Israel Active

The British expelled the Germans from the Schneller orphanage in WW2. The British army base was then replaced by an Israeli one in 1948. Current excavations of the site have revealed a 2nd-Temple-period mikva (Jewish ritual bath), Roman baths and a winery.

As we approach the Jewish festival Purim, the wife of Roi Harel described how her husband heroically fought off two Arab terrorists who stabbed him several times and forced their way into his house in the community of Eli, where the other members of Roi’s young family were hiding.

Gerald Ostrov, CEO of the reThink Israel Initiative, spoke at the recent Jerusalem Conference of Presidents. reThink Israel is targeting, via social media, the 70% of Americans who don’t know, don’t care and aren’t interested in Israel. reThink Israel focuses on “food, nature, arts, lifestyle, health and innovation.

World Bnei Akiva, will send two shlichim (outreach workers) to Ethiopia, at 2-monthly intervals for five years, to help the last 6000 Ethiopians of Jewish origin prepare for Aliyah. They will teach Hebrew, Torah and Zionism to those in Ethiopian transit camps.

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.