Israel went to the polls today and with a larger-than-last-time turn out, voted in a democratic election that will determine the future path of this country. And, as the polls closed, Palestinians in Gaza fired a rocket at Israel and Arabs near Beit El fired shots at Israelis.
This is the Middle East we live in and our neighbors are already reminding us of the reality that the next government must consider. For now, Israel celebrates its democracy - unparalleled in the Middle East.
Today, Israel went to the polls to vote. Arab and Jew, religious and secular, men and women. That doesn't happen in any other country in the region. The real winner tonight wasn't Livni or Bibi...it was Israel.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Want to Beat the Bad Economy? Attend TCC!
HI-TECH PROFESSIONALS SEEK TO BEAT THE BAD ECONOMY BY NETWORKING AND EXPANDING THEIR SKILLS
Techshoret Third Annual Technical Writers Conference
February 26 in Jerusalem International Convention Center
Israel’s technical writers, like much of the world, are facing difficult economic times. Hoping to gain the competitive edge, learn about new directions in the industry and benefit from a unique networking experience, approximately 200 technical writers will gather in Jerusalem’s International Convention Center for the Third Annual Techshoret Communicators Conference (TCC). Featured sessions cover some of the hottest topics in the industry: Single-sourcing with DITA, Usability, Advanced Features in Microsoft Word 2007, Effective Training Materials, the Future of Technical Documentation and much more.
The economy and its growing negative impact will feature prominently in discussions during the sessions as well as in the large vendor area between sessions. One provocative session, Torah and Technology, is sure to challenge and inspire attendees while a session on Mind-Mapping is likely to offer new perspectives on information organization. Many large companies are again sponsoring attendance for their technical writers, graphic artists, documentation managers and specialists, confident they will gain added knowledge and return to work enriched with new and valuable information and contacts.
Speaking about last year’s conference, freelancer Shira Stepansky said “I can tell you that the conference really provided value for your money.” Technical writer Sarah Rosen, employed by a large Israeli telecommunications firm, agreed: “I enjoyed and learned a lot from each of the four sessions I attended and was sorry to miss out on others. The conference was a real sanity saver.”
Registration is still open and details are on the Web site: www.techshoret.com.
This year, the conference is again coordinated by WritePoint Ltd, a leading technical writing company located in Jerusalem, and is sponsored by a number of vendors and companies both here in Israel and abroad.
Techshoret Third Annual Technical Writers Conference
February 26 in Jerusalem International Convention Center
Israel’s technical writers, like much of the world, are facing difficult economic times. Hoping to gain the competitive edge, learn about new directions in the industry and benefit from a unique networking experience, approximately 200 technical writers will gather in Jerusalem’s International Convention Center for the Third Annual Techshoret Communicators Conference (TCC). Featured sessions cover some of the hottest topics in the industry: Single-sourcing with DITA, Usability, Advanced Features in Microsoft Word 2007, Effective Training Materials, the Future of Technical Documentation and much more.
The economy and its growing negative impact will feature prominently in discussions during the sessions as well as in the large vendor area between sessions. One provocative session, Torah and Technology, is sure to challenge and inspire attendees while a session on Mind-Mapping is likely to offer new perspectives on information organization. Many large companies are again sponsoring attendance for their technical writers, graphic artists, documentation managers and specialists, confident they will gain added knowledge and return to work enriched with new and valuable information and contacts.
Speaking about last year’s conference, freelancer Shira Stepansky said “I can tell you that the conference really provided value for your money.” Technical writer Sarah Rosen, employed by a large Israeli telecommunications firm, agreed: “I enjoyed and learned a lot from each of the four sessions I attended and was sorry to miss out on others. The conference was a real sanity saver.”
Registration is still open and details are on the Web site: www.techshoret.com.
This year, the conference is again coordinated by WritePoint Ltd, a leading technical writing company located in Jerusalem, and is sponsored by a number of vendors and companies both here in Israel and abroad.
A Wedding Gown - of the People Israel
Nothing in the story that follows took place in Israel and yet everything about it is Israel. We are a country; but we are country made up of a people. Sometimes, the oceans that separate the people cause some to think that we are divided, but in so many ways, we are not. This is the amazing story of a wedding gown...but more, it is the story not just of survival, but of triumph. It was this same determination that helped build and sustain our country in the early years, and even in the most recent war in Gaza. So, though this is not Israel, this is most definitely Israel.
I don't know who wrote this story originally, but I hope they don't mind my copying it here to share with everyone...it is truly an amazing story, about an amazing woman, part of an amazing people.
