My Rehovot ( ISSN 1817-101X )

Beijing Olympics 2008: Michael Phelps is a Sonic Doper, Washington Post Science Writer Says, Quotes Based in Rehovot Scientific Doping Journal

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:27:00 +0000

or Listening to an iPod Is Like Taking Drugs

by Rick Weiss
Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Former Washington Post Science Reporter

Imagine you have qualified for the Olympics and are walking down a Beijing street the day before your event, when a vendor gives you a covert signal to come closer. You approach warily as he opens a flap of his trench coat, revealing something half tucked into an inside pocket.

“Pssst,” he says. “You want to win gold? Guaranteed to help. And perfectly legal.”

“What is it?” you ask, as he shows you a mysterious device, smaller than a credit card and with wires dangling from it.

“Intracranial transducers,’” he says in practiced English, pointing to the ends of the wires. “Stick them in your ears and they focus the brain, increase blood oxygen, prepare muscles for action. Made here in China.”

“So it’s a doping device!” you say with disgust.

“No, no,” the man exclaims in a hoarse whisper, looking around to make sure no one else has heard your incriminating comment. “Like I said, totally legal.”

“So what is it called?” you ask.

He looks askance again, then leans over and whispers in your ear: “‘iPod,’” he says. “We call it ‘iPod.’ It worked for Phelps. It can work for you.”

***

It is now a widely known fact that Michael Phelps, winner of a record-breaking eight gold medals in this year’s Olympics, is an iPod fanatic. In the minutes before diving into the pool, those trademark white wires were almost invariably hanging from his ears. He has confessed at various times to using tunes by Eminem, Young Jeezy, Lil’ Wayne and Jay-Z to motivate him and enhance his concentration.

When broken down to its mechanical elements, an iPod is nothing more, and nothing less, than what my hypothetical Chinese huckster was pitching—a device that transduces electrical energy into acoustical energy, namely music.

You see where I am going with this. And before I go any further, why don’t you get it out of your system? Let me have it. I know what’s coming because soon after I began to wonder about the parallels between iPoding and doping, an Israel-based medical doctor and scientist with whom I have communicated occasionally in the past—Alexei Koudinov, who among other things edits an online scientific publication called The Doping Journal—sent me a blog in which he raised the same issue. And that blog, I saw, had led to instant and effusive derision by his online readers.

“Who pays this guy to think up things like this?” one respondent wrote, after Koudinov argued the undoubtedly extreme case that Phelps should give up his medals. Others called the idea that music should be classified as a performance enhancer “asinine,” “silliness,” “a crock,” “ridiculous,” and “mean-spirited.”

One clever commentator claimed that “The writer of the article is qualified
to write for that [Doping] Journal: He is a Dope!” Another, less clever, called Koudinov’s posting “a waste of ink.” In fact, as with most online postings, no ink was involved.

But let’s pursue the idea a bit further. When broken down to its mechanical elements, an iPod is nothing more, and nothing less, than what my hypothetical Chinese huckster was pitching—a device that transduces electrical energy into acoustical energy, namely music. And as everyone knows, music can have profound psychological and physiological effects. It can relax a listener. It can anger or enthrall. It can excavate deep emotions and energy.

If that is not specific enough, consider research published in the Journal of Nursing Research in 2003, which showed that hospitalized infants who had music played for them had significantly higher oxygen levels in their blood than other babies . Now consider that the 2008 World Anti-Doping Code of the World Anti-Doping Agency, in Article M1 under the category of “Prohibited Methods,” bans methods of “artificially enhancing the uptake, transport or delivery of oxygen….”

I suppose this raises the interesting legal and philosophical question of what is “artificial.” In the words of one especially cynical blogger: “As just about everyone knows, breathing increases blood oxygenation. Should this also be considered illegal?” I won’t go that far. But even if normal breathing is acceptable, what about the arguably less-natural activities known as deep breathing or stretching or limbering up?

Moreover, music can affect more than mere oxygen levels. Koudinov cites research by Stefan Koelsch of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, who has published research on biological responses to music. According to Koelsch, music can induce biochemical “relaxing effects.” Given all the talk during this year’s Olympics about the risks and downsides of “having the jitters,” which can throw even the best of gymnasts off their balance beams, relaxation is clearly a big potential benefit.

Yet anti-jitter drugs, such as beta blockers, are expressly prohibited in many Olympic sports (including marksmanship, as evidenced last week when the North Korean Olympic shooter Kim Jong Su was stripped of his silver and bronze medals after blood tests came up positive for propranolol, which can slow a heart that is racing from nervousness and, in so doing, reduce anxiety and enhance concentration).

Phelps may even have received a double benefit by yanking out his ear buds in the last minute or two before competing. Research published in 2005 suggests that intense music followed by a sudden silent pause may be just the ticket for someone poised at the edge of an Olympic pool, since the music itself can boost arousal and the sudden silence that follows can induce, in handy sequence, a wave of relaxation.

“Music, especially in trained subjects, may first concentrate attention during faster rhythms, then induce relaxation during pauses,” that study concluded.

...continue reading full article at the ScienceProgress.org web site

Source: Rick Weiss. Is Michael Phelps A Sonic Doper? (Listening to an iPod Is Like Taking Drugs) Bioethics: Science Progress by AmericanProgress.org Published online 22 August 2008 [FullText]

Rehovot Restaurants: Dining Out

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:15:00 +0000

I have followed the culinary career of Eliezer Loya with interest since 1992 when he left his job as chef to the American ambassador and took over the kitchen of Tel Aviv's Dakota, where he demonstrated a true knack for seafood. I especially recall his expertise in preparing crab in a Pernod sauce. Over the years, at various restaurants, including Rose and Kazanki, Loya continued to make us happy with simple and tasty dishes. He is especially known for matching well-seasoned sauces to shrimp, langoustine, calamari and other seafood. About six months ago, Loya decided to show us he has an equally firm grasp on meat, as well, and his new Rehovot-based restaurant, Fresco, proves just that.

Located not far from Rehovot's industrial area, Fresco has a simple but inviting decor. The menu offers both appetizers and entrees, as well as a salad and pasta buffet for openers. We approached the buffet and the first plate I filled consisted of two kinds of eggplant, large chunks and thin slices, which were first grilled and then treated to a rich veal sauce; the second, fried together with garlic, was sprinkled over with fresh herbs. I also helped myself to a flavorful and chunkier than usual Turkish salad, and a long, fried and lightly pickled green pepper that proved just as flaming hot as the waiter said it would be.

My second plate took a different direction and included several slices of soft Italian-style mortadella sausage, a few slices of spicy French-style cervelat sausage and just a few bits of matjas and pickled herring, each of which proved tasty, especially when eaten with homemade challah-like bread and butter. While we were dining, our waiter brought over several other dishes: an excellent, airy and just salty enough ikra, kosher pickled cucumbers and two delicious pickled tomatoes. All of these called to mind the olden days in Jewish restaurants in New York City's lower East Side.

