Interesting facts about Israel. The most interesting facts about Israel
In honor of Israel's 70th anniversary - 70 reasons to love Israel!
From technological breakthroughs to ancient wonders, natural beauty and social achievements, Israel has so many things to thank God for.
1. This is truly a land flowing with milk and honey! Israeli cows are the most productive in the world. The average Israeli cow produces about 25,500 pounds of milk annually, and Israel shares its know-how on increasing milk production with other countries such as Vietnam.
2. Thanks to the Israelis, the desert literally blossomed. Israelis grow vast quantities of fruits, vegetables and flowers in the Negev and Arava deserts. Israel exports more than $1.3 billion worth of agricultural products annually, and record-breaking peppers are grown in the Arava Desert!
11. Israel is one of two countries that entered the new century with a positive increase in the number of trees.
12. Israel has the only theater company in the world made up entirely of deaf and blind actors, and our banknotes have Braille for the blind.
13. You can see the original wall in Jerusalem from Nehemiah's time and walk through the water tunnels that he built in the City of David.
14. You can see the remains of the Second Temple itself, which Yeshua went to.
15. You can take a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee and see ancient boats that are thousands of years old.
16. You can swim with dolphins in Eilat and ski on snow-capped Mount Hermon.
45. Israel is at the forefront of solar panel technology, and 90% of Israeli homes heat their water using solar energy.
46. The city of Haifa has the world's second shortest underground funicular, taking passengers to Mount Carmel in just 6 stops!
47. Public transportation is cheap, efficient, and has free Wi-Fi.
48. A group of Israeli artists started “bus stop libraries,” offering free books at bus stops for reading and sharing.
50. Many of the streets are named after biblical heroes, such as King David, Solomon, Samson.
51. There is a national Bible quiz, once won by Benjamin Netanyahu's son.
52. The Prime Minister regularly attends Bible study courses and often quotes the Bible in his speeches.
54. Israel has received a disproportionate number of Nobel Prizes relative to its small area and population, and more than all other countries in the Middle East combined.
55. Many smartphone applications such as Whatsapp, Viber and Waze were invented in Israel.
56. The Israeli company EWA has developed a technology for producing drinking water from the air. The condenser absorbs moisture from the air, holds it in silicone-based gel beads, and then condenses it into water. Not only that, 85% of the energy used is returned back into the system.
57. Israel has one of the largest proportions of entrepreneurs in the world, earning it the nickname “Startup Nation.” It has the world's highest proportion of entrepreneurs among women and people over 55.
58. The city of Beersheba has the largest number of chess grandmasters per capita in the world.
59. Eilat and the south of the country are a bird lover's paradise - Israel has one of the largest levels of bird traffic in the world per square kilometer with more than 500 million birds migrating through the country's airspace.
60. Stargazing in the Israeli desert is an incredible sight.
61. Israel produces many award-winning wines.
62. Israeli children are 10 times less likely to suffer from a peanut allergy due to early exposure to the nation’s favorite peanut snack, “Bamba.”
63. There are 273 kibbutzim in Israel, where everyone works together, lives together and shares the fruits of their collective labor. These kibbutzim played a particularly important role in the rise of the country in the early stages of its development.
64. Israel has the largest number of museums per capita in the world.
65. Israel has the highest percentage of home computers per capita in the world.
67. Israel was the first country to adopt the Kimberley Process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as not having been mined in conflict zones.
68. Alexander the Great is said to have entered Israel in 333 BC. through the Rosh HaNikra grottoes. Both Napoleon and King Richard the Lionheart also visited this country, hoping to conquer it.
69. Israel miraculously won all the battles organized against it by hostile neighbors who have been trying to destroy it since its formation. And although the Israeli army is strong, many supernatural miracles helped Israel avoid complete destruction.
70. The number of Messianic believers who know their Messiah triples every ten years, and today amounts to more than 30 thousand people.
On the eve of the celebration of the 67th birthday of the Jewish State, we have collected 10 little-known facts from its complex history.
