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Promoting Equality on Campus

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Tel Aviv University has announced the formation of a new unit – the Equality and Diversity Commission – to be led by Prof. Neta Ziv from The Buchmann Faculty of Law. The new Commission, which will report directly to the University President, will deal with all aspects of equality and diversity on campus, including gender, Arabs, first-generation university students, people with disabilities, the LGBT community, members of the Ethiopian community, and the ultra-Orthodox. The Commission will act to promote equality and diversity in the faculty, the administration, and the student body. Prof. Ziv will start her new role in July 2021.

Striving for a Diverse & Equal Campus

Tel Aviv University has thus adopted in practice the recommendations of the Diversity Committee appointed by Prof. Ariel Porat, President of TAU, to examine the issue. The Committee, headed by Prof. Sigal Alon, recommended, inter alia, that the new unit outline a comprehensive university policy, set goals, and help senior TAU office holders promote equality and diversity in the areas under their responsibility. The Committee report states: “To solve complex social problems, discover the next scientific breakthrough, and reach new heights of artistic expression, we must allow diverse ideas, approaches, perspectives, and experiences. Such diversity stimulates new research POVs, analytical methods, discoveries, and solutions.” Similarly, campus diversity creates opportunities for interactions among students and faculty members coming from different backgrounds and expands tolerance towards a broad range of perspectives. A diverse campus is itself an edifying model as it prepares students for better citizenship and leadership in a democracy striving for an ideal society free of racism, fear of the other, and stereotyping. TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat: “To strive for equality and diversity on the campus is not only a social objective of the highest importance. A diverse academic faculty ensures a higher academic level for the university and its units; a diverse student body makes the experience of studying at the campus more meaningful; and a diverse administration provides the campus community with the sense that the university belongs to everyone regardless of gender, ethnicity, or nationality. I’m proud that Prof. Neta Ziv responded favorably to my request to assume the position of establishing the new Commission. Anyone who knows Neta knows that she is both a fully ethical individual and someone who gets things done, a rare combination of traits. For many years, she headed the Law Faculty’s legal clinics and made them a source of pride for the Faculty and University as a whole, nationally and internationally.” Prof. Neta Ziv notes that the Commission she will lead will operate jointly with existing units to expand programs that have been implemented in recent years, particularly for first-generation university students and students with disabilities, the integration of Arabs and other groups in the administrative staff, and increasing the number of women and Arabs on the academic faculty at all levels. Prof. Ziv: “I’m greatly honored to have been asked to head the formation of the new unit and work on issues I have studied, taught, and been active in for more than thirty years. I believe that a diverse, equal campus is critical for achieving the academic excellence we strive for. But this is also an ethical matter. As a body that relies on public and community resources, the University is obligated to reflect the diversity of the Israeli public at large and become a sphere where every group enjoys a sense of belonging in an equal and respectful manner.”  

Google and TAU to Harness the Power of AI for Social Good

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Google and Tel Aviv University recently launched a three-year program for promoting AI-related multidisciplinary research for the benefit of society. The program aims to support research and collaborations in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, that can advance humanity by addressing focal social issues on the global agenda. It was launched within the framework of TAD, the TAU Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, established in February and headed by Prof. Meir Feder of The Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering. The program was launched at a recent ceremony at TAU, announcing 10 winners – out of 27 proposals submitted in response to TAU and Google’s joint call. Seven of the winning projects are supported by Google. The grant winners, whose projects address different aspects of AI for Social Good, include researchers from a wide range of disciplines: Zoology (Faculty of Life Sciences), Electrical Engineering, Economics, Statistics, Communication Disorders, Biblical Studies, Earth Sciences and Computer Science, Sociology and Anthropology and more.