Eastern European delicacies

After these offerings, we shifted to more formal appetizers. We ordered a small platter of tissue-thin slices of smoked ham, the fat of which was wisely left intact, as well as a plate of equally thin and excellent slices of oven-dried beef jerky. As an extra first course, we ordered a plate of the restaurant's homemade patrician pork sausages, which were long, firm and bursting with rich, garlicky flavor and cooked in root beer; they were best eaten with our hands and dipped in sharp mustard. We also ordered a portion of the calf's foot jelly. This traditional Eastern European dish, often associated with the Jewish kitchen, is made by making an aspic by slowly boiling a calf's foot in water together with onions, carrots and garlic, and then combining the liquid with some meat off the bone. In this case, the dish was splendid: a firm aspic with an abundance of meat, served with lemon wedges.

Following a well-needed cigarette break on the terrace, we returned for our main courses. I ordered the Romanian-style kebabs. These particularly plump kebabs are made of beef and beef fat ground together with garlic, pepper, caraway seeds, coriander, marjoram, cayenne pepper and baking soda; the kebabs were first grilled and then cooked in a medium-hot oven. If it had not been a hot summer day, I might have ordered a second helping of the the crisp and juicy kebabs. One of my companions opted for the baby spareribs, which were done very well in a mustard and honey marinade, which added an appealing hot sweetness to the soft, just fatty enough meat. My other companion did not fare quite as well, as her pork fillet in a red wine and beef marrow sauce was just a bit too dry.

That there is a distinct Eastern European touch to many of the dishes was undeniable, especially in light of one of the desserts we shared, a version of the well-known Hungarian-Romanian papanash. This rendition was a rich cheese-based dough formed into a large doughnut-like shape, deep-fried and served with a sour cream and cherry sauce. Perhaps best described as "melt-in-your-mouth" soft and full of both calories and flavor, the dessert was splendid.

Wisdom would have had us stop there but we continued with a portion of chocolate cake, the cake itself with a distinct resemblance to a brownie with walnuts, which was topped with a rich chocolate concoction that, although said to be a mousse was far closer in flavor and density to a marquise. That gave us no cause for complaint. Nor did the excellent chocolate sauce that topped the cake, made from a combination of fine bittersweet chocolate and melted butter that had been blended together.

The bill for three for such a sumptuous meal, including espressos, came to a quite reasonable NIS 350. Despite the fact this is basically a meat restaurant, if you visit during the hot months of the year, I suggest staying with either white wine or, alternatively as we did, with the good, ice-cold Czech draught beer (half liter mugs cost NIS 24 each). This is a place to avoid if you are counting calories or cholesterol. But for those in search of the simple but very good life, this is the place to be.

Fresco: 23 Herzl Street, Rehovot. Open daily from 12 P.M.-12 A.M. Tel: (08) 934-3788.

Source: Daniel Rogov. Dining Out: The very good simple life. Haaretz (14 August 2008) [FullText]

Two boys diagnosed with cave fever at Rehovot's Kaplan Hospital. After visits to Carmel caves

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:38:00 +0000

Two boys who visited the Carmel caves near Haifa with their families were stricken by "cave fever," known among doctors as tick-borne relapsing fever. It is caused by Borrelia bacteria, which live on cave ticks, which are in turn sometimes carried on the backs of porcupines.

A 15-year-old boy was brought Monday to Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot and quickly diagnosed by emergency room doctors as having cave fever.

Last week, Iyar Shmuelevich, a six-year-old boy from Kfar Bilu, was diagnosed with the fever as well. Both had been in the Carmel caves, and both suffered from weakness and high fever.

Complications can, rarely, lead to death. After receiving a large dose of antibiotics, the older boy recovered. The younger one has improved with antibiotics but is still being treated.

Kaplan doctor Uri Bella said the Health Ministry would be asked to look into the infections at the caves...

Source: Judy Siegel-Itzkovich. Two boys diagnosed with cave fever after visits to Carmel caves (12 August 2008) JPost.com [FullText]

Does doping by the pool invalidates Phelps Beijing 2008 Olympic swimming gold, world records? Yes, Rehovot scientist says

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:16:00 +0000

By Alexei Koudinov

Also available at Rick Maeses's Beijing Olympics Blog Of the Baltimore Sun Sports Section (13 August 2008)

Did you notice that Michael Phelps wears earphones and is listening music just before his every Olympic start, at Beijing's Olympiad Water Cube pool deck, be it finals or semifinals? I first noticed that before his first gold swim on August 10: Phelps removed earphones 2 minutes before the start, and he was the only swimmer who worn earphones at the pool deck. Intriguing scientific evidence testifies: Listening to music improves blood oxygen capacity and is a performance enhancement.

There could be several mechanisms, says Stefan Koelsch of Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, in Leipzig, Germany, who has published 40 articles on the subject of how the body reacts to music. Dr. Koelsch says that "music can have influences on the breathing rate (e.g. via emotional effects such an increased arousal) which will alter oxygen levels in the blood, or relaxing effects (so that fewer muscles consume oxygen, which also increases oxygen levels)." He says that his group "has reported clear changes in breathing rate on a conference last year, with breathing rate being higher during pleasant music." In line with Koelsch conclusion are the data of the research article by Luciano Bernardi group of the University of Pavia, Italy, implying that the withdrawal of music shortly before the swim race induces relaxing effects noted by Koelsch.

Evidence comes from the research done with human infants. It showed that music causes better saturation of hemoglobin with oxygen (a so-called SPO(2) parameter, compared with control subjects receiving no music, indicating an "enhancement of oxygen transfer") and that increased by music, oxygen saturation returns to the baseline faster compared with control, making it hard to detect the transient oxygen saturation shortly thereafter. While Koelsch preferred his own explanation on how music can improve body oxygen capacity, Dr. Alexander Cherniak, a researcher at the Chuchalin Pulmonology Institute of Moscow, Russia agrees that medical experimentation with infants allows good standardization of the research protocol, appropriate statistics and could be projected onto the adults.

So what? Can one call listening to music shortly before entering the swimming pool for competition a performance enhancement? Yes, say both Koelsch and Cherniak. If so, how long could this enhancement last? "Duration [of the effect is] not certain, from seconds to minutes," adds Koelsch. Beijing Olympic and world records by Phelps fall into the expert's projected time frame. Yes, testifies Dr. Vance Bergeron, of Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, Laboratoire de Physique in Lyon, France: "[M]usic next to the swimming pool, less than 2 minutes before the start could indicate performance enhancement because of transient increase of blood oxygen capacity."

Bergeron adds that such a performance enhancement is "a bio-chemical feedback mechanism from an external source. The external source in the present case, music, is available to everyone, not harmful to the athlete or his peers, and carried out under full disclosure, hence I do not see how this conflicts with fair play and honesty," but says that "I am not an expert on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)."

