Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is seen in the Senate Reception Room before the fifth day of the Senate Impeachment trials for former President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill on February 13, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

A coalition of pro-Israel organizations sent a letter to Senate leadership on Tuesday taking aim at Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) for blocking supplemental funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system and arguing that folding the funding into a larger package would “undermine Israel’s security,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod scooped yesterday.

On the list: The letter — sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — was signed by Christians United for Israel, The Jewish Federations of North America, the Orthodox Union, Hadassah, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaisim, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Anti-Defamation League.

Paul patrol: “[The funding] has bipartisan support in the Senate, although passage has been stymied,” the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Jewish Insider, reads. “One person’s objection should not undermine the overwhelming bipartisan will of the Senate nor stand in the way of ensuring Israel has the tools necessary to keep people safe.”

No-go: A Senate source told JI in December — after Paul blocked a unanimous consent request to pass the funding on the Senate floor for the fourth time — that the “next chance” to approve the funding would be in a possible omnibus government funding package in February. On Tuesday, the organizations wrote that they oppose this strategy. “While we understand the supplemental Iron Dome funding would likely be included in a final omnibus spending package, the delay and even the prospects of a second continuing resolution undermine Israel’s security when the need to replenish this defensive system is urgent,” the letter reads.

Pushback: Schumer spokesperson Angelo Roefaro emphasized to JI, in response to the letter, that “[t]he Democratic side of the aisle wants to pass the bill by unanimous consent, but Senator Paul continues to block the bill from going to the president’s desk.” A Senate source told JI that Democrats still seek to pass the funding by unanimous consent, and that the omnibus is still a “plan B” if Paul does not pull his objections. “A lot of those groups don’t understand how floor time works and certainly aren’t advocating the shelving of other domestic priorities in the short term,” the source added.

Taking flack: The omnibus plan “puts a lot of faith in Congress’s ability to pass an omnibus. And for an important partner like Israel — they shouldn’t have to wait nine months for replenishment of defensive, life-saving equipment,” a senior government official with knowledge of Iron Dome funding told JI.

Part two: A second letter, from some overlapping groups — the American Jewish Congress, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Agudath Israel of America, Ameinu, B’nai B’rith International, Hadassah, Israel Policy Forum, Jewish Women International, Rabbinical Assembly, Orthodox Union, Union for Reform Judaism and Zionist Organization of America — was also sent to the Senate leaders on Tuesday. The letter’s signatories “implore [Schumer and McConnell] to not allow any more needless delays in passing this legislation.”

Read the full story here.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog pays his respects at the casket of his late mother, former First Lady Aura Herzog, lying in state at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem

Aura Herzog, the wife of the country’s sixth president, Chaim Herzog, and mother of Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog, will be buried today beside her husband in the Great Leaders of the Nation Plot on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Herzog died on Sunday at 97.

Schedule: Earlier today, she lay in state at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, where members of the public were invited to pay their respects.

Bio: Herzog was born in Egypt and educated in Ismailia and Cairo. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa, before making aliyah in 1946 and joining the Haganah. Herzog married Chaim Herzog in 1947 and accompanied him throughout his public roles, living in the United States twice. Herzog is best known for establishing the Council for a Beautiful Israel, the country’s first environmental organization, and as the founder of the International Bible Quiz, which she set up in 1958 to bring together Jews from all around the world.

Family matters: One of four children, Herzog’s older sister, Suzy Ambache, was married to the late diplomat and former Foreign Minister Abba Eban. Herzog is survived by four children: Joel Herzog; Ambassador Mike Herzog; President Isaac Herzog; and Ronit Herzog; 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Hanna Teib

There aren’t too many people who would characterize 2021 as a “bumper” year for their industry, but that is exactly the word Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, uses to describe the country’s high-tech sector during the second year of a global pandemic that brought additional lockdowns, border closures and successive waves of virus variants. “I don’t think anyone would have expected Israeli high-tech to peak in such a way,” Bin, who was appointed CEO of the authority a year ago, told Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash in a recent interview. “It was possibly the best year ever for Israeli high-tech.”

Staggering data: Bin’s decisive statement is backed up by staggering data collected by the authority, an independent public entity that works to bolster Israel’s innovation ecosystem and serves as a bridge to the government. During 2021, Israeli companies raised more than $22 billion in capital; exits, mergers and acquisitions, and initial public offerings totaled $80 billion; the accumulated market capital of Israeli companies trading on Wall Street was $300 billion; and there was a record 79 unicorns, companies valued at $1 billion and up. In addition, the IIA noted that Israel’s high-tech sector now accounts for some 50% of Israel’s total exports and for 15% of the country’s GDP. Ten percent of Israelis work in high-tech, paying some 25% of the country’s total income tax. National expenditure on civilian R&D stands at 4.9% of GDP, second only to Korea and ahead of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average of 2.47%. It also places third, after the U.S. and China, in the number of companies (116) listed on NASDAQ.

Digital transformation: “I’ve been working in Israeli high-tech for 25 years and two decades ago would never have dreamt that we would reach where we are today,” said Bin, former president and CEO of RAD Communications, a Tel Aviv-based company that manufactures networking equipment. The COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many businesses and services into the virtual space, actually “stimulated the demand for high-tech,” Bin explained, adding that Israeli companies were quick to adapt to the new environment and the government stepped in to keep investment flowing into the startup sphere. “There was a digital transformation, and many things that once took place in the physical world had to move to the virtual world, which increased demand,” he told JI. “The Israeli DNA has the ability to be flexible and to adapt quickly to changing circumstances, also there is a long history of entrepreneurs, investors and government policies that benefit the sector.”

Best year: “No matter how you want to look at the Israeli ecosystem, whether its capital raised, quality of capital, unicorns, IPOs, whatever metric you want to look at, the Israeli tech ecosystem grew exponentially in 2021, it was our best year yet by far,” concurred tech columnist, and startup advisor Hillel Fuld. “We have this tendency as Jews to thrive under pressure,” he said. “There is an inverse correlation between terror and innovation, meaning you would think that if there is more terror there would be less innovation but that is not the case at all, so in 2021, the year of a pandemic, you would think it would be slow or there would be a decrease in innovation but in reality, that was not the case.”

Read more here.