Israel: A Global Hub for Technological Innovation

Over the past two decades, social media posts and email chains have circulated touting Israeli ingenuity—highlighting companies like Waze, Mobileye, and the Israeli engineers behind the iPhone and Intel chips. While these headlines tell part of the story, they only scratch the surface of Israel’s impact on the global tech industry. The truth is, Israel has become one of the world’s most dynamic and influential technology hubs—home to innovations that are transforming nearly every area of modern life.

Those of us who care deeply about Israel—and understand how much this tiny nation contributes to humanity—should take enormous pride in the creativity, problem-solving, and game-changing advances coming out of the Jewish state.

From Start-Up Nation to Tech Powerhouse

Israel’s evolution into a high-tech powerhouse didn’t happen by chance. It’s the result of a uniquely fertile environment: a startup culture that rewards risk-taking, world-class academic institutions, robust government investment in R&D, and a defense industry that often births technologies later adapted for civilian use. In this innovation ecosystem, success is often built on earlier failures—and that’s not only accepted but encouraged.

Let’s take a closer look at just a few of the groundbreaking companies putting Israeli innovation on the map:

Mobileye: The Brains Behind Autonomous Driving

Based in Jerusalem, Mobileye is a global leader in autonomous vehicle technology. Their computer vision and AI-based driver assistance systems are found in millions of cars on the road today. The company has partnered with auto giants like BMW, Ford, and General Motors to help prevent collisions and make driving safer. When Intel acquired Mobileye in 2017 for $15 billion, it signaled just how essential this Israeli technology had become to the future of mobility. What started as an ambitious research project is now shaping the future of transportation worldwide.

Waze: Your Road Companion

Anyone who’s ever avoided a traffic jam or a speed trap thanks to a real-time alert knows the power of Waze. Developed in Israel and acquired by Google in 2013 for over $1 billion, Waze revolutionized navigation with its community-powered updates and intuitive routing. Integrated with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Waze has become a household name—showing how user collaboration and smart design can change the way we drive.

The Last Year in Jewish Technology

Once again The Jewish Week asked me to try and summarize the last year in technology from a Jewish angle. This was not an easy task since technology is increasingly so much a part of our lives and it affects all areas of our world including religion. I decided to come up with the ten big Jewish/Technology-related stories. What follows is what I submitted to The Jewish Week:

A few years ago when I was asked to start the Jewish Techs blog for The Jewish Week, I was concerned there wouldn’t be enough material to write about. After all, there are a lot of worthwhile news stories about technology and a lot of interesting topics in the Jewish world, but I wasn’t sure there would be enough areas of integration. Boy, was I wrong.

Image Source: RustyBrick

Religion in general and Judaism in particular are very much enmeshed in the field of technology. As our world becomes more dependent on technology, our Jewish lives are adapting as well. Jewish visionaries are at the head of the tech revolution and hi-tech innovation has been a driving force in Israel’s economic growth in the 21st century. The Internet and tech gadgets have revolutionized Jewish learning in ways never imagined before. A set of the Talmud that once occupied an entire shelf now resides on a Smartphone with full search capabilities. The Dead Sea Scrolls were once only available to those able to travel to Jerusalem, but they are now available to the world on the Web. And it is no longer unusual that the homebound are participating in High Holy Day services virtually.

Social Media Sites Get Political About Israel

Cross-posted to the Jewish Techs blog at The Jewish Week

Spending a week in Israel earlier this month I kept my eyes open to the way Israelis use technology. Even on my first time in Israel over 18 years ago I noticed that Israelis thirsted for the latest tech gadgets. Being a country that struggled with telecommunications early on in its existence primed Israel for a telecom revolution. In the first decades of statehood, stories persisted about families who waited years just to get a telephone in their own home. So when mobile communications took off in the middle of the 1990s, Israelis were eager to adopt the new technology.

One thing I noticed during my recent visit was that the Apple iPhone is much less common in Israel than it is in North America. I also got the sense that Israelis prefer the GPS app Waze over other GPS services. That could be in part due to Apple’s decision not to link Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in its Maps application or World Clock on its new operating system. Back in September when Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted that Apple's mobile Maps application was inaccurate and had many flaws (including the Jerusalem situation), he advised users of OS5 to download alternative navigation apps including Waze which was designed by Waze Ltd., an Israeli company.

Other questionable situations in social media have led many to question whether these are really honest mistakes or politically motivated actions. A recent Huffington Post article titled Did Flickr Delete Israel From Its Map? raises questions about the maps plugin of the photo social networking site Flickr. When the user zoomed in on Jerusalem there were no streets or landmarks as there would be for every other city in the world. The article triggered two responses from Yahoo which now owns Flickr. The first email from a company representative stated that Yahoo was aware of the issue and was working to quickly improve what is a third party map provider problem. There was no mention of why Israel was the only city in the world affected. The full email message from Yahoo read:

The geographical data that appears on Flickr and Yahoo! Maps comes from a third party map provider and we are working with them to understand and improve the gap in geographic coverage that has been reported. Yahoo! always wants to ensure the best possible product experience for our users, and this falls short of those expectations. We are continually working to source and roll out coverage where there is room to provide greater mapping details. In particular, we hope and expect that you will see improved maps coverage of Israel shortly.

The next day Flickr debuted a map that rendered Jerusalem as a normal city with its streets and landmarks returned to the way it was. There was no explanation for the error.