Note: With gratitude! The author of this original piece contacted me. All credit for this wonderful story goes to: Helen Zegerman Schwimmer and here is a link to the original story! Wonderful, beautiful, inspiring!
The Wedding Gown That Made History
Lilly Friedman doesn't remember the last name of the woman who designed and sewed the wedding gown she wore when she walked down the aisle over 60 years ago. But the grandmother of seven does recall that when she first told her fiancé Ludwig that she had always dreamed of being married in a white gown he realized he had his work cut out for him.
For the tall, lanky 21-year-old who had survived hunger, disease and torture this was a different kind of challenge.
How was he ever going to find such a dress in the Bergen Belsen Displaced Person's camp where they felt grateful for the clothes on their backs? Fate would intervene in the guise of a former German pilot who walked into the food distribution center where Ludwig worked, eager to make a trade for his worthless parachute. In exchange for two pounds of coffee beans and a couple of packs of cigarettes Lilly would have her wedding gown.
For two weeks Miriam the seamstress worked under the curious eyes of her fellow DPs, carefully fashioning the six parachute panels into a simple, long sleeved gown with a rolled collar and a fitted waist that tied in the back with a bow. When the dress was completed she sewed the leftover material into a matching shirt for the groom.
A white wedding gown may have seemed like a frivolous request in the surreal environment of the camps, but for Lilly the dress symbolized the innocent, normal life she and her family had once led before the world descended into madness. Lilly and her siblings were raised in a Torah observant home in the small town of Zarica, Czechoslovakia where her father was a melamed, respected and well liked by the young yeshiva students he taught in nearby Irsheva.
He and his two sons were marked for extermination immediately upon arriving at Auschwitz. For Lilly and her sisters it was only their first stop on their long journey of persecution, which included Plashof, Neustadt, Gross Rosen and finally Bergen Belsen.
Four hundred people marched 15 miles in the snow to the town of Celle on January 27, 1946 to attend Lilly and Ludwig's wedding. The town synagogue, damaged and desecrated, had been lovingly renovated by the DPs with the meager materials available to them. When a Sefer Torah arrived from England they converted an old kitchen cabinet into a makeshift Aron Kodesh.
"My sisters and I lost everything - our parents, our two brothers, our homes. The most important thing was to build a new home." Six months later, Lilly's sister Ilona wore the dress when she married Max Traeger. After that came Cousin Rosie. How many brides wore Lilly's dress? "I stopped counting after 17."
With the camps experiencing the highest marriage rate in the world, Lilly's gown was in great demand. In 1948 when President Harry Truman finally permitted the 100,000 Jews who had been languishing in DP camps since the end of the war to emigrate, the gown accompanied Lilly across the ocean to America. Unable to part with her dress, it lay at the bottom of her bedroom closet for the next 50 years, "not even good enough for a garage sale. I was happy when it found such a good home."
Home was the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. When Lily's niece, a volunteer, told museum officials about her aunt's dress, they immediately recognized its historical significance and displayed the gown in a specially designed showcase, guaranteed to preserve it for 500 years. But Lilly Friedman's dress had one more journey to make.
Bergen Belsen, the museum, opened its doors on October 28, 2007. The German government invited Lilly and her sisters to be their guests for the grand opening. They initially declined, but finally traveled to Hanover the following year with their children, their grandchildren and extended families to view the extraordinary exhibit created for the wedding dress made from a parachute.
(Picture: Lilly Friedman and her parachute dress on display in the Bergen Belsen Museum)
Lilly's family, who were all familiar with the stories about the wedding in Celle, were eager to visit the synagogue. They found the building had been completely renovated and modernized. But when they pulled aside the handsome curtain they were astounded to find that the Aron Kodesh, made from a kitchen cabinet, had remained untouched as a testament to the profound faith of the survivors. As Lilly stood on the bimah once again she beckoned to her granddaughter, Jackie, to stand beside her where she was once a kallah. "It was an emotional trip. We cried a lot."
Two weeks later, the woman who had once stood trembling before the selective eyes of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele returned home and witnessed the marriage of her granddaughter. The three Lax sisters - Lilly, Ilona and Eva, who together survived Auschwitz, a forced labor camp, a death march and Bergen Belsen - have remained close and today live within walking distance of each other in Brooklyn. As mere teenagers, they managed to outwit and outlive a monstrous killing machine, then went on to marry, have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and were ultimately honored by the country that had earmarked them for extinction.
As young brides, they had stood underneath the chuppah and recited the blessings that their ancestors had been saying for thousands of years. In doing so, they chose to honor the legacy of those who had perished by choosing life.
I don't know who wrote this story originally, but I hope they don't mind my copying it here to share with everyone...it is truly an amazing story, about an amazing woman, part of an amazing people.
