Levi Strauss is most well known for the blue jeans he brought to the American market, but he didn’t start in the denim trade. In fact, he might not have earned his fortune if not for a fortunate letter writer with a good idea. Strauss, like many American Jewish entrepreneurs, was an immigrant. He was born in Buttenheim, Bavaria on February 26, 1829 to Hirsch Strauss and his second wife, Rebecca Haas Strauss. Levi’s father died of tuberculosis, after which he and his mother, including two of his …More

Hugs have been scientifically proven to have a calming effect on people, especially those with PTSD, autism or under high stress. Now a new Israeli innovation, BioHug, is offering comfort and stress relief for those who need hugs most. “We’re all familiar with stress, which is associated with lots of health problems,” BioHug CEO Andrew Schiffmiller explained. “For some populations it can be associated with much more severe symptoms – someone with autism under stress may injure …More

A joint US-Israeli group has discovered "significant signs" of another natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Haifa. The Karish 1 natural gas field could hold up to two trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the Texas-based Noble Energy and the Israeli-owned Delek group announced Thursday. The discovery at the exploratory well in Israeli territorial waters is smaller than the other Israeli offshore gas fields, Tamar and Leviathan. The gas from the Tamar field is expected to meet Israel’s …More

Susie Davidson, JNS.org What do Israel and Massachusetts have in common? Many recent comparisons have centered on the fact that, when the Boston Marathon bombings occurred, Bostonians got a taste for the kind of attack Israelis endure on a regular basis. To that end, Israeli trauma teams were called upon to lend their expertise in Boston following the marathon bombings. But Israeli environmental entrepreneur Yosef Abramowitz stresses a different area of common ground, explaining that both Israel and …More

Israeli app Waze is on the verge of some incredibly lucrative buy outs. The navigation app, which has emerged as a highly successful start up venture for its Israeli creators, has potential offers from Facebook and Apple, which could reach more than $1 billion in pay out. Facebook is reportedly interested in picking up the app for a sum between $800 million and $1 billion. Reports are also surfacing that Waze managers spoke with interested Apple execs earlier in the year as well. The app is used by drivers to …More

Israeli and Chinese officials signed a $400 million trade agreement during meetings on Wednesday, expanding trade between the two nations to $2.05 billion. The agreement was signed by Israeli and Chinese finance ministers during a meeting attended Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang. “This is a very important agreement for expanding bilateral cooperation. China is a vast market and if we even slightly increase our market share here it will significantly help the …More

The Oberlin College Student Senate endorsed a resolution that calls for the college to divest from six companies that do business in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem and Gaza. Following a three-hour discussion, the resolution was approved "by majority" on Monday, the Oberlin College Students for a Free Palestine said in a news release. The six companies are Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, Group 4 Securicor, SodaStream, Elbit Systems and Veolia. The Students for a Free Palestine group at Oberlin said it would …More

A top US official is traveling to Israel to discuss trade with a focus on conflict diamonds. Jose Fernandez, the assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, arrived in Israel on Monday for a two-day visit, the State Department said in a statement. "During this visit, Assistant Secretary Fernandez will meet with government officials and business community representatives to discuss US-Israel bilateral and regional economic issues and conflict diamonds, respectively," the statement …More

The museum dedicated to the memory of Yitzhak Rabin raises nearly half its money from labor leaders. It’s just not the labor you think. Members of US labor unions raised $1.4 million for the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv last year, 45 percent of the center's total 2012 fundraising. Since 2005, American unions have raised $12 million for the center. Labor leaders say programs at the center, which celebrates the slain Labor Party prime minister who signed the 1993 Oslo Accords and promotes dialogue among …More

Warren Buffett is set to purchase the remaining stake in Israeli firm Iscar, a company the billionaire mogul already owns 80 percent of. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway investment firm purchased four-fifths of Iscar, which produces cutting tools, for $4 billion in 2006. It was Buffett’s first acquisition in the Jewish state. Now, the US investor is claiming the final piece, purchasing the remaining 20 percent share from the Wertheimer family for a reported $2 billion. Iscar now has a valuation of $10 …More

An auction of the 500-piece Judaica collection owned by philanthropist Michael Steinhardt was the "most valuable auction of Judaica ever held," Sotheby's said. Monday's auction of nearly all of the Michael and Judy Steinhardt Judaica Collection brought in more than $8.5 million, Sotheby's wrote in a statement, exceeding the pre-sale estimate by $6 million. Some 92.6 percent of the 381 lots were sold, the New York auction house added. Prior to the auction, Sotheby's announced that the Israel Museum in Jerusalem …More

An Israeli smart water company has been named one of Bloomberg’s New Energy Pioneers for 2013. Israel-based Whitewater provides utility and industrial companies an efficient way of managing and monitoring water quality. The company received the Bloomberg recognition last week at a New York ceremony, along with eight other innovators. The Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit was the sixth annual gathering of its kind, aimed at honoring “game-changing companies in the field of clean energy technology …More