Israel Active

Israeli organization Darkaynu, part of the Ohr Torah Stone network of programs, has developed Israel gap year programs for people with disabilities. The latest programs, in Jerusalem and Alon Shvut, comprise 28 students from the US, Canada, England, and Australia.

Rony Zigler is CEO of Kolhei Golan, managing all the sewage treatment plants in the Golan Heights. His latest treatment plant uses reconditioned kidney dialysis filters from Israel’s NUFiltration (see previously). It inspired Rony to altruistically donate a kidney to a total stranger.

Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, the first-ever house of prayer in Israel for Bnei Menashe immigrants from India, has just been inaugurated in the northern Israeli city of Nof Hagalil. About 150 worshippers attended - most of them members of the community.

In 2021, Israel brought 1,755 Ethiopian Jews to settle in Israel. They joined over 90,000 others who were born in Ethiopia, together with another 73,800 with at least one parent born in Ethiopia. Netanya is the city with the largest population of residents of Ethiopian origin (around 12,000).

The above article about Rony Zigler also mentions that more than a dozen residents of his religious Zionist hometown of Hispin in the Golan have donated kidneys to strangers through the NGO Matnat Chaim (“gift of life”).  Israelis are the world’s most altruistic kidney donors (see previously).

The global movement for Jewish mothers, Momentum (see previously) has launched Yomm - the first social networking app designed to bring Jewish women closer together to learn and connect. Yomm was created in partnership with the Mayberg Foundation and Israel’s Diaspora Affairs ministry.

Each year on 6th Kislev, Israel pays tribute to its founding father, David Ben-Gurion, with a national holiday. This year, on 30 Nov, for the very first time, “Ben-Gurion Day” will come to the USA. Register here, to discover how Ben-Gurion’s groundbreaking ideas and dreams are now a reality.

Take a virtual walk across Temple Mount in Jerusalem and see the stairs that Jewish pilgrims ascended to reach the Second Temple, even before King Herod expanded the courtyard.

In its 19th year, Masa Israel will bring a record 14,000 young people from the Diaspora to Israel on Masa programs. More than 200 will participate in the Masa Doctors program for a training program and integration into the Israeli health system.

The nonprofit Am Yisrael Chai (the People of Israel Live) foundation, in cooperation with the Israel Dog Unit, has inaugurated a new center for locating missing persons in the Meron region of Northern Israel. The center then immediately experienced a real live incident, locating a missing person in Kiryat Ata.