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In Israel, Obama Eyes Steps to a "Better World"

During the week of President Obama's visit to Israel-when an Israeli kippah dealer settled out of court with two American companies for using unauthorized images from Spider-Man and Superman on his products- , in another sector, Israel demonstrated with a "WOW," and a "WHIR," technology that surpassed the imaginings of many American comics and movies.

Besides earlier being shown the highly effective Iron Dome system, President Obama along with Israel Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured a special exhibit of Israeli technological innovations at the Israel Museum.

With a world's fair-ish sounding title, "Israeli Technology-For a Better World," allowed Netanyahu to demonstrate to the president, Israel's technological capacity to turn what would have been seen only a few years ago as fantasy into marketable reality.  

During the tour, Obama was shown several projects and introduced to their creators, including: Phinergy, an efficient aluminum air battery for electric cars which the president suggested its inventors show to Ford and GM; Mobileye, a car system that warns you before you rear-end someone, already available in some models of BMW, Volvo, GM and Ford; ElMindA, a brain scanner, in the form of a skullcap, that is useful in the management of brain disorders and injuries; a Robot Snake that could slither through rubble and assist in a rescue; MinDesktop, a headset that allows computers to be controlled via brainwaves or facial movements, an application useful to the handicapped; and a "Robot Waiter" that could serve a disabled person in their home, created by student scientists from Haifa.

But what especially seemed like futuristic innovation with storyline about a bionic hero was a project called "ReWalk"- an exoskeleton suit that allows paraplegics to walk. rewalk

As if stepping out from the pages of his own tale is Dr. Amit Goffer, the founder of ARGO, the company that created ReWalk, who himself is a quadriplegic. Goffer's goal in creating the technology, he has said, was "To develop a product that would enable persons with spinal cord injuries to walk again."

"It is an honor to have been chosen among many Israeli innovators to present the ReWalk technology to President Obama," said Dr. Goffer in a story in the Fort Mill Times.

"This device is already improving the quality of life for many people and we look forward to seeing its continued expansion around the world including in the U.S."

According to the company's website, ARGO currently offers two ReWalk models - the "ReWalk Personal" currently available in Europe and pending FDA review in the U.S., and the "ReWalk Rehabilitation" which is now available in Europe, Israel and the United States. Both models are battery-powered motor-driven leg braces, equipped on-board computers and motion sensors "That restore self-initiated walking without needing tethers or switches to begin movement."

"A forward tilt of the upper body is sensed by the system, which triggers the first step," says the site. Currently, ReWalk is the only FDA-listed motorized exoskeleton available to aid paraplegics to regain their upright mobility.

Demonstrating for President Obama this new step into the future of assistive technology were Druze Israeli war veteran, Radi Kaiuf, and U.S. Army veteran Theresa Hannigan, who are both paralyzed from the waist down. While standing, Hannigan, who first learned about ReWalk at a VA Medical Center in the Bronx, New York, hugged the president, and asked him if he could help with getting FDA approval.



 "A couple of years ago, doctors told me I would never walk again, but now thanks to this technology I am able to do anything from standing-up and hugging my family to walking a one-mile road race," she said.


Edmon J. Rodman has written about making his own matzah for JTA, Jewish love music for the Jerusalem Post, yiddisheh legerdemain for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, a Bernie Madoff Halloween mask for the Forward, and what really gets stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits for the Los Angeles Times. He has edited several Jewish population studies, and is one of the founders of the Movable Minyan, an over twenty-year-old chavura-size, independent congregation. He once designed a pop-up seder plate. In 2011 Rodman received a First Place Simon Rockower Award for "Excellence in Feature Writing" from the American Jewish Press Association."