The Latest Shoe Security for Airport Travelers: MagShoe

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It's the holiday season and for airports that means an increase in the number of travelers and a higher level of security. However, the typically long lines at the security check will be cut in half this year at some worldwide airports thanks to this machine.

The Magshoe, created by IDO Security in Israel after the events of September 11th is the answer to one of the most problematic areas in security checks: your shoes. Walk through metal detectors today lack the technology to successfully scan below the shin, making it easy for weapons to go undetected. The Magshoe is designed to scan the whole foot, and the best part for travelers, you don't have to take your shoes off.

Ashton Kutcher looking for Tel Aviv office

Kutcher with high-tech entreprenuer Yossi Vardi (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

American actor, who visited Israel last week, said to be considering opening business incubator center in country

American actor Ashton Kutcher did not visit Israel last week just to find an Israeli startup company to invest in or to explore his roots through Kabbalah. Apparently, he is also looking for a luxurious piece of real estate.

Kutcher, who arrived in the Holy Land as the guest of a conference organized by high-tech entrepreneur Yossi Vardi, found the time to search for an office on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard. The Hollywood star is said to be considering opening a business incubator center in Israel.

Kutcher and his business partner Guy Oseary, one of the leading producers in the US music industry and Madonna’s personal manager, visited a site on 22 Rothschild Boulevard, where the Aviv Group is building one of the most luxurious office buildings in Israel (Aviv Rothschild Center, which will be ready in about six months) at a total investment of NIS 250 million (about $70 million).

Aviv Group Chairman Doron Aviv said in the past, “Because new office buildings have not been built in Tel Aviv for a long time, we are now seeing a surge in demands for the project on the part of Israeli and international financial institutions.”

The rent price per square meter in the new tower stands at NIS 130-150 ($35-41) on average.

Kutcher and Oseary spent Shavuot Eve at a restaurant in Tel Aviv before heading to the Western Wall in Jerusalem for midnight prayers and psalms in honor of the Jewish holiday. Before leaving for the United States on Wednesday evening, they met with several high-tech people.

Kutcher told his guests about his partnership with Oseary in startup investments: “Guy and I began investing together because we wanted to change the world. We wanted to be part of the social network revolution, which brings people who don’t know each other together to create a conversation or a community. We want to be part of that.”

Kutcher and Oseary are joint investors in the A-Grade venture capital fund, which they founded together with Ron Burkle in 2011. Their investments include Airbnb, Spotify, Path, Soundcloud, Groupon and Shazam.

Kutcher is considered one of the early adopters of the Twitter social networking website, beating CNN to become the first user to reach one million followers in 2009.

The actor also invested in the Katango startup of Yoav Shoham, an Israeli professor of computer science at Stanford University, and made a profit when it was sold to Google for tens of millions of dollars about two years ago.

Source: Ynetnews.com

Football - Israel Hosts Under-21 Championships

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Between June 5-18, 2013, Israel will host UEFA's European Under-21 Football Championship. National soccer teams from all over Europe will compete: the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, the Netherlands and Norway, alongside the host country, will all vie for the title of champion.

Two outstanding players, Captain Eyal Golasa, a Netanya native who plays for Maccabi Haifa and Moanes Dabur, an Arab-Israeli player for Maccabi Tel Aviv, talk about the Israeli national under-21 team and show off their moves.

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2,000-year-old key found in Jerusalem

Artifacts (Photo: Clara Amit, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority)

Enormous quarry dating back to Second Temple period exposed in capital’s Ramat Shlomo Quarter. Huge stones quarried there were presumably used in construction of city’s magnificent public buildings

An enormous quarry from the time of the Second Temple (first century CE) was exposed in recent weeks in excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out prior to the paving of Highway 21 by the Moriah Company.

A 2,000-year-old key, pick axes, severance wedges etc are also among the artifacts uncovered during the course of the excavation.

According to Irina Zilberbod, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The quarrying phenomenon created a spectacular sight of bedrock columns and steps and craters of sorts that were the result of the rock-cuttings.

“What remained are rock masses in various stages of quarrying, and there were those that were found in a preliminary stage of rock-cutting prior to detachment. Some of the stones that were quarried are more than 2 meters (6.5 feet) long. The giant stones were probably hewn for the sake of the construction of the city’s magnificent public buildings.”

Zilberbod explains that “the pick axes were used to cut the severance channels around the stone block in the bedrock surface and the arrowhead-shaped detachment wedge, which is solid iron, was designed to detach the base of the stone from the bedrock by means of striking it with a hammer.

“The key that was found, and which was probably used to open a door some 2,000 years ago, is curved and has teeth. What was it doing there? We can only surmise that it might have fallen from the pocket of one of the quarrymen.”

The enormous quarries that were exposed – totaling 1,000 square meters (10,760 square feet) in area – join other quarries that were previously documented and studied by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Research has shown that the northern neighborhoods of modern Jerusalem are situated on Jerusalem’s “city of quarries” from the Second Temple period.

The question arises why did the quarrymen select this specific region. Researchers speculate that the answer to this lies in the Meleke rock formation found there, which is a type of rock that is easily quarried and hardens immediately after it is hewn.

In addition to this, since the northern area is topographically higher than the city of Jerusalem in the Second Temple period, it was presumably easy to transport the huge stones, some which weighed tens if not hundreds of tons, down hill along the slope to the construction sites. An ancient road dating to the Second Temple period was exposed next to the quarry and it was probably used to move the large stones.

Another puzzle regarding the transportation of such large stones is how were they actually moved. Presumably this was accomplished by means of oxen and wooden rollers, but the contemporary historical sources also mention giant wooden lifting devices.

