Silicon Wadi: Israel’s Arab Tech Boom

Paulus VI is the single, narrow artery that snakes through the old city of Nazareth, choked with a seemingly endless line of vehicles. On either side of the thoroughfare, there is dust and noise and vendors chatting at high decibel in Arabic in relentless heat. For the last two years, a sign above a modern sand-colored building spells out in English, “Microsoft.” The new R&D headquarters of the American giant is just one of the several tech-related initiatives to open in the city in recent years.

Known as Israel’s Arab capital, Nazareth is home to 75,000 residents, most of whom are Muslims. Two years into the implementation of the Israeli government’s $3.85 billion plan for the “social development of Israel’s Arab population,” Nazareth is now pushing to take its place alongside emerging competition from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan to become a hub of Middle Eastern tech entrepreneurship.

Roberto Saviano, Author of ‘Gomorrah,’ Takes on Internet Nazis

Later this month, Roberto Saviano, the renowned Italian journalist, will testify at the first hearing of a trial against 39 Italian neo-Nazis who were accused, among other things, of participating in an online group that incited racial discrimination and violence. For years, between 2009 and 2012, the group held discussions that included white supremacist and anti-Semitic rhetoric on the American hate site Stormfront. (Photo: Francesco Cuoccio / Flickr.)

The Inspiring History of Europe’s Largest Jewish Publishing House

Whether you’re looking for the latest Israeli best-selling novel, the five books of the Torah, or even the translation of the Babylonian Talmud, in Italy, there is one man behind all of these books. He’s called Shulim Vogelmann, and he’s the director of Giuntina, which he claims is the most active Jewish-themed publishing house in Europe.

What It’s Like Wearing a Kippah in Europe

You may have already seen the video showing a man being physically attacked in Berlin for wearing a kippah. If you haven’t, watch it here.

It shows 21-year-old Adam Armush walking in a street of the German capital with his friend and being assaulted by three young men. One of the attackers repeatedly hit Armush with his belt, while shouting “yahudi,” which is Arabic for Jew. Armush himself filmed part of the scene on his smartphone.

Comic Books and the Holocaust

In a survey published this month, the Claims Conference estimated that 66 percent of American millennials do not know what Auschwitz was. The news comes as alarming, as we live in an age in which access to resources and information on the history of World War II and the Holocaust is virtually immediate.

Just a few decades ago, the Shoah was hardly part of the public discourse in the States, and was rarely included in school curricula. Many American young people, in the ’60s through the ’80s, learned for the first time about the topic where they learned a lot about good and evil: comic books.