title: Lucas Pope

text: Pope and his wife Keiko Ishizaka live in Saitama, Japan, with two children. They met while both working at Realtime and continued their relationship while Pope was at Naughty Dog and Ishizaka was at nearby 2K Games.


title: UEFA Euro 1976

text: The 1976 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Yugoslavia. This was the fifth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 16 and 20 June 1976.


title: UEFA Euro 1976

text: Only four countries played in the final tournament, with the tournament consisting of the semi-finals, a third place play-off, and the final. This was the last tournament to have this format, as the tournament was expanded to include eight teams four years later. It was the only time that all four matches in the final tournament were decided after extra time, either on penalties or by goals scored. This was also the last tournament in which the hosts had to qualify for the final stage.


title: UEFA Euro 1976

text: Czechoslovakia won the tournament after defeating holders West Germany in the final on penalties following a 2–2 draw after extra time. Antonín Panenka gained fame for his delicately chipped penalty which won the tournament for Czechoslovakia, the country's first, and to date only, European Championship title.


title: UEFA Euro 1976

text: The qualifying round was played throughout 1974 and 1975 (group phase) and 1976 (quarter-finals). There were eight qualifying groups of four teams each. The matches were played in a home-and-away basis. Victories were worth two points, draws one point, and defeats no points. Only group winners could qualify for the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals were played in two legs on a home-and-away basis. The winners of the quarter-finals would go through, to the final tournament. This was the first time the Soviet Union did not qualify for the finals tournament.


title: UEFA Euro 1976

text: At the final tournament, extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.


title: Mayor–council government

text: The mayor–council government system is a system of local government that has a mayor who is directly elected by the voters serve as chief executive, and a separately elected legislative city council. It is one of the two most common forms of local government in the United States, and is also used in Brazil, Canada, Italy, Israel, New Zealand, Poland and Turkey. It is the one most frequently adopted in large cities, although the other form, council–manager government, is the local government form of more municipalities.


title: Mayor–council government

text: The form may be categorized into two main variations depending on the relative power of the mayor compared to the council. In a typical "strong-mayor" system, the elected mayor is granted almost total administrative authority with the power to appoint and dismiss department heads. In such a system, the mayor's administrative staff prepares the city budget, although that budget usually must be approved by the council.


title: Mayor–council government

text: Conversely, in a "weak-mayor" system, the mayor has no formal authority outside the council, serving a largely ceremonial role as council chairperson. The mayor cannot directly appoint or remove officials, and lacks veto power over council votes.


title: Mayor–council government

text: Most major American cities use the strong-mayor form of the mayor–council system, whereas middle-sized and small American cities tend to use the council–manager system.


title: Jessica Cauffiel

text: Jessica Cauffiel (born March 30, 1976) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Margot in "Legally Blonde" (2001) and Tori in "White Chicks" (2004). She is also known as a scream queen for her roles in the slasher films "" (2000) and "Valentine" (2001), as Sandra and Lily, respectively.


title: Jessica Cauffiel

text: Cauffiel was born in Detroit, Michigan. Her mother, Deborah, is a social worker, and her father, Lowell Cauffiel, is a true crime author, screenwriter and television documentary producer. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre and Vocal Jazz at the University of Michigan School of Music. She performed in several bands, including Jazodity and Tribe of Zoe. Before graduating college, she sang on a cruise ship and in jazz and blues clubs.


title: Jessica Cauffiel

text: She was born and raised in the theater and began her career in New York. Off-Broadway and regional theater productions include: Tony Award winner Robert Lopez's ("Avenue Q") "1001 Nights", "City of Angels", "Antigone", "Assassins", "Cowboy Mouth", "Cabaret", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Company", "Baby", "Music Man", "Shoppers Carried by Escalators" and "Grand Hotel", amongst others.


title: Jessica Cauffiel

text: Cauffiel's debut film role was playing Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn's daughter in the 1999 remake of "The Out-of-Towners", and her debut TV role in "Law & Order". That same year Cauffiel played Kit, Niles Cranes' girlfriend, in the sitcom "Frasier". In 2000, she appeared in the hit comedy "Road Trip" and "" with Eva Mendes, and was a lead in the 2001 film, "Valentine", which co-starred Katherine Heigl. That year, Maxim magazine featured her in the publication and their online Girls of Maxim gallery. Cauffiel subsequently appeared in several more films aimed at a young audience, including box-office hits such as both "Legally Blonde" films and the 2004 comedy "White Chicks". She also co-starred in the independent romantic comedy "You Stupid Man" alongside Milla Jovovich, directed by Brian Burns.


title: Jessica Cauffiel

text: She followed a two-year recurring role on "The Drew Carey Show" with featured roles in several studio films, like the Farrelly Brothers' "Stuck on You" and "Guess Who", and in 2005, co-starred in the Burt Munro biopic period drama "The World's Fastest Indian" with Anthony Hopkins. She followed that with a supporting role, playing both a young actress and an elderly pancake maven (Mother Paula) in the 2006 feature film adaptation of the award-winning novel, "Hoot", by Carl Hiaasen, and a 2006–2007 recurring role on the hit NBC series "My Name Is Earl".


title: Jessica Cauffiel

text: After a nearly two-year break from acting, she landed the lead role in the 2009 Hallmark Channel TV movie drama "Ice Dreams", in which she plays Amy Clayton, a former Olympic figure skater who begrudgingly agrees to coach a teenage girl, and must confront her demons in the process.


title: Jessica Cauffiel

text: In 2009, Jessica made the comedic film short "Bed Ridden", which she produced as well as starred in alongside Joel David Moore, Alan Tudyk, and Garrett Morris. It was written and also produced by her father, Lowell Cauffiel, and director Jonathan Heap, who was nominated for an Oscar for his short "12:01 PM". All proceeds went to The Clare Foundation in order to raise awareness for drug and alcohol recovery for the homeless and those in need of treatment.


title: Jessica Cauffiel

text: Cauffiel can speak with a Russian accent and has played a Russian in the movie "D.E.B.S." (as an assassin) and in episodes of "My Name Is Earl" (as a mail-order bride called Tatiana with a large mole).


title: Jessica Cauffiel

text: Cauffiel is a trained singer and has studied and performed for over 20 years in the Western classical, musical theatre, jazz, pop, blues, and Eastern devotional vocal mediums. She also plays piano, guitar and percussion. On the occasion of the March 10, 2004 anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising Day, she and renowned Bollywood percussionist and composer Sivamani, with whom she is currently writing an album, performed live in Dharamshala, India for the 14th Dalai Lama and approximately 20,000 other monks and visitors from around the world. She also sang on the world music Grammy finalist album "Shanti" by Snatam Kaur and "Grateful Ganesh" by Guruganesh Singh Khalsa.


title: Gail Fisher

text: Gail Fisher (August 18, 1935 – December 2, 2000) was an American actress who was one of the first black women to play substantive roles in American television. She was best known for playing the role of secretary Peggy Fair on the television detective series "Mannix" from 1968 through 1975, a role for which she won two Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy Award; she was the first African-American woman to win those prestigious awards. She also won an NAACP Image Award in 1969.


title: Gail Fisher

text: The youngest of five children, Fisher was born in Orange, New Jersey. Her father died when she was two years old, and she was raised by her mother, Ona Fisher, who supported her family with a home-operated hair-styling business while living in the Potter's Crossing neighborhood of Edison, New Jersey. She graduated from Metuchen High School in Metuchen, New Jersey. During her teenage years, she was a cheerleader and entered several beauty contests, winning the titles of Miss Transit, Miss Black New Jersey, and Miss Press Photographer.


title: Gail Fisher

text: In a contest sponsored by Coca-Cola, Fisher won the opportunity to spend two years studying acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. As a student of acting in New York City, she worked with Lee Strasberg and became a member of the Repertory Theater at Lincoln Center, where she worked with Elia Kazan and Herbert Blau. As a young woman, she also worked as a model.


title: Gail Fisher

text: Fisher made her first television appearance in 1960 at age 25, appearing in the NTA Film Network program "The Play of the Week". Also during the early 1960s, she appeared in a television commercial for All laundry detergent, which she said made her "the first black female—no, make that black, period—to make a national TV commercial, on camera, with lines." In 1965, Herbert Blau cast her in a theatrical production of "Danton's Death".


title: Gail Fisher

text: She first appeared in "Mannix" during the second season, when Mannix leaves a detective firm and sets up shop as a private investigator. She became the second African American woman after Nichelle Nichols of "Star Trek" to show prominently on weekly television. In 1968, she made guest appearances on the TV series "My Three Sons"; "Love, American Style"; and "Room 222". In 1970, her work on "Mannix" was honored when she received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, becoming the first African-American woman to do so. In 1971, Fisher became the first African-American woman to win a Golden Globe, and won her second in 1973. After "Mannix" was cancelled in 1975, she appeared on television about once a year, guest starring on popular shows such as "Fantasy Island", "Knight Rider", "General Hospital", and "The White Shadow".


title: Gail Fisher

text: Fisher was married and divorced twice. She had two daughters, Samara and Jole, from her 1964 marriage to John Levy. Her marriage to Wali Muhammad (Walter Youngblood), famed cornerman to Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali, ended in divorce when he changed religions. Wali was also an assistant minister to Malcolm X at Nation of Islam Mosque No. 7.


title: Gail Fisher

text: "Jet" magazine reported in its July 26, 1973 issue that she also was married to Robert A. Walker, a businessman from Los Angeles. In 1978, she was arrested for cocaine and marijuana possession and for illegally operating a blue box.


