Israel Active

Israeli Consul General Sam Grundwerg held “Hollywood Salutes Israel,” - a private VIP reception for 700 guests at Universal Studios in Hollywood to celebrate Israel’s 70th birthday. Stars included Barbra Streisand, Robert de Niro, Michael Douglas, Bill Maher, and Gal Gadot.

The new Steinhardt Museum of Natural History in Tel Aviv has five floors of exhibits displaying 3,000 items, including Israel’s last bear (1916), cheetah (1911) and crocodile. All animals displayed died of natural causes, often coming from Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo or the nearby Ramat Gan Safari.

Scott Richman of AJC Westchester/Fairfield is a great Israel advocate.  On the Israel@70 edition of his twice-weekly radio show he interviewed (among others) Avi Jorisch, author of “Thou Shalt Innovate” - a book I highly recommend.  Listen from 20 minutes.

Daniel Italiaander is an entrepreneur who made Aliya from Holland 20 years ago.  Then his son was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. Daniel now is on the board of The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Israel which has organized a benefit concert in Ra’anana on May 28.

For Israel Independence Day, non-Jewish sand artist Kseniya Simonova produced this beautiful 7min video installation depicting the 20th century history of the Jewish people. It has an inspiring message at the end. “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" is sung by Ofra Haza

Jaffa now has several new art galleries to attract tourists. They include Magasin III,  Gordon Gallery’s South Tel Aviv site, Beit Kandinof, Cuckoo’s Nest, Alamacén and Galerie Charlot.

Israel’s Netta Barzilai won the Eurovision song contest with “Toy” scoring 529 points, nearly 100 points ahead of second place Cyprus. Israel will therefore host next year’s Eurovision competition, which will bring thousands of fans to Jerusalem.

Teams from the United Arab Emirates & Bahrain competed in the Israel stages of the Giro d’Italia cycle race. The eight cyclists from Team Emirates included Fabio Aru who said, ““Sport and cycling unify people, this is a fact,”.  Also, see this one-minute video of the event.

Tel Aviv is officially home to the Middle East’s first indoor velodrome cycling racetrack. The world governing body for sports cycling, Union Cycliste Internationale, has formally certified the Sylvan Adams National Velodrome to be Olympic Standard.

The 16th May Tel Aviv screening of “Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel” is a sell-out . There will now be another chance to see this remarkable film on June 4 at the Lev Smadar in Jerusalem. All proceeds go to the Team Israel Olympics 2020 effort.