Bridging Disciplines to Make Good Things Happen

TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat, who aims to establish ‘bridges’ between the different disciplines studied at TAU, said at the ceremony: “I share a common vision with Prof. Yossi Matias. We believe that AI researchers can benefit significantly from collaborations with researchers in the social sciences and humanities, just as the latter benefit from new developments in AI. I am very happy about our partnership with Google. I look forward to seeing its fruits and hope to expand it further in the future.” Prof. Yossi Matias, VP at Google and Managing Director of Google Center in Israel, spoke of AI technologies and how they are already improving our lives dramatically: “AI already has great impact in various areas. We are delighted for this opportunity to harness the power of AI for social good and for science. Google is especially happy about its work on beneficial and even lifesaving products, such as the worldwide project for accurate flood forecasting, a technology enabling the hearing-impaired to conduct phone conversations, and studies on the use of AI to enhance disease diagnosis.” Prof. Matias thanked Prof. Porat, Prof. Meir Feder, Head of the TAD Center, and all other partners in the initiative. He spoke of the special opportunity to generate collaborations between researchers, and noted that he is a great believer in connections between different disciplines. “There are some deep and fascinating research questions associated with AI in many different disciplines, creating substantial opportunities for collaboration. Good things happen when different ideas and different approaches come together.”   Left to right: Prof. Yossi Matias, Prof. Ariel Porat, Prof. Meir Feder & Prof. Tova Milo The joint venture will include a joint seminar on Machine Learning (ML), led by TAD Director Dr. Shimon (Moni) Shahar and Dr. Deborah Cohen, a scientist at the new Google Center in Israel. Prof. Meir Feder emphasized that “the AI revolution is expected to impact every aspect of our lives, from drug development and data-based personalized medicine, to defense systems, financial systems, scientific discoveries, robotics, autonomous systems and social issues. In addition, it is very important to train human capital in this area, and therefore the Center will provide every student at TAU with a basic AI education. TAU is special in having researchers who specialize in basic science and AI, as well as researchers who apply AI in the humanities and social sciences. We are happy that Google has decided to join forces with TAU in this important matter. The collaboration with Google will enable utilization of the power of AI and Data Science, channeling it toward the benefit of society.”

Are We Getting to the Root of Cancer?

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Groundbreaking discovery that plant roots grow in a spiral motion inspires search for similar motion in cancer cells.

In an interdisciplinary research project carried out at Tel Aviv University, researchers from the School of Plant Sciences affiliated with The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences collaborated with their colleagues from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine in order to study the course of plant root growth. Aided by a computational model constructed by cancer researchers studying cancer cells, adapted for use with plant root cells, they were able to demonstrate, for the first time in the world, and at the resolution of a single cell, that the root grows with a screwing motion – just like a drill penetrating a wall. In the wake of this study, the cancer researchers conjecture that cancer cells, too, are assisted by a spiral motion in order to penetrate healthy tissue in the environment of the tumor, or to create metastases in various organs of the body. The research was led by Prof. Eilon Shani from the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security and Prof. Ilan Tsarfaty from the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at Tel Aviv University, and was conducted in collaboration with researchers from the USA, Austria and China. The article was published in March 2021 in the acclaimed journal Nature Communications.

Significant Advance in Plant Research – and in the War on Cancer?

The researchers in Prof. Shani’s group, led by Dr. Yangjie Hu, used as a model the plant known as Arabidopsis. They marked the nuclei of the root cells with a fluorescent protein and observed the growing process and movement of the cells at the root tip through a powerful microscope – approximately 1000 cells in each movie. Furthermore, in order to examine what causes and controls the movement, they focused on a known hormone named auxin, which regulates growth in plants. They built a genetic system that enables activation of auxin production (like a switch) in a number of selected cells-types, and then monitored the influence of the on/off mechanism, in four dimensions – the three spatial dimensions and the dimension of time. After each instance of auxin biosynthesis, each of the thousand cells was video recorded for a period of 6 to 24 hours, thus an enormous amount of data accumulated.

