Wearing a white dress, white shoes, and a little silver crown, “B” was the guest of honor at a farewell party celebrating her discharge seven months after she first arrived at the Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital in Rambam Health Care Campus.

B had arrived in early February 2016 at the Haifa medical center, after suffering injuries in her country’s civil war. While at the hospital, Israeli doctors found that she also had a hematological disease.

With help from the Israeli government, B’s medical team managed to reach the little girl’s relatives in Syria and bring back blood samples from several family members. Her brother was a perfect match.

“I’ll never forget when they first brought in those test tubes, discreetly wrapped in dish towels,” says Iris Porat, one of the nurses who cared for “B” throughout her hospitalization.

The government granted special permission for B’s brother to cross the border from Syria and be brought to Rambam. It took two weeks to complete the bone marrow donation, after which he returned home while B and her mother remained in the Pediatric Oncology Department to see if the transplant had succeeded.

Rambam Health Care Campus has treated 140 Syrian civilians, men, women and children over the past three years.

Seven months after the six-year-old girl first arrived in Haifa, she celebrated her healthy discharge with the medical staff and volunteers who cared for her along the way.

The smiling girl, who confided that she dreams of one day becoming a fashion designer, entered a room with tables of cakes and gifts, the sound of clapping, and the drumming of traditional Arab darbuka drums. A slideshow of photos from her time at Rambam was shown, and Ashwak El-rabia, an Arab non-profit that assists children with cancer, gave her a tablet in which she could store her memories. The group also gave her a backpack for her first year of school.

A farewell party celebrating Syrian cancer survivor’s discharge seven months after she first arrived at the Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital in Rambam Health Care Campus. Photo courtesyA farewell party celebrating Syrian cancer survivor’s discharge seven months after she first arrived at the Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital in Rambam Health Care Campus.

The little girl’s mother also had a message for their Israeli caregivers: “I would lie if I said that I expected the kind of humanity I discovered here. I am grateful for your care and sensitivity; may God protect you. And we will always remember what you did for us.”

The Shabbat infrastructure railroad works that have rocked Israeli politics over the past two weeks have been going on quietly during Shabbat for the past ten years, with the Haredim turning a blind eye on them, and everybody remaining happy. Now at least two wars are being waged over the same routine works, one between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, the other between UTJ and Shas and the Prime Minister and Transport Minister — because the rule of thumb for Israel’s Haredi parties is that as soon as a government violation of Shabbat is exposed publicly, it must stop or the Haredim walk. That was the reason the Haredim stood up on their hind legs a week ago, when the Israel Train Company announced delays in entering Tel Aviv on Shabbat due to infrastructure work that could not be done during the week.

The Israel Railways corporation is state-owned. It means that, unlike the privately owned bus and taxi services, which operate during some or all of Shabbat, depending on the city, the railroad must obey the laws of Shabbat, at least as long as the Haredim are part of government. “Had the railroad company continued to perform those projects quietly, without media attention, the Haredim would have kept quiet,” a source inside UTJ told JNI.media. “But as soon as it became known, no Haredi party could remain in government with those works going on.”

This was the root of the crisis which on Sunday morning is paralyzing traffic across Israel. Someone at the IR decided to make a big announcement — most likely because they had the public’s interest in mind. The infrastructure works necessitated closing down Rt. 20, an eight-lane highway that cuts through the Tel Aviv metropolitan area and on Shabbat ushers in thousands of shoppers and entertainment seekers from around Israel.

As soon as they became public, those railroad projects turned into a ticking bomb. Last week, the Haredim accommodated the Netanyahu government, because, frankly, Netanyahu has been the most pro-Haredi prime minister ever, and anyone who would replace him would necessarily be harder to work with. So they agreed to the concept that there were some infrastructure projects that had to be carried out on Shabbat, because on regular weekdays they would threaten the lives of the thousands of motorists roaming nearby.

The following Thursday, before the most recent Shabbat, the Haredi parties again examined the planned works and approved three out of the 20 proposed projects as, in fact, constituting risk to lives on weekdays.

But over the past week there were growing voices in the Haredi community that expressed doubt regarding the very idea that the secular Transport Ministry, which is not run by rabbis, would rule on halakhic issues such as Pikuach Nefesh (Heb: saving a life). As a result, those three approved projects received added scrutiny from the Haredi politicians, who concluded they were no different from the rest and should be carried out on weekdays as well.

