Israel Active

Dozens of Ukrainian Jews live at The Jewish Agency’s refugee center in Dnepropetrovsk in preparation for Aliya on the eve of the festival of Passover. 1,400 Ukrainian Jews arrived in Israel during the first quarter of 2015, compared to approximately 400 in 2014.

Noha Hashad’s story is just coming to light. After 11 years in an Egyptian jail, for pro-Jewish Quran research, she escaped and fled to Israel in 2011. “Israel is like a jewel, a diamond, I am very fortunate to be here,” she said. Noha has founded a center for peace in the Middle East.

A special refugee rescue flight sponsored by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFJC) has brought 110 Ukrainian Jews on their aliyah trip home to Israel. It was the third flight sponsored by IFJC since December, totaling 560 Jews from Ukraine alone.

A record number of Israeli volunteers organized 10,000 projects for Good Deeds Day on 24 March, such as cleaning up beaches, neighborhoods and distributing food to the needy. Acre opened a new park that offers unique and challenging activities for hundreds of youths with special needs, alongside their families.

One of the Kosher for Pesach flavors of ice cream produced by Vermont USA-based Ben and Jerry’s is “Charoset” - one of the items on the Passover Seder plate. It is available only in Israel. The flavor debuted in 2012 when described as “vanilla-based with apples and cinnamon, and lots of walnuts.”

Here is a video of how students at Israel’s Technion Institute put together a “moving” account of the Passover story.

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South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein gave a fitting tribute to Yehuda Avner, who died last week. Ambassador Avner, advisor and speechwriter to five Israeli Prime Ministers, brought “kindness, faith and justice to a world which so desperately needs these Torah values now more than ever.”

Hannah Bentow celebrated a second Bat Mitzvah in Jerusalem, exactly a month after her Bat Mitzvah celebrations were tragically cut short by a terror attack outside the Copenhagen synagogue. Hannah’s mother said, “Here, in Israel, we had a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Hanna's Bat Mitzvah in a different environment, which is much more relaxed and safe.”

More than 1,200 people flocked to the Crowne Plaza Times Square for aliyah-related seminars and workshops. They received professional advice from shippers, accountants, financial planners, insurance, healthcare, real estate, universities and more.