Editor’s E-Mail Box: July 11, 2018 (3 items)

Israel Defense Prize goes to man who discovered a way to detect Hamas tunnels

Col. Yaniv Avitan, a graduate of the Jerusalem College of Technology’s (JCT) electro-optics engineering department, received the 2018 Israel Defense Prize from the Israeli Ministry of Defense for his role heading a team that works to detect the Hamas terror group’s cross-border attack tunnels.

The threat of Hamas’s cross-border tunnel network was particularly prominent during Israel’s 2014 summer war in Gaza. The IDF destroyed more than 30 of the so-called “terror tunnels” during that conflict, but the military continues to discover and dismantle the tunnels today, several years after Operation Protective Edge.

Avitan, 42, grew up in Netivot and lives in Sderot, both situated in southern Israel near the Gaza border—meaning the tunnel threat and other forms of terrorism have long been a reality of his daily life. He has researched the Hamas tunnels since 2013.

“We developed an algorithm into which data was fed, combined with assessments of the security situation and decisions about where to drill, where to dig, where to attack, and what to handle,” says Avitan. “The breakthrough was not only technological, but also in the way people worked – technology professionals left their laboratories and went out in the field, in complete contrast to the norms of their military service. Various defense industries joined the Lab. There were great challenges, but everyone went full steam ahead. We are pretty confident in the method. It speaks for itself when it comes to locating tunnels.”

Avitan calls his team’s tunnel-detection breakthrough “a highlight of my career.” When asked why he chose to stay in the army when using his skills to develop a start-up could potentially make him millions, Avitan simply stated that the fields outside of the army “can’t provide the sense of meaning that IDF service offers.” –From Jerusalem College of Technology

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World Jewish Congress and Chelsea Football Club team to combat hate in sports

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) has launched together with Chelsea Football Club, the international Pitch for Hope competition. This competition is the first stage of a three-pronged joint initiative on combating the widespread phenomenon of racism, xenophobia, discrimination, and anti-Semitism in sports, under the banner Red Card for Hate.

This initiative was made possible due to a generous contribution from Chelsea FC Club owner Roman Abramovich and World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder.

The World Jewish Congress and Chelsea Football Club are jointly committed to sending a clear message that the spirit of sport must be tolerance and respect, not hatred and xenophobia.

Pitch for Hope is a hothouse of ideas, calling on students and young professionals in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Israel to submit proposals for a unique and creative project to harness the spirit of sportsmanship to build bridges between people of all backgrounds, faiths, and walks of life.

In the UK and the US, Chelsea FC and the WJC have been reaching out to potential participants representing institutions working toward coexistence, including Jewish and Muslim organizations, as well as leading educational institutes. The competition in Israel will draw participants from minority groups in the peripheral north and south of the country, and people of all religions – including Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Druze – as well as members of the lower socio-economic strata, and will take a focus on the visual arts.

Each country’s winners will be invited to present their proposals in September at Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge stadium in London to a panel of judges representing the WJC and Chelsea FC. The winners from each country will receive a $10,000 grant from Chelsea FC and the assistance of the World Jewish Congress to develop and implement their pilot project.

For more information visit http://us.pitchforhope.org/   for the US competition and http://uk.pitchforhope.org / for the United Kingdom.  – From World Jewish Congress

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Tuffy joins United Hatzalah as a therapy dog

Ori Weiss and Tuffy

A new volunteer has joined the ranks of United Hatzalah’s Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit, only this one has four legs. Toffy, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, a breed known around the world for excelling as therapy dogs, has gone through extensive training with her owner, Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Volunteer Ori Weiss, to become certified as a therapy dog and inducted into the organization’s unit.

Weiss and Toffy live in the northern city of Tzefat (Safed) and will be tasked with providing emotional and psychological stabilization to anyone suffering from emotional or psychological stress or trauma in their vicinity. The new volunteer pairing could not have chosen a better time to begin their work, as many people, mainly children, have been suffering emotional side-effects from the continuing tremors that are currently affecting Israel’s north. — From United Hatzalah

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Preceding items culled from news releases sent to editor@sdjewishworld.com