(TECH) Israel, Canada Working Together On Nanotechnology

"Relations between Canada and Israel just keep getting tighter. Two years ago, experts from both countries met, through computer video links, to discuss potential business ventures, including developing instruments for desalinating sea water to make it potable. Last year, Israeli and Canadian philatelists met face to face to launch a friendship stamp to celebrate 60 years of great relations between their two nations.

Last month, nanotechnologists from both places got together at Carleton University in Ottawa to study matter so small that it would be lost on the head of a pin. On Oct. 4 and 5, scientists in this super-specialized field, and from several Israeli universities, came to 'a summit of research-sharing and academic co-operation,' a press release from the Embassy of Israel stated.



It noted that the two-day summit was to focus on the themes of 'nanomechanics, optoelectronics, photonics and biophotonics.'

Miriam Ziv, Israel’s ambassador to Canada, said, 'Israeli research and innovation is world renowned and the potential benefits of an exchange of knowledge between Canada and Israel will be extremely valuable. I am confident that this workshop will not only enrich the research but also strengthen the friendship between our two countries.'

According to Kim Matheson, Carleton’s vice-president (research and international), 'Carleton is known for its significant cutting-edge research in the field of nanotechnology,' and collaboration between scientists from both coubtriescould lead to great initiatives and cooperative ventures.

At the conference – which attracted about 40 scientists, government and university officials, curious spectators and press people – Matheson reiterated Carleton’s international leadership in the field. He noted that the university teaches nanotechnology at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

'Researchers here have received both awards and grants to further their work,' he said.
The ambassador stressed at the opening of the conference that Canada and Israel have been forging close ties 'since 1949. Such collaboration is a valuable tool for both countries. I see this conference as part of a wider effort to deepen our ties.



'Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree these kinds of joint efforts are good for both countries.'

As the scientists began their presentations, it became obvious just how complicated nanotechnology is. To highlight this fact, Ron Miller, an associate professor at Carleton of mechanical and aerospace engineering, explained that 'since the 1980s, with the invention of the modern electron microscope, scientists in the area of study have used a total of only I cubic millilitre of matter. The totality of material studied in nanotechnology, on the other hand, is a nanogram, less than the size of a grain of sand.'

Researchers from Israel included scientists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Applications for nanotechnology range from early detection of diseases to the relationship between nature and nano-quantum mechanics.

At Carleton specifically, efforts in the field are focussing on solutions to many social, environmental and health problems. For instance, nano research into making better currency will one day help to avoid counterfeiting." (source)

(NEWS) Albania Still Has Welcome Mat Out For Jews

"TORONTO – A unique and exciting Holocaust Education Week (HEW) event this year will be a presentation on Albania, a country that was unusual in its determination to protect its Jewish population during World War II.

In fact, Albania had more Jews after the war than it did beforehand. BESA, a code of honour stressing religious tolerance and hospitality, was adhered to in Albania and is considered to be the reason that Jews were safe there.



Travel writer Vera Held, who visited Albania in September, will emcee the program, which will include a 90-minute presentation and photos of her trip. An Albanian Jew whose family was saved during the years of the Holocaust by an Albanian family, as well as two Albanians whose families saved Jews and were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Gentiles, will participate.

Discussing her trip with the Jewish Tribune, Held said that as a Jew, she was treated with 'incredible respect and warmth. I can’t tell you how welcome I felt.

'Jam Hebre means ‘I am a Jew,’ and the response was always, ‘I love the Jewish people.’ Everybody was thrilled – not one or two, but everybody. That was the reaction I got every single time.

'Nobody engaged me in conversation about Israeli politics,' she said. 'They don’t seem particularly interested. They were interested in my story, a Jewish Canadian with a European background. They think Jews are Israelis because the word for Jew is Hebre, meaning Hebrew.'

BESA continues to prevail in Albania, Held explained; 'Everybody gets along. I knocked on a door in Delvina [a small town outside of Saranda] and a man invited me and my tour guide into his home. I told him my story and he said: My father was an imam and the family saved three Jewish families during WWII.



'I left with a great big necklace of fresh figs and beautiful mountain tea…. They were absolute strangers. That’s what happens in Albania. Everybody is helpful, friendly, kind and tolerant.

'I got the exact same treatment in Ioannina, Greece, where there are 35 Jews left,' she added. She spent Rosh Hashanah with the Romaniote community – Jews who went there directly from Jerusalem centuries ago and not via Spain, like the Sephardim.

Albania is a mix of the old and the new, she said, describing the 'unparallelled, over 2,000-year-old cobblestone streets in Jirokatra' and a beautiful excavated synagogue in Saranda from the 5th century CE.

According to Held, currently there are approximately 100 Jews in Albania, scattered in major centres, and there is no functioning synagogue.

'It’s a society of tolerance, and what they practice is healthy secularism,' she stated. 'Yes, there are churches and mosques. I shot photos of a Muslim wedding during Ramadan where there was food, drink and dancing. And from what I was told, that’s quite typical.'

The program will take place at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 7, at Sala Caboto in Villa Colombo, 40 Playfair Ave." (source)

(NEWS) Canadian Union Raising Funds For Unnecessary Mail Boat To Gaza

"TORONTO – The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is now among the leaders of a fundraising drive to send a flotilla to Gaza this fall to distribute mail and to protest Israeli 'cruelty' in not delivering mail to that destination.

As reported earlier (Jewish Tribune, Aug. 19, 2010), Israeli Major Guy Inbar explained that the reason for the cessation of mail delivery was related to security. The Palestinian mail coordinator had been arrested, and 'with the appointment of a new representative on the Palestinian side, the mechanism of the coordination of mail transferring will be active again,' Inbar said two weeks ago. As of last Monday, the publication deadline, the Palestinians had not yet named a replacement, notwithstanding the alleged suffering caused by the cessation of mail delivery.



Nevertheless, Denis Lemelin, the union’s national president, said: 'As postal workers, we know very well that cutting off mail creates suffering and hardship for people who are isolated from their loved ones…. How many more abuses will the people of Gaza have to endure?'

Lemelin’s ongoing anti-Israel activism is well documented. He was asked in an email several days ago whether he had considered the fact that there is currently no mail coordinator on the Palestinian side to alleviate the situation, but received no reply before deadline.

Endorsers of the flotilla initiative include, among others, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA)), Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) and Not in Our Name (NION), as well as Arab-Israeli Member of Knesset Haneen Zoabi, listed as a 'Mavi Marmara survivor.'

(The Knesset House Committee recently voted 7-1 to strip Zoabi of her Parliamentary rights because of activities they perceived as treasonous, such as her participation in the Free Gaza flotilla, although the move was blocked by the Knesset speaker.)

The CUPW site directs viewers to 'Canada Boat Gaza,' which, in partnership with the Free Gaza Movement, is seeking “to raise $300,000 (cost of boat and crew, not including aid to carry to Gaza) over the course of the coming couple of months. We need to approach Canadian public figures to be on the boat.”

Donors are advised to make out a cheque to Alternatives [Action and Communication Network for International Development], one of the organizations whose application for renewed funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) was rejected last December.

In July, Toronto resident Chana Poizner told the Jewish Tribune she received in her mailbox a seemingly humanitarian appeal from Alternatives, seeking pledges to “help Gaza’s children grow up in peace” (see Jewish Tribune, July 15, 2010)." (source)