Israel Active

Gilbert Luzon, owner of the King Solomon Hotels in Jerusalem and Tiberias, passed away in 2016.  In his will, he left his ex-employees $1,000 for each year of service.  Even staff washing dishes received $20,000.  In a TV interview, one man replied. “What can I say? It is a blessing.”

David Fischman lost his entire family in the Holocaust but overcame his nightmares to help establish future Israeli economists, lawyers and political scientists. His estate has funded 71 scholarships with several beneficiaries presenting at Jerusalem’s E. David Fischman Scholarship Conference.

Israel’s Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev unveiled a coin discovered during a recent excavation of a road in Jerusalem. The coin was one of a series minted during the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 67 CE. Regev noted that Israel re-unified Jerusalem in 1967 and its 50th Jubilee is next year.

A new version of the favorite board game Monopoly is being launched.  Jerusalem Monopoly will be in the shops in time for the 50th anniversary of the re-unification of Jerusalem.  It may even be available in time for Hanukkah.

Sisters Henia and Rywka Borenstein made Aliya in 1948, believing that their entire family had been wiped out in the Holocaust. But their cousins Fanya and Gennadi had made Aliya in 1990 and have just been re-united, thanks to the Borensteins’ testimony in the Yad Vashem database.

For the past 27 years, Rabbi Yitzhak and Sima Peretz prepared food for patients and their families who had to stay in Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital over the Sabbath. The whole hospital then celebrated when Sima Peretz gave birth to a daughter after 30 years of childlessness.

All Burger King chains in Israel will be serving donut burgers specially for the holiday of Hanukkah. The burger will be called "SufganiKing," a play on the Hebrew word for donut, "sufganiyah."

There are 3000 IDF orphans – children of a parent killed whilst serving in the IDF or Israeli police.  The non-profit organization IDF Widows and Orphans is present at important junctions in their lives. They make sure they have a great celebration of their bat/bar mitzva.

The global Shabbat Project connected over 1 million Jews in 1160 cities spread over 94 countries. In Israel alone, 163 cities and towns took part in special events. These included pre-Shabbat challah baking activities, as well as post-Shabbat Havdalah and musical ceremonies.

Thousands of Israelis (Ethiopians and others) celebrated the Day of Sigd in Jerusalem. The traditional Ethiopian-Jewish festival marks the 50th day after Yom Kippur and brings together a variety of Jewish prayer and customs.