Just saw this article on Arutz 7: The 6,493 households which made aliyah through NbN between 2002 and 2008 have yielded a whopping 989 million shekels, with the cost of absorbing them standing at only NIS 528 million, leaving the immigrants’ contribution at NIS 461 million so far.Visiting friends and family of NbN olim have [...]

Dan Senor and Saul Singer report on how the Israeli economy has been thriving while the rest of the world has gone in the gutter: For all the press coverage of the Middle East, there is one side of Israel that gets scant attention: the country’s economy has the highest concentration of innovation and entrepreneurialism [...]

I haven’t been so good with posting this year – Thank God, life has been busy and happy. Perhaps the coming year will bring some change. In the meantime, feel free to check out a new Torah-related blog that I have started: Shteig Shtark. And have a healthy and successful new year.

I was just in the embassy in Tel Aviv today to register our new daughter, Gila (it is much nicer there than in Jerusalem, by the way). As instructed, I copied down the city and country of her birth onto the Report of Birth Abroad form. Since she was born in Shaarei Tzedek hospital, this [...]

Read this article by Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post – Israel’s Arab Cheerleaders (here is an excerpt): As the Arabs line up behind Israel, the Obama administration is operating under the delusion that the Iranians will be convinced to give up their nuclear program if Israel destroys its communities in Judea and Samaria. According [...]

See this recent post on Hirhurim which asks the question: Is Hinduism Avodah Zarah, which raises questions about whether Hinduism is to be considered a full-fledged form of idolatry (it seems to involve many gods, and idols) or not (a deeper examination of Hindu theology reveals that they may believe in one overall God, and [...]

Check out this article in the NY Times (Batteries Not Included) about Project Better Place, an Israeli company that is seeking to introduce battery-powered cars into the mainstream market in Israel. Their innovation is that they will introduce kiosks all over the country (Israel, Denmark and Hawaii are the pilot markets) that will feature automated [...]

Banks in Israel are pretty annoying. And that is if you are lucky. Coming from the US (where I used to enjoy such luxuries as being able to deposit my money into an interest free checking account where the bank can use it to earn money for itself, and not be charged for the privilege), [...]

Go and read the Shuk Machane Yehuda Kashrut Report on The Yeshiva World website. Short Version: If a store does not have a valid teudah (kashrut certificate), don’t assume that it is kosher. If a store says that they are Mehadrin but they can’t prove it with a valid teudah, then they probably are not [...]