Hanging up the cell phone

May 4, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Israeliness, Life, Technology 

I don’t know if this is unique to Israel, or commonplace elsewhere. But I was hoping it would demonstrate the personal touch and small town care that can still pop up once in a while here, where you least expect it – even from a money-hungry big company.

My kids each have a cell phone from Cellcom, one of the Israeli cell phone companies. Their monthly bills have been relatively consistent over the last couple years, although with one in the army, the calls and SMS messages definitely fluctuate.

However it’s my youngest cell phone user, who has always had the lowest phone bills, who prompted the surprise call from a Cellcom representative today.

“I just wanted to let you know that the bill for this number is much higher than usual this month,” he said. It turns out that the usual reticent teen had turned overnight into a social butterfly and had racked up a phone bill that had even caused the jaded monitors at Cellcom to take notice.

After picking myself off the floor, I thanked the rep, and we discussed options of how to proceed. Even though it was in his – and Cellcom’s – interest to see the user keep on abusing his phone privileges, he was doing above and beyond to help me figure out a solution.

So now we have a teenager with a blocked cellphone – able to receive calls – but not make them. In a few months, after his debt is paid off, maybe we’ll unblock the code. But for now, Cellcom is aiding and abetting in cutting their profits, but doing the right thing.

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Beaten to the punch

May 3, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Pop Culture, Sports 

Hagar Finer celebrates her victory.

Who knew that Israel even had women boxers – let alone the world champion?

Hometown girl Hagar Finer retained her Womens International Boxing Federation (WIBF) bantamweight crown by handily defeating Latvian challenger Agnese Boza with a fifth-round knockout earlier this week at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv before a nationally televised audience.

According to Ha’aretz, Finer was greeted with a rousing ovation from an audience that was dotted celebrities from the entertainment and sports world.

Finer has been involved in the fighting game since she took up martial arts at age 13. She quickly became the Israeli karate champion for her age group. When she was 17, her coach Raanan Tal told Finer, now 25, that boxing was the way to develop further. Coach Tal was in Finer’s corner this week when she emerged victorious against Boza.

Finer insists that boxing is not her career but a hobby. “What’s come of it is wonderful, but my career goal is to be a trainer,” she told Ha’aretz. “I plan to study, and I hope to open my own martial-arts club.”

In the meantime, we can celebrate having our own Rocky.

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KinnerNet Lipdub

May 3, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Life, Picture of the Week, Pop Culture, Technology 

Well, no one else has posted this yet, so I guess I’d better. It’s the cream of Israel’s high-tech community at play, along with a few high-powered international guests, at the annual KinnerNet.

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Nostalgia Sunday – Israeli dentistry gets a wisdom tooth

May 2, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: coexistence, education, General, health, History and Culture, Medical Breakthroughs, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Technology 

The Cabinet today approved the inclusion of dental care for children up to the age of 8, part of what we here call the “Basket of Health Services, our basic subsidized healthcare. The question of who will pay for all-important pediatric dental care — which comes in at about NIS 160 million annually — has been a source of great controversy for some months now. Clearly, the people who opposed it have never taken a good look at the mouths of many an older Israeli.

A few fun facts about dentistry in today’s Israel, courtesy of the Ministry of Health: Israel has one of the highest proportions of dentists to the general population in the world, with some 7,500 dentists currently practicing, and about 300 new ones joining the profession each year. About 85% of all dentists in Israel work in private clinics or in group practice. There are approximately 5,000 independent dental clinics in Israel, alongside approximately 200 operated by the health funds. The pediatric services agreed on today will be provided from the outset by the health funds, private clinics and independent dentists.

This preventative and educational approach is quite a difference from the early days of this country, when oral hygiene was not a high priority. (There is no “History” section in the Israel Dental Association website, and with good reason, too). The Hebrew University – Hadassah School Of Dental Medicine was only founded in 1953 (the hospital had already been in existence since 1912).

A minor connection between the early Zionist movement and dentistry appears in an article from the 2009 Journal of the History of Dentistry. It says, “In 1892 an article on dentistry among the ancient Israelites appeared in the popular dental journal Items of Interest. It was written by Naphthali Herz Imber, an obscure wandering poet and writer who had traveled through most of the world, but achieved immortality for having written the poem Ha Tikva, or The Hope, which became the national anthem of the State of Israel. However, searches through biographies of Imber show no indication that he had any interest or attachment to dentistry.”

