Mother of Rehovot Murder Victim to Protest Public Apathy Outside Knesset

A group of four mothers of murder victims announced Tuesday they intend on erecting a protest tent opposite the Knesset next week, to demonstrate against public apathy toward cases such as theirs.

The women said they had decided to act after they heard about the murder of Rishon Letzion teenager Tzahi Basha, who was stabbed to death during a brawl in the city Saturday night.

Ilana Shelahov, mother of Shaked Shelahov, said: "People are being murdered, this can happen to everyone, and no one is doing anything about this." Shelahov's daughter was killed while riding in a car in Ashkelon when criminals intending to kill members of a rival gang mistakenly shot her.

Sarah Sapir, mother of Ma'ayan Sapir, will also participate in the protest. The 15-year-old Ma'ayan was raped and murdered by a Rehovot teenager.

The other members of the group are Havtzelet Amram, whose daughter Inbal was killed by a thief who stole her car; and Yehudit Mor, whose son Raz was killed while attempting to break up a scuffle at a party.

Shalhov said: "We are four mothers who have connected to each other after the things that have happened to us. We thought that if four mothers succeeded in taking the Israel Defense Forces out of Lebanon, we also can do a lot." She was referring to the Four Mothers Movement who in the late 1990s pushed for the IDF to pull out of the Security Zone in South Lebanon.

"We want to do this for others, because tomorrow or the next day this will happen to other people. We hear again and again about murder victims, and you can explode from the fact that nothing is done," Shalhov said.

The group said it wants to raise public awareness, and bring about the judicial system in question, which in their view allows murderers to be released from jail too soon.

The mothers also want to gain government support for families of murder victims, making their treatment euqal to that of the relatives of victims of terror attacks. "In the meantime, only the rights of prisoners are recognized, and not ours," Shalhov said.

The mothers expressed the hope that the general public will join in their protest, and that MKs will visit their tent.

Source: Roni Singer-Heruti. 4 mothers of murder victims to protest public apathy outside Knesset. Haaretz.com (31 July 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot's Software Company Makes Political Spam, Tact Ltd. General Manager Confirms the Company is a Plot of Political Activism

Today I received a piece of spam in my business mail-box that talks about Ehud Barak (former IDF Chief of Staff and Prime Minister that led the disastrous withdrawal from Lebanon that fomented Intifada II then Lebanese War II).

Several months ago, we migrated our mail services to Google Applications and we've been extremely satisfied. Our qmail server was rock-solid for 5 years (no one ever won Dan Bernstein's bet on hacking qmail) and unlike Microsoft Exchange, our cost of ownership was zero. The problem was that Spam Assassin could not keep up; so unlike the famous Tareytown smokers ad, I decided it's better to switch than fight.

Google mail is almost perfect with spam filtering and the Ehud Barak spam popped up on my radar screen during a random check in the spam folder.

You can probably guess that my politics lean towards having Barak remain in the private sector, but I have a problem with spam in general and spam sent out from a legitimate business in particular.

This particular piece of political spam came from a hi-tech company in Rehovot (the mail was signed Tact Ltd. Rehovot). The mail itself reminds us that Ehud Barak is still under investigation for his involvement in illegal campaign fund-raising and quotes an article in the Israeli Internet portal Walla!.

I wonder if Dr. Rafi Amit, the General manager of this apparently successful Israeli software outsourcing company Tact Systems , is aware of the political activism in his company. Whether the mail was sanctioned by the executive management of the company or not, it's still spam.

From an image/corporate reputation perspective, it looks bad.

From a data security perspective, it reveals an internal vulnerability (sending out spam from inside the company means that they don't do any extrusion detection at all).

From a security procedure perspective, I suspect they don't have an AUP.

Tact Ltd. is a company who do QA and system testing projects in private sector and defense industry and they should know better. They should definitely encourage (and sponsor) involvement and political activism for causes they support, but any corporate AUP (acceptable usage policy) should mandate that extra-curricular / political activity needs to be done on the employees time and dime.

Source: Ehud Barak, spam and political activism. Israeli Software (4 June 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot's to-be-a-couple Suffers From Mockery by An Anti-Israeli Rabbi Hadana

Are Chief Rabbinate, Religious Councils antinational?

