Israel repays world in spades
By Jewish Review
article created on:
Last year the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Annual Campaign and Israel Emergency Campaign raised a combined total of slightly more than $4.9 million. Out of that, $3,532,885 were distributed to various causes by the federation’s Allocations Committee.
A total of $851,688 was allocated for Israel and world Jewry.
Some of those funds went directly to Israel for special projects in which Portland has partnered with communities and organizations in Israel to help people there.
Most of the money that the federation allocates for overseas Jewry is distributed through the United Jewish Communities.
Doing for Israel and doing for Jews and others in need everywhere in the world is an intrinsic good. It doesn’t need to be justified.
But every now and then someone asks, “So, what has Israel done? What has Israel done for me lately?”
I have the list, such a list you won’t believe, but it’s all true.
Israel has done more for everyone in the world than most people can begin to imagine. It would be hard to find a person who has not been touched by Israel’s labor and industry, Israel’s talent, Israel’s now nearly 60-year-long voyage of discovery.
• You want to know why dates don’t cost a fortune? Date palms have grown in the Middle East since before Moses walked the
earth. The average tree is about 18 -20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of dates a year. Israeli trees now yield about 400 pounds of dates a year and are short enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.
• The scientific technology employed by NASA to beam video images from its Mars land-rover back to Earth was developed by two Israelis.
• An Israeli company designed a special parachute that will allow people to jump from high-rise buildings in case of emergency.
• An Israeli group of scientists from the Israel Institute of Technology developed methods to improve the efficiency of solar-hydrogen, non-polluting powered cars.
• “60 Minutes” focused on Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem where medical staff—both Jewish and Arab—work together to save Jewish and Arab lives.
• 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.
• 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 heart disease. The new device is synchronized with a camera that helps doctors diagnose a heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.
• Archaeologists in Israel and from all over the world have discovered and recovered amazing artifacts long neglected or desecrated by others who occupied the area.
• Israelis have developed very advanced hydrology technology that allows crops to grow in the most arid conditions. Israel has shared this technology with other peoples, including the Hopi Indians.
• The X-Hawk rotorless helicopter, the first helicopter to have the capability to move in tight spaces, is now in development in Israel.
• The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.
• Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel. The Pentium MMX chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.
• Voice mail technology was also developed in Israel. The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
• In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews (Operation Solomon) at risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.
• 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.
There is much more that Israel has given to the world. An easy way to learn what those are is to Google “Israel accomplishments” or “Israel achievements” on the Internet.