World’s First Innovation Lab For Healthy Aging

by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich   December 27, 2017

A novel state-of-the-art lab will re-create the living conditions of the elderly to improve their mental and physical health.

The world’s first innovation lab for healthy aging has been established in Beersheba. The lab, which will simulate the living environment of senior citizens in the future, will take on the increasingly complex challenges of today’s aging population.

According to World Bank data, the proportion of the world’s population over the age of 65 increased from 5% in 1960 to 8.5% in 2015.

The lab is a collaboration between the Center for Digital Innovation, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the National Insurance Institute, the Beersheba Municipality, the Joint Distribution Committee and the Amal & Beyond Group. CDI is located in the Advanced Technologies Park adjacent to the university, whose president, Prof. Rivka Carmi, serves as chairwoman of the nonprofit lab’s board.

 “In 10 years, Beersheba will become the center of senior citizen-focused research and innovation,” CDI founder & CEO Ziv Ofek said at the launch of the lab last week. “When I think about this lab, I think about my parents and the real challenges they face. Instead of looking for merely technological solutions, we went back to analyze the problem. We developed a 360-degree approach that looks at all aspects of a senior’s life. When we founded CDI, we chose the fields of health care, social welfare, education and smart cities to specialize in. In this lab, we are combining all of them.”

Ofek and his team realized that senior citizens’ diverse needs, ambitions and activities cannot be considered separately. Rather, they are all linked, and only an innovative approach that takes all of these elements into consideration has a chance of making a real and significant change in the lives of senior citizens.

Among the main challenges are preventing falls, alleviating loneliness, slowing the deterioration of those whose capabilities are already limited, treating pain, and developing new technologies to assist the aging in basic domestic activities like bathing and using the toilet.

Read here the full article  

A Meaningful Haircut aids Cancer Sufferers

The Israeli NGO 'Zichron Menachem​' spares no effort to collect hair

offered by donors or salons and turns it into wigs, supporting

children who have lost their hair during cancer treatment.

In fact a number of our grandchildren have taken part in this

project over the last few years.

Next Embassy to Move to Jerusalem

Guatemala will move its embassy to Jerusalem, following its decades long-tradition of supporting the Jewish state. 

Guatemala has announced that it will move its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, making it the first country to officially follow the US in doing so.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced on his Facebook page that he spoke on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two discussed “the excellent relations” the two countries share.

One of the most important topics discussed was the move of the Guatemalan embassy to Jerusalem, he wrote.

“So I inform you that I have instructed the chancellor to initiate the respective coordination so that it happens,” Morales announced.

Guatemala has supported the creation of the state of Israel and was the second country to recognize it after the US. It was one of the nine nations that voted against last week’s United Nations resolution that condemned the US for President Donald Trump’s historic recognition of Jerusalem.

Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon tweeted his thanks to Guatemala for its “important decision” to move its embassy to Jerusalem.

”Wonderful news and true friendship! Viva la amistad entre Guatemala,” he wrote, which means “long live the friendship” in Spanish.

Earlier this month, Guatemalan Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel announced that her country supports the US’ decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Morales made an historic visit to Israel in November 2016. He is a devout evangelical Christian. Shortly after taking office, he visited a synagogue in Guatemala City, where he announced his intention to visit Israel. The Central American leader said during his visit that he looks forward to bolstering agriculture, science, technology and security ties with Israel.

“In this visit, we want to deepen the dialogue between the two countries and strengthen bilateral ties,” Morales said. “As allies, the excellent relations between our countries will continue.”

Teenage Provocations

This is what Israeli soldiers have to go through.

Palestinian women caught hitting, pushing and cursing Israeli 

soldiers in order to provoke them to respond on camera. 

The soldiers don't respond.

You will never see this on the news.

Did You Know That.....

Did you know that throughout 2016, over 30,000 people from the Gaza Strip received medical treatment in Israel? Or that over 7,000 tons of medical supplies were transferred to hospitals and clinics in the Gaza Strip? And what about the emergency ambulances that are on-call 24 hours, 7 days a week at Erez Crossing? These are just a few of the many activities of the Health Coordinator Department at the Gaza CLA (Coordination and Liason Activities).

