Archive for February 11th, 2009

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

When final exams come to a close this June, a group of first-year medical students don’t intend to stop their studies. They’ll chug right on, but in Israel rather than on Long Island.

A team of student leaders at Stony Brook University School of Medicine is now busy reviewing applications for a highly selective trip called Kesher Refuah, Hebrew for “medical connection.”

Led by their first-year peers Kate Wallis and Rachael Grodick, the group of six to eight students will hail from Stony Brook only, but founders Cheryl Vinograd and Sharon Lewin hope to include students from other medical schools in the future. The physicians-in-training will embark on a two-week learning and working odyssey to Israel, where they will trail expert pediatric cardiologists, volunteer n clinics across the country and witness the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We’re trying to understand Israel’s roles in the world and how holistic it is,” Wallis said. “One of the big things we’re trying to do is create this view that Israel is not just for Jews.” Continue reading…

Move over, Tzipi Livni. Another prominent Israeli woman is getting a fair bit of international exposure this week.

As Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition 2009 hit newsstand on Monday, Israel’s image across the world became a whole lot sexier. Bar Refaeli, a 23-year-old Israeli model, graced the cover of this year’s issue, flashing her perfect curves and suntanned skin in a barely-there bikini on a Canouan Islands beachfront in The Grenadines.

Refaeli didn’t know she was selected until Monday, when her agent called her for an alleged audition, she told the Today Show. Instead, she got to fly across America on Monday afternoon in a plane emblazoned with her image. Continue reading…