Israel Active

104-year-old, Eleanor Hall from Richboro, Pennsylvania is finally making her first pilgrimage to the Holy Land, with her daughter and two granddaughters. “I haven’t seen many pictures of Israel, so everything is going to be new and exciting,” she said.

This blog by Andreas Faberbakke (from Norway) is so clear.

In this extensive report Bar-Ilan Professor Efraim Inbar states that Israel’s international status has improved thanks in part to its social, economic, technological, financial, and diplomatic achievements. With its new energy reserves, water and agricultural technologies, things can only get better.

11,000 youngsters from over 50 countries will take part in this year’s “March of the Living program” starting with Yom Ha’Shoah at Auschwitz on 8 April and finishing on Israeli Independence Day in Jerusalem on 16 April. 500 Holocaust survivors will accompany them and relate their experiences.

UK-based charity Myisrael has launched a free phone app to collect donations for Myisrael’s projects from about a thousand British retailers every time an online purchase is made. Participating retailers include Boots, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, PC World and Amazon.

1300 people attended the seder at Kibbutz Naan near Rehovot. They have their own haggadah and songs and the kids put on a show. But imagine all the washing up!

A huge crowd gathered at the Western Wall plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem to celebrate the traditional priestly blessing performed during the Passover festival. The event is a reminder of the Jewish pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem, over 2500 years ago.

The symbolic figure of six million has been registered by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, along with the fact that Israel now is the country with the largest population of Jews in the world. It has superseded the United States, which has a population of 5.5 million Jews.

In Times Square, New York, Nefesh b’Nefesh were busy answering questions from potential olim about jobs, education and accommodation in Israel. NbN wants to bring one million American Jews to the Jewish State in its next ten years.

Many Polish Jews were raised as Catholics and have only recently discovered their Jewish roots. 25 arrived in Israel this week for a special seminar organized by Shavei Israel, an organization that aims to strengthen the connection between descendants of Jews and the State of Israel and the Jewish people.