Rehovot Is a City With Creat Potential, Expert Says

Israeli real estate prices are expected to keep up their frenzied pace, rising by at least 15 percent in the coming year, on the back of ever growing interest by foreign buyers in the local market and strong domestic economic growth.


TEL AVIV HAS turned into a magnet for young people from across the country.

"In 2008, the high level of property prices in the center [of the country] and Jerusalem areas will be maintained and prices will continue to rise," said Levi Itzhak, editor of the Property Magazine price list. "Tel Aviv has turned into a magnet for young people from across the country, while at the same time foreign residents are continuing to buy out property in the city, is expected to continue."

Nevertheless, Itzhak doesn't believe the market is in a bubble.

"We think it is a healthy market of buyers and sellers following nearly 10 years of recession," he said, calling 2007 an "exceptional year that changed the entire landscape of the real estate market as rich Jews flocked to Israel from France, Belgium, the UK, the US, Canada and South Africa buying up property in different areas and thereby raising the value of apartments and houses....

"For example, if a year ago, three-room apartments without an elevator and parking, at a price of between $220,000 and $230,000 were difficult to sell, this year prices in the center and north of Tel Aviv went up by more than $100,000."

Jerusalem remains hot, according to Itzhak, and is set to bustle with real estate activity as the premier construction companies such as Africa Israel and Azorim start construction of luxury complexes in the capital in 2008.

"Demand and prices remain very high in Jerusalem in the areas such as Rehavia, Talbieh or the German Colony and even in Kiryat Hayovel, which in the past was not popular, prices are rising with deals closing every day," Itzhak said. "As in Tel Aviv, engines of growth, are the foreign residents."

Mark Zeevi, CEO of B.M.B.Y, real estate software systems adds that the company's advertising & marketing division, which also works opposite foreign sites, has received much interest from non-Jewish foreign investors.

"There is a growing trend of Christian or evangelical real estate investors buying assets in sacred areas, mainly around the Kinneret, at prices of between $100,000 and $200,000," he said.

Meanwhile, Shlomo Grofman, chairman of the Fair Fund, also forecasts that 2008 will be a year of growth for the real estate market as property prices are set to fall in the US and foreign investors continue to show interest here.

"I expect property prices to increase by at least 10% in the center of the country," Grofman said. "Foreign investors will continue to show interest for projects in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and I also expect them to move to other projects in Bat Yam, Petah Tikva and Holon located near the sea and well connected to transportation."

According to Itzhak, 2008 prices in Bat Yam are expected to increase by 15% and in locations on the beachfront by 25%.

Grofman identifies Ramat Gan, Hod Hasharon, Kiryat Ono, Holon and Ra'anana as cities with great investment potential next year, while Itzhak notes that the property market in the periphery, including Beersheba, Arad, Karmiel and Kiryat Shmona, is experiencing a shortage of demand mainly due to poor economic conditions. As a result, Itzhak said apartments were difficult to sell even at a price of $30,000 for a three-room flat - what one would pay for 1.5 meters in a Tel Aviv luxury home.

A recent research report by Clal Finance Batucha noted that while apartment prices in the area of Tel Aviv rose by 19% over the 12 months to September 2007, apartment prices in the north of the country grew by just 1% over the same period.

As result of the sharp increases in apartment prices in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, young couples have been having difficulty buying even old apartments in these areas at prices of NIS 1 million or NIS 1.2m, and therefore they continue to live with their parents, Itzhak said.

"Although it is, today, more difficult to buy in areas in which it was affordable two years ago, there are other areas to buy and I recommend to young couples over the next year to be more flexible and to seek for new areas to try and find 'the next Ra'anana,'" Bernard Raskin, general manager of Remax Israel, said. "Kfar Pardes Chana and other places in the country are better alternatives for young couples."

Yuval Ben Zeev, manager of the Lagur real estate Web site, designed particularly for foreign residents, points to another trend.

"The trend of foreign residents buying up properties in the large cities will continue to drive up prices in the center of the country, forcing Israelis who cannot afford rising prices to seek properties in the periphery," he said.

This, said Yoram Avisror, sales & marketing manager at Avisror Moshe and Sons Building & Development Ltd., will result in changing trends, particularly in peripheral cities.

"After nearly two years of a complete standstill of construction in peripheral cities, demand from the side of buyers has been building up," said Avisror. "Leading constructors in Beersheba, including Avisror, are already starting construction in the city."

Looking ahead Avisror pointed to Rehovot as a city with great potential.

"In the coming year, we are planning the construction of new projects in the city. I believe that people, who are looking for quality living standards and closeness to the center, will discover the attractive prices the city has to offer and come to seek residential properties."

The sagging US dollar also has played an important role in the local real estate market as the shekel, which has appreciated by about 10% against the dollar in 2007, trades around nine-year highs against the US currency.

"The sharp drop in the dollar in 2007 has led to a trend of various players in the real estate market to switch to alternative currencies," Zeevi said. "In 2008, this trend of pricing assets in shekel or euro instead of the dollar is expected to gain further ground. Today, the banks are also starting to build mortgages on the basis of euros."

