Israel Active

Just six days after winning a gold medal in the Lima Grand Prix (see previously) Israeli Judoka Raz Hershko won another at the Guadalajara, Mexico Grand Prix.

Israel’s Omri Haviv won a gold medal at the Jiu-jitsu World Championships in Bangkok.

Israel’s Omri Haviv won the gold medal in the men’s 69kg No-Gi category at the Jiu-Jitsu World Championships in Bangkok. Meanwhile, at the Sambo World Championships in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Israel’s Shaked Nisimian won a silver medal in the women’s 72kg category.

Israeli-US singer Omer Adam opened his sold-out concert at the Madison Square Garden in New York City with a special tribute video to the IDF and a video of hostages returning from Gaza. Adam fuses Mizrahi music with Western pop and is one of Israel’s most famous and successful singers.

Israel’s Gesher UK production of Oscar Wilde’s play “Salome” attracted huge audiences to the first ever performance in London’s West End by an Israeli theater company. Anti-Israel UK media panned it, but one unbiased review said it was “easily one of the best shows of the year”.

Archaeologists in northern Israel uncovered a 5,000-year-old rock-hewn wine press—one of the oldest ever found—alongside 3,300-year-old Canaanite ritual vessels, offering rare insight into early wine production and ancient religious practices near Megiddo (Armegeddon).

Signs on the Jerusalem streets warn citizens and visitors to prepare for winter. But as Sharon describes, it feels more like summer or late spring. She attended a religious wedding in the desert with the sun setting, where the bride and groom rode away on a camel.

At the Pickleball World Cup in Fort Lauderdale, Israel’s Adi Berman won Israel’s first international gold medal in the Over-35 Women’s Singles. She and Yaniv Semo won silver in the U35 Mixed Doubles 4.5 category. And team captain Adam Bachmann won silver, in the +35 Men’s Singles.

Barclays Center (see previously) turned Blue and White as the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets hosted Israel’s Hapoel Jerusalem for a preseason friendly. US-Israeli Gilad Paz sang the Israeli National Anthem, “Hatikva.”

From Dec 1-3, the southern Israeli city of Sderot will pulse with the sound of Israeli blues, as top artists, local jams, and rare blues films take over the Music, Soul, Cinema and Resilience Festival at the Sderot Cinematheque. For a city that’s seen more than its share of blues, the festival is one of celebration.