USSR Aliyah is Over, Japanese is About to begin. A primer by the Weizmann Institute Scientist

"Yona can’t hide the fact that he’s a ger – even if he wants to. Well, there’s his last name and there’s the fact that he’s Japanese and walks around with a black velvet kippah on his jet- black hair − a bit of an anomaly. While most gerim have the convenience of being able to blend into society and only reveal their roots if they choose to, someone Japanese can’t.

The soft-spoken and refined 38-year-old experimental particle physicist converted two years ago in Canada. Having completed his Bachelor’s degree at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, he went to the United States where he did his Master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering at the University of California at Berkley and his PhD in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Michigan, Anne Arbor. After a two-year research stint in Canada, eight months ago he made aliyah with his ginger cat Sean who, according to Yona, is “just about bar mitzvah age.” Today he lives in Rehovot and works for the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Raised secular in Japan, Yona knew nothing at all about Jews or Judaism. While at Berkley, he started working once a week for a disabled religious Jew as an aide. “He took me to his synagogue and I started praying,” says Yona. “Then I started exploring and I started reading. At this time I wasn’t too interested in converting. I was more interested in the ethnicity of the Jewish people than theology, because religious Jews are a small percentage of the Jewish people.”

The decision to convert came 10 years later when he was meeting other Jews. “I never thought I’d convert. After I became a professional, I got more serious about life and started observing the laws, Shabbat and the holidays. And then slowly it started making sense and became logical to officially incorporate them into my daily life, consciously or unconsciously. Overall, there was a driving force moving me toward that direction.” Two years after his application to the Beit Din, he took the name of the man who first introduced him to Judaism.

Yona has no problems with his family accepting his decision because they don’t really understand it. Not philosophically, they just don’t have a deep understanding of Judaism. “I explained to them what it is but we haven’t discussed these issues in a serious manner. They don’t understand. We aren’t a religious family anyway, so there’s no family conflict. When I’m in Japan, I spend some time with my family, and on Shabbat with Jewish friends. There is a Sephardic synagogue in the port city of Kobe near Osaka, congregated mainly by Israelis living in the area.

“Judaism is more approachable for somebody who came from the East. It’s much easier to absorb and digest than say, Christianity, the ideas of which feel quite foreign and distant to me. Although Japan is a country that values discipline, the discipline dictated by Halachah is difficult. Gerim are like orphans. You have to live with this loneliness because once you become Jewish, you don’t really have any theological commonality with your parents. They’re still your parents but there aren’t a lot of things you can do with your own family members. This is really the toughest part. Of course you will find an adoptive family or host family who will take you in but still, you feel like an orphan.”

Although Yona feels accepted by his congregation and community, he doesn’t feel accepted by Israeli society. “It’s hard to blend in. The culture is so strong that if you’re from the outside you feel like an outsider.” This is especially so if you look like an outsider and act like an insider. Yona has long-range plans to remain in Israel but it is an experiment, of course, which he hopes will succeed.

“I hope I will have a happy life and get married and have children and stay healthy. I made such an effort to make aliyah. I hope to meet some Israeli woman, but I feel I shouldn’t be too limiting. I should be open to suggestions. But it’s a really limiting area. Here again, it’s not easy to marry − especially someone religious who would be willing and open to marrying a ger.

“Secular or even traditional people get nervous about the fact that I became a Jew. They cannot feel comfortable because it’s illogical, not something that should have happened. They give me the impression that I did something really chutzpadik. It makes them feel awkward about their own identity, and it makes them nervous when someone without hidden motives becomes Jewish.”

What Yona enjoys most about the religion he’s embraced is the continuing education. “You can never learn enough Torah, and you have to keep motivating yourself. Every time you learn, you discover something new. It really is like science, it’s a lifelong activity.” Spoken like a true professor.

For Yona, everything’s new – his religion, his country. He visited Israel four times before making aliyah but it’s a new experience, one he seems to enjoy, despite the hardships. “If you’re really serious about Judaism,” he says, “please come to Israel to live.”

Source: Rosally Saltsman. Journeys To Judaism: Gerei Tzedek. The Jewish Press (25 April 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot News of May 28, 1948

Rehovot News Archive

...The Jewish army claimed that mop-up operations were in full swing in the Citrus district around REHOVOT, south of Tel Aviv. Little activity was reported on he northern and southern fronts except for sniping and sporadic bursts of shelling, in upper Galilee, Arab planes were reported to have bombed Jewish settlements...

