Israel – Jewish Independent

Successful launch of Ofek 16

(photo from Ashernet)

On July 6, using a Shavit-2 rocket, Israel successfully launched the Ofek 16 reconnaissance satellite into Earth’s orbit. The first Israeli satellite (Ofek 1) was launched in 1988. Investment in this field produces strategic defence systems, but also innovations that assist industries in coping with various technological obstacles. Israel is one of 13 countries in the world with full space capabilities (launching satellites), alongside the United States, Italy, France, Japan, India, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and South Korea.

Women sail to Miriam’s Well

Left to right: Devorah Abramson, Yehudit Dribben and Sheva Chaya blow the shofar at Miriam’s Well on Lake Kinneret. (photo by Aviva Spiegel)

In the annals of the current COVID-19 pandemic, artist Maureen Kushner has a rare happy story – and likely the only one dating back some 3,500 years.

For the last 12 years on the anniversary of the death of Miriam the Prophetess on Nissan 10 in the Hebrew calendar, New York-born Kushner has been chartering a vessel from Tiberias-based Holyland Sailing Ltd. to bring a boat full of women to the spot on Lake Kinneret where, according to Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 1:1), the mystical spring known as Miriam’s Well now rests.

Typically, 126 women and children (corresponding to Miriam’s age when she died) equipped with rams horns, violins, harps, drums, flutes, guitars and tambourines have made the maritime pilgrimage. They sail on the Sea of Galilee, also called Lake of Gennesaret, to what Jewish tradition considers the exact spot where the miraculous spring that supplied the Children of Israel with drinking water during their 40 years of wandering in the Sinai Desert ended its own journey.

This year, the yahrzeit (death anniversary) of Miriam fell on Friday, April 3, immediately before Passover. Kushner – who is named in Hebrew after the miracle-working older sister of Moses and Aaron – booked the sailing for Thursday, April 2, in order to allow Sabbath-observant women from Jerusalem and other distant cities to join in the fête. All was set for this year’s celebration when Israel’s Health Ministry locked the country down in an attempt to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

photo - Many passengers short, because of COVID-19 restrictions, 40 women were still able to sail on the King David across the Kinneret to Miriam’s Well — Many passengers short, because of COVID-19 restrictions, 40 women were still able to sail on the King David across the Kinneret to Miriam’s Well. *(photo by Aviva Spiegel)*

Thanks to those regulations, which at their most severe restricted Israelis to remaining within 100 metres of their home and still prevent almost all non-citizens from landing at Ben-Gurion Airport, the pandemic has somewhat abated. Recently, the Health Ministry began lifting its pandemic regulations.

Without any tourists arriving, the pilgrim boats remained moored in Tiberias and at Kibbutz Ginosar for three months. But, on Wednesday, June 3, the ministry allowed Kushner and her social distancing-reduced group of 40 women and children – each bringing facemasks, water, hats, sunscreen and kosher snacks – to make their 135-minute voyage on the lyre-shaped lake. When the vessel King David raised its anchor, it was Holyland Sailing’s first boat trip since quarantine regulations went into effect.

“What a hallelujah for our beloved Kinneret!” said Kushner, who was the artist-in-residence at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver in 2005. “What a hallelujah in honour of our great, great, great Hakodesh Baruch Hu [the Holy One Blessed Be He], who is filled with goodness and compassion and love and blesses Am Yisrael [the Jewish people] with rain and dew and sustenance and a good life here in Eretz Israel, the good land.”

Kushner was especially excited that this past winter has seen heavy rains that filled Israel’s main freshwater reservoir to the brim, at 209 metres below sea level after five years of drought.

“The Kinneret is full! In great and abundant thanks to Hashem [God] in the zechut [merit] of Miriam Hanivia [Miriam the Prophetess], we celebrated with shofarim, drums, flutes and the harp,” she said.

Miriam the Prophetess today has become a popular figure for many Jewish women.

The Torah relates she was married to Caleb ben Yefunah. Though she died in the wilderness of Zin, her widower miraculously carried the spring named in his wife’s honour across the Jordan River on Nissan 10, the anniversary of her death, explained Kushner.

Miriam’s death is described in Numbers 20:1 and, in the next verse, the Israelites are described as complaining of the lack of water at Kadesh. The text reads, “Miriam died there, and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation.”