title: Gail Fisher

text: Fisher died in Los Angeles in 2000, aged 65, reportedly from kidney failure. Twelve hours later, her brother Clifton died from heart failure.


title: D. J. Chark

text: Darrell Demont "D. J." Chark Jr. ( ; born September 23, 1996) is an American football wide receiver for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at LSU.


title: D. J. Chark

text: Chark was born to Shirley and Darrell Chark on September 23, 1996. He played for a youth league as a running back in his hometown. He attended Alexandria Senior High School in Alexandria, Louisiana, where played high school football and ran track.


title: D. J. Chark

text: Chark had offers from schools such as Memphis, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, among others. He chose to commit to Louisiana State University (LSU) to play college football. Chark played at LSU from 2014 to 2017 under head coaches Les Miles and Ed Orgeron. After not recording a reception his first two years, he had 26 for 466 yards and three touchdowns as a junior in 2016. As a senior in 2017, he had 40 receptions for 874 yards and three touchdowns. Known for his straight-ahead speed, Chark earned the nickname "The Flash" during his time at LSU. He wore number 7 at LSU.


title: D. J. Chark

text: On December 18, 2017, it was announced that Chark had accepted his invitation to play in the 2018 Senior Bowl. On January 27, 2018, Chark played in the 2018 Reese's Senior Bowl and made two tackles and caught five passes for 160 receiving yards and a touchdown as part of Houston Texans head coach Bill O'Brien's South team that defeated the North 45–16. He led both teams in receiving yards and earned the Senior Bowl's co-MVP award. Chark's Senior Bowl performance immediately garnered him recognition as a top wide receiver prospect in the upcoming draft and he was widely praised among analysts, including Charles Davis and James Jones.


title: D. J. Chark

text: He attended the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis and completed all of the combine and positional drills. His draft stock continued to rise after he tied for fourth among all players in the 40-yard dash, tied for ninth in the vertical jump, and tied for 13th in the broad jump. Chark also attended a private workout for the Dallas Cowboys and pre-draft visits with the Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos. At the conclusion of the pre-draft process, Chark was projected to be a second round pick by NFL draft experts and scouts. He was ranked the fifth best wide receiver prospect in the draft by DraftScout.com, was ranked the sixth best wide receiver by Scouts Inc., and was ranked tenth best wide receiver by "Sports Illustrated".


title: D. J. Chark

text: The Jacksonville Jaguars selected Chark in the second round with the 61st overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Chark was the eighth wide receiver drafted in 2018.


title: D. J. Chark

text: On May 25, 2018, the Jacksonville Jaguars signed Chark to a four-year, $4.44 million contract that includes a signing bonus of $1.31 million. In the Jaguars' Week 2 victory over the New England Patriots, Chark recorded his first professional reception, which went for 13 yards. However, he did lose the ball on a fumble on the same play.


title: D. J. Chark

text: Chark finished his rookie year with 14 receptions for 174 receiving yards. He was also the Jaguars primary kick returner.


title: D. J. Chark

text: During Week 1 against the Kansas City Chiefs, Chark caught four passes for 146 yards and a touchdown as the Jaguars lost 40–26, the best yards-per-reception in a game by a Jaguar. In Week 2 against the Houston Texans, Chark caught seven passes for 55 yards and one touchdown as the Jaguars lost 13–12. In Week 3 against the Tennessee Titans, Chark caught four passes for 76 yards and his third receiving touchdown of the season in the 20–7 win. In Week 5 against the Carolina Panthers, Chark caught eight passes for 164 yards (#8 in franchise history) and two touchdowns in the 34–27 loss. In Week 11 against the Indianapolis Colts, Chark caught eight passes for 104 yards and two touchdowns in the 33–13 loss. Overall, Chark finished the 2019 season with 73 receptions for 1,008 receiving yards (the fifth Jaguar to reach 1,000 receiving yards in franchise history) and eight receiving touchdowns and a two-point conversion, leading the team in scoring by a non-kicker. He was named to the Pro Bowl.


title: D. J. Chark

text: In Week 4 against the Cincinnati Bengals, Chark caught eight passes for 95 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns during the 33–25 loss. In Week 9 against the Houston Texans, Chark had seven receptions for 146 receiving yards, including a 73-yard receiving touchdown, in the 27–25 loss. He finished the 2020 season with 53 receptions for 706 receiving yards and five receiving touchdowns.


title: D. J. Chark

text: On August 8, it was revealed that Chark had surgery to repair a broken finger. The injury was not as serious as Chark was expected to be ready by the start of the season. Chark suffered a fractured ankle during the Jaguars Week 4 game against the Cincinnati Bengals in the first quarter in the 24–21 loss. He was placed on injured reserve on October 4, 2021. He played in four games and totaled seven receptions for 154 yards and two touchdowns in the 2021 season. At the time of his trade, he was in the top 10 in Jaguars franchise history in receiving touchdowns (#7t), yards per reception (#5), and 100-yard games (#7t).


title: D. J. Chark

text: On March 17, 2022, Chark signed a one-year, $10 million contract with the Detroit Lions. He suffered an ankle injury in Week 3, missed the next two games, before being placed on injured reserve on October 22, 2022. He was activated on November 19. The week after recording a touchdown in Week 12 against Buffalo Bills, in Chark's third game back he had five receptions for 98 yards in a blowout of his former team Jacksonville. The following week, he had 94 yards and a touchdown in a win over the Minnesota Vikings.


title: Bat bomb

text: Bat bombs were an experimental World War II weapon developed by the United States. The bomb consisted of a bomb-shaped casing with over a thousand compartments, each containing a hibernating Mexican free-tailed bat with a small, timed incendiary bomb attached. Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in mid-flight and open to release the bats, which would then disperse and roost in eaves and attics in a . The incendiaries, which were set on timers, would then ignite and start fires in inaccessible places in the largely wood and paper constructions of the Japanese cities that were the weapon's intended target. The United States Navy took control in August 1943, using the code name ProjectX-Ray.


title: Bat bomb

text: The bat bomb was conceived by Lytle S. Adams (1881-1970), a dental surgeon from Irwin, Pennsylvania who was an acquaintance of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The inspiration for Adams' suggestion was a trip he took to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, which is home to many bats. Adams wrote about his idea of incendiary bats in a letter to the White House in January 1942—little more than a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Adams was intrigued by the strength of bats and knew that they roosted before dawn. He also knew that most of the buildings in Tokyo were constructed of wood instead of concrete. He believed that if time-release incendiaries could be attached to bats, some kind of container holding them could be dropped over the city after dark and the bats would simply roost and burn Tokyo to the ground. The plan was subsequently approved by President Roosevelt on the advice of Donald Griffin.


title: Bat bomb

text: In his letter, Adams stated that the bat was the "lowest form of animal life", and that, until now, "reasons for its creation have remained unexplained". He went on to espouse that bats were created "by God to await this hour to play their part in the scheme of free human existence, and to frustrate any attempt of those who dare desecrate our way of life."


title: Bat bomb

text: Of Adams, Roosevelt remarked, "This man is not a nut. It sounds like a perfectly wild idea but is worth looking into."


title: Bat bomb

text: After Roosevelt gave the project his approval, it was relegated to the authority of the United States Army Air Force. Adams assembled the workers for the project, including the mammalogist Jack von Bloeker, actor Tim Holt, a former gangster, and a former hotel manager, among others. Von Bloeker, his assistant, Jack Couffer, and Ozro Wiswell, a scientist, self-described "bat lovers", noted that it did not occur to them to question the "morality or the ecological consequences of sacrificing a few million bats". For the duration of the project, many members enlisted in the Air Force, where Adams quickly promoted them to "acting" non-commissioned officers.


title: Bat bomb

text: The team had to determine several variables to make the project feasible, including what kind of incendiaries could be attached to the bats, as well as the temperatures at which to store and transport them. They also had to decide what species of bat to use for the bombs. After testing several species, the Mexican free-tailed bat was selected. Adams had to ask for permission from the National Park Service to harvest large numbers of Mexican free-tailed bats from caves on government property. While the original plan was to arm the bats with white phosphorus, American chemist Louis Fieser joined the team and white phosphorus was replaced with his invention, napalm.


title: Bat bomb

text: Tests were used to determine how much napalm an individual bat could carry, determining that a bat could carry a payload of . The napalm was stored in small cellulose containers dubbed "H-2 units". After trying several attachment methods, they decided to attach the H-2 unit to the bats using an adhesive, gluing them to the front of the bats.


title: Bat bomb

text: The bomb carrier was a sheet metal tube approximately in length. The inside of the tube was fitted with twenty-six circular trays, each of which was in diameter. In total, each bomb carrier could hold 1,040 bats. It was planned that the carrier would be deployed from an airplane, descending to an altitude of before deploying parachutes. The sides of the bomb carrier would then fall away, allowing the bats to disperse.


title: Bat bomb

text: A series of tests to answer various operational questions were conducted. In one incident, the Carlsbad Army Airfield Auxiliary Air Base () near Carlsbad, New Mexico, was set on fire on May 15, 1943, when armed bats were accidentally released. The bats roosted under a fuel tank and incinerated the test range.