The former chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yisrael Lau, told Israel Radio that secular politicians are trying to “hold the stick on both its ends,” a Talmudic term meaning trying to argue both ends against the middle. On the one hand, Rabbi Lau said, secular politicians are demanding that businesses be permitted to stay open on Shabbat, because Shabbat is the only time hundreds of thousands of Israelis are able to pack Tel Aviv in search of shopping, dining and a good show; on the other hand, Shabbat is when those railroad works should be carried out because that’s when the city is empty, and none would be harmed from potential work accidents.

The train infrastructure works which began at 5:30 PM Friday, were interrupted two hours later by an order from the prime minister’s office, after Shabbat had already begun. These works constituted the three out of 20 projects which the Haredi Parties initially agreed were dangerous to life had they been carried out during the week, but then those same Haredim had a change of mind and/or heart, at the very last minute, literally.

Initially, the PM’s office and the Transport Ministry ordered the Israel Train Company to proceed with the works into Shabbat, as had been the case every month for the past 10 years. A group of 200 employees arrived at 5:30 PM at the railroad track segment between Tel Aviv and Hertzlia, and started to take it apart. But later that same early evening, the Haredi parties announced they reject the compromise, which is why at 6:30 PM, moments before the start of Shabbat, the PM’s office ordered the work to stop.

The order reached the workers at the site at about 7:30 PM, and they dropped everything and left. No one bothered to consider what would happen Saturday night and Sunday, since it would take about 25 hours to complete the work. A similar infrastructure project near Atlit, south of Haifa, was likewise interrupted Friday night.

So, who is the real culprit in this crisis? The Haredim for insisting that a government in which they are members not openly desecrate Shabbat? The Prime Minister’s office, which capitulates to Haredi pressure because this coalition is probably the best political combination Netanyahu could have hoped for, and he’s not giving it up over one day’s suffering by Israeli passengers? Or is it Transport Minister Katz, who chose to turn an ordinary, behind the scenes project that’s been going on uninterrupted — into a full-blown coalition crisis?

We suggest all of the above. And the solution to this crisis will probably be the firing of Transport Minister Katz, because he started it, looking to erode the boss’s coalition. Expect blood — Yisrael Katz has friends inside Likud, who may rise up to defend him, as Welfare Minister Haim Katz has already done.

The normal start-of-the-week traffic jams have been more severe than usual Sunday morning, as a result of the limits on train service across the country. Police report severe traffic delays on route 1, connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and both cities to Ben Gurion International Airport. Traffic on the coastal highway, Route 2, is unusually heavy from Caesarea to Tel Aviv. The inner highway, Route 4, is likewise jammed all the way from Holon to Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, to Ra’ana in both directions. Route 5 connecting the coastal highway with Ariel in Samaria is also jammed. Route 20, which cuts through downtown Tel Aviv is jammed, too. Route 65, connecting Hadera with Afula through Umm al-Fahm in the Arab Triangle is also at a standstill.

On Saturday, the Israel Railways Corporation announced that essential infrastructure works that were not carried out on Shabbat by decree of Prime Minister Netanyahu would be done Sunday, thus paralyzing most of the train service until 7 PM. The stoppage came against the background of Haredi party resistance to carrying out work on Shabbat, and the apparent capitulation of the prime minister, but judging by what the Haredi press had to say Sunday morning, this was more a provocation by Transport Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) than an actual crisis.

The daily Yated Ne’eman cited MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) who accused Katz of acting out of revenge rather than caring for the services of his ministry. “The abominable conduct of Yisrael Katz proves that he does not care about danger to life, and not about the train, only about politics and his need to take revenge against the prime minister,” Gafni said.

Train service has been greatly curtailed Sunday morning. The IDF has added buses to transport soldiers returning to base from their Shabbat break. IDF representatives will guide confused soldier to the right buses. Israel’s inter-city bus companies have increased their active fleets Sunday to help passengers, which, of course, contributes to the traffic jams on the highways.

Leftwing parties Meretz and Labor called for protest rallies at the dark train stations Saturday night, but only a few hundred protesters showed up at the Tel Aviv rally, and only a few dozens at the Haifa event. The real fight over the train works and train service is being waged inside the Likud Party, between Prime Minister Netanyahu and his rebellious Transport Minister and Likud Secretariat Chairman Yisral Katz. (See: Coalition Chair: No Coming back from Netanyahu Vs. Transport Minister Crisis)

With the increase of hostilities on the Russian-Ukrainian border in recent weeks, 211 new immigrants from Ukraine landed Tuesday at Ben Gurion Airport.

