Israel Active

Gilad Shalit, who was held in captivity by Hamas in Gaza for five years, has married his long-time girlfriend Nitzan Shabat. One of the wedding guests was Gilad’s friend Shai Gross, who was rescued by Israeli commandos during Operation Entebbe in Uganda in 1976.

At a wedding in Modi’in Illit, the groom's grandfather suddenly collapsed. United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Neoray arrived at the scene in under 90 seconds. After several minutes of CPR and two defibrillator shocks, the grandfather’s pulse returned - to the joy of bride and groom.

Mazel tov to Tammy Goldenhirsch, who made aliyah from St. Louis at the age of 96, proving that it is never too late to make one's dream of moving to Israel a reality. Tammy was greeted at Ben-Gurion International Airport by three generations of family.

30 years ago, on Jun 24 - 25 1991, Israel rescued 14,325 Jews from war-torn Ethiopia in Operation Solomon - the world’s largest humanitarian airlift. They were flown from Addis Ababa to Tel Aviv on 35 Israeli aircraft. The Ethiopians’ 2,500-year-old dream came true in just 36 hours.

The annual Jerusalem Day parade took place this week. Some 5,000 Israelis danced with flags to celebrate the anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification in 1967.

Archaeologists have found evidence at Sde Boker in the Negev that migrating Neanderthals and homo-sapiens met and interbred in only one tiny area of the world about 50,000 years ago.  That area was the Land of Israel – amazing!  Please watch the exciting ILTV video below.

Dr. Yonatan Adler of Ariel University is director of the Origins of Judaism Archaeological Project. It is documenting the archaeologic evidence relating to the practice of Judaism in Israel earlier than the first century BCE. The findings of the project will be published in a book next year.

Jacob has added 12 videos to his site describing the history of the State of Israel.

In what has been hailed as “Aliyah super week” by the Jewish Agency for Israel, 500 new immigrants from over 20 countries arrived in Israel in just 7 days. And immigration from North America has reached 1,100 this year with dozens more groups arriving in August.

Shaheen Chishti is a Muslim activist who educates about the Shoah and Israel in Urdu – a language spoken by 600 million Muslims in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and elsewhere. He stresses the need to think of Israel in terms of building partnerships for business and for education.