WATCH: The process of growth and movement of cells at the root tip using a microscope

For the next stage, the researchers were aided by the computational tools provided by Prof. Tsarfaty, which had been developed in his laboratory for the purpose of monitoring the development of cancerous growths. They used these tools to analyze the imaging data obtained in the study. Thus they were actually able, for the first time, to observe with their own eyes the corkscrew movement of the root, as well as to precisely quantify and chart some 30 root growth parameters relating to time and space – including acceleration, length, changes in cell structure, coordination between cells during the growth process and velocity – for each one of the thousand cells at the root tip. Using fluorescent reporters, the findings even allowed them to precisely assess the movement and the influence of the auxin on the root, and the way in which it controls the growth process. Prof. Shani: “The computational tools that were developed for cancer research have enabled us, for the first time, to precisely measure and quantify the kinetics of growth and to reveal the mechanisms that control it at the resolution of a single cell. By this they have significantly advanced plant research, an area of utmost importance for society – both from an environmental point of view and in terms of agriculture and feeding the population.” Prof. Tsarfaty adds: “This was a synergetic collaboration that benefited and enlightened both parties. In plants, processes take place much more rapidly, and therefore constitute an excellent model for us. In consequence of the findings provided by this plant study, we are presently examining the possibility of a similar screw-like motion in cancer cells and in metastases, in the course of their penetration into adjacent healthy tissues.”

British Variant 45% More Contagious than Original Virus

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According to TAU study, based on data from 300,000 tests for Covid-19.

A new study at Tel Aviv University found that the British variant (termed: B.1.1.7) of Covid-19 is 45% more contagious than the original virus. The researchers relied on data from about 300,000 PCR tests for Covid-19 obtained from the COVID-19 testing lab, which was established in collaboration with the Electra Group. According to the researchers, “The study proves that active monitoring of at-risk population and prioritized vaccination programs can prevent hundreds of deaths.” The new study was conducted by Prof. Ariel Munitz and Prof. Moti Gerlitz of the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, together with Dr. Dan Yamin and PhD student Matan Yechezkel from the Laboratory for Epidemic Modeling and Analysis (LEMA) at the Department of Industrial Engineering, all at Tel Aviv University. The study’s results were published in the prominent scientific journal Cell Reports Medicine. The Electra-TAU laboratory was established in March 2020, right after the outbreak of the first wave of the pandemic in Israel. To date, it has analyzed hundreds of thousands of tests from all over the country – from public drive-in test facilities, as well as programs targeting specific populations – such as ‘Shield for Fathers and Mothers’ which routinely ran tests in at-risk hotspots like retirement homes. Prof. Ariel Munitz explains: “We use a kit that tests for three different viral genes. In the British variant, also known as B.1.1.7, one of these genes, the S gene, has been erased by the mutation. Consequently, we were able to track the spread of the variant even without genetic sequencing.” According to Prof. Munitz, the data from the lab shows that the spread of the British variant in Israel was very rapid: On December 24, 2020 only 5% of the positive results were attributed to the British variant. Just six weeks later, in January 2021, this variant was responsible for 90% of Covid-19 cases in Israel. The current figure is about 99.5%. “To explain this dramatic increase, we compared the R number of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with the R of the British variant. In other words, we posed the question: How many people, on the average, contract the disease from every person who has either variant? We found that the British variant is 45% – almost 1.5 times – more contagious.”

Vaccine Saved Hundreds

In the second stage of the study, the researchers segmented contagion by age groups. The results indicated that the turning point for the 60+ population compared to other age groups occurred two weeks after 50% of Israel’s 60+ population received their first vaccine shot: “Until January we saw a linear dependence of almost 100% between the different age groups in new cases per 1,000 people,” says Dr. Dan Yamin. “Two weeks after 50% of the 60+ population received the first dose of the vaccine this graph broke sharply and significantly. During January a dramatic drop was observed in the number of new cases in the 60+ group, alongside a continued rise in the rest of the population. Simply put, since more than 90% of those who died from Covid-19 were over 60, we can say that the vaccine saved hundreds of lives – even in the short run.”