Well, one doesn't have to be an expert on WADA policies, as the scientific evidence provided herein enforces all to take WADA code as is. The Prohibited List 2008 of The World Anti-Doping Code reads:

PROHIBITED METHODS
Article M1. ENHANCEMENT OF OXYGEN TRANSFER
The following are prohibited:
2. Artificially enhancing the uptake, transport or delivery of oxygen...

Straightforward ruling results in a straightforward conclusion: Listening to music through earphones before the start is in line with other measures prohibited. Therefore, Phelps' Beijing swimming golds is faked and should go to others who battle for it fairly.

Doping Journal, www.dopingjournal.org , is an independent free online publication on every aspect of doping science and antidoping policies. The journal serves an unbiased research and development of the science on doping, fair and science based transparent anti-doping laws, transparency of policies and the translation of the research into routine lab practice. Special objective is to protect athletes from the misconduct by WADA, IOC, CAS and Sports Federations. The journal aims to become a leader and worldwide forum on doping science and practices by all interested parties, scientists, medical professionals, athletes and lawyers. Alexei Koudinov and The Doping Journal have no competing financial interests.

Woman suspected of producing drugs at Rehovot home

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:09:00 +0000

Roni Singer-Heruti

Police on Thursday requested a remand extension for a Rehovot resident suspected of producing drugs in her home.

Following information received by Rehovot police, detectives arrived at the woman's apartment late Wednesday evening and uncovered 20,000 pills which, according to police, included a "psychoactive" substance. They also found a liquid that could allegedly be sufficient for the production of one million pills.
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Police admitted, though, that the pills confiscated were unidentified, and apparently were not listed as prohibited drugs. Police explained that even if this is not a case of illegal drugs, this is an offense of "negligent handling of medicine" or another pharmaceutical crime.

The woman, who lives with her three children, is also accused of child neglect.

Source: Roni Singer-Heruti. Woman suspected of producing drugs at Rehovot home, Haaretz (7 August 2008) [FullText]

Russian novelist, former dissident, Solzhenitsyn dies

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:08:00 +0000

Russian novelist and historian Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose works detailed the horrors of Stalin's Soviet labor camps, has died at 89, Russian news agencies reported Monday.

His son, Stepan Solzhenitsyn, told The Associated Press his father died of heart failure late Sunday at his home near Moscow, Russia.

Awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 for "The First Circle," Alexander Solzhenitsyn was considered a moral voice for Russia. His works centered on issues of good and evil, materialism and salvation.

His three-volume "Gulag Archipelago" unveiled the horrors of the Soviet labor camps, where he himself was imprisoned for eight years.

"Even as a child, without any prompting from others, I wanted to be a writer and, indeed, I turned out a good deal of the usual juvenilia," Solzhenitsyn said in a short autobiography written for the Nobel Foundation.

Even so, Solzhenitsyn, who served in the Russian Army during World War II, spent much of his life as a mathematician.

See photos of Solzhenitsyn

He was arrested in February 1945 for writing letters critical of Stalin and was sentenced to eight years at labor camps, which would provide the context of his future writings.

"During all the years until 1961, not only was I convinced that I should never see a single line of mine in print in my lifetime, but, also, I scarcely dared allow any of my close acquaintances to read anything I had written because I feared that this would become known," he said in the Nobel autobiography. "Finally, at the age of 42, this secret authorship began to wear me down."

He published his first work, a novella titled "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," in a literary journal in 1959. The story was based on his own experiences at a labor camp in Kazakhstan where he worked as a miner, bricklayer and foundryman, and was later printed on a wider scale in 1961.

After publishing several more works, including the novel "Cancer Ward" -- a fictional piece based on Solzhenitsyn's own successful treatment at a clinic in Uzbekistan during his post-labor camp years of exile from 1953 to June 1956 -- he won the Nobel Prize for "The First Circle."

However, Solzhenitsyn didn't attend the ceremony for fear he would not be allowed re-entry into the Soviet Union.

Three years later, his "Gulag Archipelago" was published in Paris, France.

In 1974, he was accused of treason, stripped of his citizenship and deported to West Germany. He accepted an invitation to teach at Stanford University in California, then later moved to the woods of Cavendish, Vermont, where he lived with his family for years.

In 1990, his citizenship was restored, and he moved back to Russia in 1994.

He published his final original work in June 2001 with "200 Years Together: 1775-1995," about the history of Jews in Russia.

Last year, then-President Vladimir Putin bestowed the country's highest humanitarian award upon him. Solzhenitsyn's second wife, Natalya, accepted the award on his behalf because he was too frail to attend the public ceremony.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed his condolences to Solzhenitsyn's wife and sons, Medvedev's press secretary told the Russian news agency Interfax.

Source: CNN European Edition (4 August 2008) [Full Text]

All About Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Cancer Diagnostic Test by Rehovot's Rosetta's MicroRNA Technology Approved in US

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:31:00 +0000

Rosetta Genomics Ltd, Israel and Jersey City, NJ, reports its molecular test based on proprietary microRNA technology, developed and validated by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), has been approved for clinical use by the New York State Department of Health Clinical Laboratory Evaluation Program.

CUMC is finalizing the commercial aspects of the test and will announce its clinical availability to patients nationwide after details are finalized later this year.

"This is a landmark event for us, marking the first step in the transformation of Rosetta Genomics into a commercial diagnostics company," said Amir Avniel, the company’s president and CEO. "Our proprietary microRNA platform technologies, which this test is based on, have enabled Columbia University Medical Center's high complexity molecular pathology laboratory to develop a highly sensitive and specific test, which is a key for optimal administration of targeted therapies for this devastating cancer.”

The test, performed on a sample of a patient's tumor, classifies squamous-cell carcinoma of the lung with sensitivity of 96% and specificity of 90%. The test uses microRNAs' sensitivity and specificity as biomarkers, which may offer a standardized and objective method for lung cancer classification.

"We value our partnership with Columbia University Medical Center and we look forward to continuing this collaboration," noted Ronen Tamir, the company’s chief commercial officer. "At the same time, once we complete the previously announced acquisition of Parkway Clinical Laboratories Inc in Pennsylvania, we plan to complement CUMC's commercial efforts by submitting the same type of test, developed and validated by Rosetta, for regulatory approval in the fourth quarter of 2008."

The advent of targeted, lung-cancer therapies directed at specific cellular alterations demands the most accurate classification possible for non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLC). A recently approved angiogenesis inhibitor (bevacizumab(1)) for NSCLC has been shown to be less effective against squamous-cell lung cancer. The targeted therapy includes a black-box warning about substantially higher rates of severe or fatal hemorrhage among patients with squamous NSCLC histology compared with non-squamous NSCLC, which has led squamous-cell histology to be regarded by many as an exclusion criterion for the drug. Several other targeted drugs for NSCLC currently under development may require this type of sensitive differentiation.

Some 185,000 people annually are diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer nationwide, and an estimated 60,000 patients annually are potential candidates for targeted therapy with bevacizumab in the United States.

