Israel Active

Thanks to new legislation passed by South Carolina’s House of Representatives, special car license plates have the message: “South Carolina Stands With Israel.” The graphic on the plate shows flags of both Israel and South Carolina. Chabad of Charleston will front the cost.

Whereas Israel’s dairy cattle are the best in the world, its European beef cattle do not thrive in Israel’s environment. Robin Rosenblatt aims to re-invigorate Israel’s beef cattle industry by building a self-sustainable Israeli herd of 300 pure breed Texas Longhorns.

Non-profit organization Shavei Israel is bringing 250 members of the Lost Tribe of Bnei Menashe to Israel this summer. The first 40 have just arrived. There are around 7,000 Bnei Menashe still in India. Their tradition is that they were exiled from Israel 2700 years ago.

The exhibition “People, Book, Land: The 3500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People with the Holy Land” was originally scheduled for Jan 2014 but was controversially postponed by UNESCO.

There were over 13,000 submissions to the “My Family Story” competition for the best 3-D Art representation of their family history. 42 students won a trip to Israel and will have their entries displayed at Tel Aviv University’s Beit Hatfutsot Museum of the Jewish People.

Israel’s 10th President is Reuven “Rubi” Rivlin. He promised to be the President of all Israelis - "Jews, Arabs, Druse, rich, poor, those more observant and those who are less…. Long live Israeli democracy! Long live the State of Israel!"

Visitors to Israel's public libraries increased in 2013. Over 1 million of the 8 million Israeli citizens now have active public library memberships. On a particular day during August one million books were checked out.

Frenchmen Didier Maarek and Gerard Ben Hamou started selling Teva products in their shops. Teva then donated a percentage of the revenues to Israeli charitable causes. Some $5.4 million has been donated so far.

Thirty-five thousand people marched in the fiftieth annual Celebrate Israel Parade in New York City. Associated Press reported “Awash in white and blue - the colors of Israel’s flag - tens of thousands of onlookers cheered the celebration that also featured a model of an Israeli spacecraft.