Active Monitoring of At-Risk Populations

Moreover, the new study proves that active monitoring of at-risk populations works. “There is a threshold value for determining whether a specific test is positive or negative for the virus – with a lower value indicating a higher viral load,” says Prof. Munitz. “When we compared the threshold values of the different genes in 60+ residents of retirement homes with the values measured in 60+ persons in the general population, we saw significantly higher values in the retirement homes. This means that the viral load in retirement homes was lower compared to the rest of the population. Since the residents of retirement homes are tested routinely, while other people are usually tested only when they don’t feel well or have been in contact with someone who had tested positive for the virus, we conclude that constant monitoring of at-risk populations is a method that works. It is important to emphasize: the relatively low viral load was found in retirement homes despite the fact that the British variant had already begun to spread in all populations. Consequently, we show that monitoring retirement homes, together with vaccination that gives precedence to vulnerable populations, prevent illness and mortality.” Dr. Yemin concludes: “Due to crowded conditions, large households and age distribution in the Israeli population, the coronavirus had a more favorable environment for spreading in Israel compared to most Western countries. Our message to the world is that if with our problematic starting point a distinct decline was identified, other Western countries can certainly expect the curve to break – despite the high contagion of the British variant – with a dramatic drop in severe cases following the vaccination of 50% of the older population, alongside targeted testing at risk epicenters.” Featured image: Left to Right: Prof. Ariel Munitz, Dr. Dan Yamin and Prof. Moti Gerlitz

Optical Technology Generates Immediate Melanoma Diagnosis

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Expected to revolutionize the field of skin cancer diagnosis.

Melanoma is a life-threatening cancer, but its immediate diagnosis can save lives. An innovative optical technology that can distinguish between different types of cancer has now been developed in the laboratory of Professor Abraham Katzir, from the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences at Tel Aviv University, which enables real time diagnosis of melanoma. Based on special optical fibers, the technology will enable every dermatologist to determine the character of a suspicious lesion automatically, and particularly if it is melanoma. Non-invasive, immediate, and automatic, this process may lead to a dramatic change in the field of diagnosing and treating skin cancer, and possibly other types of cancer as well. The technology has been tried successfully on about one hundred patients in a major hospital in Israel. The findings were published in the Journal Medical Physics.

Seeing Skin Cancer’s True Colors

When a suspicious lesion is found on the skin, during a routine examination, it is removed in a minor surgical procedure and sent to a laboratory for testing. A pathologist diagnoses the lesion and determines whether it is melanoma. In most cases where melanoma is discovered early, when it is still superficial and less than one-millimeter-thick and it is removed, the patient recovers. Late diagnosis, when the melanoma is more than one-millimeter-thick, significantly reduces the chances of recovery and is life-threatening. “The idea that guided us in developing the technology was that in the visible range, there are various substances, having various colors, which are not characteristic of each substance. On the other hand, in the infrared region, various substances have different ‘colors’ of a sort, depending on the chemical makeup of each substance,” says Professor Katzir. “Therefore, we figured that with the help of devices that can identify these ’colors’, healthy skin and each of the benign and malignant lesions would have different ’colors’, which would enable us to identify melanoma.” Professor Katzir’s research group developed special optical fibers that are transparent in the infrared. The group, in collaboration with physicists Professor Yosef Raichlin of Ariel University, Dr. Max Platkov of the Negev Nuclear Research Center, and Svetlana Bassov of Professor Katzir’s group, developed a system, based on these fibers, in accordance with the requirements of evaluating skin. The researchers connected one end of this type of fiber to a device that measures the ’colors’ in the infrared, and touched the other end lightly, for several seconds, to a lesion on a patient’s skin. The fiber made it possible to check the ’color’ of the lesion right away. Clinical trials were then carried out on suspicious lesions in about one hundred patients. With the help of the new system, physicists performed measurements of the ’color’ of each lesion, before it was removed and sent to a pathology laboratory. The researchers showed that all of the lesions that were determined by pathologists as being of a certain type, such as melanoma, had a characteristic ’color’ in the infrared. Each type of lesion had a different ’color’. “The technology gives us a kind of ‘fingerprint’, which makes it possible to diagnose the various lesions by measuring their characteristic ’colors’”, says Professor Katzir. “In this way, lesions can be diagnosed using a non-invasive optical method, and the physician and the patient receive the results automatically and immediately.  This is unlike the test that is routinely used, which involves surgery, and the pathological diagnosis takes a long time.” Following the success of the study, the researchers plan to confirm the evaluation method on hundreds of patients.   ​