Aogmas Segede, 28, from Rehovot has been running after Rabbi Hadana for many months now. He and his fiancee opened a file with their local rabbi, Yitzhak Zagai, who interviewed them and passed their file on for approval by Hadana. " To this day, Rabbi Hadana is ignoring us...

"Dror Iyasu, 28, and Mazal Bituo, 27, who came to Israel from Ethiopia in the 1990s, decided to make their two-year relationship official.

But Rabbi Yosef Hadana, the only rabbi in Israel authorized to confirm that they are Jewish - a formality required of all Jewish Israeli citizens ahead of their marriage - is often away from his office and is now in Ethiopia for a week. All Ethiopians seeking to tie the knot have to wait for approval from Rabbi Hadana, whose office is in Tel Aviv.

Over the years, the Chief Rabbinate has ordained dozens of rabbis of Ethiopian origin to serve the 105,000-strong Ethiopian community in Israel. Fifteen of them work for the various Religious Councils.

Another 60 or so kessim (spiritual leaders of Ethiopian Jews) receive salaries as neighborhood rabbis. But they do not have the authority to vet the Judaism of couples seeking to marry.

Iyasu and Bituo came to the Religious Council in Be'er Sheva to open a marriage file about six months ago. Since that time they have been waiting for Rabbi Hadana to approve their status as Jews so they can marry. Their wedding date has been set for August 7.

"We brought out parents and witnesses," Yaisu says. "We thought that within a couple of weeks we would get approval, but instead we were told that the file has been transfered to Rabbi Hadana and is waiting for his approval. We called the rabbi several times and we are always told 'Not right now, call later.' It is corrupt that a person who served his country and pays taxes has to beg a rabbi to confirm his Jewish status - a status that goes without saying."

The community rabbi, Elazar Megeshu, points an accusing finger at the Chief Rabbinate. "One rabbi has taken on himself a task that he cannot carry out properly, and this hurts a whole community. The Chief Rabbinate has closed its ears to the cries of the community, which is seeking equal rights in the rabbinate as well. The Chief Rabbinate simply doesn't want to see them becoming part of the religious framework, or in general to allow Ethiopian Jews to receive religious services in their community."

Aogmas Segede, 28, from Rehovot has been running after Rabbi Hadana for many months now. He and his fiancee opened a file with their local rabbi, Yitzhak Zagai, who interviewed them and passed their file on for approval by Hadana. "To this day, Rabbi Hadana is ignoring us. My fiancee is now seven months pregnant because we did not receive the rabbi's approval to hold the ceremony. We are still waiting for the approval, but he is in Ethiopia and there is no one to turn to," Segede said.

The director general of the Authority for Religious Services in the Prime Minister's Office, Meir Speigler, said in response: "The Authority does not deal with Halakha. That is in the province of the Chief Rabbinate."

The office of Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar responded to numerous requests by Haaretz for a reaction by saying that the chief rabbi was busy with urgent matters.

Rabbi Yosef Hadana went to Ethiopia to give Kashrut approval to a beer factory there whose products are being imported by entrepreneurs in Israel and after a request to the rabbinate with regard to kashrut supervision.

There was no response from Hadana to the young people's complaints in this article, which were relayed to him by his daughter Yehudit and his secretary.

Source: Ayanawo Farada Sanbetu. A marriage of inconvenience. Haaretz.com (27 July 2007) [FullText]

Daniel E. Koshland Jr. - Noted Biochemist, Editor, Friend of Rehovot's Weizmann Institute

Remembering Professor Koshland

"Daniel E. Koshland Jr., an eminent biochemist who redesigned biology instruction at UC Berkeley and influenced national science policy and publishing as a longtime editor of Science magazine, died Monday after a stroke.

Professor Koshland, a resident of Lafayette, was 87. He died at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Walnut Creek, UC Berkeley announced Tuesday.

"He was one of the outstanding biochemists of the last 50 years, and he was also a lot of fun to be around," said his friend Joseph L. Goldstein, a Nobel laureate and professor of molecular genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Professor Koshland's father and namesake was a New York banker who moved West after joining Levi Strauss & Co. in 1922. The senior Koshland became vice president, president and chairman during a 57-year executive career with the San Francisco clothing company.

His son discovered at a young age that "his fascination for math, physics and chemistry exceeded his interest in jeans," Goldstein noted in a 1998 speech, when he presented Professor Koshland a Lasker Special Achievement Award in Medical Science.

