National symbols and fast facts
Israel small but outstanding
National Anthem - Hatikvah
Science and technology in Israel
Israeli innovation
Gas fields
The Dead Sea Scrolls
IAF fly over Auschwitz
Interesting facts about Israel
Ehud Barak article
National Symbols
Israel Flag
The flag of the State of Israel is based on the design of the Jewish prayer shawl (tallit), with a blue Shield of David (Magen David). 
National Emblem
The official emblem of the State of Israel is a candelabrum (menorah). The olive branches on either side represent Israel's yearning for peace.
Fast Facts
Population Capital Language Currency Dialing code
8,081,000 Jerusalem Hebrew, Arabic New Israeli +972
Shekel
Electricity
230V / 50Hz
National Anthem - Hatikvah
To view, download, or print the page (above) open this PDF file: National Anthem - Hatikvah
Science and technology in Israel
Science and technology in Israel is one of
the country's most developed sectors. The percentage of Israelis engaged in
scientific and technological inquiry, and the amount spent on research and
development (R&D) in relation to gross domestic product (GDP), is the
highest in the world. Israel ranks fourth in the world in scientific activity
as measured by the number of scientific publications per million citizens.
Israel's percentage of the total number of scientific articles published
worldwide is almost 10 times higher than its percentage of the world's
population. Israel boasts the highest number of scientists, technicians, and
engineers per capita in the world with 140 scientists, technicians, and
engineers per 10,000 employees. In comparison, the same is 85 per 10,000 in the
United States and 83 per 10,000 in Japan. Israeli scientists have contributed
to the advancement of agriculture, computer sciences, electronics, genetics,
health care, optics, solar energy and various fields of engineering. Israel is
home to major players in the high tech industry and has one of the world's most
technologically-literate populations. Google's Chairman Eric Schmidt
complimented the country during a visit there, saying that “Israel has the most
important high-tech center in the world after the US.”
Israel is among the few
countries capable of launching satellites into orbit and locally designed and
manufactured satellites have been produced and launched by Israel Aerospace Industries
(IAI), Israel's largest military engineering company, in cooperation with the
Israel Space Agency. Israel also develops, manufactures, and exports a large
number of related aerospace products, including display systems, aeronautical
computers, instrumentation systems, drones and flight simulators. Israel's
second largest defense company is Elbit Systems, which makes electro-optical
systems for air, sea and ground forces; drones; control and monitoring systems;
communications systems and more.
With Dan Senor co author of the book "Start Up Nation"
Israeli innovation
AshPoopie, the brainchild of renowned biotech inventor Prof. Oded Shoseyov of the Hebrew University, is a pooper-scooper with a revolutionary difference: Just press a button and the Ashpoopie extends over the poop. Press a second button to pick up the dog droppings and within seconds the AshPoopie turns them into odorless, sterile ash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhTHIsRDll0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhTHIsRDll0
Love detectors and lie detectors
Netanya-based Nemesysco makes layered voice analysis (LVA) software products that can turn a desktop computer into a highly sensitive stress and lie detector that can detect love and other relevant emotions over a Skype or telephone conversation – in just milliseconds through normal speech.
http://www.nemesysco.com
http://www.nemesysco.com
PillCam
PillCam
SB is the most widely used, patient-friendly tool for directly visualizing the
small bowel to detect and monitor abnormalities. This procedure is the standard
of care for small bowel evaluation, helping healthcare practitioners detect the
presence of lesions and what may be the source of obscure GI bleeding, Crohn’s
disease and iron deficiency anemia.
Waze
GPS-based
geographical navigation application program for smartphones with GPS support
and display screens, which provides turn-by-turn information and user-submitted
travel times and route details, downloading location-dependent information over
the mobile telephone network. Waze Ltd., which was founded in 2008 in
Israel by Uri Levine, software engineer Ehud Shabtai, and Amir Shinar, and is
now available in over 100 countries, was acquired by Google for a
reported $1.1 billion.
Waze is the world's fastest-growing community-based traffic and
navigation app. Join other drivers in your area who share real-time traffic and
road info, saving everyone time and gas money on their daily commute.
Bamba
Music
MUSIC (Multi Spectral Infrared
Countermeasure) – a system that counter surface-to-air heat-seeking missiles.
It is manufactured by Elbit Systems
Merkavah Tank - Chariot
A tank optimized for crew
survival and rapid repair of battle damage.
Chetz חץ (Arrow)
Netafim
Netafim is a worldwide pioneer in smart drip and micro-irrigation, starting from the idea of Israeli engineer Simcha Blass for releasing water in controlled, slow drips to provide precise crop irrigation. The kibbutz-owned company operates in 112 countries with 13 factories throughout the world.
Ormat Technologies
Ormat designs, develops, builds, owns, manufactures and operates geothermal power plants worldwide, supplying clean geothermal power in more than 20 countries.
Pythagoras Solar
This is the world’s first solar window, which combines energy efficiency, power generation and transparency. This transparent photo-voltaic glass unit can be easily integrated into conventional building design and construction processes.