Data presented in peer-reviewed publications has shown that two blinded-expert observers, when asked to give an independent histological classification of NSCLC, agreed only 74.7% of the time.

The company expects two additional tests based on its microRNA technology to be validated and submitted for regulatory approval during the second half of 2008 by labs in the United States. One test is designed to differentiate mesothelioma, an asbestos-associated cancer that develops in the pleura, from adenocarcinomas that either arise in the lung or spread to the lung and pleura from other sites. Another test is designed to identify the origin of a metastasis in patients presenting with cancer of unknown primary.

MicroRNAs are recently discovered, naturally occurring, small RNAs that act as master regulators and have the potential to form the basis for a new class of diagnostics and therapeutics. Since many diseases are caused by the abnormal activity of proteins, the ability to selectively regulate protein activity through microRNAs could provide a way to treat a wide range of human diseases. MicroRNAs have been shown to have different expression in various pathological conditions, and these differences may provide for a novel diagnostic strategy for many diseases.

The company's integrative research platform combining bioinformatics and lab processes has led to the discovery of hundreds of biologically validated, novel human microRNAs. Building on its IP position and proprietary platform technologies, Rosetta is working on applying these technologies in the development of a range of microRNA-based diagnostic and therapeutic tools, focusing primarily on cancer and women's health indications.

The first test based on the company's technology, differentiating squamous from non squamous non-small cell lung cancer, is approved through CUMC's high complexity molecular pathology lab, and the company expects two additional microRNA diagnostic tests with its technology will be validated and submitted for regulatory approval by licensed clinical labs in the United States in 2008.

Rehovot History: Feinberg family, Back to first days of Zionism

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:55:00 +0000

Rehovot History: Back to first days of Zionism, Rehovot Land

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:09:00 +0000

The life's dream of the Feinberg, Belkind and Hankin families more than 100 years ago was to fulfill the Zionist idea in the Land of Israel. Their story is the story of the renewed Land of Israel.

Nadav Man. Rehovot History: Back to first days of Zionism (10 Jul 2008) [FullText and Photos]

Last week we began presenting the story of three related families who longed to fulfill the Zionist idea in the Land of Israel: The Feinbergs, the Belkinds and the Hankins.

This new series of articles will feature photos of these families, whose story is the story of the renewed Land of Israel more than 100 years ago. The photos were taken from the album of Tamar Eshel, the daughter of Tzila Feinberg.

1. 1912 – Ahead of the graduation of the Herzliya Hebrew High School's first class. From the right: Rivkah Reznik, Tzila (who loved to wear manly clothes), Rivkah Shertok (Hoz).

2. In 1913, Tzila's first class of the Herzliya Hebrew High School graduated. After completing her studies, Tzila sought to go on to university studies, but as there was no university in the Land of Israel, she applied to a Berlin university to study agriculture and botany. In this photo she is seen with her family before the trip to Germany, with mother Fanny, brother Avshalom and niece Zohara, who joined the journey. Zohara's parents, Shoshana and Nahum, worked at a factory in St. Petersburg at the time. Tzila brought Zohara over to them and continued to Berlin.

3. November 1913. Before Tzila traveled to Germany, the family arrived at the office of photographer Avraham Soskin for a family photo: 1 – Aunt Olga Hankin, 2 – Tzila, 3- Mother Fanny, 4 – Zohara (the granddaughter), 5 – Ahsa (Israel and Duba Belkind's daughter), 6 – Uncle Israel Belkind and his wife Duba (7), 8 – Aunt Sonia (Belkind) Hankin, 9 – Avshalom.

4. 1914, Tzila meets her future husband Zeev, St. Petersburg. On the right: Zeev Finkelstein (who just graduated from law school). On the left: M. Blitzerkovsky (a chemistry student). When this picture was taken she had yet to decide which one of the two to choose. The dedication on the photo reads: "The lovable and beloved".

5. Tzila resided in Germany during the years of World War I. Her friends from the Herzliya Hebrew High School's first class, Moshe Shertok (Sharett) and Moshe Gvirtzman, served in the Turkish army and sent her this postcard on which they wrote, "To our dear friend Tzila, from the Diaspora to the Diaspora in memory of our days of suffering… Moshe and Moshe."

6. The Nili espionage network was founded in the Land of Israel with the goal of assisting the British in their war against the Ottomans who controlled the land and establishing a Jewish entity in the Land of Israel. The network's founders were Avshalom Feinberg (who came up with the idea) who tried to convince agronomist Aharon Aharonson of Zichron Yaacov to join the network. The two worked together on a farm for agricultural experiments established in Atlit in 1910.

In the photo: Sarah Aharonson, a member of the Nili espionage network. Sarah was married to a Bulgarian Jew and lived with him in Constantinople between 1914 and 1915. Her marriage failed, and on her way back to Zichron Yaacov she encountered the murder of the Armenia people by the Turks, which led her to become an active member of the network. When her brother Aharon was in Egypt as part of his work, she replaced him in the intelligence work in Israel. When the Turks began pursuing the Nili network activists, Aharon asked Sarah to escape to Egypt, but she decided to proceed with her mission. She was captured and tortured by the Turks, and committed suicide so as not to turn in her fellow network members.

7. In 1916, the network members failed to contact the British. On January 20, 1917, Avshalom decided to take the Sinai route with his friend Yosef Lishansky in order to resume the ties with the British in Sinai. They were discovered by Bedouins who alerted a Turkish guard, and the two were injured in a shooting battle. Lishansky managed to escape, Avshalom resisted and was shot to death. The place where he died was not located for many years. Only after 50 years, during the Six Day War, the mystery was finally solved by researcher Shlomo Ben-Elkana when Israel occupied the territory. In the photo: Avshalom's bones uncovered. Details conveyed by Tzila, Avshalom's sister, helped identify him. Avshalom was laid to rest in a state ceremony on November 29, 1967, on Mount Herzl.

8. Tzila with Emmanuel Kenig, the son of Rosa Hankin-Kenig, Berlin 1918, during her studies there. Rosa was the sister of Yehoshua Hankin. Emmanuel was killed during the siege on Jerusalem during the 1948 War of Independence.

9. Tzila with her daughter Tamar, 1922. Tzila was born in Jaffa in 1894, died in 1988 and was buried in Haifa. She was a graduate of the Herzliya Hebrew School's first class. She studied botany and agriculture in a university in Berlin. She spent the entire World War I in Germany, earning a living in censorship. She was active in Zionist groups. After graduating in 1919, she joined Zeev Finkelstein (Shoham), a member of the Zionist administration in London, whom she met in St. Petersburg, and married him. During the years she spent in London, she joined the group of women who founded the WIZO organization in 1920. In 1923 she returned to Israel and lived in Haifa. She was an active WIZO volunteer her entire life, established the department for women's status and run the department for agricultural schools for many years. She also managed the family orchard in Hadera. She headed the citrus fruit council's control committee till the age of 90.

