ISRAEL PRIDE
NEWS FROM OUR JEWISH HOME Tel Aviv University Develops Nerve-Restoring Tech Researchers from Tel Aviv University recently announced the development of a sensor to help restore nerve function for injured or amputated Courtesy of Tel Aviv parts of the body. University // Research The sensor can illustration of nervebe implemented restoring function. anywhere in the body, connected to functioning nerves to help restore tactical sensation to the injured nerve. Each time the limb touches an object, the sensor is activated and sends a current to the functioning nerve, helping to recreate the sensation of touch, said biomedical engineer Dr. Ben Maoz, one of the lead researchers. “We tested our device on animal models, and the results were very encouraging. Next, we want to test the implant on larger models, and at a later stage, implant our sensors in the fingers of people who have lost the ability to sense touch. Restoring this ability can significantly
improve people’s functioning and quality of life, and more importantly, protect them from danger.” The device is also biocompatible, meaning that it can be used safely in the human body without maintenance and does not require batteries. Maoz hopes the invention will help those who have been injured. “Even if the wound can be healed and the injured nerve can be sutured, in many cases the sense of touch remains damaged. We decided to tackle this challenge together and find a solution that will restore tactile sensation to those who have lost it.”
Missing Section of First TempleEra Walls Raised in Jerusalem Excavations in Jerusalem have revealed a previously undiscovered portion of a defensive wall from the First Temple period that was breached by the Babylonians, according to The Times of Israel. While the biblical account of the destruction states that the Babylonians “tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side,” (2 Kings 25:10) this new section of the wall appears to have remained standing, partially, after the fall, the Times of Israel reported. The entire wall that surrounded Jerusa-
Today in Israeli History
ologists by Haredi Jews, based on claims that the site includes a Jewish cemetery.
July 31, 1962 — Right-wing politician Moshe Feiglin, who runs for Likud chairman three times and wins a Knesset seat in 2013, is born in Haifa. He enters politics after launching an organization to protest the Oslo Accords.
August 4, 1888 — Yitzhaq Shami, an early writer of modern Hebrew literature, is born to an Arabic-speaking father and a Ladinospeaking mother in Hebron. He fills his stories and poems with Arabs and Mizrahi Jews, a rarity for the period.
August 1, 2016 — Andre Hajdu, a prolific composer and ethnomusicologist, dies at 84 in Jerusalem. Hajdu was born in Hungary. He first visited Israel in 1966, moved to Jerusalem that year, and taught at the Tel Aviv Music Academy and Bar-Ilan University.
August 5, 1953 — Unit 101, an independent special forces section of the Israel Defense Forces, is launched with about 20 soldiers under the command of Ariel Sharon to provide a rapid, nimble response to terrorist attacks.
Andre Hajdu received the Israel Prize in 1997.
August 2, 1968 — Oil reaches Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea from Eilat on the Red Sea through a pipeline for the first time. The overland connection between Israel’s largest ports offers a crucial alternative to the Suez Canal. August 3, 1981 —An excavation in Jerusalem’s Area G, on the eastern side of the City of David, is suspended amid attacks on archae18 | JULY 31, 2021ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES
August 6, 2015 — Stage and screen actress Orna Porat dies at 91 in Tel Aviv. The former Irene Klein was a German Christian who moved to the Land of Israel with a Jewish British officer she met after World War II.
lem during this era can be reconstructed by historians and archeologists. The latter Yaniv Berman/ Israel Antiquities believe the Authority // The excavation wall was directors sitting on the constructed exposed section of the First in the late Temple-era protective wall on Jerusalem’s eastern perimeter. 8th or early 7th century B.C.E. “It seems like we have the run of the First Temple fortification,” said Dr. Joe Uziel of the Israel Antiquities Authority. According to the co-directors of the excavation, Dr. Filip Vukosavović of the Ancient Jerusalem Research Center and the IAA’s Uziel and Ortal Chalaf, “the city wall protected Jerusalem from a number of attacks during the reign of the kings of Judah until the arrival of the Babylonians, who managed to break through it and conquer the city. The remains of the ruins can be seen in the archaeological excavations. However, not everything was destroyed, and parts of the walls, which stood and protected the city for decades and more, remain standing to this day.”
A new exhibition by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art placed sculptures outside, with the “Out of the Cube” exhibition that took place around the city of Tel Aviv between July 17-28, according to The Times of Israel. The artists created works inspired by their own surroundings, no matter Courtesy Yair Garbuz //Head the losculpture by Efrat Natan from cation, 1973, performance courtesy of the with the artist, for “Out of the Cube” exhibit exhibit from Tel Aviv Museum of Art. allowing urban residents to wander and see the works on their own time. The museum hoped the use of urban space for exhibition would expand the traditional viewing audience for sculpture work, as well as let viewers react both to the art and the environment in which it was placed. The exhibition took place throughout Tel Aviv in a number of neighborhoods.
August 7, 2002 — The Palestinian Authority Cabinet agrees to a truce proposed by Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer to withdraw the Israel Defense Forces from parts of the Gaza Strip and Bethlehem during the Second Intifada. August 8, 1984 — Hebrew linguist and lexicographer Avraham Even-Shoshan dies at 77 in Tel Aviv. From 1946 to 1958, he worked on the New Dictionary of the Hebrew Language, known since 2003 as the Even-Shoshan Dictionary. August 9, 2006 — Israel’s Security Cabinet approves an expansion of targets in the Second Lebanon War to achieve five goals, including the return of two soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah at the start of the war in July. August 10, 1979 — Economist David Horowitz, the founder of the Bank of Israel, dies at 80. As the first director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Finance, he lobbied for the creation of a central bank and was named its first governor in 1954.
National Photo Collection of Israel Orna Porat is shown in 1957, the year she converted to Judaism.
New Israeli Art Exhibition Brought Art Outside
August 11, 2017 — Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal, an artisan candy maker from Poland recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s oldest living man, dies in Haifa one month before his 114th birthday. August 12, 1991 — Yeruham Cohen, a soldier known for befriending Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, dies at 75. He was an intel-
ligence aide to Gen. Yigal Allon in 1948 when he met Nasser during truce negotiations in the Negev. August 13, 1942 — Nurit Hirsch, a musician and composer, is born Photo by Ilan Besor via in Tel Aviv. Wikimedia Commons// With Ehud In addition to composing the 1978 Eurovision winner, Manor’s lyrics, Nurit Hirsch wrote the she writes Isramusic for Israel’s first-ever el’s first Euroentry in the song contest, vision-winning “Ey-sham” in 1973. song, “A-Ba-NiBi,” performed by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta in 1978. August 14, 1910 — Nathan Alterman, a poet, journalist, translator, author and playwright, is born in Warsaw. He makes aliyah in 1925. His second book of poems, “The Joy of the Poor” in 1941, is considered his masterpiece. ìì Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
