Various organizations have been criticized in the past for looking beyond Israel for the design and manufacture of uniforms or accessories. Maccabi Tel Aviv FC is the latest culprit after officially launching its new look for the 2025/2026 season at the Puma flagship store on the Tel Aviv Port last week. Maccabi CEO Ben Mansford has been quoted as saying that the uniforms signify the beginning of a new era.
Actually, it’s the continuation of a relationship with the Factory 54 group through which previous uniforms were designed by Fila, another iconic international brand.
Puma is a highly respected international brand, but after what Israel has endured over the past year and three quarters, a little industrial patriotism would not go astray, and the uniforms should have been commissioned from an Israeli company.
Yossi Irani, who heads the Factory 54 Group, which represents leading international clothing brands, is a fan of Maccabi Tel Aviv and was on hand for the launch.
FOR ISRAEL’S national carrier, EL AL, the suspension of services to and from Israel by most foreign carriers was the silver lining which allegedly is behind every cloud. Though now privately owned, El Al remains the foremost Israeli carrier for emergency situations, though smaller Israeli companies were also involved in emergency flights.
But El Al’s rise in profitability wasn’t all emergency, and it certainly wasn’t free of charge. Quite the opposite is true. Prices were bumped up beyond reason because the competition wasn’t there to force prices to drop.
In terms of profitability, it was one of the best years in the company’s history, and much of the credit is due to Dina Ben Tal Ganancia, the company’s CEO.
Yet instead of basking in her success, Ben Tal Ganancia is stepping down from cloud nine and has informed El Al’s board that she will be leaving before the end of this year.
Appointed in April 2022, she was the first woman in Israel to have risen to this position. Rumor has it that she has been offered a similar role with a foreign airline, but so far, it’s unconfirmed. All in all, she has been with El Al for 18 years and previously served as vice president for commercial and industrial affairs.
Prior to her appointment, El Al, which had sustained major losses due to COVID, was financially at one of its lowest points and was forced to reduce both its fleet and its workforce.
Following her appointment, the company’s business made a remarkable recovery, recouped its losses, and the value of its stock leapt by 300%. In recent months, there has been a decline as competition slowly returned, but El Al is still highly profitable.
Whether she takes on another job or not, Ben Tal Ganancia does not have to worry about her personal fortune. Her salary exceeded NIS 6 million per year. Another plus factor is that she has El Al stock options valued at several million shekels, plus a bonus that she received in 2024 that was equal to four salaries.
WHILE ON the subject of female airline executives, Nehama Ronen, who chairs the Maman Cargo Terminal at Ben-Gurion Airport, is being plagued by people who ordered merchandise through Amazon and other sources and are still waiting for delivery many months later.
When passenger airlines stopped flying to Israel, so did cargo planes, resulting in a huge backlog in merchandise delivery. Ronen has assured everyone that the goods are not lost and will be delivered eventually, though she has been careful not to promise a time frame.
One wonders what the excuse is for local mail deliveries that arrive long after they were posted. It used to take between 24 and 48 hours for mail to reach its destination anywhere in Israel. These days, instant delivery means at least a week, but some people can testify to receiving mail that was dated three months earlier.
HAIFA IS the unofficial capital of the North
The University of Haifa has students from the whole region. Many of the students were evacuated with their families when communities in the area were endangered by the bombardments of rockets fired by Hezbollah and its cohorts. Now, residents have begun to gradually return, but some homes were so badly damaged that they are uninhabitable. Moreover, some families are so traumatized that they are unwilling to return.
Realizing the need to rehabilitate northern communities, psychologically, physically, and economically, the University of Haifa has launched a bold $60m. initiative, the Home Again campaign, to restore and revitalize the North.
Originally conceived to address the cascading crises that resulted from the murderous assault by Hamas on October 7, the campaign has taken on even greater urgency following direct missile strikes on Haifa and the surrounding areas, which have caused 68,000 people, including children, to become refugees in their own country.
The campaign’s focus on community building is exemplified by a transformative $5m. commitment from the Boston-based Frieze Family Foundation to create a Center for Shared Society at the University of Haifa.
