ISRAEL

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 parts of the body. The sensor can be implemented 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 Courtesy of Tel Aviv have lost it.” University // Research illustration of nerverestoring function.

NEWS FROM OUR JEWISH HOME

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 Jerusalem during this era can be reconstructed by historians and archeologists. The latter believe the wall was constructed in the late 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.”

Yaniv Berman/ Israel Antiquities Authority // The excavation directors sitting on the exposed section of the First Temple-era protective wall on Jerusalem’s eastern perimeter.

New Israeli Art Exhibition Brought Art Outside

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 surround ings, no matter

Courtesy Yair Garbuz //Head the losculpture by Efrat Natan from 1973, performance courtesy of the cation, artist, for “Out of the Cube” exhibit with the from Tel Aviv Museum of Art. exhibit 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.

Today in Israeli History

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 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 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 archaeologists by Haredi Jews, based on claims that the site includes a Jewish cemetery.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 intelligence 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 in Tel Aviv. With Ehud Manor’s lyrics, she writes Israel’s first Eurovision-winning 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

Andre Hajdu received the Israel Prize in 1997.

National Photo Collection of Israel Orna Porat is shown in 1957, the year she converted to Judaism.

Photo by Ilan Besor via Wikimedia Commons// In addition to composing the 1978 Eurovision winner, Nurit Hirsch wrote the music for Israel’s first-ever entry in the song contest, “Ey-sham” in 1973.

Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.

ISRAEL NEWS

Travel to Israel Getting Easier

By Jan Jaben-Eilon

For those Atlantans either brave enough or eager enough to travel to Israel despite rising COVID-19 numbers in both countries, the Israeli government has just simplified the application permit procedure for non-Israeli citizens. Instead of emailing dozens of documents to an Israeli

Alex Gandler is deputy consulate and consul general at the waiting for

Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast. approvals, there’s now an online system for entry permits. “It is, at the moment, the only way to request entry to Israel,” said The deputy director of the Alex Gandler,

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs is Eyal Siso. deputy consul general at the Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast. The form, with links below, became available July 13 and can be assessed online through the Israeli government site.

Applicants are instructed to submit the online form four weeks before their date of departure.

According to the Israeli consulate website, the online form accepts applications from foreign citizens: • With a first-degree family member in Israel who is a citizen or permanent resident • Travelers with a parent who is an Israeli citizen • A foreign citizen married to an Israeli citizen or permanent resident • A foreign parent of a minor Israeli child, a lone soldier or a national service volunteer or one of their first-degree relatives • Students and yeshiva students • Applicants who want to travel to Israel to attend a funeral.

The Israeli government intends for the online system to relieve the bureaucratic headaches on both sides of the Atlantic. Since the global pandemic struck last year, U.S. citizens have faced overwhelming – and sometimes impossible – hurdles to travel to Israel to visit relatives. Once vaccinated nonIsraelis with first-degree relatives in Israel were technically allowed into the country in April, the onslaught of permission requests overwhelmed consulates around the U.S.

Gandler said he was suddenly required to consider every single non-Israeli applicant wanting permission to travel to Israel from his seven-state area. “We weren’t staffed for this,” he said. He told the AJT that he had been receiving dozens of emails a day plus phone calls.

The deputy director general for consulate affairs at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eyal Siso, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that he was “cautiously optimistic” that the system would quickly improve the situation. “We are doing our best,” he said. “I know it will be better; it’s a question of how much better, how quickly.”

This should be good news for Atlantans anxious to see relatives in Israel. Many have made travel reservations only to have to cancel or reschedule them because they hadn’t received the necessary permits to enter Israel in time.

Notably, individual tourists wanting to travel to Israel are still not going to be allowed entry before September. Only small, organized tourist groups and students are permitted into the country if they are vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19. Testing is still required both before departing the U.S. and upon arrival in Israel. In fact, travelers must quarantine for 24 hours after arrival or until a negative PCR, or antibodies, test result is received, whichever comes first.

Travelers from a growing list of countries, including Great Britain, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, are being required to quarantine for a week upon arrival, even if they are vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19. Fines of as much as $1,500 will be charged to travelers who break quarantine. Travel to and from a few other countries, such as Brazil, South Africa and Russia, are totally banned.

Indeed, COVID restrictions that had been relaxed the last couple of months in Israel have now been tightened again as the Delta variant of the coronavirus has spread. Israelis are being asked to again don their facemasks indoors, as well as being warned against non-essential international travel. In mid-July, Israel’s daily COVID infections surpassed 1,000 for the first time since March.

The country is trying to avoid yet another total shutdown as its economy is still recovering from previous closures due to the pandemic.ì

For instructions on the entry permits, visit the Consulate General of Israel in Atlanta, https://embassies.gov.il/atlanta/

What Separates A Trusted Advisor from the Crowd?

A TRUSTED ADVISOR

LISTENS

A TRUSTED ADVISOR

PUTS THE CLIENT FIRST

A TRUSTED ADVISOR

EXUDES CONFIDENCE & COURAGE

A TRUSTED ADVISOR KNOWS THEIR STUFF

A TRUSTED ADVISOR

UNDERSTANDS THE BIG PICTURE

We are Your Trusted Real Estate Advisors.

JUST LISTED UNDER CONTRACT

4075 Northside Drive | Chastain Park

offered for: $1,077,700

JUST LISTED

305 Brixham Court | Sandy Springs

offered for: $949,000

JUST SOLD

3182 Windsor Lake | Brookhaven

offered for: $900,000 245 Roswell Farms Drive | Roswell

sold for: $1,540,080

The Schiff Team

d: 404.900.9655 o: 404.480.HOME SCHIFFREALESTATETEAM.COM

SCHIFF

REAL ESTATE TEAM