by Debra | Apr 14, 2024 | Business, Culture, Featured Slider, Israel, jewish, jewish news, News, October 7, school, Terrorism
By
Debra Rich Gettleman
If you were asked to join a club founded by Chaim Weizmann, Martin Buber, Berthold Feiwel, and later joined by Albert Einstein, would you do it? Wait. Before you answer, what if the “club” was actually a technical learning institution, a university perhaps, that started in 1924 and would ultimately provide the moral, scientific, cultural and economic foundation for the Jewish homeland?
From the first class of 17 students in 1924 to the present, the Technion leads Israel and the world in building innovative technology, advanced medical breakthroughs, artificial intelligence, and previously unimaginable defense innovations. Considered “a light unto the nations,” the Technion has and continues to push science, engineering, and technology forward into unknown territory for Israel and the world.
As the Technion marks its centennial, they served breakfast here in Phoenix co-chaired by Dr. Daniel and Sharona Feller, Randi and Alan Jablin, and Julee Landau-Shahon and Robert Shahon. In addition to breakfast, we were served a fascinating program with Professor Moran Bercovici, a renowned scientist with a list of prestigious awards too numerous to mention (due to my word count limit). The youngest full professor at the Technion, Bercovici, a mechanical engineer, established and currently heads the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering’s Fluidic Technologies Laboratory.
While some of his technical content was beyond my grasp, (he spoke of spheres and gravity, pressure and polymers), I got the gist that he had figured out a way to shape liquid volumes into useful optical components. He basically discovered how to use liquid droplets to make eyeglasses, thereby revolutionizing the 300-year-old process of machine grinding that takes forever and due to its waste, is environmentally detrimental.
By the way, he also collaborates with NASA and is designing a space telescope that’ll exponentially surpass James Webb’s telescopic achievement whose focal length is a mere 131.4 meters. Full disclosure, his accomplishments gave me some much-needed perspective on my morning’s Sudoko frustration.
Our keynote speaker that morning was New York Times and Wall Steet Journal bestselling author, Saul Singer. Whose wildly popular book, “Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle,” co-authored with Dan Senor has been translated into 35 languages.
Singer lectures around the world on what makes countries and companies innovative. Did you know Israel has more start-up companies per capita than anywhere in the world? In his new, already New York Times bestseller, “The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Troubled World,” also co-authored with Dan Senor, Singer unveils some fascinating insights into the relationship between happiness, resiliency, and nation growth. He also outlines some startling statistics on population replacement, which keeps countries young and growing, versus the US and most every other wealthy country’s descension into demographic collapse.
Singer described Israel’s vibrancy and resilience and pointed out how Israel shifted from the depths of division on October 6th to the heights of unity on October 7th. “We will win,” he said, “We have to win. But we must stay unified, or our strength will be sapped out of us.” Then he quoted beloved Fauda actor wounded in Gaza, Idan Amedi, and continued, “The Israelis are the strongest in the world, when we are united, we are invincible.”
To learn more about The Technion, visit their website.
by Debra | Apr 10, 2024 | Bucket List Destinations, Featured Slider, Israel, jewish, jewish news, Judaism, October 7, Terrorism, tikun olam, Travel
By
Debra Rich Gettleman
This is not a travel slogan. Israel needs you. NOW! We American Jews have done a lot to help Israel over these past months of war. Israel is grateful for our prayers, our financial bolstering, our energy and outspoken support. But what Israel needs now is you. Your presence is required.
I’ve just returned from 3 weeks in Israel. I admit, I was fearful. I wondered if we’d make it back safely. I worried about everything, the plane, the busses, the driving up and down the coast, the Old City in Jerusalem during Ramadan, the M16s strewn over the shoulders of boys younger than my own two kids. Whenever I told people I was going to Israel, they always said the same thing. “Why? Why would you go now? It’s a war zone.”
Me and the fam in Jerusalem!
Full disclosure, I went because my oldest son is in Jerusalem for his first year of Rabbinic school at Hebrew Union College. If it hadn’t been for him, I very likely would not have decided, “Hey, let’s go to Israel while they’re in the middle off a horrific war in a volatile region where their very existence is under fire.” I would’ve probably flown to Kona, eaten sushi, and chilled out with a Mai Tai on the beach. But now that I’ve gone, I have a message for American Jews. Go to Israel. Now.
What you can really do to help Israel
Recently repaired bar in Sefad after Hamas bomb took off the roof and adjacent room
So many of us are sitting at home glued to our own cable news networks, wringing our hands, wondering what we can do for the hostages, for the war effort, for our own safety right here in America. We genuinely want to help. We send money. We follow pro-Israel influencers on Instagram. We write letters to soldiers and our government officials urging them to continue to support Israel. That’s all wonderful. But what Israel needs right now is us, our physical presence. “No one is coming,” said every shop keeper, museum docent, and tour guide everywhere. What were once thriving galleries, jewelry stores, and markets are now desolate. rows of boarded up shuttered store fronts and empty streets.
We stood at the wailing wall (yes, in separate sections, argh!) with a dozen other Jews. We walked through the ruins of Masada alone. Our guides in Jerusalem, Haifa, Hebron, and Safed, were so incredibly grateful, simply because we came. Israel’s economy needs us. But more than anything, the people of Israel need to see our faces. They need to tell us their stories. They need to feel our tangible support.
It’s like when a family member dies. You send food. You plant trees. You express your sympathy on social media. But it’s not until you walk into that shiva minyan in the house that you grew up in that mourners find true comfort and hope to go on.
Go there. Buy stuff. Take tours. Eat at street vendor booths and restaurants. Stay at hotels. Rent umbrellas at the beach. Drop coins in every donation box at every holy site and historic monument. Tip well for services. Go. Now.
I bought a beautiful silver bracelet from a craftsman in Safed. He held the bills in his hands, tears in his eyes. He said he opens his shop every day in spite of the fact that no one ever comes. He keeps making jewelry and asking Hashem to send tourists again. He said we were G-d’s answer and that tonight he could feed his family again. It sounds dramatic. But it’s true.
The safest place on earth right now
A friend told me his “gratitude” is hyperbolic tourist shtick. I don’t care. I see every other shop boarded up and rows of empty cobblestone streets that used to be teeming with people, abandoned. Our host at our BnB in the mountains of Rosh Pinah greeted us saying, “You are so brave. Everyone is afraid to come.”
One morning, as we sat in the garden on the edge of Safed’s old city, we heard loud buzzing above and saw a dozen F16s flying overhead. The fear must have registered on my face and our friend said, “You know right now you are in the safest place in the world; guarded by the IDF.”
It’s true. And it’s true that we are safer there than in the streets of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or a host of other US cities. Heck, more people die in bathtubs than as tourists in Israel. (Okay, I don’t know if that’s an actual fact. But I’m pretty sure it’s true.)
Israel needs you to go there, to be there, to share in its joys and sorrows. To bring your own light and energy to its shores. Please go. If not now, when?
p.s. When you go, tell them the tall red head from Arizona sent you!
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