This week in Jerusalem: Digitally speaking
A round-up of city affairs.
Digitally speaking
Do you own a small or medium business and suffered a drop in your income due to the coronavirus? Well the municipality is aware of the problem and offers some help to boost your business. A team of experts on the matter at the Department of Business Promotion at Safra Square has found that digitization of such businesses can help, and therefore proposes to the owners the technology that can help – like a full digitization of your business, including a website, and additional extensive use of all the treasures that this technology can provide. This service is provided through students at the Azrieli College in the city, who study these areas, and are happy to translate what they are learning into reality. So far, more than 50 small and medium-sized businesses have benefited from this service. For access to the service, call via the 106 municipal hotline or dial *6634, where you can also get friendly and personal training for better use of your computer or smartphone.
Smart and healthy
The Hadassah Medical Center has been included on a prestigious list of 250 “smart” hospitals in the world as published in Newsweek magazine and compiled by the Statista data firm. The list rates hospitals according to their innovative achievements in five categories: digital surgery, digital imaging, artificial intelligence, telemedicine and electronic health records. These have been especially tested during the coronavirus pandemic to examine how medical centers across the world reacted and adapted to the new situation. “Israeli medicine, and Hadassah among its leading institutions... has proven its excellent capabilities throughout the corona crisis,” said Prof. Yoram Weiss, CEO of the Hadassah Medical Center.
Best for aliyah
Newcomers to Israel, olim, keep coming to Jerusalem despite all the problems they may face here – high-cost housing, not enough jobs or security issues. Moreover, the coronavirus hasn’t prevented Jews from Europe and North America from fulfilling their dream of moving to the Jewish state, and Jerusalem continues to be the major destination. During the course of 2020, the year that coronavirus struck and spread, 2287 new olim chose the capital to be their place of residence. So far in 2021, there are 1388 newcomers who have picked Jerusalem as their new home. Overall during 2020 and 2021, Jerusalem olim have comprised 10% of all those who have immigrated during this period. The Ministry of Aliyah and Integration has granted the municipality and its immigrant absorption administration a prize for excellence in carrying out the mission to attract the highest numbers of Jews making aliyah. A ceremony to mark the achievement and at which an award was presented took place last week at the Herzl Museum on Mt. Herzl in the presence of Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata.
Selective enforcement on public transportation
If you tend to forgot to validate your Rav-Kav, now is the time to pay more attention to it, especially if you travel by light rail. However, if you disregard the request to wear a mask in public transport like a bus in Jerusalem, you may relax and feel free from the concern for a fine. This absurd situation is nevertheless what travelers in Jerusalem experience these days: excessive enforcement of supervisors in the trams of the light rail checking that every passenger validates their Rav-Kav, while no attention whatsoever is given to passengers not wearing masks, as is now required by the Green Pass. Indeed, the two tasks are not under the same authority – not validating a Rav-Kav means you are cheating on the transportation company; while not wearing a mask, especially in a crowded vehicle, belongs to another authority – but still, one can ask why endangering passengers seems less important in the eyes of the Transportation Ministry. According to some of bus drivers, the instructions they have is to open the windows if there are many unmasked passengers but not to request riders to put on a mask.
Earlier this week, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion inaugurated the first center for digital and innovative services provided by the municipality, enabling residents to use Internet services and get Internet literacy support. The center was launched in the Abu Tor neighborhood, on its Arab side, and it will give all the support, help and training necessary to maximize residents’ Internet access and use. The center will provide training for the residents on Internet literacy so they can us them beside municipal services.
Help!
Magen David Adom, with the logistic support of the municipality, is installing defibrillators in all the synagogues across the city. The project, enabled through a grant from the Cross River Bank for the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, is aimed to provide immediate help in case of heart issues during the High Holy Day period of Tishrei, a period in which synagogues are packed. For the moment, there is sign that these devises will be on display on non-Jewish worship sites. A community that is interested in receiving defibrillators – which do not require any particular training for use – are invited to submit a request through its local council.
Changing skyline
One after one, some of the most iconic buildings of Jerusalem are being demolished to make room for new – mostly – high-rise buildings. Jerusalem is going through an ongoing physical transformation, which is also changing its skyline. The last such change took place earlier this week, when on Monday morning, the old flour mill built in Givat Shaul in 1950 was demolished to make room for a prestigious and modern construction project. The silo – as it was nicknamed – was one of the iconic buildings of the capital, providing flour for the city’s bakeries. Since it was shut down 10 years ago, it was clear its demise was forthcoming.
The planned project will include – as most new construction projects do – housing, business areas and hotels. Like for the demolition of the old Israel Broadcasting Authority building in Romema last month, the beginning of the silo’s demolition was done in front of the press and was presented as a “party time” for Jerusalem.
