Time to update...

Time to update the blog, time to update the blog, (to the beat of “time to make the donuts…”). The best idea I ever had was having the girls update as part of their “language maintenance requirements”, it is also one of my worse ideas since I don’t feel the pressure…

So life, good actually J Ofer is here, has been for about 10 days, makes life a bit easier on me. Hard to be a “not by choice” single parent. The girls had a week off for Hanukkah, we had a good time, although we didn’t do much. We went to the Carmel Mountain one day, walked a trail that usually takes a bout 2 hours to hike. It took us a bit longer since I wasn’t feeling well and Lior is, well, how should I say it, SHORT… I have to admit, she was doing much better than me. J The three of them are actually pretty good hikers, they love climbing, and looking for flowers. The view was absolutely beautiful, and the weather was just amazing. Mid 70’s and sunny, who could ask for more.

School resumed on Sunday, imagine going back to school on Christmas eve. The girls are very well adjusted, unlike Labor day when Danielle could not understand “what they were thinking having school on labor day” there was no reaction to going to school over Christmas or New Years. I must be well adjusted as well. I wanted to take a couple of days to myself and go to a SPA, I figured I earned it. The best time appeared to be Sunday-Tuesday of next week. It’s a good thing my mom asked what we had planned for New Year’s, or we would have had separate plans (lol).

Chica is getting to be quite big, I will load pictures soon. We really need to have some professional training sessions with her. She is DESTROYING the yard, and apparently stealing footwear from the neighbors when she can get away… Can become quite uncomfortable… We now have her chained whenever she is outside, so she is unable to run out if someone opens the gate… She was quite angry for the first couple of days, and whenever she came in the house she would… Well, express her anger by peeing or worse… The stench… I was so angry I was ready to move her out of the house and put her in a dog house… but we seem to have both calmed down a bit, today was event free on her part, tomorrow’s weather is supposed to turn stormy, so I guess she’s staying in for a while. J I must rub our friends noses in the term “stormy weather” as defined in Israel, Temperatures will go down to the 60’s, it will rain (probably not enough) for a night, and maybe the following day, and then the sun will come out again and we will be back in the 70’s. You must understand, everyone is whining and complaining about how cold it is, because we drop down to the 60’s in the evenings… They all need a winter in Chicago to get some weather perspective.

Maya’s birthday is next week (the 4^th) she will be 10(!) wow… double digit child… She wants a party with a DJ some dancing, musical games, and then she wants to watch the movie GREASE with her friends. It seems a little “old” to me, but she’s been insistent for over a month, so I guess we’ll go with it… I have a childhood friend whose son (15) is DJing, it made me feel a little better to think of a 15 year old doing it, rather than a “real” DJ… I am not sure how I feel about a friend of mine having a 15 year old son… but I will deal with that. J Her birthday falls on a Thursday this year, and since there is no school on Friday, we will probably celebrate on the day. Exciting.

I think this will be all for now… Thanks for not losing faith and still checking in on us! Merry Christmas to all our friends who celebrate, and a great New year to all. May it be a year full of good happy things.

Love to all,

Ronit

different subjects by maya

#1:On saturday we had a birthday party for my grandmother.It was at our house.All her friends came over.It was a surprise party.She thought that we were celebrating the second night of hanukkah.The moment she was in the doorway Lior blew it.She told the whole "surprise".My gandmother didn't believe her, but when she came to the living room she saw all her friends and then she realized Lior was right.It was a great night.I had alot of fun.

#2:"Winter Break " here is only a week.Some people go camping,horse backriding,stay at home and do homework(this is very common.My teacher gave us homework for the break!Can you believe her?! ),and lots more.To tell you the truth i have nothing to write.Nothing, nada.I got a laptop.My birthday is in less than two weeks.Well, bye for now.

