SA JEWISH REPORT STAFF

Israel ranked 11th happiest country in the world 

JERUSALEM – The annual World Happiness Report published last week Tuesday by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), ranked Israel as the 11th happiest country in the world for a third year in a row. South Africa came in 96th place.

The report, prepared by the SDSN and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, was released in Rome in advance of UN World Happiness Day on March 20.

When the publication first launched in 2012, Israel was ranked at number 14 out of 156 countries surveyed.

The top 10 this year were Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, and Sweden. Denmark was in third place last year, behind Switzerland and Iceland.

The bottom 10 were Madagascar, Tanzania, Liberia, Guinea, Rwanda, Benin, Afghanistan, Togo, Syria and Burundi.

The United States came in at 13, the United Kingdom at 23, France at 32, and Italy at 50.

 – Jerusalem Post

Device to prevent cot death

JERUSALEM – BabySense is a non-touch, no-radiation device designed to prevent cot death. Made by an Israeli company called HiSense, the device monitors a baby’s breathing and movements through the mattress during sleep.

An auditory and visual alarm is activated if breathing ceases for more than 20 seconds or if breathing rate slows to less than 10 breaths per minute.

A Jerusalem science museum is currently featuring 45 standout Israeli inventions, ranging from Intel computer technology to the first ground-breaking drip irrigation system, all of which have revolutionised life for millions of people. – Israel 21c

Call to move Australian embassy to Jerusalem

CANBERRA – In his maiden speech to parliament, Australia’s newest senator called for the Australian Embassy in Israel to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

At 28, James Paterson is the youngest ever Liberal Party senator.

He was sworn in last week.

Addressing parliament, he shared his thoughts on a number of issues – a key one being his firm support for Israel and his belief in the need to display Australia’s solidarity with the Jewish State by relocating the Australian Embassy to Jerusalem.

“Tel Aviv is not Israel’s capital city – Jerusalem is,” he stated, adding: “Every nation deserves the right to choose its own capital city… I do not believe that the international community can continue to refuse to recognise their capital city of choice and the clear reality on the ground.” – Australian Jewish News

Second Oxford University Labour Club officer resigns

OXFORD – The Oxford University Labour Club has been dealt another blow after a second officer quit, accusing the club of being discriminatory.

OULC disabilities officer Brahma Mohanty has resigned, claiming the club forced members to “subscribe to a radical ideology of division and isolation”.

This move follows the resignation of its vice-chairman, Alex Chalmer last month, who said the club had a “problem with Jews”.

The club passed a motion earlier this month which limited voting privileges to members who solely support the Labour Party or its aims.

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, in his resignation letter, Mohanty, as part of the club’s executive committee, wrote that as disabilities officer he was “passionate about advocating issues concerning access and diversity and as a lifelong Labour supporter, wanted to ensure that the OULC was at the forefront of that.

“However, I have personally experienced in recent weeks and meetings that this does not appear to be the ethos shared among the OULC body in light of the passing of the Israeli Apartheid Week motion and the more recent motion which essentially ‘purges’ the OULC membership and forces members to subscribe to a radical ideology of division and isolation.

“Simply put, I cannot in good faith carry out my duties in promoting access and engagement with a club that I feel is projecting itself in the complete opposite manner.” – Jewish Chronicle, London

At 101 and 100, ‘the best is yet to come’ in this loving relationship

PHILADELPHIA – He’s 101, she has just turned 100 – and they’ve been dating for 11 years. How’s that for the enduring spirit of romance?

Susan Lindenbaum and Ellis Gusky are native Pittsburghers who attended the same school but never met till decades later in California.

“It was a blind date,” Lindenbaum recalled with a chuckle and a strong voice by phone from a Los Angeles retirement community. “A friend of our daughter’s knew we both liked to play bridge and thought we should meet. And so we did, at the Beverly Hills Bridge Club. It grew into a long, loving relationship.”

Gusky, a retired musician, was 90 then; twice-widowed Lindenbaum was 89. “I’ve always liked his enthusiasm for life,” she said. “It’s good to find a person of the opposite sex, and we have stayed best friends.”

Each has slowed down a bit. Both now use walkers and have given up driving, she only three years ago. Nor do they go out “three or four evenings a week”, as before, to restaurants, concerts and “lots of movies”. But they always have dinner together and never feel confined, thanks to family and access transportation.

Each maintains a separate apartment at Belmont Village, a large Wilshire Boulevard residence, where they were cheered as the oldest active couple on Valentine’s Day. (March 15 was even more of a red-letter day for Lindenbaum. Her daughter, Barbara Wellisch, planned a “big do” for her 100th birthday.) – The Jewish Chronicle, Philadelphia

Honours for technology that can diagnose cancer by sensing breath

HAIFA – Professor Hossam Haick of Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, received the Humboldt Research Award in Germany and was also chosen as one of the 100 influential figures published by California’s Good Magazine.

He has been prominent, among other things, in his development of devices to diagnose and monitor various types of cancers (lung, breast, colon, gastric, head and neck, ovarian, kidney and bladder malignancies) via breath samples.

The Humboldt Award is given to prominent researchers who have significantly influenced their fields of study, provided they maintain some type of co-operation with research institutes in Germany. It is granted in recognition of a researcher’s achievements as a whole – discoveries, theories, and insights.

The 41-year-old Haick, born into an Arab Christian family in Nazareth and a member of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering and a member of the Technion’s Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, received the award for his “tremendous contribution to the diagnosis of diseases through innovative markers that he discovered in his research at Technion”.

These are markers that are present in both the breath and skin. – Jerusalem Post