10. Family photo of the Belkind family in Mogilev, 1882, before immigrating to the Land of Israel. In the photo:

1 – Meir Belkind (Minsk, 1836 – Rishon Lezion, 1896) was an outstanding yeshiva student. He was expelled from the yeshiva because he read in Hebrew and his ordination as a rabbi was cancelled. He introduced a new teaching method which included Hebrew, grammar, Bible studies and love of the land. Despite the haredi boycott, the town's dignitaries sent their sons to study at his school. His girls were taught according to the same program. After his marriage he moved to Logoysk and then to Borisov and Mogilev in order to provide his children with high school education. He did not immigrate with the Bilu pioneers to that his young daughter Sonia could complete her high school studies. In 1888, Meir, his wife Shifra and their daughter Sonia immigrated to Israel. Meir opened the first Hebrew school in Jaffa, which taught all professions, including science – in Hebrew.

2 – Meir's wife Shifra of the Glastock family (Logoysk, 1830 – Jaffa, 1910, buried in Rishon Lezion)

3 – Olga (Logoysk, 1852 – Passover, 1943, buried on Mount Gilboa). At 13 she was a telegrapher on the Siberian train line in order to save money for her tuition, and then left for St. Petersburg for midwife studies. In 1886, Olga was asked to travel to Israel to help her sister Fanny give birth to her daughter Shoshana. She was fluent in Hebrew and familiar with the Bible and its origins. She corresponded with the Hebrew writers of her generation. In Israel she married Yehoshua Hankin and was the force which motivated him to purchase lands for the Jewish National Fund. Her relations with Arab midwives assisted in the purchasing of lands for the Jewish settlement.

4 - Sonia (Alexandra), the Belkinds' youngest child (Borisov, 1870 – Rishon Lezion, 1943), immigrated to Israel with her parents in 1888. She worked as a teacher in the first Hebrew school in Jaffa, founded by her father and oldest brother Israel Belkind. In 1898, she traveled to Geneva to study medicine. After completing her studies, she returned to Israel as a doctor, but left for Paris in 1905 to specialize as a gynecologist. She was the first women's doctor in the Land of Israel. She also served as the doctor of the Herzliya Hebrew High School and worked in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. During World War I she wandered with those expelled from Tel Aviv and cared for them until she was arrested when the Nili network was uncovered. After the war, upon being released, she built her house in the sands of Tel Aviv. Sonia lived with Mendel Hankin, the brother of Yehoshua Hankin (who was married to her sister Olga). The two families lived in the home built by Sonia and Mendel in the sands of Tel Aviv (today 105 Allenby St.). Throughout her years in Israel she was active in the field of public medicine.

5 – Fanny Beldkind, later known as Fanny Feinberg (details in the Feinberg family history).

6 – Israel Belkind (1861-1929), founder of the Bilu pioneers idea, immigrated to Israel with the first Bilu group and arrived in Rishon Lezion. All his life he engaged in education and Hebrew teaching. In 1900 he established the Haviv school, the first Hebrew school in Rishon Lezion. After World War I, he traveled to Europe to gather Jewish orphans from the Chisinau pogroms and brought them to the youth villages in Shafia, Kfar Yeladim and Safed.

7 – Shimshon Belkind (1937-1864). In 1882, he immigrated with his brother Israel and the Bilu pioneers to the Land of Israel. He was expelled from Rishon Lezion due to his connection to the rebellion against the baron's functionaries. During World War I, his two sons Naaman and Eitan were arrested by the Turks for being members of the Nili network. They were both sentenced to death. In 1918, Naaman was executed in Damascus. Avraham Herzfeld, who was in Damascus at the time, managed to bribe a Turkish guard and helped Eitan escape from jail. After the war, Shimshon and his son Eitan brought the bones of Naaman and Yosef Lishansky for burial in Israel. Another of Shimshon's sons, Meir Belkind, was murdered in the 1936 events.

11. Sonia Belkind at 15, in Mohyliv, 1885.

12. Olga Belkind, while working as a midwife in St. Petersburg.

13. Five ladies drinking coffee, 1905. From the right: Olga Hankin, Manya (Vilboshevitz) Shohat (sister of Nahum Vilbosh), Sonia (Alexandra) Belkind, Duba Blekind, Shoshana (Feinberg) Vilboshevitz. Fanny would never forgive them for forgetting to include her in the photo.

14. Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu pioneers, 1904. Israel Belkind wrote many books on the Land of Israel, history, Judaism, etc. At the end of the century he wrote a basic book in Russian about the country which was used by the Lovers of Zion in Russia for many years. When he opened a Hebrew school in Jaffa with his father, it lacked textbooks in Hebrew.

15. 1912 – A group photo of the Belkind family members marking 30 years since their immigration to Israel. From the right: Shimshon, Olga, Sonia, Israel and Fanny (mourning her husband's death).

16. From the left: Israel Belkind's daughter Ahsa with her cousin Zohara Vilbosh (daughter of Shoshana and Nahum). Father Israel was often absent from home in order to raise funds for the school he built for orphans he gathered in Europe, the orphans of the pogroms in Chisinau and World War I.

Source: Nadav Man. Rehovot History: Back to first days of Zionism (10 Jul 2008) [FullText and Photos]

$15 million gift to Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot Branch

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Sun, 18 May 2008 10:06:00 +0000

"The Robert H. Smith Family Foundation pledged a $15 million challenge grant to transform the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences in Rehovot, Israel.

The gift will be the cornerstone of the university's and American Friends of Hebrew University's "Feeding the Future through Sustainable Agriculture" campaign, a $51 million reorganization and expansion plan that will broaden and accelerate the University's cutting-edge interdisciplinary research in plant and animal sciences, biochemistry, nutrition and environmental studies.

In recognition of the Foundation's generosity the Faculty will be renamed "The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences." American Friends of the Hebrew University (AFHU) is launching a $15 million fund-raising campaign, seeking support from other American philanthropists and foundations.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is located on three campuses in Jerusalem and a fourth in Rehovot, is one of the world's leading academic and research institutions. Faculty and alumni have won six Nobel Prizes in the past five years."

Source: $15 million gift to Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Staten Island Advance (9 May 2008) [FullText]

Court sentences two men to 9 years in prison for robbing elderly woman from Rehovot

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:30:00 +0000

The Tel Aviv District Court sentenced Mustafa Ziad and Shadi Fahida to nine years in prison for robbing an elderly woman from Rehovot. In February 2007, the two broke into 79-year-old Aida Gravibecker's apartment, pressed a knife blade against her neck and stole her wallet, cash, check books, clock, medals, chain and even food from her refridgerator.

Gravibecker was badly injured and needed medical treatment.

In the sentencing, the judge said that there have been too many similar cases of late, where an innocent and helpless victim is attacked and robbed.

Both Ziad and Fahida pleaded innocent, but the court ruled that their testimonies were false.

