Israel Active

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.

Israel’s youth baseball team won the European U18 Baseball Championship qualifiers in Stockholm and a place in next summer’s championships. Earlier in July, Israel’s men’s national team won their tier “B” pool in Bulgaria to boost their chances of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The 2019 European Lacrosse Federation Women’s European Lacrosse Championship was held this year in Israel. It featured 300 women from 16 European countries at the Kraft Family Sports Campus’ Jerusalem stadium. Israel reached the final, narrowly losing to favorites England.

Jerusalem has been ranked second in the category of “Best Cities in Africa and the Middle East” by US-based Travel + Leisure magazine. Cape Town came top for the 18th consecutive year. Tel Aviv was sixth.

For the sixth consecutive year, Netanya hosts the International Clown Festival from Aug 14 – 16. Free events take place in Netanya’s streets and Independence Square. There are also plays at Netanya’s Culture Center.