Mazal Tov!!
A hearty Mazal Tov to
Tzali & Simone Vizel
on the birth of a baby boy!
May he grow to Torah, chupah and maasim tovim!
Asraf’s Body Returning Home; IsraeLife Delegation Lauded for Tremendous Rescue Efforts
The IsraeLife delegation to Nepal, with the participation of United Hatzalah, ZAKA and F.I.R.S.T volunteers, has completed its mission of recovering the body of missing Israeli trekker Or Asraf and transferring the body to his family for a proper burial in Israel.
Working under treacherous conditions and over many hours, the team of volunteers, together with fellow soldiers from Asraf’s elite Egoz unit, retrieved the body from a steep slopeon Monday afternoon. In a complex operation involving helicopters, the body and the rescue team were evacuated for return to Israel. The challenge was coordinated with the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Israeli Ambassador to Nepal Yaron Mayer and Chabad of Nepal.
In addition to searching for Asraf, the IsraeLife delegation treated hundreds of local residents in emergency mobile clinics that they brought to remote villages, and coordinated the return of Israeli tourists. The delegation will be returning to Israel in the coming days.
Eli Beer, president of United Hatzalah, said, “The IsraeLife mission of professional volunteers who went to rescue Or Asraf, who was unfortunately found killed, found in the same area evidence of other people who were probably killed there – most likely Europeans. All the evidence that our team found were transferred to the UN. I hope another mission will go out to find the people who were killed there. Our team sacrificed greatly to assist in providing aid to the devastated country and we are very proud of our volunteers and all our supporters.”
Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, chairman of ZAKA, said: “Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, chairman of ZAKA, said: “Only someone on his return from the mountainside, after working in such difficult conditions and terrain who stood opposite Or’s father to tell him that we had found his son, knows how to appreciate this effort and understand its value. How important it is to ensure a full Jewish burial – even from the most remote corners of the world. This endeavor allows the family some peace, removing all doubt.” Meshi-Zahav continued, “These are some of the best volunteers that ZAKA has, true soldiers of the Jewish people. It was only two weeks ago that they combed the mountainside in the Alps, searching for the remains of Eyal Baum z’l who was killed in the Germanwings crash.”
UPDATED: Bd”e – Chaya Mushka Spalter
With sadness we announce the passing of
Chaya Mushka Spalter ob”m
Daughter of Rabbi Mendel and Hadassa Spalter Sh”Y
SHIVA
Shiva in LA will begin on Wednesday morning at
821 N Formosa Ave. #203
Phone: (323) 938-773
Email: hspalter@yoec.edu
Davening Times
Shachris: 9:20am
Mincha/Maariv: 7:20pm
Visiting Times
The family asks that no visits be made from 12 to 2pm, from 5:30 to 7pm and after 10pm.
Due to the uniqueness of the situation and the needs of the little children, the family is asking that Shiva times are kept strictly.
Hamokom Yenachem Eschem Besoch Shaar Avaylay Tzion v’Yerusholayim
‘Unity Day’ and Prize will Honor Memories of Abducted Israeli Students
‘Unity Day’ and Prize will Honor Memories of Abducted Israeli Students
Zack Pyzer
Tazpit News Agency
Zack Pyzer
Tazpit News Agency
On June 3rd, senior Israeli officials will hold two events in memory of a trio of teenagers who were abducted and murdered last summer by Hamas terrorists.
Unity Day, and the Jerusalem Unity Prize, organizers said, would promote tolerance and cooperation between different sectors of the Jewish People in Israel, and the Diaspora. The prize winners, organizations and individuals who have excelled in promoting messages of unity through their work, will share an NIS 300,000 award in a ceremony to be hosted by President Reuven Rivlin.
The projects were organized by the Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, along with the parents of Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah. The boys were abducted from a bus stop south of Jerusalem by two Hamas terrorists, who shortly after shot them, and hid their bodies.
“The Jerusalem Unity Prize and Unity Day serve to memorialize the three boys by strengthening the common bonds that exist within our Jewish people and encourage greater tolerance and mutual respect between all sectors of our greater community,” Barkat wrote in a statement to the Tazpit News Agency.
Barkat lauded “…the ideals that were so remarkably exhibited during that most difficult period in the wake of the boys’ kidnappings and truly revealed this all-important aspect of our national identity.”
The students’ parents and families were acclaimed both in Israel and across the Jewish world for their strength and humility, both during, and after the 18 day ordeal in which the fate of their sons remained unclear.
“The kidnappings of our boys marks one of the more difficult moments in Israel’s modern history. But the reality is that out of this bitter tragedy came a spirit of unprecedented unity amongst the Jewish people,” the parents said in a joint statement.
Zack Pyzer
Tazpit News Agency
Tazpit News Agency
Israeli Startup To Revolutionize Sugar
Israeli Food Tech Startup to Make Sugar Taste Twice as Sweet
By Zack Pyzer
Tazpit News Agency
Local greentech startup DouxMatok says they’ll revolutionize how manufacturers and consumers worldwide use sugar, in a conversation with the Tazpit News Agency last week.
