Israel Active

Arab Moslem Amira Jabar Qassem and Haredi Jew Hani Sabag co-founded Israel’s Job 360, to train Arabs and Haredim in interview techniques for hi-tech jobs. Their website allows job seekers to simulate interviews. This article describes both their professional and private relationship.

The Jerusalem Municipality has again distributed free Christmas trees to Jerusalem residents celebrating Christmas. And KKL-JNF (Jewish National Fund) supplied 108 trees to 27 embassies, consulates, and foreign missions in Israel. The trees came from environmentally managed groves in the Galilee.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has received the credentials of the new ambassadors from five countries, including close friends of Israel - El Salvador, Malta, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Nauru. All five are women.

Intelligence officer Col. N. is the first woman to be appointed Military Secretary to the Israeli President and will be promoted to Brigadier-General. She has served 22 years in the IDF Intelligence Corps. The previous Military Secretary was an Israeli Druze (see ).

Since it began in 1994, Israeli foundation Hanan Aynor has given scholarships and funding for higher education fees to 4,500 Israelis of Ethiopian origin. It also gives priority to older people, for whom it might soon be too late to enroll, as well as to single mothers.

Ittai graduated from Lotem Special Education School in Rehovot last year and, thanks to “Special in Uniform”, has just been inducted into the Israel Defense Forces. His brother Roi, who has cerebral palsy, joined the IDF five years ago and managed the medical clinic in one of the IDF bases.

11-year-old Mazen from the Gaza Strip became the 6,000th child saved by the Israeli humanitarian organization Save a Child’s Heart (SACH). As Mazen grew, his complicated congenital heart condition required multiple medical procedures. To survive, he needed emergency surgery.

Israel’s D-Fend (see previously) used its EnforceAir technology to remove a rogue drone that was interrupting a mass held by Pope Francis with 60,000 worshippers in Slovakia in September. There were also 90 bishops, and 500 priests present during the incident at the event.

The Israeli government is donating 1 million AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines to the UN-backed COVAX program, which distributes shots to poorer countries. (N.B. Haaretz say it’s 2.5 million vaccines.) The government stated that the vaccines will reach close to a quarter of African countries.

Volunteers from Israeli NGO SmartAID are helping to set up a coordination center for emergency workers in Mayfield and Benton, Kentucky, which were hit hard by recent tornadoes. Another Israeli NGO, IsraAID, is helping with the recovery and clean-up efforts.