In Jewish texts, this abrupt transition between her death and the lack of water was explained by postulating that a “Well of Miriam” appeared after she died. Further elaboration identified the rock that Moses struck to bring forth water in Exodus 17:5-6 with this well.

So powerful was the tradition of Miriam’s Well in Judaism that, even after the spring disappeared into Lake Kinneret some three-and-a-half millennia ago, it has occasionally miraculously appeared in the Diaspora.

According to Chassidic lore, once, just before Yom Kippur’s Kol Nidre prayer began, Yitzchak Isaac Taub (1751-1821), who was the sage of Nagykálló (Kalov in Yiddish) in eastern Hungary, called on his assistant Rabbi Yaacov Fish to harness his horse and wagon. The two set out to Fish’s fields, where they found a small pool. Immediately, the holy man disrobed and immersed himself, while Fish stood by transfixed. After the Day of Atonement, Fish returned to his fields, but the pond had disappeared. Fish asked his master, “Rabbi, as you know, despite our long friendship, I never mix into your affairs. But I beg you to enlighten me about the pool of water that appeared and disappeared so mysteriously in my fields.”

The holy man, who founded the Kaliver Chassidic dynasty, smiled: “If Rabbi Yaacov had had the sense, he would have dipped himself the same as I did, for, at that moment, Miriam’s Well passed by.”

Gil Zohar is a writer and tour guide in Jerusalem.

(Note: This article has been updated from the print version to note that Maureen Kushner was the artist-in-residence at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver in 2005.)

Archeological find changes perceptions

A human jawbone found in the Misliya Cave on Mount Carmel near Haifa. (photo by Israel Hershkowitz, Tel Aviv University via Ashernet)

A human jawbone and other fossils found in the Misliya Cave on Mount Carmel near Haifa indicate that human migration from Africa occurred during the Ice Age, approximately 200,000 years ago, which is contrary to the popular theory that the freezing conditions and dryness of the Ice Age periods deterred human migration between continents.

These recent findings were published in the Journal of Human Evolution by Dr. Lior Weissbrod of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Prof. Mina Weinstein-Evron of the Zinman Institute of Archeology at the University of Haifa, and they build on work previously published by Weinstein-Evron and Prof. Israel Hershkowitz of Tel Aviv University in Science.

In addition to the jawbone, Weissbrod said, “The fossils now being investigated were identified as belonging to 13 different species of rodents and small insect eaters, some of which now live in high and cold regions, in the Zagros Mountains of northwestern Iran and in the Caucasus Mountains.”

This means that, “in Israel, cold conditions prevailed that allowed such animals to survive. Finding the human jawbone in the same layer where the rodent lived, suggests that these early humans survived under these conditions,” changing existing perceptions on human evolution.

Studying the “love hormone”

Oxytocin, a peptide produced in the brain, may bring hearts together – or it can help induce aggression. (image from Weizmann Institute)

During the pandemic lockdown, as couples have been forced to spend days and weeks in each other’s company, some have found their love renewed while others are on their way to divorce court. Oxytocin, a peptide produced in the brain, is complicated in that way: a neuromodulator, it may bring hearts together or it can help induce aggression. This conclusion arises from research led by Weizmann Institute of Science researchers in which mice living in semi-natural conditions had their oxytocin-producing brain cells manipulated in a precise manner. The findings, which were published in Neuron, could shed new light on efforts to use oxytocin to treat a variety of psychiatric conditions, from social anxiety and autism to schizophrenia.

Much of what we know about the actions of neuromodulators like oxytocin comes from behavioural studies of lab animals in standard lab conditions. These conditions are strictly controlled and artificial, in part so that researchers can limit the number of variables affecting behaviour. But a number of recent studies suggest that the actions of a mouse in a semi-natural environment can teach us much more about natural behaviour, especially when we mean to apply those findings to humans.

Prof. Alon Chen’s lab group in the institute’s neurobiology department have created an experimental setup that enables them to observe mice in something approaching their natural living conditions – an environment enriched with stimuli they can explore – and their activity is monitored day and night with cameras and analyzed computationally. The present study, which has been ongoing for the past eight years, was led by research students Sergey Anpilov and Noa Eren, and staff scientist Dr. Yair Shemesh in Chen’s lab group.