Maya's opinion of the festigal

On saturday we went to the festigal."we" is me,mommy,Danielle and Lior.It was a musical.It was about these three girls who are best friends.Two of the girls are "fashion girls"and one loves books.The first song is about the festigal and the second is about the girls.I personally like the eighth song which is about Keshet who shoots arrows.Keshet is one of the three heros that need to fight the evil queen of cold.Ever since a prince refused her proposal of marriage she made everything cold.The three girls get into the land by reading a magical book.The first girl doesn't get captured but the other two do.Then the first girl meets up with the bookeeper and starts out on an adventure.I really like the festigal.It was fun.

maya #2

On thursday me & my mom went to the beach with Chica.It was fun.We ran with Chica alot.Then I had a activity with Chica so she would behave better.Yesterday we went to my grandma and grandpa from my dad's side.We had dinner and the kids played games.I had alot of fun.Today I woke up and my stomach was bothering me.Me,Danielle and Lior played some games together.Then my grandpa from my mom's side came with his sister.Then we went to a shena.It was yum in my tum.If you don't know what a shena is ask someone jewish.It does not make the shhh sound.bye for now.

danielle-bored want to do something-what do you do?

its danielle (bored) i just wrote ablog so i could tell you this:what do you do when your bored(post a coment to tell me) bye

danielle-doing homework-blog 1

hi its danielle again!!!Well look at this two things to say first of all no good punquashon.Second you can look at the title to see if I 'm doing homework or if its just for fun or any thing else that I haven't thot of yet.Well as you can see today I'm doing homework,And today I'm useing piriods well again I have nothing to say so bye

Danielle-just for fun-I don't know

well if your thinking I'm like Maya (doing homework) your wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!Cause Guess what I'm Danielle(surprise???)Wait a minute (Maya that's rude) sorry about that (Maya did uuuuuhhhhh from Maya).Well it's my first blog (I won't always use this good punctuation in blogs (don't be surprised) so I really don't know what to say I just love writing!!!Well bye

The Gliksman Family: maya's last few weeks

okay so yeah i'm only updating the blog because it's my english homework but SO WHAT!!!
1:my new english teacher is,,,,,,
MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
well some things about having your mom as your teacher for those who don't know:
BAD.
I asked her about some homework(that we have to write in cursive)and she gave me the answer that took the most writing!
why my mom is my english teacher:my mom and my friend, Gil Semel's, mom thought that my english teacher at school,Becky, was too easy.So... my mom was really missing teaching So...she's teaching us.
2:what to write, what to write.hmmmmmm.ummmmmmm.
on sunday we went to the tec-no-da.don't ask me what it is because i don't know.we learned science.we got candy.
3:last saturday or the one before that we went on a trip for the whole day with the tsofim.(don't worry that isn't a spelling mistake thats how its supposed to sound in hebrew.)it was for the whole day.we went hiking in the woods in the carmel.

Remember us????

So sorry everyone, there is no excuse... Truth is I've been wanting to do this SO many time and always felt that I had too much to write and not enough time to do it. The "natural" conclusion (natural for me that is) was to do it later... When I have more time... What is it about time? Oh yah, you never have enough of it :-(

In a nutshell, our house was broken into a bit over a month ago, they made a bit of a mess, took some cash, some jewelry (one rather nice piece that Ofer gave me for our first anniversary, so nice, that I only wore it about 5 times in the 10 years that passed... I hope some one is making better use of it :-) but most important... My lap top... Those who know me know how addicted I am to my lap top (well was :-) now I have to get upstairs to the desk top to get things done... Naturally, not as convenient, and so... Less is accomplished. The worse thing about my laptop being stolen is the fact that all the pictures I took from the time we arrived here were on it... No back up... Oh well.

I have to admit that it is not a nice feeling to walk into your home and realize you had a visitor. The girls were pretty shook up, Lior was crying and not sleeping well for a couple of nights. They won't stay home alone in the evening for more than 10-15 minutes (created quite a problem with my weight watchers meetings - but that's a different post). But I think they are slowly moving on, this happened in Mid October... We now activate the alarm when ever we leave the house, as well as at night time. Personally, I am just glad non of us were home and all they got are "things".

Well on to more interesting things :-)

After all the holidays (a month that ended in Mid October) the girls finally are going to school on a regular basis. No breaks are expected until mid December when they will be off for 8 days for Chanukkah. (or however you spell it). The girls realized today that their friends from HP are off this week for Thanksgiving, they were bummed and asked if they could take Thursday off to celebrate :-). They are falling into a routine of School, homework and afterschool activities. As I mentioned in the past they are B U S Y ! ! ! Monday is their only day without any scheduled after school activities! But they seem to be enjoying all that they do.

