Israel Active

Everyone can do some good. Pantry Packers offers groups of tourists to Israel the opportunity to spend 90 minutes packing food for poor families. It’s a concept called Tikkun Olam Tourism.

The IDC (Interdisciplinary Center) in Herzliya is offering the first ever Israel-based law degree course for English speakers. It costs $10,950 pa - 15% of US law school fees. It prepares students for the Israeli bar exam but 5-week US courses exist for those returning to the USA.

(Thanks to CLIC) Israel, whose desalination and irrigation systems are among the most advanced in the world, has turned to her Canadian friends to help cleanse the water of its own Kishon River. www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadian-israeli-ties-to-be-strengthened-by-clean-water-project/article14696309/ High-flyer. Maybe he is not typical, but once a week D (name cannot be disclosed) is a fighter pilot soaring across Israeli skies, and for five days a week he is a Weizmann Institute nanotechnology doctoral student. Both his siblings are doing post-doctorates and all three received their first degrees from the Open University.

If you remember, Yoni and Shoshana are making the Negev desert bloom with Argan trees that will eventually produce fruit from which rich, nutritious Argan oil can be extracted. 1000 saplings have been planted and land is being prepared for another 1000 in the spring. Please donate if you can.

Three passengers were waiting by their broken down car at night on the Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem highway. Volunteer police Moshe Appelbaum and Shalom Levy spotted them and moved them to the opposite carriageway. Moments later, a passing car slammed into the stranded vehicle.

(Thanks to British Israel Group) Sorry for missing this August archaeological discovery. Shikhin in the Galilee is one of the earliest known villages from the Second Temple period and is mentioned in the Jewish Talmud and by Josephus. It was the home to many potters.

Israel’s National Library will be digitizing the Palatina Library’s collection of about 1,600 documents dating to the Middle Ages. Items to go online include one of the oldest existing copies of the Mishna – the Jewish Oral Law.

(Thanks to Israel21c) About 1,500 Israeli teens (often from problem homes) are involved in the fire scout movement. They learn to operate fire trucks, ladders, hoses, rescue techniques and all about fires. In 2010 fire scouts helped save two 18-month-old babies from a burning apartment.

Here is a beautiful Israel21c film about Israeli scientist and ornithologist Yossi Leshem. Yossi took advantage of Israel being the route for 500 million migratory birds to devise solutions that allow man and bird to share the same airspace in safety.

My wife cheered when she read this. The Ministry of Environmental Protection plans to end the use of disposable plastic bags at shops. Multiuse plastic bags will be distributed to the Israeli public for free over several months, after which the use of throwaway plastic bags will be ended.