The innovation in this experiment was to incorporate optogenetics – a method that enables researchers to turn specific neurons in the brain on or off using light. To create an optogenetic setup that would enable the team to study mice that were behaving naturally, the group developed a compact, lightweight, wireless device with which the scientists could activate nerve cells by remote control. With the help of optogenetics expert Prof. Ofer Yizhar of the same department, the group introduced a protein previously developed by Yizhar into the oxytocin-producing brain cells in the mice. When light from the wireless device touched those neurons, they became more sensitized to input from the other brain cells in their network.

“Our first goal,” said Anpilov, “was to reach that ‘sweet spot’ of experimental setups in which we track behaviour in a natural environment, without relinquishing the ability to ask pointed scientific questions about brain functions.”

Shemesh added that “the classical experimental setup is not only lacking in stimuli, the measurements tend to span mere minutes, while we had the capacity to track social dynamics in a group over the course of days.”

Delving into the role of oxytocin was sort of a test drive for the experimental system. It had been believed that this hormone mediates pro-social behaviour. But findings have been conflicting, and some have proposed another hypothesis, termed “social salience,” stating that oxytocin might be involved in amplifying the perception of diverse social cues, which could then result in pro-social or antagonistic behaviours, depending on such factors as individual character and the environment.

To test the social salience hypothesis, the team used mice in which they could gently activate the oxytocin-producing cells in the hypothalamus, placing them first in the enriched, semi-natural lab environments. To compare, they repeated the experiment with mice placed in the standard, sterile lab setups.

In the semi-natural environment, the mice at first displayed heightened interest in one another, but this was soon accompanied by a rise in aggressive behaviour. In contrast, increasing oxytocin production in the mice in classical lab conditions resulted in reduced aggression.

“In an all-male, natural social setting, we would expect to see belligerent behaviour as they compete for territory or food,” said Anpilov. “That is, the social conditions are conducive to competition and aggression. In the standard lab setup, a different social situation leads to a different effect for the oxytocin.”

If the “love hormone” is more likely a “social hormone,” what does that mean for its pharmaceutical applications?

“Oxytocin is involved, as previous experiments have shown, in such social behaviours as making eye contact or feelings of closeness,” said Eren, “but our work shows it does not improve sociability across the board. Its effects depend on both context and personality.”

This implies that, if oxytocin is to be used therapeutically, a much more nuanced view is needed in research: “If we want to understand the complexities of behaviour, we need to study behaviour in a complex environment. Only then can we begin to translate our findings to human behaviour,” she said.

Participating in this research were scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich, including research students Asaf Benjamin and Stoyo Karamihalev, staff scientist Dr. Julien Dine and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Oren Forkosh of the Chen lab; Prof. Shlomo Wagner and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Hala Harony-Nicolas of Haifa University; Prof. Inga Neumann and research student Vinicius Oliveira of Regensburg University, Germany; and electrical engineer Avi Dagan.

Reflections of a lone soldier

Joel Chasnoff spoke at a Zoom event presented by Jewish National Fund of Canada on June 1 and he’ll speak at a CHW Montreal Zoom event on June 21. (photo from APB Speakers)

Michael Levin grew up in Philadelphia, joined the Israel Defence Forces as a lone soldier and died in a battle with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in 2006. At that time, most Israelis weren’t familiar with the concept of a lone soldier – a legal term for a volunteer, usually (but not always) from outside Israel, who enlists to defend the Jewish state.

Levin’s death at 22 came just days after he returned hastily from his leave back home in the United States when he learned of the start of the Second Lebanon War. He flew back to Israel, hitched a ride to his platoon in Lebanon and took up the fight against the Iranian-backed terrorists. He was killed in an intense firefight in the Hezbollah-controlled village of Aita al-Shaab.

His grieving mother, Harriet Levin, was concerned that her son’s funeral would not have a minyan to say Kaddish and so, on arriving in Israel, she asked a few people to come to the military cemetery to ensure a proper Jewish burial. On her way to Mount Herzl, traffic was so congested she feared she would be late for her son’s funeral but, when she did get there, she discovered that the few people she had asked to spread the appeal for a minyan had shared the news widely. Media picked it up and more than 10,000 Israelis showed up to pay their respects.