Longtime champions of Israeli education, regional development, and shared society, the Frieze family’s gift will establish a dedicated center focused on learning, research, advocacy, and engagement initiatives that bring Jewish and Arab residents together, directly supporting the campaign’s mission to restore social cohesion and strengthen community bonds across the North.
“The Frieze Family Foundation’s commitment to establishing a Center for Shared Society exemplifies the kind of partnership that makes this campaign possible,” said Gideon Herscher, vice president for transformational philanthropy and global resource development at the University of Haifa.
“It’s about restoring hope, stability, and opportunity in a region that has absorbed unimaginable strain. Every program, every partnership, and every donor makes a difference in the lives of those determined to come home and move forward.”
“In this moment of national crisis, when Israel’s northern communities have been tested like never before, the University of Haifa is stepping forward to turn trauma into transformation,” said University of Haifa President Prof. Gur Alroey.
“What was already a crucial mission of recovery after October 7 has become an existential imperative following the devastation of recent weeks. We are not only restoring what was lost; we are building the foundation for Israel’s long-term future – something stronger, more resilient, and more just.”
PEOPLE DEDICATED to a cause are not distracted by diversions
This applies particularly to researchers seeking cures or preventive measures for combating global diseases. War, political disquiet, and economic instability are among the distractions in Israel, but researchers into cancer prevention and cure have remained committed to their research. Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers are even more committed than ever after some of their colleagues were called to reserve duty in the army.
Despite various challenges, the researchers remain steadfast in their endeavors to combat one of the world’s most deadly diseases. In the hope of speeding up the process, Hebrew University and Georgetown University in Washington have established a joint initiative on cancer to amplify innovation, discovery, and action to end the disease.
The new collaboration follows more than a year of planning and brings together two universities steeped in science and discovery: Hebrew University, one of Israel’s most veteran institutions of higher education and research, and Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic institution of higher education in the United States, and home to the federally-designated Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Lombardi is engaged in cancer research and education globally.
“This collaboration with Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center marks a significant step in our mission to advance global cancer research,” said Prof. Eli Pikarsky, MD, dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Hebrew University.
“By combining the complementary strengths of our institutions, we are creating a powerful platform for scientific discovery, innovation, and training that transcends borders. Together, we will accelerate progress toward more effective cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.”
“Cancer is a global health challenge, and it is why Georgetown launched the Global Cancer Collaborative this year to identify collaborating universities that share the goal of improving cancer outcomes as a top priority,” says Norman J. Beauchamp Jr., MD, MHS, executive vice president of health sciences at Georgetown University Medical Center.
“Expanding our current cancer engagement globally – now present in African, Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian countries – allows us to collectively amplify our strengths and expedite the ability to bring hope, health, and healing to more people facing this disease. We are pleased to extend this important work through our new collaboration with a truly outstanding university, the Hebrew University.”
The goal of the new initiative is twofold. First, the collaboration aims to strengthen global cancer research and foster scientific cooperation. By expanding the footprint of the comprehensive cancer model to an international cooperative, the partnership advances the mission of both institutions to conduct transformative research to advance health and well-being.
In addition, the initiative will help foster the next generation of cancer researchers in the basic, translational/applied, clinical, epidemiologic, and public health sciences. Leaders from the two institutions will do this by identifying trainees (students and fellows) from each institution who will work for a period of time in the host lab, connecting collaborating research groups in each university. The trainees will be mentored by senior-level researchers, nurturing an interaction between institutions, setting the stage for future clinical translation.
“The work needed to prevent, treat, and cure the dreaded diseases of cancer crosses international boundaries,” says Prof. Louis M. Weiner, MD, director of Georgetown Lombardi. “Georgetown and Hebrew University’s shared values and commitment to excellence and high-impact research ensure that we will have success in our common quest to eradicate cancer.”
Given the scope and goals of the initiative, the institutions seek to establish a multimillion-dollar endowment that will support the research, symposia, and trainee exchanges between both institutions.
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