Jewish Life Digital Edition October 2015 | Page 12

INSIDE STORY

THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEVER KNEW

INNOVATIVE ISRAEL

THE LAND OF MILK
(AND HONEY)
Israel has pushed the boundaries of what her cows can do. The average
cow in Israel now produces 12 000 litres of milk a year; that’s double
the amount Australian dairy cows produce, at 5 500 litres a year, and
of course, it’s technology that’s driving this productivity.
By understanding the physiology of the cow, the Israeli dairy industry is making great strides. One piece of technology being used is the
simple pedometer, more commonly used by fitness fanatics. In dairy
cattle, it can show when they are ready for mating.
“The first oestrus detector is based on pedometry,”said Dr Ephraim
Maltz, of the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at Israel’s Volcani
Centre. “The cow in oestrus is demonstrating higher activity. Before
she is ready to mate, she is more active.” Once the cow has calved, she
is ready to milk.
In a country which is hot for most of the year, Israeli farmers have
also learned to keep their cows cool. “The cows during the summer are
not exposed to direct solar radiation. We force cool the cows before every milking,” Dr Maltz said. “This relieves the heat stress, and milk production can be maintained during summer.”
As an indication of how the world is watching Israel’s dairy progress,
China’s huge Bright Foods purchased Israel’s largest dairy company for
over a billion dollars this year.

Did you know?
The act of theft includes
– Borrowing something (even
for a short period of time)
without the owner’s consent
– Taking an object away from
someone as a joke
– Reading someone else’s book
without permission
Contributing funds to help free Jews who have been held
prisoner, simply because they are Jews, is called ‘pidyon
shevuyim’ and is considered the highest form of tzedakah.

8 JEWISH LIFE ■ ISSUE 89

The Hebrew word for dog, ‘kelev’,
can be understood as a contraction
of two words, ‘kol lev’ – all heart. JL

TEXT: LIZ SAMUELS; PHOTOGRAPHS: BIGSTOCKPHOTO.COM

THE WANDERING JEW

This fictitious character is said to have been a Jerusalem
shoemaker who ‘taunted’ Jesus on the way to his crucifixion. He was told, “Go on forever till I return.”
A doomed, miscreant figure, the Wandering Jew first
appeared in a Bolognese chronicle in 1223, and was recorded again five years later by Roger of Wendover in his
‘Flowers of History’. But it was only after the great
Sephardi Diaspora from Spain in 1492, and from
Portugal in 1497, that the legend really gained traction.
At that time, thousands of Jews who were reduced to
destitution and denied entrance to many European cities
took to peddling. Constantly travelling in search of work
and a permanent home, their plight was eagerly seized
upon as a vindication of the legend.
The Wandering Jew, or Ahasuerus, as he became
known in the sixteenth century, was said to have been
encountered from time to time in cities across Europe,
particularly during the religious disturbances caused by
the Reformation. His existence was a useful prop in providing ‘an eye-witness account of the crucifixion’. The
various appearances claimed for him include Hamburg in
1547; Spain in 1575; Vienna in 1599; Lübeck in 1601;
Prague in 1602; Bavaria in 1604; Ypres in 1623; Brussels
in 1640; Paris in 1644; Stamford in 1658; Astrakhan in
1672; Munich in 1721; Altbach in 1766; Brussels in 1774;
and Newcastle in 1790. One of his last appearances is
said to have been in America in the year 1868, when he
was reported to have visited a Mormon named O’Grady.
The Wandering Jew has also been the subject of art
and literature, particularly during the 19th cent \