Note: With gratitude! The author of this original piece contacted me. All credit for this wonderful story goes to: Helen Zegerman Schwimmer and here is a link to the original story! Wonderful, beautiful, inspiring!
The Wedding Gown That Made History
Lilly Friedman doesn't remember the last name of the woman who designed and sewed the wedding gown she wore when she walked down the aisle over 60 years ago. But the grandmother of seven does recall that when she first told her fiancé Ludwig that she had always dreamed of being married in a white gown he realized he had his work cut out for him.
For the tall, lanky 21-year-old who had survived hunger, disease and torture this was a different kind of challenge.
How was he ever going to find such a dress in the Bergen Belsen Displaced Person's camp where they felt grateful for the clothes on their backs? Fate would intervene in the guise of a former German pilot who walked into the food distribution center where Ludwig worked, eager to make a trade for his worthless parachute. In exchange for two pounds of coffee beans and a couple of packs of cigarettes Lilly would have her wedding gown.
For two weeks Miriam the seamstress worked under the curious eyes of her fellow DPs, carefully fashioning the six parachute panels into a simple, long sleeved gown with a rolled collar and a fitted waist that tied in the back with a bow. When the dress was completed she sewed the leftover material into a matching shirt for the groom.
A white wedding gown may have seemed like a frivolous request in the surreal environment of the camps, but for Lilly the dress symbolized the innocent, normal life she and her family had once led before the world descended into madness. Lilly and her siblings were raised in a Torah observant home in the small town of Zarica, Czechoslovakia where her father was a melamed, respected and well liked by the young yeshiva students he taught in nearby Irsheva.
He and his two sons were marked for extermination immediately upon arriving at Auschwitz. For Lilly and her sisters it was only their first stop on their long journey of persecution, which included Plashof, Neustadt, Gross Rosen and finally Bergen Belsen.
Four hundred people marched 15 miles in the snow to the town of Celle on January 27, 1946 to attend Lilly and Ludwig's wedding. The town synagogue, damaged and desecrated, had been lovingly renovated by the DPs with the meager materials available to them. When a Sefer Torah arrived from England they converted an old kitchen cabinet into a makeshift Aron Kodesh.
"My sisters and I lost everything - our parents, our two brothers, our homes. The most important thing was to build a new home." Six months later, Lilly's sister Ilona wore the dress when she married Max Traeger. After that came Cousin Rosie. How many brides wore Lilly's dress? "I stopped counting after 17."
With the camps experiencing the highest marriage rate in the world, Lilly's gown was in great demand. In 1948 when President Harry Truman finally permitted the 100,000 Jews who had been languishing in DP camps since the end of the war to emigrate, the gown accompanied Lilly across the ocean to America. Unable to part with her dress, it lay at the bottom of her bedroom closet for the next 50 years, "not even good enough for a garage sale. I was happy when it found such a good home."
Home was the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. When Lily's niece, a volunteer, told museum officials about her aunt's dress, they immediately recognized its historical significance and displayed the gown in a specially designed showcase, guaranteed to preserve it for 500 years. But Lilly Friedman's dress had one more journey to make.
Bergen Belsen, the museum, opened its doors on October 28, 2007. The German government invited Lilly and her sisters to be their guests for the grand opening. They initially declined, but finally traveled to Hanover the following year with their children, their grandchildren and extended families to view the extraordinary exhibit created for the wedding dress made from a parachute.
(Picture: Lilly Friedman and her parachute dress on display in the Bergen Belsen Museum)
Lilly's family, who were all familiar with the stories about the wedding in Celle, were eager to visit the synagogue. They found the building had been completely renovated and modernized. But when they pulled aside the handsome curtain they were astounded to find that the Aron Kodesh, made from a kitchen cabinet, had remained untouched as a testament to the profound faith of the survivors. As Lilly stood on the bimah once again she beckoned to her granddaughter, Jackie, to stand beside her where she was once a kallah. "It was an emotional trip. We cried a lot."
Two weeks later, the woman who had once stood trembling before the selective eyes of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele returned home and witnessed the marriage of her granddaughter. The three Lax sisters - Lilly, Ilona and Eva, who together survived Auschwitz, a forced labor camp, a death march and Bergen Belsen - have remained close and today live within walking distance of each other in Brooklyn. As mere teenagers, they managed to outwit and outlive a monstrous killing machine, then went on to marry, have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and were ultimately honored by the country that had earmarked them for extinction.
As young brides, they had stood underneath the chuppah and recited the blessings that their ancestors had been saying for thousands of years. In doing so, they chose to honor the legacy of those who had perished by choosing life.
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