Israel Active

I wrote previously about Rotem Rabi, Israel’s contestant in this month’s Miss World competition in China. But it isn’t easy, as she keeps kosher. “I’m having difficulty with the food,” she said, “almost nothing here is kosher. I’m living on pineapple and cookies”.

Drones flying over Israel’s Lachish region have discovered the remains of a 2,200-year-old Idumean (Edomite) palace or temple. Dating from the Hellenistic period, the structure was partly dismantled, probably by the Jewish Hasmonean King John Hyrcanus I around 112 BCE.

Michael Bassin now works for Israeli startup FirstImpression.io and has written a book “I Am Not a Spy”. It tells of his time studying in Sharjah United Arab Emirates, also in Cairo, Lebanon and finally in Israel.

Mohammad Kabiya is a Bedouin, Muslim Arab. He loves his country. He is prepared to die for it, which is why he served in its army - voluntarily, because his country is free, diverse, vibrant. His country is Israel.

13-year-old Eytan Kramer from Ra’anana marked his coming of age by raising $18,000 to provide solar power for the Bukalikha Primary School in Uganda. Eytan and his mother then traveled to Uganda to see the lights turned on and give 959 children a brighter future.

Jewish ancestor Abraham bought the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron as a burial site for his wife Sarah some 3,700 years ago. Jews recently read the Torah portion containing the details of the event and to mark the occasion, some 35,000 celebrated by dancing at the historic location.

Eliahu Pietruszka (102) discovered his brother Volf’s son, Alexandre, thanks to Yad Vashem. In 2005, Volf wrote a Yad Vashem page of testimony saying that Eliahu was dead.  A cousin alerted Eliahu’s grandson which led to Eliahu meeting with Alexandre in Israel.

45 Holocaust survivors in Israel got the chance to celebrate their bar and bat mitzvahs at Jerusalem’s Western Wall. Due to World War II, they were unable to mark their Jewish coming of age at the appropriate time 70 years ago.

KamaTech, a startup accelerator for ultra-Orthodox entrepreneurs, together with the website Sefaria, organized the first-ever hackathon for Haredi engineers and programmers. Its aim was to find ways to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data in the study of ancient Jewish texts.

I featured Pakistani Muslim Noor Dahri previously. Here he explains why supports the Jewish State.