The B'nai B'rith World Center in Jerusalem is the hub of B'nai B'rith International's activities in Israel, serving as the key link between the organization's members in over 50 countries around the world and the State of Israel. Through its extensive educational programs and well-established relationships with political leaders of all parties, the diplomatic corps and leading academic institutions, the World Center strengthens Israel-Diaspora relations and offers a unique vantage point on developments concerning the Jewish state. Operating under the aegis of BBI's Center for Human Rights and Public Policy, the World Center serves as the organization's permanent and official presence in Jerusalem and its public affairs arm in Israel - a continuing expression of BBI's 140-year active commitment to Jewish renaissance in Eretz Israel.
Board of Trustees:
Fred S. Worms, OBE Chairman, International Board of Trustees (London)
Murray H. Shusterman Founding President
Richard and Phyllis Heideman Trustees (Washington, DC)
Joseph H. Domberger Trustee (Munich)
Dr. Haim V. Katz Chairman (Jerusalem)
Alan Schneider Director |
June 15, 2010
Greeting from the Chairman
 Dear brothers and sisters,
This High Holiday season is a time for taking stock and reflecting on the year just past. We also have the opportunity of offering prayers toward a fulfilling year to come.
As we look back, it is good to focus on the myriad accomplishments of Israel and Israelis, for there are many. Indeed, it seems like every week there's a story recognizing Israel for some new accomplishment or another. This issue of B'nai B'rith World Center's Real News About Israel provides the opportunity for you to learn about some of those achievements that are recognized around the world:
Israel has four universities among the world's top 150; we're the top country in obtaining organ donations from citizens; and a recent Gallup poll named Israelis the eighth-happiest people in the world. Add to that a crossword puzzle invented for the blind, a birth control pill developed for men, and a sniffing device that helps paralyzed patients speak, is it any surprise that Newsweek recently named Israel the 22nd best country in the world?
Despite all the challenges that Israel faces, it is important to always keep an eye on the big picture: Israel is slowly evolving into the "light unto the nations" we always dreamed it would be.
Let us pray and hope and strive so that 5771 brings us news of more great accomplishments, and a safe and secure Israel.
Chanukah sameach,
Dr. Haim V. Katz
Chairman, B'nai B'rith World Center
Four Israeli universities among world's best…
An annual study ranking the world's top universities named four of Israel's leading academic institutions in the top 150. The Hebrew University was ranked the 72nd best university in the world, in an annual poll carried out by China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The other Israeli institutions in the top 150 are the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Tel Aviv University. Bar-Ilan University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev placed in the 300 to 400 range, and the University of Haifa placed in the 400 to 500 range. Harvard University is ranked first, followed by the University of California, Berkeley.
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…And two are among top-5 "best places to work"
The Weizmann Institute of Science and The Hebrew University placed in the top five on the international list (outside of the USA) of ‘Best Places to Work in Academia," according to The Scientist magazine. The Weizmann Institute garnered second place on the international list, while The Hebrew University was named the fifth-best place to work in academia.
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Crossword puzzle invented for the blind
A well-known Israeli author and puzzle inventor has designed a crossword puzzle that blind people can solve themselves. Avi Rubinstein has created a puzzle written in Braille, allowing the blind to solve it without a pen or assistance from a sighted person. Immediately after publishing the first booklet of puzzles, Rubinstein was flooded with letters and compliments from blind crossword-solvers who were entertained for hours by his invention. For more information click here
Sniffing device helps paralyzed patients speak
A unique device based on sniffing—inhaling and exhaling through the nose—might enable numerous disabled people to navigate wheelchairs or communicate with their loved ones. Developed at the Weizmann Institute’s Neurobiology Department by Prof. Noam Sobel, electronics engineers Dr. Anton Plotkin and Aharon Weissbrod and research student Lee Sela, the new system identifies changes in air pressure inside the nostrils and translates these into electrical signals. The device was tested on healthy volunteers as well as quadriplegics, and the results showed that the method is easily mastered. Users were able to navigate a wheelchair around a complex path or play a computer game with nearly the speed and accuracy of a mouse or joystick. For more information click here
Israel first in soliciting organ donations
Among countries that perform organ transplants, Israel is in first place for identifying brain-dead persons whose relatives should be asked to donate the person’s organs, according to data just published by the Donor Action Foundation. According to the foundation, only five potential organ donors are “missed” per year in Israel, compared to 600 successful identifications of patients who are brain dead and whose organs can be used. The rate of unasked families in Israel is only about 7 percent, compared with 55% in Poland, 22% in Switzerland, 20% in Finland and 18% in France.