title: Bat bomb

text: Following this setback, the project was relegated to the Navy in August 1943, who renamed it "Project X-Ray", and then passed it to the Marine Corps that December. The Marine Corps moved operations to the Marine Corps Air Station at El Centro, California. After several experiments and operational adjustments, the definitive test was carried out on the "Japanese Village", a mockup of a Japanese city built by the Chemical Warfare Service at their Dugway Proving Ground test site in Utah.


title: Bat bomb

text: Observers at this test produced optimistic accounts. The chief of incendiary testing at Dugway wrote:


title: Bat bomb

text: The National Defense Research Committee observer stated: "It was concluded that X-Ray is an effective weapon." The chief chemist's report stated that, on a weight basis, X-Ray was more effective than the standard incendiary bombs in use at the time: "Expressed in another way, the regular bombs would give probably 167 to 400 fires per bomb load where X-Ray would give 3,625 to 4,748 fires."


title: Bat bomb

text: More tests were scheduled for mid-1944, but the program was canceled by Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King when he heard that it would likely not be combat ready until mid-1945. By that time, it was estimated that $2 million (equivalent to $ million today) had been spent on the project. It is thought that development of the bat bomb was moving too slowly, and was overtaken in the race for a quick end to the war by the atomic bomb project. Adams maintained that the bat bombs would have been effective without the devastating effects of the atomic bomb: "Think of thousands of fires breaking out simultaneously over a circle of in diameter for every bomb dropped. Japan could have been devastated, yet with small loss of life."


title: Bat bomb

text: The infamous "Invasion by Bats" project was afterwards referred to by Stanley P. Lovell, director of research and development for Office of Strategic Services, whom General Donovan ordered to review the idea, as "Die Fledermaus Farce". Lovell also mentioned that bats during testing were dropping to the ground like stones.


title: Deepak Hooda

text: Deepak Jagbir Hooda (born 19 April 1995) is an Indian International cricketer who plays for the Indian cricket team. He plays for Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League and Rajasthan in the domestic cricket. He is an all-rounder who bats right-handed and bowls right-arm off break. He made his international debut for India in February 2022.


title: Deepak Hooda

text: Born to Jajbir Hooda, an Airforce personnel and services player for Kabaddi himself, junior Hooda was active in sports since childhood. He started playing cricket when he was in school. He played at senior level at the age of 14 when he represented Kendriya Vidyalaya U-17 cricket team in the SGFI in the year 2009. He was a wicket-keeper batsman earlier and then, he became a batting all-rounder.


title: Deepak Hooda

text: According to his coach, Sanjiv Sawant, Hooda is a "very accurate bowler". Hooda is also known to be an agile fielder. He made his IPL debut on 10 April 2015 for Rajasthan Royals against Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) and scored 30 off 15 balls. In his second match in IPL for Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils, he scored his maiden half-century scoring 54 off 25 balls and became the man of the match.


title: Deepak Hooda

text: Hooda scored his first double-century in first-class cricket playing for Baroda in the fourth round of the 2016–17 Ranji Trophy.


title: Deepak Hooda

text: IN 2016 IPL auction, Hooda was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for a price of 4.2 crores. He was retained ahead of 2017 auction but was released by the team after the 10th edition of IPL. In January 2018, he was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2018 IPL auction. He was released by the Sunrisers Hyderabad ahead of the 2020 IPL auction. In the 2020 IPL auction, he was bought by the Kings XI Punjab ahead of the 2020 Indian Premier League.


title: Deepak Hooda

text: In November 2017, Hooda was named in India’s squad for their Twenty20 International (T20I) series against Sri Lanka.


title: Deepak Hooda

text: In February 2018, Hooda was named in India's Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for the 2018 Nidahas Trophy, but he did not play. In December 2018, he was named in India's team for the 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup.


title: Deepak Hooda

text: In January 2022, Hooda was named in India's One Day International (ODI) squad for their home series against the West Indies. He made his ODI debut against the West Indies in the first ODI of the same series. The following month, he was added to India's Twenty20 International (T20I) squad, also for their series against the West Indies. Also in February 2022, he was named in India's T20I squad for their series against Sri Lanka. He made his T20I debut on 24 February 2022, for India against Sri Lanka.


title: Deepak Hooda

text: In June 2022, Hooda was named in India's squad for their T20I series against Ireland. In the second match of the series, Hooda went on to score his maiden T20I century. His partnership with Sanju Samson of 176 runs was the highest partnership for the second wicket in men's T20I and the highest partnership for any wicket for India.


title: Bi-curious

text: The term started becoming popular after 1984, according to Merriam-Webster, but "The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English" and "Oxford Dictionaries’ Lexico" claim that the term was coined in 1990. According to Dictionary.com, the term was first used between 1980 and 1985.


title: Cognitive development

text: Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of the developed adult brain and cognitive psychology. Qualitative differences between how a child processes their waking experience and how an adult processes their waking experience are acknowledged (such as object permanence, the understanding of logical relations, and cause-effect reasoning in school-age children). Cognitive development is defined as the emergence of the ability to consciously cognize, understand, and articulate their understanding in adult terms. Cognitive development is how a person perceives, thinks, and gains understanding of their world through the relations of genetic and learning factors. There are four stages to cognitive information development. They are, reasoning, intelligence, language, and memory. These stages start when the baby is about 18 months old, they play with toys, listen to their parents speak, they watch tv, anything that catches their attention helps build their cognitive development.


title: Cognitive development

text: Jean Piaget was a major force establishing this field, forming his "theory of cognitive development". Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive development: the "sensorimotor", "preoperational", "concrete operational", and "formal operational" period. Many of Piaget's theoretical claims have since fallen out of favor. His description of the most prominent changes in cognition with age, is generally still accepted today (e.g., how early perception moves from being dependent on concrete, external actions. Later, abstract understanding of observable aspects of reality can be captured; leading to the discovery of underlying abstract rules and principles, usually starting in adolescence)


title: Cognitive development

text: In recent years, however, alternative models have been advanced, including information-processing theory, neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development, which aim to integrate Piaget's ideas with more recent models and concepts in developmental and cognitive science, theoretical cognitive neuroscience, and social-constructivist approaches. Another such model of cognitive development is Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory. A major controversy in cognitive development has been "nature versus nurture", i.e, the question if cognitive development is mainly determined by an individual's innate qualities ("nature"), or by their personal experiences ("nurture"). However, it is now recognized by most experts that this is a false dichotomy: there is overwhelming evidence from biological and behavioral sciences that from the earliest points in development, gene activity interacts with events and experiences in the environment.


title: Cognitive development

text: Jean Piaget is inexorably linked to cognitive development as he was the first to systematically study developmental processes. Despite being the first to develop a systemic study of cognitive development, Piaget was not the first to theorize about cognitive development.


title: Cognitive development

text: Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote "Emile, or On Education" in 1762. He discusses childhood development as happening in three stages. In the first stage, up to age 12, the child is guided by their emotions and impulses. In the second stage, ages 12–16, the child's reason starts to develop. In the third and final stage, age 16 and up, the child develops into an adult.


title: Cognitive development

text: James Sully wrote several books on childhood development, including "Studies of Childhood" in 1895 and "Children's Ways" in 1897. He used a detailed observational study method with the children. Contemporary research in child development actually repeats observations and observational methods summarized by Sully in "Studies of Childhood", such as the mirror technique.


title: Cognitive development

text: Sigmund Freud developed the theory of psychosexual development, which indicates children must pass through several stages as they develop their cognitive skills.


title: Cognitive development

text: Maria Montessori began her career working with mentally disabled children in 1897, then conducted observation and experimental research in elementary schools. She wrote "The Discovery of the Child" in 1950 which developed the Montessori method of education. She discussed four planes of development: birth to 6 years, 6 to 12, 12 to 18, and 18 to 24. The Montessori method now has three developmentally-meaningful age groups: 2–2.5 years, 2.5–6, and 6–12. She was working on human behavior in older children but only published lecture notes on the subject.


title: Cognitive development

text: Arnold Gesell was the creator of the maturational theory of development. Gesell said that development occurs due to biological hereditary features such as genetics and children will reach developmental milestones when they are ready to do so in a predictable sequence. Because of his theory of development, he devised a developmental scale that is used today called the Gesell Developmental Schedule (GDS) that provides parents, teachers, doctors, and other pertinent people with an overview of where an infant or child falls on the developmental spectrum.


title: Cognitive development

text: Erik Erikson was a neo-Freudian who focused on how children develop personality and identity. Although a contemporary of Freud, there is a larger focus on social experiences that occur across the lifespan, as opposed to childhood exclusively, that contribute to how personality and identity emerge. His framework uses eight systematic stages that all children must pass through.


title: Cognitive development

text: Urie Bronfenbrenner devised the ecological systems theory, which identifies various levels of a child's environment. The primary focus of this theory focuses on the quality and context of a child's environment. Bronfenbrenner suggested that as a child grows older, their interaction between the various levels of their environment grows more complex due to cognitive abilities expanding.


title: Cognitive development

text: Lawrence Kohlberg wrote the theory of stages of moral development, which extended Piaget's findings of cognitive development and showed that they continue through the lifespan. Kohlberg's six stages follow Piaget's constructivist requirements in that those stages can not be skipped and it is very rare to regress in stages. Notable works: "Moral Stages and Moralization: The Cognitive-Development Approach" (1976) and "Essays on Moral Development" (1981)


title: Cognitive development

text: Jean Piaget was the first psychologist and philosopher to brand this type of study as "cognitive development". Other researchers, in multiple disciplines, had studied development in children before, but Piaget is often credited as being the first one to make a systematic study of cognitive development and gave it its name. His main contribution is the stage theory of child cognitive development. He also published his observational studies of cognition in children, and created a series of simple tests to reveal different cognitive abilities in children. Piaget believed that people move through stages of development that allow them to think in new, more complex ways.


