Israeli innovations

Farmers have always faced the same challenge. An orchard might look healthy from a distance, but every tree is different. The problem is that orchards as a whole don't get sick. Individual trees do. One tree may need more water. Another may be showing the first signs of disease. A third may be producing less fruit than the one beside it. Spotting those differences across thousands of trees has always been one of farming's biggest challenges.That challenge inspired the creat

Emergency bandages changed very little in the decades after World War II. When Israeli military medic Bernard Bar-Natan began his training in 1984, he was surprised to discover that the same 1940s style of bandages was still being used. He was even taught to use a stone to apply extra pressure to a wound. Believing there had to be a better solution, he went on to invent what is now known as the Israeli Bandage. The Israeli Bandage (also known as the Emergency Bandage), is a s

Most of us use our smartphones for so many things every day that it's hard to imagine life without them. But for people who have little or no use of their hands, many of the things we do on our phones can be difficult or impossible. In 2012, Israeli entrepreneur Oded Ben Dov was demonstrating touch-free technology on television. Giora Livne, an Israeli who was paralysed following an accident, was watching at home. Livne contacted Ben Dov with a question: could this technolo

When disaster strikes, every minute counts. Over decades, Israel has developed one of the world's leading search and rescue capabilities, combining highly trained emergency teams with advanced technology to help save lives after earthquakes, building collapses and other natural disasters. One of the best-known examples came after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010. Within days, Israel deployed a team of around 220 doctors, nurses, engineers and searc

Every day, billions of financial transactions take place around the world. Whatever you are buying or paying for online, sophisticated technology is constantly working behind the scenes to protect your money from fraud. Israel has become one of the world's leading centres for financial cybersecurity, with hundreds of companies developing technologies that help banks, retailers and payment providers detect fraud, prevent identity theft and stop cybercriminals. One example

In the early 1970s, following a series of burglaries in Israel, locksmiths Avraham Bahari and Moshe Dolev set out to create a safer front door. Their solution was the Pladelet, a reinforced steel security door featuring a multi-point locking system that secured the door at several points rather than relying on a single lock. The idea was simple but revolutionary. The stronger design made it significantly harder for intruders to force their way into homes, providing families

New York is home to Wall Street, the financial capital of the world. At the heart of Wall Street is NASDAQ, one of the world's most important stock exchanges and the home of many of the world's leading technology companies. For a country of fewer than 10 million people, Israel has achieved something extraordinary. Israel has more NASDAQ-listed companies than any country outside North America and one of the highest numbers per capita in the world. Over 250 Israeli companies

For much of ancient Jewish history, the Jewish people were led by kings. Beginning with Saul, David and Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel was governed from Jerusalem by a succession of monarchs. When the modern State of Israel was established in 1948, Jewish self-government returned to the land of Israel for the first time in centuries. But instead of restoring a monarchy, Israel's founders chose a more modern alternative. They created a democratic system of government in wh

When people think about kashrut, they often think about what Jews can and cannot eat. But kashrut represents something much bigger: the Jewish belief that even the most ordinary parts of life can be elevated and made holy. According to the Torah, humans' first diet in the Garden of Eden was plant-based. Later, permission was given to eat meat. Yet Judaism did not treat eating animals as an unrestricted right. Instead, it introduced a framework of responsibilities and boundari

Long before the startup nation, the Jewish people gave the world one of its most enduring ethical frameworks: the Ten Commandments. According to Jewish tradition, Shavuot marks the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, including these ten short principles that would go on to shape moral thinking for generations. Their influence extended far beyond Judaism. Ideas about respecting parents, protecting life, telling the truth, respecting property and recognising limits on human

Today, athletes train very differently to what they did in the past. A lot of that shift has come from technology that allows athletes to study and improve their performance in ways that were once impossible. PlaySight is an Israeli sports technology that started in 2010 with a simple idea: use cameras and software to record training sessions and turn them into something athletes could analyse and learn from. The system places multiple cameras around a court or field. It trac

When we saw the hologram of Princess Leia in the first Star Wars film, it seemed like true science fiction. But that was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. In 2008, Israeli company RealView Imaging was founded, developing true 3D holograms that doctors can see and interact with in real time. The technology is already being used in hospitals, including in Israel, where doctors can view a patient’s heart as a floating image during procedures. It has been used i

Despite Israel's small size, it has become one of the most successful television industries in the world. In recent years, Hollywood has repeatedly turned to Israel as a source of ideas. Shows like In Treatment, Homeland, and Euphoria all began as Israeli series. Others, like Fauda and Shtisel, were watched globally in their original form. Why are Israeli TV series so successful? What is the secret? In Israel, writers and creators work with smaller budgets and tighter con

FakeReporter is an Israeli organisation, founded in 2020, that tracks online disinformation. It identifies fake accounts, coordinated campaigns and misleading narratives, often in real time and particularly during periods of conflict. Its work focuses on something increasingly difficult in today’s environment, separating what is real from what is not. Information now moves quickly. It is shared widely, often without context or verification. False claims can spread just as eas

Since 2012, the annually published World Happiness Report measures how people around the world rate their own lives. Israel is consistently near the top. Over the past decade, it has ranked in the top 20 every year, and in recent years has been in or around the top 5. Since October 7, Israel hasn't ranked lower than eigth out of 147 countries. It’s not what most people would expect. The countries that usually sit at the very top tend to be the Nordic countries; stable, wealth

What if you could have meat without the animal? That’s the idea behind Aleph Farms. Founded in Israel in 2017, the company grows beef directly from animal cells. The result is real meat, not a plant substitute, produced in a controlled environment. Instead of raising entire animals, Aleph Farms recreates the natural process that grows muscle tissue, giving cells the conditions they need to develop into meat. The aim is to reduce the environmental impact of meat producti

IsraAID is an independent Israeli humanitarian organisation, not a government agency, that responds to disasters around the world. Its teams provide emergency medical care, clean water, mental health support and long term recovery programs in places affected by war, earthquakes and other crises. There are many large international aid organisations, and others that specialise in rapid response. IsraAID stands out because it operates somewhere in between. It deploys quick

Yad Sarah is an Israeli organisation that provides medical equipment and support to people in need. It was founded in 1976 and has grown into one of the largest volunteer organisations in Israel, with thousands of volunteers operating across more than a hundred branches nationwide. It lends items such as wheelchairs, oxygen machines and hospital beds, helping people recover at home and maintain a level of independence. While similar services exist in other countries, th

One of the most important challenges in modern technology is cybersecurity, an area that Israel excells in. As companies move their systems to the cloud, protecting data in that space is critical. Wiz is an Israeli cybersecurity company founded in 2020. Its software scans cloud systems and quickly identifies security risks. Instead of requiring complex installation, the platform analyses systems across services such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

ZAKA is an Israeli volunteer emergency response organisation founded in 1995 to bring order, dignity, and compassion to the most devastating scenes of terror and disaster. Its mission is grounded in a central principle of Jewish law: the dead must be sanctified, and every part of a person’s body must be returned for burial. This obligation, chesed shel emet , (true kindness), is considered one of the highest mitzvot because it is given to someone who can never repay it. ZAK