(NEWS) Yad Vashem Has Identified 4 Million Holocaust Victims

"Yad Vashem says it has identified two-thirds of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in the last decade has added about 1.4 million names to its central database of Shoah victims’ names, bringing the total number of names registered to about 4 million, according to a statement released Tuesday.

“One of Yad Vashem’s central missions since its foundation, the recovery of each and every victim’s name and personal story, has resulted in relentless efforts to restore the names and identities of as many of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices as possible,” said Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev. “We will continue our efforts to recover the unknown names, and by harnessing technology in the service of memory, we are able to share their names with the world.”



In 2004, Yad Vashem launched the central database of Shoah victims’ names onto its website with 3 million names. Names are recovered via Pages of Testimony, special forms filled out in memory of the victims by those who remember them, and by combing archival lists and documentation for names.

Of the 4 million names now known, some 2.2 million come from Pages of Testimony and the remainder from various archival sources and postwar commemoration projects.

Israel Protests Gaza Rockets to U.N.

Israel has filed a complaint in the United Nations over rocket attacks from Gaza.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Security Council President Susan Rice, Meron Reuben, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, called on the body to “send a clear and resolute message that these attacks are unacceptable.”

The letter, dated Tuesday, was sent several hours after a rocket fired from Gaza landed several yards from a kindergarten in session in a western Negev kibbutz, wounding a 14-year-old girl on her way to school. Israel responded to the attack later in the day with an airstrike on what it called a Hamas terror center in Gaza.

At least 13 rockets from Gaza have been fired on southern Israel since Sunday.

“The incidents of the past several days are part of an escalation of terrorist attacks emanating from Gaza that target Israeli civilians, towns, and military personnel,” the letter said.



Later it said, “In response to such attacks, Israel has exercised and will continue to exercise its right to self-defense.”

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Wednesday told Israel Radio that the Palestinian Authority fears a full-blown Israeli attack on Gaza, saying that “Military solutions such as these won’t accomplish a thing and would only complicate the situation.”

Israeli Panel Approves Heritage Site Renovations

An Israeli government committee approved the $25 million renovation of 16 national heritage projects and sites.

The Ministerial Committee on the National Heritage, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday approved the renovation of the sites—among the 150 sites and initiatives included in the “Plan for Renovating and Strengthening National Heritage Sites and Assets” approved in February—at a cost of $25 million. The plan caused some controversy when two West Bank biblical sites, Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs, were added to the list.

Included on the list of the approved renovations is Independence Hall in Tel Aviv.

The committee meeting Tuesday was held at the Ben Tzvi Institute in Jerusalem, home to the wooden cabin used by the second president of the State of Israel, Yitzhak Ben-Tzvi, another site on the list.

“The heritage project is one that we owe ourselves, our children and future generations,” Netanyahu said." (source)

(NEWS) Vicious Teens Cried 'Jew, Jew' As They Punched & Beat Rabbi Unconscious During Thanksgiving Attack

Video below: "The victim of a Thanksgiving hate crime testified Friday his attackers screamed 'Jew, Jew!' as they beat him unconscious on a Brooklyn street.

'They ripped off my clothes, my hat and my yarmulke. They were punching my face,' said Joel Weinberger, 26, a Hasidic rabbi and father of four.



Weinberger ended up with numerous fractures and a broken eye socket. He had three steel implants in his cheek, he told the Daily News outside the courtroom.

'I was hit from the back; I lost consciousness,' Weinberger testified at an evidence hearing.

He came to, tried to run away, but was hit repeatedly until he blacked out again, he said.

Two 15-year-old boys were charged with assault as a hate crime for the attack on Harrison St. in Williamsburg.

Two NYPD detectives testified that the teens said they attacked 'the Jew' because 'it was something fun to do.'



Detective Nicole Carter said the boys claimed they 'were bored,' went to a park, bought a '$5 bag of weed, got high' and then decided to go to what they called 'Jew town.'

One of the teens is accused of later beating two other Orthodox Jews - one last Saturday and another on Monday as he left a Chanukah party.

Because the suspects were charged as juveniles, The News is not publishing their names.

Both are chronic truants and drug users who cannot be controlled by their parents, probation reports say.

One of the teens was laughing during the proceedings, prompting a warning from the judge to 'treat the process with dignity.'

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 17." (source)

(NEWS) Iranian Students Threaten To Destroy Esther's Tomb

"Protestors in Hamadan warn 'Zionist leaders' they'll 'destroy lowly murderers' mausoleum if Al-Aqsa mosque assaulted in any way'

A group of extremist Iranian students threatened to destroy the mausoleum of Queen Esther and Mordechai should Israel cause damage to the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Ynet reported Sunday.

