FC Barcelona - Barça, a bridge of peace

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FC Barcelona have offered to play a match for peace with Israel and Palestine





Israeli President Shimon Peres with FC Barcelona president Sandro Rosell

Samsung helps Israelis celebrate Purim

There has long been a unique and mutually beneficial relationship between Israel and Samsung.

The Jewish state is home to Samsung R&D facilities, and, in the past, the electronics giant has even sponsored Israel’s Olympic team.

But now, the company is taking its relationship with Israel to a new level in a move that will bring a smile to countless Israelis celebrating Purim.

Samsung is sending 10,000 Purim baskets (mishloach manot) to anyone in Israel lucky enough to have been signed up to the Samsung Mobile Israel Facebook page by a friend or loved one.

And, while Samsung is putting out the gelt to pay for the goodies, their mitzvah is also helping the Israeli economy as it is paying two Israeli organizations, Variety Israel and the Enosh Fund, to put the packages together which will then be sent out via a Facebook app on the Samsung Mobile Israel page.

The app requires loading up a virtual phone with all of the virtues of the Galaxy S3 Mini smartphone (1.0 ghz processor, voice recognition, the latest Android operating system, etc). Once the phone’s loaded up, you’re presented with a form where you can add a greeting, and attach the recipient’s address.

Each yummy and festive package is full of the usual Purim fare – candies, grape juice, and the like – and will be delivered by the end of Purim this Monday to any Israeli address.

Source: ShalomLife

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סמארטפונים וטאבלטים מהיבואן הרשמי | Samsung Mobile

Meet The Soldiers At Sea Who Keep Israel Safe

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Ever enjoyed a day on the beach in Tel Aviv or Haifa? Meet the people who allow you to do that. Lieutenant Amir Shtadler and his soldiers serve on the INF Atzmaut in the Israeli Navy. It's their job, says Lieutenant Shtadler, to "keep the sea open and the shores safe... for all the citizens of Israel."

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Marley’s Israeli connection

Special: Ziggy Marley’s Israeli wife talks about her impressive career in the music industry

“There are forever copyright violators who sell unlicensed Bob Marley products. There are always those who think they can get away with it and that’s why we have to sue them without exception,”says Orly Marley, the Israeli wife of David (Ziggy) Marley, son of legendary Reggae star Bob Marley. Orly is also Ziggy’s manager.

After 13 years with the Hollywood-based talent and literary agency William Morris, where she scored some major brand contracts for celebrities, Orly took over the management of her husband’s record label, Tuff Gong Worldwide. Aside from promoting his upcoming world tour (which includes a performance at the London Olympics) she promotes various business initiatives associated with her husband, such as the writing and publishing of his “Marijuana Man” comic books and the promotion of the Ziggy Marley Organic food brand.

Previously, Orly was in charge of franchising and royalty collection for the New York-based family business, House of Marley, which merchandises the Bob Marley brand. She is now a consultant for the company.

“It’s a large, complex business and it’s not easy working with the family,” she admits.

The biographical movie about Bob Marley is scheduled to premier on April 20 and is expected to set off a surge in demand for the Reggae legend’s music and products. Hilco Consumer Capital, the private equity fund that owns the Bob Marley merchandise franchise, estimated in 2009 that global sales would soar to one billion dollars; however, out of this figure, $600 million are chalked up to unlicensed sales.

From Iran to LA

Orly was born in Israel to Iranian expatriates. When she was three-years-old, her father was assigned to a position in Iran and the family left the Jewish state. When Orly was 14 the family moved again, this time to Los Angeles.

After graduating from college, Orly began working for the Center for Jewish Education and went on to become a junior assistant in the giant music department of leading talent agency William Morris (currently named WME.) Her experience as personal assistant to Michael Jackson’s parents and brother, Randy, no doubt went a long way towards promoting her career.

After a three-month trial period at William Morris, she began noticing new opportunities at the veteran agency.

“William Morris had the largest and most veteran advertising department in the industry but no one dealt with rock star endorsements and accounts,” she said. Her initiative eventually led to a separate department in the advertising section and her promotion to the new unit’s director.

