Jewish Agency Chair Herzog pledges Jewish unity drive
On Tuesday at the Jewish Federation of North America’s General Assembly, Jewish Agency Chairman of the Executive, Isaac Herzog gave his inaugural address to North American Jewry, presenting his vision for connecting the global Jewish family:
“We must launch a new Jewish dialogue. In the coming year, I will reach out to all of you to advance hundreds of faction-crossing, stream-crossing and continent-crossing dialogues. Under one common tent, as we’ve established in the Ami Unity programs, we will work together in every possible way so that Israelis will learn to appreciate and know the magnificent civilization of world Jewry, while world Jewry will learn to appreciate the achievements of Zionism and the beauty of Israeliness. Reform and Conservative Jews will learn to cherish Jewish Orthodoxy, while Orthodox Jews will learn to respect the Reform and Conservative. They will all partake in the internal debates of each of them. We shall learn from one another and learn to appreciate one another — and endeavor to resolve our internal differences — through a new Jewish dialogue. All that I ask all of you here in this room is not to despair and not to give up.
“The central challenge facing Israel is how to ensure its long-term existence as a Jewish-democratic state. This challenge has three dimensions: the first is to reach peace with our neighbors based on two state solution. The second is to address the internal strife that has driven the one people of Israel into the famous four tribes. And the third is to define a new and enlightened Zionist identity, that will endow us with both the spirit and the ethos of a thriving open democracy, together with an open, robust, and meaningful Judaism.
“Our first act should be to find a common language. When I say common — I mean both literally and figuratively. We have a rare and sacred national treasure — the Hebrew language. The language of the bible and the State of Israel. In order for us to be able to speak to one another and listen to one another and to debate, discuss and delight one another, we must return to our national heritage and treasure. We must enable every young Jewish person in the world to learn Hebrew. Hence, I hereby call upon the State of Israel to honor its commitment and pledge to take care of the Jewish people in the diaspora by allocating a substantial share of its annual budget to a national enterprise of spreading and teaching Hebrew all over the Jewish world. From here on, it will be every young Jew’s birthright, wherever he or she may live, not only to visit this historic homeland but to learn the language of the Jewish people. Hebrew can be a common denominator of all Jews, from all streams of Judaism and of affiliated or nonaffiliated Jews. Our beautiful language can serve as a tool for unity.”
–– From the Jewish Agency for Israel
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IDF and Ben-Gurion University cooperate on campus upgrade
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) received $15 million (NIS 55 million) from the Israeli government for an infrastructure upgrade in advance of the transfer of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) technology units to Beer-Sheva and the Negev region.
The investment was announced by an inter-ministerial committee including representatives from the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Finance, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Committee for Higher Education’s Planning and Finance Committee.
The funds will be used as part of the University’s $100 million expansion to build a new campus adjacent to the main Marcus Family Campus that will double BGU’s footprint in Beer-Sheva. BGU will construct dormitories, classroom buildings and other vital facilities, as well as hire additional academic and administrative staff and absorb more students in technology-related subjects.
The Ministry of Defense and BGU expect that up to 70 percent of the 1,000 students who undertake academic studies while also serving in the IDF intelligence and computer corps, as well as their spouses, will apply for undergraduate and graduate degree programs at BGU.
According to Brig. Gen. (res.) Itzik Cohen, head of the defense ministry team overseeing the move, his office was working to prepare infrastructure that will enable tens of thousands of IDF soldiers to serve in the Negev region in the coming years. “Our cooperation with BGU will lead to a spike in university admissions, which the military encourages as a way to ensure high-quality personnel, and will reinforce the academia–defense ecosystem that exists in the Negev region.” — From Ben-Gurion University
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Bend the Arc CEO blames Trump rhetoric for bombing attempt on Soros
Following reports of a bomb discovered in the mailbox of Jewish investor and activist George Soros, Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, released the following statement:
“This shocking act of violence and intimidation directed at George Soros is the inevitable consequence of years of antisemitism-laden conspiracy theories being spread by the Right, including Donald Trump and the Republican Party, a pattern that has rapidly escalated in recent weeks. When the president proudly declares himself a nationalist and calls fellow white nationalists “very fine people,” when he encourages acts of violence against his political opponents, normalizes racism, whips up anti-immigrant hysteria, and foments antisemitism by claiming that grassroots opposition is controlled by Mr. Soros, this is the result. And none of us should forget how the GOP is brazenly bolstering the president’s destructive tactics and message, weaponizing antisemitic and racist tropes in ads, and even directly collaborating with violent white nationalist gangs.
“Jews recognize this pattern all too well. For Jews across the political spectrum, the time has come to condemn and reject the president and make clear that this violence, antisemitism and white nationalism are absolutely abhorrent and a danger to us all.” — From Bend the Arc
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Leket Israel hails Israel’s new Food Donation Act
Leket Israel announced Tuesday that a campaign that it started ten years ago and led by MK Uri Maklev with support from MK Eli Elalouf has become a reality. The Food Donation Act was passed in the Knesset plenum Monday and right on the heels of World Food Day (October 16th). This law has also been vigorously promoted by MKs Moshe Gafni, Yechiel ‘Hilik’ Bar, Orly Levi Abekasis, Shuli Mualem and Mordechai Yogev, in cooperation with Leket Israel.
The Food Donation Act, similar to the United States Bill Emerson Act, absolves food donors, non-profit organizations and staff and volunteers at the non-profit organizations from criminal and civil liability, provided they adhere to the food safety requirements set forth by the Ministry of Health.