title: Cognitive development

text: The first stage in Piaget's stages of cognitive development is the sensorimotor stage. This stage lasts from birth to two years old. During this stage, behaviors lack a sense of thought and logic. Behaviors gradually move from acting upon inherited reflexes to interacting with the environment with a goal in mind and being able to represent the external world at the end.


title: Cognitive development

text: The sensorimotor stage has been broken down into six sub-stages that explain the gradual development of infants from birth to age 2. Once the child gains the ability to mentally represent reality, the child begins the transition to the preoperational stage of development.


title: Cognitive development

text: Each child is born with inherited reflexes that they use to gain knowledge and understanding about their environment. Examples of these reflexes include grasping and sucking.


title: Cognitive development

text: From 1 to 4 months of age, children repeat behaviors that happen unexpectedly because of their reflexes. For example, a child's finger comes in contact with the mouth and the child starts sucking on it. If the sensation is pleasurable to the child, then the child will attempt to recreate the behavior. Infants use their initial reflexes (grasping and sucking) to explore their environment and create schemas. Schemas are groups of similar actions or thoughts that are used repeatedly in response to the environment. Once a child begins to create schemas they use accommodation and assimilation to become progressively adapted to the world. "Assimilation" is when a child responds to a new event in a way that is consistent with an existing schema. For example, an infant may assimilate a new teddy bear into their putting things in their mouth scheme and use their reflexes to make the teddy bear go into their mouth. "Accommodation" is when a child either modifies an existing schema or forms an entirely new schema to deal with a new object or event. For example, an infant may have to open his or her mouth wider than usual to accommodate the teddy bear's paw.


title: Cognitive development

text: Between 5 and 8 months of age, the child has an experience with an external stimulus that they find pleasurable, so they try to recreate that experience. For example, a child accidentally hits the mobile above the crib and likes to watch it spin. When it stops the child begins to grab at the object to make it spin again. In this stage, habits are formed from general schemas that the infant has created but there is not yet, from the child's point of view, any differentiation between means and ends. Children cannot also focus on multiple tasks at once, and only focus on the task at hand. The child may create a habit of spinning the mobile in its crib, but they are still trying to find out methods to reach the mobile in order to get it to spin in the way that they find pleasurable. Once there is another distraction (say the parent walks in the room) the baby will no longer focus on the mobile. Toys should be given to infants that respond to a child's actions to help foster their investigative instincts. For example, a toy plays a song when you push one button, and then a picture pops up if you push another button.


title: Cognitive development

text: From 8 to 12 months old, behaviors will be displayed for a reason rather than by chance. They begin to understand that one action can cause a reaction. They also begin to understand object permanence, which is the realization that objects continue to exist when removed from view. For example: The baby wants a rattle but the blanket is in the way. The baby moves the blanket to get the rattle. Now that the infant can understand that the object still exists, they can differentiate between the object, and the experience of the object. According to psychologist David Elkind, "An internal representation of the absent object is the earliest manifestation of the symbolic function which develops gradually during the second year of life whose activities dominate the next stage of mental growth."


title: Cognitive development

text: From 12 to 18 months old, actions occur deliberately with some variation. For example, a baby drums on a pot with a wooden spoon, then drums on the floor, then on the table.


title: Cognitive development

text: Between 18 and 24 months of age, children begin to build mental symbols and start to participate in pretend play. For example, a child is mixing ingredients together but does not have a spoon so they pretend to use one or use another object to replace the spoon. Symbolic thought is a representation of objects and events as mental entities or symbols which helps foster cognitive development and the formation of imagination. According to Piaget, the infant begins to act upon intelligence rather than habit at this point. The end product is established after the infant has pursued for the appropriate means. The means are formed from the schemas that are known by the child. The child is starting to learn how to use what it has learned in the first two years to develop and further explore their environment.


title: Cognitive development

text: The preoperational stage lasts from 2 years of age until 6 or 7. It can be characterized in two somewhat different ways. In his early work, before he had developed his structuralist theory of cognition, Piaget described the child's thoughts during this period as being governed by principles such as egocentrism, animism, and other similar constructs. Egocentrism is when a child can only see a certain situation his or her own way. One cannot comprehend that other people have other views and perceptions of scenarios. Animism is when an individual gives a lifeless object human-like qualities. An individual usually believes that this object has human emotions, thoughts, and intentions. Once he had proposed his structuralist theory, Piaget characterized the preoperational child as lacking the cognitive structures possessed by the concrete operational child. The absence of these structures explains, in part, the behaviors Piaget had previously described as egocentric and animistic, for example, an inability to comprehend that another individual may have different emotional responses to similar experiences. During this stage children also become increasingly adept at using symbols as evidenced by the increase in playing and pretending.


title: Cognitive development

text: Lasts from 6 or 7 years until about 12 or 13. During this stage, the child's cognitive structures can be characterized by reality. Piaget argues that the same general principles can be discerned in a wide range of behaviors. One of the best-known achievements of this stage is conservation. In a typical conservation experiment a child is asked to judge whether or not two quantities are the same – such as two equal quantities of liquid in a short and tall glass. A preoperational child will typically judge the taller, thinner glass to contain more, while a concrete operational child will judge the amounts still to be the same. The ability to reason in this way reflects the development of a principle of conservation.


title: Cognitive development

text: This stage lasts from 12 or 13 until adulthood, when people are advancing from logical reasoning with concrete examples to abstract examples. The need for concrete examples is no longer necessary because abstract thinking can be used instead. In this stage adolescents are also able to view themselves in the future and can picture the ideal life they would like to pursue. Some theorists believe the formal operational stage can be divided into two sub-categories: early formal operational and late formal operation thought. Early formal operational thoughts may be just fantasies, but as adolescents advance to late formal operational thought the life experiences they have encountered changes those fantasy thoughts to realistic thoughts.


title: Cognitive development

text: Many of Piaget's claims have fallen out of favor. For example, he claimed that young children cannot conserve numbers. However, further experiments showed that children did not really understand what was being asked of them. When the experiment is done with candies, and the children are asked which set they "want" rather than having to tell an adult which is more, they show no confusion about which group has more items. Piaget argues that the child cannot conserve numbers if they do not understand one-to-one correspondence. There needs to be more information and experiments on whether children understand numbers and quantities the way we do.


title: Cognitive development

text: Piaget's theory of cognitive development ends at the formal operational stage that is usually developed in early adulthood. It does not take into account later stages of adult cognitive development as described by, for example, Harvard University professor Robert Kegan.


title: Cognitive development

text: Lev Vygotsky's theory is based on social learning as the most important aspect of cognitive development. In Vygotsky's theory, adults are very important for young children's development. They help children learn through mediation, which is modeling and explaining concepts. Together, adults and children master concepts of their culture and activities. Vygotsky believed we get our complex mental activities through social learning. A significant part of Vygotsky's theory is based on the zone of proximal development, which he believes is when the most effective learning takes place. The zone of proximal development is what a child cannot accomplish alone but can accomplish with the help of an MKO (more knowledgeable other). Vygotsky also believed culture is a very important part of cognitive development such as the language, writing and counting system used in that culture. Another aspect of Vygotsky’s theory is private speech. Private speech is when a person talks to themselves in order to help themselves problem solve. Scaffolding or providing support to a child and then slowly removing support and allowing the child to do more on their own over time is also an aspect of Vygotsky’s theory.


title: Cognitive development

text: Unlike Jean Piaget, who believed development comes before learning, Vygotsky believed that learning comes before development and that one must learn first to be able to develop into a functioning human being. Vygotsky's theory is different from Piaget's theory in four ways. Firstly, Vygotsky believed culture affects cognitive development more. Piaget thought that cognitive development is the same across the world, while Vygotsky had the idea that culture influences cognitive development. Secondly, under Vygotsky's beliefs, social factors heavily influence cognitive development. The environment and parents the child has will play a big role in a child's cognitive development. The child learns through the zone of proximal development with help from their parent. Thirdly, while Piaget considered thought as an important role, Vygotsky saw thought and language as different, but eventually coming together. Vygotsky emphasized the role of inner speech being the first thing to cause cognitive development to form. And fourthly, Vygotsky believed cognitive development is strongly influenced by adults. Children observe adults in their life and gain knowledge about their specific culture based on things the adults around them do. They do this through mediation and scaffolding.


title: Cognitive development

text: Empiricists study how these skills may be learned in such a short time. The debate is over whether these systems are learned by general-purpose learning devices or domain-specific cognition. Moreover, many modern cognitive developmental psychologists, recognizing that the term "innate" does not square with modern knowledge about epigenesis, neurobiological development, or learning, favor a non-nativist framework. Researchers who discuss "core systems" often speculate about differences in thinking and learning between proposed domains.


title: Cognitive development

text: Researchers who posit a set of so-called "core domains" suggest that children have an innate sensitivity to specific kinds of patterns of information.


title: Cognitive development

text: Infants appear to have two systems for dealing with numbers: the subitizing system deals with small numbers, while another deals with larger numbers in an approximate fashion.


title: Cognitive development

text: Very young children appear to have some skill in navigation. This basic ability to infer the direction and distance of unseen locations develops in ways that are not entirely clear. However, there is some evidence that it involves the development of complex language skills between 3 and 5 years. Also, there is evidence that this skill depends importantly on visual experience, because congenitally blind individuals have been found to have impaired abilities to infer new paths between familiar locations.


