Day 557 - Tariffs, tech brain drain and manna from Sicily

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

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4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

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Summary

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Tech editor Sharon Wrobel and archaeology reporter Rossella Tercatin join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.

The setting of a 17% tariff on Israel by the US appears to be paused for the moment, as Wrobel discusses. Israel thought it could receive a reduction on the tariff, the main worry is the indirect impact and talk of a recession in Israel's tiny market and the instability and uncertainty that could cause. There are ongoing negotiations with efforts to protect Israeli companies and concerns over exposure to machinations in global markets and the value of Israeli savings.

Over 8,000 tech employees have left Israel in recent months and Israel was downgraded in the global ranking of top 50 wealthiest cities as millionaires and tech workers relocated, following first the judicial overhaul and then the ongoing war and hostage situation. Wrobel discusses the biggest concern in that shift, given the high-tech sector's payment of taxes, and its effect on the state and the Israeli economy.

Tercatin discusses research at the Academy of the Hebrew Language, looking at how Hebrew accents developed across different communities and millennia, and the role of cultural heritage in preserving those language differences.

She also talks about a Sicilian farmer who is part of a centuries-old ritual to harvest a sweet, white sap from the bark of ash trees, a syrup known as manna. Tercatin describes the process and the substance, following an interview with the 75-year-old Sicilian farmer on the eve of the holiday of Passover, when Jews across the world commemorate the Exodus from Egypt, and when they ate manna in the desert.

This conversation can also be viewed here:

Please check out The Times of Israel's ongoing live blog for more updates.

For further reading:

Demand for state-backed insurance soars as Israeli exporters fear Trump tariff chaos

War spurs brain drain, outflow of Israeli high-tech employees, report finds

Tel Aviv drops in global ranking of top 50 wealthiest cities as millionaires decamp

Research center works to save myriad Hebrew dialects shaped by millennia of wandering

In this Sicilian town, manna is a heavenly delicacy with deep roots

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IMAGE: A boy looks at shipping containers in Haifa's port , Israel, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, welcome to the Times of Israel's Daily Briefing. It is Tuesday, April 15th, and I'm Jessica Steinberg.
0:12.8	I'm speaking today with tech editor Sharon Robel and archaeology and religions reporter Rosela Derkateen.
0:18.9	Hi to you both. Good morning on this. What day of Passover is it? Third,
0:23.4	fourth, third? Well, haksameach to everyone and it's great to be here. Hagsaméah. Good morning,
0:31.5	everyone. Good morning. It is day 557 of the war. Talks to extend the hostage deal, the potential hostage deal, are still
0:40.7	stalled, although there were reports on Monday yesterday that Israel is working on a deal to free
0:46.4	10 hostages and that Hamasa said it is willing to free a larger number of hostages but will
0:52.5	not disarm. And that has been the demand from Israel
0:55.7	in the last days and weeks. Meanwhile, petitions are being signed by thousands of Israelis,
1:02.3	group by profession, usually, sometimes by roles in the army. That includes groups of educators,
1:09.2	ex-diplomats, medics, paratroopers, artists, all urging
1:14.4	a hostage deal even by ending the war. And U.S. Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, has indicated that in
1:21.1	the nuclear talks that the U.S. held with Iran, the U.S. seeks to cap Iranian uranium enrichment, but not to dismantle the entire Iranian
1:31.2	nuclear program. We will discuss some other subjects as well today, some other headlines,
1:37.0	what is happening with Israel and the U.S. tariffs, the latest in Israel's high-tech industry,
1:43.8	as well as Hebrew dialects that were shaped by
1:47.0	millennia of wandering Jews, and man or manna from Italy. Stay with us.
1:57.1	Okay, so Sharon, the Tar, which of course are the headline throughout the world.
2:08.8	In Israel, we have the situation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been in the White House
2:14.5	about a week and a half or so ago to discuss the tariffs.
2:19.1	Israeli goods face a 17% U.S. tariff, which leads to concerns, of course, in Israel and in the
2:26.7	government, given that the U.S. is Israel's closest ally and largest single trading partner.
	...

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