Non-invasive, immediate, and automatic

In conclusion, Professor Katzir says: “Melanoma is a life-threatening cancer, so it is very important to diagnose it early on, when it is still superficial. The innovative system will enable every dermatologist to determine the character of a suspicious lesion automatically, and particularly if it is melanoma. This system has the potential to cause a dramatic change in the field of diagnosing and treating skin cancer, and perhaps other types of cancer as well. The challenge will be to make this technology, which is still expensive, something that will be used in every hospital or clinic.”

Gut Healing

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TAU researchers identify proteins that cause intestinal disease.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have created an artificial intelligence platform that can identify the specific proteins that allow bacteria to infect the intestines – a method that paves the way for the creation of smart drugs that will neutralize the proteins and prevent disease, without the use of antibiotics. Participating in the study, which was published in the prestigious journal Science, were Ph.D. student Naama Wagner and Prof. Tal Pupko, Head of The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at the Faculty of Life Sciences and the new Center for Artificial Intelligence & Data Science at Tel Aviv University. The international partners in the study included researchers from Imperial College (led by Prof. Gad Frankel) and the Institute for Cancer Research in London, as well as from the Technical University and the National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid.

Swapping the Cannon for a Rifle

Intestinal diseases are caused by pathogenic bacteria that attach to our intestinal cells. Once attached, the bacteria use a kind of molecular syringe to inject intestinal cells with proteins called “effectors.” These effectors work together to take over healthy cells, like hackers that take over computer servers using a combination of lines of code. However, until now scientists have not known what protein combination it is that cracks the cell’s defense mechanisms. Now, the TAU researchers’ artificial intelligence platform has identified novel effectors in the bacteria, which have been experimentally tested and validated. Subsequently, laboratory experiments conducted in London successfully predicted the protein combinations that lead to the pathogenic bacteria taking over the intestines. “In this study, we focused on a bacterium that causes intestinal disease in mice, a relative of the E. coli bacteria that cause intestinal disease in humans, so as not to work directly with the human pathogen”, explains Ph.D. student Naama Wagner. “The artificial intelligence we created knows how to predict effectors in a variety of pathogenic bacteria, including bacteria that attack plants of economic importance. Our calculations were made possible by advanced machine-learning tools that use the genomic information of a large number of bacteria. Our partners in England proved experimentally that the learning was extremely accurate and that the effectors we identified are indeed the weapons used by the bacteria.” “Pathogenic bacteria are treated with antibiotics,” says Prof. Tal Pupko. “But antibiotics kill a large number of species of bacteria, in the hope that the pathogenic bacteria will also be destroyed. So antibiotics are not a rifle but a cannon. Moreover, the overuse of antibiotics leads to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a worldwide problem that is getting worse. Understanding the molecular foundation of the disease is a necessary step in the development of drugs that are smarter than antibiotics, which will not harm the bacterial population in the intestines at all. This time we discovered the effectors of gut bacteria that attack rodents, but this is just the beginning. We are already working on detecting effectors in other bacteria in an attempt to better understand how they carry out their mission in the target cells they are attacking.”

Michal Bat Adam Receives Israel Prize for Film Art

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Broke barriers to become one of Israeli cinema’s first directors.