Source: Sharon Wrobel. No end to rising property prices seen in 2008. JPost.com (31 December 2007) [FullText]

Chief Rabbi of Rehovot: Abortions are grave sin

Rabbinic Council of Chief Rabbinate to establish committee to lobby against abortions in Israel. Rabbis: Abortions delaying coming of messiah

by Neta Sela

Israel's Chief Rabbinate decided over the weekend that it would establish a special committee that would work to reduce the amount of abortions carried out in Israel.

Both Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger supported the Rabbinical Council's decision.


Women's Right to Choose:
Religious party proposes outlawing abortions after 22nd week

Knesset to vote on Shas bill proposal to amend current abortion law, outlaw terminations towards end of second trimester. MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz) slams bill as offense to women's rights, says... Read in full, article by Amnon Meranda

The council made the decision after Dr. Eli Schussheim, director of the anti-abortion organization Efrat, presented the rabbis with facts and figures on the amount of abortions carried out in Israel yearly.

According to Dr. Schussheim, 50,000 abortions occur in Israel every year, only 20,000 of which are legally performed.

The Rabbinic Council, which is made up of the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Rabbi Shaar-Yeshuv Cohen, the Chief Rabbi of Rehovot, Rabbi Simcha HaCohen Kook and Beersheba’s Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Yehuda Deri, has decided to have the new committee begin work this coming Saturday.

"The vast majority of abortions are unnecessary and strictly forbidden according to halacha because they are carried out even when the pregnancies do not endanger the mother's health," the rabbis wrote in their decision.

The rabbis believe that these types of abortions are a grave sin which may even delay the coming of the messiah. They base this assumption on an expression uttered by the Jewish sages which can be construed as signifying that the messiah will not arrive until all souls meant to be born to Jewish mothers are in fact born.

The halachic basis for the rabbis anti-abortion position is articulated in Genesis 9:6 which reads: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man."

The rabbis see fetuses as constituting a "man" based on a Gemara passage which states that a fetus in its mother's womb should already be considered a human being.

Source: Neta Sela. Chief Rabbinate: Abortions are grave sin. Ynetnews.com (24 Dec 2007) [FullText]

Why I Love Christmas: A Jewish Perspective

Jack Engelhard

Up and down the street where I live, half the homes are lit up with Christmas trees, the other half with menorahs. The days are good and the nights are silent. Most of the time we can’t tell the difference between Christians and Jews. We’re too busy being just plain old Americans.

You have Christmas. We have Chanukah. You have Easter. We have Passover. Does this separate us? No, this unites us, for together, this land is our land.

If this sounds corny, well it is.

However, I am offended. Across this nation, in cities, towns, villages and school districts, Christians are being told that they cannot celebrate Christmas openly. Here, there and everywhere, Christians are being sent into hiding if they want to sing carols, display nativity scenes, herald the Ten Commandments, or praise Jesus. Even Santa is not kosher.

I am Jewish, and Jesus is not my God…so why am I so offended at what I take to be an agenda of persecution against Christians?

This is not a scholarly approach, so let me simply say that American Christianity is a marvel, a near miracle of tolerance and, better yet, loving-kindness. American Christians do love their neighbors as themselves. I know this from the pavements I walk, the streets I drive, the sandlots where I root for the home team. I am free to visit your church, and you would be most welcome in my synagogue.

How this happened is a mystery. But the difference between European Christianity and American Christianity is as vast as an ocean.

Let others provide the history and the details. For me it is enough to remember that Europe plunged its Christianity into the Nuremberg Laws and a Holocaust that has existed in one form or another for some two thousand years, and continues to this day. Europe finally produced Hitler.

AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY produced Jefferson, Lincoln, and a document that opens with these words: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility… and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do order and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Sound familiar? It should if you know the Hebrew Bible, as this from Leviticus: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”

Here, in this land, more often than not, those words have been turned into deeds.

Yes, we are a Judeo/Christian nation, and if it gets any better than that, I don’t know where.

Only Israel itself compares, the Israel of before, and the Israel of today. Israel is where our American heritage begins.

As Jews, we do not pray to Jesus, but we stand in admiration that true Christians adhere to His message of love, taken from our Scriptures. We respect your devotion as you respect ours. We honor your faith as you honor ours, even as we pray separately but live equally, in friendship.

From “The Hebrew Impact on Western Civilization,” we get this: “How closely the Puritans identified themselves with the Israelites is hard to over-emphasize…They actually thought of themselves as a new Israel…If Israel had its Pharaoh, so did the Puritans in King James 1. The Atlantic Ocean was to them the Red Sea. America was the new Canaan…The first book printed in America was the Bay Psalm Book.”

Of course we have our self-haters, bigots and anti-Semites. Openly or in secret, they pray in favor of America’s enemies and promote any cause that would harm or even destroy Israel. But they do not define this country. Let their curses turn into blessings.

Give me, instead, those Christian Evangelicals, all 70 million of them, or those 60 million Gentiles who turn Christian but once a week or twice and year.

Away with the restrictions and laws that deny Christians their Christianity.