1. El Al Airlines had flights to Tehran 
Relations between Iran and Israel generally developed quite warmly until the Islamic Revolution, which resulted in the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979. In 1950, Iran became the second Muslim country after Turkey to recognize Israel. Iran supplied oil to Israel during the OPEC oil embargo, and Israel sold it weapons. At that time, there was active trade between the countries, and civil planes regularly flew from capital to capital. A week after the Shah was removed from power, Iran cut off all ties with Israel, and an office of the Palestine Liberation Organization opened on the site of the Israeli embassy in Tehran. Today, even after 35 years of hostility, Iranians have less negativity toward Jews than other Muslim peoples in the Middle East. In 2014, an international survey on anti-Semitism conducted by the Anti-Defamation League found that 56% of Iranians held anti-Jewish views, compared with 80% of Moroccans and 93% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The 2014 documentary “Before the Revolution” talks about the relationship between Israel and Iran.
2. Descendants of Nazis moved to Israel 
At least 400 descendants of the Nazis converted to the Jewish faith and moved to Israel - the creators of a documentary film released in 2013 are sure of this. Many former Nazis also became Jews or married Israelis, but do not live in Israel. For example, the great-niece of Heinrich Himmler, who married an Israeli Jew and now lives on another continent. In the early years of Israel, there were heated discussions about whether to accept German reparations for the Holocaust or not (in the end, they were accepted). And Germany itself, like everything connected with it, remained an extremely controversial controversial topic for a long time - from 1956 to 1967, films made in Germany were banned in Israel.
3. Ben-Gurion invented couscous 
Tiny flour balls of Israeli couscous - ptitim - appeared in the 50s. Then Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion turned to food manufacturer Osem with a request to develop a local wheat product as an alternative to rice, which does not grow in the country and for which the country simply did not have the money to purchase in conditions of austerity. Ptitim, which was called “Ben-Gurion’s rice,” immediately won the love of the population.
4. There was no television in Israel until the late 60s 
This 1958 photograph of a family sitting in front of a television could not have been taken in Israel because there was no television there until 1966
The first Israeli television appeared in 1966, primarily as an additional educational tool for schools. Regular public broadcasting began on Israel's Independence Day in 1968. For the next two decades, Israel had only one channel, and broadcasting was limited to a few hours a day. The second channel appeared in 1986, and cable television came to the country in 1990. Today, Israeli TV is a real source of inspiration for Hollywood. The series “Homeland” (Showtime), “Patients” (HBO), “Your Family or Mine” (TBS), “Devotion” (NBC), “Tyrant” and “Boom” (Showtime) are all remakes of Israeli projects.
5. Elizabeth II's mother-in-law was buried in Jerusalem 
Prince Philip's mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was born in 1885. The girl was born with a diagnosis of deafness, however, she learned English and German in the language of the deaf and mute and even married the Greek and Danish Prince Andrew. During the Nazi occupation of Greece, Alice hid a Jewish woman and children, for which Yad Vashem recognized her as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations,” and the British government as a “Hero of the Holocaust.” In 1967, she moved to London and lived at Buckingham Palace with her son and his wife, Queen Elizabeth II. Two years later, the princess died and her body was placed in a burial vault at Windsor Castle. In 1988, her remains were transported to the monastery at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives - before her death, she expressed a desire to be buried there. One of the oldest existing cemeteries is located on this mountain.
6. Alaska Airlines flew thousands of Jewish Yemenis to Israel 
After Israel's victory in the War of Independence in 1948, anti-Semitic riots broke out in Yemen, and local Jews decided to move en masse to the historical lands. James Wooten, president of Alaska Airlines, was imbued with their difficult situation and ordered the organization of flights for repatriates. Between June 1949 and September 1950, as part of Alaska Airlines' secret Operation Magic Carpet, twin-engine C-46s and four-engine DC-4s flew approximately 430 flights, transporting approximately 50,000 Jews from Yemen to Israel. The pilots had to overcome many difficulties: lack of fuel, sand storms, enemy shelling, one of the planes even barely landed due to the loss of an engine. Despite all the difficulties of the flight, all passengers were safely transported to Israel.