Most came from the embattled regions in the eastern part of Ukraine, arriving on the 19th flight sponsored by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) since hostilities broke out between the two countries.

“There has been a significant increase in calls from potential Olim to the IFCJ representatives in Ukraine and we are doing everything to give them the best possible service so that they can begin new and secure lives in Israel, which was and still is the home for any person who is part of the Jewish people,” noted Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, IFCJ president.

Approximately 4,000 immigrants have fled to Israel from Ukraine on flights sponsored by the organization since December 2014. Among those who arrived Tuesday were 37 children who are to begin their studies in Israeli schools in two days, including nine in the first grade.

Natalia S. arrived in Israel with her mother and son, and said that she was forced to leave the city of Marinka in the Donetsk region in Eastern Ukraine after the extensive bombing in the city that began in April 2014. The building where her family lived was bombed and some of their neighbors were killed.

Natalia explained that her family’s Jewishness was kept secret by her grandmother who had survived the Holocaust, while her husband, Natalia’s grandfather, was in a concentration camp. As a result, she says, “we knew we had Jewish roots but did not have the documents to prove it.”

According to Natalia, during one of the family’s visits to the Holocaust Museum an employee at the site advised her about which archive to search in order to find documents that would prove their Jewish roots.

“Because of the advice we were given, we went later to the archive and found my grandmother’s documents. In the documents, we read that she had changed her name and her father’s name, from “Alia” and “Avraham” to “Lisa” and “Peter,” she said. Natalia, her mother, and her son are planning to settle in Akko. Among Tuesday’s group of new olim there were seven babies, including two who were only six months old. The oldest person on the flight was age 82, and the average age of the group was 34. The preferred destination for the immigrants was Haifa, where 42 of the new arrivals elected to settle.

Most of the olim came from the Dniepropetrovsk region, which has become one of the preferred destinations for refugees escaping the embattled areas in Eastern Ukraine because of its proximity and the fact that it is still in Ukrainian hands.

The IFCJ assists the Olim to Israel with special grants of $1,000 for each adult oleh and $500 for each child, in addition to financing the flight to Israel. This support is provided by the organization in addition to the standard basket of benefits each immigrant receives from the Israel Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption. The organization also arranges the absorption of the new immigrant families with the various local authorities prior to their arrival in Israel, recruiting locals to accompany the new olim as they seek housing and employment and settle in to their new surroundings.

Large swarms of jellyfish reach Israel’s coast when the sea temperature ranges between 28.2 and 30 degrees Celsius and during the full moon, according to a new study from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management at Haifa University.

Jellyfish interfere with public systems and can injure and even kill swimmers. Jellyfish destroy fishing nets, poison or crush captured fish, and consume fish eggs and young fish. Jellyfish can clog cooling equipment, thus disabling power plants. Jellyfish caused a cascading blackout in the Philippines in 1999, and damaged the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California in 2008. Clogging can also stop desalination plants and ship engines.

The Haifa University study reveals, for the first time, a link between sea temperature and the lunar cycle, and the arrival of swarms of Jellyfish along the coast of Israel. “It is possible that individual Jellyfish will also reach the coast under different conditions, but we discovered that the most significant swarms arrive under the above conditions, the proof being that in such periods the number of blockages of the Israel Electric Company’s cooling facilities with dead Jellyfish have been incomparably greater than during other periods of the year,” said Avi Algazi, an IEC system management unit employee who conducted the research.

A container full of Jellyfish / Photo Credit: Avi Algazi

The five IEC power stations located along Israel’s Mediterranean coast use seawater to cool the steam condensers which turn gaseous steam back to liquid water for reuse in the production of electricity. The stations use three levels of filtration to prevent the penetration of foreign bodies into the stations’ condensers, and there is where Jellyfish usually get caught.

Although Jellyfish have become frequent guests along the shores of Israel, and despite their obvious and immediate impact on humans, until now researchers were not certain as to the factors causing the massive arrival of swarms of Jellyfish one summer, while another summer sees fewer of these electric invaders.

Algazi conducted his study under the guidance of Prof. Abraham Haim, acting head of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences and professor emeritus at the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management; Dr. Keren Or-Chen of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management; and Dr. Anat Geffen Glazer from the IEC. For his study, Algazi sought to examine a link between the arrival of Jellyfish swarms, as determined by operational events that have occurred at the Eshkol Power Station in Ashdod, and environmental factors such as wind direction and speed and seawater temperature.