Israel thereby joins a small and select group of only five countries in the world (US, Canada, New Zealand and Italy) who have a similar law which encourages the collection of excess food and protects the donors and organizations that distribute it.
As written in the explanatory notes of the law, over the years, Israel’s population suffering from food insecurity has grown and includes many children. Restaurants, banquet halls, corporate dining rooms, retail chains and hotels avoid donating excess food and prefer to let it go to waste for fear of civil or criminal liability for damage caused by the food donated.
Gidi Kroch, Leket Israel’s CEO: “1.8 million Israelis suffer from food insecurity while 2.3 million tons of food at a value of NIS 19.5 billion (5+ billion USD) is thrown away annually. The Food Donation Act opens the door to hundreds of organizations and businesses that have quality and substantial amounts of surplus food but do not currently donate out of fear from liability. According to estimates, the law will triple the scope of food donations, and will expand food rescue on a national level. In this, lies a tremendous opportunity to address food insecurity and reduce social gaps in Israel. In addition, Israel is now putting food rescue on the map and joining what today is only a short list of countries with similar legislation to not only provide more nutritious food for those in need but to significantly reduce food waste.” — From Leket Israel
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Hadassah names Karen Paikin Barall to new advocacy unit
Hadassah announces the expansion of its domestic advocacy efforts with the opening of a Government Relations Office in Washington, DC and the appointment of Karen Paikin Barall as Director of Government Relations, according to Ellen Hershkin, National President, Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. (HWZOA). Barall is returning to Hadassah, having previously supervised Hadassah’s Young Judaea / Israel Summer Youth Programs early in her career. In the years since, Barall served as Mid-Atlantic Director for the Orthodox Union Advocacy, Director of Maryland Government and Community Relations for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, Foreign Affairs Officer in the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, and Special Assistant to New York Governor George Pataki, among other roles. — From Hadassah
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Tel Aviv University reports advances in nanophotonics
Breakthroughs in the field of nanophotonics — how light behaves on the nanometer scale — have paved the way for the invention of “metamaterials,” man-made materials that have enormous applications, from remote nanoscale sensing to energy harvesting and medical diagnostics. But their impact on daily life has been hindered by a complicated manufacturing process with large margins of error.
Now a new interdisciplinary Tel Aviv University study published in Light: Science and Applications demonstrates a way of streamlining the process of designing and characterizing basic nanophotonic, metamaterial elements. The study was led by Dr. Haim Suchowski of TAU’s School of Physics and Astronomy and Prof. Lior Wolf of TAU’s Blavatnik School of Computer Science and conducted by research scientist Dr. Michael Mrejen and TAU graduate students Itzik Malkiel, Achiya Nagler and Uri Arieli.
“The process of designing metamaterials consists of carving nanoscale elements with a precise electromagnetic response,” Dr. Mrejen says. “But because of the complexity of the physics involved, the design, fabrication and characterization processes of these elements require a huge amount of trial and error, dramatically limiting their applications.”
“Our new approach depends almost entirely on Deep Learning, a computer network inspired by the layered and hierarchical architecture of the human brain,” Prof. Wolf explains. “It’s one of the most advanced forms of machine learning, responsible for major advances in technology, including speech recognition, translation and image processing. We thought it would be the right approach for designing nanophotonic, metamaterial elements.”
The scientists fed a Deep Learning network with 15,000 artificial experiments to teach the network the complex relationship between the shapes of the nanoelements and their electromagnetic responses. “We demonstrated that a ‘trained’ Deep Learning network can predict, in a split second, the geometry of a fabricated nanostructure,” Dr. Suchowski says.
“These results are broadly applicable to so many fields, including spectroscopy and targeted therapy, i.e., the efficient and quick design of nanoparticles capable of targeting malicious proteins,” says Dr. Suchowski. “For the first time, a novel Deep Neural Network, trained with thousands of synthetic experiments, was not only able to determine the dimensions of nanosized objects but was also capable of allowing the rapid design and characterization of metasurface-based optical elements for targeted chemicals and biomolecules.
“Our solution also works the other way around. Once a shape is fabricated, it usually takes expensive equipment and time to determine the precise shape that has actually been fabricated. Our computer-based solution does that in a split second based on a simple transmission measurement.” — From Tel Aviv University
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Lawfare: PayPal ceases business with charities associated with Palestinian terror
PayPal has stopped providing services to the UK Charity, War on Want. This follows UK Lawyers for
Israel (UKLFI) pointing out to PayPal that War on Want allegedly appears to have close links to a
terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Those links were
recently highlighted by UKLFI and The Lawfare Project in a complaint jointly submitted to the Charity
Commission.
The PFLP is designated as a terrorist organization by the UK, US, EU, Canada, Israel and other countries.
As well as its alleged links to the PFLP, the complaint to the Charity Commission also alleges that War
on Want promotes dishonest and frequently anti-Semitic narratives on Israel and misuses charitable
funds to spread political propaganda.
PayPal also recently stopped providing services to International Alliance, a German charity similarly
allegedly linked to the PFLP.
In an article last week, Lawfare Project Executive Director, Brooke Goldstein and UKLFI chief executive,
Jonathan Turner, called upon the Charity Commission to “at long last hold to account charities that
claim to be providing aid, while aiding and abetting terrorist affiliated groups and anti-Semitic
narratives.”
As well as their recent complaint regarding War on Want, The Lawfare Project and UKLFI submitted
another complaint to the Charity Commission earlier this year against Medical Aid for Palestinians
regarding its own. — From the Lawfare Project
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Preceding items culled from news releases. Send yours to editor@sdjewishworld.com