7. Golda Meir was the world's third woman to serve as prime minister. 
Meir (née Meerson) became Prime Minister of Israel in 1969. Before this, two women had already held such a high position in world history - Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka (1960-65) and Indira Gandhi (1966-77) in India. Meir was born in Kyiv, grew up in Milwaukee and after her marriage moved to Mandatory Palestine. She and her husband settled on a kibbutz, and Golda almost immediately began to be active in the Federation of Workers. Despite Meir's enormous popularity among American Jews, her policies are still heavily criticized in Israel - primarily because of the obvious mistakes they made during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when Meir decided not to launch a preemptive attack on Arab forces on the Israeli border with Syria.
And although the state investigative “Agranat Commission” established that Meir was not directly responsible for what happened, she very soon left her post. She was replaced in 1974 by Yitzhak Rabin, who held the position until 1977. He was appointed prime minister again in 1992.
8. According to Israeli law of 1980, all new houses must have solar water heaters installed. 
The law was adopted as a measure to combat the energy crisis of the late 70s - thanks to it, Israel became the first country in the world in terms of the use of solar energy per capita. According to official estimates, today 85% of homes use solar energy to heat water - that's 3% of electricity consumption in the entire country. But today, Israel lags behind other countries in the use of solar energy for other purposes, and more and more developers and homeowners are using loopholes in the law to circumvent the need to install just such a boiler system.
9. Jerusalem's Mount Scopus is not actually part of the West Bank of the Jordan River 
Despite the fact that Mount Scopus is located in east Jerusalem, where the Hebrew University campus and the Hadassah Medical Center stand, it has been Israeli since the founding of the state. After the end of the War of Independence in 1949, the hill was controlled by Israeli troops, although it was located in Jordanian east Jerusalem. Every two weeks, under the protection of the UN, Israel transported military forces and supplies to this enclave. The convoy often came under fire from Arab forces, and in 1958 it was attacked, resulting in the deaths of 4 Israeli soldiers and one UN soldier. Mount Scopus became part of the Jewish territory of Jerusalem as a result of the Six-Day War in 1967.
10. Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel 
Einstein received this proposal from David Ben-Gurion in November 1952, a few days after the death of Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann. Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Ebman wrote to the brilliant scholar that the prime minister's proposal was "a gesture of the greatest respect that only the Jewish people can have for any of their sons." Enstien responded that he was "deeply touched by the offer of the State of Israel, but with regret and regret must reject it." Einstein did not accept the post, but did not stop worrying about the country. “My connection with the Jewish people has become my strongest human connection since I began to fully understand our dangerous position among the peoples of the world,” he admitted. It is noteworthy that Ben-Gurion officially denied press reports that it was he who offered Einstein such a post. Three years later the scientist died.
1. On May 14, David Ben-Gurion announced the creation of the State of Israel, and the members of the Provisional State Council present were invited to sign the declaration read out by Ben-Gurion. But here’s the problem: since everything was prepared in a hurry, the organizers did not have time to put the text of the Declaration of Independence on a specially prepared scroll, which was supposed to be signed by the 37 most important representatives of the Jewish population of Eretz Israel. I had to improvise - the council members signed... a completely empty scroll, and only a few days later the text was drawn up on it.
2. Immediately after the declaration of independence, the Jewish state was attacked by the armies of neighboring Arab countries. On May 15, Egyptian aircraft bombed Tel Aviv, and Israeli air defense chalked up its first success: one Egyptian plane was shot down, and its pilot ejected and landed on a citrus plantation near the town of Ness Ziona. He will go down in history as the first enemy soldier captured by the Israeli army, and - to his great surprise - he was captured by two female soldiers who were the first to arrive at the scene.
3. By the way, on the wreckage of the Egyptian pilot’s plane there were emblems of the British Air Force - it was one of the planes transferred by the British to Egypt. This was not the end of Great Britain’s hidden (and sometimes open) assistance to Israel’s enemies. Few people know that on January 7, 1949, Israeli pilots had to twice engage in battle with British Air Force aircraft that invaded Israeli airspace. As a result, five British planes were shot down, and this taught the United Kingdom a new reality: the Jewish state is not to be trifled with.
4. David Ben-Gurion seriously considered the possibility of initiating a mass conversion of Bedouins to Judaism, since he believed that they had virtually no connection with Islam. With the creation of the state, representatives of the Bedouin tribes El-Heib and Huzeil voluntarily joined the ranks of the Israeli army, but it never came to conversion - a full-fledged accession to the Jewish people.
