With clouds opening up without mercy on Thursday morning, it was a continuation of the downpour which started early this week.
Rehovot.TV video 1:
People had problems accessing their vehicles because of the flooding.
Rehovot.TV Video 2:
There was knee-deep water on some roads, making the movement of traffic at snail’s pace. Reckless drivers, however, apparently did not care of anyone except themselves. Domino pizza scooters were noticed violating the traffic regulations, using one-way streets for driving in the prohibited direction.
Rehovot.TV Video 3:
Flood waters seeped into the parked cars in the low lying areas, where the water flow was powerful enough to open Rehovot street manholes. The rain occasionally stopped at night, however, allowing water access to recede.
Rehovot.TV Video 4:
Reaching work place today morning was a difficult task because of the traffic delays. There were no major incidents of any damage reported in the rain on Wednesday or Thursday morning.
Rehovot.TV Video 5:
Thursday morning break gave enough time for the flood water to settle down, leaving a question of the city infrastructure readiness for the winter season of rain.
Bulldozer Used for Rehovot-wide "Circumcision" Action
Rehovot.tv video 1:
A week or two ago one could notice the usage of heavy bulldozer for cutting tree branches by Rehovot Municipality Garden workers, as presented (above and below) by www.Rehovot.tv .
Rehovot.tv video 2:
Essential other tools were ordinary gardener scissors. What a show! What an invention! Kudos to Rehovot Municipality! No question worth patenting... when the safety concern (for both vehicle operator and pedestrians) is addressed.
How hygienic is the Rehovot market food? Well. Watch Rehovot.tv video reporting below, decide yourself. The video was taken on Day 1 (of 3) of the operation of the substitution of the market asbestos roof and other construction parts early this week. Yesterday evening (Nov 15, 2007) the market resumed operation and looked respectable. What stays behind this respectability remains a big question.
Rehovot.tv video 1:
“It is very sad that this place where eatables are being sold is not maintained with a degree of a deserved cleanliness. While we use this place to buy vegetables, others can use this place as a food waste spot or toilet”, Rehovot pedestrian told My Rehovot, noting stacks of waste vegetables next to the market and blaming Municipality for not removing garbage in time. She added that though she and her friends come to purchase vegetables often, the place is very unclean. Many Rehovot residents stopped visiting Rehovot market because of the hygienics concerns.
Rehovot.tv video 2:
During the removal of the asbestos parts of the market construct, many vendors continued to sell vegetables and fruites at the parking lot located next to the "shuk" (Market, Hebrew), meters away from Rehovot City Mall and the Municipality premises.
Meanwhile, poorly covered vegetables and fruites remained on the market shelves, accumulating kilos of asbestos and other type dust (watch videos avove). These eatables apparently were consumed by Rehovot residents after re-opening of the Market.
Rehovot.tv video 3:
New Rehovot market construction, to be build at the spot of the ancient present one, was widely publicized during the municipality election campaign few years ago. Apparently it is not on the City Council agenda now.
Attention: This is original material by MyRehovot. Online usage is permitted in case the source is properly acknowledged and URL www.MyRehovot.info or www.Rehovot.tv is provided.
De Shalit School Principal Talks to Rehovot Public, Teachers At the Rehovot Protest March For Better Secondary Education in Israel
Rehovot Secondary Schools Outline Goals
Rehovot Secondary Schools officials have announced their call for the Education Reform in Israel at the end of the Herzl street march, held yesterday afternoon, and attracted the Public attention to the dramatic situation with the secondary education in Rehovot. The multi-page document presented by De Shalit School principal after the talk by Rehovot Mayor sets important issues of obvious importance to Rehovot and Israel at large.
Rehovot.tv video 1:
The educational reform is essential to academic progress, will create a school culture that helps students to find their voices and become leaders of the society of tomorrow.
Rehovot.tv video 2:
It is important to act now, untill it is too late!
Rehovot.tv video 3:
Rehovot mayor address (to those participating in the March on Wednesday afternoon) preceded the talk of De Shalit School Principal.
Many Rehovot residents joined teachers, students and parents in their today afternoon March for Better Education in Rehovot. The event held under the formal title "Don't bury Israel's education!" and was a natural extension of a number of other actions and personal addresses by Rehovot teachers.
Participants in black shirts brought whistles, pan covers/lids and a numbers of other items to makes a significant noise.
Rehovot.tv video 1:
They were admired by pedestrians and Herzl street vechicles traffic.
