Israel Active

The Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem is displaying artifacts from a 3000-year-old two-gated city in an exhibit called “In the Valley of David and Goliath”.  Archeologists identify it as possibly Sha'arayim ('two gates' in Hebrew), mentioned in the story of David and Goliath.

Archaeologists from Israel and Malta have unearthed a first century CE workshop in the Galilee that produced stone vessels. It is evidence of Jewish communities that used vessels made of stone to avoid religious restrictions associated with using pottery.

Shimon Peres who died on Wednesday, urged Israel to embrace innovation, given the lack of natural resources in the land of milk and honey. Irrespective of his politics, he was unequivocally respected for his unending energy, optimism and inquisitiveness. He believed that anything could be achieved if you really tried.

Chabad set a new world record by getting 262 men to put on tefillin in 10 hours.  The fact that this was achieved in the “secular” city of Tel Aviv is even more amazing.

Some 6,000 new immigrants have arrived in Israel over the summer, mostly from Russia, France, the US, Brazil, and Belarus. The Absorption Ministry has prepared extra facilities at Ben Gurion airport and in the various absorption centers and local branches.

Excellent new video from Stand With Us that silences those who claim that the Jewish Temple never existed in Jerusalem.

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation is launching a new virtual reality (VR) experience in the Western Wall complex.  It provides a virtual tour of the Second Temple, giving visitors an insight into the workings of the center of Jewish life 2,000 years ago.

The world’s oldest man, Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal, now lives in Haifa. Due to World War 1, he was unable to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah in Poland, so a few years late...100 years late… he was called up to read the Torah for his delayed Bar Mitzvah – on his 113th birthday.

The 233 North American Olim that landed in Israel on 17th August included the 50,000th immigrant to make Aliya through Nefesh b’Nefesh.  They were greeted in a special ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport by Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin.

The inscription on a 2000-year-old stone weight, discovered in 2013 excavations of Jerusalem’s Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue, has just been translated. It contains the family name Katros (in both Aramaic and ancient Persian) of a Second Temple High Priest, mentioned in the Mishna.