Israel Active

When Michael Levin, a lone soldier who made Aliyah from the USA, was killed in the Second Lebanon War, it set in motion a community-wide, grass roots effort to establish the Lone Soldier Center. On Michael’s 10th yartzheit (anniversary of death) the Jerusalem center opened.

Muslims and Arabs who openly identify as Zionists are growing in number. Read here about Muhammad Zoabi, Mahdi Satri, Ahmed Meligy, Nonie Darwish, Qanta Ahmed, Mosab Hassan Yousef, Mohammad Hosseini, Gabriel Nadaf, Monaliza Abdo and Lucy Aharish.

The full entire support system of Ezer Mizion’s Cancer Support Division was mobilized when both mother and father of a newborn baby were diagnosed with tumors. Ezer Mizion provides services to over 660,000 Israelis, plus its Bone Marrow Registry saves lives of Jewish cancer patients the world over.

Just before the last Jewish New Year, Simon Glassberg flew from Canada to Israel to meet his sister Hilda Shlick (nee Glassberg) whom he thought had died in the Holocaust.  In 1999 another Canadian brother, Karol, entered Hilda’s details into the Yad Vashem database, to be discovered only in 2015 by Hilda’s Israeli grandson David Shlick.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project has identified some 600 lavish stone floor tile fragments believed to have decorated the Second Temple in Jerusalem. They were found in rubble dumped by the Arab Waqf following illegal building on the Temple Mount in 2004.

1900-year-old frescos (wall paintings) have been unearthed at Zippori, the Jewish capital of the Galilee that was home to many Jewish inhabitants throughout the Roman period.  The frescos are the first, only and earliest evidence of figurative images in wall paintings at the site.

Knesset members from across Israel’s political spectrum gave an official salute and thanks to Israel’s United Hatzalah and Israel’s search and rescue teams. MK Nurit Koren said, “The scholars of the Talmud coined the term ‘he who saves a life it’s as if he saved an entire world’.

Nurse Elie Schiff dedicated her Aliya to Israeli nurse Dafna Meir, who was murdered by a Palestinian Arab terrorist in Jan 2015. Her connection to Dafna continues to inspire her now that she has met the family and attended the Bat Mitzva of Dafna’s daughter Noa.

Mosaic United, formerly the Israel-Diaspora Initiative, is investing millions of dollars into strengthening Diaspora Jewry and its engagement with the State of Israel. Its first project is a series of grants to Chabad on Campus, Hillel International and Olami.

The remains of a structure that served as a synagogue during Second Temple times have been unearthed in an archaeological excavation at Tel Rechesh in the heart of the Nahal Tavor Nature Reserve in Israel’s lower Galilee. Eight 2nd Temple synagogues have been discovered in Israel.