Israel Active

Students who serve in the IDF reserves may be able to study for a bachelor’s degree at Tel Aviv University (excluding medicine) without a psychometric exam. Only high school matriculation grades will be considered. The policy may be extended for other students adversely impacted by the war.

Haile means “within my power” in Amharic. Solomon Geveye recently established the Haile Venture Capital Fund to invest in pre-seed disruptive startups in which at least one founder is from Israel’s Ethiopian community. He also founded MetekuAI to combat fake news.

Eye-opening article for those who are unaware that minorities have equal rights in Israel.

Asaf Peleg walks to his Chassidic synagogue and to take his daily ritual bath wearing a long black coat and fur hat - an M16 over his shoulder and a pistol and walkie-talkie at his waist. The ex-IDF commando is head of the rapid response team in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Malachi.

Over 4,000 Jewish high schoolers from Israel and around the world participate in the One2One initiative. They engage in a series of five weekly English conversations of at least 30 minutes each. One2One uses an algorithm to match up students by age, interests and background.

Friendly visitors to Israel in Jan included Chechia President Petr Pavel, former US Vice President Mike Pence, 9 UN envoys, 22 EU lawmakers, 40 US JCC leaders, 50 Hadassah leaders, Palantir directors, US student leaders, Christian Zionists, Indian influencers, Iran’s opposition leader, and many more.

Last week’s article about Lev Echad (One Heart – see ) supporting wounded IDF soldiers didn’t give the US charity enough credit. Since Oct 7, some 50,000 volunteers have run Israeli mental health hotlines; supported displaced Israeli families and reservists; distributed food, and much more.

If you, your children, or grandchildren live in the USA, are aged 21-39 and want to gain a deep understanding of IDF soldiers' mission in the current war, register for the Friends of the IDF’s National Young Leadership Mission to Israel from May 24 to May 30, 2024.

In a world that seems to devalue the family unit, Family Day (Yom HaMishpacha) in Israel on Feb 9 is a day to honor the family unit and its centrality to our lives. Israel has 2.25 million families with about half having two parents and at least one child under the age of 17.

The competition for female-led Israeli startups at an event organized by Yazamiyot (see below) was won by anydish (AI nutrition - see previously). In 2nd place was Aisap (AI ultrasound heart monitoring - see previously) and in 3rd was Kinoko (funghi - see previously).