He was best known among researchers for his seminal work on enzymes and their flexible interactions with their substrates, a process known as the induced-fit theory of enzyme dynamics, akin to a hand fitting into a glove as distinct from the older paradigm of rigid keys in locks.

That discovery led to a long line of research on enzymes and enzyme engineering, as well as other adaptive systems in biology, such as the role of surface receptors and regulatory proteins in bacteria.

UC Berkeley's Koshland Hall for biological research is named for him. His legacy also can be seen in the university's interdisciplinary emphasis on teaching and research in biology. He led a campus reorganization during the 1980s, spurred by the advent of genetic engineering and protein studies, that brought 11 widely scattered departments within three academic domains.

His national reputation grew during a decade at the helm of Science, one of the world's top research journals, from 1985 to 1995. He brought many innovations, including popular special editions, a streamlined system of reviewing manuscripts and expanded news coverage. Much of the current staff was hired during his tenure.

"The magazine we have today is very much the one he created in his term as editor," said Donald Kennedy, the former president of Stanford University and the journal's current editor-in-chief.

He maintained an active research lab at Cal, and published nearly 100 peer-reviewed papers, in addition to 200 editorials, while he held the Science editorship part-time. His last research paper will be published as part of a special tribute being planned by the journal, Kennedy said.

Professor Koshland was an important philanthropic supporter of science education and campus expansions at UC Berkeley and also at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, which was attended by two sons, James Koshland of Atherton and Douglas Koshland of Baltimore.

He endowed the Marian Koshland Science Museum at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., which is named for his late first wife, an immunologist who also was a prominent member of the UC Berkeley faculty.

He donated $8 million to the Weizmann Institute of Science to finance postdoctoral scholarships at the institute's Rehovot, Israel, campus. He also served many years as a senior scientific adviser.

"He had passion for science and for giving opportunities to young scientists," said Diane Portnoff,
the Weizmann Institute's executive director for major gifts.

Along with his scientific eminence, Professor Koshland was a first-class wit. He styled some of his editorials as a dialogue between the journal and a "Dr. Noitall," who began each piece by claiming the introduction was "a vast understatement of my true worth."

He took on such issues as science and political campaigns and "get-rich-quick science," and once suggested scientists could gain more charisma by wearing lab coats of other colors besides white.

He received many awards, which besides the Lasker included the top academic awards from UC Berkeley as well as a National Medal of Science in 1990.

He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1941 with a degree in chemistry, after which he joined the Manhattan Project, working with Glenn Seaborg in Chicago and at Oak Ridge, Tenn., to isolate and purify the plutonium used for the first atomic bombs. He earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago, where he also met his first wife.

The couple worked together at the Brookhaven National Laboratory until 1965 when he was recruited by Cal. The question of whether to move was a controversial one in the Koshland family.

"At our family dinner table we had a brief discussion in which our five children and my wife voted 'nay' on moving, and I quoted Lincoln to say the 'ayes' have it," Professor Koshland recalled in an autobiographical sketch for the Annual Review of Biochemistry in 1996.

Following the death of his wife after 52 years of marriage, Professor Koshland married Yvonne Cyr San Jule, whom he had first met in 1940 when they were undergraduates, and who survives him.

Other survivors include his two sons; daughters Ellen Koshland of Melbourne, Australia; Phyllis (Phlyp) Koshland of Paris; and Gail Koshland of Tucson; sisters Francis K. Geballe of Woodside and Phyllis K. Friedman of Hillsborough; nine grandchildren and one great-granddaughter; three stepchildren, 12 step-grandchildren and 17 step-great-grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for the fall.

Donations in Professor Koshland's memory can be made to the Marian Koshland Science Museum, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, D.C., 20001, or to the UC Berkeley Foundation to support bioscience and energy teaching and research. Write to the UC Berkeley Foundation, Attention: Vice Chancellor-University Relations, 2080 Addison Street, #4200, Berkeley, CA 94720-4200.

Source: Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer. Daniel E. Koshland Jr. - noted biochemist, editor. SFGate.com (25 July, 2007) [FullText]

Boss Taped Telling Rehovot Worker: We Fired you to Save Severance Pay

Assis Tamang was a rafting instructor in his homeland Nepal when he met Liat Yakir, an Israeli tourist. They fell in love, and three and a half years ago, Tamang came to Israel to be with her. The couple has one child, and Liat is pregnant with a second.