Although speaking no Spanish, Orly started to close deals in the Hispanic music market – she got Corona Beer to endorse the concerts of Mexico’s favorite star, Luis Miguel, while also coupling Enrique Iglesias with Pepsi Cola and Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek with cosmetics giant Avon.

Queen Latifah success story

Orly’s success with the Latin market soon spilled over to the African-American market, including achievements such as the Ray Charles milk commercial; meanwhile, she also obtained accounts with Caucasian rock stars such as Sheryl Crow.

However, Orly’s biggest achievement was obtaining a contract for singer/actress Queen Latifah as the new face of Procter and Gamble’s Cover Girl makeup brand even before Latifah made her debut as an actress.

“I begged Procter and Gamble to book her for a private concert,” she recounts. “I flew her out to New Orleans and they loved her. Six months later the deal was signed and the relationship has been going on for the past 10 years.”

Marley also launched a plus-size lingerie line for Wall Mart – Curvation – with Latifah as its spokesmodel. The lingerie line later expanded into a clothing collection. “I put 3-4 years into it and they had to do a lot of trials with her because she didn’t have a clean image,” she says.

Marley says that William Morris did not consider integrating its advertising department with the music department: “They weren’t familiar with the music industry, didn’t know who Queen Latifah was and didn’t really care.”

“At the time, Hollywood agencies were not handling rock star accounts and the ethnic market was a niche market. Today it’s mainstream,” she says.

Source: Ynetnews.com

Alicia Keys heading to Tel Aviv

Award winning American signer Alicia Keys is set to give a concert in Tel Aviv, Israel in the summer of 2013. Details are yet to be confirmed, however it is understood that Alicia Keys has stuck a deal with a leading promoter to stage a concert in Tel Aviv in July or August. Alicia Keys has won 12 Grammy Awards, and her most famous songs include “Empire State Of Mind”, “Fallin” and “Girl On Fire”.

Further details on Alicia Keys in Tel Aviv will be posted here as they become available.

Source: TouristIsrael

Canada, Israel make Bloomberg’s list of 50 Most Innovative Countries

When you think about the most innovative countries, the U.S. and South Korea often come to mind. But what about Iceland or Iran? How do they compare?

Bloomberg Rankings recently examined more than 200 countries and sovereign regions to determine their innovation quotient. The final universe was narrowed down to 96. What follows is the top 50.

Innovation was measured by seven factors, including R&D intensity, productivity, high-tech density, researcher concentration, manufacturing capability, education levels and patent activity. The methodology, definitions and weightings are explained in the last slide.

Click here to check out Full List

Samsung to open startup center in Israel

Global technology giant launches international innovation and strategy center with branch in Ramat Gan, expected to invest millions of dollars in companies and academia

Samsung is putting Israel on the map again: The global technology giant on Tuesday launched its new initiative, an international innovation and strategy center. The center’s headquarters will be located in Menlo Park in California’s Silicon Valley, but it will have two branches – one in South Korea (Samsung’s country of origin) and one in the central Israeli city of Ramat Gan.

The new center will be headed by Young Sohn, Samsung’s chief strategy officer, who was appointed just four months ago. Yedioth Ahronoth has learned that Young Sohn visited Israel two weeks ago and that this week’s announcement is a direct result of that visit.

The innovation center’s Israeli branch will be established under Samsung Semiconductor’s existing research and development center in Ramat Gan. Samsung executives are said to be extremely satisfied with the R&D center’s performance and results, which have prompted them to open one of the new initiative’s branches in Israel.

The new center is part of Samsung’s comprehensive strategic plan aimed at increasing investment in research and development.

The Israeli technology Samsung plans to invest in will eventually reach the company’s future products.

Samsung’s new investments in Israel, as part of the innovation and strategy center, will focus on three areas: Investment in young Israeli startup companies, whether through a direct investment of capital or through active cooperation aimed at advancing developments and technologies matching Samsung’s future plans; investment in the Israeli academia, whether by funding research being conducted in the country’s universities or by taking ideas and studies created in the academia and developing them into a company and product in collaboration with the R&D center in Ramat Gan; and investment in local venture capital funds investing in Israeli startups.

