Tel Aviv Skyscraper Wins International Design Award
The Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has chosen Tel Aviv’s two-year-old ToHa skyscraper as the overall winner in the office building category of its 18th annual awards program.
ToHa is located at the intersection of Derech Hashalom, Yigal Allon and Totzeret Haaretz streets.
Tower 1 of two planned towers, completed early in 2019, has 28 floors. It was designed by Israeli artist/architect Ron Arad of London, who worked with local architect Avner Yashar, in the shape of an iceberg, the architect said. The atrium of the building is configured as a large, seven-story-high main lobby space that continues upward, culminating in a generous skylight on the public roof.
In May 2019, ToHa Tower 1 obtained LEED Platinum certification.
Tisha B’Av: From Sundown to Sundown, July 17-18. What’s It About?
Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, is a day of mourning for a series of events that all, eerily, occurred on the 9th of Av. Next to Yom Kippur, Tisha B’Av is the most important fast day in the Jewish calendar. It marks the final day of a three-week period of intense mourning for the events that led to the loss of Jewish independence with the destruction of the holy shrines of Jewish life.
- 1313 BCE: Moses’ spies return with bad reports about the Land of Israel. (Numbers 13-14)
- 423 BCE: First Temple, built by King Solomon, is destroyed by the legions of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar.
- 69 CE: Second Temple, built by Ezra and Nehemiah, is destroyed by the Roman Emperor Titus.
- 135 CE: The Bar Kochba revolt is crushed by Roman Emperor Hadrian.
- 1290: Jews are expelled from England by King Edward I.
- 1492: King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sign the edict of the Spanish expulsion.
- 1914 Germany declares war on Russia, sparking WWI.
Stampede At Israel Lag B’Omer Celebration Kills At Least 45
A stampede early on April 30 at a mountainside religious celebration for Lag B’Omer on Mount Meron in northern Israel that drew tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews left at least 45 people dead and scores more injured.
By some estimates, about 100,000 people were crammed together to celebrate. The deadly crush began around 1 a.m. Friday, as celebrants began to pour out of a section of a compound where festivities were being held. The death toll of 45, released by the Health Ministry, made it one of the worst civilian disasters in Israeli history. About 150 were injured.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews traditionally gather at Mount Meron for the holiday, to dance and make bonfires around the tomb of a prominent rabbi from antiquity. Early reports indicated that a grandstand had collapsed. But as details emerged, it appeared that the crush may have occurred after celebrants slipped on stone steps leading into a narrow passageway with a metal-floored slope, setting off what the news site Ynet described as a “human avalanche.”
The annual gathering on Mount Meron, which is in the Galilee, takes place near the mystical city of Safed. The Lag B’Omer holiday is linked in Jewish tradition to the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Romans in the second century A.D. [Photo Ishay Jeusalemite/Behadrei Haredim, via Associated Press]
Dutch Museum To Pay $240K To Owners Of Nazi-looted Painting
The Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle has agreed to give $240,000 to the descendants of Jewish Holocaust victims who under duress sold the 1635 painting “Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well” by Bernardo Strozzi. The painting is one of several artworks that the Dutch government’s Restitutions Committee has acknowledged as looted art, yet the committee has refused to return the paintings because the “public’s right to have access to the culturally significant works outweighs the interests of the rightful owner.”
The best known item on display in the Netherlands is “Painting With Houses” by Wassily Kandinsky. The painting is valued at $20 million. Amsterdam’s municipal museum, Stedelijk, acknowledges it was looted but has not offered to compensate the rightful owners, who sued the museum and lost.
Iron Dome Dominated The News During Recent Conflict; What Is It?
The current violence between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip erupted with a barrage of missiles from the Palestinian coastal enclave of Gaza toward Jerusalem. This attack set off a soundtrack of rocket attack sirens accompanied by Israel’s air defense system, the Iron Dome, whose interceptor missiles blew up incoming rockets into a bizarre fireworks-like display.
Although the Iron Dome has been in use since 2011, this most recent conflict, with its intense media coverage, has exposed the capabilities of the Iron Dome to the Israeli public and to the world. As heavy rocket fire reached multiple and widespread locations across the country, Israelis were largely protected.