Rehovot.tv video 2:
Protest march (announcement earlier today by Teachers' Committees of Rehovot, Mazkeret Batiya and Gedera) began from bank Hapoalim Plaza (Corner of Hershinson and Herzl Streets) Rehovot at about 16:00 and finished two hours later near Stejmacky Book shop (at herzl Street, opposite to Rehovot Central Police station).
The march did not rich the intended root end of Rehovot Central Train station, and therefore escaped bypassing Weizmann Institute and Hebrew University of jerusalem Faculty of Agriculture. These were the spots were many other admireres from Rehovot Higher Education communities could join the procession.
Teachers and Students Protest, Call for Better Education, Meet Rehovot Mayor
Mayor Shuki Forer talks to Rehovot Secondary School teachers and the public, at the end point of today afternoon march, calling for better Education in Rehovot, Israel.
Rehovot Teachers, Students and Parents Cry for Better Secondary Education
Join teachers, students and parents in their today afternoon March for Better Education in Rehovot
Don't bury Israel's education!
Join teachers, students and parents in their today afternoon March for Better Education in Rehovot
Who: Teachers, Students, Parents When: Wednesday 14.11.02 at 15:45 Dress code: Wear black shirts and bring whistles, pan covers/lids or anything else which makes a noise
Join today's protest march from bank Hapoalim Plaza (Corner of Hershinson and Herzl Streets) Rehovot and finishing at the Railway station
Announcement by Teachers' Committees of Rehovot, Mazkeret Batiya & Gedera
The Crisis in Rehovot's Classrooms: Teachers Call for Support
Rehovot Public supports De Shalit School Teachers-on-Strike call for Better Educational System, Rehovot Mayor Office Remains Silent
Rehovot.tv video 1:
"It sounds like a teenager's dream: Sleep late, hang out at the mall, and go to the beach. Yet 15-year-old Barak Rivkind is sick of that easy life. At noon on a school day, instead of sitting in class, Rivkind and his buddies are sipping milk shakes at the Aroma café in Jerusalem's Malha Mall. That's because Israel's high school teachers have been on strike since Oct. 9 seeking higher wages and improved working conditions. "I've had enough of loafing," says the 10th grader. "We're missing a lot of material, and it will be very difficult to make it up."
Israeli education is in crisis—and many fear the country's tech industry will suffer unless something is done to fix it. The technology sector represents 12% of Israel's gross domestic product and more than a third of all exports, and has been growing at a double-digit clip for most of the past two decades. Fueling that boom have been Israel's top-notch schools. "Unless the government wakes up, Israel will quickly lose its edge in high tech," says Giora Yaron, a serial entrepreneur who has sold two companies to Cisco Systems (CSCO) and is now involved in four other tech ventures.
Rehovot.tv video 2:
The teachers' strike and a parallel action by university professors are just symptoms of the malaise gripping the country's school system. In the 1960s, Israeli students topped international rankings of math and science skills. The last time Israel participated in such a survey, in 2002, it had slipped to 33rd out of 41 countries, behind the likes of Thailand and Romania. And just 30% of 18-year-old native-born conscripts to the Israel Defense Forces in 2005 passed a standard Hebrew reading comprehension test, down from 60% two decades ago. "Our most important resource is brain power, and if we don't foster this then our society is at risk," warns Aaron Ciechanover, the 2004 Nobel laureate in chemistry and a professor at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel's equivalent of MIT.
Rehovot.tv video 3:
Overdue funding
The government, though, has been slow to act. National spending on education dropped from 9.3% of GDP in 2002 to 8.3% last year. The 2008 budget includes a $400 million increase for education, to $10 billion—though that's barely enough to keep up with the economy's growth rate. The extra money will be used to increase teachers' salaries, and the government has committed to an additional $2 billion over the next five years to boost wages, renovate and repair schools, and keep them open longer each day."
Rehovot Public Agree the education system needs a complete overhaul
"Many Israelis say the education system needs a complete overhaul. Class sizes average 38 to 40 students, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development says teachers' wages in Israel are the lowest in the industrialized world, with starting educators earning just $600 per month—less than the rent on a modest one-bedroom apartment in Tel Aviv. That makes it tough to attract quality professionals. "The level of teaching at our school is lousy, and the principal has no authority to do anything about it," says Asaf Makover, a 10th grader at Jerusalem's Beit-Chinuch High School. Teachers grouse that it's nearly impossible to get anything done. "With 40 kids in a class, you spend most of your time just keeping order and very little time on actual teaching," says Meirav Cohen, a geography instructor at a suburban Jerusalem junior high.