Maya is doing very well in school, she is testing well and is able to do almost all of her work on her own. Danielle is also doing much better, if we could get her frustration thresh hold to be just a bit higher, all of our lives would be easier... But hey, this is Danielle. Her teacher told me the other day that she caught her reading a book in class :-0... I couldn't help but chuckle as I have done that numerous times in my school days... The only difference is, I hid the book under my desk. Danielle just put it on her desk and read... I pulled them both out of the "English for English Speakers" class. The level was much too low for them and there was no challenge at all. I now come to school to work with them during that time... I have to say Braeside did an amazing job. I was working with Danielle on a literature piece discussing plot, characters and setting she not only knew the terms but was able to clearly define them... I am impressed (just means I will have to prepare better for our next lesson:-)

Chicka, our lovely dog is getting bigger by the minute. She now officially out weighs Lior, not to mention the fact hat when she jumps, she does it over her head... We realize we need to train her since she loves jumping on us when we get home, she has knocked Lior over more than once... Luckily Lior is a forgiving soul :-) This morning, after thinking for a couple of week now that the poor thing does not get enough exercise, I took her to the beach after dropping the girls off. We walked for about an hour! Well I walked, she ran most of the time. It was AMAZING being on the beach walking, on November 20th, wearing sweat pants and a T-shirt! What could be better!

The girls and I took a short hiking trip this past Saturday. It was a beautiful sunny day, low 70's we hiked a trail up Mt Carmel, I am not sure how long it was but it took about 2 hours. We got to the top and the view was just breath taking, it was so beautiful! The girls were real troopers, no wining, walked like champs, it was great! Sorry no pictures... Although our dear guests from October missed my camera, the did grab the extra battery and charger :-( my camera being so old, I can't seem to find a charger here... We're missing quite a few "Kodak moments". Maybe the good thing to come out of this is for me to get a new better camera, I am trying to convince Ofer that that is the natural conclusion to this turn of events... The girls could inherit this one :-). The cool thing here is that the kids go on trips from school. You know, what we call "field trips"? Except here, they go and hike around the country. It's a big cultural thing to go out, hike and be "connected to the land" I learned it the hard way researching the web for a trail to do with the girls. I found many recommendations to different trails, rating difficulty, scenery, the proper season... The only non of them mentioned was how to get to a specific trail... It's as if everyone knows where everything is, all they need is a rating of the trail, or to read what flowers are blooming on what month... I ended up loading the girls in to the car, driving in a general direction, and hoping for the best... It worked out great, but when people asked where we were exactly, I couldn't tell them... I could however tell them how to get there... No idea what the name of the trail was... My next order of business is to buy a book that list these trail and explains how to get to them.

Ok People... Enough for one sitting, I promise to do this more often (I know I've promised this before, but this time...) I plan on assigning the girls a weekly update as part of their "English class requirements" so there should be at least two updates a week from them :-) And now, I no longer feel like I have to tell you EVERYTHING that happened since last time, it doesn't have to be such an intimidating task :-)

Thanks for checking in!
Be well,
Ronit

Back Again

I am sorry the updates have been so sporadic, but life really is intense… by the time the girls are in bed I am so tired, all I can do is read emails (usually procrastinate about answering) and check on some websites… I haven’t been reading or even watching TV… It’s kind of sad when you’ve been living in a country for two months and you have NO idea what is on TV… But I hope this will change very soon.

