Israel Active

This article nicely sums up the Jewish State on its 67th birthday.

Avraham Shapira 32, from Yitzhar in the Shomron, gave his kidney to a 50-year-old man whom he had never met. When persuaded to publicize his act, his brother-in-law donated one of his own kidneys to a 60-year-old woman. Four more men from the Shomron have since followed suit.

To mark the Israel Museum’s 50th anniversary, the Shrine of the Book is displaying a gilt nano chip, the size of a sugar grain, on which the entire Bible is inscribed. The bible was produced at Israel’s Technion Institute. The text needs to be magnified 10,000 times in order to be legible.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Israel museum, new stamps include the Cyrus declaration allowing Jews to return to the Land of Israel 60 years after their exile to Babylon 2600 years ago. A replica of the declaration is on display in the museum’s “Rivers of Babylon” exhibit.

Israeli flags distributed free in newspapers by Bank Hapoalim were made in Israel by Hamishkam, which employs thousands of disabled people in 40 communities around the country.

The exhibit entitled “People, Book, Land – The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel” has opened at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The opening event was co-sponsored by the UN missions of Israel, the US and Canada.

Jewish Deaf Multimedia released this video of Rafael teaching how to ask the famous “Four Questions of the Passover Seder” in Israeli Sign Language. Start learning now and you'll be able to ask “Why is this night different from all other nights?” in a different way next year!   

Israeli doctors performed complex surgery to enable a Syrian boy to walk again after he was severely injured by a shell in Syria’s civil war. Having to spend Passover in an Israeli hospital, he really enjoyed eating traditional matza crackers, calling them a “delicacy”.

The Tourism Ministry is expecting about 130,000 visitors in Israel over the period of Passover and the Christian Holy Week. Hotel occupancy levels in most of the popular tourism areas will reach 80-90% during the holidays, with some areas completely full.

Yad Ezra V'Shulamit, an organization dedicated to eliminating poverty in Israel, will be distributing upward of 15,000 food baskets this Passover to feed 100,000 people in Israel. Also Colel Chabad is implementing Israel’s Food Security Project, while Leket Israel gathers produce from farmers.