Israel Active

The 20th Icon Festival for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Role-Playing takes place in Tel Aviv on 18-20 October. Guests include British Sci-Fi author Charles Strauss and actor John de Lancie who plays Q in Star Trek.

The annual Tamar Festival (Oct 17-20) near the Dead Sea is one of Israel’s largest music festivals.  It features sunrise concerts on the top of Masada and a free concert at Kibbutz Ein Gedi.  There are also hikes, tours and children’s activities.  

The often overlooked Rockefeller Archaeological Museum in Eastern Jerusalem is featuring an exhibit entitled “Ashkelon: A Retrospective 30 Years of the Leon Levy Expedition”. It displays, for the first time, marble statues, coins, jewelry, figurines, and pottery from the 5000-year history of Ashkelon.

Laurent Levy and Eldad Levy (from the tribe of Levy) both had a vision of creating an interactive, state-of-the-art museum in the heart of Jerusalem that would celebrate Jewish music. Five years ago they met and started planning the museum.  Today, it attracts 1000 visitors a month.

2016 is proving a busy year for singer Craig David. In April he performed in Tel Aviv and made his first visit to Jerusalem. Craig’s manager Colin Lester is a board member of the charitable organization Creative Community for Peace that promotes the arts in Israel and counters BDS.

Morrissey, the former front man for British rockers “The Smiths” was in fine form at the sold-out Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv.  He treated his audience to a 90-minute set, described as a “melancholic dream world drenched in nostalgia”.

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.