Israel Active

The percentage of Israelis passing their school matriculation exams increased by 1.7% in the 2011-12 school year compared to the previous year. In the past five years, the rate has improved by 3.5% to an overall rate of 49.8%. Success for those actively studying improved last year by 2.6% to 62.4%.

Daniel Greyber won a Gold medal at the 1993 Maccabiah. It was his first trip to Israel, his first visit to the Western Wall and the first time he put on tefillin. Two decades later, he returned to Israel for the games - this time as the rabbi escorting the US’s delegation.

A hi-tech crossbow fires a piece of apple at a balloon filled with honey, high above Israel Technion’s campus. The apple, thus coated with honey, is then caught by Technion President, Professor Peretz Lavie. What is their New Year message? That the Technion aims higher!

Yitzhak Pundak fought in Israel’s War of Independence. He commanded the Nahal Brigade and the Armored Corps after the War. In 1971 Moshe Dayan appointed him Governor of Gaza, but a 1954 promise of promotion to Major General was not fulfilled. Now at 100-years-old, Yitzhak gets his rank.

Another Jewish biblical link to Israel’s capital city has been discovered in the City of David excavations. The pottery fragment from the first Temple period has an ancient Hebrew inscription possibly containing the name of the Biblical figure Zechariah son of Benaiah.

At the same time, Assyrian king Sargon II was destroying the Philistine army in the Ashdod area and an 8th Century wall has been unearthed by the harbor. The prophet Isaiah (ch.20) warned Judah’s king Hezekiah to stay out of the fight – advice, which Hezekiah heeded. (Is history repeating?)

In 2011 six children from one Jewish Yemenite family and four children of another were evacuated from Yemen to Argentina. Last week they were flown to Israel, whilst simultaneously their parents were brought to Israel from Yemen in a secret operation.

(Thanks to Geoff) Thirty Israeli children suffering with cancer were about to depart Ben Gurion airport for Camp Simcha in the USA. But 11-year-old Imbar had to disembark in tears as she had lost her passport. Just as the jet taxied along the runway, someone found Imbar’s passport. El Al’s management made an unprecedented decision and authorized the plane to return to pick her up. A beautiful story.

Jerusalem hosted the largest-ever seminar for new and veteran Olim (immigrants to Israel), to help them find employment and provide other assistance in settling into life in the Jewish State.

Josh Wasserman has donated his 13th birthday gifts to establish a basketball team and renovate a new court for children living in a center for new Ethiopian immigrants in northern Israeli city of Safed (Tzfat).