Let me watch them praise their Lord with Christmas trees and jingle bells, for these are a reminder to me, a Jew, that I live in this land, this land of mostly Christians that have kept the promise of my ancestor, the prophet Micah, that this house be blessed by the shade of that vine and fig tree, and none shall make us afraid.

Author’s Note: This was published several years ago, but I thought it might be worthwhile to bring it up again.

Source: Jack Engelhard. Why I Love Christmas: A Jewish Perspective. FamilySecurityMatters.org (24 December 2007) [FullText]

Bethlehem, Rehovot Celebrate Christmas 2007

Encouraged by renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, [western] Christian pilgrims from around the world converged on Jesus' traditional birthplace Monday to celebrate Christmas — a palpable contrast to the sparse crowds of recent years.

The diverse mix of people included festive American tourists, clergymen in brown flowing robes and Palestinian scouts wearing kilts and playing bagpipes.

"I'm Catholic. I always wanted to see the beginning of Christianity, the whole history. It's something you grow up with," said Kristin Obeck, a 37-year-old schoolteacher from Richmond, Va.

Despite the festive atmosphere, a heavy police deployment, the presence of Israel's massive separation barrier and unease among Bethlehem's ever-shrinking Christian population served as reminders of the lingering tensions in the region.

In the years following the 1993 Oslo peace accord, Bethlehem attracted tens of thousands of tourists for Christmas. But the number of visitors plummeted after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000.

[Rehovotees report they last time visited Bethlehem 7 January 2007 for Russian Christian Orthodox, then celebrated at Jesus birthplace together with former Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat and Russian President Boris Yeltsin]

Tourism has begun to recover in recent years as fighting has slowed. This year, it got a boost from the renewal of peace talks last month at a summit in Annapolis, Md.

Israeli tourism officials said they expected some 20,000 visitors to cross from Jerusalem into neighboring Bethlehem, an increase of about 50 percent over last year. Tourism workers handed out sweets and flowers to pilgrims, and smiling Israeli soldiers posed for pictures with travelers.

Bethlehem's governor, Saleh Tamari, said all of the town's 5,000 hotel rooms were booked.

"If you can't be with family, it's good to be here where it all went down," said 23-year-old David Collen of Hickman, Neb., who is studying the Middle East at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Tiago Martins, 28, from Curitiba, Brazil, said the new peace talks had prompted him to visit Bethlehem for the first time.

"The idea that it's a Christian city makes me more calm, and I think going to the West Bank is more comfortable since Annapolis," Martins said.

Priests and monks, tourists, Palestinian families and police mingled in Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity, the site where tradition holds Christ was born.

Vendors hawked beads, inflatable Santas, roasted peanuts, cotton candy, steamed corn and Turkish coffee while city residents watched the festivities from balconies and rooftops.

A four-story cypress tree, strung with lights and red and gold ornaments and topped with a yellow star, towered outside the Bethlehem Church.

Children strolling through the square wore red-and-white Santa Claus hats, with some in full Santa regalia. Balloons bobbed from vendors' stands and strings children clutched in their hands. After nightfall, the square was lit in a sea of red and yellow lights and Christmas stars.

Santa came to Rehovot early this week and greeted Rehovot kids with New Year/Christmas gifts just after the children theater performance at Beit Gordon hall..."

[Christian symbols, such as Santas, New Year trees and decorations are freely available in Rehovot nostly in a number of bookshops]

Source: Dalia Nammari, Matti Friedman. AP (25 December 2007) [FullText]

Olmert Supports Rehovot Religious Pluralism and Vowed To Combat Prejudice in Israel

"Ehud Olmert affirmed the importance of Israel's non-Jewish minority to the state.

The Israeli prime minister convened leaders of the country's Muslim, Christian and Druze communities at his Jerusalem residence Sunday to extend holiday season's greetings on behalf of the Jewish mainstream.

"This is the first time that dignitaries from the entire non-Jewish sector have been guests in this house," Olmert's office quoted him as saying.

"This is a very important meeting for me and for the entire Israeli government, which is making an effort so that each of you will feel that you are an inseparable part of the State of Israel. There is no more appropriate opportunity to give expression to this feeling than now, a short time after Chanukah and Eid al-Adha and just before Christmas."

Around 20 percent of Israel's population is not Jewish, and inter-faith ties have been strained by the last six years of Palestinian violence. Among Israeli Arabs there is increasingly open opposition to Zionism, provoking animosity among the Jewish majority. Even the traditionally loyal Druze minority has voiced complaints about discrimination.

Olmert has vowed to maintain religious pluralism and combat prejudice in Israel."

Source: Olmert courts Israel's non-Jews. JTA News (24 December 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot Sweeps its Own Hanukkah Tourney

By Micah Winston

The host team ran the table in the ninth annual Rehovot Hanukkah Invitational Youth Softball Tournament earlier this month, winning all six of its games handily, including a 15-4 victory over Mercaz in the championship game. Bika'at Beit Shean (BBS) finished third with an 18-10 victory over Eilat.