Rehovot.tv video 4:
The crisis has parents scrambling to fill the gaps, hiring private tutors to help children after school. Bulletin boards in schools are crammed with ads from teachers and university students offering after-hours tutoring. "It's the only way to make ends meet on such a meager salary," says a teacher at a Jerusalem high school. Many parents in the mid-'90s banded together to create nonprofit programs to tutor kids. Now such classes have spread to 50 towns.
Brain drain
The biggest problems are in math, science, and English. In each of these subjects, potential teaching candidates can usually find high-paying alternatives in the tech sector. "After six years of teaching, the crowded classrooms and the discipline problems got to me," says Laly Bar-Ilan, an algorithm engineer at WhiteSmoke, a Tel Aviv startup that developed a software program for improving English grammar and writing style. She now makes four times what she did teaching computer science and English. "The only way to bring back teachers is to pay competitive salaries and improve work conditions," she says.
Rehovot.tv video 5:
With such a shortage of qualified candidates, Israel has dropped its standards. In the past, high school teachers needed a university degree in math or science to teach in those fields, but nowadays a degree from a less rigorous teachers' college will suffice. And budget cuts have led to shorter school days. In 1997 students were in school for 36 hours weekly, but today it's just 30. "With fewer hours and most kids finished by 1 p.m., some subjects have been dropped or are hardly taught at all," complains Dan Ben-David, a Tel Aviv University economist with three children in the school system. Even core subjects such as math and science have been cut back.
At Israel's seven universities, funding has dropped 20% in four years. So even as the student population has climbed 50% since 1997, the number of teachers has remained steady at about 5,000. And as many as 3,000 university lecturers have decamped for jobs overseas. "We're seeing a serious brain drain," says Zehev Tadmor, chairman of the Samuel Neaman Institute, a Haifa-based think tank, and former president of Technion. "Hundreds of professors [are] teaching at leading institutions abroad because we can't offer them jobs."
Source: Neal Sandler. The Crisis in Israel's Classrooms: A breakdown in the financially strapped school system is jeopardizing the country's high-tech edge. Business Week Education (8 November 2007) [FullText]
More Classrooms Needed, Rehovot's De Shalit High School Teachers, Public Say. Municipality keeps Silence
Monday morning (November 12) was marked by a peaceful protest of teachers of De Shalit High schoolt at a number of popular Rehovot locations, including major entrance to the City Hall/Mall, and the Herzl Street Pedestrians segment near Bank Discont. All those who talked to MyRehovot noted that higher wages is an important, but not a major issue. At stake is the integrity of the entire system of Israel K12 education. The parents of present De Shalit students, who studies in De Shalit some 20 years ago well now what teachers are talking about, as nothing changed over the past twenty years. Over packed classrooms means Rehovot needs a brand-new high school, that would meet the educational and architectural demands of the XXI century. Yet, Rehovot municipality, Mayor Office remain silent. No municipality official made his/her few-floors way down to meet Rehovot teachers and learn of their concerns. Oppositely, Rehovot Mall commercial management demanded teachers go away. They did not enforce the demand, however, so teachers remained and talked to us. Their vision of the problem is provided in the following four video reports:
De Shalit High School is a high school and a junior high school located in the city Rehovot, in Israel. It is named after the physicist Amos De Shalit (1926-1969).
The school has around 2000 students. The pupils in the high school may choose two major subjects out of the following: chemistry, biology, physics, computer science, economics, psychology, geography, Bible, history, literature, music, drama, art, French and Arabic. Along with these subjects, all pupils have to learn mathematics, English and other core subjects.
Rehovot and Ayalon Highway officials, as well as Rehovot public participated earlier today in the Opening Ceremony of the new Rehovot boulevard, commuting Rehovot with Road No.40. As of today, travelling to Ramle (or any other north-bound destination of Road 40, including Ben-Gurion airport) should take minutes, because of bypassing heavy traffic Bilu junction next to Rehovot's major Bilu shopping mall and Kaplan hospital.
Rehovot.TV video 1: Official part of the ceremony of the opening new Rehovot Gateway Road begins:
Rehovot.TV video 2: Rehovot Mayor Shuki Forer talks at the official part of the ceremony
Rehovot.TV video 3: Rehovot Mayor Shuki Forer addresses the audience at the ceremony of opening of new Rehovot Road
Rehovot.TV Video 4: Shuki Forer speech continues
Rehovot. TV video 5: The official part of the ceremony was followed by the informal opening of the new junction by Mayor limousine in the presence of Vice-Mayor, Dr. Mara Knebel:
Rehovot TV video 6: The protocol part of the ceremony was preceded by an informal tasty banquet.
