Intel to build $25 billion factory in biggest-ever foreign investment in Israel
By Zacy Hennessey, Jerusalem Post, June 18
Prime Minister Netanyahu: “This is a great expression of confidence in the Israeli economy, in stark contrast to all the false reports against us.”
Multiprocessor giant Intel is set to build a groundbreaking new factory in Israel with a massive investment of approximately $25 billion – the largest foreign investment in Israel’s history.
The announcement follows a very positive earnings report for Intel Israel last week, further highlighting the company’s commitment to expanding its operations in the region.
The successful conclusion of lengthy negotiations between Intel and the professional ranks in the Budget Division of Israel’s Ministry of Finance was conveyed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Economy Minister Nir Barkat. Principle agreements have been reached, which outline the company’s intention to invest billions in constructing a state-of-the-art facility in Kiryat Gat.
German curator on a mission to return silver heirlooms stolen from Jewish families by the Nazis
By Kirsten Grieshaber, Associated Press, June 13
Matthias Weniger put on a pair of white cloth gloves and carefully lifted a tarnished silver candleholder, looking for a yellowed sticker on the bottom of it.
The candlestick is one of 111 silver objects at the Bavarian National Museum that the Nazis stole from Jewish families during the Third Reich in 1939. That’s when they ordered all German Jews to bring their personal silver objects to pawn shops across the Reich — one of many laws created to humiliate, punish and exclude Jews.
What started with anti-Jewish discrimination and persecution in 1933, after the Nazis were voted to power in Germany, led to the murder of 6 million European Jews and others in the Holocaust before World War II ended with Germany’s surrender in 1945.
Weniger, who is a curator at the Munich museum and oversees its restitution efforts, has made it his mission to return as many of the silver objects as possible to the descendants of the original owners.
“These silver objects handed in at the pawn shops are often the only material things that remain from an existence wiped out in the Holocaust,” Weniger told The Associated Press last week.
Thousands of the pieces taken from Jewish families were melted into around 135 tons of silver, and used to help Germany’s war efforts. But several museums ended up with hundreds of silver pieces such as candlesticks used to light candles on the eve of Shabbat, Kiddush cups to bless the wine, silver spoons and cake servers.
