Israel Active

Toy manufacturing giant Mattel has teamed up with Israeli startup StartApp to help bring the iconic Barbie doll to an every-day digital "Barbie world."  StartApp will develop emojis, stickers, wallpapers, gifs, avatars, memes and other mobile app themes for the app, which is available to download.

Israel qualified for the World Baseball Classic for the first time with a 9-1 win over Britain.  Israel defeated Britain twice as well as Brazil to win the four-team qualifier and become the 16th and final team in the fourth W.B.C., scheduled to begin March 7 in Seoul, South Korea.

German Paralympic athlete Denise Schindler won a silver medal in the women’s cycling road time trial and bronze in the road race at the Rio Paralympics. She wore a high performance artificial leg 3D-printed by Autodesk, whose R&D center is in Tel Aviv.

After successful tours of Israel in 2012 and 2014 the Harlem Globetrotters return to Israel for 4 shows from 18 - 22 Oct.  They visit Tel Aviv, Beer Sheva, Haifa and Jerusalem.

Israeli basketball fans danced with former New York Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire during a practice open to the public. Stoudemire signed a two-year deal in August to play for Hapoel Jerusalem.

You may have read about British-Israeli comedienne Diana Cass in the Jerusalem Post and .  Diana has organized an evening of stand-up comedy on Nov 3rd in Netanya.  The funny thing is that you only find out the address of the venue when you phone for tickets!

I reported previously on the Pirate Kings mobile game from Israel’s Jelly Button Games. It is now one of the most popular smartphone games designed in Israel, with 70 million downloads.

In its first-ever European soccer group stage match, tiny Beersheba beat three-time European Champions Inter Milan 2-0 in the Europa League at the Italians’ San Siro stadium.  It constituted one of the greatest wins by an Israeli club in European competitions.

Tourists will soon be flocking to Israel for the Jewish festivals, so it is a good time to tell you that our friend Samuel Green was recently awarded the title of “Best Bespoke Tour Operator in Tel Aviv” by Luxury Travel Guide.

Israeli athletes that won medals in the Rio Paralympics include Moran Samuel (rowing bronze in arms-shoulders women's single sculls), Doron Shaziri (shooting bronze in men’s 50-meter rifle three positions) and Inbal Pezaro (swimming bronze in women’s 200M individual medley)