5. During the War of Independence and in the first years after it, Israel lived modestly and even poorly. Many products were sold on ration cards, and sometimes there were not enough of them. Here, for example, are the increased monthly norms per person, established in the second half of 1952, when food became more abundant: 150 grams of vegetable oil, 100 grams of tomato paste, 450 grams of jam, 56 grams of chocolate, 1 kg of sugar. A child under 12 years old was also given 250 grams of rice.
6. At this time, only a few could afford large purchases. It was believed that such wealthy citizens should help those who are poorer through taxes. For example, in 1953, the government decided to impose a special “luxury tax” on shoes, refrigerators, nylon stockings and... playing cards.
7. It is all the more surprising that automobile production was established in Israel during these years. In the early 1950s, a plant arose near Haifa, where cars of various brands were assembled - Studebakers, Willys, Kaiser-Frasers, Renault and Hino. In just 18 years, approximately 56 thousand cars were produced with the proud inscription Made in Israel, a third of which were even exported to European countries.
8. In 1956, two Arab terrorists who entered Israel from Egypt and killed several civilians were sentenced to death by hanging by a military court. However, the sentence was never carried out. The fact is that there was no hangman in Israel.
9. In 1961, the Jewish state faced another shortage. After Israeli intelligence agents discovered fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and kidnapped him for trial in Israel, it turned out that the country did not have armored glass from which to construct a cage to hold the accused in a courtroom. There was a serious fear that someone would simply kill the organizer of the Holocaust right during the process, and therefore they had to urgently order such glass from Belgium, and then test it with machine-gun fire. The court sentenced Eichmann to death, and this time, fortunately, the hanged man was found.
10. Even before the creation of the state, the Zionist movement made the greening of Eretz Israel a national task affecting everyone. After 1948, 240 million trees were planted in the small country! As a result, Israel is the only territory in the world where over the last century the number of forests has not only not decreased, but, on the contrary, increased.
11. The dream again, as in ancient times, of making the country prosperous, also captured foreigners. Who received the honor of planting a tree in the Land of Israel? Here is just a short list of world celebrities who decided to take a direct part in greening the Holy Land: Albert Einstein and Frank Sinatra, Jacqueline Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk and Michael Douglas, Brooke Shields and Sharon Stone. Elizabeth Taylor didn't limit herself to just trees. At the height of the Yom Kippur War, when Israeli soldiers heroically held off the advancing Arab armies, she went on a tour of European capitals to collect donations for the rehabilitation of wounded IDF soldiers.
12. Ben-Gurion was not only the country's first prime minister, but also its symbol. If in those years the media were as indifferent to privacy as they are today, then his wife Paula would probably have become a symbol. She herself prepared food for him for the whole day, and then invariably came to the prime minister's office or to parliament to make sure that this food was served to her husband exactly at the hour she had appointed, and that he ate it completely, leaving nothing behind.
13. In the early years of Israel, it was accepted that a person holding a high government position should change his foreign-language surname to a Hebrew one. So, Shkolnik turned into Eshkol, and Chertenko - into Tsur. Some willingly obeyed this unspoken rule, while others tried to evade it. Isidor Roth showed the greatest ingenuity: when appointed to the post of head of Shabak, the Israeli Security Service, he changed both his first and last name and declared that he was now Izi Dorot. Thus, the rule of Hebrewization was observed, but the sound did not change at all.
14. The ninth celebration of Israeli independence was marked by a football match between the IDF team and the French army team. The Israelis' victory with a score of 3:1 was witnessed by 38 thousand spectators, among whom was David Ben Gurion (this, by the way, was the first time he came to football). However, the ingenuity characteristic of the Israeli army could not be avoided: the IDF team actually consisted of players from the national team, who were called up for urgent army training before the fight with the French military.
