Israel Active

The Mayor of Jerusalem's Sukkah in Safra Square was, at 800-square meters, the largest sukkah in the world. It hosted a variety of activities, such as workshops, plays and other performances for all ages and sectors, with free admission. The sukkah has a capacity of 650 and was open to all.

At 7.119-feet (217cm) 18-year-old Georgi Krimantsky is the tallest Oleh (new immigrant to Israel) in decades – probably ever. He already is the star center player for Be'er Sheva’s youth basketball team. It certainly highlights Israel’s new heights of 65,000 immigrants since last Rosh Hashana.

Hear Israel’s PM at the United Nations General Assembly extol the blessings that Israeli innovation has given to the world and the promise of much more in the future.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has announced that it will move its embassy to Jerusalem. Israel will correspondingly open an embassy in Kinshasa. The two countries will strengthen cooperation in the fields of agriculture, trade, defense, cyber and more.

Some of the residents of the Palestinian Authority may have closer links to the Jewish people than you might have expected.

Israeli archeologists have discovered Second Temple period (516 BCE-70 C.E.) workshop for the manufacture of stone utensils just outside Jerusalem. Stone does not attract impurity and therefore stone utensils were frequently used and re-used in Temple services.

367 students, mostly from the USA, attended the JNF-USA-run summer program at the Alexander Muss School in Israel (see previously). The school’s two campuses teach 1,500+ students about Israeli history and its connection to Judaism and Jewish peoplehood.

For the first time, Selichot prayers at the Kotel (Western Wall) were translated into sign language. Dozens of groups of hearing-impaired individuals, in cooperation with the Hushim Ben Dan Association, came to the Western Wall from all over the country and took part in the prayers.

Nine African-American imams visited the Holy Land on a mission to promote faith-based peace in the Middle East. At the Western Wall in Jerusalem the imams, wearing kufis with their hands turned skywards, prayed side-by-side with Jewish men in skullcaps.

The Orthodox Union has certified chicken cell line products from Israel’s SuperMeat as kosher Mehadrin meat, meeting the most stringent qualification for kosher supervision. SuperMeat’s lab-grown poultry uses the stem cells from chicken eggs.