In the tournament final, Rehovot faced a Merkaz team that earned its place with a thrilling seven-inning, come-from-behind victory against BBS. Advertisement

Rehovot took a 7-2 lead after three and blew the game open with an eight-run fourth, led by triples from Kobi Daya and Yair Amir and a two-run double from tournament MVP Eyal Moses (5-for-5, four RBIs in the championship game). Sahar Yonah and Maor Mama both scored three times for Rehovot.

Mercaz threatened with back-to-back RBI singles by Gidon Sharman and Tamir Beck in the sixth.

In the third-place game, winless Eilat jumped out to leads of 8-0 and 10-4 over BBS behind the solid defense of Robert Peretz at third base and two RBIs each from Robbie Koenigsburg and Ben Westland.

BBS relief pitcher and team MVP Jed Ben-Nahum came on in the fourth to silence the Southerners' bats, while his team exploded for a tide-turning 10-run fifth.

Avishai Gross, Moshe Matuku and Yotam David each reached base five times on hits or walks and Brahano Mengista drove in three, while center fielder Doron Reich made a pair of terrific catches for the Northerners. Eilat team MVP Diego Janowsky and Robert Peretz each had three hits.

In the semifinal between the first and fourth seeds, Rehovot's Dudu Zozin pitched a rare, four-inning perfect game, retiring all 12 Eilat batters he faced in a 20-0 rout. The Rehovot defense was impenetrable, with Royi Freedlander making a sliding, shoestring catch in the first and second baseman Shlomi Alon robbing Doron Moshe of a sure line-drive single in the second.

The most exciting game of the tournament was the semifinal between the second and third seeds, in which BBS raced out to a 13-2 lead after four-and-a-half innings over a powerful Mercaz team. Shortstop Brahano Mengista got to everything that came near him and lefty pitcher Jed Ben-Nahum was effective.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Mercaz bats came alive, tying it at 13 with an 11-run inning. Team MVP Phillip Tannor singled and doubled and Eden Bir drove in three runs with a pair of doubles in the big inning. BBS answered with two runs in the sixth, but Tannor and Bir combined to knock in three of the Mercaz's four runs in their at-bat in the bottom half of the inning.

In the seventh, BBS loaded the bases with nobody out and cut the score to 17-16 on Yotam David's RBI single, but with two outs, Moshe Matuku was cut down trying to score on a wild pitch to end the game.

Source: Micah Winston. Rehovot Sweeps its Own Hanukkah Tourney. Haaretz.com (21 Dec 2007) [FullText]

Patent-Infringement Windfall Goes to Israeli Institution, Could Be a Result of the Weizmann Top Scientists, Officials Gambling

Two companies involved in the making and selling of the anticancer drug Erbitux will each pay $60-million to the technology-transfer organization of Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, resolving claims from a patent dispute.

The settlement, announced on Friday by ImClone Systems Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis SA, acknowledges that the Weizmann organization, called the Yeda Research and Development Company, is the sole owner of the patent.

In September 2006 a federal judge in New York ruled that three scientists at Weizmann deserved the patent for inventing the process used in making Erbitux, a drug for treating colon cancer that ImClone Systems makes.

ImClone has resolved another patent-infringement lawsuit over Erbitux involving a university. In September, it agreed to pay $65-million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Repligen Corporation to settle a 2004 lawsuit that was due to go to trial that day. The parties did not say how much of the settlement would go to MIT.

Source: Goldie Blumenstyk. Patent-Infringement Windfall Goes to Israeli Institution The Chronicle of the Higher Education (10 Dec 2007) [FullText]

Event: Annual Melave Malka of Beit Chatam

by David Wende

We are pleased to invite the Rehovot community to the annual MELAVE MALKA of Beit Chatam featuring guest speaker (in English) Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky, Renowned outreach educator and lecturer, who will be giving us his entertaining and
amusing take on:

"Why Be Jewish?"

DATE: Motzei Shabbos Shmos, 21 Teves (29/12/07)
TIME: 8:00 pm
PLACE: Beit Chatam, 1a Shkolnik St. Rehovot
Cover charge: 90 Shekel per person
RSVP by Tuesday, December 25: chatam.events[at]gmail.com (preferred) or to Eli Har-Even: 08 939 0056

Following the speaker, Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky, and after Birkat Hamazon, Mordechai Brodsky, the very talented and well known violinist, will play spiritually uplifting music, and sing moving niggunim to escort the Shabbat Queen.

Entrance FREE after the speaker has finished.

Posted by David Wende of Chatam (054-2346479)

Rehovot Weizmann Institute Says Vivisected Monkeys Rehabilitated. Would You Believe a Serial Lier?

Also see: Rehovot's Weizmann Institute is a Concentration Camp, Leading Israel News Source Says. My Rehovot (19 December 2007) [FullText]

Reuven Ladiansky, legal counsel for Let Animals Live, said the group intends to file a request with the Rishon Lezion Magistrates' Court to issue an injunction against the Weizmann Institute and the National Council on Animal Experimentation, in accordance with the Animal Protection Law.

Click here to see pictures and video on the vivisection of animals at the Weizmann Institute of Science (at Let Animals Live website) Warning: contains disturbing images!

