Israel Active

Many Holocaust survivors have revealed their Jewish origins as they approached their last days. It often prompts their children to seek out their Jewish roots, culminating with their emigration to Israel. Michael Freund, founder of Shavei Israel, sees it as his job to help them on their Jewish journey.

U.S. envoys Jason Greenblatt and David Friedman inaugurated the Pilgrimage Road in Jerusalem’s City of David. Ambassador Friedman broke through a wall, to open the tunnel, saying “this is where the ancient prophets of Israel gave voice to revolutionary ideals of freedom, liberty and human dignity.".

Two veterans of the War of Independence Battle of Gush Etzion, were simultaneously but separately referred for heart surgery at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital 71 years later. Doctors noticed similar scar tissue from shrapnel wounds incurred during the battle. They then reunited the two comrades in arms.

UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid, a Muslim, visited the Western Wall (Kotel) during his latest visit to Israel. It comes 19 years after the last British government minister visited Jerusalem and the Western Wall. (N.B. Boris Johnson visited the Kotel in 2016 when Mayor of London.)

Biblical mosaics recently uncovered at a 1,600-year-old synagogue in the Galilean town of Huqoq include the earliest known artistic rendering of the little-known Exodus story of Elim, and a partially preserved depiction of the Book of Daniel’s grotesque four beasts.

Israel’s capital is seeing huge numbers of building projects. They include the Jerusalem Gateway business park, a new wing of Shaare Tzedek hospital, the new National Library, the Jerusalem cable car and new court buildings in Jaffa Road.  Things are definitely “looking up”.

150 soldiers and officers of the IDF Paratroopers brigade have excavated a 2,700-year-old watchtower near Ashkelon, that was standing when the Jewish King Hezekiah ruled Judea. Archaeologists believe the tower was used to transmit messages via beacons.

At the Genesis Prize award ceremony in Jerusalem, New England Patriots owner, businessman and philanthropist Robert Kraft pledged $20 million, including his Genesis Prize money, towards combating online anti-Semitism, specifically among 18-35-year-olds.

Details of Honest Reporting’s 2019 Israel mission (Dec 18 - 26) to give non-Israelis the opportunity to discover the Israel that the media doesn’t report. 

I reported previously on Israel’s WaterGen and its technology to produce water from the moisture in the air. Visitors to Jerusalem’s Kotel (Western Wall) can now access a WaterGen machine at the Kotel plaza to produce pure cold drinking water.