Israel Active

Almost the first words that President Jair Bolsonaro spoke on arriving in the Jewish State were “I love Israel” (in Portuguese). He also made the first visit by a foreign leader to the Kotel (Western Wall) accompanied by an Israeli PM. He then opened a new Brazil-Israel trade mission in Jerusalem.

A bulla (seal impression) and a 2,600-year-old stamp dating back to the First Temple have been found during archaeological excavations in the City of David. The bulla has the words “Nathan-Melech, Servant of the King” - the name of an official of Judean King Josiah (Kings II 23:11)

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Jewish settlement from the Second Temple period at the north entrance to Beer Sheva. They found part of an oil lamp decorated with a nine-branch menorah, vessels used by Jews for ritual purity and tunnels to evade the Romans.

Watch from 1hr 5 mins as the SpaceIL team celebrates Lunar Capture. Then keep watching as Morris Kahn and the Arutz 7 article below suggest some extra-terrestrial reasons for the good progress of the mission.

Israel’s animal rescue and educational sanctuary at Moshav Olesh serves as a refuge for mostly disabled animals. It is popular with visitors, especially children with special needs. Its residents include a three-legged donkey, a sheep with leg braces, and a blind goat.

New Zealand MP, the Honorable Alfred Ngaro, is a Christian, descended from Polynesian, Cook Islanders and a Jewish grandmother. He proclaims the right of Jews to their ancestral homeland and has reestablished the NZ Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Archaeologists are uncovering a Jewish village from the Hasmonean period in the Sharafat neighborhood of Jerusalem. It includes a wine and olive presses, a rock-cut dovecote, two large ritual baths, a water cistern and an extravagant burial cave.

I have noticed that in Israel, dogs don’t chase cats and cats don’t chase birds.  And in this video a herd of wild ibex / gazelles uses a zebra crossing to get across a busy Israeli road.

I didn’t want to risk providence by reporting this previously, but winter rains have now raised the level of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) to 78.5 cm above the lower red line – its highest level in over two years.  More rain is forecast – apologies to tourists, but we do need the water!

Shulamit survived breast cancer, twice. Then she was diagnosed with leukemia and only a bone marrow transplant could save her.  No family matched but a teenager in the IDF did. He had just registered on Ezer Mizion’s database. 3 years after a successful stem cell transplant, they met.