In accordance with Oslo Accord's initiated in the 1990’s, responsibility for healthcare lies with the Palestinian Authority. However, the healthcare system inside the Gaza Strip is very limited and overburdened as a result of Hamas control. As a result, the Health Coordinator at the Gaza CLA is a critical partner for assisting Gazan patients to get treatment inside Israel, Judea and Samaria or elsewhere.  In order to ensure treatment for these patients, the Health Coordination Department works with the Israeli Ministry of Health and representatives of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip, as well as collaborating with hospitals in Israel and the World Health Organization (WHO).

In addition, this department facilitates health professionals from Gaza to attend industry conferences and seminars. This educational participation is designed to keep them current on up-and-coming medical advancements in order to contribute to the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip. In 2016, 275 medical professionals from Gaza received visas to participate in medical workshops and seminars in Israel.

It is unfortunate that Hamas target those civilians most in need, but they do. There has been a rise in fraudulent applications for medical permits as part of Hamas's ongoing efforts to harm the security of the State of Israel. Consequently, in order to ensure that medical permits are given to civilians with real medical needs, the Health Office works with the different security agencies to verify the legitimacy of every request.

The UN Fraud

UN Watch is an  NGO fighting the battle for Israel in the United Nations. Here are just three examples of their wonderful work on Israel’s behalf in the most biased international arena.

1. When UNRWA launched a global campaign showing 11-year-old girl “Aya from Gaza” in a bombed-out building—portraying Israel as a cruel oppressor of Palestinian children—UN Watch exposed a fraud: the photo was actually from Syria! The story went viral online. UNRWA suffered massive embarrassment, and was forced to remove the photo worldwide.

2. When the U.N. held its 'Hate Israel Day,' we brought the Son of Hamas to deliver an epic speech exposing Palestinian crimes. He stunned the assembly into silence, and literally caused heads to turn. The video has been seen more than 8 million times on Facebook and YouTube. Israel’s prime minister called it “an extraordinary moment of truth at the United Nations.”

3. When Arab states accused Israel of Apartheid, I took the floor at the U.N. to remind the world that “Israel’s 1.5 million Arabs enjoy full rights to vote and to be elected in the Knesset; they work as doctors and lawyers; they serve on the Supreme Court.” Then I asked the accusers: “How many Jews live in your countries? Once upon a time, the Middle East was full of Jews. Algeria had 140,000 Jews. Algeria, where are your Jews? Egypt used to have 75,000 Jews. Where are your Jews?"  The speech went viral—viewed more than 5 million times—and continues to reverberate.

Tell a Lie Often Enough and Everyone Will Believe It

The latest concoction from the Palestinian Authority shows that with the oft repeated lies, even those stating them have come to accept them as truth!! The archeological results disprove every one of the statements below.

This latest offering from the PA, courtesy Palestinian Media Watch only convinces the Israeli public that there is no partner for peace - sad.

PA: Jews have no history in "Palestine"

i

Trump's decision on Jerusalem  "aligned with the false Zionist narrative...

Israeli archaeologists have searched for the last 70 years and have not found a single archaeological remnant  related to the...Temple or... to Jews in Palestine in general"

[Columnist in official PA daily]

•        PA TV: There is "no documentation" the Western Wall was ever a "place of worship" for Jews before the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917

        

•        Abbas' advisor: "[The Jews have] no connection to this land, not religiously or historically"

•        PA minister: "Israel's claims regarding the finding of Jewish antiquities are a clear falsification of the city [of Jerusalem's] history"

•        PLO official: Jewish historical ties to the land are "a Zionist invention;"  Jews are in "Palestine" only because "Europe wanted to get rid of them"

PA TV: "The Judaization of Jerusalem ... [is the] attempts... to erase the Arab Islamic identity and change the Arab Islamic characteristics... of Jerusalem and to stamp it with a new fictional character that is called the Jewish character"