Rehovot TV video 7: The ceremony finished with the cortege of cars by organizations involved in the construction. They travelled along Road 40 in the direction of the Bilu junction.
Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club Stars Attracted Rehovot Youth to Grand Opening of New Sport Complex
A grand opening for the Sportec Sports Complex (Big Orange TV by My Rehovot, 16 August 2007), located at Rehovot Hollandit area, featured a mini football game between Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Rehovot Municipality, preceded with the first symbolic goal by Rehovot Mayor Shuki Forer.
The event was widely publicized by the municipality, so, top players from national soccer league took deserved attention by Rehovot youth crowd, and participated in a feature minifootball game.
Please note: This is original material by Myrehovot. Any republication (both online and in print) should be accompanied by the quotation of the original place of publication, www.MyRehovot.info
Rehovot SportTek Sports Complex and Family Activity Center Grand Opening Celebrated
A grand opening for the Sportec Sports Complex, located at Rehovot Hollandit area, was celebrated Wednesday, August 15, at 6 PM.
The new multi-purpose complex, features field lights, artificial turf, an outdoor exercise facility by Greenfields, and a multi-purpose areas for team excercise and competition.
There are several basketball/minifootball fields, a soccer field, impressive children's playground, picnic areas, and planters with shade trees, and restrooms.
Rehovot's Wu-Shu Team showcase its' skills
The event was widely publicized by the municipality, so, Rehovot’s sports enthusiasts joined celebrations marking the day of official opening of SporTek. It was a true no-admission-fee 'come and try' day opened to all ages and offering free cookies, sporting demonstrations, live entertainment and mass exercise by Holmes Place...
...and Holmes Place...
Many people have been enjoying the children's playground since April but the official opening coincided with the opening of other facilities.
There were probably few thousand people on the day. The event was open to all ages so teenagers, kids and families all had lots of fun.
There were no official opening ceremony, except of a blessing glass of wine by Rehovot municipality members and religious leaders, and the plaque opening, went unnoticed by many participants.
Please note: This is original material by Myrehovot. Any republication (both online and in print) should be accompanied by the quotation of the original place of publication, www.MyRehovot.info
Explosion, fire awakens Rehovot streets three blocks away from the Weizmann Institute and Melzer Street Synagogue
A fire by an antiterrorist special operation group at Rehovot's Melzer Street corner of Herzog Street (Menuha Venahala) jolted residents awake early Wednesday. This happened shortly after the Police closed a section of Herzog and Melzer Streets (hundred meters from the Weizmann Institute and tens of meters from Melzer Street Synagogue) early morning (about 7 AM) today after a suspicious item, later discovered to be "quite a good student bag with educational materials", was left unattended at a street sidewalk. Because of the morning rush hours, police urged residents to remain in their apartments until further notice is given.
Police Special Operations Group officer by using a remote control bomb-disposal robot inspected the bag and made a control explosive fire. Luckily, there were no bomb. "It was a student bag left unattended at a sidewalk,'' Melzer St. resident told MyRehovot while rushing to reach his office in time.
Additional 20 minutes of the disassembly of the mini-van based bomb disposal setup temporarily blocked the traffic at Melzer street, that become one way just a week ago.
My Rehovot would like to repeat once again, that it is very important Rehovot residents take greater responsibility of disposing old items to a designated garbage-collectors only, so, that valuable time and money of the Police would be directed for issues of greater security importance, not faulty security threat alerts.
Also see: Rehovot's Weizmann Street Reopens After Bomb Scares. www.MyRehovot.info (19 March 2006) [FullText]
Please note: This is original material by Myrehovot. Any republication (both online and in print) should be accompanied by the quotation of the original place of publication, www.MyRehovot.info
Big Orange TV: Rehovot Residents Hoped for a Quick Restoration of Electricity
Hundreds of people streamed into the streets of Rehovot in about 30-degree heat, when the city went dark Monday 20-21 PM. Many walked down the stairs of their residential buildings because elevators weren't working. Some people were stuck in elevators and were rescured by Fire Department 102 rescue teams.
For some reason or other, there was a power failure on Monday evening. The water supply was safe and we did not hear of any injury by those trapped in non-functioning elevators or dark streets. Emergency city phone number 106 was working.
Some people remained in their apartments and even managed to... solve Sudoku Puzzles under the candle light.
After the electricity was restored at 20:53 PM, traffic light remained dead in a number of locations that we inspected.
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