From Barbara Sofer, printed by the J Post in honor of Israel's 65th birthday
The author is a Jerusalem writer who focuses on the wondrous
stories of modern Israel. She serves as the Israel director of public relations
for Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. The views in
her columns are her
Here are some of my favorite from her list
Young aboriginal leaders of the Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba, Canada,
came to Israel to learn “how an ancient people can maintain their heritage while
embracing the modern world, and in so doing achieve
self determination.”
We Israelis talk with our hands, so a start-up
called Pointgrab is developing technology so our computers understand our hand
gestures.
We like to talk, period. Six heads of the hush-hush Shin Bet
(Israel Security Agency) star in a movie that reveals secrets of their careers.
Even the director said he was startled that they agreed.
Intensity.
We’re ranked first by Bloomberg in “research and development
intensity.”
Mobileye Inside: Luxury
European BMWs and Volvos will now protect themselves with Israeli anti-crash
technology.
We are the first to arrive to help at a foreign
catastrophe, yet it took us 50 days to form a government and no one seemed in a
rush.
An Academy Award-winning director is about
to film his first TV pilot here. It’s called Tyrant.
The Syrian
leader is also called “tyrant.” We’re taking in medical patients from his
country, even though they’re officially the enemy.
When an Israeli won the gold medal for disabled rowers in
Italy, no recording of “Hatikva” had been prepared for the ceremony. So she took
the mike and sang the song (beautifully) herself.
Prize-winning
Kharta the cow produced 18,208 liters of milk after getting post-traumatic
stress treatment. She lives on a kibbutz near the border with Gaza.
The illegal foreign workers come mostly from countries that prohibit them from
traveling to Israel. They don’t believe the propaganda. Neither do we!
Despite the ban, Iranians find ways to listen to Rita, the Israeli star singing
in Persian.
Israel is exporting sugar to Holland for Dutch chocolate,
and to Morocco for sweet tea.
Four sixth-graders from the Ma’aleh
Hatorah school in Ma’aleh Adumim took first place at the seventh annual MindLab
Olympics international championships, a “thinking games” competition for
children from 10 countries.
They’re also good at Torah.
Israel
has won first prize in the Mindlab competition for seven years.
Bank
of Israel chief Stanley Fischer turned down a raise.
Says
the international advisory committee from MSNBC: Israel is a paradise for
prisoners.
Despite the threat from Iran, 2012 was the best year ever
for tourists.
Yes, we care. Israeli scientists have brought the
aptly named Yarkon bleak fish back from the brink of extinction.
Our president carries an organ donor card.
3Flying high. A
skirt-wearing religious woman passed the elite pilot’s course and became a
navigator despite pressure that “a religious girl couldn’t do this."
3The world junior tennis champ is a 12-year-old from Ramle, who learned the game
in a center for kids from the periphery.
Miss Israel came to Israel
from Ethiopia when she was 12. She’s an orphan, brought up by her
grandparents.
Said beauty queen served as an officer in the
IDF.
The winner of the first season of The Voice Israel singing
competition made aliya from Canada a few days before competing. The winner of
the second season is an Israeli Arab from Acre.
Archeologists
recently found the 2,700-year-old temple of a community that lived in Motza,
west of Jerusalem.
The light rail stops are written in Hebrew,
Arabic and English.
Land of opportunity: The new head of the
emergency room at Hadassah is the oldest of 11 children and grew up in a Galilee
village here. His father only finished fourth grade and his mother never learned
to read or write. He and three of his siblings are doctors. (He speaks Russian,
too.)
The cook-off in MasterChef Israel involved a German immigrant who
converted from Catholicism to Judaism, a hijab-wearing Israeli Arab nurse and a
very religious Jew from a family with 14 children. It was the most popular show
of the year.
Check out the whole list, here
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