Israel Active

Tel Aviv annually celebrates being declared a White City by UNESCO in 2003. Again this year, the city opens its doors to the public for an all-nighter festival of fun, song and good times.

The famous Swedish string quartet, Fleshquartet, will perform the composition “Different Trains” next week as part of Jerusalem Season of Culture.

A “Hard Rain” fell from the cloudless sky over Israel’s national stadium as Bob Dylan returned to his homeland down “Highway 61”. “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” but was it a “Simple Twist of Fate” or a far greater power that a allowed me to see him for one more encore?

Sailing team Gidi Klinger and Eran Sela won the silver medal in the 470 Class competition at the World Cup in Spain. They will now challenge for a medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

The lead singer of 1970’s band Roxy Music is performing at Tel Aviv’s Heichal Hatarbut on June 22nd. Not quite Dylan, though.

Six Hollywood actors and actresses are visiting this week, including two from Greys Anatomy. One of their visits is to the theatre in Jaffa where the performers are actors who are deaf or blind.

The beat-box / cappella group “Voca People” is about to perform off-Broadway. They claim to be from an alien planet, but their out-of-this world performance is definitely Israeli.

Israeli athletes know how to look after themselves. Now the Israeli Air Force is using them to educate their pilots in how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and help reduce air accidents.

Don’t worry – it’s just the European boxing championships in Ankara, where Israel has four contestants.

Israel’s Sergei Richter learned to shoot aged 13 in the IDF youth corps. Last year he helped the German team Kolber gain promotion. Today he is the first Israeli to book his place to London 2012.