Archive | 2011 | May | 06
NEW YORK: Live Coverage of Israel’s Memorial Day Ceremony in New York from Park East Synagogue
Can’t make it to a Memorial Day ceremony ?
The Consulate General of Israel in New York brings you a live broadcast from its Memorial day ceremony held at Park East Synagogue
Live feed can be found @ http://www.liveu.tv/ConsulateGeneralNY.html
Fortune 500 multinationals visit Israel
Senior leaders from global companies Ernst & Young, Citigroup, Deloitte, and Cisco Israeli businesses, meet American interns gaining career experience in Jewish state
Senior leaders from global companies, including Ernst & Young, Citigroup, Deloitte, and Wells Fargo traveled to Israel with Masa Israel Journey on the first week of May to visit Israeli businesses and meet American interns gaining career experience in Israel.In the continuing economic recession, 7,200 college graduates have headed to Israel for professional internships—an increase of almost 50% since 2007—and American companies are now taking notice.
Masa Israel collaborated with New York University’s Career Center and Rochester Institute of Technology’s Office of Career Services to develop the Employer Thought Leadership Summit in Israel and enable international business leaders to visit Israeli companies with American interns, share best practices for international internships, and discuss Israeli-North American business relations with Israeli government officials.
Participating companies include Ernst & Young, Citigroup, Deloitte, Wells Fargo Securities, Cisco Systems, Urban Outfitters, Inc, Maximus Consulting, Teach for America, Constellation Energy, Prudential, the Southwestern Company, Enterprise Holdings, and Whirlpool Corporation.
“Ernst & Young takes a long term view with respect to talent management, firmly believing that today’s students will be tomorrow’s business leaders,” said Ernst & Young’s Americas Director of Campus Recruiting Dan Black.
“Attracting and hiring top candidates through internships, and providing them diverse opportunities that will help them realize their potential, has long been a critical component of our recruitment strategy in the US and beyond.
“The Employer Thought Leadership Summit in Israel provides an excellent opportunity to discuss best practices and strategy with delegates from an array of industries, as well as Masa participants who truly exemplify a global mindset.”
‘Start-up’ culture
For many, the internship experience in Israel has resulted in job offers back in the US from investment banks, business consulting firms, architecture firms, etc. New York-native Michelle Laufer was employed by PricewaterhouseCoopers after interning at Israel Securities Authority, and Jesse Zryb was hired by Pink Inc, an event design firm, after completing an architecture internship in Tel Aviv.
“Israel’s robust and diverse economy is a great place for college graduates to gain initial work experience,” said Avi Rubel, Masa Israel’s North American director.
“In addition, the ‘start-up’ culture, which is pervasive in Israel, teaches our interns about innovation – one of the most important skills for any young employee. We’re excited to collaborate with US companies on increasing internships in Israel and growing the US-Israel business relationship.”
This year, Masa Israel, which offers 180 five-to-12-month career development, volunteering and academic opportunities, has almost 10,000 participants. Interns are unpaid, work 15-20 hours a week, receive mentorship, learn Hebrew, and tour Israel.
The week-long Employer Thought Leadership Summit in Israel included visits to Israeli companies, and meetings with Israeli business owners and Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansk
Source: Ynetnews.com
YUM: Israeli to appear on ‘Iron Chef’
Americans believe that the best thing an Israeli can do with a knife is commando operations. This image is about to change soon, when Israeli chefs will be invited to appear on “Iron Chef” and “Chopped”, two prestigious cooking shows watched by hundreds of millions of people across the world.
As part of the efforts to brand Israel in nonconventional ways, it was decided to try to market the country in the US as a culinary power.
The Foreign Ministry and Israeli Consulate in New York have suggested a first-of its-kind collaboration to the most important food channels in the world, Food Network and Cooking Channel.
A representative of the Israeli Consulate in New York met recently with the CEO of the food channels, Brooke Johnson, and asked her if Israeli chefs and Israeli food could be integrated in the channels’ food shows for the first time. Johnson said she would love to host Israeli chefs on her shows.
Omer Miller from the Dining Room restaurant in Tel Aviv and Assaf Granit from Jerusalem’s Mahneyuda restaurant were chosen from of a list of 10 Israeli chefs formed by a committee of experts appointed by the Israeli Consulate in New York. The full list was handed to the channels, which chose the two winners. The Foreign Ministry will finance the chefs’ flights and stay.The episode of “Iron Chef” in which the Israeli chef will appear will be filmed in July.
‘Israeli food innovative and creative’
“I am very excited about being on ‘Iron Chef’,” says Miller, 30. “I watch the show regularly, and it’s a very impressive competition.
“It would be nice if they’d challenge me on the show with a certain kind of vegetable, because we have a huge selection of excellent vegetables in Israel. Eggplant, tomato, onion, hot pepper, even cucumber – you can play with each one of them and prepare interesting things.”
Granit, 32, is very excited too. “I see myself as a representative of the State, and that’s a great honor,” he said.
“Omer and I belong to the new generation of chefs, which is greatly influenced from the older chefs, like Erez Komarovsky and Ezra Kedem, and I hope that sometime we’ll be able to say for certain that there is a thing called an Israeli culinary.
