Israel Active

Csanad Szegedi used to be vice-president of Hungary’s far-right, anti-Semitic Jobbik party until he discovered he was Jewish. He abandoned Jobbik and embraced Judaism. The change to his life culminated this year when he made his first visit to the Jewish State.

Meir Tzan’ani blew the shofar in his synagogue until he was 17 years old when his lungs were burnt in a schoolboy prank. Following a transplant and rehabilitation at the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson campus in Petah Tikva, Meir (now age 57) can blow the shofar once more.

Miriam Siebenberg lives in a very unusual house - her Jerusalem home was built on top of another home, one that existed over 2,000 years ago. “Both my roots and the roots of our people are right underneath this house,” she says. The Siebenberg House Museum is definitely worth a visit.

This article lists some of the main differences between the Jewish State and its neighbors.

The Israel advocacy group StandWithUs hosted a 4-day Student Conference on International Law - Turning Theory into Practice. The 35 participants came from 17 countries and speakers came from the Foreign Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the IDF and Israeli media.

(Thanks to Israel21c) On Sept 9, some 200,000 volunteers are expected to take part in Clean Up Day in Israel. KKL-JNF is leading councils, government bodies and schools who will head out to the country’s forests and open spaces with garbage bags and rubber gloves.

In 2014, the Knesset will become one of the world's first parliaments to generate its own electricity. Plans have been progressed to install photovoltaic panels for the generation of electricity on the Knesset building's roof. Solar panels on the White House roof were removed due to cheap oil.

Over 1.8 million Israeli employees and contract workers received gifts from their employers in the week before the Jewish New Year. The average gift was NIS 700 ($200).

David Hornick. His conclusion is that no matter how much effort and money Israel spends on advocacy (i.e. defending itself), those that hate us will always hate us. That’s why I now try to change the conversation and just publicize all the good things that Israel does.

(Thanks to Jacob Richman) The latest issue of beautiful Israeli stamps includes silver etrog boxes and children’s songs.