title: Cognitive development

text: One of the original nativist versus empiricist debates was over depth perception. There is some evidence that children less than 72 hours old can perceive such complex things as biological motion. However, it is unclear how visual experience in the first few days contributes to this perception. There are far more elaborate aspects of visual perception that develop during infancy and beyond.


title: Cognitive development

text: Young children seem to be predisposed to think of biological entities (e.g., animals and plants) in an essentialist way. This means that they expect such entities (as opposed to, e.g., artifacts) to have many traits such as internal properties that are caused by some "essence" (such as, in our modern Western conceptual framework, the genome).


title: Cognitive development

text: A major, well-studied process and consequence of cognitive development is language acquisition. The traditional view was that this is the result of deterministic, human-specific genetic structures and processes. Other traditions, however, have emphasized the role of social experience in language learning. However, the relation of gene activity, experience, and language development is now recognized as incredibly complex and difficult to specify. Language development is sometimes separated into learning of phonology (systematic organization of sounds), morphology (structure of linguistic units—root words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation, etc.), syntax (rules of grammar within sentence structure), semantics (study of meaning), and discourse or pragmatics (relation between sentences). However, all of these aspects of language knowledge—which were originally posited by the linguist Noam Chomsky to be autonomous or separate—are now recognized to interact in complex ways.


title: Cognitive development

text: It was not until 1962 that bilingualism had been accepted as a contributing factor to cognitive development. There have been a number of studies showing how bilingualism contributes to the executive function of the brain, which is the main center at which cognitive development happens. According to Bialystok in “Bilingualism and the Development of Executive Function: The Role of Attention”, children who are bilingual have to actively filter through the two different languages to select the one they need to use, which in turn makes the development stronger in that center.


title: Cognitive development

text: While working as a student of Edward Sapir, Benjamin Lee Whorf posited that a person's thinking depends on the structure and content of their social group's language. Per Whorf, language determines our thoughts and perceptions. For example, it used to be thought that the Greeks, who wrote left to right, thought differently than Egyptians since the Egyptians wrote right to left. Whorf's theory was so strict that he believed if a word is absent in a language, then the individual is unaware of the object's existence. This theory was played out in George Orwell's book, Animal Farm; the pig leaders slowly eliminated words from the citizen's vocabulary so that they were incapable of realizing what they were missing. The Whorfian hypothesis failed to recognize that people can still be aware of the concept or item, even though they lack efficient coding to quickly identify the target information.


title: Cognitive development

text: Willard Van Orman Quine argued that there are innate conceptual biases that enable the acquisition of language, concepts, and beliefs. Quine's theory follows nativist philosophical traditions, such as the European rationalist philosophers, for example Immanuel Kant.


title: Cognitive development

text: Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development emphasized the role of information processing mechanisms in cognitive development, such as attention control and working memory. They suggested that progression along Piagetian stages or other levels of cognitive development is a function of strengthening of control mechanisms and enhancement of working memory storage capacity.


title: Cognitive development

text: During development, especially the first few years of life, children show interesting patterns of neural development and a high degree of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity, as explained by the World Health Organization, can be summed up in three points.


title: Cognitive development

text: The relation of brain development and cognitive development is extremely complex and, since the 1990s, has been a growing area of research.


title: Cognitive development

text: Cognitive development and motor development may also be closely interrelated. When a person experiences a neurodevelopmental disorder and their cognitive development is disturbed, we often see adverse effects in motor development as well. Cerebellum, which is the part of brain that is most responsible for motor skills, has been shown to have significant importance in cognitive functions in the same way that prefrontal cortex has important duties in not only cognitive abilities but also development of motor skills. To support this, there is evidence of close co-activation of neocerebellum and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in functional neuroimaging as well as abnormalities seen in both cerebellum and prefrontal cortex in the same developmental disorder. In this way, we see close interrelation of motor development and cognitive development and they cannot operate in their full capacity when either of them are impaired or delayed.


title: Cognitive development

text: From cultural psychologists' view, minds and culture shape each other. In other words, culture can influence brain structures which then influence our interpretation of the culture. These examples reveal cultural variations in neural responses:


title: Cognitive development

text: Behavioral research has shown that one's strength in independent (tasks which are focused on influencing others or oneself) or interdependent tasks (tasks where one changes their own behavior to favor others) differ based on their cultural context. In general, East Asian cultures are more interdependent whereas Western cultures are more independent. Hedden et al. assessed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses of East Asians and Americans while they performed independent (absolute) or interdependent (relative) tasks. The study showed that participants used regions of the brain associated with attentional control when they had to perform culturally incongruent tasks. In other words, neural paths used for the same task were different for Americans and East Asians.


title: Cognitive development

text: New studies in transcultural neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that one’s cultural background can influence the neural activity that underlies both high (for example, social cognition) and low (for example, perception) level cognitive functions. Studies demonstrated that groups that come from different cultures or that have been exposed to culturally different stimuli have differences in neural activity. For example, differences were found in that of the pre motor cortex during mental calculation and that of the VMPFC during trait judgements of one’s mother from people with different cultural backgrounds. In conclusion, since differences were found in both high-level and low-level cognition one can assume that our brain’s activity is strongly and, at least in part, constitutionally shaped by its sociocultural context.


title: Cognitive development

text: Kobayashi et al. compared American-English monolingual and Japanese-English bilingual children's brain responses in understanding others' intentions through false-belief story and cartoon tasks. They found universal activation of the region bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortex in theory of mind tasks. However, American children showed greater activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus during the tasks whereas Japanese children had greater activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus during the Japanese Theory of Mind tasks. In conclusion, these examples suggest that the brain's neural activities are not universal but are culture dependent.


title: Cognitive development

text: Being deaf or hard-of-hearing has been noted to impact cognitive development as hearing loss impacts social development, language acquisition, and the culture reacts to a deaf child. Cognitive development in academic achievement, reading development, language development, performance on standardized measures of intelligence, visual-spatial and memory skills, development of conceptual skills, and neuropsychological function are dependent upon the child's primary language of communication, either American Sign Language or English, as well as if the child is able to communicate and use the communication modality as a language. There is some research pointing to deficits in development of theory of mind in children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing which may be due to a lack of early conversational experience. Other research points to lower scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, especially in the Verbal Comprehension Index due differences in cultural knowledge acquisition.


title: Bokken

text: A bokken (, , "wood", and "ken", "sword") (or a "bokutō" ) is a Japanese wooden sword used for training in kenjutsu. It is usually the size and shape of a "katana", but is sometimes shaped like other swords, such as the "wakizashi" and "tantō". Some ornamental "bokken" are decorated with mother-of-pearl work and elaborate carvings. Sometimes it is spelled "boken" in English.


title: Bokken

text: "Bokken" are traditionally composed of red oak or white oak, although any hardwood can be used. In comparison, practice swords made of flexible, soft wood such as bamboo are referred to as "shinai".


title: Bokken

text: It is hard to determine precisely when the first "bokken" appeared due to secrecy in ancient martial arts training and loose record-keeping. While various mock weapons were surely used during the earlier periods of Japanese history, usage of "bokken" in their modern form first emerged during the Muromachi Period (1336–1600) for the training of samurai warriors in the various ryū (schools of martial arts and swordsmanship) of the era. If a steel katana is repeatedly used, it can easily become nicked and the edge flawed, potentially leading to a broken expensive sword. "Bokken" are safer than fighting with real swords, and are considerably more durable; a wielder can make contact with other trainee's swords with little fear of damage.


title: Bokken

text: While "bokken" are safer for sparring and practice than katana, they are still lethal weapons in the hands of trained users. A famous legend to this effect exists involves Miyamoto Musashi, a ronin known to fight fully armed foes with only one or two "bokken". According to the story, he agreed to a duel with Sasaki Kojiro at the early morning on Ganryūjima, a tiny sandbar between Kyushu and Honshu. Musashi overslept the morning of the duel, however, and made his way to the duel late. He carved a "bokken" from an oar with his knife while traveling on a boat to the duel. At the duel, Sasaki was armed with his large "nodachi", yet Musashi crushed Sasaki's skull with a single blow from his "bokken", killing him. While many elements of the story are likely apocryphal, the potential danger of a "bokken" from the legend is real.


title: Bokken

text: Before the Meiji era, "bokken" were very likely manufactured by woodworkers not specialized in "bokken" manufacture. At the beginning of the 20th century "bokken" manufacture started more formally, mainly in Miyakonojō, a city on Kyushu Island. The last four remaining "bokken" workshops of Japan are still located in Miyakonojō.


title: Bokken

text: Another notable spot where "bokken" were manufactured and sold as tourist souvenirs was Aizuwakamatsu; the resulting "bokken" were frequently inscribed with the markings of the "Byakkotai", a youth battalion that committed mass suicide nearby during the Battle of Aizu. During the late Showa era in the 1970s and 80s, these suicides were romanticized as a bold and heroic act, and "bokken" marked with their emblem sold well.


title: Bokken

text: The "standard "bokken"", mostly used in Kendo, Iaido, and Aikido, was created by master Aramaki Yasuo in collaboration with the All Japan Kendo Federation in the 1950s and was the first standardized "bokken" ever created.