We are in the midst of the third week of school. The girls are doing quite well, although Danielle had a breakdown the other day and told her teacher that she “either wants to know how to read already, or go back to Chicago” she went on and said “ I can live with ABBA (dad) and we can come visit… Today however was a better day, after doing her homework she went bike riding to the “town center” about a mile away, found out there was a “happening” there, came back to get me, bumped into some class mates, and began to realize the freedom that she has here, which she would never have had back in the States…

Kids here are SO busy here, it is unbelievable… Everything is so intense… Maya & Danielle take horseback riding lessons once a week, they swim twice a week. All three take a ceramics class once a week, Maya has youth group meetings (TZOFIM which is the Israeli scouts) BTW to out Highland Park readers, they are the troupe of teenagers who come from Israel every summer and perform at Port Clinton, who knows you may see her on stage in a few years J. In reality, Danielle is the one who decided to pursue a theatrical career. She is in a song and dance troupe (that also takes up 2 hours of her week) They will be performing in community events and such… No we all do remember that non of them drive right??!!! Do you start to get an idea of why I am SO tired? Why this blog is never updated? And why I have two books that I have been eager to read, and I haven’t even seen anything beyond the cover of? Now I know some people will comment about limiting your child’s extra curricular activities… But I figured, they have so many changes in their lives, if there are things that make them feel good, as well as allow them to develop social connections then… I did put my foot down when it came to gymnastics…

I haven’t developed a life beyond the girls yet… L I did however, get us a membership to the health club this week and hope to resume my work out routine ASAP. I was happy to see that they have the same machines I used at lifetime (same brand and everything – even if there are only 2 compared to Lifetime’s 20- all I need is one J ). A joining gift I received 3 sessions with a personal trainer. I am psyched.

One of the things that has been keeping me down is a girl from the Neuroblastoma world. I made a decision that this blog will be about us, not Neuroblastoma, but for the past two weeks I’ve been thinking, mourning and following this amazing young girl… If you want to get a sense of where I’ve been go to her site… christithomas.blogspot.com It will not be an easy visit, but this is one amazing family, and this girl who is now loosing her battle is one very, very special young lady…

Lior has been having play dates and spreading her social wings… She is having the best time of the three J The other day she asked if there was school everyday in Israel, when I said, no not on Saturday she made a sad face and said “oh too bad, I love school.” Oh I forgot to mention that I a room mother for each of the three classrooms… I am the treasurer of Lior’s class ( I am sure Ofer got a good laugh out of this one). My sister in law was shocked when she first found out her initial reaction was “are you crazy? Didn’t I tell you not to volunteer for ANYTHING?!!!” did I mention she is a teacher J. I figured my focus this year is getting the girls acclimated, I think a part of it is getting to know their school environment, and more importantly, having the schools know me J.

I do have some pictures to upload, but I need to recharge the camera, so I decided to update and load them later.

I will try to do this more often. Thanks for checking in!!

Be safe and be well,

Love,

Ronit

Back Again

I am sorry the updates have been so sporadic, but life really is intense… by the time the girls are in bed I am so tired, all I can do is read emails (usually procrastinate about answering) and check on some websites… I haven’t been reading or even watching TV… It’s kind of sad when you’ve been living in a country for two months and you have NO idea what is on TV… But I hope this will change very soon.

We are in the midst of the third week of school. The girls are doing quite well, although Danielle had a breakdown the other day and told her teacher that she “either wants to know how to read already, or go back to Chicago” she went on and said “ I can live with ABBA (dad) and we can come visit… Today however was a better day, after doing her homework she went bike riding to the “town center” about a mile away, found out there was a “happening” there, came back to get me, bumped into some class mates, and began to realize the freedom that she has here, which she would never have had back in the States…

Kids here are SO busy here, it is unbelievable… Everything is so intense… Maya & Danielle take horseback riding lessons once a week, they swim twice a week. All three take a ceramics class once a week, Maya has youth group meetings (TZOFIM which is the Israeli scouts) BTW to out Highland Park readers, they are the troupe of teenagers who come from Israel every summer and perform at Port Clinton, who knows you may see her on stage in a few years J. In reality, Danielle is the one who decided to pursue a theatrical career. She is in a song and dance troupe (that also takes up 2 hours of her week) They will be performing in community events and such… No we all do remember that non of them drive right??!!! Do you start to get an idea of why I am SO tired? Why this blog is never updated? And why I have two books that I have been eager to read, and I haven’t even seen anything beyond the cover of? Now I know some people will comment about limiting your child’s extra curricular activities… But I figured, they have so many changes in their lives, if there are things that make them feel good, as well as allow them to develop social connections then… I did put my foot down when it came to gymnastics…

I haven’t developed a life beyond the girls yet… L I did however, get us a membership to the health club this week and hope to resume my work out routine ASAP. I was happy to see that they have the same machines I used at lifetime (same brand and everything – even if there are only 2 compared to Lifetime’s 20- all I need is one J ). A joining gift I received 3 sessions with a personal trainer. I am psyched.