Employees at Samsung Semiconductor’s R&D center in Ramat Gan have been holding intensive rounds of meetings with many companies in recent months in an attempt to find the suitable candidates for cooperation and investments.

The new center will in fact be a wing of Global Samsung, through which the company will expand its activity in Israel. Acquisitions of local companies may follow, according to estimates.

Young Sohn said in a press conference in Silicon Valley on Tuesday that the company was likely to carry out both major and small acquisitions in the near future.

Strong relationship with Israel

The technologies the new center will focus on will not necessarily be smartphones and tablets, but would rather be part of a long-term outlook: LED screens, medical products, cloud technologies, data protection and other technologies meant to serve as growth engines for the company.

The semiconductor center, for example, does not develop chips but rather sensors for cameras and phones, digital picture processors and technologies in the field of computer vision.

Samsung is basically trying to become a leading company which reinvents new technological fields and categories. The decision to establish one of its innovation centers in the Jewish state implies that it is going to do so using Israeli technology.

The volume of Samsung’s financial investment in Israel will be determined according to the number of projects and investments. But the potential is clearly huge: Samsung has announced the start of a new $100-billion investment fund, which will invest in larger companies as well. Part of this money will also reach Israel.

In fact, Samsung is conveying the message that it has available money for the Israeli market and that the projects for investment must be found.

Samsung’s relationship with Israel has been particularly strong for many years now. Apart from the R&D center in Ramat Gan, which employs some 200 workers and is based on the Transchip company acquired by Samsung in 2007, there is another R&D center in Yakum, alongside the marketing activity and import of the company’s products.

Source: Ynetnews.com

A visual tour of Haifa - Israel's unofficial northern capital

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The beauty of Haifa is not confined to the world-famous Bahá'í Gardens (http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/IsraelExper...), a UNESCO World Heritage site.

This Mediterranean port city, known as Israel's unofficial northern capital, is full of historic, religious and cultural places to visit, as you'll see in this video.

Just for starters, there's the Beit Hagefen Arab-Jewish Culture Center (http://www.haifa-foundation.org/beit_...) that runs the annual December Holiday of Holidays (http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/IsraelExper...) event artistically celebrating Hannukah, Christmas and Ramadan. There's the Stella Maris Carmelite Monastery and Church on Mount Carmel and there's the Carmelit -- Israel's only subway system and the world's shortest underground transit route.

And don't forget the scenic beaches, seaside boardwalks and promenades.

Haifa is also one of Israel's main R&D centers for companies such as Google, Intel, SanDisk, Qualcomm, Philips and Microsoft.

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Marc Cain luxury brand coming to Israel

German fashion store to open at Tel Aviv’s Ramat Aviv Mall, targeting wealthy population

Another fashion brand for society’s top echelon is coming to Israel. Marc Cain of Germany will open its first store in Israel in about a month, at the Ramat Aviv Mall in Tel Aviv.

Despite the economic slowdown and weak sales in the fashion industry, the drizzle of luxury brands to Israel continues due to the belief that wealthy customers have not been affected by the economic changes.

Marc Cain’s exclusive franchise owner in Israel is businesswoman Michal Reiper.

The first store will open on Ramat Aviv Mall’s second floor and measure more than 60 square meters (645 square feet) in size. It will be designed according to the brand’s exclusive international concept, including the furniture and bags.

The brand was founded in Germany in 1973 and offers women’s clothing, bags, shoes and accessories. Prices in the Israeli store will range between NIS 650-2,500 ($175-680) per item.

The brand has 146 stores worldwide and 258 stores in the “shop in shop” concept in 59 countries. In addition, the collections are sold in more than 1,470 specializing boutiques.

“We are proud and thrilled to be bringing the world’s best brands to the Israeli customer,” says Ramat Aviv Mall CEO Uri Abel. “We’re continuing the tradition of differentiating and improving the mall’s marketing mix.”

Source: Ynetnews.com