According to tradition, the tomb is located in the western Iranian city of Hamadan."

(VIDEO) Wikileaks: Hezbollah Rockets Cover All Of Israel

(BIZ) Facebook VP: There’s A Lot Of Talent In Israel

"Blake Chandlee: We currently have no plans to open a development center in Israel, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. Israel is an important market for Facebook.

'We currently have no plans to open a development center in Israel, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. Israel is an important market for Facebook, both in terms of development and in commercial terms,' Facebook VP Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Emerging Markets Blake Chandlee told 'Globes'. 'It’s obvious that there’s a lot of talent in Israel, and we definitely are aware of that.'



Chandlee is participating in the 'Globes' Israel Business Conference 2010. 'The talent in Israel is obviously why companies like Google have already opened development centers in Israel, but it’s important to remember that we’re not like Google. Google has over 20,000 employees, whereas Facebook has about 2,000. All our developers are in Palo Alto. We naturally want to copy this model to other countries, but not in the near future.'

Chandlee started out as an entrepreneur, and then served as vice present at Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) at the company’s UK offices, where he was responsible for development. He joined Facebook three years ago, and was the first to open a company office outside the US. He was in Singapore for the telephone interview, and sounded pleased by the progress there. 'Facebook is succeeding in Asian markets,' he says. 'For example, in Singapore, 65% of the population is already on Facebook, and even the government has begun to use this tool to communicate with its citizens. Facebook has high penetration rates in both Japan and South Korea.

However, Facebook is still banned in the world’s largest Internet market - China - after the government blocked users’ access for reasons of censorship. 'Regrettably, most users in China have difficulty accessing Facebook. I won’t go into the reasons for this, but it’s something that we’re thinking about.'

'Globes': Are you in contact with the Chinese government?

Chandlee: 'There are no talks about this at the moment, but we definitely want everyone to ultimately have access to Facebook.'

Face to face with Google

Facebook has long been the world’s largest social network, and according to ComScore, it is the third largest website in the world, with 633 million different users per month, after Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), with 976 million users per month, and Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT) websites, with 840 million users. As a result, whereas in 2009, Facebook focused its competition against social network MySpace, and was busy with the rising popularity of Twitter, which could surpass it, it is now clear that Facebook’s real rival is the search giant.

You’re ahead of Google in time spent by users on site. When will you surpass them and become the world’s biggest website?

'In certain markets, we’ve already surpassed Google in terms of user traffic, and in the US, for example, we’re really head to head. But we don’t think that Facebook is competing with Google for traffic. We’re focusing on our business, and if that means that we succeed, so much the better. We don’t devote too much time comparing ourselves with Google. Most of the world does that for us, and that’s fine.'

As for the rumors that Google plans to set up its own competing social network, called Google Me, Chandlee says, 'There’s a lot of speculation about this, but we haven’t seen what it’s about, and we don’t deal with this.'

Last month, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s new messaging system, which would enable users to manage all their communications - chats, e-mails, and text messages - on one site. Across the web, it was called the 'Gmail killer', but Zuckerberg quickly announced that they were not competing against Google or Microsoft’s e-mail services, and that this was a completely new communications system.

Nonetheless, Chandlee does not shrug off the rivalry. 'Obviously, we’ll compete against Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail with our new system,' he says, but quickly backs off, saying, 'We think that the mail is becoming less relevant as far as personal correspondence is concerned. The young generation no longer uses e-mail for communicating with friends, and all interpersonal communications is changing. Facebooks’ new system was designed in a way that says that the e-mail revolution is already here. This is a messaging system, not a mail system.'

The new service will reach Israel during the first quarter of 2011. Chandlee says, 'The recent period was very pressured for our engineers, and they were busy building many products that will be launched only early next year.'

Facebook recently launched another service, 'Facebook Places', a location-based feature that enables users to update their physical location on the social network. Chandlee promises that, 'Places will arrive in Israel early next year, and Facebook Deals will arrive two months later.'
Facebook Deals is a service for businesses to offer local discounts and awards to active users.
'It’s possible to do better work in Israel'



Facebook will reportedly have $1.4 billion revenue in 2010, 100% more than in 2009. Chandlee says, 'Most of Facebook’s revenue comes from the US, even though 80% of Facebook users are in other countries.' This situation, he adds, 'will change dramatically, and I expect that the gap will narrow quickly. That’s exactly what my job is.'

Most of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising. Chandlee says, 'We launched Facebook internationally three years ago, and 90% of the world’s largest 100 advertisers are already investing heavily in advertising on Facebook. We also have hundreds of millions of small businesses that use our advertising system in order to reach segmented target audiences. These are naturally smaller budgets, but they are an important source of our revenue.