One of the things that has been keeping me down is a girl from the Neuroblastoma world. I made a decision that this blog will be about us, not Neuroblastoma, but for the past two weeks I’ve been thinking, mourning and following this amazing young girl… If you want to get a sense of where I’ve been go to her site… christithomas.blogspot.com It will not be an easy visit, but this is one amazing family, and this girl who is now loosing her battle is one very, very special young lady…

Lior has been having play dates and spreading her social wings… She is having the best time of the three J The other day she asked if there was school everyday in Israel, when I said, no not on Saturday she made a sad face and said “oh too bad, I love school.” Oh I forgot to mention that I a room mother for each of the three classrooms… I am the treasurer of Lior’s class ( I am sure Ofer got a good laugh out of this one). My sister in law was shocked when she first found out her initial reaction was “are you crazy? Didn’t I tell you not to volunteer for ANYTHING?!!!” did I mention she is a teacher J. I figured my focus this year is getting the girls acclimated, I think a part of it is getting to know their school environment, and more importantly, having the schools know me J.

I do have some pictures to upload, but I need to recharge the camera, so I decided to update and load them later.

I will try to do this more often. Thanks for checking in!!

Be safe and be well,

Love,

Ronit

Long time no blog…

The Gliksman Family

Sorry everyone, life has been hectic and I’ve been, well, tired…

School started a week ago! We had many fears and anxieties (we meaning the girls and I J) The night before school started (Sunday, September 3^rd) Danielle said “what is wrong with this place starting the school year on a Sunday” Well, I decided that it was only fair she should know, that not only was it a Sunday, but it was Labor Day Weekend J Evil I know, but these are the small pleasures in life J. Well she was shocked and dismayed. She than announced that there was no point waking her up the next day as she was NOT going to school. She said it in that Danielle tone that made it clear that there was no point in trying to argue. I thought fast and said, “Well you have to go it’s the law!” The next day she reluctantly went, only because it is law J.

Since than they’ve been doing amazingly well! Maya is able to keep up with all her class work as well as homework granted her spelling is VERY creative, but hey, we are all for creativity! Danielle is having a harder time, she does not read or write yet so she is in complete concentration mode all day and comes home exhausted. But I spoke to her teacher and she told me she was amazed at how well she’s doing. We will tackle her literacy ASAP and hopefully get her on track very soon. Lior LOVES school!!! She goes with a smile everyday. I was concerned that she wouldn’t want to go on Fridays since the other two are off. Not only did she go, but she was very disappointed to find that there is no school on Saturdays! So I guess all is well!

Chica is ruling strong, she’s growing and feeling very much at home. Being a typical Golden Retriever pup, she jumps and bites… SO much so that Lior has began living parallel to the floor… She carries a chair around and when ever Chica gets close she JUMPS on the chair… What you hear most at our house lately is Chica N O!!! No NO …

We are still waiting for her to master the whole toilet thing… The little bitch (so nice to use the word properly J ) can be out side for 30 minutes, walk inside and… PEES! YUCK! But we’re hoping this will soon improve…

Ofer left today. He was here for two weeks. The girls were so happy to be with him! We had a hard time putting them to bed them knowing that he will be gone when they wake up in the morning…. We kept telling them that he will be back in 19 days (Danielle’s birthday is on the 29^th and he will arrive on that day).

Well, now that I am single parent I should go get some sleep… My biggest “fear “ is getting them out the door in the morning… (and getting Chica out as well). But I’ll update tomorrow let you all know how it went, Whether we made it to school on time or if the girls received their very first tardy slip… J.

SO Thanks checking in, I will load some pictures soon and until then love to all and to all good night.

