Eat More Bamba, Study Shows

Article: Do you have any allergies? Any food allergies or intolerances, in particular? Do you know anyone with a peanut allergy? A new study says that many, if not most, peanut allergies can be prevented by feeding young children food peanuts starting at an early age, before they turn 1 through age 5. For years, parents and pediatricians have done the opposite--avoided giving kids peanuts thinking that that can cause peanut allergies, until after age 3. But this study proves the opposite. Ask you parents: when did you first have peanuts? Since 1997, the number of kids allergic to peanuts have quadrupled! No one knows why. The study was so conclusive, doctors are going to rewrite guidelines, encouraging early introduction to peanuts. And because peanuts can cause kids to choke, guess which is the best way to introduce peanuts? Bamba!

Bonus question: Why are peanut allergies such a big deal? Because they can be fatal after very few exposures.

   

      

Mayor of Jerusalem Saves the Day

Article: The mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, is a former IDF paratrooper and therefore a trained combat fighter. He was on his way to work with his bodyguard yesterday when he saw a commotion. He saw someone hurting someone else (parents: feel free to edit this however you want based on your kids' ages. It was an Arab stabbing a Jewish man on a street in Jerusalem). The man being hurt was holding up his tefilin bag to prevent the bad guy from hurting him and was yelling at everyone to run away to safety. The mayor and his bodyguard jumped out of their car, ran to the scene and tackled the bad guy, taking him to jail. Imagine that happening in your city!

Yemen's Remaining Jews in Trouble

Article: In the last few weeks, Yemen, a Muslim country south of Saudi Arabia (Kids: find on map), has been taken over by terrorists. The US recently evacuated all embassy staff. Jews have lived in Yemen for thousands of years, some believe since biblical times. Jews have lived in Yemen even before the Muslims came. While thousands of Jews used to live in Yemen, all that remains of Jewish life now are cemeteries, thousand-year old stone homes in hillside villages, and a few families. Those Jews still there--a little more than 50, most of whom are children--are regularly harassed with expressions like, "Dirty Jew," when they go to the market. They stay in their homes as much as they can. In 2007, militants told Jews in Saada they had 10 days to leave or else. Nevertheless, the Jews remain proud. The boys all wear earlocks/peius, to show they are Jews. The remaining Jews are looking to go to Israel or the US. All are looking to leave. Within a few years, there will likely be no Jews left in this country that once had thousands.

See article for pictures. Kids: look at how the Jewish children are dressed. Do they dress like you? Why not? How does our clothing reflect our society? 

  

Request for Animal Current Event

My son has asked for an animal current event. So here goes:

Article: On Halloween 2014, a baby hippo was born in the LA Zoo. This is the first baby hippo to be born at the zoo in 26 years. Most baby hippos are born in water and spend the first two weeks in the water. The mother here started out giving birth in the water but ultimately gave birth on land. See this video of the new baby hippo and then see this video taken this week of how the baby hippo is doing 3 months later. Do you see any differences? 

If you live in LA, you can go visit the new baby, mother and father hippo at the zoo!

Happy President's Day

From the Copenhagen shootings to the French Jewish tombstone destruction to the Libyan beheadings, it is hard to find something positive to report today. So instead, let's talk about President's Day, have the kids share what they've learned at school, and share this short video with fun facts about our presidents.

Happy President's Day

New Exhibit at Bible Lands Museum in Israel

Article: Visiting Israel in the next year? You may want to visit a new exhibit at Jerusalem’s Bible Lands Museum about the Jewish exile to ancient Babylonia 2,500 years ago. “By the Rivers of Babylon” shows a collection of about 100 ancient clay tablets from 6th century Mesopotamia that speaks of the lives of exiled Judeans living in the Babylonian Empire. From these, we learn all about Jewish life in that time. The Al-Yahudu tablets are part of a private collection that has never before been public. No one knows when they turned up or where they originated. They suddenly appeared in the antiquities market and were sold to a private collector, David Sofer, who has now loaned them to the Bible Lands Museum. After two years of work, the exhibit opened this past Sunday. The exhibit talks about Jewish names in that time, about the exile, and shows a model Mesopotamian village to recreate how Jews lived. The tablets even mention a Jewish town Al-Yahudu, which means “Jerusalem” and was likely a village of transplants from Judea. While some of the Jews were forced to do hard labor, others thrived, owned property, plantations and slaves, and became part of the Babylonian world. Jews lived in dozens of cities and went on with their lives. They weren't slaves like in Egypt.

Click here to see the promotional video. 

Doctors Refusing to Treat Patients Who Won't Vaccinate Their Kids

Article: Some doctors in LA are refusing to treat patients whose parents won't let them get vaccinated for measles, rubella and other contagious and easily vaccinated diseases. The vast majority of parents get their kids vaccinated and thus stop them from getting potentially deadly diseases. But some parents refuse the immunization because they believe that vaccinations could cause their kids to get other diseases, like autism. The medical establishment has totally debunked the theory that vaccinations lead to autism; parents who continue to believe this are thought to be misinformed. The risk posed to kids who do not get vaccinated is thought to be far greater. Therefore, doctors are starting to refuse to treat patients who refuse the vaccine. Other doctors say this isn't a good idea because they then lose the opportunity to convince parents to change their minds. This has become increasingly important lately with the outbreak of measles. What do you think is the best approach for doctors?

Israel: Bringing Clean Water

Article: Engineering students at Tel Aviv University decided to build a system that would provide hundreds of students in a Tanzanian high school with clean drinking water. Find Tanzania on a map. Recently, the students visited Tanzania to build the system, led by the student club, Engineers without Borders. Here's the background:

In Northern Tanzania, the local drinking water is contaminated with extremely high levels of fluoride, causing the local children to have skeletal deformities and severe dental problems. The Israeli students built and installed a rainwater harvesting and  filtration system that allows 400 students and staff members at the local high school to drink and cook with clean, safe water. They also trained school officials and volunteers on how to operate and maintain the system, and they kept in touch with local residents to ensure that any problems would be worked out. The team created the system with the help of Israeli rainwater harvesting expert Amir Yechieli. The school's principal wrote the team a letter of thanks, saying,"Thanks to this project, we are now one family with you. Let us maintain our relationship more and more.” In this way, the Tel Aviv students were not only ambassadors for Israel in Africa, but saving lives! The team plans to return to build another filter for the village's medical center and to install solar panels.

See this video on the topic.  

What would you design to help people? How would you build it? 

Climbing Yosemite Without Ropes

Watch this video, a great follow up to our current event about Israel winning the Innovation Award for the robo printer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH3jMSchI90

Article: Quite recently, two men broke the record as being the first ever to climb to the tip of Yosemite's granite El Capitan, 3,000 feet above its base, without ropes to catch their fall. If they had slipped and fallen, they would have died. The climb was straight up, on stone as smooth as glass and as a straight as your bedroom wall. It is the hardest rock climb in the world. It took them years to train and weeks to scale. They even slept on the wall! At the end, the two climbers said that their hands would take weeks to recover. Their skin was so worn down, they had used glue to keep the skin on. Click here for pictures.