Israel Active

Four Israeli institutions are included in the world’s 100 best universities, compiled by academicinfluence.com. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (18), Tel Aviv Uni (29), Weizmann Institute (96) and the Technion Institute (97).

Tel Aviv University has launched the Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership program to develop the leadership skills of Israeli mayors. Up to 20 mayors and their key municipal aids will be enrolled in each annual class.

Israeli charity Heart to Plate was launched in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, delivering Shabbat meals to 60 needy elderly people. The NGO now has 400 volunteers, regularly cooking meals for hundreds of elderly people in five Israeli cities.

Lt.-Col. A., the first Druze to complete the Israel Air Force flight school, now serves as commander of Israel’s Southern Command’s Fire Center. Ironically, his grandfather served in the Syrian Arab Army forces that invaded Israel in 1948, before switching sides.

Israel is the country with the most living kidney donors worldwide per capita, according to a recent World Health Organization report of 2020 data. Israeli non-profit Matnat Chaim (see ) facilitated the donation of 1,170 kidneys – two thirds of all Israeli donations.

International travel magazine Travel + Leisure’s put the Dead Sea top of its 2022 list of 10 recommended global healing destinations. Benefits include as a remedy for asthma, arthritis, and osteoporosis; its mud alleviates psoriasis, and the UV-filtered sun as a safe source of vitamin D.

103 Arab-Israeli teenagers from across the country marched alongside Holocaust survivors and their progeny in the March of the Living. Before leaving Israel, they visited Yad Vashem and the Ghetto-fighters Museum, prior to flying to Poland and touring the Auschwitz site.

More than 300 Jews and Arabs in Beersheba celebrated at a joint Iftar and Mimouna feast to mark the end of the daily Ramadan fast and the traditional Moroccan Jewish celebration at the conclusion of Passover. It was organized by Beersheba’s Hagar Association.

Bar-Ilan University's Azrieli Faculty of Medicine complex in Safed was transformed into a Teddy Bear Hospital when some 500 children brought their teddy bears and dolls in for “treatment”. The annual event included ER, surgery, pharmacy, cardiology, ENT, MDA, Israeli police, the IDF and more.

Some 200 guests attended Israel’s President Herzog’s annual Iftar dinner, the traditional meal to break the Ramadan fast, at his official residence. And Yossi Dagan, Chairman of the Samaria Regional Council, hosted local Palestinian Arab leaders for the Iftar break-fast.