"Our request relates to all the different aspects of the cruelty involved in these experiments," Ladiansky said, "the monkeys, which are social animals that need contact with their own species, are kept in small cages, and during the actual experiments they are placed in a device that does allow them to even move their heads."

The organization also plans to file a complaint with Rehovot Police, claiming that the Institute is conducting cruel experiments in violation of the Animal Protection Law, an offense punishable by up to three years in prison.

"We are hoping that indictments will be filed," Ladiansky said.

Let Animals Live said four Knesset members - Eitan Cabel (Labor), Yoel Hasson (Kadima), Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) and Dov Khenin (Hadash) - are backing the organization's initiative and have called for a special Knesset session on the matter, scheduled for Wednesday.

The Weizmann Institute of Science issued a statement saying that it "abides by all laws of the State of Israel as well as international codes of ethics (including the National Research Council) in all matters pertaining to animal experimentation and welfare. This includes minimization of suffering and an extremely high standard of animal maintenance and care. The Institute will terminate, quickly and unconditionally, any research that does not meet even one of these regulations.

"Animal experimentation is crucial to understanding various biological processes. Such understanding frequently leads to the development of medical applications (drugs and therapies) that save human lives and improve the quality of life for millions," the institute said in a statement," the Institute said.

According to the Weizmann Institute, the monkeys used in the research are rehabilitated and moved to a shelter in Ben Shemen."

Located in Rehovot major Israeli Science Institution is a well known plot of the curruption by Israel Science. My Rehovot took a leadership in enlightening the non ethical wrongdoing by the Weizmann Institute officials, that apparently serves ones private interest.

Despite the statement by the Weizmann that the Institution "abides by all laws of the State of Israel as well as international codes of ethics (including the National Research Council", the Institute did not terminate yet the employment of the currently acting Academic Secretary Boaz Avron, and Professor and Chairman Yoram Groner for their apparent professional misconduct.

Source: Dan Bentsur Ynet, Israel News. 19 December 2007, 14:40 [FullText]

Rehovot's Weizmann Institute is a Concentration Camp, Leading Israel News Source Says

'Treblinka for monkeys' slammed

Animal rights activists gather outside Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot to protest controversial brain experiments. 'Decent, broken-hearted people told me they wanted to infiltrate the institute and free the monkeys from this hell, even if it would lead to their arrest,' Let Animals Live spokeswoman says

"Free the monkeys" and "Monkeys feel the same pain humans do" were among the signs waved by some 250 animal rights activists who gathered outside the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot on Tuesday in protest of controversial experiments on animal brains.

The protest came following a week of public outcry after the release of shocking hidden-camera footage taken by a monkey caretaker who worked in the institute's labs.

Click here to see pictures and video on Let Animals Live website
(Warning: contains disturbing images)

"I received emails, faxes and phone calls from decent, broken-hearted people who said they wanted to infiltrate the institute and free the monkeys from this hell, even if it would lead to their arrest, but I told them that we must remain within the boundaries of the law," said Anat Refua, spokesperson for Let Animals Live, which organized the rally.

"Our side abides by the law; it is those inside these walls who are the criminals. We will get the monkeys out of there legally," she added.

Using a loudspeaker, Refua and former Channel 2 news anchor Gadi Sukenik called on the Institute to end the experimentations "that do not contribute anything to modern science", as passing cars honked in support, indicating widespread sympathy for the cause.

According to Refua, the entire cast of the popular satirical TV show "Eretz Nehederet (Great Country)", who are currently shooting new episodes, asked that the demonstration be postponed so that they could also attend.

Some of the protestors went as far as likening the animals' suffering to the Holocaust, and wore black t-shirts bearing the words "For the animals, it is an eternal Treblinka" – a quote by Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer in "The Letter Writer"...

Source: Dan Bentsur Ynet, Israel News. 19 December 2007, 14:40 [FullText]

Rehovot scientists move to defuse Huntington's time bomb

Huntington's disease is a genetic time bomb: This horrific disorder appears at a predictable age in adulthood, causing a progressive decline in mental and neurological function, and finally death. So far, there is no cure for Huntington's or a number of similar ailments collectively known as trinucleotide repeat diseases. They are caused by an unusual genetic mutation: A three-letter piece of genetic code is repeated over and over in one gene. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot have now proposed a mechanism that provides an explanation for the remarkable precision of the time bomb. This explanation may point researchers in the direction of a possible prevention or cure.

The number of repeats in Huntington's patients ranges between 40 to over 70. Scientists have noted that, like clockwork, one can predict - by how many times the sequence repeats in a patient's gene - both the age at which the disease will appear and how quickly it will progress. The basic assumption has been that the protein fragment containing the amino acid (glutamine) encoded in the repeating triplet slowly builds up in the cells until it reaches toxic levels. This theory, unfortunately, fails to explain some of the clinical data. For instance, it doesn't explain why patients with two copies of the Huntington's gene don't exhibit symptoms earlier than those with a single copy. Plus, glutamine is produced in only some trinucleotide diseases, whereas the correlation between sequence length and onset age follows the same general curve in all of them, implying a common mechanism not tied to glutamine.

