It may almost be August, but the summer is far from over! There’s still time to hit up the beach and get a good tan going. In their list of the world’s “top 10 beach cities,” National Geographic ranked Tel Aviv at number 9, calling it “Miami Beach on the Med.”

While the list has some favorites like Honolulu and Rio de Janeiro, there’s definitely some surprises. Tel Aviv’s inclusion should come as no surprise but thanks NGO for the shout out! To check out the full list from National Geographic click here.

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With all the talk about Lebron this summer, one of the more overlooked signings has been Amar’e Stoudemire, former rookie of the year and all-star Phoenix Suns player, going to the New York Knicks. The 100 million dollar contract he recently signed brings a legitimate force to the team. He may not be King James, but he’s got something else New Yorkers will love.

Stoudemire, whose mother was Jewish, recently had a spiritual revelation and is greatly embracing his Hebrew roots. “I don’t really consider myself to be a religious person, but rather a deeply spiritual individual,” Stoudemire told the Jerusalem Post. “I have been aware since my youth that I am a Hebrew through my mother, and that is something that has played a subtle but important role in my development.”

Nevertheless, the revelation that Stoudemire is Jewish has gotten everyone excited, especially New Yorkers, who amount to the largest Jewish community outside of the Holy Land.

Speaking of Israel, that’s where Stoudemire is right now, and he’s tweeting his whole experience. “The Holy Land has always been high on my list of places to visit, and when this opportunity arose, I wasn’t going to push it off any longer” said Stoudemire. He went on to say he is “excited to be here, see all the important historical sites, learn Hebrew and to get a better understanding of my heritage.”

Based on his tweets, it sounds like he is picking up some Hebrew. On Tuesday he tweeted “On the flight to Israel. This is going to be a great trip. The holy land. Learn about it. This ze ha’halom sheli. Shalom.”

While he may not be teaming up with Israel’s own Omri Casspi in Sacramento, New Yorkers and Jews everywhere can be proud one of their own will be representing them in Madison Square Garden this season.

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For those with “locked-in syndrome,” or complete paralysis with the mind intact, there is no describing the frustration in not being able to communicate or even control ones own wheelchair. Thanks to researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, people who have not spoken in years finally have a voice.

Like many great scientific breakthroughs, this one occurred almost by accident. Dr. Noam Sobel and his team of neuroscientist study the way the brain processes our sense of smell. Using a sniff-triggered olfactometer which produces waves of smell, Dr. Sobel  realized that “sniffs are a very good and fast trigger. It then simply dawned on us that instead of triggering odor, we could trigger anything: letters in a text writer or turns of a wheelchair.”

The “sniff detector” recognizes pressure changes in the nasal cavity, with such simple motions as breathing in or breathing out are strung together to act as commands for a computer program. For example,  two “sniff in’s” can be programmed to send a wheelchair forward; two  “sniff out’s” send the user backwards; a successive “sniff out then in” implied left; and a successive “sniff in then out” implied right. For those almost completely paralyzed, this simplicity is the key to the program’s accessibility.

The device can also be used in a similar fashion to move a mouse on a computer screen, allowing someone without any motor skills or speech to write messages to loved ones. Or they can use it to surf the web. The possibilities for this Israeli innovation are limitless.

Check out the video below for a demonstration of a “sniff control wheelchair.”

To read more, check out this article in cnet.

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The death toll and destruction caused by the January 12th earthquake shocked the entire world. Israel was one of the first on the ground and set up a high-tech field hospital that proved invaluable to thousands of those who survived. Whether the survivors consider themselves lucky is an entirely different matter. The earthquake and dozens of aftershocks which followed killed an estimated 230,000 people, with even more injured and a million people homeless.

One of the 300,000 people injured was 19 year-old Sounlove Zamour. She lost both her legs, and a father on January 12th. With a country literally in ruins, there are no words to describe the difficulty a double amputee faces being wheelchair bound in a city without infrastructure.

Sounlove’s struggles and hardships are, sadly, the norm in Haiti. But she is one of the lucky ones, having caught the attention of many after being featured in a February article in the Los Angeles Times. One of the readers who wanted to help was Jack Saltzberg, who is executive director for a Los Angeles-based organization affiliated with Israel’s Sheba Medical Center.

Thanks to the hard work by Haitian officials and Israeli diplomats working in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, Sounlove will soon be on her way to Tel Aviv for a new pair of legs, four months paid recovery and rehabilitation, and just maybe, a second chance.

Of course, Israel is not alone in Haiti. Israel is a part of the international community and answered the call along with so many other nations. The United Nations recently called on member nations to extend aid to Haiti in the form of police officers to maintain public order on the island. Israel is sending 14 officers who have a great deal of experience, including a policewoman who served as part of the UN peacekeeping force in Georgia. The Israeli police officers will be working alongside Italy’s officers.

They say the earthquake directly impacted 3 million people’s lives in Haiti, but on an emotional level it reached the entire world. While Haiti has disappeared from the headlines, its people are still in dire need of help. With thousands of victims still struggling with injuries and an entire region still lacking adequate infrastructure, neither Israel nor Italy nor the United Nations has any intention of forgetting about the Haitian people.

To read more about Sounlove Zamour’s amazing journey, see this article in the Los Angeles Times.

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Taco de Locust....yum?

Remember that scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where they are served monkey brains? Well, that’s not kosher but a lot of very strange things are!

If the prospect of dipping pheasant into hummus with deep fried locusts sounds unappetizing to you, it’s probably because its been a while since this dish was popular. Yes, believe it or not, locusts and many other creatures are not only technically kosher but have actually been a Jewish tradition for quite some time. Of course, just because something can be kosher doesn’t mean it should replace good old fashioned kebab (plus we feel bad eating giraffe).

