Israel Active

The Central Bureau of Statistics has published that 15,600 Israelis left to live abroad in 2010. The emigration rate is now 0.7 for every 1000 citizens, the lowest it has been since 1973. The CBS suggests that the global economic crisis is the reason. There are 570,000 Israelis living abroad today.

A dramatic rescue brought a Jewish woman and her two young children out of the clutches of a brutal husband with whom she lived for 28 years in the Arab town of Tulkarm, East of Netanya. On reaching safety, Dinah’s children begged her, "Mommy, promise us you never will go back there again."

More than 400 Christians and Jews joined together in San Diego at an event to galvanize Christian support for Israel. Organised by Brett “Bird” Matson and co-sponsored by StandWithUs San Diego, as Bird put it, “Jews, Christians and those with no faith were inspired to look up and love Israel.”

StandWithUs, in partnership with El Al Airlines and The Jewish Agency, has started a program to bring the varied faces of Israel to people across the world. El Al pilots and flight attendants serve as ambassadors for Israel during their layovers to tell people what it means to be Israeli.

We can hardly believe that it’s five years since Nefesh b’Nefesh brought us home to the Jewish State. So we were exhilarated to see that, exactly five years later, 350 new immigrants landed at Ben Gurion Airport to begin their new lives in Israel. More than 4,800 American, Canadian and British Jews have or will be making aliyah this year, which marks Nefesh B’Nefesh’s 10th anniversary.

This is for all those senior readers who think that they are set in their ways. Jay and Lina Padgug, ages 85 and 82, both widowers, got a second chance at love when they met on JDate. The two tied the knot two years ago, and recently decided to make an old dream come true by moving to Israel.

Ten years after being seriously wounded in a bombing attack in Karnei Shomron, Shira Chazan completed the first portion of Israel Police training academy. With a degree in criminology and following a long and painful rehabilitation process, Shira is getting on with her life.

(Thanks to Israel21c) International travel magazine Conde Nast has included Tel Aviv as number 3 in its list of cities every architecture lover must visit. “Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Tel Aviv’s ‘White City’ contains 4,000 International Style buildings” the website reported.

Just a couple of catches. Firstly, you must be a Bezeq customer (I am) and secondly, you donate 1-2 Mb of your home wi-fi bandwidth to the service accessed by others. Your home effectively becomes a hotspot. 10,000 have already signed up and I’m thinking seriously about joining them.

The incident is all over the news and worth recording here.