Israel Active

UK newspaper article highlighting Israel’s strategy for opening-up the country post-Covid.

Israeli non-profit SmartAID is supplying one million children’s masks and 600,000 bottles of hand sanitizer in Los Angeles County. They are intended to protect children in disadvantaged areas from catching the coronavirus. SmartAID previously distributed masks in Washington state (see ).

Israeli leaders sent out greetings for a “Ramadan Kareem” to the country’s Muslim citizens and others around the world on the first day of the holiest month of the Islamic calendar. This year it coincided with Yom HaZikaron, the Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen soldiers and terror victims.

Captain Ella Waweya, from the Israeli Arab town of Qalansawe, is an officer in the IDF Spokesperson’s Office. She is proud to say, “The Israeli flag gives me a feeling of excitement, belonging and love.” In 2015 she won the President’s medal of Excellence .

Israel-founded initiative Starting Up Together (reported previously) is an online pre-accelerator program that trains entrepreneurs locally and across the Middle East region. Its Israeli track, for Arab and Jewish Israelis over 18, is now in its 3rd session. There are 60 participants in the two tracks.

For the first time, IBM’s annual World’s 40 leading women in artificial intelligence includes an Israeli. Hagit Tzafrir, head of the Health Division at Harel Group. Hagit’s project “Ella the Digital Assistant” provides digital customer service on Harel’s website and WhatsApp.

As Covid-19 infection rates fall, JNF-USA has launched Operation Zion to bring global students to Israel. They will study at JNF-USA’s Alexander Muss High School in Hod Hasharon, and travel around Israel. 240 teens, mainly from the US have just arrived and more are on their way.

Israel’s CropX (reported previously) has partnered NASA Harvest (NASA’s Food Security and Agriculture Program) to provide NASA with soil insights for its global agricultural monitoring efforts. NASA is testing CropX across Arizona farms to fine-tune its algorithms.

Israel climbed two spots to 12th in the 2021 World Happiness Report which measured GDP, life-expectancy and opinions in 149 countries. Citizens of 100 countries were surveyed on social support, freedom of life choices, society corruption and generosity. Israel ranked 11th in that survey.

To mark World Water Day, this great video summarizes the work of JNF USA in helping Israel conserve its water. The JNF supports hydroponic farms, wastewater recycling and helped fund Israel’s largest artificial lake that has turned Beersheva in the Negev desert into a water city.