It was a turning point in the Israeli consciousness, according to Joel Chasnoff.

Chasnoff is a stand-up comedian and writer who shared his own story of leaving his Chicago-area home two decades ago to become a lone soldier. In a Zoom event presented by Jewish National Fund of Canada June 1, Chasnoff, who now lives in Israel, spoke of the changing understanding of lone soldiers – and his reflections on now being the father of soldiers. A decade ago, he chronicled his experiences as an IDF volunteer in the book The 188th Crybaby Brigade: A Skinny Jewish Kid from Chicago Fights Hezbollah.

Today, lone soldiers are a better understood phenomenon in Israel and supports are in place that were not when Chasnoff volunteered in 1997. There is now a network of Lone Soldiers Centres – commonly called Michael Levin Centres – around Israel, to help overseas volunteers adapt and smooth their way to a successful integration, coordinate holiday and Shabbat homestays and deal with the myriad complications that arise for a newcomer to Israel.

Chasnoff shared comedic experiences, including the challenge of proving he was indeed a lone soldier without Israeli parents, when government officials insisted that Levin’s father had never left Israel after his first visit in 1976. The stakes were basic – a lone soldier’s salary at the time was $160 a month instead of $80, plus a few privileges. But it required a sheath of documents from the States to prove that his father was indeed an Illinoisan, not an Israeli.

“Never mind that he had raised me in the U.S. and I have a very strong and good relationship with my dad. The Israelis believed that my dad was actually living in Israel the whole time and I was just trying to pretend that I was a lone soldier to get the extra $80 a month,” Chasnoff said.

His decision to join the IDF was sparked by a visit to Israel as a teenager.

“I got off the plane,” he said, “and, you know, you’re 17, your hormones are raging. What’s the first thing you notice being a teenager coming to Israel? How beautiful the Israelis are. The women were all tan and fit, the men were these hunks with muscles and crew cuts. It’s so odd because they have the same roots as we do, right? Except they look like supermodels and we look like Jews. How does that happen? That’s not fair.”

The soldiers he met were just a year older than he was.

“They were 18, and they had machine guns and berets and Ray-Ban sunglasses and forearms like bricks,” said Chasnoff. “And then there was me, slathered in sunscreen, wearing a fanny pack … stuffed with lactose pills.”

One of the eye-opening things Chasnoff discovered about the Israeli army, he said, is how democratic it was.

“I would even say insanely democratic,” he said, noting that soldiers argued about orders and fought with their superiors. “People ask me what’s it like in the Israeli army. I think the best way to describe it is, imagine a bunch of Israelis running an army. That is the Israeli army.”

This is why one of his platoon-mates was a darling among commanders: he didn’t speak Hebrew. The young man was raised in an evangelical Christian home in Oklahoma, but, at a certain age, learned that his mother had converted from Judaism. One thing led to another and he volunteered for the IDF.

“So, they made him a tank gunner,” Chasnoff said, “because, to be a tank gunner, you basically need to know six words – stop, go, left, right, forward, back. Tim was one of the best soldiers in our platoon because he didn’t have the Hebrew to argue back. When the commander would give orders, the guys would argue. Tim, by not having Hebrew, just did what he was told. And was an excellent soldier for that reason and one of our commander’s favourites.”

Unfortunately, a lack of Hebrew can be deadly in moments of military conflict. Chasnoff said some casualties in conflicts in Gaza may have resulted from linguistic challenges and he believes the military is doing a better job ensuring fluency in such situations.

While lone soldiers is a term associated with overseas volunteers, Chasnoff said that about half of the 6,000 lone soldiers are Israelis, mostly Charedim whose volunteer service or other factors estrange them from their families.

While lone soldiers were not so much in the Israeli consciousness a few decades ago, they are now a welcome oddity.

“I think, when you get a lone soldier in your platoon, people are very excited about it,” Chasnoff said. “Everyone wants to bring him or her home to show the family the sort of strange character who came all the way from New York City or Sydney, Australia, or whatever. People are really interested in what motivates them to serve, so they are invited. It’s very, very different than the old days.”

Addressing the broader differences between Israelis and Diaspora Jews, Chasnoff riffed like the comic he is.