title: Bokken

text: The "bokken" is used as an inexpensive and relatively safe substitute for a real sword in several martial arts such as "aikido", "kendo", "iaido", "kenjutsu", and "jodo". Its simple wooden construction demands less care and maintenance than a katana. In addition, training with a "bokken" does not carry the same mortal risk associated with that of a sharp metal sword, both for the user and other practitioners nearby. While its use has several advantages over use of a live edged weapon, it can still be deadly, and any training with a "bokken" should be done with due care. Injuries occurring from "bokken" are very similar to those caused by clubs and similar battering weapons and include compound fractures, ruptured organs, and other such blunt force injuries. In some ways, a "bokken" can be more dangerous as the injuries caused are often unseen and inexperienced practitioners may underestimate the risk of harm. It is not a sparring weapon, but is intended to be used in kata and to acclimate the student to the feel of a real sword. For sparring, a bamboo shinai is typically used instead, for obvious safety reasons.


title: Bokken

text: In 2003, the All Japan Kendo Federation (AJKF) introduced a set of basic exercises using a "bokutō" called "Bokutō Ni Yoru Kendō Kihon-waza Keiko-hō". This form of practice is intended primarily for kendo practitioners up to Nidan ranking, but can be beneficial for all kendo students.


title: Bokken

text: "Suburitō" (素振り刀) are "bokken" designed for use in "suburi". "Suburi" (素振り), literally "bare swinging," are solo cutting exercises. Suburitō are thicker and heavier than normal "bokken" and users of suburitō must therefore develop both strength and technique. Their weight makes them unsuitable for paired practice and solo forms. Miyamoto Musashi's "bokken" made of an oar in his legendary duel with Sasaki Kojiro was presumably a suburitō-sized "bokken".


title: Bokken

text: "Bokken" can be made to represent any style of weapon required such as nagamaki, nodachi, yari, naginata, kama, etc. The most widely used styles are:


title: Bokken

text: Additionally, various koryu (traditional Japanese martial arts) have their own distinct styles of "bokken" which can vary slightly in length, tip shape, or in whether or not a tsuba (hilt guard) is added.


title: Bokken

text: The All Japan Kendo Federation specify the dimensions of "bokken" for use in the modern kendo kata, called "Nippon kendo kata".


title: Bokken

text: "Bokken" are traditionally composed of red oak or white oak, with white oak varieties being slightly more expensive and prestigious. Other common tree varieties used included ebony, biwa, and sunuke in Japan, and hickory, persimmon, ironwood, and walnut for trees native to the Americas. Biwa trees were used at least partially due to a folk superstition that wounds inflicted by biwa wood would never heal.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Israel–Russia relations are the bilateral ties between the State of Israel and the Russian Federation. Israel is represented in Russia through an embassy in Moscow and a consulate-general (to be opened) in Yekaterinburg. Russia is represented in Israel through an embassy in Tel Aviv and a consulate in Haifa.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Russia is a member of the Quartet on the Middle East. For many years, Israel served as a sanctuary for Russian Jews. This was especially the case during the aliyah from the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1990s. Israel and Russia were on opposing sides during the Cold War. However, the relationship between Israel and Russia began to improve significantly from the early 2000s onwards, with the election of the more pro-Israel Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and in 2001 with election of the more pro-Russia Israeli leader Ariel Sharon.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: The Russian language is the third-most widely spoken first language in Israel after Hebrew and Arabic; Israel has the third-largest number of Russian speakers outside of the post-Soviet states, and the highest as a proportion of the total population; in 2017 it was estimated that 1.5 million Israelis could speak Russian, which would amount to 17.25% of the total population of 8.7 million.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Over 100,000 Israeli citizens live in Russia, with 80,000 of them living in Moscow, while hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens reside in Israel, from around 1.5 million Russian-speaking Israelis. In 2022, however, relations between Russia and Israel started experiencing a significant change after the Russian military invasion of Ukraine and the start of Yair Lapid's tenure as Prime Minister of Israel. The Ukrainian war continues to have negative effects on Russian-Israeli relations.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: With the German invasion of Russia in 1941, Joseph Stalin reversed his long-standing opposition to Zionism and tried to mobilize worldwide Jewish support for the Soviet war effort. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was set up in Moscow. Many thousands of Jewish refugees fled the Nazis and entered the Soviet Union during the war, where they reinvigorated Jewish religious activities and opened new synagogues. From late 1944, Stalin adopted an openly pro-Zionist foreign policy apparently in the belief that the new country would be socialist and would speed the decline of British influence in the Middle East.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In May 1947, Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko told the United Nations that the Soviets supported the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. The Soviet Union and its satellite states voted in November 1947 for the UN Partition Plan for Palestine. On 17 May 1948, three days after Israel declared its independence, the Soviets officially recognized Israel.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Golda Meir was appointed Israel's ambassador to the Soviet Union, with her term beginning on 2 September 1948 and ending in March 1949. She attended Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services at the Moscow Choral Synagogue. However, once Israel had been established, Stalin reversed positions, favoured the Arabs, arrested the leaders of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, and launched attacks on Soviet Jews.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Relations were severed by the Soviet government in June 1967 in protest of Israeli policy during the Six-Day War and immediately afterward. The Soviet Union supported Israel's Arab enemies with arms and training, and Soviet forces were deployed to Egypt during the War of Attrition in which they repeatedly engaged Israeli forces.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: After the Soviets cut off diplomatic relations with Israel due to the Six-Day War, the Dutch embassy in Moscow established an Israel interests' section, which represented Israel in the Soviet Union until diplomatic relations were re-established in October 1991.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: The Soviet Union resumed diplomatic relations with Israel on 18 October 1991. The journalist Alexander Bovin became the first Soviet ambassador to Israel in 24 years. After the Soviet Union ended two months later, he continued to serve as Russia's ambassador to Israel.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: The end of the Soviet Union caused massive immigration wave of Jews from the ex-Soviet states. Demand from the new immigrants caused many Russian-language newspapers to appear, and with the development of the multichannel television in Israel during the 1990s, many Russian channels started being rebroadcast in Israel. In November 2002, a new Israeli-Russian channel, Israel Plus, emerged.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 19 October 1999, Defence Minister of China, General Chi Haotian, after meeting with Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass in Damascus, Syria, to discuss expanding military ties between Syria and China, flew to Israel and met with Ehud Barak, the Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Israel, where they discussed military relations. Among the military arrangements was a $1 billion Israeli-Russian sale of military aircraft to China, which were to be jointly produced by Russia and Israel.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In 1999, as Foreign Minister, Ariel Sharon began to court more friendly relations with Russia as a result of the large-scale immigration of Russian-speakers to Israel: "The Russian vote will decide the outcome of the [Israeli] election".


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Relations between Israel and Russia were improved by Israeli opposition to the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, as well as Israeli support for IMF loans to Russia. Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov subsequently said that if he was an Israeli, he would vote for incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the 1999 Israeli general election.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: The relationship between Israel and Russia substantially began to improve only in 2000, with the election of the more pro-Israel Vladimir Putin, and in 2001, with election of the more pro-Russian Ariel Sharon, who described Putin as "a true friend of Israel".


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In 2006, Israeli troops found evidence of Russian made Kornet-E and Metis-M anti-tank systems in Hezbollah's possession in southern Lebanon. In 2007, in response to accusations that it was supplying terrorist groups with weapons, Russia said it was conducting inspections of Syrian weapons storage facilities to prevent the weapons from reaching unintended customers. This strained the already-deteriorating relations between Russia and Israel. In the same year, Vladimir Zhirinovsky visiting as part of a government delegation said that he was concerned particularly about the economic situation for the more than one million Russians living in Israel, and that "Russia will never allow any kind of violence against Israel".


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Russia planned to sell advanced surface-to-air missiles to neighboring countries, and condemned Israel's actions in the Gaza War. Russia also sent 60 tons of tent, medicines, food and other humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In 2011, Putin said: "Israel is, in fact, a special state to us. It is practically a Russian-speaking country. Israel is one of the few foreign countries that can be called Russian-speaking. It's apparent that more than half of the population speaks Russian". Putin additionally claimed that Israel could be considered part of the Russian cultural world, and contended that "songs which are considered to be national Israeli songs in Israel are in fact Russian national songs". He further stated that he regarded Russian-speaking Israeli citizens as his compatriots and part of the 'Russian world'.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In April 2014, Israel took a neutral stance on the Russian annexation of Crimea at the United Nations, angering U.S. State Department and White House officials. During Operation Protective Edge in 2014, Putin stated that "I support Israel's battle that is intended to keep its citizens protected". In August, Russia began increasing fruit imports from Israel, after banning food imports from the EU, Norway, United States, Canada and Australia. About two months later India and Israel started to export meat to Russia.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Relations between Israel and Russia further improved after the Russian military intervention in Syria in September 2015. From then until July 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Putin met a total of nine times. In October 2015, Israel and Russia held meetings to coordinate over Syria, and avoid accidentally clashing or scrambling each other's communications while operating over the country.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In March 2016, Putin said the relations with Israel were special and based "on friendship, mutual understanding and the long common history". Putin stated: "Russia and Israel have developed a special relationship. 1.5 million Israeli citizens come from the former Soviet Union, they speak the Russian language, are the bearers of Russian culture, Russian mentality. They maintain relations with their relatives and friends in Russia, and this make the interstate relations very special". In a meeting with Netanyahu in June 2016, Putin described Israel and Russia as "unconditional allies" in "efforts to counter international terrorism".


