Israel Active

King Goodwill Zwelithinii, monarch of 12 million Zulus has urged the country’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) to retain close ties with Israel. Israel has been helping South Africa combat drought and HIV infections.

Forty volunteers from the Israel’s ZAKA rescue and recovery organization assisted thousands of Johannesburg residents after severe storms ripped through homes in different parts of the city between December 31 and January 2.

Yousef Rabaya from Jenin was born with Cerebral Palsy. His curved back caused much pain and he couldn’t stand. After a previous operation in the US failed, surgeons at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center performed reconstruction surgery and now Yousef can walk again.

Israeli emergency medical service United Hatzalah has just completed training a team of 13 Bedouin women and four men to become EMS first responders. They will now serve their Galilee home towns of Shibli and Umm al-Ghanam plus other Arab and Jewish towns in the area.

Israeli Barr Yaron has setup the “Women of Startup Nation” Facebook page to raise awareness of successful Israeli women in high-tech. The site features around 50 stories of women who have succeeded in hi-tech and serves to inspire women all over the world to change their own lives.

With Esther Hayut as the new president of Israel’s Supreme Court, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked noted that 54% of judges in Israel are female. Israel has had three women presidents of the Supreme Court.

Three of Israel's top banks (Leumi, Israel Discount and First International) are currently led by women. So is the Bank of Israel. At Leumi 40% of top management are women. So is the supervisor of banks, the director of the capital markets, insurance and savings authority and others.

Thousands of Tel Aviv residents built a 36-meter tower in Rabin Square from 500,000 K’nex and Lego bricks. They were honoring the memory of Omer Sayag, an 8-year-old cancer victim from Tel Aviv who used to love constructing with plastic bricks.

Over 6,000 lone soldiers (without families in Israel to support them) serve in the IDF - over 30% female. On Dec 29, the first lone soldier home for young women, The Norton and Sylvia Alvery Bayit L'Chayalot, opened in Mekor Chaim, Jerusalem.

Tahrir gave birth to healthy triplet boys just hours after the wife of her eldest son Muhammad had given her a first grandson at the same hospital – Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem. The high-risk pregnancy team of specialists and nurses all wished her Mazel Tov.