TELL May - July 2012 - Emanuel Synagogue

Israel www.emanuel.org.au
you can mention that
Israel devoted efforts
to this important
issue over fifty years
ago).
1977: Digital colour
printing. Israeli
company Scitex
became a world
leader in processing digital colour pictures and at least
40 countries have marketed its products. After resigning
from management of the corporation, in 1989 its
founder, Efi Arazi founded “EFI” (Electronics for Imaging)
which, working with Xerox, Kodak and Canon brought
the colour printer into many homes.
1985: First electronic hair removal. Two kibbutz
members, Yair Dar and Shimon Yahav, register a patent
on “Epilady” - and the device became a dizzying success
in Israel and worldwide.
Israel has the highest number of startup companies
per capita in the world: 3,850 - a company for every
1,844 residents. Every year more startup companies are
created in Israel than in any European country. Israeli
start-ups that changed the world of technology and
placed us on the high-tech map are presented below.
ICQ, Mirabilis: In the mid-1990s, four young
Israelis had a brilliant idea: to develop instant messaging
software that would connect friends and allow them to
chat over the Internet. Their innovations allowed friends
to find each other, connect directly, receive a notice
when another friend connected, and have a conversation
at any time and from any computer.
Disk-on-Key, Dov Moran’s M-Systems: The
brainchild of Israeli entrepreneur Dov Moran was simple
but ingenious: a small drive that connects to the USB
socket, The sale of the Disk-on-Key, or USB flash drive
as it is now known, began in the year 2000, and has
become an obligatory item on every key ring, although
it too is likely to be eclipsed by newer technologies, such
as Dropbox, also an Israeli technology.
Babylon: It can be annoying when we find a
foreign word that we don’t understand on the Internet,
and then we have to look it up in a dictionary, look for
the word - and then to go back and carry on reading.
This is what we used to do until Amnon Ovadia arrived
with Babylon and changed everything. Now we merely
click on a word we do not understand with the mouse,
and a pop-up window appears and translates the word
for us, without interrupting the reading flow. This began
with translations from English into Hebrew, and today
Babylon supports 75 languages, and continues to grow.
Agriculture and Food Security
Israel is considered an arid country. It has low
rainfall, and few groundwater reserves. Over half the
area of the State, within the Green Line borders, is
mountainous and unsuitable for agriculture. Out of
approximately 21,000 km² of the area of Israel within
the Green Line (i.e. 1967) borders, only 20% is suitable
for agricultural cultivation. To this must be added the
lack of any agricultural experience of most of the new
immigrants who arrived in Israel with the establishment
of the State, and their difficulties in adapting to the
climatic and soil conditions. Yet development of unique
irrigation methods, obtaining of bumper harvests in
many crops, acclimatization and adapting of new crops,
development of diversified agricultural exports and
promotion of environmental quality, have become the
symbol of renewed Israeli agriculture.
The dearth of water from natural resources is a permanent
reality in Israel yet nevertheless, Israel is the only
country in the world that has more trees at the beginning
of the twenty-first century than it had at the beginning
of the twentieth century.
Israeli cows produce approximately 80% less
methane gas than Western European cows. The reduced
emission is important to the quality of the environment,
as it is considered one of the main causes of global
warming.
The use of water for irrigation in Israel is one of the
most efficient in the world, thanks to the drip irrigation
system developed in Israel and adopted by many
countries. Research has led to a saving of 15% in irrigation
water, without a reduction in crops. Drip irrigation has
become the commercial symbol of Israeli agriculture,
and has been
adopted
by many
countries
across the
globe.
Israel
is one of
the leading
countries in
the world in
production of
seeds and the nurturing of fruit and vegetable varieties.
Israel’s cotton yield is one of the highest in
the world, with an average of 550 kg per acre. After
prolonged research cotton has become a very popular
field crop. Today the crop covers an area of 300,000
acres, and the exports total over $100 million.
Flower growing for export is a thriving industry,
and today constitutes about a third of fresh agricultural
exports from Israel. Until about 30 years ago several
acres of flowers were grown in Israel for the local market
Yearly new varieties and strains are introduced, which
enriches the choice of flowers for export. Israel is thus
considered today as the third largest flower exporter in
the world.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISRAEL - Wishing you
many years of brilliant achievement and contribution
to the world we are living in.
Anat Baruch
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