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Arab female combat soldier a first in IDF history
Cpl. Elinor Joseph was born and raised in an integrated neighborhood of Jews and Arabs in Haifa, but attended a school in which all her classmates were Arab. Despite the fact that she would always wear her father’s IDF dog-tag around her neck from when he served in the Paratrooper’s Unit, she never thought she would enlist. To her father it was clear that she would enlist in the IDF, as most citizens in Israel do. This was something that worried her very much. “I was scared to lose my friends because they objected to it. They told me they wouldn’t speak to me. I was left alone.” But despite their opposition, she decided to move forward and enlist. She explained her motive: “I decided to go head-to-head, to check who my true friends are, to do something in life that I have never done before. I understood that it was most important to defend my friends, family, and country. I was born here.” At the end of the day, she says she realized it was the right thing to do, “With time, when you do things from the heart, you begin to understand their importance.”
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Birth control pill for men?
Researchers in Israel have created a new birth control option for men, which would allow partners to share the responsibility. Prof. Haim Breitbart of Israel's Bar-Ilan University has developed an oral pill that deactivates sperm before they reach the womb, has no affect on the male sex drive, but succeeds in impairing the reproductive ability of the sperm. The new pill that only needs to be to be taken once every three months, has been tested on animal models in a pre-clinical setting, and has been found to work on mice. If all goes according to his plan, a new male birth control pill could be available in as little as three years.
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Farmers in India benefit from Israeli input
Having "conquered the desert" at home, Israel is quick to share technology and skills abroad, helping countries struggling to sustain agricultural output. One such example is in India, where Israeli innovative agricultural techniques are helping to steer horticultural practices. At the orchards of two progressive farmers near Sirsa in southern Haryana, extension experts from Israel are demonstrating techniques that can help kinnow growers reduce costs and increase yield. A simple method of ensuring better tree health is the “door and window pruning” technique introduced by the Israelis. The effect on the trees of the new method of pruning includes increased air and light circulation and spraying is more penetrative too, leading to better tree health.
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Israelis eighth-happiest people in the world…
Israelis are among the happiest people in the world, according to a Gallup poll published by Forbes magazine this summer. Israel was tied with three other countries for eighth place, placing far ahead of the United States and Britain. Israelis were also named the happiest people in Asia. The poll measured two types of well-being. First pollsters asked subjects to reflect on their overall satisfaction with their lives, and ranked their answers using a "life evaluation" score from 1 to 10. They then asked how each subject had felt the previous day. The answers allowed researchers to score their "daily experiences" – such as whether they felt well-rested, respected, free of pain, and intellectually engaged. Subjects who reported high scores were considered "thriving."
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Treatment developed to kill HIV cells
A team of researchers from The Hebrew University has developed a treatment that completely destroys HIV-infected human cells in laboratory cultures, without damaging adjacent healthy cells. So far there has been no therapy that completely destroys HIV-infected cells. Current treatments involve inhibiting the replication of the virus, which delays the development of AIDS, making AIDS a chronic, yet managed disease. But if treatment with the so-called AIDS "cocktail" is halted or the virus develops immunity to the cocktail, it can begin infecting other cells again. The new treatment is based on the fact that when the virus infects a cell, its DNA penetrates the cell, which then manufactures new HIV viruses that infect neighboring cells.
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Hand-in-hand helping the environment
Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) is an advocacy organization that works to promote sustainable regional development and conditions for lasting peace in the region. With offices in Amman, Bethlehem, and Tel-Aviv, it brings together Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli environmentalists to promote cooperative efforts to protect their shared environmental heritage. And for their "'environmental peacemaking" intercultural activity, the organization has won the Euro-Med Dialogue Award for 2010.
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