“We grow up with this myth that Israelis are, you know, just like us. They are Jews and we are Jews and we’re one big happy family. And then you get to Israel and you realize the Israelis are nothing like the American Jew. They speak their minds. They shout. They argue,” he said. “You’ll never be with an Israeli and wonder to yourself, ‘I wonder what she really thinks about me right now.’ I’m married to an Israeli for 21 years and I can honestly say that once in those 21 years has my Israeli wife apologized to me because, in the Middle East, apologies make you look weak and nobody wants to look weak. We had one huge fight where she actually apologized and it wasn’t even a real apology, it was an Israeli apology: she came up to me a few days later and said, ‘Yoeli, motek, I am sorry you’re such an idiot.’”

He also has plenty of material about growing up Jewish in America.

“My mom was actually one of these Jewish mothers who – let’s be honest – they have a special ability to worry about every situation,” he said. “You give them any scenario, they will figure out the potential thing that could hurt you in that scenario.”

For their annual family visit to Texas to see his paternal grandparents, Chasnoff’s mother would book the family on two separate flights so that, if a plane went down, the entire family wouldn’t be lost.

“That’s a typical Jewish upbringing,” he said.

When his zaidie gave him a jersey with the number of his favourite player and his own name, Joel, on the back, Chasnoff’s mother refused to let him wear it outside the house because a stranger would know his name.

“And, because he knew my name, I would think he knew me, so I would go with him,” he said. “You know why? Because I’m an idiot. That’s why there are no Jewish athletes. Not that we’re bad at sports, our mothers won’t let us wear the jersey.”

Readers will have another chance to hear Chasnoff speak this month. CHW Montreal is hosting a Zoom BBQ with the comedian on Father’s Day, June 21, at noon, Pacific time. Visit facebook.com/chwmontreal and click on Events for details. Funds raised benefit hospital workers at the Shamir Medical Centre and Hadassah Hospital in Israel.

Boy makes historical find

The tablet found by Imri Elya. (photo by IAA via Ashernet)

Imri Elya was on an outing with his parents at Tel Jemmeh archeological site near Kibbutz Re’im when he picked up the square clay object. His parents contacted the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and they handed over the item to the authority’s National Treasures Department.

photo - Imri Elya, 6, from Kibbutz Nirim, near the Gaza Strip, holds his certificate of good citizenship and the tablet he found — Imri Elya, 6, from Kibbutz Nirim, near the Gaza Strip, holds his certificate of good citizenship and the tablet he found. *(photo by IAA via Ashernet)*

According to archeologists Saar Ganor, Itamar Weissbein and Oren Shmueli of the IAA, the artifact was imprinted in a carved pattern, and the artist’s fingerprints even survived on the back. The tablet depicts the scene of a man leading a captive. According to the researchers, “The artist who created this tablet appeared to have been influenced by similar representations known in Ancient Near East art. The way in which the captive is bound has been seen previously in reliefs and artifacts found in Egypt and northern Sinai.”

They date the artifact to the Late Bronze Age (between the 12th and 15th centuries BCE) and believe that the scene depicted symbolically describes the power struggles between the city of Yurza – with which Tel Jemmeh is identified – and one of the cities close to the Tel, possibly Gaza, Ashkelon or Lachish, or the struggle of a nomadic population residing in the Negev. The researchers believe that the scene is taken from descriptions of victory parades; hence, the tablet should be identified as a story depicting the ruler’s power over his enemies. This opens a visual window to understanding the struggle for dominance in the south of the country during the Canaanite period.

Culture & accessibility

Visitors to Masada learn more about the site through Gadi Mathov’s miniature model of the landmark. (photo from Mathov Design)

What would it take to make museums, cultural sites and tourist attractions more accessible to people with visual, intellectual or developmental disabilities? For the past 25 years, Israeli professional miniaturist Gadi Mathov has been working on solving this problem using models.

At Masada National Park, for example, people with visual impairment can understand the site’s unique topographical structure and history through Mathov’s 3D tactile models.

“We also created for them miniature models of siege vessels that illustrate the Roman siege of Masada,” he explained. “The way I define it, a model is a physical representation of a product or an idea. A model is a medium that allows people to communicate and pass along ideas between them.”