The Iron Dome is made up of three parts: radar, a control center, and interceptor missiles. Radar senses when a rocket is launched against Israel; the control center calculates its flight path; interceptor missiles are launched to detonate the rocket before it gets too close to its target. Each Iron Dome launcher holds 20 interceptor missiles.
The Iron Dome protects Israelis from short-range threats, such as rockets, but not other weaponry. But the Iron Dome is supplemented by an aerial defense system called David’s Sling and by Arrow, which target more sophisticated ballistic missiles. Accuracy is estimated at 95 percent, which means that the alarms and defense systems have saved countless lives.
1,600-Year-Old Mosaic Pavement Unearthed In Yavne In Central Israel
A 1,600-year-old mosaic pavement that was uncovered recently in Yavne, in central Israel, will be placed on display at the city’s cultural center. The project is a joint initiative of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the Yavne Municipality, and the Israel Land Authority.
The flooring dates to the Byzantine period (4th to 5th century C.E.) and was discovered during large-scale excavations launched ahead of the development of a new neighborhood in the ancient city.
IAA archaeologists Elie Haddad and Hagit Torgë said that they initially believed the flooring to be “simple white mosaic paving belonging to yet another industrial installation,” but once they treated it with acid to remove its patina coat, “a colorful mosaic carpet was revealed, ornamented with geometric motifs. The well-preserved flooring “may have been part of a splendid residential building in a wealthy neighborhood,” they said.
Results Of The Pew Research Center Survey Of American Jews
A new, detailed survey of American Jews from the Pew Research Center shows a deepening divide between the Orthodox and the less observant, a rising number of Black, Hispanic and Asian Jews, more intermarriage, and a growing concern about antisemitism.
- The study found that 17% of Jews 18 to 29 identify as Orthodox, compared to just 3% of those over 65. Roughly 30% of young Jews identify as Reform and another 41% with no particular branch of Judaism.
- Jews are also growing father apart along political lines. The number of Orthodox Jews who identify as Republican increased from 57% in 2013 to 75% in this year’s survey, while 70-80% of Reform, Conservative and nondenominational Jews lean Democratic.
- Only 1 in 5 Jews surveyed told Pew that religion is very important to them. That compares to 2 in 5 Americans overall.
- The latest Pew survey also shows that the rate of intermarriage continues to grow: 72% of non-Orthodox American Jews who married since 2010 have a non-Jewish spouse. Among the Orthodox, however, 98% marry other Jews. Nevertheless, nearly 70% of interfaith couples are raising children to be either religiously, culturally or partly Jewish.
- Among attributes most American Jews consider essential to being Jewish, 82% say caring about Israel, with 58% saying they feel attached to the nation; 76% say remembering the Holocaust; 72% say leading an ethical life; and 59% say working for justice and equality.
- This year’s survey examined racial diversity among American Jews. Eight percent of the Jewish population identify as Hispanic, Black or Asian — or anything other than non-Hispanic white — a share that nearly doubles to 15% among Jews between ages 18 and 29. Some of those surveyed identified with more than one race. The report also found that 13% of those who responded to the survey said they live in multiracial households. Overall 17% of those surveyed said they lived in a house were at least one person is multiracial, Hispanic, Black, Asian, or of another non-white racial group. Two-thirds of Jews identified as Ashkenazi, others as Sephardic or Mizrahi.
- American Jews are increasingly concerned about antisemitism, with 75% saying there is more antisemitism than there was five years ago, and more than half reporting feeling less safe, including 61% of “visible Jews,” most notably the Orthodox, whose attire more easily identifies them as Jewish.
- Roughly half of American Jews who rarely or never attend religious services said they express their Jewishness in other ways, including 74% who share culture and holidays with non-Jews, 63% who host or attend a Passover Seder, and 46% who fast on Yom Kippur.
- The survey asked about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, which targets Israel for what BDS supporters describe as its human rights abuses and occupation of Palestinian land. BDS has been aggressively fought by the Jewish establishment, but only a slim majority of Jews surveyed had heard of the movement; 34% oppose it, and 10% are in favor.
The Pew survey was based on interviews by mail with 4,718 Jewish adults between November 2019 and June 2020. The margin of error for the overall report is 3%, although individual questions may have a higher or lower margin. Those who agreed to take the survey cold complete it in English, Spanish or Russian.
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