Israeli Stamps

When I was growing up in New York, I used to collect stamps. I collected from all over the world but I had the most stamps from Israel. I stopped actively collecting over 25 years ago.
Several years ago I decided to join the Israel stamp service. 3-4 times a year the Israeli postal service sends me all the new stamps issued, together with the first day covers and an English and Hebrew flyer describing the stamp. The flyers are very educational and helps one understand the theme of the specific stamp.
Today I received the stamps issued in February and I scanned and posted the stamps, first day covers and flyers on my website at:
http://www.jr.co.il/pictures/stamps/index-2007.html

One of the "cool" things about Israeli stamps is that the postal authority has issued many stamps with Jewish themes. The stamps range from Jewish holidays (check out the Purim ones) to stamps honoring great Rabbis and leaders. On my website I setup different sections with these cool stamps. I especially like the stamps that relate current issues and places to their biblical roots. You can check out all the stamps sections at:
http://www.jr.co.il/pictures/stamps/index.html
Enjoy!
Jacob

Vounteers in Israel

One of the hidden treasures about Israelis and Israeli society is the number of people that do volunteer work to help others.

Why do I call it hidden ? Well, it is not the type of story that appears on the front page (or back) page of your daily newspaper.
Whether it is working in a hospital as a trained medical clown (think of how this affects the kids in the children's ward) or volunteering for the traffic police, the variety of volunteer programs in Israel is amazing.

For example:
Yad Sarah, the largest voluntary organization in Israel, provides a spectrum of free or nominal cost services designed to make life easier for sick, disabled and elderly people and their families.
They have 103 branches in Israel and over 6,000 volunteers. They also lend out medical equipment for free to anyone that needs it.

Another organization that has thousands of volunteers is Meir Panim. They are best know for proving thousands of meals each day to the needy.

These are just two examples from many.

By the way, you do not have to be a resident to volunteer in Israel. Besides the various Israeli programs, there are special ones that are tailored to people visiting Israel. Some even include touring the country and learning some Hebrew while working. There are even programs that will give you the opportunity to help the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). I know people that participated in the Sar-El program (doing work on army bases or hospitals) and had a great time.

If you are interesting in volunteering, I have a list of organizations with volunteer programs at:
http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/i-vol.htm
I also have a list of non-profits in Israel which I am sure would welcome help:
http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/i-nonpr.htm

Doing volunteer work helps everyone including yourself.
Give it a try. It will make a difference.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jacob

Purim in Israel

How do you know that Purim is on the way in Israel ?

The first sign is that supermarkets are beginning to sell packages of Hamantaschen (Purim pastries). Yesterday in the supermarket I saw the first packages. The range of flavors of this triangle shaped pastry (Haman the bad guy wore a triangle hat??) is very wide.
Poppy seed, dates, apricot, chocolate, strawberry, etc....
Angles' bakery in Jerusalem has non-sugar, chocolate filled Oznei Haman ("Haman's Ears") - this is what they are called in Israel. I have tasted these "dietetic" ones more than once. They taste very good but I am sure you are not supposed to eat the whole package in one day :-)

The second sign in Israel that Purim is approaching are the advertisements for Purim costumes that will soon appear in all the newspapers. I wonder what this year's costume fad will be ?
I think the present day Haman in Iran will be in fashion.
May his fate be the same as Haman of Purim.

Purim falls on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar.
This year Purim begins Saturday night March 3, 2007.
(In Jerusalem, it is celebrated one day later.)

In order to start preparing for this fun-filled, Jewish holiday, I updated my Purim hotsites list with 95 links to websites with everything ranging from laws and customs to games and recipes. Site languages include English, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and German.
Today I reviewed / checked all 95 links. They all work.
The address is:
http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/j-hdaypu.htm
I also have a humor page with funny stuff related to Purim.
The address is:
http://www.jr.co.il/humor/purim.htm
Additional items are welcome!

Enjoy!

Shabbat Shalom,
Jacob

Tu B'Shvat - The New Year for Trees

This week many of the supermarkets in Israel have special food displays with packaged dried fruit. What is the occasion ?

This Saturday (Shabbat), February 3, is Tu B'Shvat - The New Year for Trees. This Jewish mini-holiday is of major importance to our appreciation of nature and our relationship to it. It is customary to plant trees and partake of the fruits of the land of Israel to mark the occasion. This year Tu B'Shvat falls on Shabbat - therefore many of the holiday activities this year will take place on Thursday, February 1.

When I was a kid back in the 60's in the USA, I remember going door to door collecting money for the Jewish National Fund to plant trees in Israel. Today I can travel all over Israel and see the actual trees. There is something very special about celebrating Jewish holidays in Israel.

For those that are interested in learning more, I have collected a list of 55 websites that have information and activities relating to Tu'Bshvat. The address is:
http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/j-hdaytu.htm

Have a Happy Jewish Arbor Day!
Jacob

Telecommunications in Israel

Today I am launching a new website called: Learn English
http://www.learn-english.co.il
Eight people living all over Israel (and myself) worked on the development of the website. The programmer lives in Haifa and the translators live in Rechovot, Bet Shemesh, Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim. The reader lives in Jerusalem and the sound studio is in Jerusalem. I did not have to meet anyone during the whole project. All the work was done via telephone and email. Before the summer I launched two other sites (Learn Hebrew and Learn Spanish) and the development was also directed from my home in Ma'aleh Adumim. In fact, I never met the programmer and some of the translators in person. I paid them via check or direct transfer to their banks.

Over the past several years working from home in Israel has become an option for many people working in the computer field including programmers, technical writers, grahic artists and other IT positions. However, it is not just computers. Other professions like sales, marketing, customer support and even the medical fields are jumping into telecommuting. For example, there are licensed radiologists that work here for US hospitals that need extra help on the US night shift. All this could not be done without a good communications infrastructure connecting Israel to the world.