Mathov Design models are used in leading cultural institutions such as the Israel Museum and sites managed by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Mathov also cooperates with the Commission for Equal Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the National Insurance Institute and the Access Israel nonprofit organization.

Mathov Design’s 100-square-metre model of Jerusalem, featuring the Temple Mount, the Tower of David, the Knesset, the new Jerusalem Light Rail and other iconic structures, can be seen in Times Square in New York City as part of the Gulliver’s Gate project.

Birdwatching via models

Agamon Hula, a must-visit birdwatching and natural beauty attraction in northern Israel, is also enhanced by Mathov’s models. Here, he cooperated with Pnina Ceizler, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund’s northern region projects and accessibility coordinator, and KKL-JNF’s chief ornithologist Yaron Charka to make the site’s research station a place of interest for people with disabilities – visitors can see and/or feel models of the birds that migrate in the area, as well as special globes and maps that highlight migratory routes.

“There are quite a few models that we’ve created to enhance the experience for people with visual impairments,” said Ceizler. “We see that it’s useful for everyone, also for children with disabilities or with autism.”

The accessible experience at the research station has proved to be a huge hit, she told Israel21c. She tried it out on a group of people with visual impairments before opening it up to private visitors and organized trips for schools and people with special needs.

“They enjoyed this whole experience up close. They were impressed and admired everything,” she said of the accessible centre’s first visitors.

Back to the future

Mathov has worked in his profession for 37 years, but it came about quite by accident. “It was a temporary job while I was an architecture student, and then I found out that I liked it better,” he recounted.

Decades later, he’s still in love with the job. “They’ll have to take me out of here in a coffin,” he joked, speaking of his workshop in the central city of Lod.

Along with cultural institutions, his clients include the defence establishment and medical instrumentation companies.

Mathov is not worried about work drying up in the age of technological advancement. “There’s nothing more comfortable or clearer than a model,” he said. “There are dozens if not thousands of uses.”

Lately, it’s become much easier and cheaper to create a model. “The biggest development was the introduction of what we call computerized production,” Mathov explained, citing 3D printers, lasers and CNC (computer numerical control) machines. “Each of these technologies helps us create a much more complex and higher-quality product in less time and for a cheaper price.”

Mathov hopes that, one day, people will be able to print out models at home of the places they’re planning on visiting. “Today, no one goes to the store to buy music; no one goes to Blockbuster to watch a movie. I imagine that, when you’ll want a miniature model, you won’t go to a miniaturist. You’ll be able to download them and print them by yourself,” he explained.

However, printing is only the end of a process that begins with human creativity. Mathov said a model should contain “the human spark of the soul of the person who created it.”

And, while he mourns the disappearance of craftsmanship, Mathov is a firm believer in advancement. “You have to keep on looking forward,” he said. “To understand what the technologies are and where they’re heading; how to adopt them or compete against them or circumvent them.”

For more information, visit mathov.co.il/English.aspx.

Israel21c is a nonprofit educational foundation with a mission to focus media and public attention on the 21st-century Israel that exists beyond the conflict. For more, or to donate, visit israel21c.org.

Israeli start-up’s Beehome

Beewise wants to replace traditional, wooden hives with high-tech, autonomous ones. (photo from Beewise)

What do cucumbers, avocados and coffee all have in common? Aside from being absolute necessities (yes, avocados, too), they’re all crops pollinated by bees. And, if things keep heading in the current direction, we’re screwed.

Bees are extremely important. About one-third of all plants and plant products consumed by humans are dependent on bee pollination. Unfortunately, the combination of modern demand and natural stresses such as climate change, pests and illness mean that the global bee population is dying at a dizzying rate, endangering our diets and well-being.

To combat this, efforts are being made to rehabilitate the bee population. In Israel, these endeavours are given a very Start-Up Nation twist, complete with computer vision, artificial intelligence and precision robotics, which are all part of the world’s first autonomous beehive, developed by Israeli start-up Beewise. Called Beehome, it’s a device that can house up to 40 bee colonies – that’s two million bees – and take care of their health and upkeep through an app on the beekeeper’s phone or tablet.

