Israel Active

Despite attacks from nearby Gaza, the 30,000 residents of the Israeli city of Sderot are not abandoning their homes. See these photos of parks, lakes, yeshiva, animal therapy center, Founder’s Museum, music center, hi-tech businesses, as well as some brightly decorated bomb shelters.

Israel’s Barkai Center for Practical Rabbinics gave its 2022 Rabbi of the Year award to Rabbi Yonah Meshulam HaCohen Fodor of the Beit Yehuda Synagogue in Beit Vagan, Jerusalem. Two Gabayim tied for Gabay of the Year, and Lod’s Ramat Eshkol community won Community of the year.

The new group “Jewish Studies Zionist Network” comprises scholars and educators in the field of Jewish Studies who “affirm that Zionism is a legitimate movement for the national self-determination of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland.”  I hope they use my newsletter material.

Jun 5th's webinar in JNF’s series on Zionism features Fleur Hassan Nahoum - Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem. She speaks about being a woman in power, the Bedouin, Jewish, Arab, and Druze women she works with, and the strong Emirati women in the UAE-Israel Business Council she founded.  (webinar registration link) (previous webinars in the series)

Hundreds of young Christian adults are scheduled to arrive in Israel this summer for the largest Passages tour since the start of the pandemic. College and graduate students from across the US come to Israel to connect with their biblical roots and get to know the modern Jewish state.

A Ramat Gan company found an unusual way to reduce its carbon footprint. It dropped a bag of diamonds into the recycling bin. Employees contacted the Hiriya Recycling Park who located the refuge truck. A scan revealed the diamonds, which were returned to their grateful owners.

Excellent video explaining how the name “West Bank” originated.

Emunah Bet Elazraki Children’s Home was the venue for a mass bar-bat mitzvah event the likes of which had never been seen before in Netanya. While organizing the event, many of the women volunteers realized that they also never had a bat mitvah. They proved that it is never too late!

As you can “see” there were many atmospheric photo opportunities beginning with the letter “C” on Jerusalem’s streets last week.

Researchers from Israel’s Weizmann Institute have used advanced AI and molecular spectroscopy to reveal the earliest evidence of early humans’ use of fire. Evron Quarry, in the Western Galilee, contains Paleolithic tools that were deliberately heated - over 800,000 years ago.