Israel Active

The presidents of ten American universities and colleges are visiting Israel this week on a trip to promote bilateral academic ties. The 17-member delegation will meet the heads of Israeli universities to discuss joint research, commercialization and exchange opportunities.

Israeli tourists can visit Indonesia (the largest Muslim country) and vice-versa. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson tweeted ““visa restrictions on Indonesian tourism to Israel were lifted, in parallel to lifting of restrictions by Indonesia on Israeli tourists. Good news.”

Cities throughout Guatemala are renaming streets and traffic circles "Jerusalem the Capital of Israel." The first such renaming ceremony took place on the main street of the southern city of Guastatoya. Hundreds waved Israeli flags and stores along the road hung Israeli flags.

Israeli educational games startup TinyTap has just raised $5 million of funds to help it launch learning plans in Mandarin, Arabic, and Spanish. It will also be used for promoting the company's partnership with Oxford University Press to start a learning plan for English language learners.

Watch what really happens to unfortunate Palestinian Arab children in the hands of Israelis.

Eyal Waldman (CEO of Israel’s Mellanox) met Bashar al-Masri, (founder of the new PA city of Rawabi), at a dinner in Washington and became good friends. Now Mellanox employs 100 Palestinian Arabs and at least 10 Israeli companies work in Rawabi.  

A team of five Orthodox students won a 44-hour, female-only hackathon held in Jerusalem. Their winning design, a voice-to-text bracelet relays information from first responders to hospitals in the event of a mass-casualty incident.

On alternate Friday afternoons in the summer, the Modi’in Ilit Linked to Life Friday Afternoon Field Trip volunteers take local sick and bereaved Israeli children on surprise trips. This project of Israeli charity Ezer Mizion makes their day. It makes their week. And it makes their life.

Israel’s Education Ministry and the Association of Community Centers’ Shalem volunteer organization are to provide 4th to 8th-graders with after-school spoken English lessons. Fees will be just NIS 4 ($1.10) an hour, far less than current private tuition fees.

Using 117,000 cookies laid out to form a giant Israeli flag, the Jewish community of Atlanta, Georgia not only shattered a world record, it also raised considerable funds for worthy charities all over Israel. Afterwards, the cookies were donated to local Georgia food banks.