Israel has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world. Last year it was reported that 65% of households surf through fast Internet.There are two ways that most people hookup to fast Internet in Israel: via Bezeq's ADSL service or through the Hot cable company. All Internet providers in Israel support both of these types of connections. Based on feedback from friends, both types of services today are reliable. Most of the problems people sometimes have are usually centered around the Internet Service Provider they choose. I have had the good fortune to be a happy camper with the same ISP for several years now. I also maintain the same cellular company and overseas phone service for the past few years. Every few months I check out the prices of competing companies to see if the market is changing. I have changed plans more then once to get a better deal. Many people do not know about price reductions or specials - you have to ask. If you do not ask, you will not know. Some of the companies are offering package deals including Internet, local phone service and overseas calls. The advent of voice over IP is driving prices down. Israeli communication companies are constantly revising their deals due to competition. Competition is good!!

For those that have not yet visited Israel, you will be glad to know that there are many cities across the country where you can find wi-fi hotspots to surf the Internet from your notebook computer or PDA. I do not have a notebook but I am pretty sure that the wi-fi hookup instructions will be also in English. Now that you can stay connected while you are here, why not spend you next vacation in Israel ? Drop me an email when you get here.
Shavua Tov,
Have a good week,
Jacob

Israel and Solar Energy

Did you know that an Israeli company created the largest solar energy field in the world ?

Between 1984 and 1990, an Israeli company called Luz, built the world's largest solar energy fields in the Mojave Desert in California. The system created is based on a solar thermal system that heats liquid to very hot temperatures which is then used to make steam that drives a turbine to make electricity. The Luz solar fields continue to operate today and the Israeli company Solel will be upgrading the system with newer technology that will increase the efficiency of Luz's solar fields by up to 50%.

Did you know that back in 1980, Israel made a law requiring every new building to have solar water heaters ?

Today 95% of Israeli households have them, saving between 2% and 3% of the country's electricity needs each year. Israel is still number one in the world in use of solar power to heat its water.

There are several companies in Israel working on energy innovations using the sun as a power source. What is great about power from the sun is that it does not pollute and after the initial cost of the equipment, the ongoing costs are very low compared to fossil fuels. Some people may ask what do you do at night ? First, most of the heavy electric usage is during the day when the sun shines. Secondly, I believe that the recent advances in battery technology will eventually allow commercial and home users the abiliy to store the power generated during the day and use this power at night. In fact, when the battery technology improves, the chances are very good that electric vehicles (using batteries and electric motors instead of gas engines) will become more common and economical. Some people even say that besides running your car, the batteries will be able to be a backup for your home electricity use if there is a power outage. Sounds great does n't it ? If you would like to read more about adavnces in the energy fields, I have a website with links to all kinds of energy websites and articles at:
http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/edu-energy.htm

Today solar energy is subsidized by governments like Germany and Japan and in many states in the US. Israel has the technology and plenty of sun. As the demand for enery worldwide increases and the price of oil rises, alternative enery will become more popular. During the next few years I believe that it is quite possible that Israeli innovations in the field will bring about the reality of being literally a "light onto the nations". Would n't that be something to smile about ?

Have a good night,
Jacob

SanDisk's 32 Gigabyte Solid-State Drive Designed in Israel

Yesterday, the company SanDisk showcased its newly introduced 32 gigabyte solid-state drive at the Storage Visions conference in Las Vegas. The 1.8-in. drive is designed to replace the hard drive in devices that usually rely on that form factor. The full article on this device that may change the PC mobile market in a big way, is located at:
http://www.jr.co.il/articles/sandisk-shows-solid-state-drive.txt
So what does this have to do with Israel ?
Well, the SanDisk's SSD was engineered by the company's new Israel-based Computing Solutions Division (part of SanDisk's acquisition of M-Systems). This is just one example from hundreds of advanced technology wonders that have been developed in Israel.
When I worked at Intel Electronics in Jerusalem (84-90) I attended meetings (by phone and in person) with many Intel employees from the US. Based on these meetings I gathered that the Intel Israeli design centers and manufacturing centers have very good reputations within Intel and in the industry. Many people do not know that their computers have chips that were either designed or manufactured in Israel. There is no "made in Israel" or "designed in Israel" stamped on the chip. However, the industry knows and many other international companies have picked up on this and followed Intel's lead and setup shop in Israel. Another giant company that has thousands of hi-tech workers in Israel, and produces chips for cellular phones and communication systems, is Motorola. In fact, if I am not mistaken, Motorola was here before Intel. Again, you will probably not find "made in Israel" in the equipment, but people in the indutry know. Back in 2004, I went to a telcommunications show in Tel-Aviv. The Israel Export Institute had a booth and gave out a real cool poster called: Israel Silicon Valley 2004. What was so cool about it ? It showed a map of Israel with logos of large high-tech companies that have key facilities in Israel. Here are two pictures of the map:

http://www.jr.co.il/pictures/israel/telecom/tc134.htm

and

http://www.jr.co.il/pictures/israel/telecom/tc135.htm
I am sure that today you can add many more logos to the map.

Not only is Israel a magnet for attracting large international companies, Israel has the largest number of startups in the world per capita.

Besides computers and communications there are many other fields that Israeli companies have made big advances. One of them is the biomedical sciences. However, this entry is getting too long so that will have to wait for a future posting.

The bottom line is that people all over the world have a hard time finding Israel on the map (so small in physical size that the word "Israel" is usually bigger than the country drawing). However, even though we are small in size on the map, our ingenuity and innovation is spread all over the world. Something to be very proud of.

Have a good night,
Jacob