Israel Active

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations convened its 42nd consecutive annual Leadership Mission to Israel with a delegation of more than 100 leaders from the Conference’s 53 member organizations, the largest group ever.

Israel’s Noy Peles is a skilled former MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) champion. Last March she enlisted in the IDF and chose the Border Police, despite the adverse impact on her martial arts career. She now helps defend Jerusalem against terror attacks.

Read about entrepreneur Aaron Frenkel’s role in flying Jews from the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to Israel. A phone call in 1988 triggered his entry into the aviation industry. Soon between 20,000 to 35,000 Jews per month were being flown to Israel.

The Aleppo Codex in Jerusalem’s Israel Museum has been recognized by UNESCO as a unique world treasure. It was written in Tiberias around 930 CE and is believed to be the world’s oldest copy of the Hebrew Bible. The Codex joins UNESCO’s registry of 300 items and collections.

An Australian test of honesty was repeated in Israel. A blind Israeli asked strangers to change a 10 or 20-shekel note, but held out a 100 or 200-shekel note to see if anyone exploited his disability. 100 per cent of Israelis corrected the blind man’s “mistake”.

No, not the Israeli PM; this is Border Police Officer Raz Bibi who was stabbed by an Arab terrorist in May and nearly died. He was discharged from hospital a month later and immediately went to pray at the Western Wall. Bibi returned to duty in November and now a ceremony has honored him.

Michael Freund of Shavei Israel writes that there are still 15,000 to 20,000 Subbotnik Jews in Russia and many want to make Aliya. They are descendants of Christians who began celebrating the Jewish Sabbath in the late 18th century. Many formally converted to Judaism.

The first linked article highlights some delicious wines made in Judea and Samaria.  Meanwhile, the 2016 Sommelier Wine Exhibition in Tel Aviv featured the products of 80 different Israeli wineries with the Golan Heights Winery being very popular in Europe. “Lechaim!”

Yisrael Kristal Kristal was born in 1903 to a religiously observant Jewish family in what is now part of Poland. His first wife and two children were murdered in the Holocaust. He survived Auschwitz and other death camps, remarried, made Aliyah, and had more children.

A Belz yeshiva student found a small bag containing 130,000 shekels (over $32,600) in cash at a bus station in Haifa. He then waited until the owner of the cash turned up and handed it over to the astounded (previously anti-orthodox) man, refusing any reward.