Tamang began working as a security guard, first at security firm Sherutei Shomrim, and then, after it went bankrupt last year, for rival Hashmira. He served as a lookout at a railway crossing in Rehovot, and once prevented an accident, for which Hashmira awarded him a letter of appreciation. Due to a staff shortage, he sometimes worked 12 hours a day. He liked his job, was considered an excellent employee, received three raises in five months, and hoped for a promotion.

But on December 3, 2006, eight and a half months after starting at Hashmira, he was fired without warning. Shocked, he called his boss, Gabi Lazarovitch, who explained: After nine months on the job, a fired worker must be paid severance pay. Therefore, the company fires all its workers shortly before the nine months are up and rehires them as new workers three months later. Lazarovitch stressed that Tamang had been a "fantastic" worker, but said he had no choice: This was company policy.

In response to Tamang's question, he added that the company had hired 70 new workers to replace the 60 fired with Tamang.

Tamang plans to file suit against Hashmira in the local labor court today. But he is far from the only victim of the policy described by Lazarovitch, which is widespread in the security, cleaning and other contract-labor industries. The social benefits that by law come with nine months of continuous employment raise employers' costs by 20 to 30 percent, therefore many companies make sure to dismiss their workers every nine months.

Nevertheless, the companies deny this - in part because the practice violates their collective agreement with the Histadrut labor federation.

Hashmira reiterated this denial when asked for comment on Tamang's case - though in fact, its policy does seem to have changed since January, after the Justice Ministry threatened to revoke its license if it continued firing workers after nine months solely to avoid paying them benefits. The company insisted that it fires workers strictly "on a professional basis" and that Tamang's dismissal had been a "regrettable mistake." Upon discovering the mistake, it added, it offered to rehire him, but he refused.

Tamang's attorney, Itai Svirsky of Tel Aviv University's legal clinic, confirmed that when he complained to the company on Tamang's behalf in January, it offered to rehire him, but Tamang had already found another job because his short stint at Hashmira did not even entitle him to unemployment compensation.

Moreover, Svirsky said, the company failed to pay Tamang what he is due - including pension allocations, overtime pay and vacation pay - and Tamang would rather not work for such a company.

He is therefore suing Hashmira for NIS 90,000 on account of both the illegal dismissal and the missing payments.

Source: Ruth Sinai. Boss Taped Telling Rehovot Worker: We Fired you to Save Severance Pay. Haaretz.com (19 July 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot Man Drown at Beach in Ashdod

Four people drowned over the weekend at beaches in Ashdod, Caesarea and Atlit.

The body of 61-year-old Michael Levin washed up near the Ashdod port. His family had earlier called police after he failed to return from a swim and his clothes were found along the beach.

Ashdod Police also discovered the body of a 21-year-old Rehovot man who disappeared while swimming in the area on Friday.

49-year old Hadera resident Alexander Blau drowned Saturday at a Caesarea beach that is not an authorized bathing area. Police are investigating the circumstances of the incident.

In Atlit, the body of a 44-year-old man was pulled out of the water, also at a beach that is not authorized for swimming.

Two Rahat residents nearly drowned at an Ashkelon beach, and were taken immediately to Barlizai Medical Center in the city. A third Rahat resident who was with the two was not found, and searches for him are underway at the site.

Source: Mijal Grinberg. Four people drown at beaches in Ashdod, Caesarea and Atlit. Haaretz.com (9 June 2007) [FullText]

Miracles at Rehovot: Weizmann Institute, Time Magazine View 1969

Rehovot News Archive 1969

"Beset by belligerent enemies, Israel has put its scientists and engineers to work overtime on defense projects. It already produces 95% of its own ammunition, and soon may even make its own nuclear weapons. For all their military efforts, however, Israeli scientists have not ignored peaceful research. They have developed new irrigation techniques, tapped solar energy, bred deep-sea fish in captivity and even solved the riddle of how the camel stores water (in the bloodstream). As the late Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first President, once explained: "Of course, miracles happen, but it needs hard work to make them."