In Israel, Facebook has linked up with portal Nana10, which beginning this year markets advertising space on Facebook Israel’s homepage as part of Nana10’s new media unit Masa.
'We have a good partner in Israel', says Chandlee. 'We launched operations in Israel in order to increase local awareness and offer support to anyone who wanted to operate on Facebook,' adding, 'Is it possible to do better work in Israel? I think so, and we’re devoting many efforts to this.'

Facebook’s market cap has been estimated at secondary markets at $40 billion. Does this seem high to you?

'The secondary markets are mainly driven by people’s opinions, and there’s a lot of demand compared to low supply. That’s why Facebook’s share price continues to rise, and I assume that some people believe that the price is crazy. But there are also experienced investors who are willing to buy the share at these prices, and even believe that they can still make a profit. In any case, time will tell if the price is too high or not.'

What did you think about the movie 'The Social Network'. Does it resemble Facebook’s real story?
'I think that I’m the only employee who hasn’t seen the movie. I’m constantly travelling and flying, but I know that Facebook rented three cinemas in Palo Alto for one day for its employees, and afterwards it invited the employees to dinner. I’ve heard that it’s a good movie, but even though everyone says that Mark is shown in a negative light in the movie, I realized that it wasn’t as bad as I’d heard.

'If you meet Mark, you’ll understand that he isn’t as exciting a character as the movie implies. He’s said, ‘I wish my life was so interesting, but in reality, in the past six years, I’ve mostly written code.’ But we understand his portrayal in the movie; you can’t sell a movie without sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll, and I’m anxious to see it.'

'Cellcom should have used Facebook to explain the breakdown to its customers'
Last week, Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) suffered the largest breakdown in its history, with more than three million subscribers nationwide unable to make or receive phone calls or SMS. The technical glitch was accompanied by a not-small crisis of communications, which led to many complaints by the carrier’s subscribers. Cellcom is one of the few leading Israeli brands that does not have an official Facebook page, and except for a laconic message on the company’s website, there was no special attempt to contact consumers via Facebook or Twitter.

Chandlee believes that this was a mistake. 'Brands must have a Facebook page, where they manage their community according to the brand's values,' he says. 'A breakdown like that, which disrupts consumers’ regular lives, will not disappear on its own. In a social environment, consumers have a voice, and when something like this happens, consumers want to complain. If they don’t have an official place to do so on Facebook, they will find someplace else.

'Cellcom should have used a brand page to explain the problem to consumers, tell what it was doing about it, and that it understood their feelings. Avoiding explanations isn’t the right way to deal with a crisis. Consumers want transparency and information, and a Facebook page makes it possible to easily disseminate the relevant information. In most cases, if a brand explains the breakdown to consumers, 90% of the complaints are solved on the spot." (source)

(BLOG) Zuckerberg Among Nine New Jewish Individuals & Families To Take The Giving Pledge

"Wednesday, 17 more billionaires announced that they had taken the Giving Pledge, a statement that they intend to give away at least half of their wealth before they die.

The pledge, an initiative started by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet, has drawn mixed reviews, with some hailing it as revolutionary and others panning it, as most of the first group of signatories, which was announced this summer, included mostly those who had after already making philanthropic commitments that far exceed 50 percent of their wealth.

This second group, which brings the total number of pledge takers to 57, includes at least one big name that is a philanthropic neophyte, facebook founder, Zuckerberg."

(IDF) IDF & Israel Ministry Of Defense Send A Humanitarian Aid Delegation To Relieve Columbian Flood Victims

"Today (Sunday, December 12th 2010), the IDF and the Israel Ministry of Defense sent a humanitarian aid delegation to provide medical care and services to the flood victims in Columbia.

The delegation will carry approximately 50 tons of equipment to Columbia, including 20 tons of dry foods, five thousand medical kits, two thousand blankets, one thousand poncho jacket, one thousand mattresses, and one hundred tents.



Commander of Home Front Command’s National Search and Rescue Unit, Brig. Gen. (Res.) Shalom Ben-Arye, said: 'The IDF instructed the Home Front Command to send a humanitarian aid delegation to the Columbian flood victims. We are to land in Columbia, distribute the aid and return only once our mission is completed.'

Deputy General Manager of the Ministry of Defense, Mr. Bezalel Treiber, said: 'Over the past two days there has been a rapid deployment, including approximately 50 tons of equipment. The delegation will now set out for Columbia. I wish to thank the delegation staff, the Home Front Command and the Ministry of Defense and wish them luck on their mission.'" (source)

Click on an image to enlarge...

(HELP) Petition To Add The "Temple Mount" To The List Of Jewish Heritage Sites

Please help by signing this petition and sharing with your friends to get as many signatures as possible.