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Prior to and immediately after the 2016 United States presidential election, Israel began lobbying the United States to strike a deal with Russia over restricting the Iranian military presence in Syria in exchange for removing sanctions over Russian military action in Ukraine. Donald Trump was reportedly a favored candidate for both Russia and Israel, as Trump is widely seen, by both, as a strong supporter for Israel yet friendly to Russia.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In December 2016, Netanyahu instructed Israel's UN delegation to skip a General Assembly vote on war crimes committed in Syria, under diplomatic pressure from Russia. The following day, Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin proposed postponing a vote on Security Council Resolution 2334 to condemn Israeli settlement-building in the West Bank until after the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, in order to allow the new U.S. administration a say on the resolution, but this was rejected by other Security Council members.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In January 2017, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Israel and Russia were "working closely" together in an attempt to stop the extradition of dual Russian-Israeli citizen Alexander Lapshin from Belarus to Azerbaijan.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In March 2018, Israel declined to attribute the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal to Russia in its statement on the matter and refused to expel any Russian diplomats, drawing criticism from the United Kingdom. In May 2018, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated the Israeli government had opposed sanctions on Russia despite foreign pressure to support them.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: At the 2018 Russia–United States summit in July 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump and Putin agreed to cooperate in Syria to ensure Israel's security. U.S. National Security Advisor John R. Bolton later claimed that both Israel and Russia sought the withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria. Russia later offered to create a 100 kilometre buffer zone on the Syrian side of the Israel-Syria border which Iranian troops would be barred from, though this offer was rejected by Israel.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In September 2018, relations somewhat deteriorated after the Russian Defense Ministry blamed the Israeli military for the downing of a Russian plane after putting it in the path of Syrian air defence systems during an Israeli strike on Hezbollah targets in Syria. Although Putin initially absolved Israel, Russia subsequently upgraded Syrian air defences to the S-300 missile system over Israeli objections, refused Israeli offers to send a delegation to Moscow to resolve the dispute, and ignored attempts by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office to set up a meeting with Putin.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In December 2018, Russia backed Israel's security concerns over Hezbollah tunnels dug under the Israel-Lebanon border, urging Lebanon to resolve the issue. On 25 December 2018, Russia condemned an Israeli airstrike on a Syrian arms depot, claiming that the "provocative actions of the Israeli air force... directly threatened two airliners."


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In December 2018, Israel reversed its stance on Crimea at the United Nations, voting to condemn Russian activity there, with Israeli officials stating it did so at the request of the United States government. However, the following year in August 2019, Netanyahu declined to condemn the annexation of Crimea, stating that he had "nothing to add to what was done at the time" of the annexation, when Israel took a neutral position.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 7 February 2019, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister urged Israel to cease its airstrikes in Syria. Relations were repaired after a meeting between Putin and Netanyahu in Moscow on 29 February 2019, after which Netanyahu announced Russian support for removing Iranian fighters from Syria, and that Putin had accepted his offer to visit Jerusalem. On 3 March 2019, Netanyahu announced the establishment of a joint Israeli-Russian team to pursue the withdrawal of all foreign troops deployed in Syria. On 18 March 2019, Putin suggested inviting Netanyahu to Crimea for the opening of a new synagogue there.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: During the period preceding the April 2019 Israeli legislative election, Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman warned that an unnamed foreign country was planning to interfere in the election, with media speculation focusing on Russia. Russia denied the reports, with Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov stating that it was "out of the question" and suggesting "to not read the Israeli media". Benny Gantz and Tamar Zandberg, the leaders of the opposition parties Blue and White and Meretz respectively, subsequently accused Russia of favouring Netanyahu. Netanyahu later touted his relationship with Putin in campaign billboards prior to the September 2019 Israeli legislative election.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Relations improved after 4 April 2019, when Netanyahu again travelled to Moscow to meet Putin. Putin returned the remains of IDF soldier Zechariah Baumel, which had been recovered by Russian troops in Syria. Netanyahu subsequently thanked Putin for their "personal friendship", while Putin expressed his appreciation for the Israeli policy of honouring Red Army soldiers who fought in World War II. Netanyahu also specifically praised the Russian defense ministry, despite its criticisms of Israel following the downing of a Russian plane the year prior, for its contribution to the retrieval of Baumel's remains, which Netanyahu said Israel would "never forget". On 25 June 2019, Israel convened its first trilateral summit between its national security adviser and his respective American and Russian counterparts, specifically focusing on the Iranian military presence in Syria.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In October 2019, Russia arrested Israeli national, Naama Issachar for alleged drug smuggling. Issachar's family and Israeli officials claimed that Russia had told them she could be released if Aleksei Burkov, a Russian national pending extradition from Israel to the United States, was released to Russia. Netanyahu subsequently personally requested a pardon for Issachar from Putin, which Putin said he would consider. Israel's High Court ultimately rejected Burkov's appeal against his extradition, leading Russia to condemn the decision as "a breach ... of Israel's international obligations", claiming that the decision "does not contribute to the development of [Russian-Israeli] relations". On 29 January 2020, President Putin signed her pardon. Her attorney previously noted that no convicted foreigner was ever pardoned by a Russian President before. The Russian pardon was reportedly made in exchange for a transfer of ownership of the Alexander Courtyard in Jerusalem to the Russian Orthodox Church.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In December 2019, Netanyahu once again emphasised the importance of his personal relationship with Putin, stating that Putin had told him their countries could have had a military confrontation had it not been for their regular meetings.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In January 2020, Russian president Vladimir Putin was in Israel for a one-day visit for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 10 January 2020, Israel released two Syrian prisoners, including one convicted of espionage, as part of a "gesture of goodwill" in a deal brokered by Russia. On 15 January 2020, an "Asia Times" report cited an Israeli foreign ministry official as stating that Russia expected Israeli diplomatic assistance in ending Western sanctions on the Syrian government in return for permitting the continuation of Israeli airstrikes in Syria. According from the Times of Israel, an Israeli organization, Hadassah, was involved in an effort which led to Russia's development of vaccine during the COVID-19 outbreak, shortly after Putin declared Russia was the first country to produce successful anti-COVID vaccine. In November 2020, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about the possibility of purchasing the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine. The Haddasah Medical Center then signed a commercial memorandum of understanding to obtain 1.5 to 3 million doses. On 15 December 2020, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised the 2020 normalisation of relations between Israel and several Arab states, describing it as a "positive phenomenon".


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In the same month, relations deteriorated after the Russian Ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, defended Iran, criticized Israeli "noncompliance with UN resolutions in the Israel-Arab and Israel-Palestinian conflict" and disputed Israeli claims that Hezbollah had constructed underground tunnels from Lebanon. This led the Israeli Foreign Ministry to rebuke Viktorov, with Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi stating, "Israel does not accept these statements and thus I hope we will bring an end to such embarrassing and unacceptable statements between us and Russia". Viktorov subsequently partially backtracked, claiming that he had been quoted out of context and did not mean to suggest Israel was a greater destabilizing factor than Iran. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the Israeli reaction as "overly sensitive" and backed Viktorov's remarks, stating, "All statements by the Russian ambassador quoted in the publication are in line with Russia's well-known position on the Middle East." However, she reaffirmed that Russia was "committed to continue taking into account Israel's security concerns in the decision-making process".


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 21 January 2021, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated at a press conference that Israel should inform Russia about potential threats it faces from Syria rather than bombing them, and Russia "will take every measure to neutralise the threat" that Israel faces from Iran's presence in Syria.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In a congratulatory message following the victory of Isaac Herzog in the June 2021 Israeli presidential election, Putin noted "friendly relations" between Russia and Israel. Putin expressed a desire for "further development of multifaceted and constructive bilateral cooperation, including interaction in international affairs" as something that would be in "our peoples’ fundamental interests". Putin expressed similar sentiments in a congratulatory message to Naftali Bennett, following the start of his tenure as Prime Minister in June 2021. Putin also sent a thank you letter to outgoing Prime Minister Netanyahu, praising Netanyahu for the "great work [he has] invested in strengthening the ties between our nations in many areas" and stating that Netanyahu's "capabilities and experience will always be an asset to Israel". Upon receiving the letter, Netanyahu reportedly told Russian Ambassador Viktorov to "Tell President Putin that I will be back soon", with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noting the long relationship between the two leaders.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Putin has urged the Bennett government to "pursue a policy of continuity on Russian-Israel relations" from the warm ties during the Netanyahu era. Following their first meeting in October 2021, Bennett described Putin as a "true friend of the Jewish people", noting that him and Putin discussed "ways to deal with Islamic fundamentalism". During the meeting, Putin reportedly asked Bennett for his diplomatic assistance in easing U.S. sanctions on Syria, pitching the proposal as a means of decreasing Iranian economic influence in Syria. Putin also declined an proposal by Bennett to host a Russia-Ukraine summit in Jerusalem, harshly criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In February 2022, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel claimed Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid "reiterates rhetoric of Russian propaganda", after Lapid said that Israeli officials "don't see a violent confrontation soon" between Ukraine and Russia. The Israeli Foreign Ministry subsequently summoned the Ukrainian Ambassador for an official reprimand. The Israeli Ministry of Defense also preemptively informed the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that it would not permit the transfer of Israeli-made weaponry to Ukraine, in order to placate Russia. Israel also rejected a U.S. request to sell the Iron Dome air defense system to Ukraine, citing the need to avoid conflict with Russia.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: In February 2022, Russia has turned down an Israeli demand to remove electromagnetic interference from its Syrian air station on planes landing in Tel Aviv, complicating tensions between the two countries.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 24 February 2022, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Yair Lapid spoke out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, stating "Russia's attack against Ukraine is a serious violation of international order. Israel condemns it and is prepared to extend humanitarian aid to Ukrainian citizens".


