Archive | 2012 | April
Controversial Israeli campaign wins UN award
Israeli advertising agency which sought creative solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict wins UN commendation
For the first time in history, the United Nations has granted an Israeli firm a gold medal for its efforts in seeking an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
The winner is Baumann Ber Rivnay (BBR Saatchi & Saatchi), an Israeli advertising company whose campaign, Blood Relations, offers a creative solution to the decades-long rift. The premise? Getting the two populations to share blood, instead of spilling it.
Developed in collaboration with the Peres Center for Peace and the Parents Circle – Families Forum, the campaign brought bereaved Israelis and Palestinians together for a blood drive.
The donated units from the Israelis then went to Palestinian patients, and vice versa. The project raised a simple question: Could you hurt someone with your blood running through their veins?
The project inspired similar blood drives that were held by Israeli and Muslim communities worldwide.
“Winning the award is a great honor for the firm and the state,” said Baumann Ber Rivnay CEO Yossi Lubaton. “In a time when we feel Israel’s isolation in the world and the UN, winning a prize doled out by the UN makes us proud.
“We wanted to raise awareness for the fact that beyond any political conflict, no matter how difficult and drawn-out, the people who live here are tired of bloodshed and violence. We are pleased over the recognition that the project is getting across the globe.”
Source: Ynetnews.com
Israel ranks third in consumption of vegetables, sweets
According to OECD figures, Israel ranks third in the world in terms of vegetable consumption, behind Greece and Turkey, and third in sweet consumption.
Israelis are global leaders when it comes to eating their vegetables, according to OECD figures.
With the average Israeli eating an estimated 197.6 kilograms of veggies every year, Israel ranks third in the world in terms of vegetable consumption, behind Greece (257 kilograms ) and Turkey (252.2 kilograms ).
Israelis also like their sweets, downing an average of 38.8 kilograms per person each year, according to OECD figures. Here, too, Israel ranks third, trailing behind Luxembourg (59.8 kilograms ) and Iceland (53.1 kilograms ).
What else is on the Israeli menu? Lots of legumes – 5.1 kilograms per person a year, in fact, again putting Israel in third place. Mexico is first on the list, at 8.4 kilograms per person annually, and Canada is second, at 6.6 kilograms.
So what aren’t Israelis eating? Compared to others, they don’t eat many eggs. Of the 25 countries that participated in the survey, Israel ranks 21st in egg consumption, with a mere 6.7 kilograms per capita. First is Mexico (19.4 kilograms ), and second is Luxembourg (16.2 kilograms ).
Israel does decently when it comes to beef consumption, ranking ninth in the OECD, at 68.3 kilograms per person. Of the nations ranked, Portugal comes in first, at 105.9 kilograms per person, followed by Greece, at 103.8 kilograms (Mediterranean diet, anyone? ). Note that this ranking does not include any of the countries in South America, where consumption is likely higher.
Despite the impression that Israelis don’t eat much fish, the country falls in the middle of the rankings here, too. At 13.4 kilograms per person, Israel comes in 13th. At the top of the list is Portugal, at 45.2 kilograms per person, followed by Iceland, at 38.6 kilograms.
Source: Haaretz.com
ELLE Quebec’s Fashion editor Photo-documents Tel Aviv’s Fashion week
La semaine de mode de Tel-Aviv en photos
Notre rédacteur en chef mode, Denis Desro, a assisté à la première semaine de mode de Tel-Aviv. Voici quelques clichés de son périple en sol israélien.
Celebrating India in Israel
A Festival Celebrating India’s Cultural Dynamism (27 April – 18 May 2012)
The Embassy of India in Israel and Teamwork Productions India are proud to present the second edition of “Celebrating India in Israel”, a festival of visual and performing arts. The Festival is a unique endeavor showcasing the wealth of India’s classical and contemporary cultural heritage including dance, theatre, music, food, film and visual arts during the 20th anniversary of establishment of full diplomatic relations between India & Israel.
In the Festival’s premier year, we present the following:
- The Magic of the violin by world renowned violinist Dr. L Subramanium. See more
- Folk Music from Rajasthan performed by Rajasthan Josh. See more
- Bollywood Film Festival with a selection of Bollywood’s finest, recent and popular movies. See more The theatrical production Nothing like Lear, a modern day satire on Shakespeare’s classic play
staged in Gibberish. See more
- Words on Water – A Literary Festival of Indian and Israeli writers in Israel. This will include Vikas Swarup (author of Slum dog millionaire), Esther David, Devdutt Pattanaik and Arshia Sattar . See more
- Taste of India – Cuisine from South India. See more
- The wellbeing experience through free Yoga Workshops. See more
- Dance to the tunes of the Bollywood with Gilles Chuyen in the free Bollywood Dance Workshops. See more
The Festival of India provides audiences in Israel an occasion to engage with the cultural diversity of India’s heritage. This ambitious project co-produced by the Embassy of India in Israel and Teamwork productions will be staged from 27 April – 31 May, 2012.
For further details regarding the festival, please visit www.celebratingindiaisrael.com – the official website of the Festival
Report: 2 Israeli execs could replace Buffett
Wall Street Journal reports that Iscar’s Danny Goldman, Jacob Harpaz among executives Berkshire Hathaway chief has referred to in ‘emotional terms’
Two Israeli executives at Iscar Ltd. have been named as candidates to succeed Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Buffett, who has run Berkshire Hathaway since 1965, recently announced that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. According to the report, the disease was detected early, and “his prognosis is good.”
