Israel Active

Midwives at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center and its Bikur Cholim campus delivered 133 babies over the two-day Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) festival.

The winners have been announced for the competition to design the new JNF-USA World Zionist Village. (see previously). The Israel Education and Technology Campus will be sited in the Be’er Sheva River Park. It comprises a technology center, tourist education center and an Israeli school.

Reuben Pinsky is director-general of Israel’s National Service. Some 18,000 Jews, Arabs, religious, secular, and Haredi citizens volunteer for one-year programs in medicine, education, government offices, and more. The video includes an example of the vital work they do.

Israel will admit organized groups of 5 to 30 vaccinated and tested tourists from “green, yellow and orange” countries, including the US and UK, starting on Sep 19. Birthright is to resume its tours and Masa’s Israel Journey already has. Masa is also bringing 165 English teachers to Israel.

Tel Rechov in Northern Israel is mentioned in Egyptian manuscripts. Archaeologists have unearthed artifacts related to honey production and beeswax that was used by the Egyptians. Byzantine-period inscriptions show that Jews lived there during the 3rd to 6th centuries CE.

The year 5782 on the Jewish calendar, starting Sep 6, is a sabbatical year for the Land of Israel. This article describes how religious Israeli farmers follow the Biblical commandment not to farm their fields in the seventh year.  There is even an Israeli Ministry of Agriculture Unit for Agriculture According to the Torah.

Michael, a United Hatzalah volunteer EMT, received a surprise invitation – to the wedding of Dikla, who he had saved after she had been stabbed by a terrorist six years previously. Michael had used his own fingers as a makeshift tourniquet until help arrived, otherwise Dikla would have had only minutes to live.

Nefesh b’Nefesh (NbN) brought 1,000 North American Olim (immigrants) to Israel during August - surpassing any other month in the organization's history. NbN has brought more than 3,000 olim to the country this summer - well on the way to its target of 4,500-5,000 Olim by the end of 2021.

Hannah, one of the Judean date palms at Kibbutz Ketura that was grown from a 2,000-year-old seed (see previously), has produced a huge crop of dates this year. It dwarfs the 111 dates produced last year and visitors to the kibbutz’s research center might even be able to buy some.   (video shows last year’s crop being harvested) (video explaining the history of the project)

Some 6,200 elderly Israelis at Amigour sheltered housing sites across the country will receive care packages for Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year). Worth around 120 NIS, they include wine, honey, honey cake, jam and other goods like pasta, rice, tuna, couscous and oil.