Israel Active

The Israeli cabinet approved the allocation of NIS 350 million over the next six years for the development of public tourist spaces in Jerusalem. The funds will be used to develop the city’s infrastructure and open spaces, as well as to renovate major tourism sites.

Holocaust survivor Aharon Appelfeld has become the oldest recipient of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize at the age of 80. The Israeli author's Blooms of Darkness was inspired by his own escape from a concentration camp during World War II. (Note the BBC’s headline.)

For 20 years, The Orthodox Union’s Jerusalem Centre has published its weekly guide to the Torah portion. Volunteers deliver the magazine to 500 synagogues across Israel. It is also published online at www.ttidbits.com

Thousands took part Sunday in the annual Flag March in Jerusalem, which celebrates the city’s reunification in 1967 after 19 years of division.

I have no words that can describe this video.

Leon Arusi Medalia had everything he wanted in Mombassa, Kenya – until his Israeli father and Kenyan mother were killed in a car crash. After being refused a Kenyan ID he came to Israel and joined the army. “Here I got everything I needed and I’m so glad this is my country.”

The Bnei Mensashe tribe of India can’t wait to get to Israel. Please watch this video from their community centre Beit Shalom in Manipoor, Northern India.

The cherry crop is so huge that farmers had to take the rare step of thinning the fruit before it ripened in order to allow each cherry to grow and to avoid overweight tree limbs crashing to the ground. As it says in this week’s Torah portion – “ The land will give its fruit and you will eat your fill”.

Twenty-nine disabled Uruguayan Jews arrived in Israel for the first time in their lives. The visit was organized by the Israel Experience organization, and made ??possible by Avital Sharansky, after she visited Uruguay's Jewish community a few months ago.

The new Beit David Museum in Tel Aviv – dedicated to the House of David – is honouring the holiday of Shavuot, which also marks King David’s 3,025th birthday. The museum has 1st and 2nd Temple exhibits, plus ancient slingshot stones like the one with which David killed Goliath.