By Mark D. Zimmerman
MELVILLE, New York — The Israeli startup company Senecio is very busy making deliveries during the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. What are they delivering?
A. Kosher meals for visitors. Senecio is a food delivery service which delivers meals from restaurants throughout Israel (similar to Seamless in the United States). Senecio applied for and was granted a license in Rio de Janeiro to deliver kosher meals to visitors at the Olympic games. The company is working with all the local kosher restaurants in Rio, including Kosher Planet and Bar-Ilan Restaurant, and will deliver meals to hotels, bed and breakfasts, and even to the various Olympic venues.
B. Security video. Senecio is a high tech security startup in Israel, whose area of expertise is security monitoring via drone aircraft. They have been hired by the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Rio 2016 to provide drone aircraft which are taking aerial photography and videography from above the various Olympic venues. The pictures are then delivered to the Brazilian Intelligence Agency that has overall responsibility for security at the Olympic Games.
C. Mosquitos. The company is involved in the fight against the Zika virus. A major effort in this regard is to release millions of sterile male Aedes aegypti mosquitos that will mate with the female Zika mosquitos, thus preventing the females from becoming pregnant and laying eggs. However, there was no good way to deliver these sterile mosquitos into the environment until Senecio developed a system of mass storage and safe release of millions of the sterile mosquitos from airplanes.
D. Kosher meals for athletes. Because of the nature of athletic training for the games, it is critical that the athletes are able to eat meals that are a part of their training regimen. In the case of the Israeli athletes, the special meals that each prefers must also be kosher, and these items are not available in Brazil. Senecio is the company which was contracted by the Olympic Committee of Israel to purchase, store, and ship the food from Israel to Brazil on a daily basis throughout the Olympic games, assuring that the athletes have the meals they need on a timely basis.
E. Mezuzahs. Senecio is an online supplier of religious articles, including tefillin, Shabbat candlesticks and challah covers, all sold online with overnight, and sometimes same-day delivery. The company has set up a program in Rio de Janeiro called Rent-A-Zuz, which enables Jewish visitors to the Olympic Games to order mezuzahs for use at their hotels, bed and breakfasts, and AirBnB’s. The mezuzahs are designed to temporarily adhere to doorposts without damaging the structures, and they can be returned when the travelers go home.
Zimmerman is the author of the Rashi, Rambam and Ramalamadingdong series of Jewish trivia e-books. Learn more at http://www.rrrjewishtrivia.com . Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)