The petition is to have the "Temple Mount" added to the list of Jewish heritage sites as it originally belonged to the Jews in the first place. This is where Abraham's faith was tested by God when he had to sacrifice his son (but of course didn't) and was also the place where both the Temples were located and where the 3rd Temple will be located.



The petition is in Hebrew but I have added instructions below for anyone who cannot read Hebrew. You do not have to be Jewish or Israeli to sign this, anyone can be involved. Thank you.

Click here to open the petition, see instructions below.

Instructions for non-Hebrew speaking people

1) Click the link above.
2) Scroll down the page till you see the form fields on the bottom right.
3) Where it says "שם מלא" insert your Full Name.
4) Where it says "גיל" insert your Age.
5) Where it says "יישוב / עיר" insert your City.
6) Where it says "דואר אלקטרוני" insert your email address.
7) Where it says "מספר טלפון" insert your phone number but you do not have to and is only for Israeli citizens if they want to.
8) Click the big Green button and you are done once the next page loads, you can then close the site.

Thats all :)

The owner of this petition is looking to get at least 10 000 signatures but ultimately wants 100 000 - but 10 000 is enough to make the news at least which will then increase the amount of people signing it far quicker...

(NEWS) IDF Rescues Ukrainian Crew On Sinking Ship

"The Israeli Navy and Air Force rescued a crew of 11 Ukrainians whose ship began sinking in a savage winter storm Sunday morning on the Mediterranean Sea eight miles west off the Israeli port of Ashdod.

The Moldovan vessel, carrying more than 3,000 tons of metal, was headed towards Ashdod when the ship‘s captain reported water entering the ship, which was rocked by 30-foot high waves in gale force winds of more than 100 kilometers (65 miles) an hour.

Some of the crew had jumped into the sea, but no one required medical care. A Taiwanese crew, also in the area, participated in the rescue operation."

(NEWS) WZO Launches Global Effort To Fight Antisemitism

"Project to keep database of Zionist activists, communicate with them regularly in English, French, Spanish, Turkish, Russian, and Arabic.

Dozens of students from 14 countries around the world joined together this weekend at a seminar in Paris that launched the World Zionist Organization's new Global Network for Countering Antisemitism.

The students and others like them will be the soldiers on the ground who report to the WZO about antisemitism in their countries and receive advice about how to tackle future incidents. To that end, the WZO launched a media room that will be in touch with activists around the world in several languages."

(NEWS) Israeli Wearing Tefillin On NZ Ferry Causes Panic

"Ferry boat captain calls police after spotting man described as wearing 'boxes' with 'wires taped to his leg and forehead.'

An Israeli tourist visiting New Zealand caused a minor panic on a New Zealand ferry on Sunday after the captain reported to police that a passenger was carrying a 'suspicious article,' NZTV reported.

Some media in New Zealand even reported a hostage situation aboard the ferry, even though the passenger was cooperative with police, according to the report."

(NEWS) Moscow’s Jewish Elite Raise Funds, Campaign For Israel

"An 'oligarch' calls on Russia's richest and most powerful to help Israel recover from the Carmel forest fire, bring European MPs to Israel.

To mark the end of Hanukka, Russian 'oligarch' and Jewish philanthropist Alexander Mashkevich invited Moscow’s elite to the annual reception of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress at the city’s prestigious Safisa Palace banquet hall on Thursday night.

With some of the Russian capital’s richest and most powerful residents in attendance, Mashkevich called for an emergency fund-raising drive to aid Israel in recovering from the Carmel forest fire and announced a project to bring hundreds of European members of parliament to the Jewish state on a solidarity mission in February."

(NEWS) Kissinger: Gassing Jews Would Not Be A US Problem

"'If they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern,' then-US sec. of state tells Nixon on 1973 tape.

Henry Kissinger is heard saying the genocide of Soviet Jews would not be an American problem on newly released tapes chronicling President Nixon’s obsession with disparaging Jews and other minorities.

Kissinger’s remarks come after a meeting between the two men and former prime minister Golda Meir on March 1, 1973, in which Meir pleads for US pressure on the Soviet Union to release its Jews."

(NEWS) 18,624 Israeli-Palestinian Online Links In 24 Hours

"Facebook joins Stanford University project 'Peace Innovation;' Facebook tracking connections between Israelis and Palestinians.

The Facebook social networking site has joined a Stanford project encouraging online organizations to share the impact they are making on peace.

Answering the call of a Stanford University project called 'Peace Innovation,' Facebook started tracking connections made between Israelis and Palestinians, Indians and Pakistanis, and Albanian and Serbian members of the social networking website."