Israel Active

In between defending the Jewish State, Israel’s Defense Forces are embarking on several ecological projects. They include repairing the Tel Kadesh archeological site, turning the Army Radio building into a habitat for indigenous animals and plants, and restoring the swallows to the IDF's Tel Aviv base.

I featured Maccabi Haifa-Nahalal’s youth football academy , with its Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Circassian players. Here is a video of Wiam - the team’s talented 13-year-old forward. Please listen to / read what his father says.

R Gopalakrishnan is a non-Executive Director of Indian giant Tata. He was previously Chairman of Unilever Arabia, in Jeddah. He also understands how important to Israel’s success are the terms “Rosh Gadol, Chutzpah and Bitzua. Read his translations here.

Tarek Abu-Hamed, of Sur Baher in East Jerusalem, was named as deputy chief scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Space. He will be responsible for overseeing national scientific infrastructure, state intellectual property and taxation of academic institutions.

Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center delivered 22,030 babies in 2014 - probably the largest number in the world. Together with Yad Sarah and a nearby taxi company have for the first time arranged for the free lending of infant car seats to parents to get the babies home safely.

In my I reported that 18-month old Iraqi Christian Maryam Mansour had arrived at Israel’s Hadassah hospital for heart surgery, but her survival chances were slim. Well the good news is that the 8-hour operation was successful and Maryam should make a full recovery.

A 10-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl from the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea floated to Israel after their inner tubes were swept westward by the current. A Jordanian soldier, who had tried to stop the children, was carried away as well. The children (ex-Iraqi refugees) now want to remain in Israel.

A delegation of leaders in the Miami tech-startup community has just spent a week in Israel with Project Interchange, an educational institute of the American Jewish Committee, to learn from Israel’s thriving tech and innovation sector, while sharing best practices and making connections.

The Canadian Institute for Jewish Research will showcase Israel’s and Canada’s contributions to the world at its 27th annual international conference in Montreal on 29th April.   

A delegation of Israeli information security companies is in South Korea showing how Israeli technology can better secure the Asian state. And a Chinese delegation from Shouguang visiting Israeli water technology companies as part of Israel and China’s joint “water city” project.