“It’s what’s called a disruptive innovation,” said Beewise chief executive officer Saar Safra. “We’re coming to replace all the beehives in the world.”

photo - Beewise chief executive officer Saar Safra — Beewise chief executive officer Saar Safra. *(photo from Beewise)*

The idea for an autonomous beehive came from Safra’s business partner, Eliyah Radzyner. A beekeeper by profession, Radzyner was aghast at the fact that beekeeping methods have not progressed for ages. He was convinced that a computer, machine or robot could do a much better job, and joined forces with Safra, a serial entrepreneur.

At present, most beehives around the world look like they did some 150 years ago – plain wooden constructions whose upkeep requires beekeepers to dress in full hazmat mode and light a smoker before opening them up, taking care of pests, supplying the bees with food and water and harvesting the honey. All this extensive manual labour means that commercial beekeepers, who take care of most of the bees in the world, only get to each hive about once every few weeks. Lots of bees are lost in between rounds to illness, pests and other problems.

“If you manage to identify the problem at the outset and take care of it in a specific manner, then, first off, it will be a lot less invasive; second, you’ll resolve the problem before it becomes a concern; and, third, you’ll save the bee,” Safra explained.

“We built a beehive that knows how to do these things,” he said, listing its three main components: artificial intelligence, computer vision and precision robotics.

The first, he said, is in charge of recognizing and identifying problems at the very outset. A real-time response is then carried out using computer vision to detect and monitor the situation, with precision robotics executing the required solution. The only things in the autonomous hive that require a human hand are filling the water and food and collecting the honey, which is harvested by machine.

photo - In Beewise's hives, even the honey is harvested by machine — In Beewise’s hives, even the honey is harvested by machine. *(photo from Beewise)*

While there are other companies trying to take care of bees amid the crisis, no one else has built an autonomous beehive. Currently in beta stage, Beehome is now being used by some commercial beekeepers.

“At first, there’s skepticism, because it’s so left-field,” Safra noted. “The moment we show people the device and that it works, there’s unbelievable excitement.

“There are beekeepers who are second, third or fourth generation. The beekeeper sees how his business is disappearing before his eyes, on his watch,” he added. “Then you suddenly show him this technology, this solution, and he sees that it works. Imagine what a relief that is.

“The idea that we’re saving bees using technology is an amazing thing,” Safra said. “When you take AI and apply it to traditional industries that haven’t been touched in 150 years, the yield is incredible.”

The funding for Beewise came from venture capital funds, as well as from European and Israeli grants. And doing business in Israel has been wonderful, said Safra, who returned to the country some two years ago after 15 years in the United States.

“The ecosystem in Israel is amazing. It’s simply optimized for start-ups,” he said. “There’s also a crazy infrastructure in terms of services and everyone knows how to work in startup mode.”

Beewise aims to be the new standard, Safra said. “There are 90 million beehives around the world. They’re all wooden beehives that don’t work anymore.

“We’re doing well by doing good,” he concluded. “Every hive that I create and which functions and succeeds – the result is more bees alive.”

For more information, visit beewise.ag.

Take time to see Maskit

Maskit is located at 4 Auerbach St., in Jaffa. (photo from Maskit)

When next in Israel, in addition to walking the beaches of Tel Aviv, being spiritually uplifted at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and enjoying the food across the country, carve out some time to see the fashion houses that have put Israel on the map.

Over the last few years, Israel has been leading in the fashion industry, with numerous graduates from Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art landing jobs with renowned fashion ateliers in Europe. But let’s take a step back in time.

In the 1950s, post-independence, immigrants from Yemen and Morocco arrived in Israel. The government sought to train the women in textiles in order to provide for their families. At the time, Ruth Dayan (Moshe Dayan’s wife) was approached to lead the women and, seeing their talent in embroidery and weaving, she suggested that the government and a Hungarian designer, Fini Leitersdorf, initiate a designing business.

The House of Maskit became the headquarters of fashion, with Ruth Dayan as the principal designer. Maskit became famous for their signature caftan, with embellishments of embroidery, textures and the colours of Israel. At their peak, Maskit was featured in Vogue. Their tunic-style creations were considered art, gaining world recognition, enabling them to sell in Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Saks. As Maskit’s success grew, a higher-end line was introduced, which had buttons made from river stones, olive trees and pure silver. The fabrics were from the finest sheep’s wool, as well as silk, linen and cotton.

