Israel Active

A record 463 Brazilian Jews immigrated to Israel last year – 41% more than in 2014. An in-depth report by Brazil’s Globo TV featured the major reason for Brazilian Jews to claim Israeli citizenship as the desire to flee Brazil’s severe urban violence atmosphere.

Emunah, the National Religious Women's Organization, celebrated the 80 years since its founding. In that time, it has established 140 day-care centers for working women, 5 homes for at-risk kids, a children's crisis center, the Women's College of Arts and Technology, 13 family counseling centers and more.

The first new Israeli stamps of 2016 include Pioneering women; Ephraim Kishon; Greece-Israel diplomatic relations and Turtles.

A German-Israeli research project is building a digital environment to connect thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The project involves the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), Haifa University, Tel Aviv University and the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Only 20 invited guests were able to attend the party of Judd and Ma’ayan who came from the US to get married in Israel. Guests at a nearby Bat Mitzva party noticed and used Facebook to enlist over 100 friends to boost the numbers and cheer up the wedding couple.

Five women, descended from the ancient Chinese Jewish community of Kaifeng, are returning to the Jewish homeland. The women have studied Hebrew and Judaism for several years in order to convert, and are being brought home by Jerusalem-based nonprofit Shavei Israel.

Forty years ago, the Lubavitcher Rebbe spoke precisely about the current situation. Read about his solution in this article.

Volunteering at Israeli cancer charity Ezer Mizion often requires self-sacrifice. Eli refused his specialist’s cancellation appointment, in order to take a patient to hospital and support her when she asked for help. Just then, Eli’s father was brought in on a stretcher - and was amazed to see Eli already there to greet him.

A soldier on a train pleaded with the Israel Electric Company not to cut off her elderly disabled family. Suddenly a fellow passenger grabbed her phone and paid her overdue 1,950-shekel bill. An eye-witness said the episode filled her with pride to be part of a nation that devotes itself to helping one another in times of need.

Moving story of how a teenager’s desire just to get out of the summer heat resulted in him registering on Ezer Mizion’s bone-marrow database and from there to saving a 9-year-old with leukemia.