On the menu at Eucalyptus Restaurant in Jerusalem is swordfish, deer, buck, Mongolian Ringneck pheasants, turtle doves, a few varieties of sparrow, water buffalo, and the aforementioned locusts. All 100% kosher. Dr. Ari Greenspan of Efrat is organizing this very special meal attended by rabbis, zoologists, professors, and anyone brave enough to try these ancient delicacies. The 18-course meal will begin at 6 PM and end at midnight, with a small lecture before the presentation of each dish explaining not only the origins of the traditional yet obscure dish but how it conforms to halakha law.

The goal is to ensure that future generations of Israelis and Jews around the world continue passing along these traditional kosher recipes before they are lost forever. Well, maybe we could do without anything from the grasshopper family…

To read more from the Jerusalem Post, click here.

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This December, Americans will get a very unique thriller at the box office that is already being looked at by analysts as an Oscar contender. ‘The Debt’ first came out in Israel in 2007, and is part of a growing trend of Israeli films and tv shows being adapted overseas. The Assaf Bernstein film is being remade stateside under director John Madden, who gained considerable fame after making ‘Shakespeare in Love.’ The cast, composed of Americans as well as Australian Sam Worthington (of Avatar fame), also features well known Israeli actress Romi Abulafia.

The film follows a group of Mossad agents in two time lines, one in 1965 and the other in the present day. Their 1965 mission succeeded in capturing a notorious Nazi war criminal, known as the Surgeon of Birkenau. For decades he is believed to have committed suicide after his arrest, or did he? In 2010, a man claiming to be the Surgeon reappears, and retired Mossad agents find themselves thrust back into the world of espionage as they must decide to whether to uncover or hide the truth.

To read more, click here. And check out the trailer below!

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Sweet and sour, gritty and ferocious all neatly wrapped. There’s a lot going on in Onili’s tracks, the Israeli electronic duo mixes reggae, hip hop, and some good old fashioned electronica into a package literally popping at the seams. Onili herself calls it “urban pop….urban gives it the crunchy and the roughness, and pop, its still very structures songs.” It doesn’t hurt their popularity that they have a pretty face to say the least.

The titular Onili (her real name is Nili Ohayon) is complimented by Barak Kram on drums, whom she met after moving to Israel from Paris. The duo, which performed earlier this year at SXSW (you can read there interview from Spinner about that here), recently teamed up with Laroz on their hit song “Why Did You Go?” In anticipation of their stint at the CMJ Music Marathon in October, Onili is holding a contest to remix “Why Did You Go?” The winner will receive a free linktone for the remix, a full PR campaign to Israeli music media and in U.S by The Bloom Effect.  In addition, the winner also receives complimentary registration to attend the CMJ Music Marathon worth 495 buckaroos.

Calling it the International Remix Contest, the judging/listening sessions are going to be streamed live on justin.tv with some special celebrity appearances. Wannabe DJs who think they can make the best track can go here to download an a capella version here. Email your goods to iwantyou@onili.com. Deadline for submissions is August 15th. Check out the music video for “Why Did You Go?” below.

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Last week at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Michael B. Oren,  sat down with Jeffery Goldberg of The Atlantic for a frank conversation about Israel’s future that was only occasionally interrupted by an ominous thunderstorm.

Organized by the Aspen Institute, the annual event is filled with conversations with world leaders and experts in topics ranging from World Affairs, Arts and Culture, American Policy, Environmentalism, and Women’s Rights.

Watch the full video below:

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The readers of  Travel and Leisure have voted Jerusalem the best city in the Middle East/Africa. Tel Aviv was not far behind at number 3. This is the first time since 2000 that Jerusalem was voted to the top spot and the first time that Tel Aviv made it to third place.  In second place for those who are curious is Cape Town, South Africa.

The results are published each year in the magazine’s August issue.

“We are thrilled by this result because it underscores the growing realization by sophisticated travelers that our two main cities are unique and extraordinary places to visit,” said Arie Sommer, Israel’s tourism commissioner for North and South America.

Thanks to JTA for this story.

Photo of the “Immigrants’ Shelter” on Yaffo Street courtesy of jaime.silva on flickr. Used under Creative Commons License. The building was built in 1908. The sundial shows the local time; the clock on top left displays European time,  and the clock on the top right shows the hours remaining until sunset.

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Heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne, former front man of Black Sabbath, is bringing his multi-band rock festival to Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv on September 28th.  Ozzy and his band will headline the festival and will be joined by the popular American band KoRn as well as several Israeli bands who have not yet been named.

The 61-year-old Osbourne is excited for Ozzfest in Tel Aviv as it will be his first time visiting Israel.  He is bringing his family along for the trip including his wife Sharon, whose father was Jewish, and their two celebrity children, Kelly and Jack.  They plan on traveling throughout the country before the concert, including a stop at the Western Wall.

Sharon Osbourne, who also serves as Ozzy’s personal manager, held a video-conference in which she assured Israeli fans that no matter what, there will be no last-minute cancellations due to any potential boycott pressure.  Sharon said there have not been any threats so far, and even if there will be, they will not back down:  “Music goes beyond politics because it is the international language of the world. Ozzy and I have a history of not getting involved with politics. I could not be more excited or proud about bringing Ozzfest to Israel for the first time.”

For more information, see the article in The Jerusalem Post.

Photo courtesy of nooccar on flickr.  Used under Creative Commons License.

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