15. A year later, in April 1958, France sent a completely different delegation to Israel - fireworks experts. The fact is that I wanted to celebrate the decade of independence on a grand scale, but there were no real experts in pyrotechnics in the country. This problem was solved with the help of 12 specialists from the French "Ruggieri" - the oldest and largest pyrotechnic company in Europe, dating back to 1739. It was they who, distributed across different cities of Israel, presented the grateful spectators with a world-class fireworks display and managed to paint the blue and white coat of arms of the state in the night sky. But by the next holiday, Israeli specialists had already mastered the art of fireworks, and the country became independent even in pyrotechnics.
16. In 1959, Israel acquired its first underground transport: Carmelit began operating in Haifa. It is interesting that the initiators of this idea borrowed the idea from Herzl’s futuristic-prophetic book “Altneuland” - among other future achievements of the Jewish state, the founder of political Zionism described in it the Haifa “suspended electric train that will connect the port with residential areas on the Carmel Ridge.” Contrary to popular belief, Carmelit is not a metro, but a funicular, which is also considered the shortest underground public transport system in the world.
17. In the summer of 1961, Israel entered into an agreement with the Netherlands to supply 80 thousand Israeli Uzi assault rifles there. The deal, modest by monetary standards, was a real breakthrough: before this, the Jewish state itself was looking for where to buy weapons, and now it was on its feet and could already think about military assistance to other countries.
18. On January 2, 1963, the Israeli parliament decided to increase the salary of the country's president from 540 to 1,500 liras per month. President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi categorically opposed this step, and when parliamentarians did not listen to him, he decided to donate half of his salary to the scientific Foundation for the Study of Eretz Israel.
19. In 1960, two retired American military men began searching for the remains of the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed by the Almighty almost four millennia earlier. These attempts never brought success. The Americans were sure that the goal of their search was at the bottom of the Dead Sea, but they quickly became convinced that diving to depths in salt water was impossible.
20. In November 1987, another colorful American, Sylvester Stallone, arrived in Israel to film the third film in the Rambo epic. As befits a superstar, he demanded an armored car and was quite surprised to learn that there were none in Israel. In response, Stallone (an ardent supporter of the already mentioned Uzi machine gun) stated that he was ready to rent the world's best Israeli Merkava tank for his movements, but even this request was politely refused.
1. Israel is the only country in the world where women are conscripted for military service.
2. Hebrew and Arabic are official languages in Israel.
3. Every year thousands of letters addressed to God arrive in Jerusalem.
4. There is no formally accepted version of the Israeli Constitution. The role of the Constitution of the State of Israel is fulfilled by the so-called set of “Basic Laws”. Great Britain and New Zealand also live without a formal Constitution.
6. 24% of the Israeli workforce have a university degree (third place after the US and Holland) and 12% have an advanced degree.
7. Israel has the third highest entrepreneurship rate in the world, and the highest among women and people over 55.
Business district in Tel Aviv
8. More than 3 thousand high-tech companies and start-ups make Israel the country with the highest concentration of high-tech companies in the world (besides Silicon Valley). Israel has a higher number of Microsoft employees per capita than anywhere else in the world.
9. Israel was the first country to ban underweight models from participating in fashion shows.
10. More books translated from other languages are published in Israel than in any other country in the world.
11. The smallest metro system in the world is located in Haifa. A train with four carriages runs along the 1.8 km long highway.
12. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on Earth (430 m below sea level and falling at a rate of approximately 1 m per year). The next lowest point after the Dead Sea is Lake Assal in Djibouti at 275 m higher (155 m below sea level).
13. Mount of Olives in Jerusalem is the oldest continuously operating cemetery in the world.
14. There are more than 40 kosher McDonald's in Israel. The only kosher McDonald's outside the Jewish state is in Buenos Aires.
15. More than a million notes are left at the Western Wall every year. The wall is cleared of notes before Passover and Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year).
16. There are about 273 kibbutzim in Israel.
17. People who keep the Sabbath can buy cheaper car insurance that does not cover the Sabbath.
18. The most common street name in Israel is Hazait, which means Olive Street.
19. Israel has more museums per capita than any other country in the world.
20. Many Israeli bus stops have tzedakah (charitable donation) boxes.
Officially, there are 26 Muslim states in the world and 18 Christian ones, but there is only one Jewish state.
Israel is the only country that has revived the sacred language.
Israel has no Constitution or declared state boundaries.