Source: The Edwardsville Intelligencer (Friday, May 28, 1948) [FullText]

Israeli Youths Battle in Rehovot

On Tuesday, a young man from Kiryat Malachi was moderately wounded after he was stabbed during a brawl in the industrial area of Rehovot between a group of youths from Kiryat Malachi and a group from Ramle.

Police have detained several suspects in connection to the stabbing.

Source: Eli Asheknazi. Two wounded, one seriously, in stabbings Lake Kinneret beach. Haaretz.com (24 April 2007) [FullText]

Independence Day 2007 Fireworks in Rehovot (TV Video)

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2006 story of honour killing near Rehovot unfolds

MORE than a year ago, in a disused well located halfway between the Israeli towns of Ramle and Rehovot, Reem Abu-Ghanem met a grisly end after committing the fatal sin of falling in love with the wrong man instead of accepting the one chosen by her Bedouin family.

The 19-year-old Arab-Israeli girl became one of eight women in the same extended family killed over a horrifying six-year period.

All were victims of honour killings, murdered by their relatives on the grounds that their behaviour has brought alleged dishonour to the family. All lived in the Juriash neighbourhood of Ramle, a rough part of town where crime, unemployment and poverty rates are high among its Arab residents.

Those killed were accused of perceived sexual transgressions such as wearing clothing which was too revealing, having a relationship with a man not approved by their families or refusing to marry the man chosen for them.

In early March 2006, warned by local police that the word on the street was that she too would be killed, Reem went home, telling detectives that she would be safe because her older brother, Sliman, a 31-year-old doctor, had vowed to take care of her.

Yet he and four other brothers had agreed that Reem was to be killed. As she lay sleeping in the family's Ramle apartment, Sliman smothered her in a cloth soaked with anaesthetic drugs taken from the hospital he was working at. The other brothers then bundled her into the boot of their car before driving to a derelict cottage where they threw her body down an old well.

Rehovot police now know that the young woman woke up from her drug-induced coma as her brothers opened the boot. "We know she begged for her life but they used a stone to hit her on the head," said Inspector Limor Yehuda. "She was still alive and was thrown into the well injured and screaming and then left there to die."

A prison informant tipped off police, who later arrested Sliman and his four brothers who are now in jail awaiting trial.

Despite the arrests, the killings did not stop. On January 16 this year, Reem's cousin, Hamda, also 19, was shot nine times in the head by her brother, Kamal.

The teenager, who loved jeans and did not wear a head covering, had already spent several years in and out of hiding. One afternoon - only days after writing a note to her mother that she feared for her life since she had made it clear that she was not willing to marry a man chosen by the men in the family - Hamda was shot dead as she lay on her bed.

But Hamda's tragic death was the final straw for the women of the Abu-Ghanem family. To the amazement of the Israeli police - who say they normally confront a wall of silence from families when investigating honour killings - 10 women came forward to talk to investigators within days of the murder. Hamda's mother, Imama, even gave an interview to Israeli television. "Nowhere is it written in the Koran for you to kill your sister," she said. "If I had been at home at night, I would have told her brother to save the last bullet for himself."

"It was such, such a huge step for this to happen," said Inspector Yehuda. "You have got to understand that they were silent for years despite seeing their sisters, their mothers or their daughters getting killed in front of them."

Thanks to the women's testimonies, Kamal Abu-Ghanem was charged with his sister's murder and is also now awaiting trial. But Hamda's sister, Jasmin, who allegedly witnessed the death, has since gone missing.

Ramle's streets are now full of talk about the Abu-Ghanem murders. A working-class town of nearly 70,000, it is one of the few Israeli towns with a mixed population of Arabs and Jews, with Arabs making up 20% of its residents.

Some in the Arab community are attempting to address the problem, such as social worker, Sama Salima-Eghbarieh, who runs educational programmes for young Bedouin women between the ages of 13 and 25 at a local community centre.

Salima-Eghbarieh's programmes primarily encourage the women to overcome strong family pressure and stay at school - a key problem for Bedouin girls who are told that it is better and safer for them to stay at home in the care of their families. Salima-Eghbarieh also managed to bring together representatives of key Bedouin families in Ramle, public figures and religious leaders for a series of meetings on the murders.

"It's the case of teaching self-empowerment, and while it's good that the women are talking, we still have a long way to go," Salima-Eghbarieh said.

Another outspoken Arab leader is Dr Auni Khil, a general practitioner who lives and works in Ramle. "Somebody must say 'stop the killings', and tell these men to instead use their power to seek a better job, better housing or better conditions for their families," he said.