A more heroic figure who trained in dentistry was Joseph Trumpeldor. I know, I was surprised to learn that, too. And did you know that dental student and Olympian swimmer Mark Spitz’s first international competition was the 1965 Maccabiah Games?

You might say that dentistry languished during the early years of statehood. Or, you might say, that since dentists were never required to be part of the public healthcare system, they got fat and sassy thanks to their private practices. A lot of people said so, not just me.

There were also immigrants who reinvented themselves as dentists, although they may have been some sort of hygienist, technician or wanna-be in a previous life. In his online essay, Dentistry in Israel, Jerusalem-based dentist Dr. Ari Greenspan writes, “Previous to the large Russian Aliyah of the early ’90s, anyone with a valid dental license from any country could receive an Israeli license to practice… [but] with the influx of hundreds if not thousands of former USSR Olim claiming to be dentists, all dentists making Aliyah must pass a rigorous certification test to receive their Israeli licenses.”

The profession, Greenspan continues, “has improved dramatically over the past decade. In fact, in many ways, dentistry in Israel today is on par with or superior to the care available in the US and UK… In recent years, all of the dental materials that US dentists use, have become widely available in Israel, but we have the added advantage of access to European and Asian products that never make their way to the States.”

I can personally vouch for the high level of care and professionalism at my HMO-run dental clinic.

Israel’s academic institutions have also played catch-up over the decades. There are some surprising developments from oral microbiologist Dr. Mel Rosenberg, a self-described “smell-ologist” whose research into halitosis has led to the invention of a new mouthwash, as well as 100-plus scientific articles, editorials, and books.

Dental Volunteers for Israel is another amazing enterprise. For over 30 years, DVI’s volunteer dentists have provided free treatment to thousands of needy children at a state-of-the-art clinic in Jerusalem. Take a look at the video and you’ll agree: we have come a long way. And today’s decision marks a major step in creating a healthier future generation.

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Burning down the house

May 2, 2010 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Environment, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Life 

You don’t see a lot of firemen in Israel. With all of our various crack rescue and security teams available at a moment’s notice, it seems like the fire department is the forgotten arm of the country’s safety wing.

Growing up the US, you see fire stations all over the place, and visits to the firehouse are part of the elementary school curriculum. Here, most people would be hard pressed to tell you where the nearest fire station is.

Since most homes are built of stone, it drastically decreases the chances of fire – leaving the hot, dry summer and the advent of forest fires as the firemen’s busy time of the year.
But there’s one other day, when the obscurity of the Israeli fireman is unveiled to reveal him and her in all their splendor – Lag Ba’omer.

The celebratory evening of bonfires is the firemen’s Super Bowl – the day when they are rightfully seen as the heroes they are.

“This is our night,” Haifa firefighter Shimon Lahav told Ha’aretz on the eve of the holiday which began on Saturday night. “Suddenly everything we’ve dreaded the whole year happens – in an organized way. Bonfires everywhere, with the danger that they’ll spread.”

Aside from making sure over enthusiastic children or drunk revelrers don’t injure themselves in the huge fires tht are lit throughout the country, the firefighters’ greatest fear on this holiday is bonfires that are not put out properly.

“Such bonfires, with the wind the next morning after the people have left, can spread and cause fire and disaster,” Lahav says.

“On a visit in San Francisco I sat with a fellow firefighter and talked about work. I told him we had 35 firefighters in Haifa in charge of some 6,000 outbreaks a year. He turned white and couldn’t understand how we do it. In the United States, 12 firemen are dispatched to the smallest incident in which people are trapped,” Lahav says.

“With us it’s five at best, two or three at worst. So slowly people are beginning to understand that we’re the only sector that isn’t fighting for money, but we ask for more people because ultimately it affects our ability to save lives.”

Firefighters’ greatest fear on this holiday is bonfires that are not put out properly.

“Such bonfires, with the wind the next morning after the people have left, can spread and cause fire and disaster,” Lahav said.

Walking out this morning along the access paths and open spaces behind home in my neighborhood, it looks like the aftermath of a war scene: smoldering fires, scorched earth, the smell of burnt material of every kind.

The country’s least environmentally friendly holiday is over for another year, and the firefighters can return to their obscurity for another year – at least until the first summer forest fire ignites.

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