In addition to Jews, representatives of about 70 other nationalities live in Israel.
Unlike most peoples of the world, Jewish nationality is determined not by the father, but by the mother. Kabbalah explains this by saying that the soul of a Jewish woman at the moment of conception “attracts” the Jewish soul. The “Law of Return” of the State of Israel currently states: “A Jew is considered to be one who is born of a Jewish mother and has not converted to another religion, as well as a person who has converted to Judaism.”
Israel ranks 8th in the world in terms of life expectancy - an average of 81.5 years. This is more than in the UK, USA and Germany.
Today in the world, Israelis are considered one of the most optimistic peoples and peoples satisfied with their lives.
Scientists analyzed Wikipedia in 10 languages, including English, Spanish, Czech and Arabic (based on data from 2010). The first of the most controversial topics was Israel!
The most common Jewish surnames in Israel: Cohen (Kogan), Levi, Mizrahi, Peretz, Biton, Dahan.
The most ancient city in Israel is Jericho (Jericho). At the same time, Jericho is the oldest excavated city in the world; it dates back about 10 thousand years of almost continuous settlement. It is also the lowest city in the world, more than 350 m below sea level.
Interesting fact: the week in Israel begins on Sunday (therefore the popular expression “Monday is a hard day” is not valid in Israel). And on Saturday (Shabbat) everything dies out (almost). According to Jewish customs, the day begins in the evening, so the weekend is practically 1.5 days: from mid-Friday (since Friday is a short working day) until Saturday evening :)
It is believed that the three main holidays of the Jewish people - Passover (Easter in Russian), Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) and Shavuot (Feast of the Giving of the Torah) - are dedicated to the same theme of leaving slavery and gaining freedom.
Tu B'Av is a day of joy and love; in modern Israel this holiday is celebrated as Valentine's Day.
anemones bloomingIsraeli spring begins early: already in February, anemones (Anemone coronaria) bloom in the Negev, covering the entire visible space with a bright scarlet carpet. This flower, like from the fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower,” is one of the most common types of wildflowers in Israel, and according to the Nature Conservancy, the most beloved by Israelis.
The forest area in Israel is increasing every year. Israel is the only country that greeted the 21st century with a record increase in green space, most of it in desert areas.
The “route” of 500 million migratory birds passes through the skies of Israel (from Europe and Asia to Africa and back).
Israel is ranked 2nd in space exploration. This is one of 8 powers in the world that launch their own satellites into space.
Israeli research institutes are ranked third in the world.
Almost everyone knows that Israeli medicine is one of the best in the world.
Israel is the leader in the number of patents for medical equipment.
Israel ranks 1st in the world in such a specific but important indicator as the survival rate of cancer patients.
People in Israel will always come to the rescue in case of trouble.
Israel has the world's highest percentage of people with higher education, scientists and registered patents per capita. There are more prize winners in Israel than in China, Mexico or Spain.
Since its founding, Israel has received more Nobel Prizes per capita than any other country.
In 2013, Israel ranked 2nd (after South Korea) among 60 states in the field of science and technology according to the “global dynamic index” of the international expert network Grant Thornton.
It is noteworthy that in just 10 years - from 2003 to 2013 - Israeli GDP per capita increased from $15,600 to $38,310 - 2.5 times!
Israel attracts more investment per capita than any other country. 30 times more than in Europe.
There are many museums in Israel. In terms of the number of museums per capita, Israel is the first in the world.
If you're in Jerusalem, take the time to stroll through the quiet streets of the German Settlement (Moshava Germanit) and stop by the Museum of Nature (which is usually not included in the tour package for exploring the Israeli capital) with its interesting exhibits and unique history. You will be able to get to know and feel the country better.
In Israel you can easily meet a girl in sandals and a fur coat or, conversely, in short shorts and a T-shirt, but in fur boots.
More than 90% of Israeli homes use solar energy to heat water, more than anywhere else in the world.
The first antivirus was developed in 1998 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by three computer scientists after a virus infected the university's computers. The antivirus consisted of 2 parts - “immunity”, which informed users that the computer was infected, and anti-virus, which provided a “cure” for infected computers.
Interesting fact: the @ sign is called “strudel” in Israel.
