Israel Active

One hundred and fifty new immigrants from Ethiopia landed in Israel as part of Operation Tzur Israel. One of them said, "This is a very great privilege. We have been waiting for many years to make Aliyah and do not believe that this is happening. The first place I would like to see is Jerusalem."

After a separation of over thirty years, an Ethiopian family has finally been reunited with their precious Book of Psalms that they had to abandon when fleeing to Israel in Operation Solomon. The book, written in the ancient Ethiopian language of Ge’ez, is hundreds (if not more) years old.

The normally anti-Israel BBC made this video of Israeli wild wheat seeds.  Just like the Jewish story, the seeds have learned to move to places where they can take root and thrive. The re-discovery of hardy Israeli wild wheat (see ) is now helping breed crops that can grow in harsh conditions.

At a moving bar mitzvah ceremony at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, dozens of young Indian Jews celebrated their Bnei Mitzvot.  The group was on a trip with Birthright, an organization that brings Jewish youth to Israel to experience their ancestral homeland.

Children from both Arab and Jewish kindergartens and a youth music ensemble of Arabs and Jews joined in the festivities at the dedication of the new Lod Mosaic Center. It houses a magnificent 1,700-year-old Roman-era mosaic that was discovered in Lod in 1996 and has just returned from a world tour.

Holocaust survivors Shimon and Susanna Lifshitz donated an ambulance to Magen David Adom after making Aliyah. Their grandson Avraham, a senior EMT for MDA, recently delivered a baby girl in the same ambulance. Grandfather Shimon said, “it’s for moments like this that we donated the ambulance”.

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)