In the 1970s, however, the Israeli government stopped funding Maskit, shifting its spending to other priorities, notably the military. Ruth Dayan stepped down and, ultimately, Maskit closed.

Full speed ahead some 30 years, designer Sharon Tal, who graduated from Shenkar, returned to her native Israel after designing for the House of Lanvin in Paris and Alexander McQueen in London.

Although a new mother, she was still working, involved with a British lifestyle website that focused on the trends in Israel. Tal’s aha moment came when she saw Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton’s wedding dress, which was designed by the House of Alexander McQueen. Upon viewing the outfit, with its elaborate embroidery, she knew it was time for her to get back to design.

Together with her husband, Nil, they discovered that the House of Maskit was ready to reopen. Tal picked up the phone and called Ruth Dayan, then 94 years old. The two became friends and Maskit eventually was reborn, in 2013, melding together its history and Tal’s designs, known for their soft lines and feminine feel.

Maskit’s clients include actresses like Sarah Jessica Parker and Jamie Lee Sigler. However, one of the greatest honours was when the late first lady of Israel, Nechama Rivlin, bestowed then-U.S. first lady Michelle Obama with a coat designed by Tal on a visit to Israel.

The couturier’s home is in Jaffa, where Tal has her atelier. The décor is wondrous, with stone walls, warm natural hues and rows of heavenly designs displayed. On your next visit, do some shopping for what are sure to be lifetime classics.

For more information, visit maskit.com.

Ariella Stein is a mother, wife and fashion maven. A Vancouverite, she has lived in both Turkey and Israel for the past 25 years.

Beauty of spring in Israel

Spring. Every year, it returns like a miracle and Israel is carpeted with wildflowers. There are nearly 3,000 types of wild plants in this tiny land, a wonderful profusion, among the most abundant on earth. Israel boasts a variety of different ecological systems – deserts and marshes, high mountains, dense forests and open fields, with wildflowers to suit each habitat.

Wildflowers are protected in Israel and nature reserves prohibit the picking of any flowers, even the most common, which helps them to propagate over wider areas. In turn, this brings the sunbirds, which feast on their nectar.

The Song of Songs, which we read every Passover, is a most beautiful love poem. King Solomon wrote it as a dialogue between a young shepherd and his beloved: “Rise up, my love, my fair one and come away / For lo, the winter is past / The rain is over and gone / The flowers appear on the earth / The time of singing is come / And the voice of the turtle is heard in the land.”

The flowers he refers to, nitzanim, still carpet the fields – shiny red poppies flaunting scarlet beauty in the grass.

In Jerusalem Forest, delicate cyclamens bloom in the crevices between the rocks. Called Solomon’s Crown (in Hebrew), they lift their pink, cream or lilac heads on slender stalks. Clumps of wild violets, the dew shimmering like diamonds, add their touch of magic.

Israel’s rainy season, mid-October to late March, leaves a bequest of green. Sharon Valley is dotted with tulips and narcissus. “I am the rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys” – it is believed that King Solomon was referring to the magnificent black tulips of the Galilee.

In spring, even the weeds in Israel are pretty – the milk vetch, which is a thistle, adds purple blooms to the roadside. The rockrose is abundant in forest glades and the orange ranunculus bursts into bloom. Like its velvety cousin, the anemone, it is a protected wildflower in Israel.

The perfume of daffodils – which suffused the winter – still wafts on the breeze and the white, cream, yellow and blue noses of lupins are pushing through the soil. Oleanders are in bud, growing wild by the banks of the River Jordan and near streams in Galilee, promising a burst of summer beauty. And the blue statica reminds us that we, too, have a Mediterranean coast like the famed Riviera. This lovely sea plant flowers from mid-spring to mid-summer, when its corolla drops off and only the sepal remains.

Who says Israel has almost no natural resources? When you see the splendour in the grass of the land’s spring glory, the wildflowers glowing like jewels, you’ll echo the poet’s words: “Had I but two loaves of bread / I would sell one of them / And buy white hyacinths to feed my soul.”

Dvora Waysman is a Jerusalem-based author. She has written 14 books, including The Pomegranate Pendant, which was made into a movie, and her latest novella, Searching for Sarah. She can be contacted at [email protected] or through her blog dvorawaysman.com.