Israel Active

Corundum stones found in the Kishon River, near Haifa contain a variety of rare minerals, including Moissanite and tistarite. Until now, tistarite has been found on a single meteorite that came from outer space; this is the first find in a natural source deep inside the Earth.

In the 1960s, Uzi Paz realized Israel’s wildflowers would simply disappear at the rate people kept picking them. Uzi helped found Israel’s Society for the Protection of Nature, convinced the government to make picking illegal and campaigned successfully for protecting the wildflowers.

New Israeli legislation is being introduced to allow dentists with at least five years’ experience to practice in Israel without having to take an exam. Certified occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists and dietitians can practice without an academic degree but with a test.

Three 1,700-year-old burial inscriptions in Aramaic and Greek have been uncovered in the northern Israeli community of Tzipori. Two belong to Rabbis, whose names have yet to be deciphered.

Daniel Tomohiro is not the typical Israeli soldier. Born from a Jewish mother and a Japanese father, he learned how his Hungarian grandparents survived the Holocaust, made Aliyah, and fought in Israel’s War of Independence. Now Tomohiro serves in the 50th Battalion of Israel’s Nahal Brigade.

Veterinarians at Israel’s Ramat Gan Safari park had to call on the help of Dr. Ayelet Priel, an ophthalmologist at Tel Hashomer’s Sheba Medical Center who performed a first-of-its-kind operation in order to save the eyesight of a porcupine that had hurt her face while trying to escape from a trap.

Israel is the only country to have revived an unspoken language and establish it as its national tongue. Thanks mainly to Eliezer ben Yehuda (1858-1922), Israelis hailing from all corners of the globe now speak Hebrew as the language of everyday communication.

For the Jewish festival of Tu Bishvat (New Year for trees) Israel21c published a Do-It-Yourself tour guide to the most impressive trees in Israel. Israel is also one of the few countries to enter the 21st century with more trees than 100 years ago. Please help to beautify the Holy Land.

A rare thrilling BBC documentary about Operations Moses (1984) and Solomon (1991), that brought the lost Jews of Ethiopia to Israel. (Editor’s note – on both occasions, my wife and I landed at Ben-Gurion Airport as the C-130 planes were flying out – amazing sight)

A 2,700-year-old farmhouse has been discovered during recent excavations ahead of the construction of a new neighborhood near the town of Rosh Ha’ayin, just east of Tel Aviv. Archaeologists also uncovered the ruins of a Byzantine monastery built on the same site 1200 years later.