The Israel Prize for Film Art was awarded this week – to Michal Bat Adam, a lecturer at TAU’s The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, who has written and directed 13 full sized movies, among them: “Moments“ (1979), “The Lover” (1985), “A Thousand and One Wives” (1989), “Aya: Imagined Autobiography” (1994), Love at Second Sight (1999), Life Is Life (2003), Maya (2010), The Road to Where (2016) and more. In addition, Bat Adam has starred in numerous movies, plays and on TV. She starred in many films by her late husband, Moshe Mizrahi, such as: “I Love You, Rosa” (1972), “The House on Chelouche Street” (1973) – both of which were nominated for an Oscar in the ‘foreign-language film’ category – “Daughters, Daughters” (1973), and Madame Rosa (1977), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Two years ago, Bat Adam was awarded the Ophir Award for Lifetime Achievement (2019). The Ophir Award is colloquially known as the Israeli Oscars or the Israeli Academy Awards – awards for excellence in the Israeli film industry awarded by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television The Israel Prize committee said in a statement that, “Michal is a groundbreaking artist in Israeli cinema for five decades…[E]ven in a low-budget reality, at a time when there were still no government funds that supported filmmaking moviemaking as is customary today, Bat Adam has, over the years, produced 12 additional full length films that constitute a unique and original cinematic space. Her fruitful and meaningful film career is a significant inspiration for creators who dream of working in cinema.” Bat Adam is a director, screenwriter and actress committed to a unique, female cinema – uncompromising and groundbreaking. As an inspiring teacher and creator, she continues to influence the students at the school, as well as creators in Israel and around the world. Tel Aviv University, the Faculty of Arts and the School of Film and Television congratulate Michal on receiving the award and wish her continued productive work. featured image:
Actress and Film Director Michal Bat Adam has received the prestigious Israel Prize

An Underwater Salute to Grandma Vera

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Marine biologist names new species of sponge after Holocaust survivor grandmother, turning 95.

There are many ways to make a beloved grandmother feel special on her birthday, and Tal Idan, a doctoral student in Prof. Micha Ilan’s sponge lab at TAU’s School of Zoology, did something quite unconventional: She scientifically named a new sponge that she herself discovered, after her grandmother, Vera. And as Israel is observing the national Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoa), Tal found her own way of eternalizing her grandmother’s identity as a courageous Holocaust survivor.

Finding a Needle in a Haystack

The process leading up to the naming of a new species of animals is complex and lengthy, and the naming is considered the icing on the cake. Tal Idan researches sponges on the Israeli coast of the Mediterranean. Detecting and identifying new species for science is part of her research. “One of the benefits of working in deep waters and in new environments, is that there will always be new species – simply because these places have not yet been reached by anyone,” she explains. “There are a number of sponges that we have not yet been able to identify. These three, however, we discovered back in 2018, and since then we have been working to identify them.” Vera the Sponge Tal explains that this is a lengthy and intricate part. “Animal characterization is usually done by examining the genetic differences in the animals’ DNA. This won’t work with sponges, that have a really good DNA-repairing ability and their differences are not that big. One literally needs to characterize the structure of their body: “The skeleton of the sponges consists of skeletal needles in very beautiful shapes. You have to check the structure of the needles, measure and compare these to those of the other species that exist in the same genus. It took several years to produce good enough characterizations.”

Grandma Vera’s Love for the Sea

Like Tal, Vera loves the sea very much. Throughout many years, Vera and her late husband, Otto, used to swim in the sea in all weathers. Otto was Vera’s childhood sweetheart from the Czech Republic, who survived the Holocaust with her and immigrated with her to Israel. Even after his death and up until very recently, Vera would continue to go to the sea alone.   Tal and Vera, photographed during a trip in celebration of Vera’s 90th birthday

So far, Tal has successfully defined three new species for science. After consulting with her research colleagues, they decided that one of the sponges would be called Hemiasterella verai , named after grandma Vera. Tal explains that when a new species is named, it is common practice to include the origin of the name. Thus she was able to memorialize not only her dear grandmother’s name, but also the fact that she courageously survived the Holocaust. Tal says that it was important for her to do this for Vera while she is alive, and also to include this important fact.

Today, grandma Vera has three sons, seven grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, who all plan to attend her upcoming 95th birthday celebration. She always says they are her biggest victory over the Nazis.