Source: Ynetnews.com

Jerusalem -- A Mosaic of Faces and Places

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Israel's capital is a mosaic of its people and its sites, of the holy and the secular, of the ancient and the modern. A quick glimpse of the beauty that is Jerusalem, produced in honor of Jerusalem Day 2013.

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Israeli raising funds to help Syrians ‘dying near us’

Moti Kahan (photo: Yitzhak Benhorin)

Moti Kahana ‘can’t sit still as women and children being butchered nearby’; Syrian rebel: American airstrikes would bring Assad’s regime to collapse

As many in Israel are concerned over the possibility that the civil war raging in Syria will spill over to the Golan Heights and strengthen the standing of Hezbollah, some Israelis regard the crisis in the neighboring country from another angle entirely.

Jerusalem native Moti Kahana heads a group of Israeli businessmen and American Jews who travel to the Syrian refugee camps to provide humanitarian aid to victims of one of the era’s bloodiest conflicts. “We are Jews and Israelis and we can’t sit still as women and children are being butchered nearby,” he told Ynet.

Kahana took part in an annual conference of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he raised the flag of the Free Syrian Army during a speech by an opposition activist. “While I’m here to assist the Free Syria movement, my brother Steve is on reserve service at the Golan Heights, treating injured Syrians,” said Kahana, who lives in New Jersey but has family in Israel.

“We said that the Holocaust will not happen again and I do not wish to compare, but people are dying next to us and we cannot sit still,” he added.

Since the group’s activity has started two years ago Kahana invested over $100,000 of his personal funds, and helped raise over half a million dollars from US Jews. “For me entering Syria is like arriving to Tel – Aviv,” he said. “We raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past two years and I’m tasked with transferring donations to liberal organizations in Syria.”

Kahana says the organization started as a charity operated by him and a number of friends, but they could not foresee how long the conflict would run. “When we ran out of money we started raising funds from US synagogues,” he told Ynet.

“We said that the Holocaust will not happen again and I do not wish to compare, but people are dying next to us and we cannot sit still,” he added.

Since the group’s activity has started two years ago Kahana invested over $100,000 of his personal funds, and helped raise over half a million dollars from US Jews. “For me entering Syria is like arriving to Tel – Aviv,” he said. “We raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past two years and I’m tasked with transferring donations to liberal organizations in Syria.”

Kahana says the organization started as a charity operated by him and a number of friends, but they could not foresee how long the conflict would run. “When we ran out of money we started raising funds from US synagogues,” he told Ynet.

“A few American aerial strikes will cause Assad’s regime to collapse. Indeed, Israel has carried out an attack with surgical precision, without any problems” said Muaz Mustafa, one of the leaders of the Syrian diaspora in the US.

“Assad is never going to flee, and while he’s there the country’s being taken over by al-Qaeda on the one hand and Iran and Hezbollah on the other.”

Mustafa and his associate were optimistic regarding the possibility that a future democratic Syrian government will ease tensions with Israel.

“There is no reason one democracy should harbor hostilities to another, and if Israel agrees to territorial compromises in the Golan Heights, Syria can establish peace with Israel, because otherwise there is no animosity between the two peoples,” Mustafa declared.

Source: Ynetnews.com

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis to Visit Israel

By: Ashley Baylen

The famous Kabbalist and his girlfriend are rumored to stop by the Holy Land next week

‘Two and a Half Men’ star and his former ‘That 70’s show’ co-star (and current girlfriend), Mila Kunis, are reportedly visiting Israel next week.

Kutcher is a devoted Kabbalah follower, and has made several trips to Israel over the past several years as part of his practice. He and ex-wife, Demi Moore, have been attending services at the Los Angeles Kabbalah Center for years, and Kutcher studies privately with Kabbalah Center founder, Rabbi Yehuda Berg, in his Hollywood residence.

In previous years, Kutcher spent time at the Kabbalah Center in Tel Aviv and the International Center for Tzefat Kabbalah.

Although Rabbi Eyal Reiss, the director of the Tzefat Center, has not confirmed Kutcher and Kunis’ arrival, he did share that the celebrities’ reps only notified him 24 hours in advance during previous visits.
“He is discreet for reasons we can all understand,” Reiss said, according to Haaretz.

Kunis is of Ukrainian Jewish heritage, but does not adhere to Kabbalah practices. Since her relationship with Kutcher has begun, she has been spotted with him at a few Kabbalah ceremonies, but her conversion does not seem imminent.

Source: ShalomLife

Aussie super-runner completes Israel Trail

Richard Bowles finishes Israel Trail. Photo: Dov Greenblatt/SPNI

English-Australian ultra-marathoner wants more after finishing 1,009 km. Israel Trail run despite foot infection.

After plowing through 1,009 kilometers of the deserts, mountains and forests that highlight the Israel Trail, English- Australian ultra-marathoner Richard Bowles only wished that his journey could have been a little longer.

“I feel great actually,” Bowles told The Jerusalem Post over the phone on Thursday afternoon from Kibbutz Dan, just after he completed his run. “It’s nice to be here. I’m almost a little bit disappointed that it’s come to an end.”

Starting at the Eilat Field School on April 17, Bowles had planned to complete the entire trail in 12 days. Along the way, however, his body had other plans for him, when a foot infection began to pain him on April 25 – day nine of his expedition. After continuing about 60 kilometers the next day despite the infection, Bowles consulted with physicians and realized he would need to take a week off from running to allow the infection to heal.

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Nazareth: From Traditional Maqluba to Molecular Gastronomy

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Ambition is what drives Arab Israeli chef Ahmed Ukla to strive for excellence and gold medals in international culinary competitions. The young chef from Nazareth, who specializes in molecular gastronomy, has risen to impressive heights in the world of fine cuisine, which he treats as a work of art containing a rich mix of colors and flavors.

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