“DouxMatok’s technology will allow for a reduction of 30-60 percent of sugar in a product, depending on the application, and with no effect on taste,” Eran Baniel told Tazpit.
Expanding upon research carried out in the USA and UK, Baniel added, “When we tested it in the UK, our product had the exact same taste profile as un-adapted sugar, with none of the aftertaste caused by artificial sweeteners.”
For health-conscious individuals with a sweet tooth, these are enticing promises.
In recognition of their breakthrough, Baniel’s company won “Best Company” at the “Agravest 2015” event, Monday. Agravest, a yearly conference organized by Israel’s Ministry of Economy, Trendlines Agtech, and GreenSoil Investments, hosted their third annual event at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Baniel, a serial entrepreneur, is hoping the exposure will now help the company raise $4 million in their second round of fundraising.
The product he speaks so enthusiastically about is a lab-based transformation of sugar, one which requires no artificial chemicals. The modified sugar, he claims, works by modifying the how the molecules interact with the receptors on the tongue.
The gustatory system, through which the body perceives taste, is not a fully efficient process. When consuming food or drink with a sweet flavor, usually containing sugar syrup or powder, many of the sugar molecules move through the mouth and miss the sweet taste receptors.
Consumers ingest these sugar particles without registering their sweetness, and therefore the sweetness of the product as a whole. If people could taste every sugar molecule in a cup of regular soda, they would most likely find it inedible.
DouxMatok’s technology coats the sugar molecules on to organic carriers using a natural mineral, which transports multiple sugar molecules together to the taste receptors on the tongue.
The four-person company, based in Petach Tikvah, will soon be looking find partners to go to market with. Instead of attempting to replace current sugar manufacturers, Baniel said, DouxMatok will aim to partner with them.
If the product works as well in application as it does in theory, it would not only boost the health profile of many food manufacturer’s products, but also save them significant expenditures on raw materials.
He went on to claim that the product could work wonders for the health product market, with the carrier showing similar adaptability to work with Xylitol, a key component in toothpaste and mouthwash.
Baniel gave a large portion of credit for the innovative work to his father, Avraham, who is still going strong at 97 years old. “He was called up by Ben Gurion and Chaim Weizmann to start Israel’s industrial chemical industry, and he’s been going ever since,” Eran said of his father’s ever-sweet career.
Body of Israeli Trekker Or Asraf Found In Nepal
Rescue volunteers from United Hatzalah, Zaka and F.I.R.S.T. on Sunday afternoon announced that they have found the body of the remaining Israeli trekker Or Asraf in Nepal. Asraf’s body was located mountainside along the Langtang Ridge. Due to severe weather conditions and dangerous mudslides, the delegation organized by IsraeLife faced a complicated mission to retrieve the body.
Eli Beer, founder of IsraeLife and president of United Hatzalah, said, “We are very sad that our mission has ended in this way. Every day, we searched for Or and held onto our hope that we would find him alive and bring him back to his family. Unfortunately, despite the tremendous effort, we found him not alive. We are consoled, however, that thanks to our delegation of volunteers, Or will come to rest in Israel. ”
TODAY! Rally For Unity-Tehillim Gathering for Women & Girls
Women and girls are invited to a unity rally to be held Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles to pray for two young girls in need of a speedy recovery.
Please continue to say Tehillim for
Menucha Rochel bas Gila Elka – kapitel 5
and Chaya Mushka bas Haddasah Shaina – kapitel 12
There will also be Mivtzoim for Bais Rebbe of Los Angeles girls from 3-3:30 pm at Ralphs, 260 S La Brea Ave.
100 Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian Students meet
100 Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian students meet in ‘War for the Environment’
Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian alumni of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies will convene for a three day seminar in the north of Israel, starting Thursday.
Around 100 students are expected to attend the conference, to be held in the northern Israeli community of Givat Haviva, near Hadera, having graduated a two-semester course together in the past. The programs are aimed to not only educate the students in environmental studies, but to live and share experiences with each other.
The Institute takes its name from the Arava desert, which spans the southern Israeli -Jordanian border and covers the 180km of territory between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea on the Gulf of Eilat.
The arid region receives around 30mm of rain annually, yet provides 60 percent of Israel’s fresh fruit and vegetable exports.
Behind the unexpected results is Israeli technology, including drip irrigation, developing hardier seed varieties and reducing the energy required to operate hot greenhouses. The farming communities in the area have been heavily involved with the R&D which has made the country a world leader in the agricultural technology sector.
Shabbat Acharei-Kedoshim – the Eruv is UP
Shabbat Acharei-Kedoshim
The ERUV is UP
The eruv is unsponsored.
May 1, 2015-12 Iyar 5775