Israel Tech Startups and Innovations: Weekly Roundup December 28 – January 3, 2025
New Startups / VC Funding
US-Israel BIRD Energy Fund Announces $16 Million Investment in Clean Energy Projects, Including $7.5 Million in Government Grant
At an Executive Committee meeting held on December 9, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Israel’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MoE), and the Israel Innovation Authority selected five clean energy projects to receive $7.5 million in funding through the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Energy program. These projects focus on energy efficiency, hydrogen energy, recycling, and storage.
The total value of the approved projects is $16 million, including $7.5 million in cost-share funding… Read More Here
Politics
Israel’s Top Ten Political Stories 2024
Wars on two different fronts, tens of thousands displaced from their homes, rockets and missiles raining down on the country, two separate Iranian attacks, attacks by Houthi terrorists based in Yemen… the list goes on and on. And yet Israelis persevere. Not only that, the country still had time for a few political scandals as well… Read More Here
IDF Fatalities Reaches 891 Soldiers Since October 7 Massacre
On Thursday, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Human Resources Division released the casualty data for the IDF for the years 2023-2024. Since the beginning of the Iron Swords War against Hamas in Gaza, 891 IDF soldiers from the regular (mediatory) service, reserve service, and permanent/career reserve combined, and 5,569 have been wounded.
These figures include the casualties from fighting both in Gaza against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists and in Lebanon against Hezbollah… Read More Here
UN Report Details Physical and Mental Health Impact on Released Israeli Hostages
Israel’s Ministry of Health is submitting a special report to the United Nations detailing the mental and physical conditions of those kidnapped by Hamas, who returned to Israel about a year ago. Freed hostages, who were taken during the October 7 Hamas massacre, endured “severe physical and sexual abuse” while in captivity.
The report also highlights that 100 hostages are still being held captive by Hamas terrorists in Gaza… Read More Here
Alan Dershowitz Attacks Queen Elizabeth II, Calls Late Monarch ‘Ignorant Bigot’ in Controversial Statement
Alan Dershowitz is doing it again. The famed American civil liberties lawyer and television personality has never been shy about criticizing the rich and powerful. Now he has turned his attention to the Late Queen Elizabeth II, calling her an anti-Semite.
On his podcast, Dershowitz called England’s longest reigning monarch “an ignorant woman and a person with a lot of… Read More Here
Science/Culture
Scientists Breakthrough: New Method to Break Down Bacterial Resistance Could Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs
Researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered how to neutralize bacterial defense systems, facilitating the transfer of genetic material between bacteria. This finding could lead to new tools for combating antibiotic resistance and improving genetic manipulation techniques for applications in medicine, industry, and environmental science.
PhD student Bruria Samuel led the study from the lab of Prof. David Burstein at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at Tel Aviv University’s Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. Other contributors to the research include Dr. Karin Mittelman, Shirly Croitoru, and Maya Ben-Haim from Prof. Burstein’s lab… Read More Here
Top 5 Israeli Breakthroughs in Cancer Treatment 2024
Israel might be known as Startup Nation for all of its high-tech success stories, but it should also be known as Medicine Nation. As often as Israel produces a new unicorn or has a major exit of a startup, it also has a new breakthrough in some area of medicine. And nowhere is Israeli medical expertise as amazing as it is in cancer treatment.
Here now is Jewish Business News’ list of the top five cancer breakthrough stories to come out of Israel in 2024… Read More Here
Ancient Christian Cross Medallion Discovered by Child in Historic Jerusalem Quarter
In Jerusalem’s Ein Karem neighborhood, a child on a school trip stumbled upon a 100-year-old cross medallion—a tangible link to generations of Christian pilgrims who journeyed to the Holy Land.
Ten year old Nehorai Nir recently went on a class trip to picturesque Ein Karem in Jerusalem as a student in Jerusalem’s Argentina Experimental High School in Kiryat Hayovel. “We were picking edible plants, and I was surprised to see on the slope below me a beautiful red pomegranate lying there on the ground,” Nir recounts… Read More Here
Israel’s 5 Biggest Archeological Discoveries 2024
Where else but in the Holy Land, Israel, would one expect to see the most extraordinary archeological finds? People probably think that Israelis find pieces of history in their backyards every day. While this is not the case, frequently people in Israel stumble onto amazing archeological pieces of the past when simply taking a walk through the desert.
Here now is Jewish Business News’ list of the five biggest archeological discoveries made in Israel in 2024…. Read More Here
Other Business Stories
Bill Ackman Is Jewish Business News’ Man of the Year 2024
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has spent the past 15 months, since the October 7 Hamas massacre inflicted on Israel, as possibly America’s biggest defender of Israel. From calling out America’s most elite universities for failing to stop attacks on Jewish students and hateful anti-Israel speech, to cutting off donations to his own alma mater Harvard for allowing the proliferation of ant-Israel hatred on its campus, and defending Israel at every turn, the founder of Pershing Square Capital has proven time and again that he can be depended upon to come to the aid not only of Israel, but of the entire American Jewish community… Read More Here
Israel Defense Ministry Launches New AI Department to Advance Military Technology
The AI and Autonomy Administration, operating under the Directorate of Defense Research & Development (DDR&D) within the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD), will lead research, development, and force-building efforts in artificial intelligence and autonomous systems across all military branches. Established in collaboration with the IDF, this initiative complements other successful defense development frameworks, revolutionizing battlefield capabilities and ensuring the IDF retains its operational superiority… Read More Here
Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme Victims Receive Final Payout After 15 Years; Recovery Fund Makes Last Distribution
The whole Bernie Madoff saga is finally, hopefully, coming to a close. The fund established to compensate victims of Bernie Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme initiated its tenth and final distribution on Monday of more than $4.3 billion, allocating an additional $131 million to defrauded investors. This final round of payments will reach 23,000 victims globally, raising their total recovery to an impressive 94% of their losses. Federal prosecutors have indicated that the majority of these victims were small-scale investors who lost less than $500,000 due to the fraud… Read More Here