No Israelis work harder at miracle making than the men and women of the famed research center that bears his name. Now marking its 25th anniversary, the Weizmann Institute for Science has grown from an obscure agriculture station in the desert town of Rehovot, 15 miles south of Tel Aviv, to a 250-acre complex with 17 major departments that explore everything from atomic physics and molecular biology to seismology. Even the Arabs recognize its importance. It was one of the first targets that Radio Cairo claimed had been destroyed during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war—though not a single Egyptian plane ever appeared over Rehovot.

Handsome Payoff. Israelis sometimes wonder whether they can really afford such an expensive scientific establishment. Yet it regularly produces so many scientific dividends that its irrepressible president, Meyer Weisgal, 75, a former Broadway impresario, leaves on fund-raising tours with these parting words to his scientists: "Boys and girls, I am going to tell many lies about you and the Weizmann Institute. When I come back, I want all the lies to be true."

Often they are. Thanks to the institute's experiments, hardy new strains of wheat and barley now thrive in the sun-baked Israeli soil. In medicine, its scientists have developed a tiny, magnetic catheter that can travel through human blood vessels to reach the remotest regions of the body. As the world's leading producer of "heavy oxygen," the institute supplies these radioactive isotopes for tracer work to labs around the globe. One of its most ingenious feats was achieved by Biophysicist Aaron Katchalsky, who used synthetic fibers to duplicate the perplexing process by which muscles convert raw chemical energy into mechanical force.

A renowned chemist himself, Chaim Weizmann had originally hoped to establish a haven in Rehovot for émigré Jewish scientists. A number of illustrious names—Einstein, Bohr, Von Neumann —did advise the institute in its early years, but none chose to make it their permanent home. Instead of importing a scientific elite, Israel was forced to produce its own; 80% of the institute's permanent staff is Israeli. Unlike many labs elsewhere, it enjoys what its scientific council chief, Mathematician Joseph Gillis, calls "a negative brain drain": far more scientists are trying to get in than to leave.

Through exchanges of men and ideas, the Weizmann Institute has played an important role in Israel's small but determined foreign-aid program. Such activities may expand when Dr. Albert Sabin, the developer of oral polio vaccine, takes over as president next January. Israel, he told a 25th anniversary banquet in New York last month, is "a pilot plant for the hundreds of millions of people living in ever greater poverty and misery" around the world.

In only one important respect has the institute failed to "make miracles." Except for a few quiet, unpublicized contacts, it has been unable to arrange any cooperation with Arab scientists. As much in sadness as in fear, the institute is now building bomb shelters on its flower-filled campus. Yet like most Israelis, the institute's staff is unflaggingly optimistic. Not too many centuries ago, Arab and Jewish scholars kept scientific learning alive in the Middle Ages. Says Mathematician Gillis: "We look forward to the renewal of that cooperation.""

Source: Miracles at Rehovot. Time (Friday, 7 November 1969) [FullText]

Police said this was the Sixth Murder in Rehovot this Year

News Archive 2001

"Ya'acov Litvak, 88, was apparently murdered in his Rehovot apartment Friday night, police said. His wife and son found his body in the family's Rehov Weizmann home with several bullet wounds to the head.

Police said cartridge casings from a pistol were found in Litvak's bedroom, but the gun is missing. The couple was sleeping in separate bedrooms.

All avenues of investigation are open, said Rehovot police chief Dep.-Cmdr. Yisrael Tal... Police said this was the sixth murder in Rehovot this year..."

Source: Rehovot man, 88, shot to death. Jerusalem Post. News section, Page 3 (23 December 2001) [FullText]

Rehovot man killed in an accident

"A Rehovot man was killed yesterday morning when his van collided with a gate on Moshav Beit Elazary. Police believe the victim, who was about 76, crashed into a gate separating one part of the community from the rest. "We are guessing that the gate was partially open and the driver thought he could get through it," Shfela Traffic Police Superintendent Ya'akov Cohen said. "But when he did, a pipe in the gate went through the windshield and hit him in the head." The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. "

Source: Yigal Hai. Haaretz news in Brief (10 July 07) [FullText]

Human Brain Needs Cholesterol, Rehovot Scientists Say

Weizmann Institute Scientists reveal a mechanism for healthy nerve development, which may lead to new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases

In a host of neurological diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and several neuropathies, the protective covering surrounding the nerves – an insulating material called myelin composed of cholesterol – is damaged. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now discovered an important new line of communication between nervous system cells that is crucial to the development of myelinated nerves – a discovery that may aid in restoring the normal function of the affected nerve fibers.

