Israel Active

Sadly, I missed out for the second year running. But the well-deserved winners were Chancellor Yigal Cohen-Orgad of Ariel University, Rabbi Moshe Levinger of Hebron, and Zionist education expert Dr. Zvi Zameret.

Every year, hundreds of Israelis walk to raise funds for Ra’anana’s home for lone soldiers. Benji Hillman made Aliya from London in 1983 but was killed in Lebanon in 2006. As divisional commander he always watched over lone soldiers and Habayit Shel Benji was built in his memory.

A new home for Lone Soldiers in Israel was opened in Ramat Gan with a special ceremony. It marks the conclusion of the $5 million project launched by the American Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.

(Thanks to Israel21c) Israel celebrated Earth Day with the world’s first full-length movie screening, powered by solar energy, sponsored by Energiya Global. In Jerusalem the lights were turned off, to highlight the need to save energy – but not until after the opening of the Cool Globes exhibition.

This is the video “The Spring of Judea and Samaria”.

39-year-old Jorgen Nilsson left his home in Sweden six months ago on a 4,500-kilometer (2,800-mile) pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Jorgen, a knight in the Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus, arrived just in time for the first International Jerusalem Symposium on Green and Accessible Pilgrimage.

According to the OECD, Israel’s population has the second highest percentage of college degrees in the world (46%). Only Canada (51%) has more. The OECD average is 31%.

Absorption Minister Sofa Landver greeted new immigrants who have made Aliya without their parents and will join the IDF as “lone soldiers” immediately after Independence Day. “These young men and women help guarantee the continued existence of the State of Israel,” she said.

The Jewish State is more than just another country.

(Thanks to todaysCLIC.com) Nice piece in the Montreal Gazette by Joel Lion.