The results showed that while the wind was not related to the appearance of giant swarms, 94% of Jellyfish swarms arrivals occurred after the middle of the year (approximately 176 days from the beginning of the year), during the second and third weeks of the Hebrew month, when the moon ranges between almost full to full, and when sea water temperature ranges between 28.2 to 30.0 degrees Celsius.

According to Algazi, Jellyfish also appeared when the moon was in other stages, or when the sea temperature was different from the range cited above. But such occurrences were infrequent, and were usually characterized by a small number of Jellyfish.

The research also revealed that although the blockage of the cooling system filters led to only a small decline in the production of electricity, they did add significantly to the cooling system’s operational costs. “The Jellyfish swarms arrive in June and July, when demand for electricity is high. Throughout those months, due to the high temperature of the sea, both available pumps are operated in order to achieve maximum utilization of the production unit. In addition, Jellyfish, unlike other large objects that get sucked into the cooling system, are not controllable; thus some block the moving filter after penetrating it, and prevent seawater from being pumped in. This causes the cooling pump to stop immediately,” Algazi explained.

A Jewish secondary school will open in the city of Düsseldorf in western Germany on Wednesday, and a Jewish high school will soon open in Munich, bringing the total number of Jewish high schools in the country to three, the World Jewish Congress reported. Until now, Germany’s only Jewish high school has been in Berlin.

Out of the 522,000 Jews who lived in Germany in January 1933 only 214,000 remained by the end of 1939. On May 19, 1943, Germany was declared Judenrein (clean of Jews), with no Jewish high schools. Now we’re back to three, and counting.

Some 40 fifth-grade students will make up the inaugural class of the newly founded Albert Einstein Gymnasium in Düsseldorf, the state capital of North Rhine Westphalia. For now the new school will be housed in temporary accommodations, with a new school building scheduled to be completed in five years. Some 90% of the new school budget is funded by the North Rhine Westphalia state government.

“We are convinced that Jewish life has a firm place in Germany,” Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the news agency DPA. Whenever there are enough students to open such a school, that’s “a great gain for the Jewish community,” Schuster said.

Schuster, a physician, was born in Haifa in 1954. His father David Schuster emigrated to Palestine in 1938, and both of his mother’s parents died in Auschwitz. The Schuster family returned to Germany in 1956. Josef went to school in Würzburg and studied medicine at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. He became a specialist in internal medicine after training at the Juliusspital. Since 1988 he has maintained a private practice in internal medicine in Würzburg.

Josef Schuster is well aware of the risks Jews living in Germany are facing. He told the newspaper Welt that many refugees seeking to live away from the ISIS persecution nevertheless come from “cultures in which hate toward Jews and intolerance are fixed components,” and that as a result, “sooner or later we will not be able to avoid [setting limits]” on refugee migration into Germany. He said he feared that if the influx of refugees in Germany continues at the present rate, it will become “increasingly difficult” to integrate migrants and “pass on our values.”

Meanwhile, the 7,000 strong Jewish community of Düsseldorf, Germany’s third largest, after Berlin and Munich, have established the new school as a way to pass their values to the next generation of German Jews. The school will offer eight hours a week of Hebrew and Jewish subjects, which non-Jewish students will also be allowed to attend.

It’s interesting how unintentionally our enemies often manage to fit themselves right into interesting phrases from the Torah.

For instance, in this video from the Palestinian Authority, the singer describes the “Palestinians” as a thorn in the throat of Zionism.

Which parallels the pasuk (sentence) in Bamidbar (Numbers) 33:55 where it says, “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell.” Yup.

Singer: “We are not afraid of the enemy – a thorn in the throat of Zionism! Palestinians – We are! We are! The people of Jerusalem – We are! We are! The people of Jenin – We are! We are! … The people of Gaza… The people of Jaffa – We are! We are! The people of Haifa – We are! We are! The people of Lod – We are! We are! The people of Ramle The people of Acre – We are! We are! The people of Nazareth – We are! We are! … We swear in the name of the prisoners In place of one [prisoner], here are ten We have given them [Israelis] a taste of grief We have given them a taste of grief – a thorn in the throat of Zionism!” [Official PA TV, July 30 and Aug. 6, 2016]

Following are all the places in Israel mentioned throughout the song: Jaffa, Haifa, Lod, Ramle, Acre, Nazareth, Galilee, Beer Sheva, Tiberias, Safed, Beit Shean and Jerusalem.

Following are the places in the PA: Jenin, Hebron, Tulkarem, Qalqilya, Nablus, Gaza, Jericho, Ramallah