Ronit

Introducing Chica

The Gliksman Family Proudly introduces CHICA can you guess where the name stems from? We are just SOOO original, it is pronounced Chika (as in spanish) Chica was born on July 1st 2006 and Joined our family yesterday, August 20th2006. She spent the first 24 hours greatly disappointing the girls because... She slept for most of them. This afternoon, she suddenly came to life, starting running around, startled the girls by barking :-) She is absolutely adorable and in our opinion the most beautiful ;-).

We drove close to an hour to pick her up, she is of a litter of 11 (!) 7 of which were still there. The girls insisted on a female, saying that we are now a family of girls. There were only 2 females of the seven puppies (only 3 of 11 isn't that strange). Chica was the first one Maya picked up (and dropped) So under the policy of you drop 'em you buy 'em we did! Just kidding, we really did fall in love. Maya insisted all her siblings are brought back in after we picked her so she can say good bye. She was almost in tears thinking of separating her from her mommy and siblings. (I'll take that as a sign of her liking her own family - I don't get to many of those lately, no one told me about the terrible 9's but that a different post :-).

Well Chica made it home all right, we were concerned about her reaction to the car ride, but she was an ace. We were warned that she will have a difficult couple of days, but she slept through the night, no crying at all. The only sign of depression was her sleeping most of the day, but even that is better.

I have to really thank her, school starts on September third. The girls need to be in the classroom by 8:00AM. My girls are NOT early risers... since we arrived they slowly moved their bed time to around 10:30, and made every effort to get their required 12 hour beauty sleep (does anyone see the problem?) I kept wondering how I would get them back on a normal schedule... Well thank you Chica! They alternate days of being responsible for her needs. Guess when she woke up today? 6:30 AM!!! Maya was out walking her before 7:00! And Danielle was with her! YOU GO GIRL! I would have to spit blood before I could get these two out of bed at this hour!

My brother in law said I should be prepared that in two weeks the only ones alternating care days would be me myself and I. I told him that was the reason I chose a Golden Retriever Puppy :-)

Well I will try to post some pictures. My laptop is a little wacky lately so here's to hoping.

Good Night to all!

Ronit

Comment on comment :-)

After reading reactions on "Israel is nothing...." I sensed a misconception, and I would like to clarify :-)

I have no intention of using this blog to rally support for Israel, those who know me are very aware of my feelings and opinions. This blog was created to keep anyone who is interested updated on US. However, if I come across a piece that I find interesting I will post it. I love the place I am at with its many short comings. I am very aware of them, I am sure I will complain about the ones that will directly affect our lives. BUT I am also very proud of everything Israel has accomplished in what is a short time in historical perspective.

That is it for now, I promise to stick to the Gliksman girls from now on (there is a new addition as of last night-she will be formally introduced as soon as I download some pictures) so stay tuned.

love,

Ronit

Some information on Israel's accomplishments

This is a "cut and paste" from an email I received a while back. I thought some of you might enjoy this :-)




The Middle East has been growing date palms for centuries. The average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of dates a year.

>

Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.

>

Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can lay claim to the following:

The cell phonewas developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.

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Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.

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The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.

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Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.

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The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.

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Voice mailtechnology was developed in Israel.

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Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.

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The technology for the AOL Instant MessengerICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.

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Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the U.S, Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16's. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the U. S.

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Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

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Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.

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According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.

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Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.

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Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people --as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

>

In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the U.S. (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

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With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world -- apart from the Silicon Valley, U. S.

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Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the U. S.

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Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.

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Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East.

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The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.

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On a per capita basis, Israel has the largestnumber of biotech startups.

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Twenty-four per cent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.

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Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.

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In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews (Operation Solomon) at Risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.

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When Golda Meir was elected PrimeMinister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.

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When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day -- and saved three victims from the rubble.

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Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship -- and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.

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Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of

> democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds of thousands from the former Soviet Union)

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Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."

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Israel has the world's second highest per capita of new books.

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Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.

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Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.

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Medicine... Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

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An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.

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Israel's Givun Imaging developed the first ingestible videocamera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, cancer and digestive disorders.

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Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnoseheart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

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Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U. S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.

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A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clear Light device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct -- all without damaging surrounding skin or tissue.

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An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.

The Gliksman Family: We had a blast