Research student Shai Kaplan in Prof. Ehud Shapiro's lab in the institute's biological chemistry department and the computer sciences and applied mathematics department realized the answer might lie in somatic mutations - changes in the number of DNA repeats that build up in our cells. The longer the sequence, the greater the chance of additional mutation, and the scientists realized that the genes carrying the disease code might be accumulating more and more DNA repeats, until some critical threshold is crossed.

Based on the literature on some 20 known trinucleotide repeat diseases and their knowledge of the mechanisms governing somatic mutation, Shapiro, Kaplan (also in the molecular cell biology department), and Dr. Shalev Itzkovitz created a computer simulation that could take a given number of genetic repeats and show both the age of onset and the way in which the disease would progress. Their findings were recently presented in PLoS Computational Biology.

The new disease model appears to fit all the facts and to provide a good explanation for the onset and progression of all the known trinucleotide repeat diseases. Lab experiments could test this model, say the scientists and, as it predicts that all these diseases operate by somatic expansion of a trinucleotide repeat, it also suggests that a cure for all might be found in a drug or treatment that slows the expansion process.

Source: Judy Siegel-Itzkovich. Weizmann scientists move to defuse Huntington's time bomb. JPost.com (15 December 2007) [FullText]

Obituaries Section of My Rehovot Introduced

Share your memories of a special friend or loved one, publish it at a new section of MyRehovot Death Notices (Obituaries). Add music, text, your own voice, and photos to create an interactive in memorium tribute page.

To submit a death notice or ask a question about My Rehovot Obituaries page please send us an email.

Passer-by finds two scorched bodies in car near Rehovot

Two scorched bodies were found on Tuesday in a car in Kibbutz Na'an, near Rehovot. The bodies have not yet been identified, nor do police know what led to the incident.

Firefighters were called to the scene late Monday to put out the blazing car, but did not notice the bodies inside.

The bodies were found by a civilian passing by, who called the police. Large forces arrived at the scene to collect evidence and conduct searches.

Police sources say that they have not ruled out any causes for the incident, and are investigating the possibility of a double suicide or double murder.

Source: Yigal Hai. Passer-by finds two scorched bodies in car in Kibbutz Na'an. Haaretz.com (11 December 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot Children Celebrated Eight Candle Hanukkah Lightening

There were a plenty of joy as Behor Levi Elementary School students and their parents gathered at the Weizmann Institute Youth Village to celebrate Hanukkah Day 8.



Hanukkah commemorates the victory of a group of Jewish revolutionaries known as the Maccabees over Assyrian forces that had set out to destroy Judaism and degrade the Temple in Jerusalem.

After the Jewish troops regained control of the area, they resolved to restore the Temple to a state of ritual purity. Even though they had only enough oil for a day, a miracle happened, and the small amount of oil burned for the eight days necessary to rededicate the Temple, according to Jewish tradition.

As part of the observance, many families say blessings and light candles on a special menorah each night in their homes. The singing of Hanukkah songs often follows the candle lighting.



The holiday is also a time when many extended families and communities gather, playing games such as dreidel, involving a four-sided spinning top inscribed with Hebrew words meaning "A great miracle happened there."

For many families, especially where Christmas gift giving is also observed, the children receive Hanukkah gifts.

Hanukkah Day 7 Celebrated with Rehovot Mall Menorah Lightings

Multifarious all-age Rehovot community was warmed by the glow of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, with a Menorah Lighting Ceremony at Rehovot Mall happenned today after the theater show for children.



On Monday, Dec. 10, a crowd of children, their parents and grandparents gathered at Rehovot mall for a show followed by a ceremony of lightening a nine-foot menorah.

On Hannukah School and Kindergarten holidays Rehovot Mall holds a true festive party with music, Hanukkah refreshments, and arts and crafts opportunities for children.

A Safer Year in Israel Adds Joy to Rehovot Hanukkah

To celebrate the sixth day of Hanukkah, or Festival of Lights, Jews of Rehovot lit today sixth Hanukkah candle, as presented below on three video clips by www.Rehovot.tv .

Video 1 (Rehovot.tv archive file 2621 9-12-2007@17:01)



It is the kind of milestone that many Israelis, for fear of jinxing it, are reluctant to acknowledge. The year 2007 is on track to become the safest year in Israel since before the second Palestinian uprising more than seven years ago. There has been only one suicide bombing in Israel this year, a bumbled attack in January that killed three people in the Red Sea resort of Eilat.

A Palestinian shift to rocket and mortar attacks has proved largely ineffective: Only two Israelis have died this year from more than 2,000 Qassam rockets and mortars. Because rockets fired from the Gaza Strip cannot reach Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, the political impact of the near-daily strikes has been muted.

Video 2 (Rehovot.tv archive file 2622 9-12-2007@17:01)



“The suicide attacks were more frightening because they affected everyone in Israel everywhere,” said Ely Karmon, from the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel. “Everyone felt threatened. It was in public places, in restaurants, in malls. It was in all the buses and trains. It was clearly a more important strategic weapon.”

