Israel Active

The new Israel office of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute (AAPI) has just been opened in Israel. The AAPI has a small team in place in Washington, with plans to open offices in each member country.  It is working on commercial and academic projects.

Israel’s Michal Divon (a woman) is the first Israeli to work for an Emirati newspaper. She is a senior editor and producer for Khaleej Times, the UAE’s longest-running English language daily newspaper. She has already become an active member of the Jewish community in Dubai.

Israel’s First Lady Michal Herzog welcomed some 30 members of the Diplomatic Spouses and Partners Club in Israel to the President’s residence in Jerusalem. Very moving speech from the Moroccan rep and Michal Herzog responded to the Brazilian rep in fluent Portuguese!

The Technological Innovation Center of the Druze Community has just been inaugurated at Israel’s Technion Institute. The new center is training young Druze men and women in Quality Assurance (QA) - one of the most popular fields in hi-tech.

Israel’s Technion Institute is a leader in promoting women's empowerment. Seven out of 13 deans are women, as well as 44% of new students who enrolled since the beginning of the academic year.  Women are also the majority on many of the Technion’s top committees.

Israel’s Moovit (see previously) has partnered UK’s WeWALK to enable blind and partially sighted users to navigate public transportation independently. It provides step-by-step guidance to bus and train stops, real-time arrival info, and audio / text “get off” alerts.

A delegation from Indonesia recently visited Israel to learn about its COVID-19 response. It included National Board for Disaster Management and National COVID Task Force head Suharyanto. Indonesia’s Defense minister previously said talks with Israel were in the national interest.

World ORT’s Israeli Kadima Mada implements technology curriculums for disadvantaged populations in Israel and in more than 30 other countries.  The Ghana program, first piloted in 2020, uses female instructors to teach young girls coding skills, game design and animation.

87 Afghan refugees, rescued by Israel’s IsraAID in October, finally got the chance to meet their rescuers in Albania, as they prepared to begin the process of resettlement in Canada. The refugees include judges, journalists, cyclists, families of diplomats, artists, police and scientists.

A new video featuring Israeli non-profit Sindyanna of Galilee (see previously) in which Arab and Jewish women work together to produce and market fair trade olive oil. Instead of labels stating, “Extra Virgin olive oil”, they read “Extra Peaceful”, “Unified”, “Hopeful”, and “Positive”.