Featured image: Tal Idan in the depths of the Mediterranean

Struggling in a Toxic Workplace?

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TAU researchers hope to save farmers from snakebites in their fields.

Did you know that about 1.8 million instances of snakebite envenoming occur around the world annually, killing about 94,000 people? Snakebite envenoming is a potentially life-threatening disease that typically results from the injection of a mixture of different toxins (“venom”) following the bite of a venomous snake. In some areas, snakebites are considered a major cause of death, especially among farmers who encounter snakes in their fields. The World Health Organization has even launched a strategic plan to reduce snakebites by 50% by 2030. TAU researchers, as part of an international research group, created an innovative simulation model for predicting snakebites, based on an improved understanding of interactions between farmers and snakes.

Mapping Snakebites

The purpose of the model is to determine the probability of a snakebites occurring in certain places (i.e. in rice fields vs. tea fields) at various times (hours of the day and months of the year). The study is founded upon extensive research and data from Sri Lanka, where about 30,000 envenoming snakebites kill roughly 400 people every year. It focused on 6 types of snakes – Cobra, Russell’s viper, Saw-scaled viper, Hump-nosed viper, Common krait and Ceylon krait – and the farmers who grow the 3 most common crops in the area: rice, tea and rubber. The model predicts that the bites of Russell’s viper, one of the world’s most dangerous snakes, peak in rice fields during February and August, while the less lethal hump-nosed viper prefers rubber plantations in April and May. It was also found that in the southeastern part of the studied region, the largest number of snakebites are inflicted by Russell’s viper, while in other parts of the region snakebites of the hump-nosed viper are the most common.

Interdisciplinary Model

Eyal Goldstein of the TAU School of Zoology explains: “We built a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary model, which includes the behavior patterns of both sides – snakes and humans, identifying risk factors at various times and places and warning against them. The model can for instance differentiate between low-risk and high-risk areas – a difference which can be manifested in double the number of snakebites per 100,000 people.” Eyal Goldstein Dr. Kris Murray of Imperial College London and the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London explains that “Snakes and humans both go about their business at different times of the day, during different seasons and in different types of habitats. Our model factors in all these elements to predict encounters between humans and snakes in areas where farmers are working. We consider the degree of aggressiveness of different snake species when we calculate how likely an encounter is to result in a bite.” Dr. Takuya Iwamura (currently at Oregon State University) emphasizes that “Our approach is to mathematically analyze interactions between snakes and humans, with an emphasis on the ecological perspective. This is a completely new approach to understanding the mechanism behind snakebites. Unlike most studies, which have so far focused mainly on social and economic risk factors, we chose to focus on the ecological aspects – such as snakes’ movements and habitats, the impact of climate and rainfall, and the respective behaviors of farmers and snakes – as a key to predicting potential encounters.”

Scalable Model

About 1.8 million envenoming snakebites occur around the world annually, killing about 94,000 people. In tropical areas, especially in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, snakebites are considered a major cause of death, especially among farmers who encounter snakes in their fields. In response, the World Health Organization has launched a strategic plan to reduce snakebites by 50% by 2030. An important basis for attaining this goal is expanding relevant scientific research. Verified against existing data in Sri Lanka, the model was proved very accurate in predicting snakebite patterns in different areas and different seasons, as well as the relative contribution of various types of snakes to the overall picture as documented in hospital data. The researchers plan to implement the model in places that do not yet keep accurate snakebite data. They will also use it to predict future changes resulting from climate change – such as increased rainfall leading to greater snake activity, as well as changes in land use and habitats available to snakes. Dr. Iwamura concludes: “Our model can help focus the efforts of snakebite reduction policies, and serve as a tool for warning, raising awareness and saving human lives. We regard this study as a first stage in a broader project, and plan to develop more complex models of encounters between humans and wildlife, to support both public health and nature preservation policies in the real world.”   Farmer and snake – better off apart The study was led by Dr. Takuya Iwamura (currently at Oregon State University), Eyal Goldstein of the TAU School of Zoology, and Dr. Kris Murray of Imperial College London and the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London. Other participants included researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Lancaster University and the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. The paper was published in February 2021 in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Antisemitism During the Pandemic: Less Physical Violence, Upsurge in Online Antisemitism

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On the Eve of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry publishes the Antisemitism Report for 2020.