Source: Annette Young. Women expose killers in their midst NEWS.scotsman.com (22 April 2007) [FullText]
IN RAMLE
Last updated: 22-Apr-07 01:26 BST

Secret underground factory near Rehovot helped win Israel’s War of Independence

Sitting in the laundry room of what used to be a working kibbutz on Kibbutzim Hill in the middle of Rehovot, Israel, it is impossible to guess where or how the brave kibbutzniks made their way underground to the secret bullet factory that produced nearly three million bullets in three years and helped win Israel’s War of Independence in 1948.

Everything at the Ayalon Institute is exactly as it was six decades ago, but for the fact that the kibbutz is now a museum and there is no British army station just down the hill and under whose nose about 40 men and women contributed clandestinely to the founding of the State.

The Ayalon Institute’s fascinating story is about a top-secret operation that took place during the years between the end of WWII and Israel’s War of Independence.

Under the vigilant eyes of the British who ruled the area, a clandestine plant for the production of much-needed bullets was built underground in anticipation of the armed struggle between Jews and Arabs in Israel (and neighboring Arab countries) that came with the termination of the British Mandate.

It was built in just three weeks as a cooperative effort between members of Hatzofim Aleph, a pioneer group, members of the local Jewish clandestine military, and Haganah trainees. Using the laundry room as their cover -- the noise of the machines and the exhaust camouflaged the subterranean machines -- the group worked day in and day out in a 300-square-yard space 26 feet underground.

Above ground, living quarters, a dining hall, a chicken coop, a barn filled with animals, workshops, and agricultural fields gave the Hill the outward appearance of being an ordinary kibbutz. Several dozen other kibbutzniks actually worked it as such, knowing nothing about what was going on underground.

The munitions makers daily risked their lives. If caught they could be killed; the ongoing work caused health deficiencies and they needed to be given special diets and time each day with one of the first sun lamps to restore the vitamins that a lack of sunlight deprived them of. At any time, the gun powder, that was handled by hand, could explode, and great pains were taken to enter and exit without being seen by moving a heavy piece of machinery under which a steep staircase was revealed. Their clothes and hair were inspected at each day’s end to remove bullet shavings and stains.

The machinery had been purchased in Poland in 1938 and was smuggled by the underground to Beirut, Lebanon and from there to Israel in 1942. The Haganah had other bullet factories; this was the larges, producing case after case of bullets for the Sten sub machine gun used by the fighters.

The factory was in full operation until the establishment of the State in 1948. In 1987, the Ayalon Institute (Kibbutz Hill) was declared a historic site, with a museum opened and operated by The Council for Restoration and Preservation of Historic Sites in Israel, established to identify, restore, and protect irreplaceable heritage buildings and sites associated with the country’s rebirth.

Jewish National Fund has partnered with the Council as it is not just JNF’s job to help build Israel’s future, but also to preserve the country’s rich history for generations to come.

The Council maintains a national database listing of over 250 heritage sites and takes action to protect them from falling into neglect or being jeopardized by real estate development. More than 50 sites have already been successfully preserved and serve as viable facilities in service of the community.

The Ayalon Institute, along with the other sites administered by the Council, welcomes over two million visitors each year. The restored sites serve as viable educational and cultural centers throughout the country and host hundreds of thousands of teachers, students, soldiers, tourists, and Israelis from all walks of life. The Council views education as a primary goal and actively works to raise public awareness of Israel's history through preservation. The Council is also working to incorporate education about its project into school curriculums and has developed 17 different educational programs, each dedicated to a specific restored heritage site.

Each project is individually budgeted and financed with money contributed by local authorities, public and private foundations, national institutions, and the Israeli government.

Source: Jodi Bodner. Secret underground factory helped win Israel’s War of Independence. JewishLedger.com (17 April 2007) [FullText]

Ashdar to build Rehovot neighborhood for IDF servicepeople

Ashdar, housing branch of Ashtrom Group, reaches agreement with IDF to build 300 houses for career soldiers and officers in Rehovot at 20 percent reduction

Ashdar Building Co., from the Ashtrom Group has reached an agreement with the IDF housing administration to build 300 housing units in Rehovot designated for IDF servicepeople, at a total investment of NIS 360 million ($87 million).

According to the agreement, Ashdar will assign 300 houses on 30 acres of land in the Dutch Rehovot building project for the IDF populace.

The houses will be approximately 1700 square ft built on plots of 3800 square ft. The real estate will be sold to the servicepeople at a 20 percent reduction on the market price – $320,000 (NIS 1.3-1.4 million).

Ashtrom is one of the largest private real-estate groups in Israel. Ashdar operates Ashtrom's private housing branch under the management of CEO Shraga Weisman.

