More than 230,000 tune in for global broadcast inspired by Lubavitcher Rebbe
(JNS.org) More than 230,000 viewers in 142 countries participated earlier this week in the inaugural One-to-One Global Forum broadcast, an initiative inspired by the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.
The broadcast featured 12 hours of educational talks and artistic performances by more than 75 global “changemakers,” who gave their presentations at The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building from June 20-21. Among the prominent presenters were actress and activist Monique Coleman (the forum’s host), former New York City mayor David Dinkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology neuroscientist Dr. Ed Boyden, media impresario Randi Zuckerberg, and Charity: Water non-profit founder and CEO Scott Harrison.
One-to-One was cosponsored by the United Nations Foundation, The Global Education & Leadership Foundation, HarperCollins, and the New York University’s Bronfman Center. Many of the presenters conveyed how the teachings of Schneerson—the Hasidic leader who is commonly known as “the Rebbe”—influenced their personal or public lives.
“We’re in a world dominated by linear things; the linear check-box way of solving a problem with our computers and our systems of looking at mathematical decision theory as the rule, or to evidence based medicine as the only way to look at something when really that applies to a cloud of people and not to an individual. We need to be using the Rebbe’s technique of studying everyone individually, knowing what the values are of the situation and know how to bring them out in maximum kindness and peace,” said Dr. Ira Weiss, the former senior attending cardiologist at Evanston Hospital in Illinois, who served as the Rebbe’s private cardiologist.
The presenters also commonly drew material from Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History, the popular 2014 book by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin whose publication coincided with the 20th anniversary of the Rebbe’s death.
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Former NYC mayor Giuliani visits Israeli food rescue and distribution facility
(JNS.org) Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani on Thursday visited the facility of Leket Israel, one of the Jewish state’s largest food rescue and redistribution operations.
The visit came on the heels of Leket Israel’s release of a first-of-its-kind study on food waste in Israel. The report found that more than 2.5 million tons of edible food, with a market value of about $2 billion, is wasted in Israel each year. The research “demonstrates the significant economic and social impact of food rescue to Israel’s national economy,” Leket Israel said, explaining that rescuing 25 percent of food waste translates to a savings of about $800 million. The cost of food rescue, according to Leket Israel, is 75 percent lower than the alternative of providing support, subsidies, or allowances to the poor.
Giuliani was accompanied at Leket Israel’s Ra’anana facility by the organization’s founder and chairman, Joseph Gitler, as well as its CEO, Gidi Kroch. The visit was arranged by Giuliani’s current employer, the Greenberg Traurig law firm.
“I was honored to meet Joseph Gitler and the Leket team and hear the unique story of Leket’s ability to deliver vast quantities of excess food to the people of Israel who need it most,” Giuliani said.
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Report: Israeli cabinet to approve normalizing ties with Turkey
(JNS.org) Israel’s ministerial cabinet will reportedly meet to approve a normalization agreement with Turkey next week, a senior government official said, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Earlier this week, it was reported that delegations from both sides—headed by Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu and a special envoy representing the Israeli prime minister, Joseph Ciechanover—are scheduled to meet June 26 to declare the restoration of ties, according to Turkey’sHurriyet Daily News.
Sources cited by the Hurriyet Daily News said that after the declaration, an agreement would be finalized and signed in July by foreign ministry undersecretaries, and relations would be officially normalized by the end of that month.
Turkish-Israeli relations broke down after the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident, in which nine Turkish militants were killed in clashes after they attacked Israeli commandos who boarded a ship that was trying to breach the blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza.
According to reports, the two sides have met halfway on Turkey’s demand that Israel lift the blockade on Gaza. Israel, meanwhile, has accepted procedures for a hospital to be built in Gaza and has agreed to not block Turkish-distributed supplies of medicine and personnel for the hospital. Additionally, Turkey and Germany will jointly build a power plant in Gaza, and Turkey will build a desalination plant there. All Turkish aid to Gaza will be delivered through Israel’s Ashdod port.
Israel had also demanded that Turkey close Hamas’s command center and exile the Palestinian terror group from the country. But reports indicate that Turkey will not shutter the terror office, but rather will try to ensure that Hamas does not plan attacks on Israel from there.
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In EU speech, Abbas accuses rabbis of encouraging poisoning of Palestinian water
(JNS.org) In a speech to the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas vowed that global terrorism will come to an end if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved.
Additionally, Abbas accused Israel of massacring Palestinians and even alleged that extremist rabbis are encouraging Israelis to poison Palestinian water supplies.
“In order to overcome terrorism, we also need to end Israeli occupation by creating a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital,” Abbas told the European Union (EU) legislative body’s members.
“Once this occupation ends, those pretexts will disappears and extremism will be over as will terrorism….There will be no more terrorism in the Middle East nor elsewhere in the world,” he said.
Mirroring other speeches by Abbas’s at international venues, the Palestinian leader did not directly acknowledge or condemn terrorism committed by the Palestinians, which has resulted in 38 deaths of Israelis and tourists to Israel over a nine-month-long wave of stabbing, car-ramming, and shooting attacks.
“We have the political will to achieve peace and we ask you (Israelis), do you have the same political will to achieve peace and to acknowledge the historic injustice your state has exacted on our country?” Abbas asked.
“Our history has been frankly one of a continued existence in this territory since the dawn of civilization until now,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Abbas of spreading a “blood libel” against Israel in his speech.
“Someone who refuses to meet the president and prime minister for direct negotiations, and who spreads a blood libel in the European Parliament, is lying when he says his hand is outstretched in peace,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
During his visit to Europe, Abbas refused to meet with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who was also in Brussels to meet with EU leaders and address the European Parliament.
“On a personal level I find it strange that President Mahmoud Abbas, my friend Abu Mazen, refused again and again to meet with Israeli leaders,” Rivlin said.
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Genesis Prize host Helen Mirren rejects boycotts of Israel
(JNS.org) Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren, who is visiting Israel to host this year’s Genesis Prize ceremony, called herself a “believer” in Israel and rejected artistic boycotts of the Jewish state during a press conference in Jerusalem.
“I think that art is an incredibly important way of communication. The artists of the country are the people you need to communicate with and make a relationship with and learn from and build upon. So I absolutely don’t believe in the boycott, and here I am,” she said.
The ceremony for the Genesis Prize, also known as the “Jewish Nobel,” takes place Thursday. The $1 million prize will be awarded to Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman. The prize was founded in 2014, and last year’s winner was actor Michael Douglas. The previous year’s prize was given to former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Both the 2014 and 2015 ceremonies were hosted by comedian Jay Leno.
The 70-year-old Mirren is not Jewish, but has played a number of Jewish characters on the big screen, such as a Mossad agent in The Debt and a Holocaust survivor in Woman in Gold. In real life, the actress has also visited Israel several times. In 1967, she volunteered on a kibbutz with her Jewish boyfriend at the time.
“I am a believer in Israel….I think this is an extraordinary country filled with very, very extraordinary people,” she said, the Associated Press reported.
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