Iscar is Berkshire’s Israeli-based cutting-tool division.
According to the WSJ, Buffett has said that members of Berkshire’s board have selected a successor whom they “know and admire,” as well as two backups.
However, the report said, he hasn’t disclosed the successor’s identity—even to the chosen person. WSJ asked two independent teams of financial researchers—Paul Tetlock and Tim Scully at Columbia Business School and Richard Peterson at Los Angeles-based investment firm MarketPsych—to analyze what Buffett has written about Berkshire’s divisional executives in his annual letters.
According to the report, both groups of researchers specialize in “textual analysis,” or the use of mathematical formulas to measure the frequency and positive or negative tone of language.
The researchers said Iscar CFO Danny Goldman scored the highest among current executives to whom Buffett has referred in emotional terms at least eight times. In 2009 Buffett referred to Goldman in a letter as “incredible.”
The researchers mentioned Jacob Harpaz, Iscar’s CEO, as one of the divisional CEOs to whom Buffett has referred at least four times in emotional terms.
The analysts found that Buffett has mentioned Ajit Jain, head of Berkshire’s reinsurance group, far more often than any other current division boss—102 times, versus 60 for the next most-cited, Tony Nicely of Geico.
Source: Ynetnews.com
Israelis share a beer at Tel Aviv’s first bar-restaurant co-op
A new bar-restaurant co-op, founded by organizers of last summer’s social justice protests, already has 60 shareholders, and is planning to open its doors next month.
The cooperative enterprise, popular in the early days of Zionism, has made something of a comeback over the past year.
Following last summer’s social justice protests, dozens of cooperatives have been founded. These include the Ha’agala co-op in Mitzpeh Ramon, which competes with the local branch of the Super-Sol grocery store, a social workers’ cooperative and a co-op in northern Israel made up of teachers employed by manpower companies.
Next month, a pub-restaurant co-op is slated to open in Tel Aviv, while in Jerusalem a plan for a cooperative coffee shop is beginning to take shape.
On Sunday, the first members’ assembly will be held for the Tel Aviv co-op, to be called Bar Kayma (Hebrew for “sustainable”), in which its members will vote on its menu, location and design. The original date for the opening was set for May 1, but this was pushed back due to bureaucratic delays.
The prices paid for food and drink at the new co-op will only cover the cost of production, while guests will be charged market prices. A half liter of beer, for example, will cost members NIS 15, while non-members will pay NIS 25. The pub’s seven employees will earn fair wages, and administrative decisions will be make by vote only. The co-op will serve only vegan food, a decision reached during the new institution’s founding conference.
The pub’s founders are Yigal Ramban and Julian Feder, both of whom were leading activists in last summer’s social protests. They sit in an Indian restaurant at Hamashbir Street 22 in south Tel Aviv’s Florentine neighborhood, where the pub is meant to be located, recruiting potential shareholders.
Thus far, 60 people have bought shares, which cost NIS 1,000 each. Thirty more have expressed interested in buying one, but have not yet paid. Rambam and Feder’s goal is to recruit at least 100 shareholders, but Feder noted that Israel’s Securities Law prevents them from selling the shares off publicly in a large-scale sale.
Rambam and Feder’s role models for this very modern enterprise hark back to the beginning of Zionism. They note the symbolism in the fact that the Yishuv’s first cooperative, which was founded in 1916, was called Hamashbir, the same name as the street on which they plan to found their co-op.
“Thanks to these cooperatives, Israel is not a third world country,” according to Rambam. “Since the summer, people understand that cooperative work is a winning proposition.”
When asked if the pair is afraid that the cooperative model will fail to catch on, Feder said, “Unlike a regular business, here hundreds of people help you promote the business, so you don’t take the risk by yourself. When there’s a war over the cost of living, being a member of a co-op means beating the system.”
The cooperative model is widespread in Spain’s Basque region, where the Mondragon Corporation, a federation of worker cooperatives, employs tens of thousands, while Ireland has a cooperative pub-brewery.
As it turns out, one of the reasons why co-ops close is not their failure but rather because of their own economic success, which provides their owners with an incentive to sell the business for a profit. Under existing Israeli law, the Cooperative Societies Ordinance of 1933 allows a successful cooperative to easily let go of its shareholders.
“The law incentivizes the dissolution of cooperatives,” said Yifat Solel, a lawyer who works with co-ops and who aided the founders of the Bar Kayma. “Thus a situation is created in which one hand battles apathy, while the other struggles with the outdated Cooperative Societies Ordinance, which is mainly suited to agricultural or kibbutz enterprises.”
“Once there was a cooperative in almost every field in Israel, from agriculture to credit funds and retail: ‘Hapardes,’ ‘Hamashbir,’ ‘Habima’, ‘Davar,’” added Solel, whose grandfather Raphael Marinov was the CEO of the Hamashbir Latzarchan department store for 30 years.
“There were 2,200 different cooperatives here. And still, when I began dealing with co-ops, people looked at me as if I had just fallen from the moon. Now people interested in opening cooperatives contact me every week,” she said.
Source: Haaretz.com