"Fahida's lies were so obvious," the judge ruled, "he had trouble wiping the smile off his face while giving his ridiculous testimony."

The judge also praised Gravibecker for her courage to come and testify in court despite the trauma and the fact that she does not know Hebrew.

The 79-year-old woman told the court how she had been tied up for 40 minutes until she managed to escape and call for help.

Source: Ofra Idelman. Court sentences two men to 9 years in prison for robbing elderly woman. Haaretz.com (5 May 2008) [FullText]

Rehovot Mayor Faces Indictment, IsraelNN says

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Thu, 15 May 2008 05:37:00 +0000

According to http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/146348, the mayor of Rehovot, Shuky Forer, will be charged with breach of trust and conspiracy to commit a crime for allegedly violating campaign funding laws, State Prosecutor’s Office workers announced Sunday. Forer has been under investigation since 2003. Other senior city officials face charges as well.

Sources close to Forer, who is backed by the Kadima party, expressed confidence that the charges against him “amount to nothing” and would be dismissed. Sources quoted in Yediot Acharonot hinted that the indictment was timed to hurt Forer’s chances of re-election.

Reporting from Rehovot: Turning 60, Israelis feel pride, Palestinians pain

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:18:00 +0000

By Rebecca Harrison

"Like the state of Israel, Akram al-Shamali and Moshe Feist both turn 60 this year. But that's about where the similarities end.

For Feist, an Israeli, the anniversary is a chance to celebrate the Jewish state's hard-fought achievements and swap stories of survival and patriotism over a glass of local wine.

For Shamali, it is time to mourn the Nakba, or "catastrophe", when 700,000 Palestinians, his own family among them, fled in fear of Jewish attacks as violence mounted. He lives in the Gaza Strip, where Islamist rule makes alcohol taboo and an Israeli blockade cuts into any festivities.

Their opposing views on the conflict into which they were born reflect lives lived in close proximity -- they grew up about 60 km (37 miles) from each other -- but worlds apart.

Shamali slept in his mother's arms in April 1948 as she fled the family home in Jaffa, a biblical city now a part of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv but for centuries a bustling Arab port. He has never since set foot in his parents' house, but dreams of one day reclaiming it.

"I don't know how or when, but one day I will go back to our house in Jaffa," Shamali told Reuters in an interview at his dimly lit Gaza City office. "I feel it in my heart."

The son of a German farm worker who fled Nazi Germany for a kibbutz in British-ruled Palestine, Feist was born a few months later than Shamali into the infant state of Israel, created as a haven for Jews after six million died in the Holocaust in Europe.

For Feist, Jaffa and other towns are now an inseparable part of his homeland and his view is that Palestinians gave up their rights there decades ago.

"You can't come back and say 'my mother used to live here 50 years ago and it is mine now'. So what?" Feist told Reuters at his airy apartment in Rehovot, near Tel Aviv. "The Arabs didn't want to live with the Jews so they left. No one pushed them."..."

Source: Rebecca Harrison. Turning 60, Israelis feel pride, Palestinians pain. Reuters.com (6 May 2008) [FullText]

Funding, funding... Rehovot mayor to be indicted for fraud

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:31:00 +0000

Kadima-backed Mayor Shuky Forer to be indicted for alleged breaches of election funding law following hearing

The State Prosecutor's Office has informed Rehovot Mayor Shuky Forer on Sunday that it plans to indict him for breach of trust and conspiracy to commit a crime. Other senior municipality officials will be indicted for even graver offenses.

The investigation against Forer was launched in 2003, but only recently materialized into an indictment. The suspicions against Forer date back to 1998, the year he became mayor, and relate to alleged breaches of the election funding law.

The State Prosecution informed Forer's attorneys Sunday that he may be charged with perjury, conspiracy to commit a crime, breach of trust and other offenses.

The decision on whether or not to indict the Kadima-backed Rehovot mayor will be finalized following a hearing scheduled to be held this week.

Forer declined to comment on the affair, but his associates hinted that the timing of the indictment was "dubious" given the approaching local elections in November.

They also stated that "there is a huge gap between the original suspicions and the final indictment draft, and we believe that the state prosecutor (Moshe Lador) will realize during the hearing that the current charges amount to nothing."

Source: Eli Senyor. Rehovot mayor to be indicted for fraud. Ynetnews.com (11 May 2008) [FullText]

Anti-bacterial material developer Rehovot's Sure Inter. raises $5m

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:20:00 +0000

"Anti-bacterial material developer Sure raises $5m. Wanaka Capital Partners and C. Mer Industries invested in the company.

Anti-bacterial material developer Sure International Ltd. has raised $5 million from Wanaka Capital Partners and C. Mer Industries Ltd. (TASE: CMER). The Rehovot-based company products target the healthcare, food, environmental, and industrial markets.
Sure's anti-bacterial and anti-fungal materials can be integrated into plastics, preventing the reproduction of bacteria and fungi spores. The company was founded by Dr. Uriel (Uri) Halavee and Dr. Shmuel Bukshpan..."

Source: Gali Weinreb. Anti-bacterial material developer Sure raises $5m. Globes.co.il (7 May 08) [FullText]

Gadna pre-army program recruits Rehovot pupils, tries to restore IDF's Appeal

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Sun, 11 May 2008 10:57:00 +0000

By Shelly Paz

"It always amazes me to see how they become soldiers within two minutes. We explain to them that the uniforms they wear are real uniforms, uniforms that are worn by soldiers who fight or even die in them."

The speaker is Maj. Keren Kamerinsky, 32, commander of the Tzalmon Gadna base, near Karmiel, which simulates boot camp training five days a week, year-round, for 320 teenagers at a time.

Kamerinsky a mother of two from Kibbutz Beit Zera, on the southern shore of Lake Kinneret, described her staff's efforts to motivate the future soldiers to serve in the IDF, speaking at the end of another week of training youths who will be drafted within two years.

About a quarter of future inductees get their first taste of army life during a weeklong Gadna program while they are in 11th grade.

Gadna, an acronym for Hebrew Youth Battalions, was established in the early 1940s by the Hagana, which after independence became the core of the IDF.

Thousands of Gadna members fought in the War of Independence. Until 1990, Gadna focused on instilling patriotic values in Israeli youth and encouraging Diaspora youth to make aliya.

Nowadays it concentrates on stemming the increasing draft-dodging by Israelis.

Thus, the army sends youth instructors into schools starting around the 10th grade. These soldiers provide pupils with information about military service, the roles they can play, the recruitment process and more.

If the schools' principals approve it, the pupils go on a "Gadna Week" in 11th grade. During their last year in high school, they are prepared for filling out IDF forms for the units to which they would like to be assigned. Fewer and fewer high schools send their 11th-graders on Gadna weeks.

Sending all youngsters on a Gadna week, authorities believe, would help curb the draft-dodging and would restore the fading attraction of military service.

Besides Tzalmon, two other IDF bases operate under the Education and Youth Corps: the Sde Boker base in the South, which can accommodate 450 pupils a week, and Juara base, near Yokne'am, which can accommodate 220.

