Israel Active

Israel's ambassador to South Africa unveiled a luxurious community center in Johannesburg. The community center will benefit 400 children in one of the toughest neighborhoods - in the town of Soweto, on the outskirts of South Africa's biggest city.

Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, President Rabbi Marc Schneier, describes his work bringing understanding and normalization between Israel and the Arab Gulf states: "We're living in extraordinary times," and “you cannot separate out Israel from Judaism”, he states.

The employment rate of Israeli Arab women rose by 3.8% in 2018, following a 2.5% increase in 2017. Almost 40% of Arab women are employed, two years ahead of the Israeli government’s target for 2020. The Taub report attributes the increase to higher education levels.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and his wife, Tammy, helped package food for needy families at a charity in Jerusalem. 40 employees of the US embassy in Jerusalem volunteered to lend a hand at Colel Chabad’s Pantry Packers that supports 8,500 Israeli families of all religions.

Lt. “Yod” has become the first Israeli citizen of Ethiopian heritage to complete the military’s prestigious 3-year pilot’s course. Lt. “Yod” (for security reasons, all pilots are referred to by an initial letter) will serve initially as a jet navigator.

Volunteers from Israeli NGO IsraAID have flown to Indonesia (a Muslim-majority country having no diplomatic relations with Israel) to provide safe water and psychological support in wake of the tsunami disaster. Some IsraAID workers were still there since the last earthquake!

Five Israeli women were named among Forbes’ lists of “Top 50 Women In Tech” including three to the inaugural global list and two to the European round-up. They are Adv. Limor Shmerling Magazanik, Dr. Michal Tsur, Dr. Tal Rabin, Galia Benartzi and Danit Peleg.

The US Embassy in Israel and Israel’s Ministry for Social Equality held in Nazareth, the first high-tech conference that introduced Arab entrepreneurs to US and Israeli investors. In his speech US Ambassador David Friedman praised Israel as a “place where we are all enriched by our diversity”

New data from Israel’s Innovation Authority show that Israeli-Arabs fill about 3% of high-tech R&D positions - up from under 1% in 2015. There are now 50% more Arab-Israelis studying hi-tech subjects at Israeli universities and colleges than five years ago.

Israel is the only Middle East country where its Christian population is growing - by 2.2% in 2017. Today they number around 175,000. In Gaza less than 1,300 remain of the 30,000 before Hamas took over.  Israel issued 700 of them (over 50%) with Christmas permits to visit Israeli holy sites.  Meanwhile, Israel welcomed an estimated 150,000 Christians from overseas for the festive season.