Nerve cells (neurons) have long, thin extensions called axons that can reach up to a meter and or more in length. Often, these extensions are covered by myelin, which is formed by a group of specialized cells called glia. Glial cells revolve around the axon, laying down the myelin sheath in segments, leaving small nodes of exposed nerve in between. More than just protection for the delicate axons, the myelin covering allows nerve signals to jump instantaneously between nodes, making the transfer of these signals quick and efficient. When myelin is missing or damaged, the nerve signals can’t skip properly down the axons, leading to abnormal function of the affected nerve and often to its degeneration.

In research published recently in Nature Neuroscience, Weizmann Institute scientists Prof. Elior Peles, graduate student Ivo Spiegel and their colleagues in the Molecular Cell Biology Department and in the United States, have now provided a vital insight into the mechanism by which glial cells recognize and myelinate axons.

How do the glial cells and the axon coordinate this process? The Weizmann Institute team found a pair of proteins that pass messages from axons to glial cells. These proteins, called Necl1 and Necl4, belong to a larger family of cell adhesion molecules, so called because they sit on the outer membranes of cells and help them to stick together. Peles and his team discovered that even when removed from their cells, Necl1, normally found on the axon surface, and Necl4, which is found on the glial cell membrane, adhere tightly together. When these molecules are in their natural places, they not only create physical contact between axon and glial cell, but also serve to transfer signals to the cell interior, initiating changes needed to undertake myelination.

The scientists found that production of Necl4 in the glial cells rises when they come into close contact with an unmyelinated axon, and as the process of myelination begins. They observed that if Necl4 is absent in the glial cells, or if they blocked the attachment of Necl4 to Necl1, the axons that were contacted by glial cells did not myelinate. In the same time period, myelin wrapping was already well under way around most of the axons in the control group.

“What we’ve discovered is a completely new means of communication between these nervous system cells,” says Peles. “The drugs now used to treat MS and other degenerative diseases in which myelin is affected, can only slow the disease, but not stop or cure it. Today, we can’t reverse the nerve damage caused by these disorders. But if we can understand the mechanisms that control the process of wrapping the axons by their protective sheath, we might be able to recreate that process in patients.”

Several years ago, then a Weizmann affiliate Alexei Koudinov, MD, PhD, and colleagues in a series of articles (published in the FASEB Journal, Science, Neurology (also available for free), and other leading journals) and major meeting reports (inluding Press Book articles of the Society for Neuroscience USA annual meetings 2003, 2002, 2001 & 2000) showed that cholesterol, a building block of myelin, is essential for normal brain function, nerve cells plasticity, and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Down syndrome, neuromuscular pathology, and others. Contrary to a leading science journals, Dr. Koudinov research was not found to be a priority by Weizmann Institute narrow minded academic leadership, so, he could not endeavor his important research as the Weizmann Institute member. Dr. Koudinov presently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the major subject journal Neurobiology of Lipids, where forty other world leaders of the field serve as editors.

Weizmann Institute news releases are posted on the World Wide Web . For additional info contact Yivsam Azgad Tel: (9728) 934-3856/2 , Email: Yivsam.azgad@weizmann.ac.il or news@weizmann.ac.il

And yet another Murder in Rehovot

Rehovot man kills wife, then himself, after argument over his medication

By Roni Singer-Heruti

A man killed his wife in Rehovot yesterday and then himself. Yitzhak Tzoref, 68, shot his wife Lili, 65, and then turned the gun on himself in their home in Rehovot, over what police suspect was an argument over medication.

Family and friends were shocked to learn of the murder-suicide and one of the neighbors described them as "a normal, warm and loving family."

Rehovot police investigating the case said yesterday that Yitzhak had called his daughter, one of the couple's three children, sounding very upset.

"From what we understand the father was very upset on the phone and told his daughter of the argument he was having with her mother, about medicine he needed to take because of the state of his health. It is not clear what happened but he claimed that she is not giving him the medicines or that she is not organizing the medicines he needed," the commander of the Shfela District Police, Yifrach Duchovny said yesterday.

The daughter also spoke with her mother and it is believed that she told her daughter that everything would be fine, that she would give Yitzhak his medicines and that she would calm him down.

