Israel Active

Israel’s Technion has laid the cornerstone for its new research center in the southern Chinese city of Shantou. The Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) will provide BA, MA and PhD courses in chemical engineering, materials engineering and biotechnology engineering.

Israeli psychiatrist Henri Cohen Solal founded Batim Hamim (“warm houses”) in the 1980s to give Israeli kids at risk (both Jews and Arabs) safe places to meet. Argentinian Catholic priest Pedro Opeka met Henri in Madagascar and their joint work now benefits kids in both countries.

I featured Israel’s Roim Rachok (seeing far) program in a previous newsletter. Then there were 12 autistic young adults in the IDF program - in focused roles such as interpreting detailed satellite photos. Now some 50 volunteers do vital work and learn skills for their future.

The Israeli Government has donated food and humanitarian supplies to Kenya to help flood victims in Migori county. Aid included blankets, water tanks and mosquito nets. Israel was the first country to respond to requests for assistance in mitigating the effects of El Nino rains.

Israel’s Sesame Enable is giving away its specially-designed smartphone to those who have limited or no use of their hands. Co-sponsors of the initiative are Israel’s organization for the disabled Beit Issie Shapiro and Google. See and for previous newsletter features on Sesame Enable.

The OECD’s “Education at a Glance 2015” report shows Israel well above the OECD averages. Its high school dropout rate was just 14.6% compared to the OECD average of 24.7%. Israel is one of the few states to increase education spending during the global financial crisis. =

Liberia’s senate president Armah Zolu Jallah, is making the first visit to Israel by any head of his country’s parliament. He thanked Israel for its help in wiping out the fatal disease Ebola in Liberia. Israel sent mobile clinics and medical experts who trained Liberian medics.

Jerusalem scored 84.715 out of 100 to earn 11th place in Conde Nast Traveler’s “Best Cities of the World”. The cities were selected from the 128,000 comments of Conde Nast readers.

Israeli brewery Herzl Beer of Jerusalem has been chosen to make a joint Israeli-German beer to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot, Germany's and perhaps the world's first beer purity law. The new brew will be introduced at the Munich Jewish Museum in April 2016.

In 1967, only four of the 706 Arab towns captured by Israel had running water. Today, Israel supplies clean water to 96% of Palestinian Authority Arabs. In thirsty parts of the Islamic world there may be a chance that Israel could now trade “water for peace”. Hope springs eternal.