Source: Naama Sikuler Published: Ynet: Israel Money. (04.10.07, 09:04) [FullText]

Rehovot Police Comes Under Fire in Annual Ombudsman Reports

The National Insurance Institute received the most complaints but the Israel Police outstripped it in the number of justified complaints investigated by the national Ombudsman's Office in 2006, according to the annual report released Monday on complaints filed by private citizens against public organizations.

The office is under the authority of State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss.

In another development, the Judge's Ombudswoman, retired Supreme Court justice Tova Strasberg-Cohen, released her annual report on complaints filed against judges and found that only 16 percent of the 1,234 complaints that were investigated were justified. Of the 198 complaints that were justified, 56% involved procedures that took too long and delays in handing down decisions.

Lindenstrauss dealt with 9,928 complaints filed in 2006, compared with 7,825 in 2005, 6,840 in 2004, 6,129 in 2003 and 6,147 in 2002. Over the five-year period beginning in 2002, the number of complaints filed by the public has increased by 62%.

The offices and ministries receiving the most complaints was topped by the NII (909), followed by the police (628), the Justice Ministry (406), the Interior Ministry (405), the Courts Administration (374) and the Finance Ministry (364).

Among local authorities, Tel Aviv-Jaffa (204) received the most complaints, followed by Jerusalem (183). The IDF registered 126 complaints, the Clalit Health Fund (168), and the Egged Bus Cooperative (58).

However the Ombudsman's Office found that only 32.2% of the complaints were justified.

The Ombudsman divided the complaints into four categories: "rejected out of hand," "the investigation was stopped in the middle," "the investigation was completed and the complaint was rejected," and "the investigation was completed and the complaint was accepted."

The police department had the most complaints falling in the latter category.

The ombudsman dealt with a total of 878 topics (a complaint may include more than one topic), including some left over from 2005. Of these, he reached a final decision on 366 and found that 165 (45.1%) were justified.

The ombudsman dealt with 1,252 topics related to the NII, and found that 150 were justified. More than half of the 164 topics included in the complaints leveled against the Israel Broadcasting Authority were found to be justified.

According to one complaint lodged against the police, a Rehovot resident was holding a party on December 30, 2005. One of the guests went out to a balcony to get some fresh air, when two policemen who were passing ordered him to go back indoors. The man refused and the police went upstairs and demanded to conduct a search. The owner of the apartment refused to let them in. The police called in reinforcements, searched the apartment and demanded to see the identity cards of everyone at the party.

The Ombudsman's Office wrote that police may enter and search a home without a warrant if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that a crime is underway in the apartment, if someone in the home asks for their help or if the police are chasing a suspect who runs into the house. The ombudsman concluded none of these criteria applied in this case, and that the police had not had justifiable grounds to search the apartment. The department has taken disciplinary measures against the officers involved.

According to Strasberg-Cohen's report, 1,237 complaints were submitted last year against judges. All but three of them were investigated. Of these, 40% (499) were rejected out of hand and 735 were investigated, including 198 that were found to be justified.

Source: Dan Izenberg. Police, NII, judges come under fire in annual ombudsman reports. JPost.com (19 March 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot All-Stars Win Junior Title

Rehovot A defeated defending champion Eilat 14-12 in the Israel Softball Association's Junior Men's Fast Pitch Softball Championship at the Baptist Village's Yarkon Sport Center last week.

After a double round-robin tournament, Eilat finished with a record of 5-0-1, Rehovot A 5-1, Bika'at Beit She'an 2-4 and Rehovot B 0-5-1.

In the semifinals, Rehovot A defeated Rehovot B and Eilat downed Bika'at Beit She'an to set the stage for the final.

Rehovot jumped out to an 11-0 lead after two innings off of Eilat pitcher Boris Yegudayev, but Eilat answered with 12 runs over the following four innings, off of Rehovot hurler Kobi Daya.

However, Dudu Zozin's big two-run double in the fifth gave Rehovot two crucial runs it needed.

With two outs, the score 14-12, and a runner on first, Daya struck out big man Ittamar Elgazzi for a thrilling finish.

Rehovot A's Eyal Moses had three hits and played great defense at catcher. Etai Mayerfeld and Roy Even each contributed four hits, including three triples for Mayerfeld.

Eilat's Yegudayev struck out five and walked three, but was outdone by Daya, who whiffed six and only walked one.

In the third place game, BBS's soft-tossing pitcher Yotam David kept the Rehovot B hitters off balance, scattering three hits and four walks while striking out two in a 14-2 victory.