ICQ instant messaging technology was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
The Pentium-4 and Centrino microprocessors were entirely designed, engineered and first manufactured in Israel.
A flash drive (Disk-on-key) is an Israeli invention! The first commercial product was released by the Israeli company M-Systems in 2000 and had a size of 1 MB. The invention was an immediate commercial success.
Quicktionary - a pen-scanner with a built-in dictionary was invented in Israel. With this device, you can scan a word or phrase and get an instant translation into another language, or save it in the device's memory for later transfer to a PC.
The cell phone was developed by Israelis at the Israeli branch of Motorola - the very research center of Israel.
Babylon is a multilingual translator program that, using OSR (optical character recognition) technologies on a certain area of the monitor, allows you to get a translation of text from any source with one click of the mouse, developed by Amnon Ovadia in 1995.
It is interesting to note that no country in the world is as keen on social networks as Israel.
Hebrew alphabetHebrew (the official language of Israel) is a simple and very logical language. It uses the Hebrew alphabet, consisting of 22 letters, which are written in a special “square font”. You just need to get used to Hebrew, especially the fact that the alphabet has no vowels and is written from right to left.
/And here is Russian folklore: “I live in a hole, I swim in a hole,” which translated means: “I live in an apartment, I swim in the sea.” Apartment in Hebrew - dira, sea - yam :)
There are about 8 million Hebrew speakers in the world.
An interesting fact is that in Hebrew, as in English, there is no customary “you” address.
One of Israel's most famous writers, Aharon Appelfeld, purchased his first book in Hebrew only at the age of 25 and read it with a dictionary.
The word “stork” from Hebrew (“Hasidic”) is literally translated as “piety.”
“Do not live in a city where you cannot hear dogs barking,” says the Talmud, one of the most important books in the Jewish tradition.
TANAKH - Book of books. On Israel's Independence Day, the traditional International Olympiad on knowledge of the Tanakh is held.
In Israel, same-sex marriage is prohibited, but such marriages performed abroad are recognized by the Israeli Supreme Court.
The menorah is a seven-branched candlestick, the oldest symbol of Israel.
Mezuzah is a parchment scroll with a prayer. It is attached to the front door frame to protect the house from evil forces.
IDF - The Israel Defense Forces are the special pride of all Israelis. Serving in the IDF is actually an honorable duty for every citizen. The entire future fate of a person (as a rule) depends on service in the Army.
Israel has the highest taxes (after Sweden).
Almost every city in Israel has a street named after Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (translated into Russian as “son of Judah”), the father of modern Hebrew.
A popular street name in Israel is Olive Street. There are about 124 of these in Israel.
In the north of Israel, olive trees have been preserved that are the same age as the Roman Empire - they are 2000 years old.
In Israel there are approximately 100 ancient synagogues (II-VI centuries AD) and approximately 100 medieval castles.
In Israel there is the Armageddon Valley - at the foot of the Tel Megiddo hill.
Tel Aviv is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its thousands of buildings in the unique BAUHAUS style (mid-1930s style).
Mini-Israel Park, halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, a quarter of an hour's drive from Ben Gurion International Airport, displays models of 380 Israeli landmarks. There you can feel like Gulliver among the colorful Israeli models of courtyards, embankments, mosques, and fortresses.
Trains in Israel have 2 floors.
Interestingly, the glue on Israeli postage stamps is kosher.
The most popular sports in Israel are football, basketball, and chess.
The Jews call the ladybug the cow of Moses.
The Dead Sea is called the “Salt Sea” only in Israel (translated from Hebrew “yam-ha-melach” means “salty sea”). This salty, endorheic lake is ideal for medical tourists. It’s good to learn to swim here – the dense water supports the body itself. The healing properties of the mineral-rich water and mud of the Dead Sea are widely known. Its evaporation saturates the environment with beneficial salts and creates a kind of dome that absorbs harmful ultraviolet rays, so you can sunbathe safely. But it’s better not to taste the water from the Dead Sea, because... The human body does not perceive it in this form at all.
There are hot hydrogen sulfide springs in Hamei Ein Gedi. You can visit the Ahava factory, where excellent cosmetics are made using local natural ingredients.
