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{image_1}The Israeli job market’s slump has hit a new low, an Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry analysis revealed. The second quarter [Q2] of 2009 had the market offer just 15,600 positions to job seekers—a 25% drop compared to the previous quarter, and a 70% drop compared to Q2 of 2008. The number also represents a 12-year low in job vacancies.
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The sight of a man and his dog sleeping outside a fashion shop on Ben Yehuda Street is one more manifestation of the fact that in Jerusalem the economic situation is about twice as bad as in the rest of the country. The few coins by his right hand tell little about this man as an individual. Begging in Jerusalem has always been part of the city’s life, but it does not tell the entire story. There are fewer jobs in Jerusalem than in the rest of the country. Poverty in Israel’s largest city has increased very dramatically in the past eight years. Although there are many different criteria for measuring poverty, there has been about a 40% increase in the numbers of Jerusalemites who are regarded as being below the official poverty threshold. In 2006, the average monthly income for a worker in Jerusalem was half as much as a similar worker in Tel Aviv.
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An ancient quarry, c. 1 dunam [0.25 acre] in area and dating to the end of the Second Temple period (c. 2,030 years old), was uncovered in excavations in Jerusalem, under the direction of Dr. Ofer Sion and Yehuda Rapuano of the Israel Antiquities Authority, prior to the construction of residential buildings.
{image_1}About two-thirds of the Israeli public want the Temple rebuilt, including about half of secular Israelis, a new survey conducted for Ynetnews and the Gesher organization revealed. Initially, the respondents were asked what happened on Tisha B’Av [Ninth of Av, day of mourning over the destruction of the Temples, this year on July 30], and showed impressive knowledge. Only 2% said they did not know.
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{image_1}You may have seen them in the grocery store produce section: a fat, oblong fruit with a tough green skin. Maybe the tufts of fine prickly thorns (glochids) have already been removed. Like me, you may have wondered how on earth you would use them. They are the fruit of a paddle cactus that has flat, green pad-like leaves and long thorns, which, in Israel, are called sabra cactus. In other parts of the world, the fruit is referred to as prickly pears, cactus figs, or “tuna.” They can be green, yellow-orange, or red-purple, and there are many ways to serve them.
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{image_1} History has it that the great rulers of Canaan were all men. An exception may have been unearthed in a dig at Tel Beit-Shemesh [between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv]. Two archaeologists, Professor Shlomo Bunimovitz and Dr. Zvi Lederman of Tel Aviv University (TAU), have uncovered an unusual ceramic plaque of a goddess in male dress. The plaque depicts a figure dressed as a royal male figure or deity found in ancient Egyptian and Canaanite art. However, the figure's hairstyle is womanly and its bent arms are holding lotus flowers—attributes given to women. According to Lederman, an art historian, the figure may be an artistic representation of the “Mistress of the Lionesses”—a female Canaanite ruler who, via clay tablets [first discovered in Egypt in 1887], was known to have sent several distress letters to the Pharaoh in Egypt around 1350 BC.
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{image_1}Tikvah means hope, expectation, something yearned for, or anticipated. It is found in Scripture 33 times, though the word “hope” in English is used as much as 143 times in certain translations, so there are other Hebrew words that can be translated “hope.” Interestingly enough, tikvah is found most—12 times— in the book of Job when he is struggling over his seemingly “hopeless” situation. It comes from the verb kavah, which can mean “to stretch like a rope.” It is used this way on first mention in Joshua 2:18–21, when Rahab lowers the two Jewish spies down the walls of Jericho by a scarlet cord. The “line” or “cord” is the word tikvah. Rahab’s cord was not only the spies’ hope for rescue, but hers too.
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{image_1} This spring, Ramat Gan Safari Park welcomed the first ant bear (anteater or aardvark) born in Israel. The ant bear is a species that is being watched very carefully, because although it is not currently threatened with extinction, it is still regarded as very rare with only around 5,000 left in the wild in Central and South America. There are an estimated 200 in zoos around the world.
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{image_1} “The State of Israel is strong, secure, and prepared. We will allow no one to shed doubt on our existence. We are capable of defending ourselves in any situation, and we will do so. We will not allow our enemies to dare.”
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{image_1}The Israeli economy is now officially in recession. The world economic crisis has caught up with Israel, and the next few months will tell whether [ Israel Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government has the ability to deal with it. In May, the government approved an economic “package deal” hammered out in concert with the trade unions and employers’ representatives that commentators described as a 180-degree reversal of Netanyahu’s economic promises during the election.
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