BBS exploded for eight runs in the first and cruised the rest of the way.

David helped his own cause with a perfect 3-for-3 day and four RBIs, and Adir Shami fell a home run short of the cycle and drove in three runs.

Doron Reich was excellent in centerfield, snagging everything hit his way, and 10-year-old Ben Milgram ended the game by catching a line drive at second base and doubling off the runner at first.

Gidon Sherman starred for Rehovot B, tripling and making two nice catches in right field.

Each team named a top pitcher, hitter and fielder for the tournament: Rehovot A (Kobi Daya, Dudu Zozin, Eyal Moses); Eilat (Boris Yegudayev, Diego Janovski, David Bleicher); BBS (Yotam David, Avishai Gross, Adir Shami); and Rehovot B (Alon Tslil, Sagi Bracha, Yuval Amir).

Source: Games We Play: Rehovot All-Stars win junior title. www.JPost.com (4 April 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot's Lumus Technology Makes Headline News

The technology of Lumus Ltd., a Rehovot , Israel company, has just received the Red Herring 100 Europe Award, a recognition given to the 100 "most promising" companies driving the future of technology. Though not a medical device, the company's augmented reality display could be incorporated into a variety of surgical and interventional radiology devices, such as intraoperative mapping and preoperative surgical planning systems. In addition, one can also see how this system can be used for training residents and medical students.

Here's how the company explains the workings of its wearable display:

The Lumus PD-10 Professional Series Displays offer full see-through, full color and high brightness. The frameless, top-down design, enables unobstructed peripheral vision, and is particularly suitable for mounting on professional head-gear. The superior performance of the Lumus PD-10 makes it the optical wearable display solution for mixed and augmented reality (MR & AR) applications.

Lumus' patented, revolutionary Light-guide Optical Element (LOE) comprises a flat, transparent optical substrate that incorporates a set of embedded partially reflecting facets. The upper figure illustrates the LOE function. An optical image, generated by a microdisplay (e.g. LCD, LCoS or OLED), is coupled into the LOE substrate. Trapped by total internal reflection, the image components are guided along the LOE. The image is then expanded and coupled out by a set of partial reflectors for viewing by the user. The LOE provides the viewing experience of a large distant screen: an enlarged, distant image, with a large field-of-view (FoV).

The LOE is thin and, as it expands, the optical exit pupil can work with a small image source. Consequently, the LOE offers unprecedented compactness, breaking the conventional tradeoff between the optical performance and the physical size of a near-to-eye display. Unlike conventional optics, the FoV, eye motion box (the volume in which the eye should be located to view the entire image) and overall size of the optical system are all independent of the LOE thickness. For example, the thickness of conventional imaging optics increases dramatically with FoV (graph on right). In contrast, a 2-3mm thick LOE supports even very large FoVs. In addition the LOE is free of chromatic aberrations and optical distortions, delivering a high-resolution quality image.

Source: Lumus Displays (23 March 2007) [FullText]

Killed for Love. Not Far From Rehovot

Male elephant mauls his mate at Israeli zoo

JERUSALEM, April 4 (Reuters) - A male elephant has mauled one of his mates to death at an Israeli zoo in front of crowds visiting during the Jewish Passover holiday.

Yossi, a 33-year-old male African elephant and herd leader chased Atari, a 46-year-old female, and smashed her against a stone wall several times, crushing her, a video of the incident released on Wednesday showed.

Some of the thousands of visitors to the Safari Zoo, outside Tel Aviv, could be heard shouting "Oh my goodness!" as she collapsed.

At close to seven tonnes, Israeli zookeepers say Yossi is the largest elephant in captivity anywhere. Atari was about half his weight.

"She didn't stand a chance," zookeeper Vicka Minkowitz said.

Zookeepers said they had quarantined Yossi in his pen since Sunday's incident, which they are investigating with international experts.

Some experts suspect the elephant, born in captivity in Israel, had a fit of rage typical of the mating season, though he had not displayed such behaviour in the past.

He had previously mated peacefully with Atari, who has given birth to some of his 20 offspring, Minkowitz told Reuters.

"It's the first time he has showed such a temper," she said.

Source: Male elephant mauls his mate at Israeli zoo (4 Apr 2007) Reuters.com [FullText]

April 1, 1948: Israel Independence War Rehovot's News Archive

...The extent of casualties is not known. Jews said two Haganah men were killed In Wednesday's food convoy battte west of Latrun and that many Arabs were slain in the fight. That convoy now is at Rehovot...

Source: The Bismarck Tribune (Thursday, April 01, 1948) [FullText]