Israel Active

Teacher Marlin Nowbakht at Israel's Shenkar College of Engineering and Design believes “Israeli students are very targeted on what they do.... They're pushing the boundaries of their thoughts. They don't accept every answer as it is. And there is a lot of creativity within that breaking-the-boundaries kind of approach."

(Thanks to Israel21c) “Gazelle Valley” is a 64-acre site in the Givat Mordechai neighborhood of Jerusalem, in the south west of Israel’s capital. The valley is to be turned into the Gazelle Urban Nature Park, preserving the small flock of wild mountain gazelle that live there.

The Lookstein Center for Jewish Education at Bar-Ilan University has completed an innovative "Israel throughout the Year" curriculum for Jewish day schools in the United States and Canada. Schools can choose to utilize either the colorful print or digital versions.

Guests of the StandWithUs Fellowship Reunion Conference included Israeli Environment Minister Gilad Erdan and CEO of Google Israel Meir Brand. The StandWithUs Israel Fellowship identifies, educates and empowers Israel’s next generation of leaders and ambassadors.

Among the 18,000 new immigrants to Israel in 2012 was 100-year-old Moises Lederman from Brazil. "I'm only sorry I didn't come to Israel earlier on, but better late than never," he said.

Here are some of the best Internet images of Israelis making the most of the unusual weather. Eight of the photos are genuine, but five have been enhanced – probably with Israeli technology. See if you can spot the intruders.

See this lovely photo of an Israeli Air Force squadron flying over the snow-capped hills of Northern Israel. Sends shivers up one’s spine, and a warm glow everywhere else!

Israel has increased the budget for rehabilitating polluted rivers and streams. The new total includes NIS 220m for the Kishon River, NIS 300m for the Beersheba River and NIS 178m for the Alexander, the Yarkon, the Taninim Stream, the Shikma Stream and the Tabor Stream amongst others.

Israel is to transform a disused landfill site in Netanya into a residential area for 2,062 families and 1,100 hotel rooms. It involves evacuating 2.5 million cubic meters of waste, increasing Netanya’s famous iris nature reserve and providing much needed housing for the seaside city.

Fifteen Israeli-Ethiopian teenagers have just visited the birthplace of their parents. During the trip they began to understand where they had come from and all that they had achieved. For Zahava it was as if a giant puzzle had been completed. “This was worth everything to me”, she said.