The virtual halt to successful suicide bombings can be chalked up to several factors: Israel has developed a successful intelligence network that relies on information from Palestinian insiders and electronic surveillance to keep tabs on militants trying to sneak into Israel to carry out attacks. Israel’s ever-expanding network of modern checkpoints, concrete walls and electronic fencing running through the West Bank has made it more difficult for potential suicide bombers. Hamas, the main Palestinian group behind the suicide bombing campaign, has largely held to its vow to maintain a temporary truce as it has tried to exert its influence through the political process.

Video 3 (Rehovot.tv Archive file 2638 9-12-2007@17:16)



“Part of the appeal of suicide bombings was that they were successful,” said Yoram Schweitzer, who has done extensive research on Palestinian suicide bombings at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. “Now ... every time they’ve tried, they suffered backlash.”

Source: Dion Nissenbaum and Cliff Churgin. A safer year in Israel adds joy to Hanukkah. McClatchy Newspapers (9 December 2007) [FullText]

Rehovot Folk Festival

"Rehovot hosted a competition for amateur dance troupes performing ethnic folk dances from around the world, followed by a line-up of diverse folk music acts.

Headlining the professional aspect of the festival is the Tapuah b'Dvash group with the sounds of Eastern Europe, replete with sensuous klezmer clarinet. The band's leader, Anatoly Geiko, plays a number of authentic Eastern European instruments, including the Ukranian darbuka-drum and the Russian balalaika, a triangular-shaped string instrument.

Representing a completely different style of music will be the Latin-American Folk Ensemble. The group, which has played in Argentina as well as Israel, was chosen to back up the great Argentine folk soloist Mercedes Sosa for her appearance here.The ensemble is particularly known for its rendition of the Misa Criolla, a mass for tenor and chorus which draws largely on traditional South American styles such as the Chacarera.

The Israeli Ethnic Ensemble has a more local flavor, largely focused on the sounds of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Vitaly Podolsky's accordion gives an authentic flavor to the band's repertoire of Balkan, Ladino and Gypsy music.

And last among the professional performers is Tam-Tam-Ma, performing the rhythmic song and dance of the West African Mandika people. Dressed in African-style clothing, the ensemble drummers and dancers perform replicas of African religious and medicinal ritual dances, accompanied by explanations of Mandika culture..."

Source: JJ Levine. Folk Festival: Ethnic dance floor. JPost.com [FullText]

Rehovot Chanukkah Candle 3: Much Revealed in Telling of the Hanukkah Story

Thursday night we lit the third candle on the Hanukkah menorah, for it was the third night of this minor eight-day Jewish holiday that's become a major one over the years. There are blessings to be recited, songs to be sung, latkes to be eaten ... but just what does Hanukkah celebrate?

Rehovot.tv video 1:

Answer: a successful Jewish revolt against a Syrian empire ruled by the Seleucid dynasty of Greek kings some 2,200 years ago.

Well, not exactly. The revolt was not so much against the Syrian emperor, Antiochus Epiphanes, as against his attempt to impose Hellenistic culture on ancient Judea.

www.Rehovot.tv video 2:



Well, not exactly. This now-celebrated revolt against the Syrians was really something of a civil war between those Jews who proposed to adopt more of the fashionable Greek culture and those who rebelled against it. The rebels viewed its games and gods as a desecration, and fought for the old ways, the ancient practices and beliefs.

It may not be noised about in some politically correct circles, but this festival commemorates a military victory - of tradition over assimilation, of fundamentalism over modernism.

Well, not exactly. The military aspects of the struggle are scarcely mentioned in today's celebration of Hanukkah. The focus has shifted over the centuries. The very name, meaning "dedication," now refers to the cleansing of the Temple in Jerusalem after it was defiled by pagan rites.

After all, the holiday isn't named for any particular battle or campaign or hero. It isn't the Feast of the Maccabees, who led the revolt. Therefore the real theme of Hanukkah is the rededication of the Temple.

www.Rehovot.tv video 3:



Well ... not exactly. The essential ritual of the holiday has become the blessing over the Hanukkah lights. A Talmudic story tells how the liberators of the Temple found only enough consecrated oil to burn for one day, but it lasted for eight - enough time to prepare a new supply. We're really celebrating the miracle of the lights.

In the glow of the candles, the heroic feats of the Maccabees have become transmuted into acts of divine intervention. The blessing over the candles recited each night of the holiday goes: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who wrought miracles for our fathers in days of old." Miracles, not victories.

Hanukkah isn't even mentioned in the Old Testament. The swashbuckling stories of battles and victories have been relegated to the Apocrypha. A mere military victory rates only a secondary place in the canon. The victory is to be celebrated not for its own sake but for what it reveals.

One more violent confrontation has been lifted out of history and enters the realm of the sacred. A messy little guerrilla war in the dim past of a forgotten empire has become something else, something that partakes of the eternal.

The central metaphor of all religious belief - revealing light - reduces all the imperial intrigue and internecine warfare of those tumultuous times to mere details. And that may be the greatest miracle of Hanukkah: the transformation of the oldest and darkest of human activities, war, into a feast of illumination.

