French immigrants bake the best donuts
The recent wave of new Israeli citizens from France has made a huge difference to the quality of Israel’s Chanukah donuts (sufganiyot).
Haredi IDF unit celebrates 20 years
Hundreds of ultra-religious IDF soldiers have just participated in the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Haredi combat units. They include "Netzach Yehuda" (Kfir brigade) "Tomer" platoon (Givati ) "Chetz" platoon (Paratroopers) plus "Defenders of the Negev" platoon (Air Force).
Connecting young Diaspora Jews to Israel
As reported previously Israeli non-profit Ayalim builds student villages to increase the Jewish presence in the Negev and Galilee, plus help those living in the social periphery. It is now using “social impact investing”, to enlarge some of its 22 villages and build new ones.
Taxi driver finds and returns $60,000
An Israeli taxi driver was surprised to find a bag containing $60,000 in the back seat of his cab. He located the owner - an elderly woman he took to Tel Aviv’s Sourasky (Ichilov) Hospital, who needed the money for medical treatments. “I am a man of faith,” the taxi driver said. “The money isn’t mine”.
Israelis are forever young
Yosef Eshed, a 102-year-old Israeli who fought alongside Orde Wingate, can now register for kindergarten. Eshed was one of 20 Israelis over a century old to receive a kindergarten enrollment letter recently. Apparently, a computer glitch dropped the first digit of their age.
Never give up hope
Some real-life “miraculous” stories of cancer patients whose lives were saved by stem cell transplants, thanks to the bone marrow database, managed by Israel’s Ezer Mizion.
Happy Chanukah
Two new parody songs to celebrate Chanukah - the Festival of Lights. Six13’s “Star Wars” and the Maccabeats “Pan Fry”. And the third video of the JD (Jewish Donut) is full of fun!
Chag Sameach!
Israel’s allies
A group of 25 global ministers and parliamentarians came to support Israel as part of the annual Israel Allies Foundation Chairman's Conference. They visited the Barkan Industrial Park where 8,000 Arabs and Jews work together, the Psagot Winery, Shiloh, Hebron and of course Jerusalem.
Western Wall Hanukiah is installed
The traditional bronze menorah (Hanukiah) has been set up in the Western Wall (Kotel) Plaza in preparation for the upcoming Chanukah festival. The 2-meter, 1-ton candelabra will be lit at a public ceremony on each day of the festival from the evening of Sun 22 Dec until Mon 30 Dec.
Hard cheese
An anti-Israel professor posted on Facebook a call to boycott Trader Joe's for selling Israeli Feta cheese. Thanks to an Israeli who publicized the post, pro-Israeli customers flocked to several of Trader Joe's branches and bought up all the cheese and proceeded to purchase more Israeli products.