The Tzalmon staff emphasizes that the program is not limited to physical training such as camping, night treks and the use of weapons; a great part of the week is devoted to learning about the army - its units, combat ethics, commitment to bringing home captive soldiers and, above all, the importance of serving in the IDF.

"We want them to leave here understanding what happens if they don't enlist. My staff speaks with them a lot on this issue, even if it means one-on-one talks," Kamerinsky said. "Our goal is to motivate Israeli youth to aspire to a meaningful service in the IDF. We do it by giving them their first positive experience in the military system."

Outside Kamerinsky's office, pupils from Kfar Saba's Galili High School were drilling for a military ceremony, which their parents were invited to attend. The school's principal, Dr. Rami Amitai - a retired IDF colonel - has turned this event into a school tradition.

Meanwhile, 79 pupils from WIZO Rehovot and 80 from Ankori Rishon Lezion, who spent the week in Tzalmon as well, were busy packing up memories into their fashionable backpacks before heading home.

Donning uniforms was not the most natural thing for them - nor was the outdoor camping.

"I was shocked on the first day we arrived here. We got off the buses and right away they started ordering us around and told us to stand in two lines. I didn't think it would be so serious," Galili student Nirit Teller, 18, said Thursday as her team was tidying their room in preparation for the morning inspection.

"When we first came here, our commander told us to drop our bags and to run and stand at attention. None of us knew what 'attention' was, let alone what was it meant to 'drop and give her 20,'" said fellow Galili student Michal Fedler, 16, shortly after firing a gun for the first time in her life.

"It was very scary at first, because shooting is something you don't know anything about and only soldiers do. When the commander ordered [us to] fire, I took my time, aimed at the target. I didn't do badly at all," Fedler said, sounding proud as she held up her target sheet. "Now I feel like enlisting in the army."

According to the Education Ministry, out of the 60,000 Israeli 11th-graders designated for mandatory military service, 30,000 were supposed to go on the weeklong Gadna program during this school year. However, only 15,000 will go, due to the long teachers' strike at the beginning of the year. On average, some 19,000 11th-graders go on a Gadna week annually.

The Education Ministry said in a statement, "The training is offered to principals of high schools in the periphery, high schools that have high numbers of new immigrants, high schools with a low percentage of actual enlistment, high schools that embrace the preparatory program for serving in the IDF, and others."

The ministry did not detail the cost of a Gadna week per student as the The Jerusalem Post requested.

Most 11th-graders do not attend a Gadna week, and this means of motivating teens to volunteer for the demanding and dangerous IDF units is being criticized as well as being praised.

"The Gadna is part of an entire system that prepares the youth for their enlistment, but more than that, it prepares them for a certain worldview of conflict. The Gadna is also a socialization system. I think it is not the place of the army to educate our children," Prof. Daniel Bar-Tal of Tel Aviv University's School of Education told the Post.

"Today's reality is different from the Israeli reality in the '50s. The reality of the army entering schools, and even kindergartens, is unique to Israel. The military echelon in Israel has unlimited influence on Israeli society. The Winograd Committee [that investigated the Second Lebanon War] pointed to this problem, which creates an unhealthy society [in which] members know very well how to shoot and fight but are paralyzed when it comes to solving the conflict through alternative means such as a peace process," Bar-Tal said... Read on full article at article source

Source: Shelly Paz. Gadna pre-army program tries to restore IDF's appeal. JPost.com (13 April 2008) [FullText]

SOS! Please help an invalid find his apparently stollen trike

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Sat, 10 May 2008 18:10:00 +0000

Hello, I am an invalid 100%. On May 9 in Rishon LeZion my trike (that I use as an invalid mobility chair) was stollen. Trike is blue, please see photo. I kindly ask you to let me know when/if someone see it. My contacts are: (054)537-3083 or email: mlantsman[at]bezeqint.net . Many thanks in advance.

New program by Rehovot academic institute teaches science and math teachers

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:51:00 +0000

A new program at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot is aimed at raising the low level of Israeli high-school pupils knowledge of scientific subjects and math that has been exposed in recent years in international comparison studies.

The innovative "Caesarea Program" will soon be inaugurated at the Rehovot institute. Made possible by the Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Foundation, it will offer masters' degrees in science education to outstanding high-school and middle-school science and math teachers. The three-year curriculum, prepared by Weizmann faculty members, will include studies designed to broaden and deepen scientific knowledge, meetings with scientists working at the cutting edge of research and practice in applying innovative approaches to teaching. Participants will also conduct research in the field of science teaching and gain first-hand experience in leading original initiatives.

Teachers will study two days a week for the first two years and one day a week in the third year. The rest of the week, the participants can continue their normal teaching duties. Participants will be selected on the basis of recommendations and personal interviews, and each will receive a study grant in addition to an exemption from tuition.

For teachers who already have advanced degrees, the program offers a multi-track option that will integrate practical studies with research. Participants in this branch of the program are also eligible for study scholarships. A continuing education program will be offered to those who finish either track, in collaboration with the science teaching department and other scientific departments at Weizmann, and with the Davidson Institute of Science Education, which also conducts its activities there. The continuing program will support participants in developing and implementing innovative science education projects.

The Caesarea Program is open to outstanding science and math teachers who have at least three years of experience. Those teachers chosen to participate are required to commit themselves to teaching for at least another three years. Interested candidates can write to Miriam Carmeli at miriam.carmeli[at]weizmann.ac.il.

Source: Judy Siegel Itzkovich. New Worlds: New program teaches science and math teachers. Health and SciTech. JPost.com (3 May 2008) [FullText]

Tel Aviv court sentences 'DNA Rapist' to 25 years in prison

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:35:00 +0000

"Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday sentenced Eitan Farhi, known to police as the "DNA Rapist," to 25 years in prison for raping and sodomizing two women over the course of two years.

The first rape involves a 20-year-old woman from Tel Aviv who had left her apartment to take out the trash. The second victim was a 16-year-old girl who was attacked while walking home from a youth group activity in Rehovot.

Farhi, 40, was also convicted of public indecent assault, rape by aggravated assault, acts of sodomy, suborning perjury, robbery and attacking a police officer. The attacks occurred in the center of the country, but he was convicted on account of a DNA sample that he gave to police after being questioned for the 2006 murder of Anat Pleiner, a lawyer from Ramat Hasharon.

Throughout the trial, Farhi's defense attorneys, Amikam Hadar and Hedva Shapira, argued against the case's legality, pointing out that the evidence being used against their client was obtained in an unjust manner. They claim that the DNA sample Farhi gave them in the framework of a murder trial has since been held by the police illegally. Farhi's defense lawyers argued that it was illegal to compare the DNA sample given as evidence in an unrelated murder trial with the sperm found in the rape crime scenes, and to use such evidence to convict their client of rape..."

