Israel Active

Maor Tiyouri became the 35th Israeli to qualify for the Rio Olympics when she finished the Ottawa marathon in 2:42.22 hours in her first ever competitive marathon.  The Israeli cross-country mountain biking team has been ranked 22 and will compete in the Olympics for the first time.

Israel's Alex Shatilov claimed his sixth career medal at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships yesterday, taking a bronze in the floor exercise in Bern, Switzerland.  Shatilov will participate in his third straight Olympics this summer.

The week long, nighttime Festival of Light in Jerusalem’s Old City featured standalone light installations and several projected onto buildings; illuminated musicians, simulated water fountains and spectacular light shows.

British luxury ocean liner RMS Queen Mary 2, flagship of Cunard Line, called at Haifa recently. 345 meters long and 76,000 tons, it is the largest passenger ship to visit the port.

Superstar Elton John rocked 40,000 ecstatic fans at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park.  He semi-dedicated his first hit, “Your Song,” to Israel and told the crowd there could have been “no nicer place” for him to open his eight-week European tour.  He took no breaks during the two-hour-plus show.

Or Sinai, graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem, won first place in the student short film category in Cannes for her short film “Anna”.  She beat 2,350 other student films from 277 film schools from around the world.

Spread over 3000 acres in the southern Israel's Arava desert, the unique Hai Bar wildlife nature reserve is home to endangered animal species, some of them already mentioned in the Bible.  Enjoy the beautiful photography.

Geek PicNic Jerusalem is a three-day outdoor science and technology fair that was exported from Russia for the first time in its five-year history. It featured a massive Russian-made metal dragon robot and a US-made “Hand of Man” robotic glove that crushed cars.

Brazilian Bossa Nova artist Sergio Mendes will perform two concerts in Israel in June. The musician is one of the most important names in Brazilian music, with over 55 releases.  See him at the Caesarea Amphitheater on June 23, or at the Zappa Club in Tel Aviv on June 24.

Multiple Grammy award-winning American musician Pharrell Williams, who shot to global superstardom with his hit "Happy" in 2014, is going to appear on July 21 at Live Park in Rishon Letzion.