Israel Active

9-year-old Belgian Laurent Simons has a degree in electrical engineering and an IQ of 147. Although not Jewish, he and his family have just asked Emmanual Nahshon, Israeli Ambassador in Brussels, for help so he can study biotechnology, medicine, and bioengineering in Israel.

Actor Kirk Douglas, who passed away last week at the age of 103, portrayed US Colonel Mickey Marcus in the movie Cast a Giant Shadow.” His donations to Israel included the Kirk Douglas Theater near the Western Wall and many Jerusalem playgrounds.

Israeli archaeologists have exposed a late 10th-early 9th century BCE Iron Age temple complex at Tel Motza, west of Jerusalem. It has similarities to King Solomon’s Temple and may be one of the sites that were abandoned when sacrificial services were centralized in Jerusalem.

The non-profit Passages organizes 9-day trips to Israel for 3,000 Christian college students each year. It teaches them about the roots of their faith and exposes them to modern Israel. Participants give post-trip talks to churches and write articles for local newspapers.

Israel’s up-and-coming music sensation, Noa Kirel, has just begun a two-year term in the IDF. She said, “I want to serve as an example for boys and girls to enlist.” A Rabbi told her parents to change her name from Noya to Noa as a baby, due to illness. He said it would enable her to move (“lanua”).

89-year-old Lila not only survived the Holocaust, she made it to Israel, where she raised a family and is now the proud grandmother of an Israeli Air Force pilot. In this touching video she watches as her grandson flies over her Israeli home.

Since its 2016 launch, Israel’s Elementor website builder for WordPress has had over 3 million installs in 180 countries. Orthodox Jewish co-founder Yoni Luksenberg has now returned the 20,000-shekel grant he received from incubator KamaTech so it can benefit new startups.

The National Library of Israel has begun publishing oral histories from the Sephardi Voices initiative, the first digital collection that documents and preserves the life stories of Jews who lived in Arab and Islamic countries. It includes video and audio clips of interviews, plus archive photographs.

Israeli charity Boomerang supports 500 of the 3,000 lone soldiers discharged from the IDF each year with job searching, training, health issues, equipment etc. It recently launched its “Misheli” project to support 1,000 more ex-soldiers and to set up a Call Center helpline service.

46+ heads of state and their entourages attended the fifth World Holocaust Forum, “Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism,” at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. It commemorates the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp at the end of World War II.