Dead Sea - Ahava
Ahava
Iron Dome
This system is part of a 3 tier system. The other two components are the Chetz חץ (Arrow) 2, and 3 missiles, for mid-range and long-range defense from incoming ballistic (space) missiles. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S.-funded Israeli developed missile defense system known as Iron Dome performed “remarkably well” in defending Israel against Hamas rockets. Panetta said the system intercepted about 400 rockets fired at Israel, or about 85 percent of those targeted by its radar and battle-management system as heading toward populated areas.
Gas fields
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| The recently found offshore gas fields of Leviathan, Tamar, and Tanin give Israel a historic chance at energy independence. |
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The discovery of the first Dead Sea Scrolls in a remote Judea Desert cave in 1947 is widely considered the greatest archaeological event of the twentieth century. Bedouin treasure hunters and archaeologists ultimately found the remains of hundreds of ancient scrolls. These fragile pieces of parchment and papyrus, including the oldest existing copies of the Hebrew Bible, were preserved for two thousand years by the hot, dry desert climate and the darkness of the caves where they were placed. The scrolls provide an unprecedented picture of the diverse religious beliefs of ancient Judaism, and of daily life during the turbulent Second Temple period when Jesus lived and preached.
Fragments of every book of the Hebrew Bible (except the Book of Esther) were found in the Qumran caves, the most famous of the Dead Sea Scrolls sites. Remarkably, some of these ancient copies are identical to the traditional text of the Hebrew Bible that is used today. Other copies preserve differences in the text, which was in the process of standardization.
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The Qumran caves
|
To learn more and to explore the scrolls, go to the Leon Levi Dead Sea Scrolls digital library website.
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Genesis, Qumran Scrolls
|
Interesting Facts About Israel
Israel:
Diverse, Creative, and Free
Israel, the 100th
smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can
make claim to the following:
Israel has the highest
ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.
Israel produces more
scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin -109 per
10,000 people - as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.
In proportion to its
population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In
absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any
other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
Israel is ranked #2 in
the world for venture capital funds right behind the US.
Outside the United States
and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.
Israel has the highest
average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income
in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.
With an aerial arsenal of
over 250 F-16s, Israel has the largest fleet of the aircraft outside of the US.
Israel's $100 billion
economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.
On a per capita basis,
Israel has the largest number of biotech start-ups.
Israel has the largest
raptor migration in the world, with hundreds of thousands of African birds of
prey crossing as they fan out into Asia.
Twenty-four percent of
Israel's workforce holds university degrees - ranking third in the
industrialized world, after the United States and Holland - and 12 percent hold
advanced degrees.
Israel is the only
liberal democracy in the Middle East.
In 1984 and 1991, Israel
airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews at risk in Ethiopia to safety in
Israel.
When Golda Meir was
elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected
female leader in modern times.
When the U.S. Embassy in
Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene
within a day - and saved three victims from the rubble.
Israel has the third
highest rate of entrepreneurship - and the highest rate among women and among
people over 55 - in the world.
Relative to its
population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth.
Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic
opportunity.
Israel was the first
nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard
that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."
According to industry
officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight
security. U.S. officials now look to Israel for advice on how to handle
airborne security threats.
Israel's Maccabi
basketball team won the European championships in 2001.
Israeli tennis player
Anna Smashnova is the 15th ranked female player in the world.
Mighty Morphin' Power
Rangers was produced by Haim Saban, an Israeli whose family fled persecution in
Egypt.
In 1991, during the Gulf
War, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra played a concert wearing gas masks as
scud missiles fired by Saddam Hussein fell on Tel Aviv.
Israel has the world's
second highest per capita of new books.
Israel is the only
country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its
number of trees.
Israel has more museums
per capita than any other country.
Israel has two official
languages: Hebrew and Arabic.
Medicine...
Israeli scientists
developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic
instrumentation for breast cancer.
An Israeli company
developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration
of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in
U.S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.
Israel's Givun imaging
developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill.
Used to view the small intestine from the inside, the camera helps doctors
diagnose cancer and digestive disorders.
Researchers in Israel
developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation
with the potential to save lives among those with congestive heart failure. The
new device is synchronized with the heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated
system of sensors.
Technology...
With more than 3,000 high-tech companies
and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the
world (apart from the Silicon Valley).
In response to serious
water shortages, Israeli engineers and agriculturalists developed a
revolutionary drip irrigation system to minimize the amount of water used to
grow crops.
Israel has the highest
percentage in the world of home computers per capita.
Israel leads the world in
the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000,
as opposed to 85 in the U.S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany.
With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel
places first in this category as well.
The cell phone was
developed in Israel by Motorola, which has its largest development center in
Israel.
Most of the Windows NT
operating system was developed by Microsoft-Israel.
The Pentium MMX Chip
technology was designed in Israel at Intel.
Voice mail technology was
developed in Israel.
Both Microsoft and Cisco
built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.
The technology for AOL
Instant Messenger was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
A new acne treatment
developed in Israel, the ClearLight device, produces a high-intensity,
ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to
self-destruct - all without damaging surroundings skin or tissue.
An Israeli company was
the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully
functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave
desert.
Credits: Jewish Agency For Israel (Hatikvah Poster)
The Leon Levi Dead Sea Scrolls digital library
The Jewish Federation of the North Shore
Copyright © 2014 Joseph Yossi Greber, All rights reserved.
This material is intended for educational use only.
I rely on the fair use of this website.
© כל הזכויות שמורות
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