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 18 April 2022, Putin wrote a letter to Bennett demanding that Russia be granted control over the Alexander Courtyard in Jerusalem, as per an earlier agreement with former Prime Minister Netanyahu. Following an Israeli court ruling annulling Netanyahu's agreement, the final decision on the transfer was left to former Prime Minister Bennett. The notice of alleged legal violations of the Jewish Agency in Russia is a major blow to diplomatic relations between the two nations.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 24 February 2022, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a "violation of world order." Despite not repeating Lapid's condemnation of Russia, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett expressed support for Ukraine, stating "our hearts are with the civilians who through no fault of their own have been thrust into this situation," and also offered humanitarian assistance to Ukraine as well.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Lapid's remarks were criticized by Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who urged the Israeli government "to speak less about what they don't need to talk about" on Russia and accused the government of "too many unnecessary expressions and too many false predictions". Russia subsequently summoned the Israeli Ambassador to Russia to clarify Israel's position. The Russian Ambassador to Israel, Anataloy Viktorov, encouraged Israel to "stay wise and diplomatic and continue our joint work for the benefits of our countries and people", stating that he had provided Israel with "a number of materials" explaining the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and noting the Russian recognition of "Israel's legitimate security concerns" in Syria.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Israel declined to co-sponsor a UN Security Council resolution condemning the Russian invasion, leading to an expression of disappointment by the United States. Israel later voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution condemning the invasion. At the request of the United States, Israel also pushed the United Arab Emirates to back the resolution. Russia subsequently expressed strong dissatisfaction to the Israeli Foreign Ministry over Israel's support of the UN General Assembly resolution.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 5 March 2022, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett flew to Moscow to have a three-hour meeting with Putin about the situation in Ukraine, after which Bennett spoke to Zelenskyy by phone and flew to Germany to meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Bennett also brought up the subject of the significant Jewish community caught up in the Ukraine conflict during their three-hour discussion in the Kremlin, according to the Israeli source.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 11 March 2022, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel stated that President Zelenskyy "does not" understand the Israeli refusal to provide defensive aid to Ukraine and accused Israel of being "afraid" of Russia's "few airplanes and anti-missile systems in Syria". He described Israeli mediation of the conflict as an excuse for not providing active support to Ukraine. Israel also immediately rejected a Ukrainian request for cyber weaponry, including Pegasus, to be used against Russia.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: An unnamed senior Ukrainian official accused Bennett of having "proposed that we surrender", claiming that Bennett urged Zelenskyy to "take the offer" of a peace deal from Putin. This report was subsequently denied by both the Israeli Prime Minister's office and a senior adviser to Zelenskyy.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: The United States has publicly urged Israel to back Western sanctions against Russia, with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland calling on Israel not "to become the last haven for dirty money that's fueling Putin's wars".


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 12 March 2022, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov accused Israel of "unexplained indifference and unwillingness to take a side in the war" between Ukraine and Russia.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 16 March 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that Russia viewed Israeli mediation favourably, due to Israel not joining Western sanctions against Russia. However, Israel has affirmed that it will not allow itself to be used by Russian nationals to evade U.S. sanctions.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Following the Bucha massacre, Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman condemned "war crimes" but declined to condemn Russia specifically, noting "mutual accusations" where "Russia blames Ukraine and Ukraine blames Russia", drawing a rebuke from the Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel. However, Foreign Minister Lapid stated that "Russian forces committed war crimes". Israel subsequently voted for a resolution to suspend Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the vote and Lapid's remarks, stating that it had "taken note of Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's aggressive statements" and that they "evoke regret and rejection". The Russian Foreign Ministry also summoned the Israeli Ambassador, but declined to issue a formal diplomatic rebuke.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 12 April 2022, Defense Minister Benny Gantz cited "regional considerations", including the "area border with Russia, practically speaking, over the skies of Syria and Lebanon", for its decision not to send military aid to Ukraine or join Western sanctions on Russia.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 20 April 2022, Gantz announced Israel would send protective equipment such as flak jackets and helmets to the Ukrainian emergency services, but not to the Ukrainian military. The Russian Ambassador warned Israel that Russia would respond "accordingly" if military aid was provided.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: A diplomatic row was sparked in May 2022, after Lavrov suggested that Hitler "had Jewish blood" and the "biggest antisemites tend to be Jews" in his critique of Ukrainian President Zelensky. Lapid described Lavrov's remarks as "unforgivable" and the "basest level of racism", demanding the "use of the Holocaust of the Jewish people for political purposes must stop immediately". The Israeli Foreign Ministry subsequently summoned the Russian Ambassador to Israel and demanded an apology. The Russian Foreign Ministry responded by describing Lapid's comments as "anti-historical" and "explaining to a large extent why the current Israeli government supports the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv". President Putin subsequently apologized for Lavrov's remarks on a call with Prime Minister Bennett, and Bennett stated that he had "thanked [Putin] for clarifying the president's view of the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust".


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 6 July 2022, Israeli officials stated that Israel was no longer involved in mediation efforts between Ukraine and Russia.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 21 July 2022, it was reported that the Russian Ministry of Justice is demanding the closure of the Jewish Agency for Israel in Russia. According to a report in the Russian news agency Interfax, the Ministry of Justice's request, which was submitted to the Moscow District Court, is related to "unspecified violations of Russian law." This move led to a diplomatic crisis with Israel, after there is unanimity at the governmental level in Israel that the Kremlin is leveraging the issue in light of Israel's harsh condemnations of Russia following the latter's invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Embassy in Cairo accused Prime Minister Lapid of "lies" about Russian involvement in the Bucha massacre and condemned his "complete disregard and contempt for the lives of Palestinians". The situation was described by "Bloomberg News" as the "worst rift in relations between Russia and Israel since the Soviet Union's collapse". Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Lapid and Gantz for the deterioration in relations, stating that they were "endangering our national security" and that his "measured, balanced and responsible relationship" with Russia as Prime Minister was "being undermined before our eyes in recent weeks". Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman criticised the "slightly obsessive and hysterical" response by Lapid to the Russian actions.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: The former president of Russia, Dimitri Medvedev, claimed that the shipment of Israeli weapons to Ukraine would "destroy" the diplomatic relationship between the two countries, following discussions on the shipment of Israeli weapons to Ukraine after Russia repeatedly attacked it with Iranian HESA Shahed 136 kamikaze drones. Medvedev's warning came in response to statements by Israeli Diaspora Minister Nachman Shai, who called for military assistance to Ukraine.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Following Netanyahu's victory in the 2022 Israeli legislative election, Russia adopted a conciliatory tone, suggesting that Netanyahu has "a common approach toward further developing bilateral relations".


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: On 14 November 2022, Israel was the only Western country to abstain on a UN resolution supporting a mechanism for Russia to pay reparations to Ukraine.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Russia's improvement of relations with Israel coincided on the same time with growing Russia and Israel's alliance with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, both have common opposition toward neo-Ottomanism initiated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, both countries are also fighting proxy wars with Turkey in Caucasus, North Africa and the Middle East. Israel has largely sided with Russia against Turkey in recent years, notably by how Russia and Israel support Khalifa Haftar against Turkey-backed Government of National Accord, Israel's silent support for Russian intervention in Syria in opposition to Iran and Turkey, although Israel objects Russia's relations with Turkey while Israel maintains relations with Azerbaijan, a strong Turkish ally, to go against Iran. In 2018, Israel had also suggested, alongside Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, that U.S. President Donald Trump should improve relations with Russia and rethink about sanctions relating Russo-Ukrainian War, as Ukraine is Turkey's ally. Although Putin continues to have positive relations with Erdogan.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: When normalization agreement was signed by Serbia and Kosovo in 2020, Russia and Israel openly supported the deal which would allow Serbia to move embassy to Jerusalem while Kosovo would establish relations with Israel. In response, In August 2020, following the Abraham Accords which Israel normalised relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Russia did not endorse the deal but quietly approved the efforts by Israel to normalize the relations. Iran does not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state, and both Iran and Turkey opposed both moves.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: However, Russia continues to have strong economic and political relations with both Iran and Turkey, and Russia continues to be skeptical about Israel's special relations with the United States. Russia supports two-state solution for Israeli–Palestinian conflict and has relations with several Palestinian political parties. Russia does not consider Hamas as a terrorist organization and continues to diplomatically negotiate with them. Iran, Russia, and Turkey all voted in favor of United Nations General Assembly resolution ES-10/L.22 to declare the status of Jerusalem as Israel's capital as "null and void." Russia continues to seek multilateral relations in the Middle East with both Israel's allies and rivals.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: The native Russian-speaking population of Israel is the world's third-largest population of Russian native-speakers living outside the former Soviet Union territories, and the highest as a proportion of the population. The number of native Russian-speaking Israelis numbers around 1.5 million citizens.


title: Israel–Russia relations

text: Hundreds of thousands of Russian-Israeli citizens live in Israel. During Russian elections, the Russian government sets up polling stations across many Israeli cities as well as smaller towns, in order to enable the Russian citizens who are living in Israel to cast their vote. During the 2012 Russian Presidential elections, hundreds of thousands of Russian-Israelis could cast their vote in Israel.