“I love such competitions,” adds Granit. “They bring the best out of me.”
Sources in the Foreign Ministry say many efforts are being made to brand Israel as a culinary power.
Delegations of food and wine reporters are invited to Israel to tour restaurants and wineries – and the articles published so far have given Israeli restaurants a good reputation, with Israeli food being perceived as young, innovative and creative.
Sarit Sardas-Trotino contributed to this report
Source: Ynetnews.com
Maccabi Tel Aviv set to tip-off against Real Madrid in final four
A season which promised so little just a few months ago could be remembered as one of the greatest in Maccabi Tel Aviv history, depending on what happens in the Euroleague Final Four in Barcelona this weekend.
Maccabi faces Real Madrid in the semifinals at the Palau Sant Jordi Arena on Friday night, looking to take one more step towards clinching a sixth European title in club history in what was supposed to be a season of rebuilding.
Coach David Blatt, who returned to Maccabi after six seasons abroad, built a roster which was questioned from day one, but quickly gelled into one of the more exciting teams to ever wear the yellow-and-blue.
After exceeding all expectations so far this season, Tel Aviv stands on the brink of a truly unforgettable achievement, but to get to Sunday’s final against the winner of the semi between Panathinaikos and Montepaschi Siena, it will first have to get the better of the Spanish giant from Madrid.
Real brought in illustrious coach Ettore Messina and spent heavily ahead of the start of last season in the hope of regaining its former glory as European basketball’s most successful club, winning eight continental championships between 1964 and 1995.
Madrid failed to fulfill its potential last year, losing in the Euroleague quarterfinals, but it finally returned to the Final Four for the first time since 1996 this season and will be a tricky opponent for Tel Aviv, despite Messina’s resignation just before the quarterfinal series against Valencia, which Real won 3-2.
Sergio Llull leads Real in minutes played (28 mpg) and is the team’s only player to average more than 10 points per game in the Euroleague (11.5 ppg), with Maccabi to keep an especially close eye on his shots from beyond the arc.
Pablo Prigioni (5.5 ppg, 3.3 apg) and Sergio Rodriguez (6.9 ppg, 3.3 apg) will be the main players in charge of dictating Madrid’s play from the backcourt together with Llull, giving the Spaniards three top-quality ball handlers.
Real has also got plenty of weapons under the basket, with Ante Tomic (9.7 ppg, 5.2 rpg), Felipe Reyes (8.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg) and D’or Fischer (6.5 ppg, 6.1 rpg) the side’s biggest threats on the offensive and defensive end in the paint, while Clay Tucker (9.3 ppg) and Carlos Suarez (6.7 ppg, 4.3 rpg) will be especially dangerous off the wings.
Blatt’s goal will be to dictate an up-tempo pace to the game that will suit Maccabi’s Euroleaguebest offense (82.2 ppg) and force Madrid to abandon its defensive game-plan.
In its 11 Euroleague games since the start of the Top 16, Real has amassed an 8-3 record, with its opponents scoring less than 80 points in regulation in all of its wins and more than 80 points in the three defeats.
Maccabi has a 6-4 record since the end of the regular season, topping 80 points in each of its victories, while losing each time it failed to score 80 in 40 minutes.
“We are a young team that hopes to compensate for its lack of experience in these games with a lot of excitement,” said Real’s Molin, who was an assistant coach throughout his career until Messina quit.
“We managed to get here by giving all we have and hope to play good basketball at the Final Four.
Maccabi will need Sofoklis Schortsanitis (12.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg) to return to his early-season form to have a good chance of winning, with Chuck Eidson (8.9 ppg, 4 rpg, 3.8 apg), Guy Pnini (6.8 ppg) and Tal Burstein (4 ppg) to have a crucial role to play in the absence of the injured Doron Perkins.
Lior Eliyahu (11.3 ppg, 3.9 rpg), Richard Hendrix (5.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg) and Milan Macvan will look to hurt Real in the paint, with David Blu’s (8.6 ppg, 43.4 percent from three-point range) performance also to be one of the keys to success for the yellow- and-blue.
However, the one player who likely holds Maccabi’s fate in is hands is Jeremy Pargo (13 ppg, 3.9 apg, 3.5 rpg).
The playmaker has improved as the season’s progressed and was sensational in the 3-1 quarterfinal series win over Caja Laboral Vitoria, averaging 20.7 points, 4.3 assists and 4.0 rebounds, while hitting eight of 14 three-point attempts, in Tel Aviv’s three wins against the Spaniards.
“Jeremy’s really developed over the course of the season,” Blatt said.
“He was good when he came in, but he has really become a top level player and that’s great to see. I just hope he’s able to bring it to the Final Four.” Pargo is confident he can be at his best once more on Friday and is optimistic regarding Maccabi’s chances of making Sunday’s title game.
“We have to come out, be ourselves and do the things that we have done to get to this point,” Pargo said. “If we manage to do that, I think we will have a good chance to reach the final.”
Source: Jpost.com