But the daughter was still worried and felt that the argument was unusual for her parents. She then called her brother and asked him to visit the parents' home to see if everything was alright.

The son arrived at his parent's home to find them both laying dead in the living room.

He immediately called for emergency services and the police. The police, in turn, rushed to inform the couple's middle child, a police officer himself, of the sad news before he heard it over the police's radio.

"We entered the living room and saw a man sitting on an arm chair, with blood stains on his head, without a pulse and not breathing," says Alon Herlinger, one of the first paramedics to arrive at the scene. "A woman was laying on the floor and the emergency services tried to revive her because we believed that she was still alive. She suffered a gunshot wound to the chest, but after a while it was clear that she was dead. A doctor was called in to confirm that they were both dead."

Police found the gun used in the shooting near Yitzhak, who was licensed to carry the weapon. Investigators say that there was no history of violence between the couple and there had been no previous complaints from either of them.

Source: Roni Singer-Heruti. Rehovot man kills wife, then himself, after argument over his medication. Haaretz.com (10 July 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot Man Shoots Wife, Commits Suicide

"A Rehovot couple, Yitzhak and Lily Tzoref, were found dead in their apartment Monday morning in what police believe was the latest case in which a husband murdered his wife and then killed himself.

According to initial reports, Yitzhak, 68, a well-known Rehovot businessman who was a partial owner of a banquet hall, called his daughter early in the morning and told her of an argument he had with his wife, Lily, over breakfast.

A short while later, Lily, who was the manager of a radiology clinic, also apparently called her daughter to tell her about the tensions.

The concerned daughter called her older brother, asking him to go to their parents' house to try and reconcile the two. But it was her younger brother, a policeman, who arrived on the scene first. Both members of the couple were found dead, suffering gunshot wounds to their upper bodies.

Police said they believe the husband shot his wife and then himself with his licensed handgun. Hours later, Yitzhak's shocked brother said this was simply the latest example of why no citizen should need to keep firearms in their home. Had a gun not been at hand, he said, the tragic incident could have been averted.

Police said the family had no known prior history of domestic violence or complaints."

Source: Rebecca Anna Stoil. Husband shoots wife; commits suicide. JPost.com (9 July 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot is in Focus by Youth Crime Statistics

"In the last week we have been witnesses to additional cases of youth murder. Triko Adma, 17, from Rehovot was stabbed to death by a bored youth, and yesterday 17-year- old Pavel Kozlov succumbed to the injuries he sustained after being beaten during the 'From Russia With Love' concert that was held last month," said Public Security Minister Avi Dichter at the opening of the meeting. "The violence among the youth is declining, but I am terrified of its power. It has taken us dozens of years to be freed of stereotypes of groups that made aliya from the Diaspora, and we must fight those stereotypes now as well."

Source: Rebecca Anna Stoil. Stats show immigrants account for 20% of youth crime. JPost.com (6 June 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot: a Criminal city of Violence?

"This is the third murder in three years by an Ethiopian teenager in Rehovot. Just a year ago, an Ethiopian teenager raped and murdered 15-year-old Ma'ayan Sapir in Rehovot.

"C" is Ethiopian and lucky. He grew up in a neighborhood not unlike Adameh's in Rehovot. He was bullied and teased at school. He sniffed glue with the gang. He drank alcohol, and stopped going to school - there was no point, he was too behind in his work and no longer cared. He carried a knife and one day used it on another boy. The boy didn't die.

C was 15 then. He is not a murderer. His father cares a lot about him, but has work and isn't home to discipline him. He doesn't know how to discipline him. C's mother is at home and also doesn't know what to do about her son. There are siblings, too, who don't know how to help him either. He's a wonderful kid, artistic, graceful and thoughtful. He just grew up in a place where life is tough. He ended up on the wrong path, the path that could ruin his life forever. And he didn't know where to find help."

Source: Michele Klein. Another murder in Rehovot. JPost.com (15 June 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot Arts in Brief

"We've had penguins, dolphins, cattle, horses and now it's time for oranges. Rehovot will host 100 statues of oranges decorated by artists, sculptors, VIPs, celebrities, and many youth organizations, and pithily placed among the trees of the Minkov Orchards on Ahinoam Nahmani St."

Source: Helen Kaye, Miriam A. Shaviv. JPost.com Arts section (25 June 2007) [FullText]