Israel Active

Omri Caspi was the first Israeli to play in the National Basketball Association league. He has now returned to Israel, having signed a 3-year contract to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv. He said he was “proud and excited to be wearing the Maccabi jersey with the star of David on the back”.

Jennifer Lopez’s “It’s My Party” concert to celebrate her 50th birthday in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park was acclaimed as one of the best ever. The singer/dancer brought a 100-person crew, including dancers, musicians and 45 tons of equipment for the 90-minute show in front of 57,000 fans.

For the fourth time this year, the largest species of fish – a whale shark – has been tracked swimming up the Gulf of Eilat. Israel is a haven for this endangered species, due to warm waters and the absence of shark fishing. (N.B. the only reported shark attack in Israeli waters was in 1974.)

Two recent emotional encounters in Jerusalem included  ex-Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau and the son of the chaplain of the US Army unit that liberated him from Buchenwald. Also, President Rivlin greeting Dr Ruth Westheimer at the Jerusalem Film Festival’s documentary of her life.

Spanish flamenco star María Juncal is to premiere her latest work, Life is Romance (La Vida es un Romance), on 9th Aug at the Suzanne Dellal Center as part of the Tel Aviv International Dance Festival. Juncal performs annually in Israel.

I reported previously when Israeli director Guy Nattiv won an Academy Award (Oscar) for his Live Action Short film “Skin”.  Skin has just opened at US theatres and will be shown at October’s Haifa International Film Festival. (See 1st link to interview with Guy.)

Jerusalem’s “Window Stories,” is a towering palace made of 550 windows salvaged from across the city, in a variety of shapes and styles from different eras. It is free to the public until 21st Sep in Gan HaSus (Horse Garden) on King George Street. At night it becomes a glittering lighthouse.

Rock superstars Bon Jovi rocked 45,000 fans for 3 hours at Park Hayarkon Tel Aviv.  Before “We Don’t Run", dedicated to Israel in 2015, Jon Bon Jovi said, “This one is for the incredible people of Israel - for their strength, for their love.”  Jon Bon Jovi is now touring Israel with his family and the band.

Israel’s U20 Basketball team won the FIBA Under-20 European Championship, beating Spain 92-84 in Tel Aviv to take the trophy for the second year in a row. Deni Avdija, with 23 points and seven assists, picked up the Most Valuable Player award.

Novak Djokovic’s victory in the Wimbledon tennis men’s final may have had something to do with his investment in the AI sports analytics system from Israel’s PlaySight. It provides performance data to aid training. Djokovic has been funding and promoting the system since 2014.