The Antisemitism Report for 2020 – the year of COVID-19 – published today by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Humanities in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress – indicates contradictory trends: On the one hand, a decrease was seen in physical violence resulting from the reduced encounters between Jews and violent anti-Semites due to the lockdowns. On the other hand, accusations against the Jews (allegedly responsible for the global disaster), were manifested in a rise in blatant antisemitic expressions on the internet in general and on social networks specifically. In addition, new phenomena developed on the internet, such as zoom bombing and the darknet, which are difficult to quantify. The Report is based on thousands of testimonies from different places around the globe, received throughout 2020 from the international network established by the Kantor Center several years ago – which includes about 60 participants who regularly send in information about antisemitism worldwide. WATCH the interview with Prof. Dina Porat, Head of the Kantor Center:
According to Prof. Dina Porat, Head of the Kantor Center: “The coronavirus pandemic and the resulting reality dictated both the nature and extent of antisemitism in 2020, which was an unusually tense and turbulent year all over the world. Prejudice, superstition, primordial emotions, and bizarre theories surfaced on the scene, and manifestations of antisemitism, both verbal and visual, were vicious and outrageous. Blaming the Jews and Israelis for developing and spreading the coronavirus (or the ‘Judeovirus’), was the main motif in this year’s antisemitic manifestations. This notion is rooted in a deep fear of the Jew/Israeli as a spreader of disease in both the past and present.” Blaming the Jews and Israelis for developing and spreading the coronavirus (or ‘Judeovirus’) is a graver accusation than any previously made against Jews throughout history: As the pandemic began to spread across the globe, it was immediately followed by accusations that the virus had been developed and was being spread by Jews and Israelis: they are the ones who would find a cure and vaccine for the disease, selling it to the ailing world and making a huge profit. Over the following months this libel spread rapidly. We received reports to this effect from dozens of countries, in the form of aggressive messages and numerous malicious caricatures. Moreover, the accusation was heard not only from extremist circles, such as white supremacists, ultra-conservative Christians, or the usual accusers like Iran, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority, and especially Iran, that invested efforts in disseminating the accusation. It also spread to populations without well-defined political or ideological identities.”

Fewer Encounters, Fewer Violent Events

As noted above, lockdowns in the various countries reduced encounters between Jews and their ill-wishers, and consequently the number of violent events declined from 456 (in 2019) to 371 in 2020 – a number that was typical of 2016-18. No one was murdered this year for being Jewish (although physical attacks could potentially have had fatal outcomes), and the number of bodily injuries decreased from 170 in 2019 to 107 in 2020. Damage to private property was also reduced from 130 to 84 incidents, simply because people mostly stayed at home. In most countries a decrease was registered in the number of violent incidents, attacks on both people and their property, threats and arson. However, vandalism towards Jewish communal property and institutions remained as frequent, and in some cases they became more frequent (see table). The number of desecrations of graveyards, Holocaust memorials and other Jewish monuments (open and unprotected sites) rose from 77 (2019) to 96 (2020) incidents worldwide, and the number of vandalized synagogues (being closed, they became easy targets) also increased from 53 (2019) to 63 (2020).

Victoria

Tok Corporate Centre, Level 1,
459 Toorak Road, Toorak VIC 3142
Phone: +61 3 9296 2065
Email: [email protected]

New South Wales

Level 22, Westfield Tower 2, 101 Grafton Street, Bondi Junction NSW 2022
Phone: +61 418 465 556
Email: [email protected]

Western Australia

P O Box 36, Claremont,
WA  6010
Phone: :+61 411 223 550
Email: [email protected]