Source: Ofra Edelman, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service. Tel Aviv court sentences 'DNA Rapist' to 25 years in prison. Haaretz.com (6 May 2008) [FullText]

A quiet bullet-making business. Next to Rehovot and Weizmann/Rabin Science Hi Tech Park

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Sun, 04 May 2008 08:43:00 +0000

"Looking for something different to do to mark Israel's 60th Independence Year? The Ayalon Institute offers history buffs a short but unforgettable trip down memory lane, located less than a 15-minute walk from the Rehovot train station. "Machon Ayalon" (the Ayalon Institute) was the Hagana's code name for a clandestine underground ammunitions factory on the outskirts of Rehovot. The factory operated between 1945 and 1948, camouflaged as a new kibbutz supposedly being established by graduates of the Israeli scouts (Tzofim) on the site of an abandoned agricultural training camp called Kibbutz Hill.

It was here that a select group of Palmah members - graduates of the scouts who dreamed of establishing a fishing kibbutz on the Mediterranean coast - patriotically agreed to spend their days in a poorly-ventilated concrete cellar. In three years, they produced two million 9-mm bullets for the homemade British-designed Sten submachine guns that played a critical role in defending the Yishuv in the first stages of the War of Independence, prior to the arrival of 10,000 Czech rifles in April 1948.

For 38 years, the abandoned site on the outskirts of Rehovot, back-to-back with the Kiryat Weizmann Science Park, remained pretty much secret. Then the Rehovot Municipality, Israel Military Industries and Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael - whose settlement group had operated the secret facility before establishing the kibbutz itself - banded together to restore the site. While the Ayalon Institute Museum opened to the public on Independence Day 1986, more than two decades later many Israelis remain unaware that it exists.

The museum, a cluster of nondescript buildings surrounded by peeling eucalyptus trees that now serves as a Society for the Protection of Nature field school, doesn't look like much. But back in the days when they comprised Kibbutz Tzofim Alef, the buildings' drab Spartan look was part of an elaborate stage setting. For three years, most of the kibbutz members, busy milking cows and minding children, were extras in a drama they knew nothing about. The kibbutz façade was only abandoned once Israel declared its independence in May 1948 and arms manufacturing became legal.

At the heart of this bogus pioneering venture was the kibbutz laundry, which housed the secret entrance to an eight-meter-wide and 33-meter-long subterranean production floor that had been dug four meters underground. Here the ammunition was manufactured. The hall was accessed through a hole in the floor located under the kibbutz's 15-ton industrial washing machine that lifted and swiveled aside at the touch of a button - once pressed by mistake by a new arrival to the kibbutz who wandered in when everyone was at lunch, wanting to wash her clothes. The machine worked non-stop, doing mountains of laundry not only for the kibbutz members but also for Rehovot residents and a nearby maternity hospital. The noise of the washing machine and the laundry's antiquated hot-water boilers muffled the sound of the 30 bullet-making machines operating below, not to mention a makeshift shooting range employed for quality control tests.

The bullet-making machines are a story in themselves. As early as 1931, the Hagana had sent one of its members to learn bullet manufacturing in Germany. The machines were bought as "scrap metal" in 1938 from a defunct Polish ammunition factory by the Hagana's legendary arms dealer, Effi Arazi. Arazi had the machines overhauled and managed to get them out of Poland, although the equipment played hide-and-seek with British Intelligence - only arriving in Mandate Palestine in 1941 after making its way overland in the middle of World War II via Beirut and Damascus.

To add a disguising clang of metal to the cacophony created by the laundry operation, a carpentry shop that produced prefabs and a metal shop that made springless metal bed frames - the infamous mitot Sochnut (Jewish Agency-distributed beds) of yesteryear - were set up next door. The metal shop provided, in addition to the din, an explanation for the piles of oil-soaked, metallic-smelling work clothes that hardly could have been dirtied collecting eggs or weeding the kibbutz's vegetable garden. An emergency exit at the other end of the production hall was located under the kibbutz bakery - concealed under a brick oven that, like the washing machine, lifted and swung open at the flick of a switch..."

Source: Daniella Ashkenazy. A quiet bullet-making business. LocalIsrael.JPost.com (4 May 2008) [FullText and photos]

Rehovot scientists, activists debate if genetically modified foods are panacea or plague

noreply@blogger.com (MyRehovot.info) — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:24:00 +0000

The debate on genetically engineered crops could delay progress in addressing the global shortage of staple foods, Prof. Gad Galili of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot said Wednesday.

"Distribution of new, genetically engineered crops can help solve world hunger, but the question is where they are used," said Prof. Ayal Kimhi, head of teaching at the Hebrew University's Department of Agricultural Economics.

"If they're used in the US and Europe to increase production and send surpluses to poor countries, it will not solve the problem in poor countries, because farmers there would not be able to make a living" faced with competition from the cheaper imports, Kimhi said. "I think something positive that will come out of this crisis is an understanding that we need to change the agricultural policies in the West."

At a lecture at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Galili, of the Department of Plant Sciences, spoke of the benefits and hazards of genetically modified organisms.

"Between a quarter and half a million children in developing children go blind every year as a result of vitamin A deficiency, and many of them die," he said.

The United Nations resolved in 2002 to end vitamin A deficiency, but despite the distribution of vitamin supplements there had not been much progress, Galili said.

"The question is, can we solve this using genetic engineering?" he said, pointing to a photo of a grain of rice.

The outer shell of rice grains produces vitamin A, but the inside, consumed as conventional white rice, does not, Galili said.

"The tradition in developing countries is to process rice grains in a way that it loses its shell," he said. "And since these are countries where pride is very important, the only way is to try and create vitamin A on the inside of rice grains as well."

According to Galili, this cannot be done by regular breeding, but only via genetic engineering.

By transferring six different genes from the shell to the core, scientists have created vitamin A-rich golden rice. Adults only need 300 grams of golden rice to satisfy their daily vitamin A requirement, Galili said.

Genetically modified organisms can also be more resistant to disease, pesticides, drought and temperature fluctuations, as well as higher in protein, vitamins, minerals and amino acids, Galili said.

But the golden rice and some other genetically modified organisms have yet to be tested or enter the market because of the controversy and public concern that surround the issue.

"There are ethical reasons, that God is the creator of new life forms; health issues, concerning long-term effects; ecological concerns - what would happen if GMO breed with other plants? And a lot of commercial concerns, that someone will find a way to profit off from this," Galili said.

Although scientists do not know the long-term effects of genetically modified organisms consumption, Galili said they were safer than conventionally interbred ones because scientists had full control over all the variables in the gene transfer.

As for the risk of contamination, Galili said, "If you put a virus into GMO, it will spread. But we safeguard it, there are expert committees that approve GMO, and one thing is certain: If someone wanted to insert a virus genome, or there was a contamination risk, it would not be approved."

Source: Gal Tziperman Lotan. Scientists, activists debate if genetically modified foods are panacea or plague. JPost.com (30 April 2008) [FullText]