One can almost trace the ebbs and flows of Jewish history, its yearnings and fulfillments, its wisdom and folly, its holiness and vainglory, by noting which themes of Hanukkah have been emphasized when in Jewish history.

History may say a good deal more about the time in which it is written than the time it describes. The message of Hanukkah changes from age to age because the past we choose to remember is the truest reflection of any present.

If there is one, unchanging message associated with this minor holiday magnified by time, it can be found in the unchanging portion of the Prophets designated to be read for the Sabbath of Hanukkah. It is Zechariah 4:1-7, with its penultimate verse:

Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.

Exactly.

Source: Paul Greenberg. Much revealed in telling of the Hanukkah story. Baltimore Sun (6 December 2007) [FullText] Original TV clips by www.Rehovot.tv . Paul Greenberg is editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. This article first appeared in 1993.

It's Not Just Hanukkah That Rehovot Folks Celebrate

Religions blended in together in Rehovot

Traditions and religious celebrations are prevalent this time of year worldwide, and Rehovot is no exception. Rehovot families are preparing a number of festivities this holiday season. And while Hanukkah is the best-known Jewish holiday this time of year, other faiths and cultures have their own distinct celebrations.



Rehovot jews just started to celebrate Hanukkah, Chanukah, focusing on the "Feast of Dedication" and "Festival of Lights." This is an eight-day observance that recalls a miracle in the Jerusalem temple during a war fought by the Maccabees in the cause of religious freedom.



Temple candles only had enough oil to burn for a single day, yet they burned for eight days. Hanukkah starts today, on the 25th day of the Jewish calendar month of Kislev and will last for eight days and nights.



The lighting of the menorah is the most important Hanukkah tradition. The menorah is a candelabrum with nine stands. On each night of Hanukkah, a candle is lit.



On the first night of Hanukkah, one candle is lit, on the second night, two, and so on. The shammus, or the large middle candle, always remains lit, and it is used to light the eight other candles. The candles are added from right to left, but lit from left to right.



Christmas is another holiday observed by Rehovotees. It is an annual holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus. Christmas festivities often combine the commemoration of Jesus' birth with various secular customs, many of which have been influenced by earlier winter festivals.

The date as a birth date for Jesus is traditional, and is not considered to be his actual date of birth. Christians in the West celebrate Christmas Dec. 25 (Jen. 7 for Christian Ortodox such as Russians and Greek), as the day when the Yeshua of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, was born. He is regarded by most Christians as a deity and savior of humanity.



...From a social or cultural aspect, Christmas has become more commercial. Rehovot Arts and Book shops opened their Christmas New Year Fairs full of new year plastic trees, all types decorations and lights.

Based on: It's not just Christmas that folks celebrate. By Dana Eversole. Press special writer (13 Dec 2007) [FullText]

The Jewish Agency for Israel View on Rehovot History

"A city on the coastal plain of central Israel, 14 miles south of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1890 by Polish Jews who wanted a township independent of Baron Edmond de Rothschild's aid. They called their settlement Rehovot ("wide expanses") a name based on Genesis 26:22. In 1906 they were joined by immigrants from Yemen.

These early settlers worked hard to make Rehovot the prosperous town it is today. They planted vineyards, almond orchards and citrus groves. Rehovot has become one of Israel's main citrus centers, especially since nearby Ashdod was opened as a port in 1965. They withstood agricultural failures, plant diseases, marketing problems and attack from hostile Arabs.

Between 1914 and 1991 the population rose for 955 to 81,000, and the area of the town more than doubled. In 1995, there is an estimated 337,800 Jews and non-Jews living in the greater Rehovot area. In 1932 an Agricultural Research Station was transferred there from Tel Aviv; 30 years later it became the Department of Agriculture of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1934 Chaim Weizmann built the Sieff Institute, which later became the Weizmann Institute of Science (see picture), in Rehovot. He and his wife are buried in the beautiful grounds of the Institute.

Industries in the town include food processing and the making of artificial leather and chemicals.
Rehovot is a quiet secluded city known primarily for the Weizmann Institute of Science. The Institute's scientific staff conducts research in natural sciences, and projects include research on cancer, aging, environment, computers, etc."

Source: http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/places/rehov.html

Rehovot Scientists Sniff Out Genetics of Smell

Researchers from the Weizmann Institute have identified a gene associated with sensitivity to the odor of sweat, revealing one way in which varying olfactory acuity might be accounted for. Working with molecular genetics Professor Doron Lancet, research student Idan Menashe conducted an experiment in which a team of volunteers sniffed compounds imbued with the odor of banana, eucalyptus, spearmint and sweat. Noting the sensitivity with which the subjects perceived the scent, the researchers cross-referenced the results against genetic profiles relating to one gene known as OR11H7P. Their findings, published recently in the open-source journal PLoS, note a correlation between the presence of the gene, the number of times the gene is found, and a capacity for smelling isovaleric acid, which mimics the odor of sweat. The discovery will bolster the Institute's Human Olfactory Receptor Data Exploratorium project, which aims to supply an overview of the evolution, structure and function of the entire olfactory gene family.

Source: November 25 - December 1, 2007 News. Israel21c.org [FullText]